free rommy New York → Kansas City → San Francisco → Stockholm → Berlin

Berlin. Week One.

I arrived in Berlin a week ago with apprehensions. The move from Stockholm has been and continues to be difficult. Government bureaucracies, adversity in apartment-hunting, an attachment to a city I loved and left, and the anxiety of starting over again - a new job, new friends, new language, new lifestyle. In short, new life. There was never a doubt in my mind that I made the right decision, but this didn't make the move any easier. Nevertheless it was a decision that I made and I was going to make it work.

The first few days I was here, the weather was unseasonably cold and rainy. I spent much of the first few days bending over backwards gathering the necessary paperwork to secure the visa. I started work on Monday and spent much of the week learning about how this exciting and highly-anticipated German startup operated. I moved into my temporary flat on Tuesday. The rest of the week was spent meeting new people through work, learning the job, and getting settled in. The weather went from horrible to amazing and I began to get the feeling that things were finally starting to get on track.

Then yesterday, it happened. I fell in love with Berlin.

All my apprehensions, fears, doubts, and anxieties fell away as I walked through the city. It blew my mind. The character of this city is in its desire to achieve greatness. Berlin is perhaps one of the few cities in the Western World that, mostly due to the circumstances of the past 70 years, has not quite yet achieved it. But its focused intent on doing so has made it great in and of itself. And that's the most admirable thing about this place.

Take New York's edginess, slam it into San Francisco's culture, and give it the delicate touch of Paris' grandeur and you've got Berlin. Though unlike those cities, it lacks pretension and doesn't try to live up to some stereotypical ideal that society has bestowed upon it. It's not THE City or the Liberal City or the City of Love. It's Berlin. It doesn't try to be, it just is. And just being is what Berlin is good at. It's why everyone who lives here loves it so much.

Yesterday, I left my flat in Prenzlauerberg, a more or less gentrified neighborhood in the former East inhabited by lots of young families and professionals. I walked across the river to the southwestern part of Mitte, also of the former East and the new center of Berlin following the reunification. I saw a cute flea market along the river, beautiful old buildings, and cafes...

Cafes.

The cafe culture here is outstanding. Sprawling outdoor patios on large sidewalks are only the perfect complement to magnificent indoor venues in old refurbished buildings. High ceilings, art, and large plush couches make for an energetic social scene I haven't seen anywhere before. They're like museums! Artists, writers, designers, and musicians gather in these places and chat over beers or coffee, discussing and philosophizing. Peoplewatching is fantastic here.

Yesterday afternoon, I met a friend at Friedrichshain Volkspark, a huge park in an up-and-coming neighborhood in the former East. The weather was in the high 20s and the park was packed with people enjoying the first sunny days of the summer. To put it mildly, this place made Dolores Park in San Francisco look like a family gathering. It was one massive, sprawling party. It took me almost two hours to find him and his friends, sadly due to the fact that the sim-card activation on my new phone plan was an epic fail (thanks o2). For five hours we sat out in the park and grilled illegally along with the thousands of others who were there. We drank beers, chatted, and enjoyed being Berliners until the it started to get dark around 10ish.

Chatted.

I've been taken aback by the very open friendliness of the Berliners, particularly to strangers. Having come from Stockholm which is notably more reserved, Berliners are incredibly outgoing conversationalists. They love their city and love to welcome strangers to it. You can see that light in their eyes when they talk about Berlin, how it's growing and changing and the role they see themselves playing in it. Most Berliners come from eclectic backgrounds and are not from Berlin, but are immensely proud to call Berlin their home and they want everyone to feel at home here. I felt so welcomed by them, that I couldn't help but smile my entire way home. I am a Berliner.

Perhaps what I find most amazing about this city is that it managed to rise from the ashes of the worst event in human history, to move on to recreate and redefine itself as Europe's new capital, and most of this in just the past 20 years. Every morning I wake up and step out the door, I can't help but think about what this place was like for most of the 20th century - a struggling, dark city where ideologies were born, where they clashed, and where they now converge. It is a city that, despite the struggle it endured, managed to rise above it all quickly to redefine itself, not forgetting its past but cautiously remembering it, in order to move on, and to strive to achieve greatness.

I will love it here.