Victims of War Memorial, Kathe Kollwitz

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin

Memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe

Berlin also boasts plenty of heavy-weight history museums, like the Nefertiti Bust in the Neues Museum or Babylon’s Ishtar Gate or Mshatta towers at the Pergamon Museum, which are serious draws for an ancient civilizations nerd like myself.

So I was taken by surprise by the delightful silly moments that happened there too.

My accommodation arrangements should have tipped me off about the silliness to come. A friend of a friend had offered me the use of his apartment in the trendy neighbourhood of Kreuzberg. My instructions were to pick up the key from the corner store near the apartment building from the lady at the counter. I did not know the name of this woman. I do not speak German. It turns out that she does not speak English and I had to draw a key while repeating names over and over. I also was not told the apartment number in the building and had to try the key in every door until successfully unlocking a door on the sixth floor.

Ampelmann!

Ampelmann is the little traffic light man, a beloved crosswalk signal chap who graced the traffic intersection lights in Eastern Germany in the days of the Berlin Wall. There are whole shops of Ampelmann fan gear, from bumper stickers to lamps to just about anything.

I saw people pranking each other in Tiergarten, went to a nightclub with a sand floor, and watched a caricaturist draw a portrait of a man tap dancing at Museum Island.