cassiopeia191

I love the Akazienkiez – one of my favorite places in Berlin. CSD is always fun here – hundred thousands of people, many of them drunk, even more colorfully made up and obscene amounts of disco music. It’s great.

The main rumor about Neukölln is that it’s just such a bad, filled-with-criminals, horrible neighborhood. I’ve spent a lot of time here over the past two years, even moved here over a year ago. Yeah, some things are true. People do like their booze here, but they do everywhere (it’s Berlin, it’s a thing). A lot of people live on welfare and the overall atmosphere is therefore not as light and breezy as in the trendy districts of Berlin. On the other hand, it’s real life and not as annoying as the in-’hoods. Sometimes, things blow up and drug trafficking is high. But unless you’re here with the mafia, you should be fine.

What I like about Neukölln that people of all colors, religions and whatever categories live together on a cramped space, it’s full of life and stories, it’s multicultural, there are always people outside on the streets and as I said, it’s authentic. Check out Rixdorf, around the Richardplatz, when you’re there or take a walk on the Karl-Marx-Straße on a nice day… you might like it. Most of what is said and written about Neukölln is just hyped up crap.

has been there many times.

My family stems from here and I still have a lot of relatives living in Saarbrucken so I’m here twice a year. I like it a lot – the funny dialect, the overall atmosphere and the unspectacularness(this is not a word, right?) of the city. The best thing about the Saarland is that it has such an independent air: is it France? Is it Germany? It seems to stand for itself and because the French border is just ten minutes away, there is a lot of cultural exchange. It’s a good starting point if you want to explore Lorraine and Alsace and there are some really nice places here like the Saarschleife near Mettlach, where the river takes a U-turn.

But – taking a trip here just because of the city will probably be a disappointment for you.

I took a trip there on a house boat ages ago, and I absolutely loved it. We accidentally hit two bridges, but that didn’t matter much. I’d like to do it again.

I actually didn’t get to see too much of downtown Charlotte because my experience there was more of a suburbian nature. But I would like to come back and really see it.

It has the most ridiculous museum ever. I don’t have many memories of this place – we went to a steak house where you got free peanuts and were supposed to throw the trash on the floor. There’s nothing really noteworthy about this city and it lacks the charm of Charleston or even Greenville.

I almost died because of humidity and warmth – it’s very Southern: the climate, the atmosphere, the history. I do believe that Rhett Butler lived here, where else? You can buy a lot of crap when you go to the markets, which I did, and there are some truly beautiful places. This is the South – unbearable without ice tea – and you suddenly start to love it without even noticing.(If you ignore politics, of course)

This was my first destination in the USA – I came back there on three other occasions and well, it’s just my favorite airport. But don’t be stupid and hike 3,000 miles just to see it.

I loved Washington although I feel I shouldn’t. There was something about the atmosphere – I want to live there some day. Washington and I, we instantly connected.