The best part of visiting Berlin is its history. For a city in Europe it is not really very spectacular, but there are so many wonderful museums about the war and the separation of Germany. Our favorite museum - the main museum I would suggest to anybody visiting there - is the German-Russian Museum. It is a small museum and is not normally suggested by tourist offices. At the time of our visit this museum was free to visit, though I do not know if it still is. This museum covers the war relations between Germany and Russia during the Second World War. There are numerous exhibits covering the battles and propaganda of both sides. I don't think any other museum in Berlin covers the Eastern Front so thoroughly.
We stayed with two different hosts in Berlin. One was a native Berliner who grew up in West Berlin. We stayed in his lightly furnished and coal fire heated apartment for a couple nights and really grew to enjoy his company.
Our other host was a man from Uzbekistan who lived in a beautiful little apartment with his two canaries. The canaries lived free the the apartment and were super affectionate with their owner. They were very cautious of us, but they were also very curious. Every morning I would wake up on the couch with the two of them staring down at me from the top of the cushion.
This Uzbekistani worked remotely as a computer programmer for a company in Austria. One night he began to tell us about his awesome boss who had a huge house near Salzburg with an indoor pool. Remember when I told you to remember the house in Salzburg we stayed at? Well I wanted you to remember that place, because that was the boss of this Uzbekistani! By complete coincidence, just weeks apart, we stayed with both of them. It was a wonderful surprise.
What little is left of the Berlin Wall is covered in graffiti. Much of the wall was torn down, some of it was shipped to other cities as memorials, but there are still some large chunks left.
