Berlin Day One - Observations

I'll leave you all with a few observations from today - Hopefully I'll be inspired enough to do this everyday.

Today's main observation is confirmation of my whole reason for being here: Berlin is quite the international city. Obviously, I believe this enough to base my senior Scholars project on it, but I've already gotten some examples that help back up that thesis and are encouraging for what is to come in the next two weeks.

After my last post an hour or two ago, I left the hotel to look for a place to eat. The hotel desk staff suggested I stay away from the Kurfürstendamm (one of West Berlin's main streets, and just a few feet from my hotel) but rather to check out the Pariserstrasse which is a couple streets south of the hotel. They obviously knew what they were talking about, and within a few minutes I had walked by two sushi restaurants, an Italian pizza place, two or three typical "German" pubs and a Mexican (Hispanic) restaurant. The diversity, like I said, just points to the modern, international nature of Berlin that I will looking for and documenting all week.

(Side note: One thing you should understand about German restaurants - most are outdoor cafes that double as bars because they all have large selections of alcoholic options. Most Germans eat large breakfasts and make lunch the main course of the day, so in the evening they get together with friends at one of these outdoor cafes for drinks and appetizers until late. Also, I decided to eat at the Mexican place - Poco Loco - and had a burrito which might have been slightly more expensive that it was worth. But at least now I'm settled in, clean and full. Now I just need to go to bed.)

See you all in the morning.