Mike Wilbon just made a comment on the ( local DC ) Tony Kornheiser show. He said that Berlin ( and Tony added Seoul, Korea to the list ) was more an American city that wasn't in America. That due to so much of it being destroyed in WWII, and the post war occupation, that you hear English as much as you would in Dallas.
Along with the associated, anti-American backlash. In all of central Europe, even compared to rural, northern France and the low countries, I was presented with general contempt by about 1/3rds of Germans who served me, unlike anywhere else.
SIDE NOTE: Ironically the US still, despite troop withdrawls, pumps a lot of money into various, local, German city and regions, per NATO agreements. Rumsfeld, to his credit (he has his negatives too), actually tried to put an end to that in 2005, but the current administration reversed it and is blowing even more money for almost 1/5th the troop levels a full decade later. No good deed goes unpunished I guess ... cannot stand Americans for indirectly "Americanizing" much of their country, despite propping up a lot of locales with American money, that continues today.
He also added that places such as Prague and Madrid are more like you would expect them to be, representing Old Europe. Is this accurate?
They are also two of the cheapest places to visit and even live too, in the EU.
If I could recommend
one, single city in all of Europe ...
it's Prague, above almost anywhere else (I haven't been everywhere ... yet, so not sure if it's #1).
WARNING: UCFBS-style dribble ahead (you've been warned, TL'DR, etc...)
Imaging Chicago, only 1,000 years old, with more churches than even a midwesterner could fantasize about. All in the heart of one of the greatest, industrial complexes and shining examples of a Democratic-Republic prior to WWII, that is now just recovering from the double-rape of the Nazis and then the Soviets.
The Czechs were the only power that could stand up to Hilter, from fortifications and weapons to the technical know-how and industrial capability, all in the north. Hitler knew this, and Munich (Chamberlain, Kennedy in tow, et al.) gave him all those lands ... handing over the core component of last, sole and only remaining Democracy in central Europe post-WWI to a fascist dictator. The rest of the country capitulated after for obvious reasons, and laid in wait, while the Nazi's raped their country of their art and heritage. But unlike the Poles and others, they didn't strike before they could, and most of their country was preserved.
By late '44, they struck as the Soviets rolled in. Unfortunately, the Soviets just raped them again, taking art away once again, and most still has never been returned. Unlike the Nazis, the Soviets didn't destroy buildings, so most of it was preserved. Even when the Czechs revolted by the '60s, one of the few Soviet states that still had the industrial and intellectual capability to do so, they put it down with tanks, not the threat of destroying their heritage. And without the Czechs and the Velvet Revolution, it's questionable if the Reagan administration would have started what finally dropped the iron curtain, or at least not as fast.
You really have to go and spend some time in the nation. You will fall in love with the Czechs. If there is a nation that has an American like will and defiance, possibly more so after being "sold out" by the British, French and, passively, Americans like Kennedy (JFK's father was the US' ambassador and supported the appeasement policy) ... it is them. Even today the Russians expend more money on intelligence and trying to undermining social fabrics in the Czech Republic than anywhere else, even versus the Ukraine. Your dollar will go far too, at least for now. Both English and German are very commonly used.
Also, if you're not into boney, unhealthy, Paris-type model women and prefer womanly figures, plus don't expect "American-issued flawless teeth" (although the rise in standard of living over the last decade has changed this), you'll find the Czech Republic and [the south] Slavic women the result of one of the most interbred human nationalities -- from the overland spice and (return) crusader routes -- over a thousand years in the making. I realized this long ago, back in the '80s, when it was unpopular to find communist women attractive. Even my somewhat jealous wife, being largely a Hungarian-American (2nd generation, parents weren't born here), quickly gave into letting me constantly avert my eyes, because a number of women were very similar to her in appearance (although Romanian is still distinctly different than Slavic, although still much closer than compared western Europe influenced Americans).
Hence why I'm a bit biased on recommending Prague ... the city, the places, the history, the people.
