Berlin. What contrast from the Alps!

Let’s start with Tegel Airport… WHAT A DUMP! but it’s closing in 2012. Also, apparently there are no Asians here… People on buses stare at me, and one teen just bowed to me. WTF?!

Oh well, all is good. I’m staying at the most hipster hotel in existence.

I actually wouldn’t mind an apt like this…

The next day I wandered around Kreuzberg for food. I had lunch at Il Casolare and followed it up with coffee at Fuchsbau:

^highly recommended coffee shop/bar.

I spent a very disorienting afternoon at the Jewish Museum Berlin (but more on that later). I walked to Checkpoint Charlie but there wasn’t much to see…

I wandered some more and ended up looking for Christmas Markets…

SUCCESS!!! There were many pretty edibles and knick knacks!

Afterwards, I went to look for the Brandenburg Gate. While looking at my map in the U-Bahn station, a lady came up and offered help. I said that I was looking for the gate, and she pointed me towards another neighborhood and started recommending restaurants and bars. I put on my “confused” face and pointed to the correct area of the map.

Then she polited replied, “no, the gay district is over here.”

😉 After the clarification, she told me the trains needed to get to the gate!

^hooray!

Next door is the Reichstag and the Holocaust Memorial. Unfortunately for the Reichstag, you have to book viewings of the dome through their website, and they were booked for the next two days.

Jet lag had started to kick in, so I returned to the hotel and had dinner at a great falafel place where you can mix your own falafel.