I am sitting in an internet cafe with a window looking out to the giant Fernsehturm, the TV tower which you can see from everywhere. It is in the middle of Alexanderplatz, a square that I have become very fond of these past few days. The square has been around since then beginning but in the days of the DDR the East German government built all these futuristic buildings in a sort of “city of the future” theme. As anyone who knows me knows, I am loathe to call any city Disneyland, but heck if parts of Alexanderplatz don’t look like Tomorrowland. Except, as I told Tom a couple of days ago, Tomorrow has passed them by. Tomorrow, is now at Potsdamer Platz and where all the new government buildings are. Two days ago, Tom and I took one of the Spree river cruises which took us by the chancellory and all these other amazing modern structures. There is some truly spectacular architecture here.

In Alexander Platz they have just opened all these kiosks selling crafts and food, and there is a wine bar there. You can sit at one of the tables and stare straight up at the Fernsehturm. I love the guy who pours the wine there, he likes to fill it up all the way to the rim so I have to take a sip before I head to my table. He is just one of many things that I love about this city.

I am trying to shake off yesterday’s depression because I only have four days left and there is so much I have not done. Yesterday was sort of a lost day, Tom and I went to the ticket agency to see about a refund, going to Charlottenburg was “an adventure” and I am glad that we went to that area and walked around. It is the heart of West Berlin, and there are lots of cool shops and nice looking apartment buildings (well some nice and some totally seventies characterless jobbies.) We walked to Schloss Charlottenburg, a big palace right in the middle of the city, with a big park and gardens all around. Then we got on the bus and were going to go to an exhibit called “The Story of Berlin” but when we got there, a million schoolkids were queueing up and I was like, No Way. One thing that was really trippy and cool there though: it is in the lobby of a big office building, and there are all these little tiny bars down there. Only two were open, but there were maybe ten of these tiny little bars. THEY looked like the Story of Berlin. I want to go there when they are open to see what that is all about.

Later I dragged Tom to the Gendarmenmarkt which is a lovely square that actually looks like Old Europe. Somewhere I thought I had read there was a wine bar in the cupola of one of the churches there, but I think maybe I dreamed that. Instead we sat in a really cool cafe full of people in business suits and had a view of the whole square from there.

Last night Kasch made us “Boulettin” which are meatballs that are typical of this area, with a sort of mustard cream sauce. Tom talked her into this because I was so depressed. They were good and then we all went back to the Youth Center and these youths are going to end up with lung cancer because that place is so smoky I literally could not breathe. I managed to stick it out for a while but mi dio. My nose closed in revolt and my eyes were burning.

Today I am meeting Kasch and Tom to go to Checkpoint Charlie and the museum there. I have not been to Checkpoint Charlie yet! I’m going to make the next four days as full as my feet will allow.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 1:42 am and is filed under Berlin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.