Kreuzberg

Now in the few days that i have been in Berlin I have developed a serious soft spot for Kreuzberg, so on my birthday I could think of nothing better than spend the day down there. It's a pretty diverse place, and is one of the few places I've seen here where you can actually get a street offering 'the world of food' (the sort of thing that keeps Melbourne in my heart). I am told that Kreuzberg is the largest Turkish 'city' outside of Turkey, which makes for great Turkish food in particular, great dessert and a damning state sanctioned history of racism against the residents.
The Kreuzberg museum does a good job of documenting both the trend of post-war immigration, the economic discrimination of the new migrants and the massive outbursts of anger and state repression that all this has caused.
Oranienstraße is the main street, and its got all the telltale signs that its been has been swamped with students, artists and young professionals in the last few years. Every wall or window sill that can be painted has been painted, and so for me kind of a fairytale place. The land of good graffiti, good political posters and good food. All in all its like a big treasure hunt; you're constantly stumbling across great things here while looking for something else. While we were looking for the museum we found an ornate Turkish bathhouse, while we were looking for a bar we came across a huge park, still lush, green and pretty. Yes, Kreuzberg. Yes.