Prior to the trip I had done a fair bit of research about Berlin. I knew that I would only have a couple of days to explore it's charms and I didn't want to waste it bumbling around the lame parts of town and tourist attractions (as I had done in Paris 5 years ago...I didn't find the cool neighborhood until my last night). So, I had taken a survey of people who had been to Berlin before, people who's opinion I respected and who I thought could give me the inside scoop.
Most of my responders had pointed out Kruizberg as a cool part of town. Kruizberg was fairly easy to identify on our tourist map as it occupied most of the south east corner of the city proper. Anand and I both being avid walkers and we had come prepared for the snow and cold, so we decided to simply walk from Check Point Charlie down to the hood. We walked....and we walked...and we walked...and yet we seemed to be constantly walking under highways and around industrial complexes...there were no cool bars and restaurants...there weren't even any bars and restaurants and my fears that maybe Berlin was not as cool as I was lead to believe became even more solid.
Finally, we broke down and asked a man in a coffee shop (one of the first things we came upon) if there were any bars and restaurants we could hit up in the area. He pointed us to take a left and head down two blocks...and with that we found Kruizberg center. Apparently we had managed to walk about half way around the circumference of the neighborhood without ever actually entering it. But a brief walk around showed us more or less what we were looking for. It had elements of the East Village and Williamsburg here in NYC, but with it's own East German touches. There were a surprising number of ethnic (non-German) restaurants to be viewed, including, somewhat unexpectedly 3-4 Mexican places...but we can always get that at home. We ended up getting kabobs and giant beers at a Turkish place, finally getting some "lunch" at 4 in the afternoon.
It must be said that you can buy a beer anywhere in Germany. You can buy a beer at Dunkin Donuts. It honestly would not surprise me if beer was available at your local dentist office. You probably can get a beer at church...and a giant stein at that.
Once we finished our lamb and giant beers the sun had set, and we were ready to see what the neighborhood had to offer.
Another version of Arpeggi (Weird Fishes) from the pre-In Rainbows tour.
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