Trip to Berlin

Subconscious: zweiundzwanzig Jahre später. Berlin. Was bedeutet das, und…what does that mean?

Conscious: Do I need to bring my shaver? Is it under 8kgs? scarf? umbrella? The app is saying 20% rain on Sunday. How much “geld” to bring? etc.

I met up with my good friends Michael and Eric in Berlin for the marathon weekend. They were running, I was cheering. For Michael and I, this was also a second visit to Berlin, where we had spent a semester on a study abroad program back in college.

Language learning

German was my minor but I had believed all these years that “ich habe alles vergessen.” On just one hand can I count the number of Germans I have seen since graduating college over twenty years ago. Well, maybe a few hands, but really not that many. In the US, Spanish is an essential second language (also fun and enriching), French can sometimes come into play, and there are always local pockets where you can find Gujarati, Polish, Italian, Chinese, etc.

Framed differently, I now think of it as learning a third language in high school and/or college, and German makes a wonderful choice just for the depth and richness of its culture. Germany’s importance in the EU, the strong economy, the catchy pop/rock/hip-hop artists, the Vokabelheft, the highly regarded institutions, etc. - Germany has many lessons to offer, even if opportunities for conversation may be limited.

What surprised me was discovering how the Deutsch started to magically come back after investing some evening and weekend hours over a month and a half. I started with Der kleine Prinz, keeping a word list with the wonderful Leo dictionary app, and then after getting about a third of the way in, shifted over to a couple of language learning apps - initially Glossika, and then Busuu.

Glossika is interesting and something I would look at again, but I did not spend too much time on it before Michael had gifted me a 30 day Busuu subscription. Apparently you can gift up to five of these 30 day subscriptions. Pretty cool marketing feature!

Busuu is more in line with what one would expect from a language app, similar to Duolingo, with an attractive and modern feel. Nice audio and visuals, bite-sized lessons, varying exercise types (including an engaging fill-in-the-blank chat message dialogue that I really like), and a social feature where native speakers correct certain spoken or written exercises - all these add up to a compelling user experience.

The focus of the content and vocabulary tends to be practical and somewhat aimed at the busy young working professional who still aspires to travel and explore new interests. For quickly reviewing a language, Busuu is great, with the sense of accomplishment from completing lesson after lesson quite motivating. But for beginners, Busuu plus a couple more resources like a book or another language app would be my recommendation.

One Busuu strategy is introducing some new concept in an exercise and explaining it a lesson or two later, which works for the most part. Sometimes the ramp up in lessons can be a bit steep. I have been doing A2 Spanish lessons since coming back (yes, I did subscribe), and many times I have noticed that English translations are not provided for Spanish sentences. There is a bookmarking feature for saving new words and phrases, but sometimes it’s not available. These are minor quibbles, and overall I have been really impressed with Busuu.

Retracing old steps

Alright, if you have made it this far…let’s get fahren. Late September in Berlin is nice and schön fall weather, sunny but a little chilly at night. The streets are clean and sauber, the U-Bahn is ever reliable, and the sights and sounds of German pervade everything.

Michael and I made a point to hit two key areas

1. Onkel Toms Hütte, where we stayed with our host families (or in our cases, Gastmütter), and
2. Humboldt University, where our classes were held.

We went to Humboldt first, and walked around the buildings. I was surprised and a little disappointed at how little I remembered, other than the Friedrichstraße station; Michael’s memory was better, as he could pick out buildings that he recognized. After about a half hour of strolling, we saw one building that seemed like it could have been where we had our classes, but it’s hard to say. We finished off our visit there with a stop at Dussmans, an amazing bookstore where I found a few nice books and a Vokabelheft, followed by a tasty vegan dinner at Swing Kitchen in Friedrichstraße.

The next day we visited Onkel Toms Hütte (Zehlendorf) on the U-3 line. The station and surrounding area were more familiar, but it took awhile to get oriented. After checking out the shops in the station for a bit, we got out to explore the neighborhood and find our “residences”.

It’s worth stepping back for a second to recall the context of the late 90s - we used public pay phones, email was still pretty new and text-based, web pages sometimes had images but were still basic, no social media, no music streaming, etc. Especially no social media. While I rarely use it even now, I must admit the one key benefit social media provides is the ability to connect. We had not been in contact with them ever since we had left.

In my case, I didn’t have my Gastmutter’s address, but we found someone who knew her and she provided information that my Gastmutter had moved. Michael fortunately came prepared and had the address to his Gastmutter. We saw that she was still residing at the same place, but unfortunately was not there at the time. We did leave a paper note (picture a nice ad, pulling a page out of the Moleskine marketing playbook, in this case a Moleskine travel sketchpad), and to our luck, Michael received an email that night from his Gastmutter, delighted to hear that Michael was in the area. While we were not able to meet in person due to marathon commitments and mutual time constraints, it felt good that we had made the effort and were able to connect in some way.

Street art

We did do some sightseeing, checking out the Street Art museum near Nollendorfplatz, which sounds like an oxymoron and was really cool to visit. They were running an exhibition entitled “Talking… and other Banana skins”, which had art work by renowned street artists exploring and questioning a number of social issues around race, gender, veganism, consumerism, etc.

At the front desk they were selling a few items such as a cloth bag, paint sticks and coloring pages, an exhibition catalog, and some cool local street art books. Yes, I bought them all. They also had a small library room with street art books that one could browse. Great place to visit.

Later in the trip I also checked out the East Side Gallery, which is a section of the Berlin wall that has been preserved and covered with legendary murals. The variety of striking, thought-provoking imagery that is still relevant makes it a must-see.

If you’re lucky, you may also run into some street art or lettering artists in the area. One note to keep in mind, speaking from a lesson learned, is that if you are interested in taking photos of anyone or any group doing street lettering, it would be best to ask their permission as they may not want to be “caught” on camera. But they likely will be honored if you’re interested in taking photos of their works, again checking with them first, and they may be interested in conversing, talking about their prior works, Instagram accounts, gallery exhibitions, etc.

Urban design

Before we get to the race, we need to understand the urban fabric that supports it. Berlin, Germany, Europe - these words I associate with architecture, urban design, eco-awareness. The architecture, the aesthetics, the museums and restaurants and apartments, the sense of flow walking the city, it all makes for that special experience.

But I felt something slightly off in modern 2022 Berlin. Almost as if the city was designed to facilitate the flow of wheeled traffic - cars and bikes. Many of the sidewalks, which aren’t too wide to begin with, have half the space given to bicyclists. I also felt that cars rushed quickly through the streets (which might explain why jaywalking is uncommon), that a number of streets felt like highways, and that pedestrian street crossing times are not too generous.

My two pennies: refocus back on pedestrians! I also wondered if Berlin could use more density - i.e. taller buildings, skyscrapers, pedestrian only streets. It would be interesting to know more about Berlin’s urban needs. Is crowding an issue? Are opportunities ample and equitable? Of course, these are questions for all cities.

Marathon

The cheers you need to know

• Go, go, go
• Du schaffst das
• Ihr seid super

I learned these from a friendly Frau, who was kind enough to give Michael a cheer when he passed by.

The race day - Sunday, 9/25/2022 - was a beautiful clear autumn day, great for viewing and I think comfortable enough for the runners. The atmosphere was fun and festive, with plenty of energy, drumming, beats, and cheers. The official app was good enough, and I was able to track Michael and Eric and cheer them as they passed by, catching Michael from two vantage points with a little help of the U-Bahn.

But hearing it from Michael and Eric (who also was Michael’s med school roommate), it appears that the race is anything but fun, especially if you are trying to hit a certain time to qualify for the Boston marathon. Gels can be hard to tolerate, special shoes are advised, body areas need to be protected from chafing, it’s cold starting out, the anxiety the night before, the exhaustion afterwards, etc. The more you know, the more you realize what an amazing accomplishment this is.

Both Michael and Eric did great, but I will stick with 5k blogging for now.

Music

My travel-calculator indulges in the scheduling of cultural details - the sights, opening and closing times, distance between sights, where to have lunch, etc. But it also takes a deep interest in the language and culture. And for Berlin, considering it was a second visit and with a minor in the spoken tongue … well, we’ve touched on language learning. Enter the musik domain.

Waiting at a red light while listening to 89.5 WSOU in the late 90s, I can still recall the moment I first heard “Du hast” from Rammstein. German metal song on American radio - is this real? Hell, yes! It was my metal phase, and during my study abroad a year later, I managed to get my German comfortable enough to enjoy attending concerts (e.g. Oomph), and listening to CD albums, a good number of them including Oomph, Such A Surge, In Extremo, etc. Good times eventually have to transition out - graduation, work, life, more studies, new interests - and here we are today.

So naturally I wanted to see and hear what’s been happening for the past 20 years in German pop. Google searches of top German songs are a reasonable starting point - a good mix of Scorpions and Rammstein tend to dominate, plus some Die Toten Hosen and the classic “99 Luftballoons”. Digging deeper, I did find some bands whose songs are now in my playlist such as Tokio Hotel, Kraftklub, and Wir Sind Helden. My tastes have definitely softened.

Finding info on German pop is hard, but one good idea is to pick up a print copy of the magazine Musik Express, which is all “auf Deutsch” and covers a wide range of German pop/rock/hip-hop artists. The 10/2022 edition had a nice in depth piece on Kraftklub, talking about their growing up in Chemnitz, some of the political struggles, the Ost-West issues, musical explorations, etc.

Some songs that I like

• Fahr mit mir (4 x 4) - Kraftklub (with guest Tokio Hotel)
• Übers Ende der Welt - Tokio Hotel
• Durch den Monsun - Tokio Hotel
• Tage wie Diese - Die Toten Hosen
• Wannsee - Die Toten Hosen
• Denkmal - Wir Sind Helden
• The Geek (Shall Inherit) - Wir Sind Helden
• Nur ein Wort - Wir Sind Helden
• Wir trafen uns in einem Garten - 2raumwohnung
• Wir Tanzen im 4-eck, Stereo Total
• Karl-Marx-Stadt - Kraftklub

Final thoughts

Overall the trip was short but great. Reconnecting with friends is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Reconnecting in Berlin, einfach wunderbar!

Tips

• Find a good Bäckerei
  • Rosinenbrot, Zwiebelbrot, Bread with cranberries, etc.
  • It’s all so good!
• For German books, CDs etc., Dussman is worth stopping by. For electronics, there is Saturn.
• September can be chilly at night, so consider bringing a jacket
• I had heard how Germans are law abiding, but now I have a better sense
  • People wait when the pedestrian signal is red
  • There is significant mask compliance on public transport.
• Public toilets are pay, which may be worth a blog post in itself
• Google maps store hours and locations may be inaccurate, such as for a CD store that we found no longer existed. Best to call ahead in some cases.