Berlin O philia

Not many people who live in big cities get to see their mayor very often. Even in our city, which has a population of around 400,000, we only catch the mayor occasionally when we happen to dine at the most expansive restaurant Refael (you can find it here, under the section “a rich uncle is paying”), of which he’s a regular visitor. But on our meager 3 weeks total in Berlin, we happened to come across Berlin’s mayor live, on display. And we are enthralled.
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We come from a very hot state. In Israel, summer starts in June, and ends in October, if we’re lucky. And by summer I mean around 30 degrees Celsius on a cool day. Also, Tel Aviv, our city, lies on the shore of the Mediterranean sea, so we are used to 80% humidity (“used to” is not exactly right. No matter how many years you live here, the feeling of walking into a sauna every time you go out is something you can never get used to). In other parts of the world, apparently this is not the case.
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Don’t even think about walking around Berlin without a map. Especially if this is your first time in the city.

It is always good to carry a map with you if you wander around in an unknown city, and Berlin is no exception. What’s special about Berlin in this context is that it is relatively easy to find your way between distant locations, as long as you know how to make good use of it’s fabulous public transportation – and have a good map of Berlin.

The transportation includes two very thorough electric train systems (called U-Bahn and S-Bahn), many bus lines, and the Tram trains, a relic from the communist era. No single map I’ve seen contain all relevant information, but if you have a good map with the basic routes your more or less covered.

MPM’s Berlin transportation map.

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The four main ways to get around Berlin by public transportation are subways (U-Bahn), urban railway lines (S-Bahn), Tram and buses. We avoided the Tram, since it’s very slow (it became a joke to us, that no one can ever get ran over by a Tram, no matter how hard you try) and not very friendly to use. The buses were sometimes handy, but we traveled mostly by S-Bahn – by far the best trains (the U-Bahns are more ancient and crammed).
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Berlin has three airports, two for international flights, and one mainly for domestic flights. They are supposed to be merged at some time in the future into one large airport (they say 2011. You can read all about it here).

Until then, you have Schoenfeld (SXF) in the east (some 20km from the center), Tegel (TXL) in the middle (some 8km from the center) and Tempelhof (THF), which is supposed to be the oldest commercial airport in the world (built in 1923) and the first airport connected to a subway network (1927), but is not profitable, and scheduled to close on 2008. Anyway, it does only domestic flights within Germany and neighboring countries.
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Berlin is a relatively young city in European terms, only around 750 years old. And since then, it is associated with the symbol of the bear.

Apparently, no one really knows where it came from. It first appeared in 1280, on a seal document (which depicted two upright bears with Brandenburg eagle in the center). Earlier, around 1150, there was some guy named Albert the Bear who inherited Berlin from its last Wendish king, as says the article about “the history of Berlin” in Wiki. Maybe he’s the source, who knows. Anyway, the Bear still stands proud as the city symbol and mascot, and appears on its flag.

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In our first visit to Berlin, as we walked through the city, we occasionally came across a large fiberglass bear standing near an occasional embassy. Here’s one:

We knew the official symbol of the city is a Bear, so we didn’t put much thought into it. And then, one day, we came across this: Read the rest of this entry »

My Berlin is the most hospitable city I’ve ever been to. This was the impression I got, from almost the first minute after I landed. I come from a “warm”, but not very strong in politeness and civility, place, so most European cities seem calmer and more polite in comparison. But we are led to believe certain things about the Germans, which do not co-exist with hospitality.
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