if only I spoke German...

... I might move to Berlin.

I don't think I expected to enjoy Berlin as much as I did. It's such a neat, huge city with cool looking people, colorful, interesting architecture, and a rich and visible history. Here are a few of the highlights:

- We arrive Friday afternoon after a five hour train ride, only to find the hotel we booked had some "computer problems" and had no room for us. They moved us down the street to the Holiday Inn, which we tried to pitch a fit about, but soon got over... after they assured us it was the same number of stars ... We are such snobs.

- We headed right over the Jewish Museum, opened in 2001, which we heard was unbelievable. And it was. The architecture was stunning, and I thought, really lent to the subject matter. And it was refreshingly not just a Holocaust memorial - it was an entire museum dedicated to the history and religion and customs, reminding us that there is more to being Jewish than remembering the Holocaust.

- We then went to a bar near our hotel, and upon a recommendation from the bartender, went to this club called Suite 22 or Annabelles or both (no one really seemed to be able to settle on a name). Dressed in T-shirts and Converse All Stars, we were very much out of place. It was an ultra-European posh dance club, complete with scantily clad (I am talking pasties here folks) dancers and men with more hair gel than imaginable. Thanks for the recommendation, Rodney. But we still danced and had fun and took silly pictures on the dance floor.

- The next morning, we tag along for a free walking tour of Berlin led by this ridiculous guy named Cal, who was absurdly long-winded and attention-starved but certainly knew his history. It was a neat way to see the sites - the new Holocaust memorial that just opened this week, the last remaining part of the Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler's former bunker where now stands some fancy condos (that are allegedly constructed with the recycled concrete from the bunker), Museum Island... Clearly the four hour tour only touched the surface of such a disturbing and complicated history.

- After much-needed naps, we went to an equally cheesey bar with horrendously loud salsa remixes and mist generator machines. Riiight.... clearly we are getting the recommendations from the wrong folks. We moved on to a couple other bars we had heard good things about and promptly ran into the Pub Crawl - the extension of our day tour where the same folks we wandered around all day with were rallying at some five or so bars. Not a pleasant sight, considering we ran into them a good four hours into the crawl.

- The next morning, we were disappointed to find that all the shops in the entire city were closed. Sunday. Not a single store open. But it worked out fine, as we wandered around Mitte for the afternoon, a really funky neighborhood with hip cafes and shops. The day ended in Kreuzberg, an equally awesome neighborhood with good cheap restaurants (Amrit Indian restaurant ruled) and more relaxed, less pretentious bars. A little more our speed.

- On Monday, we crammed an hour or so of shopping in and then hopped the train back to Prague. We did consider quitting our jobs and staying in Berlin for good, but that would probably have been a bad idea. Maybe I liked it because it stood in stark contrast to Prague. The people were nice and outgoing, the neighborhoods were endlessly awesome, the city felt new and modern and young.