Berlin is bikes, beer, galleries, and people going about life.

I am hosted in Neukölln by a fellow couchsurfer and two flatmates, an inviting trio, humorous and passionate about theatre. The evenings are filled with talk of Lars Eidinger, untranslatable German phrases & Tarantino’s obvious foot fetish. During the day, I explore.

Neukölln has for a while now been ‘up & coming’. It has that vibe of gentrification gathering wind but not yet. Turkish shops and eateries abound. Afro hair salons on nearly every block. Pulsating and unpretentious although, perhaps, not for long.

At an electronics store, a stern woman yells at me in frustration as we navigate the credit card-swipe-chip fiasco (two terms of high school German only go so far). Her voice drops a decibel as she eyes my American bank card. The card, I imagine, places me outside the bowl of “those immigrants” but only so. Her rudeness catches me off-guard and Berlin is less enchanting then. 

Still, I love this city. I am easily impressed by Rent a Bike 44 where I get a bike (by honor system), a steal at four euros a day. The greater Neukölln area, Kreuzberg, and Mitte are mine to explore. All the sights are impressive if in a wholly expected manner. The Gate, the Column, the Wall.

Who was it that said, Paris is always Paris, Berlin is never Berlin? I do not wish to return. I wish to visit Berlin for the first time again.