Berlin!

After safely arriving in Berlin on Friday morning (just barely!) I settled in and started enjoying myself almost immediately. By 15:00 Kate delivered me safely to her apartment and then headed out for some work stuff at her church. I had a few hours to shower, do laundry and relax. Within about 20 minutes I had done all of those things and was completely passed out in her living room. I did not wake up until nearly 18:30! It was one of the better naps of my life.

Kate got home soon after I woke up and we headed out for a concert in a bar/club across the city called Magnet, kind of near the East Side Gallery of the Berlin wall. The show was An Horse opening for Simon den Hartog. I'm a big fan of An Horse but had never heard of Simon den Hartog. Both acts were excellent, though An Horse only played for about 30 minutes since they were the opening act. After An Horse's set I bought a t-shirt from them, had it signed and got a photo with them. We chatted for about a minute and a half about what part of the states I'm from, why I live in France, etc. I think Kate Cooper was a tiny bit drunk and/or exhausted from touring, which just made her a little funnier than normal and just as friendly as I had imagined. Damon is very quiet, also as I imagined, and easy-going. One of my favorite things about loving semi-weird rock music is that I get to see bands play tiny venues and meet them sometimes and tell them how much I enjoyed the show. With big groups like The Cranberries (who I will love till the day I die) I just get to enjoy their music from afar and it's less of an exchange of appreciation... but I digress (big time).

Anyway, yesterday Kate took me around Berlin and showed me a lot of stuff I won't be seeing on the Free Walking Tour on Tuesday. We visited places near her apartment in Charlottenburg like the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche (a church bombed during the war and now rebuilt so it's really beautiful but still a testament to the war), KaDeWe (the biggest department store in Europe), and the East Side Gallery among other small stops along the way. We also had the most amazing chocolate concoction consisting of drinking chocolate, ice cream, cream, and a few other additions to make sure it had plenty of sugar and fat. Yum! After the chocolate we went to Kreuzberg to check out the hipster/revolutionary/youth/Turkish/gay neighborhood (yes, all of those together). We walked a bit and found a cool store selling a lot of funky "Earth Mother" style clothes. I broke down and spoiled myself with a 39 euro zippy jacket that is just too cool and too "Kreuzberg" to pass up. It will be my primary souvenir along with lots of amazing pictures.

Today, Sunday, I attended the American Church in Berlin where Kate is interning to become a pastor. The service was nice and the church itself is really gorgeous. Everyone at the church was very friendly and from varied backgrounds. After church Kate was feeling ill so I went to lunch with the young adults (meaning my age roughly), which was a lot of fun, while Kate finished up at church with the youth and then went back to the apartment for a much-needed nap.

Tomorrow I have plans to visit Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp that is now a sort of museum about an hour from Berlin, and Tuesday I'll take the Free Walking Tour. In all I think I will leave Berlin with a good sense of the city and lots of great photos and memories. In the past few months I have been toying with the idea of trying to move back to Europe after working in the US for some time. Though I can't imagine living in France (maybe Paris, but only maybe if anywhere in France) as an attorney, I have come up with a handful of other places I might consider and now I can safely add Berlin to this mental list. It's an interesting, friendly, international city with a lot to offer many types of people. I was told today that Berlin is not typical of German cities, but not typical in ways that makes it more comfortable for non-Germans to enjoy living here more than elsewhere in the country. This is not to say that non-Germans wouldn't like other cities, but that Berlin is especially conducive to living as an ex-pat. Other countries that have made the list include Belgium (because they speak French), the Netherlands, Germany (of course), and today Switzerland was suggested to me because of the number of NGOs and the strong international culture to be found there. I shall bear all of this in mind as my career (and hopefully my language skills) develops in the next few years.

Oh, and I've chosen German as my third language :-) I just love how it sounds and it's so useful around Europe! So I shall continue to develop my French in the coming years and start some rudimentary German also. So many projects! Such fun!