Love for Berlin

When I moved to Berlin in 2003, I was fascinated by a city that had been hard hit during the Second World War, let run to ruins during the GDR, and experiencing a modernization and renovation boom since unification in 1989. Back then, I bought two photo essays, picturing the same location in three different eras. Palaces and turn-of-the-century (19th to 20th) buildings, then destroyed by bombs, then left as free parking lots of demolished to make place for Soviet-style and size highrises, then painted and fitted with balconies, with trees planted, and fancy facades renovated. Today I bought a second book picturing the changes in our own area (Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg). The fascinating thing is that the biggest change is not from 1989 to now, but from 2005 or so onwards. Inside the buildings, a lot changed before 2005 (most buildings in our area had coal ovens, shared toilets, and some even didnt have running water!). But the facades and emoty plots have been finished only in the past two or three years. A quick look at google.earth shows this - just on our street, there are still dozens of free plots of land left in the photo. These are ALL gone now. It is a fascinating, amazing city, and it feels a bit like watching a child grow up. Wasnt it just yesterday....?