On the Streets of Berlin : Part One

I am posting this entry while on route between Paris and Los Angeles currently waiting in Chicago's immense O'Hare Airport. My sense of time is all skewed. My stomach is all screwed. And the temptation of a potential night in Chicago courtesy of the airlines (if they overbooked) increases more by the minute. This is especially true since my seat is connected to a section of seats all of which move violently whenever someone makes any and all type of gesture. This is magnified by the fact there is a huge and highly excitable Indian family seated in the back section connected to me. So at the moment, I feel like I am on a boat swaying somewhere in Lake Michigan and at any minute the nasty Chilli's crisp chicken thingers I just had will need to be mopped up by a dutiful O'Hare employee. Ah, travel.

So in this state, I am posting some of the experiences from my week in Berlin, Germany. It is a very interesting city with a lot of turbulent history, despite the sometime harmless and neutral impression it has on the minds of Americans. I think this is due to their beer, sausages and rotund bellies. Alas, Berlin is quite far from any such innocent, albeit drunken, notions (actually, the drunken part is probably true).

When in Berlin, I gathered it is most appropriate to do as the Berliners do. So I took the U-Bahn. And the S-Bahn. And the Tram, once, which was an adorable left over mode of transportation from the East and built into the city's immense transportation matrix after unification. And also the bus. The bus was probably the most convenient. And when it came to catching all the best sightseeing there was to see – the number 100 bus provided all that the big budget tours do for just under 2 euros. The number 100 is double decker (as all the busses are) and goes through all the must-see sights such as the fancy Unter Den Linden street which is a broad tree-lined avenue with embassies, and supposedly stores, although I didn'treally see any. The bus then goes through the immense Tiergarten park catching an assortment of statues, monuments and then lands safely on the other side of Berlin and the busy Kuffersterdam street and the popular landmark, the Kaiser Wilhelm Church. The 100 bus makes a nice cut from AlexanderPlatz in the east clear through the middle of Berlin and lands on the otherside. Very lovely and highly recommend. Gut.

Another note on public transportation in Berlin, and Germany as a whole, the tickets are purchased and shown based on an honor code. Those without a pass such as myself are required to purchase a ticket which could then be used for 2 hours on any of the public transportation lines (U-Bahn, S-Bahn, this Bahn, that Bahn). These tickets, however, are never checked. They are bought under the pretext that at some point some German transportation authority will sneak up on you unexpectedly and ask to see some papers. Scary thought. This never happened in my week in Berlin and so I got savvy. I used a pass for up to 6 hours. I used yesterday’s pass. If any suspicious German eyed me and interrogated, I could play the uninformed tourist. And considering my German is nil (limited to a dirty word and a hello and see you later), I was pretty safe.

So although my lack of knowing the language was a negative point, the use of the public transportation system allowed me to experience the city like a local. Well, a local tourist anyway. Then again, I did learn how to say “one pass for A and B (lines) please.”

Now back to waiting and crossing my fingers for a night at a Chicago Airport Hotel.

More on Germany soon.