Notes toward a Politics of Berlin

So, Berlin. The conference kicked ass. Then we walked for hours on Sat and Sun. Berlin is very spacious -- they are still constructing on the spaces that were bombed during WWII. The architecture varies from block to block. For instance, you can see some cool modernisms:




But then there's also the old school, kicking-it-European-style:




The neighborhood where we stayed was very hip and had lots of international food. The prices are cheap in Berlin. The restaurants and bars are plentiful.

We ate here:



and drank at this honor-system wine bar ("The Weinerei") that basically consisted of lots of couches in rooms/on different floors in a building right by our hostel, in the Mitte neighborhood. I overheard a couple mention an article about it that appeared in the New York Times as they came in -- apparently this place has been noticed.

Anyhoo, I loved Berlin. The prices are cheaper, the people are unhappier, I could recognize more of the words (thanks to that one semester of German). There's also a ton of cars and that legacy of the Holocaust, if you want to think about the "cons."