Two kinds of people call Berlin their home: One kind is native to the city and takes everything about it for granted. The other kind, to which I happen to belong, has chosen to live in Berlin. These people, myself included, are happy. They can't understand why native Berliners are sometimes bad-tempered and aggressive. Is there anything better than living in the best city of the world? Is there any misfortune that's not made a little more bearable by Berlin?

Harald Martenstein

I read this quote near the Brandenburg Gate on Saturday evening, after a day and a half in Berlin. At the time, I really connected with it because over the course of a few hours, I had fallen in love with Berlin. A day later, however, I started to really think about the mixed bag of emotions that long-term native Berliners must/might carry with them. And I could understand why native Berliners may not share the same enthusiasm for this amazing place that others might.

Friday started off with a 6 hour train ride from Pforzheim to Berlin -- that's nearly the same as my transatlantic flight, but the train ride offered nicer views :-)

We arrived at the massive Berlin Hauptbahnhof and had a super short walk to our hotel/hostel. Gunther had picked the perfect location!

After settling in, we took the S-bahn to Zoologischer Garten and walked around the neighboring areas. First stop was the zoo itself, where Gunther "proved" that Knut does exist. It seems I am the only person in the world (at least that he knows) that had no knowledge of this famous bear beforehand. Oops!

Next stop was photo-taking heaven at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, one of many things I had wanted to see while in Berlin. The top of the church was destroyed during WWII and was never rebuilt, making it a very interesting building. After admiring the church, I spent time simply enjoying the busy streets around us. Within an hour or so, I knew Berlin was a special place. The vibe and energy of the city itself was calming and refreshing and energizing all at the same time. If there is one word I could use to describe my gut reaction to Berlin, it's simply "home." Sounds kind of odd maybe, but Berlin felt as much like home as a city outside of your own can.

We continued our journey (slighty east but still west of the city center) on foot while dozens of double decker tour buses passed by. Tourists on the top level were snapping photos like crazy, while the bus driver sped along. Gunther and I were happy to be on street level :-)

After climbing St. Peter's in Munich, we figured it would be no big deal to climb to the top of the Siegessäule, as it looked much shorter. Looks are deceiving. Roughly 284 steps later, I was exhausted. It hit me that it was after 3pm, I had hardly eaten all day, I had been up since 4am, and we had been on foot for hours. Thankfully, my spirts lifted the second I looked at the view from the top of the monument. Around the column is a traffic circle, much like the Arc de Triomphe, but with fewer roads leading away from the center. In all directions, the Tiergarten sprawled out beautifully for a kilometer or so. To me, the garden almost seemed like a protective barrier between the column and the rest of the city, for the garden surrounds the column in a nearly perfect circle with that 1k radius and then *bam*, city in all directions.

The rest of the evening was spent walking through various areas of the city. We passed many embassies, the Sony Center, tons of Starbucks (every time we turned around there was another one!), Potsdamer Platz, and finally back towards the station, where we had our first good view of the Reichstag (more on that later).

All in all, a beautiful half day in Berlin. Saturday proved to be a marathon day and deserves a post all of its own (to be written much later today or tomorrow). Gunther and I are now off to buy some groceries!

Cheers ♥