A noodle box. These are great -- buy them for 2.50 or 3.50 euros in the subway, add some Sriracha sauce, and you've got lunch

Berlin noodle boxes are great — buy them for 2.50 or 3.50 euros in a subway station, add some Sriracha sauce, and you’ve got a decent lunch.

A really bizarre advertisement on the side of an automatic coffee machine

This really bizarre advertisement sits on the side of the automatic coffee machine at my German language school. I don’t get the ad, but I appreciate the occasional beverage.

I was surprised to see this Toblerone wrapper on a train platform, partly because there's not as much littering here as in the U.S. and partly because in the U.S. Toblerone is an expensive chocolate bar. Overlooking the cheaper price of Toblerone candy bars in Berlin and just going off of my initial impressions, seeing a Toblerone wrapper on the ground was like seeing an empty bottle of Dom Perignon champagne on the ground, though to a lesser degree.

I was surprised to see this Toblerone wrapper on a train platform one evening. To begin with, there’s not as much littering here as in the U.S. Also, I am pretty sure that Toblerone is an expensive chocolate bar in the U.S. Therefore seeing a Toblerone wrapper on the ground was somewhat like seeing an empty bottle of, say, Dom Pérignon champagne on the ground.  But I don’t want to take that comparison too far because it breaks down pretty quickly, and furthermore I should note that Toblerone packages like this are available here in Berlin for less than 1 euro.  This one probably came from a vending machine at the same train station.