Continued from Berlin Day 1.

Woke up to wet, cold, and grey Berlin. Ughhhhhhh!!!!!!! I knew the weather was forecasted to be in the dumps today, but it still sucks. OK, keep an open mind….

Nice, the rain loves Berlin. SO says that this weather is pretty typical for Berlin during this time of the year. She says that the summers here in Berlin is amazing though. Well, it’s not summer and weather here sucks right now.

We called for a taxi to take us to a Starbucks so I can blog. I could blog in the lobby where I have wifi, but I think some coffee and breakfast would be better. Ah, love the nice Mercedes taxis here in Germany. Crown Vics can suck my ass.

Rainy Berlin. Varanasi means shit. Berlin now shall mean disappointed, cold, wet and grey. Example. “I feel so Berlin today because my dog died, my house caught on fire, a nuclear bomb went off, Hitler came back to life, I got all four limbs amputated, Blue Mosque got demolished, and wifi internet doesn’t work.”

Germany Starbucks is boring. Nothing jumped out at me.

This is a huge two story Starbucks though. Very popular.

Time to work. I am already way behind. I’ve got plenty of Istanbul left to finish, and Berlin is already starting to pile up. It’s around 10:30AM.

I tried my best to catch up for a couple of hours. Still way behind, but I need to go out and see the city. Caught a bus back to hotel, dropped off my laptop, and we came back out onto the main street to catch another bus. Man, the walk from the bus station on the main street to our hotel is good long walk. The distance scales in Berlin are off. Everything takes just that much longer to walk to. We walk and walk and walk, and but don’t seem to get anywhere fast.

All the cream colored Mercedes Taxis.

Bus is here. We are heading to the other side of central Berlin to Kreuzberg, SO’s stomping ground. Her apartment that we couldn’t stay in is actually located in Kreuzberg. From what she says about Kreuzberg, it sounds cool. It sounds much better than the area that we are staying in right now where it’s just boring buildings and chain shops.

I like this chain shop.

On the upper deck for sightseeing.

Why the fuck would I want to take a Prius taxi when I can take a Mercedes?

That’s a…errrr…interesting color choice.

The Kaiser Wilheim Memorial Church disguised as an office building.

That’s what the church is supposed to look like, a red head.

East Side, representin’.

Green roof.

Kreuzberg! Yes, immediately, this area feels better to me. It’s edgier, there’s graffiti everywhere(I’ve heard this about Berlin), and the people are younger. This feels very much like East Austin, Berlin style. We are actually not quite in the former East Berlin, but not too far from it.

That is one large ass chunk of meat.

We decided to eat Vietnamese noodles since it’s the perfect food for a Berlin kind of day. This is one of SO’s old regular spots to eat at when she went to fashion school here. Awesome, I am getting the insider’s scoop on Berlin.

Pho! Yes, so good!

Walked around Kreuzberg to get a feel for this area.

Well known burger joint in the area.

Graffiti everywhere here.

Despite all the graffiti, it’s not unsafe. It’s just Hipsterville.

Shanti Motherfucker, Shanti!

I liked this building.

Wow! That thing was huge and fucking amazing!!

Bauhaus style firehouse.

We walked across Kreuzberg and ended up at this coffee shop. This is SO’s favorite coffee shop. I miss Progress.

I wanted coffee, but SO suggested that I get chai latte because it was really good here. Sure, why not. OH MY GOD! It tasted like ice cream!!!! Soooo good!

Done with marker.

Time to leave Kreuzberg and head to Alexanderplatz. I didn’t do much travel research for Berlin since I am traveling here with SO. I have no idea what to expect at Alexanderplatz.

Graffiti everywhere.

Berlin TV Tower at Alexanderplatz! It’s so tall that it’s literally poking into the low clouds today. The weather sucks today. It’s so Berlin. It’s always on the verge of raining and keeps on misting on and off.

Sidenote. Germans are tall, but I think the Germans in Bavaria are taller than the Germans here in Berlin. I wonder if that’s an accurate observation, or if I’ve just gotten more used to the tall Germans.

Rathaus, town hall.

Heh.

Berliner Dom.

Altes Museum next to Berliner Dom.

Pretty imposing looking church.

What is this out front?

We came into Berliner dome and you can buy an entry ticket to tour the church.

Very impressive! It was damaged during the war and much of it is new and renovated. The original building itself isn’t even that old, only dates to 1905.

Impressive.

Old photos of the Berliner Dom before the full restoration.

From the upper gallery.

Going up into the dome.

Business end of Jesus. Yes, he does the Varanasi like the rest of us.

Ahhhhh. This feels good. I love vantage view points. Too bad the weather is so Berlin and visibility isn’t very good.

I Heart this.

Down from the dome we go and this time down underground into the crypt.

Prussian Royal family members are entombed here.

I don’t really like taking photos of coffins. It’s kind of morbid, but I couldn’t stop myself. Sigh. Though, I had zero problems taking photos of the floating corpse at Varanasi…

Berlin, I hate you, I am going to burn you down! I feel better about Berlin today, but it’s still not sitting right with me. The weather sets my baseline mood, and this Berlin weather just sucks. I won’t lie, I am not that happy here. I want to love Berlin so much, but I dislike it. I dislike it like how I disliked Jaipur. I will say this about Berlin though, it’s finally calmed my stomach. I had 3 straight weeks of grey smoggy skies in India, and I didn’t remember what blue sky looked like until Istanbul. I’ve had a month of constant irritated GI tract, and here in Berlin, everything is back to normal. So, this is what normal feels like? Yes, I remember this feeling. OK, TMI.

Smart! For temporary construction piping, they do it above ground, so they don’t have to cut up the roads and sidewalks. Why can’t we do this in the US. It makes so much sense.

Some sort of war memorial.

Frederick the Great. This is on Unter den Linden, one of the most important roads here in Berlin with many monuments and federal buildings.

They had many car showrooms here on Unter den Linden. New SL! I don’t like it as much as the previous version. The first time I saw the previous SL, it stunned me. The first time I saw this SL, it felts like a novelty item. Mercedes, matte paint is already overplayed, you should know better.

We’ve walked around all afternoon in Berlin weather. Time to go back to the area of our hotel and get some dinner. Damnit! Why is our hotel on the other side of town!!! Ugh! I think it takes 45 minutes just to get back to our hotel. Damn you Berlin for being so large and sprawled out! I am still frustrated with this city. I don’t feel settled here. I am unhappy here. SO was disappointed that I am not gelling well with Berlin. I think she feels pressure for me to like it since she talked such a big game. Sigh. I want to love Berlin so badly, but I just can’t…Damn it!

TK Maxx! I still don’t know why they feel the need to rebrand it differently for Europe and US. Why is K more European than J?

SO mentioned that this was a popular steakhouse in Germany. I bet it’s like the Outback Steakhouse of America. Well, got to try it. I haven’t had steak in a month.

Free wine while we wait for our table. They should do this in the US.

Beer! I have to admit, I’ve been so down that even beer doesn’t solve my issues. It just makes me tired.

Yay….steak. It was alright. All I want to do is love Berlin.

They love their sour cream here. Our waitress brought out an extra vat of sour cream without us even asking for it.

After dinner, went back to hotel, but I was too tired to blog. I went to bed early. I feel like half of our time in Berlin is spent just getting from one spot to the other. We must have easily spent more than 3 hours today just walking, waiting for a bus, sitting on a bus, waiting for the metro, transferring to a different metro, sitting on a metro, etc. Sigh.

To be continued in Berlin Day 3.