I see lots of people coming through Berlin, but very few people know how to actually “look” at Europe. Americans are always in a hurry, and many of them don’t know anything about the history and cultural context of where they are. Slow down! Read a book or two before you go! Don’t trust your guidebooks all of the time: find other places to look at. Learn a language, at least a little. Often, once you struggle out a couple of phrases, people will become less shy about trying out their English. Eat the local food; the McDonald’s tastes just the same as it does at home.

But mostly: slow down. Places look a lot closer together, but it’s very densely populated between those places. Stuff happens there, too. Check it out. Slowly.