The Irish are like salmon, they must return to their birthplace. In the case of the O Dowd sisters, it was to an Irish pub. They had to watch the all-Ireland match between Kerry and Cork, with Kerry winning.
If Berlin is the wall art/graffiti capital of the world, our IKEA outfitted apartment was located in the epicentre. Friedrachstain and Berlin makes like anything and everything goes. While New York may never sleep, Berliners never stop. A wonderful edginess saturates the city. I äm sure there are sanitized sections, but Singapore this aint. The renowned German know-how and tightly systemized world may be history as hip, cutting edge designs, fashions and homes shoulder up broken down rails and urban blight.
Highlights include Berliner Dom, Brandenburger Gates, Gendarmarkt, St Helwig and the Jewish Museum, the latter of which is heavily guarded, as is the Synagogue.
Other find was B Flat, a small jazz club way too avant garde for our Diana Krall-like diet, but worth every penny. The quartet from Norway, the US, Germany and Denmark, having met in Banff---an international synchronization.
Everyone bikes here---without helmets and only on the sidewalk, so walking is a hazard.
The collective hurt here is the recent flirtation with communism. The Wall is the most talked about relic and trauma. Strangely enough, Nazism is rarely mentioned, tho hordes of school kids are forced into the Jewish Museum.
Couldn't find German food other than the currywurst--bratwurst with a ketchup curry. Deep fried grasshoppers in Asia will have more appeal than that! Food is dirt cheap, as is living. Unemplyment is high, people from everywhere have flocked to Berlin.
Only hours before our flight to Beijing. We said our goodbyes to Mary and Una as they try to jump the Ryanair bag allowance, having laidened their carry on with shopping.
Weve locked ourselves out of the apt with luggage inside and are awaiting locksmith, Uh duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Otherwise we are well, healthy, and ready to move on.
