"Ich bin ein berliner"

“How much would you pay for a [Mission] burrito?”; this has become one our official trip questions that we will ask each other throughout our travels. Joel asked me at the beginning of our Berlin stay, I said $10 USD, he said $20. Joely is in burrito withdrawal. There were several Mexican restaurants in Iceland and Denmark, but we were to cheap to go to them. Paying $20 for an actual Mission burrito is one thing, paying $15 for something that is mediocre at best is another thing. We decided to forgo a burrito in Berlin as well.

Berlin is a huge city, we were there for 6 days but only saw a small piece of it. We took a red-eye bus from Copenhagen to Berlin, it was the most interesting bus ride I've taken. The bus drove for a few hours and then it boarded a ferry, like a cruise ship ferry, so at 1am we had to get off the bus for 2 hours and then board again. (I've never been on a cruise ship but Joel tells me it was very similar.) So yeah, sleep was not happening and by the time we slept we had been awake for about 22 hours.

Germany is the third country we have visited on our trip, and the Berliners win friendliest people, by far. As soon as we got to Berlin and were trying to figure out the U Bahn (metro) 2 different people asked us if we needed any help. When we got to a cafe a man chatted us up and made several recommendations. It made an impression on me. 

What else made an impression on me? THE BEER. Beer is so cheap here, cheaper than other countries we have visited, cheaper than the US, often cheaper than water or soda. Why is Anchorsteam (San Francisco brewery) cheaper in Berlin than San Francisco?! Result: I am drinking beer almost every day, normally, I drink an average of half a beer a month.

Side rant: What's up Europe? Why won't you give us water? Although tap water is drinkable in Denmark and Germany, restaurants will only give you water if you buy a bottle. I mean, part of this I am sure is because they know we are not locals...but every single place will not give us water, only sell us a bottle. There was one place that would give us tap water, but only if we bought a drink first. We were at a museum and I asked if there was a drinking fountain, the man replied, “Noooo, no. NO. no.” To summarize, no drinking fountains either. Poor Joely is dehydrating right before my eyes, ok, not really, but the man is used to drinking a lot of water. Bottled water is not good for the environment, get with the program Europe. The end.

We stayed at a hostel in the city center for the first 2 nights in an effort to be a bit more social. Fail. To be honest, we aren't trying that hard, why make all the effort to chat other people up when I have Joel Webb? Also, we are probably just too old for hostels and have no patience for the various bros of different countries (Scottish bros here were super annoying). It was Sacramento hot (90s) the first day, naturally, that is the day we scheduled a walking tour. The tour was good and we got to learn a lot about the history and see a lot of great sights.

When you see the hat man that means it used to be East Berlin

Check-Point Charlie, officially leaving the American sector 

Brandenburg Gate

Memorial for the Jewish people murdered during WW2

Art installation...no, they are gas pipes above ground

We also met this cool guy from Turkey who we will hopefully be staying with when we visit Istanbul. He also told us about wonderful döner. There was a large migration of Turks when Berlin needed labor to rebuild and so döner came about as a meal alternative to pork. Döner is goooood, think similar to chicken shwarma but thinly sliced and crispy and cheap and so good. And this marks the end of the Iceland diet (food is so expensive that you are too cheap to eat well)! We also had this really great meal at a Syrian restuaruant, it was just so delicious. Okay, one more food story. Mustafa's Kebap Shop is the best meal we have had since we left the United States (3 weeks ago). We had to wait 30 minutes in line, which is a short line for this food stand, but it was completely worth it. It was a wrap (pretty much a burrito) of döner goodness, with vegetables, and hummus, and lettuce, lime juice, tahini...delicious, and only $5 USD! It was so good that we went back 2 days later and waited 70 minutes for dinner, and then rain did not thin out the line. Only thing they could improve is that I need to teach those guys how to properly wrap a burrito, their wrapping technique is so inefficient and bad that it hurts my heart. I want to make it clear, I am not a burrito-wrapping expert because I am Mexican, it's because I worked at Del Taco.

So for the next 4 nights we stayed in the Kreuzberg neighborhood in Berlin, how to describe it...it's like the Mission District, gentrified, lots of restaurants, hip, etc. Since Berliners come from so many different cultures, people can't readily tell that we aren't from Berlin which means they keep talking to us in German. Here is how I respond: *puzzled look* Nein? P.S. Pointing to things goes a long way. Kreuzberg is in walking distance to a lot of things so we spent a lot of time just meandering for several kilometers (watch out, we are thinking in the metric system!) and then taking the magnificent U Bahn back home. Yes, it is magnificent, it goes everywhere in Berlin, and the stat is that in any given place in Berlin you are only 500 meters away from a U Bahn train. Some places we went:

The old airport in West Germany is now a park:

This park also has mini-golf

The Botanical Garden:

Saw a few foxes

These puppies are just over half a meter big! (2 feet)

Natural History Museum:

Sights seen:

Largest indoor aquarium in the world

Observations:

• Bars seem to love 90s music, lots of one-hit-wonders.
• Typical middle-aged man outfit for going out: Jeans, button-up shirt, blazer. We seriously saw 6 men hanging out together all dressed in the same outfit.
• Birkenstocks are very popular here at the moment (or maybe always have been?)
• Thought there was a 170 year bear absence in Germany, bears are everywhere in Berlin. Sometimes, the result ain't pretty: