Day 16 (22 June): I am a Jelly Doughnut
I spent today exploring the Western part of Berlin on foot. I started at the Banhof Zoo train station where Gotz dropped me off and walked down Kurfurstendamm which was West Berlin's 5th avenue equivalent and stopped off at the 'Story of Berlin' Museum which had an excellent history of the city. After that I walked over to the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche (which is a bombed out church never repaired after WWII so it could serve as a memorial for peace.) Its quite striking to see in a city that's in otherwise good repair, even if a lot of the buildings look they were put up in the '50s and '60s.
I then walked across the Tiergarten which is an enormous park that used to be the hunting ground for the Prussians and stumbled upon more than one nudist sunbathers since it was hotter than usual for Berlin, but still not too bad. From there I saw the Reichtag (parliament) and views from its roof along with the Branderberg gate (which has a quite a history to it and serves as a symbol of the city) and a Soviet monument at the edge of the Tiergarten. The soviet monument is quite odd, since it was in West Berlin and commemorates the war dead of the soviets. Its massive (with a large soldier on top with abnormally large hands) but was put up in only 3 or 4 days before the allies made it to Berlin in 1945.
After all of this I met Julian and his girlfriend in the brand new Potsdammer Platz complex for dinner at a German restaurant affiliated with the famous Hofbrau house in Munich. We also had 1 liter beers.
Economic observations of the day:
1) German Food. Its the most expensive food to get in Germany because Germans don't go out to eat German food, they cook it at home. The low demand by locals is what makes it expensive. Jullian thought it was funny I wanted German food for dinner and had to think for a while before he could find a place.
2) Mobile. German mobile phones seem like they are leaps and bounds ahead of those in the US. Its kindof ridiculous that US mobile phone companies don't fit into the GSM world standard. At some point this is going to be a problem for US mobile phone users. Another interesting feature of German mobile phones is that if you are within 500 meters of your home, then calls to your home number will ring on your mobile phone as well and you pay a home phone rate rather than a mobile phone rate.
3) Real Estate in Berlin. Its really, really cheap for one of the world's major cities. In his apartment, Jullian only pays 225 USD per month for a huge room in a very large 3BR place in a very good location. He thinks that seems expensive. Purchasing homes in Berlin, he says is much more expensive though. At USD 225 a month, I almost should move to Berlin when a similar place in LA would cost about 5 times more.
4) graffiti. Its all over Europe, but in particular in Berlin. Governments don't seem to care to spend the money to fix it up. I wonder what Rudy Guiliani would think about this with his broken window policy.
5) EasyJet (the low cost airline) and other Easy companies. I don't know what the company looks like financially, but its interesting how it is everywhere and seems to fill all sorts of low cost market niches for services. In Berlin they have 'esyInternetCafes'; they also have easyCrusie in the French & Italian Riveras; and I've hear of other Easy companies throughout Europe.
I then walked across the Tiergarten which is an enormous park that used to be the hunting ground for the Prussians and stumbled upon more than one nudist sunbathers since it was hotter than usual for Berlin, but still not too bad. From there I saw the Reichtag (parliament) and views from its roof along with the Branderberg gate (which has a quite a history to it and serves as a symbol of the city) and a Soviet monument at the edge of the Tiergarten. The soviet monument is quite odd, since it was in West Berlin and commemorates the war dead of the soviets. Its massive (with a large soldier on top with abnormally large hands) but was put up in only 3 or 4 days before the allies made it to Berlin in 1945.
After all of this I met Julian and his girlfriend in the brand new Potsdammer Platz complex for dinner at a German restaurant affiliated with the famous Hofbrau house in Munich. We also had 1 liter beers.
Economic observations of the day:
1) German Food. Its the most expensive food to get in Germany because Germans don't go out to eat German food, they cook it at home. The low demand by locals is what makes it expensive. Jullian thought it was funny I wanted German food for dinner and had to think for a while before he could find a place.
2) Mobile. German mobile phones seem like they are leaps and bounds ahead of those in the US. Its kindof ridiculous that US mobile phone companies don't fit into the GSM world standard. At some point this is going to be a problem for US mobile phone users. Another interesting feature of German mobile phones is that if you are within 500 meters of your home, then calls to your home number will ring on your mobile phone as well and you pay a home phone rate rather than a mobile phone rate.
3) Real Estate in Berlin. Its really, really cheap for one of the world's major cities. In his apartment, Jullian only pays 225 USD per month for a huge room in a very large 3BR place in a very good location. He thinks that seems expensive. Purchasing homes in Berlin, he says is much more expensive though. At USD 225 a month, I almost should move to Berlin when a similar place in LA would cost about 5 times more.
4) graffiti. Its all over Europe, but in particular in Berlin. Governments don't seem to care to spend the money to fix it up. I wonder what Rudy Guiliani would think about this with his broken window policy.
5) EasyJet (the low cost airline) and other Easy companies. I don't know what the company looks like financially, but its interesting how it is everywhere and seems to fill all sorts of low cost market niches for services. In Berlin they have 'esyInternetCafes'; they also have easyCrusie in the French & Italian Riveras; and I've hear of other Easy companies throughout Europe.
posted by Traveling Brian at 4:00 AM
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