I never thought of Berlin as a capital, able to offer you many attractions,
your average restaurant goer a great range of tasty options, your experienced
traveler many new cultural discoveries, an average foreigner a new home. I
imagined restaurants and bars to look like traditional German breweries in the Düsseldorf’s
downtown touristic area: huge dark and noisy windowless rooms, looking rather
like decorations to the Hollywood movies about dwarfs, than a nice option to
consider for having the dinner at. Perhaps, I thought, there is a couple of good restaurants serving German, authentic
Japanese and (who would doubt, that it could be found even on the deserted
island), tolerable Italian cuisine. As for the wine, the forecasts
were quite gloomy... Well, Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Sylvaner are ruling in
this part of the world, there is no surprise in that, but as for “red” Italy,
France or New World (particularly the wines of the last category) I didn’t hope
much for. There was a common opinion, which I followed, that the city is eclectic
and plain, one can hardly find a couple of sites, worth
seeing or beautiful Kietz, able to impress. That was a picture of Berlin, drawn
by my poor imagination. However, experience is the only teacher, and now I'm so
ashamed of my previous judgments.
To begin with, this city is very diverse. Like the color variations on the chameleon’s
body, the aesthetics of the city, its character, mode of expression and its
“face”, changes from one area to another, regardless of the very conditional
and no longer applicable in political meaning, but still usable in the
conversation, territorial division into "East" and "West". There are many tourists here, however it is nothing to compare to other
capitals or popular cities, such as Venice, Florence, Paris or Barcelona, where the multilingual wave
covers you, hitting with such strength, that even understanding the meaning of
what is being said, your brain simply refuses to identify the language during
first couple of seconds.
To me, one of the first amazing Berlin’s features is its ability to destroy
stereotypes about itself, to demolish common complaining that "Berlin is
boring”, “Berlin is Soviet” etc. Of course, there are still streets and squares
that amaze you with the "beautiful" samples of Soviet architecture
and yes, perhaps a street in the Wittenbergplatz area would be more interesting
for an average Berlin realtor than the street close to Alexanderplatz in terms
of its financial attractiveness. But it
is also true to say that if you forget the names of the streets and rely on the
spectrum of your own feelings, you’d be surprised, easily taking the
"Eastern" part of the city for the "Western" and vice
versa.
Prenzlauer Berg is one of those, as Eastern as could be, parts of Berlin,
turns to be a mixture of New York’s Greenwich Village hipster style, the Florence’s
relaxed atmosphere and the gastronomic chic of Paris along with the splendid architecture and a charming
intellectual aesthetic of the last century’s 30s. Here, in a
relatively small area, more than 6 000 restaurants and bars are being “settled”
compactly.
Some are expensive, some are cheap, some are tasteful, some are less, but the
abundance of the options (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian and
Singaporean, Italian, French, Spanish, African, Irish, Russian, Greek, German) is
stunning; it’s like to travel around the world, without leaving your home.
Besides that, most of them have beautiful summer terraces, making you feel like
a kid in a toy store, so difficult it is to make a choice where to seat and to pick
one out of dozens.
The second feature of Berlin is its relaxed atmosphere of total hedonism.
On my opinion, it possesses a feminine energy - soft, flowing, relaxed, so
confident and slightly indifferent the city is. However, this “indifference”, doesn’t
proceed out of arrogance, but is the natural result of the inner focus; other /
others are unimportant in this case, they are only a part of the general play, the
crowd scene, if you wish, not more. If Berlin wasn’t a city, but a person, I’d
say that he would be a Zen Buddhist with certain features of Bertram Wooster, a
literature character that enjoys his pleasant and blithe life. Nobody rushes
here, except, perhaps, the bicyclists, more numerous than in Paris, they tear
by you at a full speed, like the skiers on the mountain on a lovely, sunny day.
Berlin's wines' portfolio
is impressive and focused on the authentic grape varieties, which gives you a chance
to taste a huge range, comparing vintages and styles and to enjoy your favorite
afterwards for the reasonable money. There is no lack in Italian, French or
Spanish wines (some vintages of the Iconic Super Tuscany seem to be found here
easier that in Italy). As for New World (Chile, California, Australia) the
situation is different, they are not as much appreciated as the wines out of
Europe. The reasons for that are easy to understand, but still it's a pity.
Berlin is fascinated by Eco trend and this passion is transmitted to
newcomers. Bio is everything and everywhere: vegetables, fruits, cheeses,
yogurts, meat and wine. Even if you've never thought before about the necessity
of Bio purchases or about the Eco
trend in general, here you will start doing it for sure, start spending your weekends
in numerous parks, start buying organic food, riding bike and sorting/recycling
your garbage.
Speaking of parks, park for the Berliner is not the same as park for a
Parisian, for a Roman or for a Kiever, for the Berliner Park is a second home.
No, I don’t mean that people here have no place to sleep at night or are being kicked
out of their houses regularly, I just mean that any park is the relax area, and
as Berliners do not like to strain much at work, but they love nature, sports,
music and grilled meat, parks for them are irreplaceable. So, here is the great
variety of them, but, of course, some are more popular than others, for example,
Tiergarten. Tiergarten looks like a forest in the heart of the city, close to
the Philharmonic and other tourist attractions of West Berlin. Huge, dark, this
endless green territory, with ponds, reminded me the Central Park, however, I
suppose, such analogies occur to everyone.
Mauerpark. Mauerpark on Sundays welcomes you to make a journey “back
to the 60s”. At every 10 meters distance (well, maybe I'm exaggerating, let’s
say, every 50) there is someone singing in "James Blunt”, “The Beatles”, “Pinkfloyd”
styles . Mentioning the 60s, I don’t mean the music of that epoch, although,
there is such as well of course, rather referring to a hippie atmosphere of
those times. In front of each "mini stage" there is an audience,
lying on the grass, sitting on the mats, with beer or coffee, with kids, with
pets, with bicycles. The big flea market, where one can buy everything: from
old vinyl records to vintage suitcases is also located here. The sales people,
wearing sometimes just the underwear or the barefoot buyers, don’t shock anyone here. When
the season starts, one big stage is being set here for karaoke, transforming
thus the entire park (or its biggest part) into a platform for a rock concert.
Monbijoupark. Monbijoupark, on my opinion, is one of the most beautiful. Located
near the Friedrichstrasse and Berlin Dom, it leads to the museum island. There
are many restaurants and bars, both on its territory and outside – on the square
and on the surrounding streets, so you can sit comfortably on a chaise longue
enjoying your cocktail and admiring the nature and the beautiful architect
forms of the museum buildings. Yet, the “economy version” of lying on the grass next
to the water channel that separates the park from the Museum Island, listening to the music of the street violinists and the bells of the
Cathedral, gives you a great joy as well. Dozing, you still hear the touristic
boats passing by with their somnolent rumbling “Berrrrrrrrrrlin,
Berrrrrrrrrrrlin” :).
I find it to be one of the most romantic cities in the world, but let's be objective - it is one of the most romantic cities in the world :)
