New City, Same Bad Habits

Dude, you guys. Berlin? Totally totally rocks. My favorite city so far, and the one I would most like to move to if I weren't headed back to the States. It slingshot itself neatly over Prague and London and left Paris choking on its dust. I LOVE Berlin.

My favorite part is the whole attitude the city has towards itself and its history -- it is under a great deal of obligation to think about its past and its culture (especially since the past is so recent) and it's under a lot of pressure from a lot of conflicting groups to remember that past in the right way. The memorials in Berlin -- of the Wall, of the Nazi book burnings, of the Jews who died in the holocaust, of the communist massacre in the public square, of Hitler's bunker (inside joke. A parking lot is there now) -- are my favorite memorials of any I've ever seen. They're all powerful and thought provoking without explaining too much the issues or the deal. Plus they offer things like free walking tours in three or four languages so that everyone has a chance to see this stuff.

I also love that I found an English book store and I might possibly have spent a day or two's worth of food money on thought-provoking non fiction cultural analysis. It was Berlin's fault! Getting me all in a thought provoking mood! (That scene in The Glass Castle where the kids are all super hungry and the mom hides a chocolate bar under the sheets and eats it and they catch her? Me with books. It's so bad. I'm going to be sending my kids to the library and secreting away first editions under the mattress.)

Anyway, today I am going to a concentration camp, which should severely dampen my appreciation for the city. But you gotta do what you gotta do.