I was only briefly in Berlin, to show support for my friend David who was running the Berlin Marathon. While I didn't get to explore Berlin very much, I was excited to get a rental car and make a road trip with friends down to Munich.

Arrived on the first day in time to catch the inline skaters, crowding the streets!
Arriving in Berlin, we all met up at a local bar that Wesley recommended. It was decent, though very westernized. Football, burgers, beers. Nothing to complain about, but nothing to write home about either.
On the other hand, these were something to write home about! Me and Wesley found ourselves at the bar of his hostel, and they were serving up these spicy tomato-based shots. They were absolutely delicious, and I was happy to find something spicy.
The day of the race, we all grabbed bikes and electric scooters and zipped around town to meet David at various points of the race. As you can see, JD also came out from Denver!
Hah! Silly runners, don't they know bicycles exist?
A photo of us all, after David completed his marathon. The crowd behind us was absolutely insane, it felt like all of Berlin was packed into that space.
After the marathon, we went out exploring for a while. Here's the Berlin wall, taken from the more chaotic side. The other side, of course, has all of the famous paintings.
A cool plant-covered building that I saw while riding bikes around the city. If it weren't for the otherwise well-maintained exterior, it would look like something out of an apocalyptic movie!
On our road trip to Munich, we stopped first at the quiet city of Leipzig. We were pleasantly surprised to find a small town square, filled with a variety of vendors. I really wanted to take some of the Italian meats home, but they are prohibited by customs.
We stumbled upon this Chinese Spouting Bowl in one of the corners of Leipzig. If you rub your hands on the handles just right, it resonates quite loudly. The guy who was there before us managed to get it going, but neither me nor Wesley could make it work.
After Leipzig, we continued to make our way down to Nuremberg. As you can tell, it was a beautiful city. I was excited to see the famous race track, only to arrive and discover that the track was in Nürburg, not Nuremberg. Oh well, maybe some other time!
In Nuremberg, I found this very strange vending machine next to a gas station. I can't imagine how many people would be using this with an regularity!