Can You Put on a "Berliner" Face?
by JourneyOf1
Whenever I tried to put on my "Berliner" face I would laugh! What is a "Berliner" face? OK, its the serious but not unfriendly lack of expression most Berliners wear the majority of time when you see them out in public.
I felt like a primordial animal baring its teeth at passer-bys sometimes because where I'm from when you make eye contact with someone you smile and say hello. Not in Berlin! If someone takes an interest in you they look at you until their heart is content without a smile.
One day while riding the S-Bahn this guy, whom I named Herr Zug! looked at me for a full 3 minutes after having looked me up and down at his leisure when I first boarded. I looked back of course, he was really cute! but no smiling, though I felt like winking just to see what his reaction would be! ;-) Before he exited he gave me another 3 minutes of his time, and I wished him good day because I hoped he'd stored enough to have good dreams that night or something!! I wrote part of this memory in a short story in my travelogues.
This is during the day I must say, at night when I was out and everyone had a beer or two, everybody was smiling ;-) Herr Zug and his unusual shoes! YES, I too was looking for a very long time at him! ;-)
East Berlin trafficlights
by sabsi
Keep your eyes open when walking around the streets of the former East. The traffic lights here sometimes still have to really old East "Ampelmännchen" - the little man with a hat waiting at red lights or crossing the street. Unfortunately the lights are being replaced by the west version so there is "Save the Ampelmännchen" campaign going on in Germany.
In the souvenir shops of Berlin you can buy EVERYTHING with this symbol on - T-Shirts, Pins, Lights etc etc. A nice souvenir, isn't it?
Hunting
by nigelw6443
Berlin is surrounded by much forest, which is also used for hunting. It is not uncommon to come across some Wild Boar or Deer and also the occasional hunting tower. You will normally see these in most fileds as you travel through the northern states of Germany.
The most expensive postcards in Berlin
by matcrazy1 about Fix Foto
It was the photo lab which sold some random photo equipment, films, postcards etc. Films or batteries for your camera if you need. Beautiful postcards, sold on a street, usually costed 0.30 € or 0.40 € never mind in which area of Berlin I was. But there was one place when they were over twice more expensive: they costed 1.00 € in front of photo lab marked "Fix Foto". Hmm... rather kind of tourist trap easy to avoid as there were the same postcards for 0.40 € at a newsstand on a walkway next to the photo lab.
Largest crossing rail station in Europe
by fairestmom
We travelled by train from Hamburg to Berlin and it took about one hour & thirty minutes. The ride was very pleasant and we were looking forward to arriving at the city's main railway station 'Berlin Hauptbahnhof - Lehrter Bahnhof'
Berlin's new rail station had its grand opening on May 26, 2006, 3 months before we visited in August and they can handle 250,000 passengers a day. The Spree River runs right by the train station so this entire area is very pretty and picturesque and the location is very convenient to many of the city's main attractions.
The Berlin Hauptbahnhof is like a busy metropolis. It houses at least 80 retail businesses and many places to eat.
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clouds over Berlin
Ikea Berlin-Tempelhof
Koppenplatz monument: modest but eloquent
Brandenburg Gate
