Berlin's famous tv tower. Photo (cc) flickr user Robby van Moor

Fernando is a British-Brazilian expatriate living in Berlin, Germany and working for iversity, whose work we’ve featured on Young Germany here.  In today’s guest post he’s here to tell us a little about his experiences in Germany and working for iversity.  Welcome Fernando!

Photo (c) Resident on Earth

The first time I was in Berlin, I left the city in the hush of the early morning hours. I awoke at the ungodly hour of 4 AM, slipped into a taxi, and sleepily watched the streets in the morning darkness on the way to the airport. Berlin was at the tail end of my first trip to Europe, and I didn’t want to go home. I felt my heart was being pulled out of me as I rode in that dark taxi speeding towards the airport. I had completely fallen in love with Europe.

Ever get lost in thought about where you see yourself in ten years? Or contemplating what steps to take to become a millionaire? Scheming about how to reach that personal zenith of ever-lasting satisfaction in life…? Well, I cannot tell the future, nor can I help in terms of money, but I do know the secret to eternal satisfaction in life!

Found in the Rigveda, an ancient Hindu collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns, there is the saying, “We have drunk of the Soma; we have become immortal, we have seen the light; we have found the Gods.” Now, just what IS this Soma and where can we get it?

The Magic Mushrooms

ÖPNV (VBB) public transport in Berlin, Photo: www.berlin.de

„Entschuldigung, wo ist die S-Bahn Station?“
„It’s in the other side of the station; here it is the U-Bahn!”
„Oh! It’s not the same, good to know. Thanks”.

Just another example of my experiences in trying to find the right train and going to my destination. My average so far is two to three mistakes in each new journey by train or by any means of public transport in Germany for that matter.

I come from a small village with just around 6,000 residents. It’s located 20 kilometres from Nazareth, and yes it is “the” Nazareth from the Bible, although I’m not really sure exactly how far my village is from Nazareth, although I think about 20-30 minutes by car which seems around 20 kilometers to me.

Down, down, down, into the Berliner Unterwelt! Photo (cc) flickr user escpeapalumni

The meeting place was normal enough; if I hadn’t known what was going on beneath us and where we would spend the next hour and a half, I never would have guessed at what was just below the ground on which I stood.  Berlin’s Gesundbrunnen metro stop, both inside and outside, lacked the kind of dank, enthralling mystery that was waiting several stories beneath us in the Berliner Unterwelten.

Berlin TV Tower, (cc) flickr user M Kuhn

Is it a normal phenomenon that you don’t know the tourist sites of the city in which you grew up? I, for instance, have lived in Berlin my entire life and have never been up to the TV-Tower. Instead of writing about the sites and attractions you can easily find in your Berlin travel guide, I’ve collected some personal tips – places that I go to often and that I think show the “real” Berlin. So I’ve put together a little itinerary for 2 exciting days in Berlin, which you can follow or, of course, mix-and-match as you like.

Day 1

An uncomfortable moral dilemma looms for me today. Germany take on Spain and suddenly I’m faced with a choice. Two years ago, for the final of Euro 2008, it wasn’t even an issue and I celebrated with gusto when La Furia Roja finally brought a trophy back to España.

— What do you think? —