One Cool Thing – Getting around Berlin

train station, underground, subway, metro station, Berlin, Germany

Berlin has a monthly subway card for non-rush hour travel. A regular single card is 2.80 € but the monthly card (if you don’t need to commute during rush hour) is only 56.00 € – I’m just blown away by that value.

One Cool Thing – Learning German in Berlin

Image: © Ebba Dangschat via Berlin Volkshochschule

 

Today’s One Cool Thing is about Berlin’s multi-culti student mix at the local community college.

The Berlin Volkshochschule (Berlin Community College) offers intensive German classes and the real sweet part isn’t the quality of the curriculum or the affordability. It’s the multicultural aspect of the class. We have twenty students representing seventeen countries.

There is a sweetness and openness in the class that gives me hope.

Classmates are from:

Australia

Romania

France

Syria

Turkey

South Korea

China

Venezuela

Argentina

Thailand

Iran

Cuba

Afghanistan

USA

England

Poland

Taiwan

One Cool Thing – Berlin’s Art Lending Library

Self-portrait by Ursula Cyriax. Photo by @lisadonoughe

 

Welcome to my one cool thing blog series about Berlin.

Did you know that Berlin has a contemporary art lending library for locals?

The n.b.k. Artothek allows Berlin residents (with proper registration) to “borrow” original pieces of art for one Euro per piece per month. That’s just over a US dollar per month to borrow an original art work by a Berlin artist.

The maximum number of works one can borrow every ninety days is six. My apartment has gone from awkward huge white walls to a gallery-like, warm and interesting space. The investment was twenty bucks.