Berlin

Before I start, I should mention that I tend to write a lot...or at least it always looks that way when I view my posts. So sorry for that in advance since I know reading through short things can be so much easier at times.
Also, I have been posting some photos here: http://www.photoblog.com/emmr88.
Some are double posted with Facebook, but in the future I will be having more little photo collections on this site if anyone is interested to see more.

One of my most exciting adventures so far has been to Berlin!! After hearing so much about Berlin being an "it" spot for culture, I was really excited to go. I went with a trip sponsored through the international student office since it was a really good price and we had enough free time that I thought I'd have time to see a lot of my interests.
Well, it turns out that one cannot even dream of seeing everyone one wants to in a weekend in Berlin. There is so much to see and Berlin is so much different than what I've seen so far. For one thing, I've been in many old cities and Berlin is very modern. Think huge block apartments everywhere. Some are interesting but a lot remind me of hotels you find on the beach. Then there's a bunch of great modern architecture. In contrast to Erlangen's little buildings, even the older buildings in Berlin are grandiose. And since it's a big city, everything's more spread spread out - my legs ached by the end of the weekend from walking so much. So in the sense of space and surroundings, Berlin was quite different.
Then there were the museums. Wonderful collections. I mostly saw old things - old master paintings, antique sculptures, and Egyptian artwork, which was a lot more exciting than I thought (including Nefertiti's bust). I also stopped by the DDR museum. I wish I could've made it to more museums, but that means I'll need to come back :)
Living in "west" Germany, the DDR hasn't really played much of a role in my consciousness so it was interesting to have that separation between east and west in the background context. However, on a superficial glance Berlin has really unified and many areas you walk right beside where the wall used to be and you can't tell. As for the real, deeper and personal inhabitant feelings about remaining divisions, I unfortunately have no idea, though I've heard there's still a large difference. I hung out with many East Europeans over the weekend so it was neat to hear their perspective on life under Communism as well.
Apart from that, I admit Berlin was a bit of a disappointment. I have the feeling that were I there longer and had I been a bit more in Prenzlauer Berg, supposedly the hip place to be, then I wouldn't have felt this way. However... some of the huge tourist spots weren't really that exciting to me. I feel that partially this is due to my lack of knowledge and personal investment in some of Berlin's history and am sure that something like the Bundestag must feel more important to Germans. I think to better appreciate the trip I should have read more about how Berlin was just 20 years ago to be able to better sense the dramatic change it's gone through. I thought my tour would provide more of that and I would have made it to more recent history exhibits, but it didn't happen.
Also, the whole youth culture impression I had had beforehand somehow eluded me. I went to this one sort of underground seeming bar place Friday night which seemed pretty happening, and then it turned out basically everyone there except for the other Erlangen students and me were there on a bar crawl, and probably many tourists, which I found out after the entire place emptied out around 10:00 as the group departed. There was one metal welding place back there which was the only real current art I saw. I went in one gallery but was disappointed. I also walked by some others and can't really judge them since they were closed, but they were there. However, I didn't see a ton of life, nothing different than what I'm used to. Maybe it was too cold? Going out on both Friday and Saturday, Berlin locals took us to regular pubs that were nice places; however, I guess I just expected more newness and creativity.
So my expectations (I'm not really sure what they were really) were probably a little too high in some ways. Berlin was really cool with a lot of great cultural collections and architecture, but it didn't seem on the cusp of anything more so than other big cities, though it does seem that it's continuing to be shaped since so much of it's important history is recent (maybe that's the newness that people feel) and there is still much room for it to grow into the future. And overall, big cities are awesome and I love all of the diversity and options and life they offer. As a final word, that was just my own experience and if you are ever/have ever been to Berlin and had a different impression, let me know!