Second time in Berlin (?!)

Another week on the road, this time on business trip to Berlin. Although this may be called my second visit here, I’m not sure whether the first one can be counted as such. It happened in March 1997, few hours between trains in early March 1997, which I spent around the Berlin Zoo area with little remembrance other than how I was trying to keep warm.

This time, as the conflicting interests would anticipate long and hard bearing conference days, I managed to substitute working days at home…. with flying days. On the other hand, this also meant that I had some time to splurge.
Immediately after hotel check in and with no idea in which part of Berlin I was, except for the fact that “you’re in the city centre”, I started to walk around with no precise purpose. Large boulevards bordered with steel and glass office buildings, glitzy restaurants and cafes, formally dressed people rushed in all directions. They were looking at me as if I were an obstacle to be avoided, rather than another human being. I guess I should’ve found it normal, since I live in Bucharest, a city whose inhabitants give you the same look in the streets.

From the business area around Ernst Reuter platz I arrived in the students’ area around T.U. Berlin, more relaxed and pleasant, and further on towards the Zoo and the Kaiser Wilhelm platz. I still cannot imagine why a colleague from work said the day before “Berlin is my favourite city, it doesn’t compare with anything you’ve seen until now”. Maybe it was me in a bad mood, for which nothing seemed particularly interesting, not even as per the standards of a western globalised city. And so I interpreted the cold rain which started to poor immediately after dusk as a heavens sign I should return to my cocoon. Hence, I voted for a smooth end of the day with a massage by the pool.