I think that Berlin might just be one of my favorite places on earth. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. I knew that it's a hotbed of counter-culture weirdness, and it's got a not-always-pleasant history. It doesn't have the fairy-tale prettiness of Munich or the grand beauty of Hamburg. But during my time in Germany, it was probably my favorite city we visited. From visiting the Brandenburg Gate & "Checkpoint Charlie" to enjoying brunch on a sidewalk in the surprisingly-lovely east Berlin to dancing to crazy Euro-pop at a freaky night club to touring the Reichstag to sipping lychee-flavored champagne in a shopping mall of all places, I loved it. The city is chock-full of important, meaningful monuments and a painful past (the Holocaust memorial and the remnants of the Berlin wall come immediately to mind). Berlin bears its scars gracefully. It's gritty & complex & honest, and I like that. A lot.
