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Travel 4: All Around the World Same Song

Berlin:
- When you get down to it, a lot of the history of Berlin has been destroyed, so in ways it's a very new city despite its age. It makes sense given some of the history, like during the period of the Wall, is not exactly a happy history. And you have to factor in how much of the population has now grown up after that.
- The Reishstag is a must-see. You will need to go a day or two ahead to pick up a ticket for a later entry time; you can't just walk up and wait in line and go in.
- A walk down the Unter den Linden also has a lot to see; I never went in the museums on Museum Island but I imagine they're pretty cool.
- Brandenberg Gate, Holocaust Memorial, etc., the usual spots.
- Not many restaurants have over-the-top German food. I guess that's more southern German than northern German anyways, and I guess the young people don't exactly want to spend their nights in the capital eating their grandparent's food.

Prague:
- Prague is just awesome. It's like a cross of the great architecture of Paris with the twist-and-turn streets of Venice.
- Make sure to see the Old Town Square and Castle Hill, they have most of the must-see spots.
- The Jewish quarter is also very interesting; some synagogues and a graveyard.
- Now here is a city where you can get your meat and potatoes and beer!
- The bitch who works at the bathroom in front of Tyne church will try to shortchange you. She will give you back and 50 cent Euro rather than a 50 koruna for change because they look alike. Don't fall for it!
 
Museums on museuminsel are good. Pergamom, Neues, etc.

it is a city of constant rebuild but there is still a lot of history there. I was fortunate enough to have an expert at the Uni I was at share a lot of off the beaten path pieces with our class
 
I liked the Deutsches Museum there. German history of pretty much every era, including the bicorn Napoleon left behind when he fled Waterloo. Kept by the Prussians as a war prize. Also a Trabbant sedan (the East German sh*tbox car).

Stasi Museum was very good if you have an interest in Cold War surveillance and/or the macabre of authoritarian rule. Stay away from Checkpoint Charlie, it's cheesy as fuck. Go to the East Side Gallery and/or Gedenkstatte Berliner Mauer park/memorials instead. At least half a day at the Tiergarten is a must.

Curry 61, in the area north of the museum island, had the best currywurst & fries I ate in Berlin. As others said, expect to eat other European foods rather than traditional German foods unless you go to one of the big Bavarian beer brand halls. Berlin is a melting pot and has a lot of good ethnic foods.

Most of the big name Berlin beer labels, like Schultheiss, are awful. Unless you stumble upon a microbrewery or go to one of the Bavarian brand halls, I wouldn't get excited about drinking beer there. Prague, I hear, is another story. Unfortunately I've yet to get there.
 
FadeToBlack&Gold said:
They also think their dialect of Portuguese is superior, and that people from the old country who speak with a harder-to-understand continental accent are overly pedantic and unevolved. It's the exact opposite of the relationship between Quebec and France, where sometimes I think Parisiens might actually despise Quebecois visitors and expats more than Americans. Then again, they also look down on Francophonic Belgians and really anyone who wasn't born in Paris, so...
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The Parisien bourgeoise look down on everybody. Anybody without their dialect of the language is a barbarian. The hyperactive class anxiety which the American middle class was pillaried for in the 1950s is self-aware compared to Parisien keeping up appearances. You can have a mistress but god help you have the wrong style couch.
 
unofan said:
On my own travel notes, finally planning a trip to make it across the pond for the first time. Wife and I are planning to hit up Berlin and Prague next fall. We're both gonna do the Berlin marathon (me on Rollerblades, her running) which will eat up a couple of days, but beyond that any must see or do items we should look for in/ around either city?
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Don’t most people run a marathon in a day? (Or a couple hours?)
 
We went to Berlin in June. Awesome city. Stay in savignyplatz neighborhood. Cool.
have to go see Charlie!! East German city blocks are so bland one can still feel their pain.
this summer German is selling E9 monthly passes for all public transportation. ALL transport. Covers metro, bus, trains, etc. covers your regular car train from Frankfurt to Berlin even.

prague was a couple years ago and loved that too. Loved Budapest more, but Prague was sweet and better than Vienna.

Paris mookie didn’t even bother to use his horrible French. Fuck them. Spoke American to everyone. A handful were pleasant. Had breakfast at a “pub like” place a couple mornings and they were nice. Had to deal with a nasty woman at a pharmacy who pretended not to understand mookie :-) . Whatever.
 
The east is where all the cool stuff is mookie. Savignyplatz is nice but the grit of the east side is something else.

the contrasts in the city are startling, though. After about six months of living there I found myself rarely going west. Kind of like how I rarely went above 23rd in nyc I guess
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
The east is where all the cool stuff is mookie. Savignyplatz is nice but the grit of the east side is something else.

the contrasts in the city are startling, though. After about six months of living there I found myself rarely going west. Kind of like how I rarely went above 23rd in nyc I guess
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Missed the Cloisters, then?
 
mookie1995 said:
this summer German is selling E9 monthly passes for all public transportation. ALL transport. Covers metro, bus, trains, etc. covers your regular car train from Frankfurt to Berlin even.
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Just a note about this, the 9 euro a month ticket is currently scheduled to end at the end of August, although it's looking like it will be extended for September and October as well. Easily purchaseable online or via one of the machines, it covers all travel through Germany except for private transport companies and the high-speed (ICE, IC, EC) trains of the Deutsche Bahn. Basically, if you're sticking around Berlin you can use that for all of your needs, but with the marathon being at the end of September you would then need to buy a ticket for October if you're still in Berlin that month. Still, 18 euros for unlimited travel is great - just be prepared for really full trains.

I certainly wouldn't want to take the regional trains from Berlin to Frankfurt like mookie said.

If you're taking the 4 1/2 hour train from Berlin to Prague, the 9 Euro ticket won't work, unless you want to turn it into a 10-hour journey with 6 changes. The "high speed" direct EC is between 50 and 75 Euros and easily bookable in the app.
 
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4th day of 5-day stay in Haida Gwaii, an island (cluster) off the coast of northern BC controlled by the Haida people, who have lived here for thousands of years. A lot of hiking, including yesterdays walk in virgin Sitka Spruce rainforest. Trees are hundreds of feet high and up to 15’ in diameter. Like being in natures cathedral. Somewhat like the Nocal redwood forests but unspoiled by people or industry. Some time and expense in getting to this place but well worth it.
 
burd said:
4th day of 5-day stay in Haida Gwaii, an island (cluster) off the coast of northern BC controlled by the Haida people, who have lived here for thousands of years. A lot of hiking, including yesterdays walk in virgin Sitka Spruce rainforest. Trees are hundreds of feet high and up to 15’ in diameter. Like being in natures cathedral. Somewhat like the Nocal redwood forests but unspoiled by people or industry. Some time and expense in getting to this place but well worth it.
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Sounds wonderful!
 
Kepler said:
TIL. Interesting. Did we fuck them or are they still somewhat culturally stable?
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I really don’t know, though I’d guess the answer to that question is not an encouraging one, despite some very real recent efforts to preserve and protect their culture. But even with those efforts, the Haida language is in critical condition.

One difference that stands out is that the Haida people have now been given sovereignty over ancestral lands that have supported them for thousands of years, not a small piece of hardscrabble land the dominant culture has little use for, as has been the case with so many American Indian tribes. But they have suffered the same unforgivable treatment as native people in this country. Reading the accounts of those histories in small museum displays here, I’ve been thinking of John Marshall’s (our Abraham of Supreme Court justices) depiction of native people as savages in McIntosh v. Johnson.

Yeah, I think we might have fucked them. Fuck me.
 
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FadeToBlack&Gold said:
Currently enroute to a company junket at a mountain resort. Please prep the guillotine for this member of le petit bourgeoisie.
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Nah we will just put you in the Iron Maiden!

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Random question for regular international travelers. What's the better airport to connect through for an international flight, Heathrow or JFK, all else being equal?

Basically in doing a preliminary look, we could do a Minneapolis/Chicago - London - Berlin route, or a MSP/KCI/OMA - New York - Berlin route. Starting city doesn't really matter, so mainly curious about the intermediate one. And if there's a better option I should look for, I'd be interested in that, too.
 
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