The first time I got into Berlin was from Scandinavia. Back then in 2008 – 09, fresh from a beating from the cost of food in Scandinavia, Berlin proved to be a heaven for both how cheap the food here was compared to Norway and how varied my options looked. In the Summer that year I took the train from Berlin’s east train station to go to Krakow, Poland. There is a different train station to get on a train westward bound. The ‘Westbahnhof Train Station’ is super modern and if you want to head on the rails to Paris or Amsterdam then this would be it. The East Station, however, like the countries in the East back then was not something to write about. The train too looked as if it was pulled from a post World War II movie. People hardly spoke any English and since it was the end of Summer the sun was already going down at 1900 hours, the time my train was about to screech out of Berlin.
Since then I have been traveling to Berlin at least thrice every year for work and every year it seems like the old communist days are long over. I do not think English is how one should judge the receptiveness of a place, however understanding the language in a foreign country does help the regular movement. In the beginning, the guys at the hotel reception and tourist places only spoke English, but as the years went ahead of the corner coffee shop and the odd waiter at a Vietnamese restaurant did too.
The Vietnamese Pho (Noodle soup) in Berlin is as popular as the Turkish Kebab. Both these nationalities have their own little attachment to Berlin. Vietnam was a brother country to East Germany in the Communist era and a lot of them came for education and never went back. Similarly, many from Turkey came during the late 80’s till the late 90’s as Germany unified and a lot was needed to be built in the East to make it at par with the West. They never went back either.
The food scene is Berlin is colorful and places like the ‘Hackescher Markt’ is one the many food districts where high-end restaurants go side by side with a run of the house Thai joint. This is one thing that has always impressed me ointhe city. True, it is the Capital of Germany and true, it does look like one, but it feels like a very Global city. It feels as neat and tidy as any city in Scandinavia and it feels as warm as any in Latin America. This is Germany, I guess is hard to find. From the Germans that came here from other big cities and recite their stories of Berlin, I have learned that how metros like Frankfurt and Cologne feel commercial and superficial to Berlin. Some have found a love interest in Berlin and they stay back and the others, well they just stay back for the love of the city.
Tegel Airport is like the city itself. Though there is one more that connects the city to the globe (The Schoenefeld). I have always landed and taken off from Tegel. Since 70% of the city is green and a large part of it has the river Spree running through it, the whole city even with its concrete structures feels like a huge park. It also helps that the ride to Tegel is a maximum of 20 – 25 mins in a public bus from one of the many city centers. Unlike the cities of Paris or Amsterdam in the West or Prague and Budapest in the East, Berlin does not have an old town. I guess the city lost whatever it had and was considered old in the war. Speaking of which the cities subsequent caretakers did make sure that very less of what war did was kept. ‘Hitler died here’ one of our guides had said once. When we asked where he pointed to a parking lot! They did not want to relieve the war it seemed. However, what they still have is the wall. The wall still runs through the city but is only present as two brick lines on the ground on most of the city roads. The east side gallery is a creative space which was given to various
artists to use the wall as a platform to show their art and to paint a message of ‘the world needs no walls’. The city also has a DDR museum where the communist lifestyle is played. The parliament building or the ‘Bundestag’ has a lovely glass dome roof and rivals the glass structures from the Potsdamer Platz, where the Sony Centre plays the Annual Berlin Film Festival every year.
Every time that I roam the streets, Berlin feels inviting and every time I leave the city limits I am happy because I know I will come back again. Berlin happens to be one of my favorite cities in Europe I know. Just like the more than 4000 varieties of Cheeses and Sausages in KaDeWe, Berlin’s premier food and shopping store, the variety of nationalities living here along with the Germans make this a very special place to be.
