Berlin
I didn't know much about Berlin or its history before I arrived, beyond the fact that it had been separated into east and west sections after World War II. When I had the opportunity to visit in 2003, 14 years had passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, but you could still see the effects that the division had created. The eastern half of the city encompassed the vast majority of the historic sites, and was significantly more interesting to me. The western half was clearly much more western influenced, with glass office buildings in contrast to the old stone buildings of the eastern half. The east also had large areas of soviet style housing, which was actually pretty depressing and a bit scary. Questionable looking Neo-Nazi type people seemed to be fairly common in these types of places.
During my time in the city, I saw all the historic buildings, went to Checkpoint Charlie and saw the wall, and had the opportunity to enjoy a little festival downtown as well. As usual, I climbed to the top of anything I was allowed to.
