Last night, we were invited to Dave's coworker's house for dinner. The coworker is an expat from Brooklyn (Park Slope) who has lived in Berlin for nearly 2 years. Her German boyfriend was also there and spoke perfect English. The food and conversation were fantastic.
Her apartment was beautiful and modern -- decidedly opposite from the dorm-like apartment we've been staying. And she included mushrooms they handpicked this weekend in the meal. Delicious.
Although the conversation skipped around quite a bit -- coworkers, favorite movies and books (we're all committed to our Kindles) -- Bernard, the boyfriend, made several comments about the differences between East Berlin, where we're staying, and West Berlin, where they lived.
Having spent a majority of my time in East Berlin, I had no idea there was a difference. But I saw for my own eyes pulling up to their apartment, there is a vast different. A seeming 20-year gap -- as the East has tried to catch-up to the "modern" West-side since The Wall came down. The East resembles a quaint small city, while the West side has a more Manhattan borough feel with restaurants, shops and crowds.
To think, I almost missed it!
Bernard says that even the population is a little different in the East. Older. More formal. Stuffy. While the West neighborhoods are filled with more worldly, urban people.
I dug out my map and have picked a few very "West" places to visit in the final week here -- including Ku-Dam, a popular street that rivaled Unter Den Linden when The Wall went up.
Full reports to follow. (If I ever get internet restored to our apartment. Grrrrr!)
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