First of all, Barcelona might seem to be cool for vacations but once you live there, you will see that in winters it's pretty boring, people are not happy with their lifes due to policital and economical issues. Maybe you can build your circle with expats and isolate yourself from daily problems but I was surrounded by local people, also knowing the language I could not isolate. It was unbearable listening peoples' complaints about how big fucked they are etc. Barcelona pissed me off finally. After Berlin,
- I liked Berlin two times more than I expected. I am originally Turkish, so the community here helps me in my day-to-day business. No, I am not living ghetto life and avoiding that, but it's cool to be able to communicate when I go for shopping. Now I can also communicate in German more or less, so I need less my Turkish skills but still it helps me to feel like at home. You never know who is Turkish there, the doctor, the police officer, the hipster hamburger boy. So it's cool.
- Of course economically it is much better. In Berlin you make not so less than other parts of Germany but definitely you spend less. This is the cheapest capital of developed EU countries. Many people already mentioned that.
- I like using cars. Maybe for Americans it is unbelievable but in almost all European capitals you are punished because you have a car: Expensive parking, so strict rules etc. Berlin is not one of them, you can use a cheap and good car and you will need it. You can go shopping (and then you can go to the cheapest and best one, not the nearest one to your home), you can go out of the city etc. Having car won't hurt you here.
- There is one thing that many people in Berlin did not discover: Poland is one hour away. I know that country because my GF is from there. Very occasionally we are going there to do our shopping, repair the car etc. So it is possible to lower your spending even more exploiting this possibility. If you have a car you should definitely do that. Also supermarkets there have fancier stuff and very good food.
- Well about work culture everyone already said what it should be said. Briefly I am happy here, I think Berlin will my home for the next decades and I recommend to everybody to give a chance. This is a city where you can live easily.