Berlinistan

Berlin, Germany

11th August 2009

The last time I was here in Berlin I had to work the whole two days and got to see very little. Despite living in Germany for 18 months and coming back to this country countless times, I've never had a chance to explore the capital.

I knew that Berlin had it's fair share of weirdoes, naked men in parks and failed existences with short black hair wondering about but that aside, this city is oozing with intriguing modern political history. CNN could have solely focused on this city and captured most major events of the past century.

We had a lovely hotel with a Balcony as big as the main room, tons of sunlight shining through the curtains in the morning and a coffee machine with free wifi to boot.

Berlin didn't feel very German nor like any other place I've been to in this country. Capital cities have a habit of being like that.

The architecture is second to none and the size, scale and cost of building these structures is unlikely to be repeated anywhere else in Europe in the near future. For instance, the Chancellors palace (which she doesn't want to live in) cost around 15 euros per citizen to build. Had that been Estonia footing the bill, they'd barely have had got a wall up before running to the IMF for a top-up.

Germans have a habit of trying to put together ill-constructed sentences in English for me or drop an English word in here and there while speaking in German. I really hate this shit. Thankfully, no one in Berlin tried to whine me up this way.

I didn't feel like Berlin was a city I'd like to live in but if I had to work here for a while, I'm sure I would manage to keep myself busy in my free time.