Dear Bloggers,

Hello again from a darkening Berlin (for all you readers beguiled by Berlin’s momentary trendiness, the city sits at 52 degrees 30 minutes North—that’s higher up than Quebec City!)

As the Winterzeit sets in and 2010 approaches, it’s a good time to reflect on the changes that have brought us to where we are now. Berlin, as many of you know, is a city in flux. Every day a new building pops up, a new restaurant opens and old rents rise. Berlin is still a comparatively inexpensive city to live in, but an aggressive wave of gentrification has ransacked this once Bohemian paradise.

As any moderately informed tourist can tell you, this started out in the former East neighborhood of Prenzlauerberg or “P’Berg” as the Amis (Americans) like to call it. This area has become a war zone for stroller-pushing mommies, organic-foodies and, inevitably, hipsters. Rents in this area have sky-rocketed to over €1,500 a month (you can still can a great, centrally located apartment in Berlin for €300/month).

But in reality, this all happened a long time ago (long being a relative term if you consider this Berlin’s inception as 1989 and not the 13^th century). Since the take-over of Prenzlberg (the slightly more authentic abbreviation), the wave of up-and-comings has flooded Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain and now, they’re standing at the breach of my neighborhood: Neukölln.

Neukölln has long been a bastion of immigrants – mainly of the Turkish variety – and feared by the common Berliner for its rancid Döner Kebabs and Persian-language signs. I’ve been hiding out in this multicultural enclave for almost 4 years now, living off of produce dripping with DDT and buying my bread from a bakery where Turkish is the official, and only, language.

Ben bir ekmek kutular miyim sen?

But things have changed. Drastically. Let me explain. A year and a half ago, I was renting an apartment on a quiet side-street called Weserstraße. At that time, there was one bakery/café around the corner and what’s known as an Alt-Herren-Kneipe (an “old-men-bar”). Fast-forward one year later; there are now over 20 galleries on Weserstraße.

Over the next few weeks, I would like to talk about some of these galleries and their effects on the surrounding community. Come watch the process of gentrification firsthand and learn a little about a neat city you might want to see before it turns into Brooklyn.

Thanks for reading,

Amy

Hello all you enthusiastic and excitable travellers out there! I’m Gerhard, and I’ll be blogging here. So get used to it

You ask: Who is this guy and what exactly is his deal? Why is he writing these public messages about hotels for the entire world to see? Who or what is his muse, and what inspires him?

Flying standby helps keep down the costs.

I once overheard an Australian man who had worked on the railroad there talking to a stranger on a train in Germany. He said, “When you’re young, you’re just odd. But when you get older, you’re an enigma.” In short, I’m hoping to make it to the enigma level.

Anyways, I’m 26, and live in Berlin. I moved here from Tennessee, mainly because I wanted to be a glamorous expatriate writer. I simply couldn’t handle all of Tennessee’s sunshine, smiles, iced tea, and Wal-Mart greeters. The plan was to spend days upon days sitting in cafes lamenting the meaninglessness of life – the dreadful “misère” of it all.

So far, I’ve gotten what I wanted. The weather is rotten, I’m often out of money, people are mean to me on the streets, and I’m acutely aware of the hollowness of existence. And yes, Berlin’s bureaucrats can be described as “Kafkaesque.”

When I’m not working on yet another unpublished novel (world: you don’t know what you’re missing), I spend my days writing about hotels and travel destinations. So what are the first things I look for when I’m picking out a hotel? Well, it’s pretty basic. I’m not a high-maintenance traveller.

1) Inexpensive. I prefer to keep it on a budget… it helps me rest easy at night.

2) Clean rooms. I worked at a motel once, and I know for a fact they don’t wash the comforters more than once a month. So I always remove the comforter from the bed and just sleep on the sheets, which I know they do wash.

3) Good location. It’s nice to be downtown or near wherever you’re planning to be. But inexpensive usually takes precedent.

4) A hotel, not a motel. The standard-fare 2-story motel with the long balcony instead of an indoor hallway isn’t my style if I can help it. I like a real hotel with a lobby, an elevator and multiple stories whenever possible. That way I don’t get car headlights sweeping through the room several times a night. And if there’s a stabbing in the parking lot, I snooze right through it without having to hear the sirens or see the blue lights.

5) Good coffee. I love coffee, and in many hotels now you’ll find a coffee machine in the room. It’s very practical and helps me wake up in the morning. I’m less focused on breakfast, because more often than not the “continental breakfast” is just a stale cinnamon bun or some corn flakes.

6) Restaurant or bar in the hotel or nearby. This helps me out when I get in after a long day’s travelling. Food, drink and a clean bed is all I need. I also enjoy the anonymity of sitting in restaurants and bars in places where I know I’m just passing through.

7) WiFi. If they have free WiFi, that is definitely a perk. Why? Because it helps me when I’m making travel plans. Like most other modern human beings, I’m dependent on Google maps, email, etc.