In 1999, the federal government of Germany moved to Berlin, the new capital of the reunited Germany.

Consequently the parliament was refurbished. The new cupola to the parliament designed by Norman Foster was no doubt a masterpiece.

New development projects were carried out, including the famous project in Potsdamer Platz. The camping ceiling of Sony Centre was an excelent piece of architecture.

Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, with Sanssourci Palace and its extensive gardens is a World Heritge site.  The Sanssourci Palance, the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia at Potsdam, is a masterpiece of the rococo style of architecture (an art of exquisite refinement and linearity). The New Palace in the same park is also magnificent, in particular the Grotto Hall with walls encrusted with shells, stones, marble, quartz and semi-precious stones.

The Chinese House (see the pictures below) in the park looked funny nowadays with a weird combination of what they thought to be the Chinese style and the western style. 

In Berlin, I stayed in a big hostel which was popular for teenagers. Before midnight it was quite noisy as the teenagers ran along in the corridor.  One evening, when I was taking the shower, a group of teenager boys ran inside the ladies shower and toilet room, turned off the light and made noises there. Fortunately, they still knew they should not open the door of the shower room inside (I was taking shower there but the door could not be locked). After finishing my shower, I ran out of the shower room, but found no one in the corridor. Nevertheless I shouted out to the corridor. After a while, I went out to the corridor again. This time I found the stupid boys “hiding” at one end of the corridor in darkness (they had turned off the light in the corridor). One boy was even hiding behind a door in the corridor. I was not angry but still scolded them to let them know this was not right. I was not sure they understood my words in English because they were Belgium. I met their coach in a lift one day before and knew they came to Berlin for a football match. Later I reported this to their coach but I doubted whether he could control them as teenagers like making mischief. I felt relieved when I left the hostel.

The greatest achievement I had made in Berlin was to have my hair cut, for Euro 15 only! It was one fifith of the charge in England. Unlike Hong Kong, the charge for hair cut in Berlin depended on the length of hair: about Euro 10 for short hair,and about Euro 15 for long hair. The hair cut  in Berlin was a new and interesting experience to me. The charge included hair wash and cut, but not blowing dry. My hairdresser was about 40 years old with a handkerchief wrapping his head. Firstly, he made a big (palm height mug) coffee for me (for free!). During the course of cuttting, he had stopped two times to ask me to have coffee. He was very efficient and finished the wash and cut in half hour only. Unlike Hong Kong, the hairdresser (not the junior staff) in Berlin was responsible for washing customer’s hair. While having my hair washed, I had to sit (not lie down as in Hong Kong) on a chair and bend my neck backward. It was not comfortable at all. However, I was satsfied with his service and my new hair.

I heard from the German girl I met on train that some Germans ate rabbit for celebrating Easter (I find it difficult to understand that although Easter is a festival of revitalization and the rabbits represent revitalization, people kill and eat rabbits to celerbrate Easter. Is it not self-contradictory?). Therefore I had been looking hard for a restaurant offering rabbit meat (not every restaurant offered rabbit meat even during Easter). Finally at my last evening in Berlin, I had found one. Before the dish arrived, I had no idea what that dish was. I only knew there was rabbit meat because I found the German word of rabbit in the menu. The dish turned out to be a salad with roasted rabbit meat (see the picture on the left most below). No wonder it was so cheap, just Euro 9.5 (rabbit meats were expensive).  The rabbit meat tasted like chicken, not bad, but not my favourite either. I tried the “Berliner” beer (see the second picture from the left below) as well, pretty good.

In Germany, you could find many “hotdogs” as street snacks (see the second picture from the right above). It is a particularly good snack when you feel cold. Some street vendors even carried the whole equipment (including the gas) on their body (see the picture on the right most above).

Another popular fast food is doner (Kebab) with choices of salad and meat (chicken or lamb). It was juicy and tasty (at least for chicken).