While the center of Berlin feels like a continuous stretch of construction sites, interrupted mainly by new glass-and-steel buildings, gentrification proceeds at a slower pace in quarters like Kreuzberg, where I found this entrance.
For a dyed-in-the-wool Bavarian, Berlin still is quite an outlandish experience (I mentioned the number of traffic lights already some days ago), but as many Bavarians I feel quite attracted by this big, noisy, unregulated, chaotic, sometimes dirty but in many places very vivid city. The same, by the way, seems to hold true for the feelings many inhabitants of Berlin feel for the rural, often backwards, even more often utmost conservative Bavaria.