Crash Course Berlin Cliffnotes: 24 Things I Learned In Berlin.
- Everything goes in Berlin.
- With drinking not demonized, as in you can drink in public and at the age of 16, Berlin's streets are seemingly puke free.
- You can't get lost as long as you see the TV tower, the tall thing with the silver ball on top.
- Berlin's architecture is amazing, with old and new layered upon each other throughout. There is something to be said about having to rebuild your city that many times...
- German ice coffee has ice cream in it.
- The fanciest McDonald's I've seen is at Checkpoint Charlie. It has a balcony.
- The art at the East Side Gallery (painted slabs of the Berlin Wall) is mostly mediocre. Who chose these artists anyway?
- Outdoor bars and clubs are all over and admission can get you in for a few days--as that is how long some parties in Berlin last.
- You can find any good time you want in Berlin, if you just ask or keep walking.
- If you want to see the inside of Berliner Dom, the city's largest church, you have to pay. The only church I know of with an admission.
- Tiengarten is the largest park in Berlin. Not the prettiest, but you can go naked here. (The walk through the park that spits you out at The Brandenburg Gate is lined with trees that have eyes. It's very Brother's Grimm.)
- Pretzels here are the size of my head.
- You are not allowed to take a picture of the Nefertiti bust in the Neues Museum.
- The double-decker 100 public bus runs late into the night and will take you past or near most of the main tourist attractions of the city: Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Schloss Bellevue, Unter den Linden (Berlin's fanciest street). You can pick it up near Alexanderplatz or Zoologischer Garten train stations. The best part is tearing up to the top with your ruthless friends, to get the front seats.
- If you're going to eat Currywurst, get it at a German food stand, not a Turkish one.
- Prostitution is legal and the average cost of the street variety is 80 euros. To find them, go to Oranienstrasse and look for the girls in the white or pink patent leather thigh-high stiletto go-go boots.
- Even though the park's name in Potsdamn is Sanssouci, nothing goes there. You can't picnic or even sit on the lawn.
- Most of the hot guys are 17 or dirty and barefoot, or all of the above.
- Karaoke at Mauerpark is the most amazing karaoke. Positive vibe overload.
- My name is on the Berlin wall, next to Shlomi's and my friends Jay and Joe's, who were in Berlin two weeks before I got there.
- You can spend a day in a bikini in Berlin, at the lakes and at Liquidrom--in the amazing salty floating pool (I took a nap on the water!!!!) ...or you can be naked all day too.
- Everything is bigger in Germany, the feet of their men and their super plus tampons.
- "Bubbles change everything." Shlomi
