As a native New Yorker now living in Berlin, I am constantly amazed at how often these two cities are compared to each other.

From my perspective, apart from being big cities for their respective countries, they have little in common.

And one place where they differ most is in handicap access to public transportation. In this respect, New York is in the Stone Age and really should be ashamed of itself.

Berlin, on the other hand, has amazing access.

I am not physically handicapped, but my cousin, who is a life-long New Yorker, has trouble walking. He loves Berlin. In fact, I call him the Berlin freak in the family. He could easily drive a cab here, he knows most of the streets, but he doesn't want to visit the city now because of mobility issues. Yet he is way better off in the German capital than in NYC.

I wonder how he can get along in New York. He doesn't. He lives on Long Island and rarely comes in to the city.

No wonder. The Metropolitan Transit Authority, which operates New York's subway system, among other things, says there are 468 subway stations in the city of New York.

Of that, 89 are handicap accessible and in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act rules.

That's right: 89 out of 468, or 19 percent. Not even one in five stations in the Big Apple is ADA compliant.

New York should learn from Berlin, which is light years ahead of the city.

A direct comparison is tough, because in Berlin, the system is run by two entities. The subway (UBahn) and buses are run by the BVG, the German acronym for the Berlin transport group. Die Bahn, the German federal railway, controls the S-Bahn, which runs trains through the city but also to outlying areas.

The BVG operates 173 subway stations of which 94 are handicap accessible – 85 with elevators and the nine remaining with ramps. There are also 106 stations with a system to help blind passengers.

There are 166 S-Bahn stations in Berlin and neighboring Brandenburg. Of that 143 are handicap accessible and 125 can be accessed by blind passengers. Railway authorities don't break out the Berlin-only figures.

So in the Berlin subway system, 54 percent of the stations are handicap accessible. And in the S-Bahn system, the figure is 86 percent.

And New York can't even make it to 20 percent?

I asked my other cousin about this. She's a lawyer for the MTA, but she doesn't work on ADA issues. But I thought she might know something.

She says it's because New York's system is so old.

I didn't buy that. Berlin's system is even older. The New York subway system started in 1904, two years after Berlin's system went online.

So I called the MTA's press office and got Charles Seaton on the line. He backed my cousin's argument.

"Our system is over 100 years old."

I told him Berlin's was older and they do way better on handicap access.

His excuse? It's expensive to remodel a station.

It was hard to pin the MTA down on just how much it costs to make a New York subway station ADA compatible. The first figure tossed out by Seaton was $20 million, but that was seen as too high by his colleague, Deidre Parker. She checked with the engineers at MTA but they refused to produce a figure.

The MTA remodels three to four stations a year and it adds ADA access when it does those, Seaton said.

Then, why, at 14^th Street, a major hub, are the L, Q, and R lines handicap accessible, but key lines like the 4,5, and 6 remain off-limits to those in a wheelchair?

Because the L, Q, and R were set for remodeling, but the 4, 5, and 6 were not, Seaton said.

His colleague Parker added, "The 4, 5, 6 part of the station cannot be made ADA accessible because it is technically infeasible." Overall, it's not easy to install an elevator in the New York subway system, she wrote in an email.

"There is a challenge of finding space for the elevator itself and a room to house the electronics, moving utilities, and acquiring property in stations that were built in the first half of the 20th Cent."

Back in Berlin, the BVG's Christina Albrecht deals with questions about handicap access, among other things. She's surprised that Berlin is ahead of New York when it comes to access.

"We're always told at how things are always so much better in the USA when it comes to handicap access," she said. Albrecht wasn't able to give me a per station figure but said installing an elevator costs €1.5 million at most, but planning and other costs raise those fees.

New York's handicap riders are out of luck if they think the city will take a lesson from Berlin. The Voluntary Compliance Agreement (VCA) with the Federal Transportation Authority (FTA) "requires that MTA NYCT (New York City Transit) completes 100 Accessible Key Stations by 2020," wrote MTA spokesperson Seaton in an email.

"There is no plan to expand the 100 Key Station Plan at this time."

Oh well. I guess that means one thing.

Cousin, you should visit me in Berlin. It's much easier to get around.

Attention Berlin! Superheroes, cowgirls, and cosmonauts are taking over your city this weekend!

On Saturday, the Berlin Bombshells will be opening the Roller Derby season at Arena Berlin.

Three home teams from the Bombshells will be playing -The Good, The Bad, and The Gorgeous, Fantastic 14, and a brand new home team, The Kreuzberg CosmoKnocks, as well as the Hamburg Harbor Girls. After the game, there will be an afterparty at Wowsville with music, beer, bruised athletes and crazed fans.

Even though roller derby is the fastest growing sport in America, many people still don't know that much about it.

So let's start over.

Modern roller derby dates back to 2001 in Austin, Texas where it was revived from what was essentially a multi-day skate-a-thon to what it is now: a full contact sport for women played entirely on quad roller skates.

Although this sport was created by women, there are some men's teams popping up, and men are always welcome and encouraged to join as referees.

Since its inception, roller derby has spread throughout the world like wildfire with an overarching international committee made up almost entirely of volunteers called WFTDA, Women's Flat Track Derby Association.

In December 2011, Toronto hosted the first Blood and Thunder Roller Derby World Cup with 13 national teams competing. It's estimated that there are currently over a 1,000 teams worldwide, from Helsinki to Vancouver to Kuala Lumpur. It's democratic, it's tough, and it's awesome.

The game, called a bout, consists of two teams, each with 14 players. Five players from each team take to the track, four blockers for each team and one jammer for each team. The jammer is recognizable by the star on her helmet.

With the first whistle, the blockers, who form a pack, start to skate around an oval track. Once they skate past a certain point, two whistles blow and the jammers, positioned about 30 feet behind the pack, sprint through the pack as fast as they can. The blockers try to stop them by hitting and blocking them with the hips or the shoulders. Once the jammer gets through, she circles the track and re-enters the pack gaining one point for each opposing player who she passes. Games last about an hour with two 30 minute periods, which consist of a series of jams, each lasting two minutes. The team with the most points wins.

That's the gist of it. There are lots of rules, and it can be quite chaotic the first couple times you watch it, but it's a hell of a lot of fun. It's the type of sport that encourages participation from all kinds of people, and there's a position for everyone, big or small.

The history of the Berlin Bombshells dates back to 2008 when Janina Meyer went to America and saw a roller derby game in Las Vegas shortly after her friend American Molly Stenzel, an aspiring artist, moved to Berlin. Inspired by what they had seen, they decided they should start a Roller Derby league and reach out for some advice from the members of the Stuttgart Valley Rollergirlz, Germany's only other active roller derby league at the time.

Four years later, the Berlin Bombshells became huge on the European Roller Derby stage by organizing events, hosting tournaments, and pushing the game to become bigger and better in Germany and Europe.

Coach Stenzel is an organizer and goes by the name "Master Blaster." Meyer, who is a PR director, goes by "Foxy Führer." That's another great thing about roller derby: everyone chooses a name, a new identity and a new personality for the track providing many women with "an outlet they didn't even know they were missing," according to Stenzel.

And it's not just an outlet for the players. People love the game, not only because it's an extreme sport, but it's an overall spectacle with tough tattooed girls, beer, punk mentality, afterparties, and lots of music. In addition, the crowds are as diverse as they can get- from excited kids running around the track to elderly couples cheering for their granddaughters.

Roller derby isn't just a sport, it's a lifestyle, whether you play the game or just watch.

Thousands of netizens braved the cold streets of Berlin on Saturday as part of a day of global protests against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

Although, Germany's government announced on the eve of the protests that it would delay the signing of the plurilateral agreement, Nyan Cat, Y u no guy, and other well-known internet memes joined around 10,000 others to show their opposition to ACTA, an agreement digital rights groups, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF) and European Digital Rights (EDRi) say will limit internet freedoms.

ACTA aims to establish international standards for enforcing intellectual property rights and includes provisions on counterfeit goods, online piracy, and generic medicines.

Journalist Matthias Spielkamp and others addressed the Berlin crowd, slamming ACTA for its "draconian measures," which they say could result in internet users serving prison sentences for sharing or using copyrighted material.

Speakers also criticized what they say are the secret and undemocratic nature of the ACTA negotiations, calling for a more inclusive procedure encompassing civic groups as well as entertainment industry representatives.

Twenty-two out of 27 EU member states have signed ACTA, and many have already started national ratification processes.

Poland suspended ratification following public pressure. Online activist group, Anonymous, also subjected Polish government websites to denial of service attacks in protest against the pending ACTA ratification.

For ACTA to be adopted as EU law, the EU Parliament must vote on whether to accept or reject it. The legislation will be passed onto parliament in February with a view to holding a vote in May after discussions with the International Trade Committee (ICT) as the body in charge.

While the parliament passed a resolution in favor of the EU signing the agreement back in 2010, the wave of protests means it is coming under increasing pressure to reject ACTA.

***Correction 2/22/12: The quote by Matthias Spielkamp above was misdirected. Mr. Spielkamp did not use the words, "draconian measures." Another speaker at the same protest used the phrase. Mr. Spielkamp says he believes ACTA should not be passed, but they were not, in fact, "draconian measures."

I decided to go on an organized group ski trip during the recent winter school break.

I don't have a car in Berlin, and I dislike driving long distances. I also don't like driving in Germany. Those people who cruise down the left lane at 200 km per hour scare me.

So I went with my daughter on a bus trip with a Berlin company called "Prima Klima." The name sounded cool, and a friend had recommended the company.

I have never traveled so long by bus in my life; it took us nearly 16 hours to go from Berlin to Bormio in the Italian Alps.

Sixteen hours is a very long time, especially if you're sitting in a bus. We did take breaks, and the route took us through Austria and Switzerland before we reached Italy, but it's very hard to sleep on a bus.

Enough about the logistics.

One of the things that struck me about this trip – apart from the good skiing and organization (Germans are usually good at the latter) is that many people were on this trip for the third or fourth time.

That's right – they returned to the same hotel, the same place with the same tour company for three or four years in a row. I can't imagine doing that when there are so many places to see.

But there's this little community that has developed. Some participants meet up once a year – on this trip. And there's this kind of group feeling. There was even an older man who was traveling by himself but was back for a second year in a row and knew some of the folks from the previous trip.

Germans are better at this group thing than we Americans are. I can't imagine many Americans going on a group trip. People tend to do things on their own in the States. And I certainly can't imagine Americans going on the same trip, to the same place to the same hotel for years in a row.

And of course few Americans would sit on a bus for 16 hours when using your individual car to get everywhere is the M.O.

I didn't expect to find this "community" on the trip, but it is kind of nice. Individualism isn't all bad, but being a part of something is important too. We Americans lose sight of that a lot.

Who knows? Maybe we'll return there next year.

Free WiFi may soon be available to all and sundry on the streets of Berlin if the city government's plans are realized.

But before you run out into the street waving your mobile device around in a gratuitous display of unadulterated glee (Wooh! Free stuff!), bear in mind that the Berlin Senate has put the project on hold before.

The free WiFi scheme has been on the agenda since 2007 but fell apart after a drawn out debate in the Senate.

Senators raised a number of concerns, including the possibility of illegal file sharing and the lack of infrastructure required for the project.

The new CDU/SPD state government has resurrected the plan for free WiFi within the confines of the Berliner Ringbahn as part of larger policy to support the digitization of the city.

Tourists and residents will be able to access free internet as part of the scheme, which will be paid for through advertisements, marketing strategies and billable offers.

Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit emphasized the importance of IT policy in the CDU/SPD coalition agreement, with the coalition appointing SPD IT policy expert Björn Böhning to the newly established ministerial post for IT policy.

While Berlin has already become a European center for start-ups and tech firms, Böhning wants to build a sustainable base to ensure the city remains attractive. The coalition is currently working on the implementation of the region's open data initiative and Böhning says net neutrality will be a major policy objective.

The sudden interest in net policy represents a major turn around for the Senate. For Berlin's previous governments, the need for more infrastructure and policy support in this area hasn't been a priority.

But the success of the Pirate Party in the recent municipal elections has helped to push issues such as broadband expansion, net neutrality, and open data onto the agenda. The Pirates have also volunteered their expertise to help with the implementation of the WiFi scheme, which the party describes as essential.

While cities such as London have been pouring millions into attracting IT entrepreneurs and major tech firms, Berlin's previous policy, or lack-thereof, hasn't done much to put off would-be Mark Zuckerbergs from swarming to the new Teutonic tech mecca.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past two years, you should have noticed Berlin's magnetic draw for digital start-ups.

The now well-worn phrase "poor but sexy" was how Berlin's mayor Klaus Wowereit once described the city, but Silicon Allee instead of Silicon Valley seems to be the new mantra.

So we're heading into the final days of Christmas shopping and all you procrastinators are finally getting off the couch to go buy something.

Should your gift of choice be an article of clothing from the Swedish retailer H&M, you should have no trouble finding one in Berlin.

There are 28 of them.

Maybe you don't live in the capital? No problem. Germany is home to 376 H&M stores.

No, you did not misread that. It is 376 – the largest number of H&M stores in any country. And the company may open more.

More H&M's? Already there are two within a mile on the Schlosstrasse in Steglitz. On Kurfürstendamm, it seems as if every other store is an H&M.

Germany dominates in a lot of economic sectors – cars, machine tools, insurance – but these sectors have nothing on the dominance of H&M in the German market, especially when compared to the United States.

Berlin has nearly three times the number of H&Ms as New York City, and NYC has five million more people than the German capital.

There are 10 H&M's in New York compared to Berlin's 28. If New York were to have the same H&M concentration as Berlin, it would have to have nearly 70 H&M stores.

It's almost as bad on the national level.

There are nearly 82 million people who live in Germany and about 310 million who live in the United States. But the U.S. has only 236 H&M stores.

If the U.S. had Germany's concentration of H&M's, it would be home to 1,421 of them.

I'm trying to picture the United States with more than 1,400 H&M's. Maybe that's why there aren't more than 1,400 H&M's in the U.S.

But that's the concentration you have in Germany.

OK. I know. The obvious reason is that H&M has been in Germany a lot longer (two decades to be exact) than it has been in the U.S. I lived in Portland, Oregon for a long time and well remember the opening of its first H&M. it was a year ago, and it felt as if we were finally on the fashion map.

But still. The differences are pretty dramatic. So I asked the company about this. I even asked in three places: its press offices in Germany, at the headquarters in Sweden and in New York.

I guess New York was too busy to answer...maybe they are trying to catch up with H&M in Berlin?

But Germany and Sweden produced essentially the same corporate response.

"H&M has been present in the German market since 1980, and we opened our first store in US in 2000," an email sent from HQ said.

"We see potential for new stores in both markets, and during 2012 we will also launch Mail Order and Shop Online for the US market. However, we refrain from doing comparisons between markets or stores, or number of stores, sales for specific stores or talk about our expansion, future plans and strategy. Thus, we are unable to assist you with your request at this time."

I guess that's corporateeze for bug off.

The German office had a bit more information, saying H&M has more than 2,400 stores in 41 markets. It has a 10 to 15 percent growth goal per year and plans to expand in both new and existing markets with a "focus on quality, sustainability and continued high profitability." The biggest factors when opening a new store are the "client base and the optimal location and business climate."

I think I'll do my last minute shopping at Zara's.

On a side note, the idea for this story came from my daughter Pauline. I would never have noticed something like the concentration of H&M's in Berlin, as she did. I am fashion challenged, to say the least. Actually if there were a fashion intensive care, I'd be on life support. But hey – living in Oregon doesn't teach you about fashion. It's a place where the biggest style decision of the day is which color Gore-tex to wear. Thanks Pauline.

Did you wake up on December 6th and wonder why bars of chocolate smooshed between your toes as you tried to put on your boots to go to work?

Does the image of the German Christkind confuse you and make you wonder why Jesus is bringing you presents on his birthday?

For those new to Germany and German traditions, Christmas in Berlin and all around the country can be as confusing as it is exciting.

Those of us who have grown up writing letters to Santa Claus, straining to hear the sound of his reindeer on the rooftops on Christmas Eve, leaving out a plate of cookies, and hanging stockings by the chimney, may find Christmas in Germany, at first glance, to be a little... well... disappointing.

Why? Because in many German households, Santa isn't the one who comes to visit.

Instead, Germany celebrates Christmas not with a one gift giver and general joy-bringer, but with two: St. Nikolaus and the Christkind, or Christ child.

The story of St. Nikolaus dates back to the third century A.D. in Southern Turkey. Nikolaus is said to have been the son of wealthy parents who died in an epidemic. After their deaths, he dedicated his life to the church, became Bishop of Myra, and used all his money to secretly help the poor.

He would throw coins in open windows, put gold in shoes, and when no other method was available, throw treats down the chimney. Today, many people continue the tradition of St. Nikolaus by leaving shoes outside the door on the eve of December 6th (commemorating the day Nikolaus died), and eagerly anticipating the next morning when their boots overflow with chocolate and small treats.

The Christkind is, however, a little more confusing. The day of St. Nikolaus was celebrated throughout Germany for centuries, but with the Reformation led by Martin Luther (1483-1546), the figure of St. Nikolaus was suddenly frowned upon.

Luther did not want his followers to idolize a Catholic saint, but at the same time recognized the goodness that accompanied the holiday. He moved the traditional day of gift-giving to December 24th and replaced St. Nikolaus with the Christkind, a child-like image of the baby Jesus.

However, recent incarnations of the Christkind represent the figure not as a newborn boy, but instead as a young girl with golden curls.

The Christkind Market in Nuremberg, which elects a teenage girl from the city to play the Christkind, describes the figure "not so much an embodiment of the Christ child in the manger, but a grown-up figure which also took on some traits of the Angel of the Annunciation and some elements of the Virgin Mary."

The Christkind of Nuremburg, decorated in a large golden crown and golden robes, is responsible for officially opening the Christmas Market, hosting various "fairy-tale hours," conversing with the press, visiting the homes of the young, elderly and disabled, and bringing Christmas presents to children in the hospital.

In German homes, the Christkind traditionally brings presents to children on Christmas Eve. The departure is announced with the ringing of a small bell, followed by the stampeding feet of children as they rush to see what presents were left for them.

Despite Germany's wealth of traditions, the magic of North America's Santa Claus has started to creep into German culture over the last few years despite arguments that Santa Claus represents nothing but rampant consumerism, and to some, Coca Cola.

In fact, Santa Claus, the Christkind, and St. Nikolaus are sometimes all rolled up into one fun-loving Christmas package. A Spiegel article from last year states that children in Germany "have been sending letters to Santa Claus for decades," but also acknowledges that many of these letters are for the Christkind.

So take your pick. Celebrate the season with St. Nikolaus, the Christkind, Santa Claus, or all three. However you enjoy the holiday season, make it a great one.

I violated the Badeordnung

I really did.

But I didn't mean to, and I'm very sorry. If it wasn't for that damn bathing suit that I happened to forget.

I only realized it back home and had to ride back to Stadtbad Wilmersdorf, where I take an occasional dip.

The nice lady at the front desk nodded knowingly when I tried to explain that I'd forgotten my suit. She wouldn't even let me finish my sentence, as she immediately knew what had happened.

I'm obviously not the first person to forget a bathing suit at Stadtbad Wilmersdorf.

But the niceness ended with the lady at the front desk.

Here was the dilemma: As many people know, Germany is a country with a lot of rules. There is a Badeordnung. Just like there's a Hausordnung and a Strassenverkehrsordnung. I like that latter one. It's a word with 23 letters in it.

The Badeordnung – or house rules for the pool – says you can't use street shoes in the barefoot areas.

This is what the rule looks like in German. (It must be really important because it's up at the top.)

A. Schwimmhallen: Mit Ihren Straßenschuhen dürfen Sie die Barfußgänge nicht betreten.

You can't go in the barefoot areas with your street shoes on. Period.

But here's the deal: I just wanted to grab my bathing suit. I didn't have any flip flops with me, and I did not want to take my shoes off, get my socks wet, put my shoes back on and have to go home with wet feet.

I gingerly entered the area where street shoes are verboten and made it past the first couple of feet.

Whew. No one was around. But as I turned the corner to where I thought I'd left my suit, there she was: An elderly woman with a vicious face.

I thought she was going to say something to me, but her silence was worse.

That look. I'll never forget it. Capital punishment has been outlawed in Germany for a very long time, but she looked like she wanted it back for Badeordnung violators.

It would have been easier had she said something. The look coupled with the silence was excruciating. I was already on my tippy toes – not wanting to put the full weight of my verboten shoes on the holy tile in the shower area.

I eyed my suit and grabbed it, muttering a sorry.

And then I ran.

I thought she might come after me or tell one of the Badeordnung ladies – you know those women responsible for enforcing law and order.

I rode my bike home as fast as I could, fearing the Badeordnung ladies might somehow catch up with me.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the front door of my apartment building.

But I felt a twinge of guilt.

I did break the rules. I violated the Badeordnung.

But I am really sorry.

Miriam Widman is a freelance writer and radio producer who lived in Berlin in the 1990s and moved back in 2011 after a long stay in Portland, Oregon. A native New Yorker, Miriam produces for The World, is founder/host of Die German Stunde, a radio program on Portland's KBOO-FM community radio station and is also a reporter for Jewish Voice from Germany, a new quarterly publication. She also blogs at zeitgeistnorthwest.wordpress.com. For the NPR Berlin blog, Miriam will be writing about daily life in Berlin.