11:35 a.m. Berlin — Monday, March 12, 2007

Where do I begin in describing the best day in Berlin? Following breakfast at the hotel, we headed out and caught a bus from the Zoologische Garten U-Bahn stop. We rode it all the way down as our “pre-tour,” then trekked back on the same route on foot. The city is just amazing. It’s a kaleidoscope of old and new, young and experienced, historical and modern. A brick line of the former wall runs on the pavement through the entire city, even its most cutting-edge districts. We saw the Reichstag, which is full of history, both glorious and tragic and the place of the current German government. Later, a small group of us traveled to the top of the Reichstag and watched the sun set over Berlin.
Touring with the group thus far is going well. Chelsea wanders off at some points, but always finds her way back. Jason, another student on the trip, has a huge camera and has been mistaken multiple times for a paparazzi. We still really don’t know each other and it proves for some awkward interactions, but with time that will disappear.
We ate lunch at Humboldt University today, the historical university in Berlin where famous people such as Albert Einstein studied. The sun was shining and it was quite warm — almost 70 degrees. There was a book sale outside the front of the building and we pieced through both English and German books, from romance novels to collected works of Marx. Once we walked inside, it felt odd to be in a foreign university, but still strangely familiar. These were students and even though they spoke a completely different language and lived a different lifestyle — with U- and S-Bahn stations and Turkish kabobs for dinner — we were still quite similar. The lunch there was delicious and inexpensive. Berlin is an affordable city, and is known to be “arm, aber sexy,” which translates to “poor, but sexy.” I think it’s accurate.
The rest of the tour was like a whirlwind, with the Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden and being pointed out various architecture monuments.
I love Berlin because anything goes. You’ve got your classic, Gucci-wearing women meeting for lunch because they have nothing better to do. You have your 22-year-old art student with bright red hair, who rides her bike to work down the Ku’damm each day.
Either way, everyone is happy to be alive and there are people from all over the world.
And in terms of my profession, people read newspapers all over. They read on the U-Bahn, in the park, at a café — wherever. I feel as if papers are part of the routine, the in and out of the city. The headlines are all over and I just love it.
I am exhausted. Time for a nap, touring wore me out.