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"What's possible to do in Berlin for 5 days?"Just about anything you (or anyone else) could possibly imagine.
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Are you interested in some aspects of local culture and meeting people?Yesterday an article in my newspaper struck me about the relationship tourists and locals in what's often called an alternative quarter in Berlin: Kreuzberg.
Strolling around it might be interesting to watch this phenomenon or use it as reference-frame.
It should be nice to report back?!!
Part of the aricle (by Dutch correspondent):
+This district was once impoverished against the Wall, the last five years it became a magnet for twentysomethings because it is so "alternative" would be, since a year and attracts a new audience of educated people in their thirties, who now red along Buggaboos the walls with graffiti drawing.
This new group is by a lot of angry residents by no means as 'improvement' seen. At my house for three days in big black letters: "Stop gentrification 'sprayed. Gentrification (upgrading of a neighborhood) is a word that most in the Netherlands known as dry sociological concept, but in Berlin is the guarantee for long-night discussions, paint bombs and car fires. Five houses down there, "away with the tourists'.
Kreuzberg is thus the perfect example of the paradox that characterizes Berlin. There is currently no European city that attracts much interest from abroad, precisely for its "openness." But there is no European city where anger at the "intruder" as big as here. It is here you will notice that the city 40 years was an island in the Cold War, both in West and East. You feel how the old conservative alternative culture slowly become.+
(Google Translator)
http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/9904/Buitendienst/article/detail/3209841/2012/02/29/Nederlanders-in-Berlijn-zijn-heus-niet-alleen-slecht.dhtml
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About Kreuzberg. The best what you can do in Kreuzberg is passing by as fast as possible. This quarter was built up in second half of the 19th century. Situated nearly in the middle of the city it was a part for the working class (Arbeiterviertel). After the 2nd WW and without less dommage a lot of imigrated folks (Gastarbeiter) rent flats for their freinds or families. 25/30 years ago it was very difficult to find one Bistro (Eackkneipe) who was not in the hand of Turkish manegement including restaurant ship on the canal. The "multi-culti" scene today makes that it is difficult to find locals, German speaking or Germans from Berlin in this part. The hairdresser, the baker on the corner and all other shops are no more in German hands - what is not a problem. People who try to find an appartment controll the offers the way to see the ring-bord outside the main entrances of the houses to find out how many German names are on, and how many others before sign up the contract. The above article is absolutly right, it is an "in"- scene-quarter but I dont agree with the alternative 30years old population. The most interesting point in this part of Berlin are at least the Checkpoint Charlie, maybe the covered market (Maheinickehalle) and the nearby old airport Tempelhof on the other side of the Columbia Damm, the border to the next quarter calles Schöneberg-Tempelhof.
