I flew over on the 20th of July, via Paris with AirFrance. Not a bad flight,
and even with the short connection time my suitcase arrived at the same time as I did. My hotel, the Mark Hotel Berlin, was located off the Ku´Damm (just next door to the Hard Rock Cafe :)) ), and I could have taken the bus 109 from Tegel into the city, but I prefered to get a taxi. My suitcase was a bit heavy, carrying dictionaries (that I didn´t use at the end). The price was 16 ?, and that´s not so bad for the distance. I was in the hotel at around 16:00, left the luggage and headed out straight away.

First thing I did was to jump on one of these open-deck buses. I needed to get a taste of the city. There are plenty of companies, and most of them have stops along the Ku´Damm. The price is around 9 ? for 1,5 hours, and I found it quite handy, specially afterwards during the week to know where I was standing. After this little tour, I remembered that I hadn´t eaten anything yet, and I became suddenly hungry. There is a slef-service restaurant nearby, the Mövenpick. It is located in what once was one of the greatest cafes in Berlin, the Romanisches Cafe. In fact, they have kept a couple of the rooms. The food is OK, not gourmet, but fine if you want something quick and not very expensive.
From then I went to the Maison de France. They have a cinema, and I could finally watch "Huit femmes", the film with Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux ... Great and entertaining. And handy, because it was near the hotel and I collapsed in my bed at 11:00.

I intended the next day to do some serious museum sightseeing. I slept until late, and I had to buy a weekly transport card (22 ? for a week, there is a kiosk outside the Zoo Bahnhof, and you can pay with Visa). From then I went to the Martin Gropius Bau, a museum from the beginning of the century who survived on the border of the Wall. They were showing the "Here is New York" exhibition, with pictures taken by professional and amateurs photographers on 9/11 (http://www.hereisnewyork.org/ ). After that, I went down to the nearby
"Topography of terror" ( http://www.topographie.de/e/ ), located in the place left by the former Gestapo headquarters. An amazingly interesting exhibition (they have an audioguide in english, interesting because all the explanations are written in german), but open-air. The day was really, really hot, and by the time I reached the Postdamer Platz, the storm hit us pretty well. Lots of rain and wind, and a sudden cold ... I waited until it stopped for at least an hour. By then all my plans had disappeared, I had to be back at the hotel for the workshop introduction at 6 o´clock, so I went simply to the Pergamon Museum (the audioguide has a handy quick tour, if you are pressed for time, and it is included in the price), watched the biggies ( Pergamon Altar, doors of Babylon, ...) and rushed to the hotel.

The highlights of the next 5 days were the visit to various museums ( Hamburger Bahnhof, Neue Gallerie ... ), the visit to the atelier of an sculptor ( Felicitas Franck ) and the really outstanding labour of Barbara Hoffman, the "director" of the workshop. She could make the most abstract work of art alive and easy to understand.

I left for Hamburg in the early friday afternoon. I was going to meet a very good friend who is living there since last January. I had booked my train tickets in the internet using the german railways site (http://www.bahn.de ), and I had picked them up at the Zoo Station. The train had a delay of half an hour and they had changed it to an old "artifact", but it got me to Hamburg, and that was the important part. My friend was waiting for me at the station, and we headed up to the cafeteria at the top of Karstadt Sport (an sport dept store in the shopping district of Hamburg, non smoking and nice sofas to sit and have a chat). We talked for a long time, until her boyfriend arrived and then we walked for a while across the city in order to get our dinner. They took me to Sternschanze, a district between the Reeperbahn and Altona. Plenty of ethno restaurants (many portuguese ones), students, some shady characters ... but I had a delicious chicken with mango and basmati rice. It was really great, creamy and tasty (11 ?, including a big beer). The place is called "Oma´s Apotheke", a bar-cum-restaurant. We ate outside, and then headed back into town to pick up the car and meet two friends of Bilbao who were also arriving that weekend.

On the next day we had an intensiv visit of Hamburg. Everything from walking along the Alster, eating Thuringer-wurst and drinking Alster-wasser (beer with lemonade) sitting by the Town-Hall, jumping on three "public transport" boats to reach Blankenesse, and sit down in the beach to watch the sun go down, while lots of people were enjoying their barbecues. There is a very popular bar called "Strandperlen", just at the banks of the Elbe. With this fine weather, it was great being able to sit on the beach while having a beer. Afterwards we got a bus to Altona, and from the metro station we went with the S-Bahn 3 again to Sternschanze, and we ate at a different place (nice, but not so much as the previous day). The end of the night took us to a walk along the infamous Reeperbahn (just take care of your handbag), only to be able to say, yes, I´ve been there. There are more interesting places in Hamburg ...

We were lucky on Sunday. The sun was shining, and we decided to go to the beach near Kiel. Our "german" friends couldn´t believe that we hadn´t been able to go to the beach at home this year (in fact, there has been only one sunny day in July, the rest of the days have been overcast or full rainy days ...), and couldn´t believe our happy faces ... I had booked my return on the 15:00 EC from Hamburg, in order to be able to be back at the introduction meeting for next week´s workshop, but really, really, the sun was so tempting. My friends changed my booking by phone, and we picked up the new tickets at the Kiel train station on our way to the beach. I was to leave from Kiel at 16:10. The train was OK, although as usual in Germany without AC, and I was looking forward to the ICE. Frank had changed my departure station in Hamburg from the
central station to Dammtor, a previous station and much more quieter than the central one. My train to Berlin stopped in the same platform as the Kiel one, and I had 10 minutes to buy water and magazines for the travel back into the capital. It was a brand new ICE, really comfortable, and amazingly, I was on time in Berlin, at 20:00 ( I said this because the punctuality in german trains is not so usual during the latest years ...).

From the station to my hotel is only 5-7 minutes walking, and I was able to find the group still in the meeting room. I picked up the info for the next day, and I headed straight into my room to get a shower. I still had sand in my legs from the lovely day at the beach.

The second week in Berlin welcomed me with a heat wave. Not so nice when many of the places don´t have AC (including the Bristol Kempinski, a 5 star hotel who was celebrating its 50th birthday) and you will be out walking everyday. The workshop was called "Actual Berlin", and some of its highpoints included a tour of the city, a walk along the former Wall from the Springer building to the Topography of Terror site, a visit of the Reichstag (including the dome), a visit of the Stasi museum in Normannenstrasse, Shakespeare in an open-air theatre, modern ballet in the Sophiensäle, the Jewish Museum, the works in the Postdamer Platz ... We ate typical german (so ... döner kebab, italian and Indian restaurants...). It was interesting, and I would like to emphasize the
Stasi Museum. We were guided by a former dissident. He was entertaining, and he wasn´t so bitter as one might expect from his time in prison during the Sixties. He was exchanged (for money, as usual) and sent to the Federal Republic. Afterwards, he was able to read in his Stasi acts that he was contacted during the Seventies to see if he could act as a spy for the USSR ...
Amazing, but he said that it was quite normal on those times. I truly recommend a guided visit to this place. I have the address somewhere in my files, and I´ll post it later. I don´t know if they can give english guided tours, but they have some people who speak french ...

I came back on the 3rd of August. The trip to Paris was OK, although I was so tired that I slept all the way. But in Paris we had two hours delay to get on our flight home. I still don´t know what was going on, but there were delays in many of the flights.

After these two weeks I still don´t know what to think of Berlin. I would say that it exceed my expectations, but there is still a separation between the two parts. There are many interesting things, and I´d love to see some of the buildings finished. I´ll be back, but if you gave me a free weekend in any european city right now, I have a couple of well-loved places to go before it ( Paris and Rome, anyone ? ). But I do believe that one has to see it. I was in Berlin 20 years ago, right now it´s a complete different place, not a big world city maybe, it doesn´t feel like that, but an interesting one, and a memory for good and bad things in our past. Of course, some of my doubts might come from the feeling I have of having missed things. Tonight I woke up suddenly remembering that I hadn´t been to the Berggruen Collection or the Egiptian Museum or Postdam or Die Brücke Museum ...
Practical info
during my two weeks in Berlin I stayed at the Berlin Mark Hotel (
http://www.markhotel.de/ ). It is well situated, in the Meinecke Str, just off the Ku´Damm. There is an "Easyeverything" internet cafe at the corner http://www.easyeverything.com/ , Fasanenstrasse with the Käthe Kollwitz Museum and the Cafe in Literaturhaus is nearby, and there are restaurants, cafes, a supermarket... It has a good location, with plenty of buses and a metro station. The rooms were spotless, the breakfast buffet was great. I was quite happy with it. But ... there is always a but. First of all, it doesn´t have AC (and many upscale hotels, restaurants and offices also don´t have it), and on my second week there was a heat wave. I barely could sleep, and if you open the window, the Hard Rock Cafe was in the same street and the noise was quite high until late.
The hotel was booked by the Goethe Institut. The people attending the workshops were staying at the hotel, and so did the boys and girls attending the "German course for young adults" (18-20 years old). We had also an special price, but you can find the prices in the website.

Transport. I bought a weekly travel pass, zones 1 and 2. It allowed to travel in all the U-Bahn, S-Bahn, buses and trams (these ones are only in the east side). There is a small kiosk outside of the Zoo train station where you can buy the tickets (daily, weekly, monthly... and pay with credit card), get maps of the city... http://www.bvg.de/e_index.html It is open from 6 o´clock in the morning until 10 o´clock at night. Two interesting bus lines are the 100 and the 200. They go from the Zoo Bahnhof to Alexanderplatz and further, and travel along Postdamer Platz, Unter den Linden. Your own city tour bus for the price of a transport ticket.

Eating. I will speak only of the places I remember, because if I have forgotten the others, there must have been a reason. We ate some days at "Mensas" (the university canteens). I would mention the Mensa of the Preussische Landtag, just in front of the Martin-Gropius-Bau. It is open to the public from 1:30, the food is good and cheap. It is like a self-service cafeteria. Once you get through the main entrance and the tiny bookshop, one must turn to the right and go straight away thourgh the glass doors. It can come handy if you have been visiting the Postdamer Platz or Checkpoint Charlie.

Around Neuen Hackeschen Markt there are many interesting places. One of them is Lemke, a biergarten which makes its own beer. It is located under the S-Bahn, just by the Hackeschen Markt station. It is open from noon, and it offers a lunch buffet with salads and hot dishes. Not too bad. The address :
Lemke Spezialitätenbrauerei, Restaurant und Biergarten
Tel 030 247 287 27 / Fax 030 247 287 28
Dircksenstr, S-Bahnbogen 143
10178 Berlin Mitte am Hackeschen Markt

Also in Hackeschen Markt, just opposite the entrance to the Hackeschen Höfe, you can find the Trattoria Ossena. I ate there three times. The first time I was in a hurry, because I had to catch my train to Hamburg, and they were fast and the spaghetti with mushrooms were quite good, not bland and drowning in sauce as you can find in other places. Then the next week I went there with some friends and with people from the group, and we ate some good pizzas and salads. I liked the place, and I think that it can be recommended.
Cafeteria Trattoria Pizzeria Osena
Rosenthaler Str 42 10178 Berlin Mitte (am Neuen Hackeschen Markt)
Tel 030 28 09 98 77 Fax 030 280 472 70

Another night, I was in quite a hurry because I had to be at the open-air
theatre in Mon-Bijou-Park by 9:30 and I had missed my dinner. I stopped at the Cafe Silberstein in Oranienburger Str, and I asked the girls for something very, very quick. They specialized in sushi, but they asked if I wanted a salad with chicken breast. I said OK, and to my surprise, I got a delicious green salad with something that looked like chicken nuggets but fried tempura-style. Really great and tasty. We stayed there also a night having cocktails, and it is a lovely place.
Silberstein Cafe
Oranienburger str 27 10117 Berlin
Tel 030 2812095

The last day we ate at an indian restaurant, also in the Oranienburger Str
(there are many of them in this district). You have to be careful, because they always serve a salad and all the naan you want, so you don´t need to order it. The portions are quite big, and they usually come with boiled rice. I had a bad time trying to choose, because I was attracted by many of the dishes. At the end I opted for a chicken korma, and a salty lassi (the yoghurt drink I felt in love when I went to India). Some of the people in the group had tandooris and currys, and they also looked quite good.
Indisches Restaurant Cafe Bar INDA
Oranienburger Str 65 10117 Berlin
Tel 030 283 54 35
Open from 11am to 1am (weekends until 2am)

Lutter & Wegner. Most of the lunchs were already included in the workshop, but we had a couple of free days. I decided that I wanted to go a bit upscale and eat in one of the many restaurants surrounding Gendarmen Markt. I decided to walk It was founded in 1811, and after the war it moved to Savignyplatz. They have reopened a couple of years ago near their original location. Good service. I had a main dish of sole with sesame seeds, jasmin rice and assorted vegetables, a glass of Grauburgunder, a bottle of one liter of water (I could have had two), and a espresso. It was expensive, 35 Euro, but having eaten fish in Germany previously, this one was beautifully done, and I got what I wanted,
a fine meal with views to a wonderful square.
http://www.lutter-wegner-gendarmenmarkt.de/

Cafes. There are many cafes in Berlin, maybe not so obvious as in a place like Vienna, but enough to help a coffein-addict to get by. In many places you will find espresso machines. The coffee won´t be so good as in Italy (or there are places in Spain where it isn´t too bad, if the water is good), but it will be OK. They have something called Milchkaffee. It´s a huge cup of coffee with frothy milk, not cream, delicious, just like a grown-up cappucino. Café Einstein was an original in the Kurfürstenstr, and now there are lots of Café Einstein around the city. http://www.cafeeinstein.com/ Good coffee and cakes.
After the visit to the Jewish Museum we asked one of the attendants for a café with good cakes nearby. Not so near, but the poppyseed and pear cake was ... first, huge, and second, delicious. The place, Cafe Lebensart, in Kreuzberg.
http://www.berlinfo.com/Freetime/Food-Drink/cafes/kreuzberg/

Shopping. First of all, the food department in KaDeWe is really amazing, but I didn´t find anything special in the rest of the sections. I don´t know what I was looking for, but I think that it was too german for my taste.
http://www.kadewe.de/ Galleries Lafayette in Friedrichstr was more tempting and dangerous, and so were the small and sometimes quirky shops in Oranienburger Str and the area surrounding the Hackeschen Höfe
http://www.hackesche-hoefe.com/ . There are some good bookshops near
Savignyplatz. And of course, the usual shops you find around the world (Zara, H&M, Body Shop, you name it, you find it).

And I shouldn´t forget the chocolate : http://www.leysieffer.de . The truffles are so good, but also the normal dark chocolate bars with hazelnuts, or the tiny boxes of chocolates with 25 tiny temptations inside. Amazing, and well worth a stop.