Arrival  

When I landed at Berlin-Schönefeld airport I immediately felt the city’s unique presence. At baggage claim, I was cramped up shoulder to shoulder with people from all over the world. Along with German and English, I heard French, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, and some East Asian language I couldn’t recognize.

I was greeted outside with a warm hug from my good friend Adri, who is an American expat living in Berlin. We took a bus, then the s-bahn, then another bus.

Elated to have arrived in Berlin, I was eyeing everything around me. The biggest thing that stuck out to me the most on the ride over was how much the city was covered with graffiti. Nearly every building, garbage can, bus, sidewalk corner was marked by the hands of some self proclaimed graffiti artist. Only in Berlin will you see just as much graffiti in the nice neighborhoods as you do in the more sketchy ones.
https://foursquare.com/top-places/berlin/best-places-graffiti

I dropped off my bags at Adris apartment in Schoneberg, an upscale residential neighborhood in the west, and walked around the neighborhood. Still recovering from the jetlag, I asked Adri if there was a place to get some coffee nearby. She told me “In Berlin we drink Club Mate”. So she took me to the closest convenience store and I bought a Club Mate which is this high caffeinated drink in a large glass bottle. Enjoying the drink, we strolled through alleys and side streets where there were some of the coolest most elaborate playgrounds I ever saw. It put the US playgrounds to shame. No joke there was a mini castle that was probably older than the US itself and to these kids it’s just another playground. Anyway, we eventually wound up at Viktoriapark where there is a huge green hill that overlooks the whole city. Not a bad place to cure jet lag.

http://www.visitberlin.de/en/spot/viktoriapark