A week in Berlin

Tomorrow I leave Berlin after having been here 8 days. I've enjoyed this city. The Berliners are extremely civilized and polite, and don't strike me as uptight at all. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I always found the language to be rather harsh and in-your-face. Of course, being an American, I can't help but think back to the not so distant history where the German people succeeded to overrun all of Continental Europe. Pretty aggressive stuff. And yet the people are polite, they look you in the eye, and are very easy to live with. The city is clean, and there doesn't appear to be violent street crime. It's rare to see police, and everyone seems to behave. I suppose that's to be expected from the number one economy in Europe, but still, refreshing.

I have met some very interesting people here, out at restaurants and also online. One couple from Prague helped me with a German menu, and ended up joining me for dinner and giving me a map and a complete rundown on the cool places I must visit. I met a guy named Zack in a sidewalk cafe and we bonded discussing the failures of the European Central Bank and the IMF. (It's my not so secret pass time. I'm an economics geek. It doesn't come up in conversation with my friends, because none of them are into that. Many are creative types and couldn't give a damn about monetary and fiscal policy.) Zack and I became friends and we went out to dinner a couple of times. The first was an Austrian restaurant recommended to me by an American friend as his favorite restaurant in the world. I have to say, it was pretty outstanding, and the conversation with Zack, who I suspect has near-genius intelligence, was smart and lively.

The second time we went out together, we tried a chicken restaurant recommended by the couple from Prague. It was a German Pub, and they only had one thing on the menu: 1/2 Chicken. It was the specialty of the house and was cooked to perfection. My guess is that it was initially boiled, and then the entire chicken was deep fried. Of course the German potato salad that was served with it was rich, creamy goodness. Towards the end of the meal I noticed an upright piano was sitting near us, and after a word to the owner, she unlocked it, and I sat down and played. There weren't that many people in the place, but everyone who was there clapped after every song, and when we finally got our check, the owner had taken half off, "For the music."

The other day I crashed an art opening. Free beer and cheese.

Today was my last full day in Berlin and I decided to rent a bike. It's a very bike-friendly city, in a way that I wish New York was. There are dedicated bike lanes on most streets, and the car traffic respect the bicyclists. Even the taxis! Very different than New York. I drove all around, including the big city park, the Tiergarten, right in the center of all the buzz, just like Central Park at home in New York City.

A couple of other random notes about Berlin. The traffic light cycles to yellow before it goes to green so that traffic is ready to go when the light does go to green. Prostitution is legal, and quite available from what I see on the streets. There are blue laws on Sundays, meant to uphold the Lord's day, and apparently the only types of businesses that are allowed to be open are bars, clubs, casinos, houses of worship and houses of prostitution. All VAT taxes are included in the prices quoted by restaurants and shop pricetags, so you know exactly what you're paying before going to the register. Taxi's in Berlin are run, it seems, mostly by Germans, and I always felt safe in any cab I was in. The public transit system, the BVG, seems to run more or less on the honor system. You buy your ticket, and it's up to you to time stamp it. Once you time stamp it, it is valid for 2 hours on any train or bus going away from the original time stamp machine. But, the thing is no one ever checks to see if you have done this. Apparently there are police that are supposed to do this, but my new Berliner friends have never actually had someone ask to see their stamped tickets, or for that matter, seen it happen. Could you imagine this working in NYC??

Anyway, Berlin is a wonderful city, very inviting of tourists, safe, interesting and easy to navigate. Definitely a city I could live in. A world-class city for sure. I wonder if they'd enjoy dueling pianos here? Hmmm...