It has been a while since my last blog entry, mainly because I spent a few days in Germany’s capital city Berlin to visit friends. Truth be told, the city is great. But it is quite different from what I expected Berlin to be.
- First, it is not as ‘alternative’ as you might think. Yes, it is multicultural and cosmopolitan – especially young Spaniards have found a new place of residence here. But overall, Berlin is not all too different from other German cities.
- Which directly leads to my second point: Berlin is not that cheap any more. Rents have increased rather drastically and most other things cost about the same as in other parts of Germany.
- Third, Berlin’s citizens are not particularly impolite. Quite on the contrary, I have not met so many nice people in a city since my last visit to Munich. All in all, a very exhilarating experience to see that things can actually be better than expected.
To provide you with some impressions, I took a whole bunch of pictures. We start today with some of Berlin’s famous sights.
Brandenburg Gate, one of Germany's most well-known landmarks
Reichstag, meeting place of the Bundestag, Germany's parliament
Bundeskanzleramt, home of Chancellor Angela Merkel
Bellevue Palace, official residence of the President of Germany
Fernsehturm, Berlin's 368m TV tower, build in the 1960s by the GDR
Fernsehturm at night, seen from the Museum Island
Holocaust Memorial, 2'711 concrete slabs, inaugurated in 2005
Swiss Economist 