Berlin is a city with very thought-provoking (sometimes borderline controversial) public art. On one of the buildings (once the Ministry of Ministries - Orwell's 1984 anyone? - for Soviet-era East Berlin/East Germany, now the ministry of finance) there is an old Soviet mural of the idealism of communism. Everyone looks happy, there is gender equality, everyone is well-fed and not overworked. This is contrasted with a large photo from a Berlin protest (in the '70s, I think) against communism. Work quotas went up and pay went down and people were extremely unhappy. This direct contrast between idealism and realism is fantastic.
Another one is an anti-war memorial. It is a sculpture of a woman holding her son, who has died in war. Then buried beneath the memorial is an unknown Nazi soldier and an unknown Holocaust victim - the artist said to show that war affects both sides of a conflict. While I don't really know how I feel about it, the public memorial is very interesting.
Berlin food is really good, too. I lived off of pretzels and streusal for days. And of course, we had bratwurst for dinner one night.
Overall, Berlin is a really cool city. It is interesting to learn about it's troublesome past.
