Here are a couple photos of Alexanderplatz from the street level. The Kaufhof across from me is the old central store, and although the signs, posters and lights are new, the wide open Platz is similar to 1989. Back when I lived a few months in Berlin in late 1991 I used to go here to get Doner Kebobs, a turkish sandwhich with salad, meat, and garlic sauce, much like a Greek gyro. They were only 2 Marks 50, half the price as West Berlin, and tasty. Berlin has a large Turkish population, and that leads to some delightful food offerings and a cosmopolitian city. I also met the new head of the Communist International who was handing out pamphlets here, trying to drum up support for his movement. We chatted awhile; I'm sympathetic to many of the criticisms about the excesses of capitalism, but when one looks at what centralized state socialism did to Eastern Europe and the old Soviet Union, it's clear that their "solution" created problems much worse than those in the West. I challenged the guy on how communism had failed so miserably, but he only responded that China is the fastest growing country in the world and is communist. I let the debate go then, wanting to on with my walk through the city (on a sunny, beautiful day, accompanied by a friend from Idaho who married a French woman and now they both live in Berlin), but China's success is due mostly to market reforms, not communism. But like radical liberatarian capitalists in the US, he was a true believer in his "ism," and those types usually don't listen to arguments that contradict their faith.