Just some final random thoughts on Berlin before tomorrow's departure to the Near East.
This city has been both challenging and incredibly rewarding. It's almost like in order to really discover it, you have to prove you're up to the challenge. First of all, it's geographically enormous. Four times the size of Paris, territory-wise. In terms of population, it's not even the largest city in Germany (I think it ranks third behind Frankfurt and Munich). Consequently, it feels more like a collection of neighborhoods than one city- though there's no mistaking a distinct Berlin vibe that echoes throughout all of its far-flung regions. The style is thrift-store chic; vintage leather boots and a bright-colored scarf. It tastes like a melt-in-your mouth pastry, feels like a strong warm wind through your hair as the subway rushes past you on the platform, smells like the deepest-fried french fries and the juiciest currywurst. Sounds like the "psshhh-POP" of the bartender de-capping an ice-cold beer. It's the sun glittering off the surface of the magnificent dome of the Reichstag, the young dads with one kid in the bike seat and one on the handlebars, riding to school each morning. It's a college-aged kid with a guitar playing a Bob Dylan song on the subway for coins, the buckets of every color olive imaginable under a white tent at the outdoor market, the slowly spinning top of juicy lamb waiting to be carved at the kebab stand, the faded peace signs spray-painted on the graying fragments of the great dividing wall, now a gallery, a landmark, But it's like you can only see those things if you resign yourself to the fact that you can't go hunting for them. You have to get off at a random U-Bahn stop, walk around the neighborhood, and let them come to you.
