Ich bin verloren - Wo ist das Collosseo?

The Brandenburg Gate, the only remaining

of a series between East and West Berlin,

originally built in the 1700s

My host, Nik, looking appropriately

German somber in the maze of the

holocaust memorial

Currywurst - a Berlin must

Searching the boxes at Parliament,

every Parliamentarian has a box...

Including Hitler

Taking an eagle eye peep at the workings of

the German parliament, from within

the dome

The Bundestag

Berlin's 'mascot' is a bear, in all

decorations. I tried to see if this

one shared my sense of humour

If you can't read, it says, "Now entering

the American sector"

Still arguing at Checkpoint Charlie,

the crossing between East and West Berlin

The Berliner Dom, not a dome, but

a catholic church
What better way to spend a Saturday night

at 1am than to reenact 1975 and try to escape

East Germany over the Berlin wall. Only made

better by renting bikes to get there

Almost made it

Ending my trip, appreciating one

of Germany's finest. All I wanted was

to drink a beer in a boot, so I'll have to go back

For some reason my career has always taken me into the close company of Germans (mostly because they love renewable energy and development aid), and as I've mentioned on a previous post, I find something so comforting and hilarious about them, so I decided I should finally take a visit to Deutscheland, especially while I still have a job funded by Germansy. Only seems right to use their Dmarks on a visit to their soil. When I told my Mom I was heading to Germany and I was excited, given my above statement, she said "Well it's probably cause you're German". When I told her I oft deny my German heritage in favor of my Swedish and French, she was astounded and deplored me to come clean to both my German hosts for the weekend and to myself - so fine, I'm part German. Was it not already obvious in my analness and bad jokes?

My host in Berlin was Nik, our former intern and my friend in Rome, before he left for greener pastures in the Bundestag of Germany. Nik also studied abroad in San Diego - so a little Rome, a little SD home, and little German heritage to welcome me. All I told Nik before my arrival was that I wanted sausage, German beer, and some WWII time and we didn't really plan much further. My life lately seems a bit like a series of the Amazing Race, and when I landed in Berlin and stared at the subway map, I had a brief chuckle again about how small and fast the world is. I navigated the super efficient German rail system with a big grin on my face as I practised my German (naschte station = next station).

German eats - As with anywhere I go, I was keen to eat my way through my visit. When I told Nik my list - curryworst, a beer in a boot, sauerkraut, some other type of German sausage/meat - he rolled his eyes and told me that Germans almost never eat those things. Berlin has some of the best mix of ethnic food (and granted I'm saying best coming from Rome), so I feasted on Asian fusion a la crispy duck Vietnamese. But since I'm on an episode of Beall's Amazing Race, I still felt compelled to do as a tourist would and check off my German list! He promised that we could find 2 out of the four, but that NO ONE in Germany actually drinks beer out of boot. That didn't deter me. He then called in reinforcements in the way of his friend Jan, who found us the most quintessential German restaurant where I had knödel drowned in a German beer (not in a boot). Jan was quite the tour guide, and also brought us to a bar, that he thought I would like cause it was owned by a dude from Baltimore - little did he know Baltimorians are not fans of peeps from DC, however we made up over Berlin schnapps. I also managed a street sausage with mustard and Glu wine at the flea market on Sunday. That on top of my currywurst, left me with 3 runs on the sausage front, minus two on sauerkraut and a boot.

History - While I live in one of the most historical cities in the world, Berlin's history is fascinating to me in the combination of its old and newness. Imagine royal palaces combined with eighties funk. The fact that Berlin today has only existed for the last twenty years seems surreal, especially when you walk around and see all the very real/present remnants of the Eastern/Western divide. Combined with that, the utter destruction that was Berlin post WWII and what it is now, is as breathtaking as the Colosseum. Maybe it is made more pronounced being an American, given Check Point Charlie, etc., but if you haven't been, it's like visiting a live museum - get there before the rest of the wall comes down and they run out of currywurst

Random highlights - Nik invited a friend out to join us for our Saturday and Sunday festivities, and after five minutes into meeting him, where I apologised that I couldn't speak German, he told me, "Wow, your English is so good for an Italian". So while I may not have convinced any Italians that I am Italian, tally one for convincing a German. And by the way, if I could count how many times this year someone has said my English was good, it would only be trippled by how many times I laugh about it. All in all, Berlin seems like such a liveable city, especially cause it was sunny and 'warm' while I was there.

Learning German - I would really like to learn German since my career seems to be stuck in their path of development assistance and the jobs for GIZ are much better than for USAID. In one weekend, I managed to learn - "please" (which like Italian is the same for you're welcome - prego=bitte), "thank you", "cutie", "Can I have the check please?", and "I'm lost, where is the Collosseum?". So again, a telling snapshot

And that's it for now, cause I want to tell you all about the next episode in Beall's Amazing Race, My Italian Thanksgiving. Only four episodes left until the surprise finale in a destination even I don't know