people who bark orders at you on the bike paths
Back to winter here in 2 months time remember the dark days and nights. 6 months of winter but the beers cheap.
My god yeah remember what a miserable silent six months winter was last year neighbours at home walking round on tip toes nervous as hell, walk too loud and the neighbour downstais at 4.30 in the afternoon would be BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG on the ceiling to complain, total wast of 6 months of my life.
My fellow expats. Germany is a wonderful place.
Just open your eyes and soak in some of the culture and great society that this place has to offer!
Where else in the world would you be surrounded by so many people that actually know everything better than you do? And actually make the effort to always share their wisdom with you at every chance they get?
Think of all the new things you could learn!
I wouldn't know where I would be if I wasn't told not to jaywalk even though there is not a child / car in sight, or even have my English corrected, by some German-speaker. Of course they would know better coming than a native English speaker.
Since being here I have learnt that you don't have to waste precious time standing in a queue in an orderly fashion when you can just push your way past to the front, saying hello to bus drivers, cashiers or anybody actually, give up your seat on the subway for older people/heavily pregnant women, help strangers/lost tourists or anybody in public, apologise when you knock someone AND if you are driving a car, you actually have the right to try and hit pedestrians and cyclists. Just being out in public basically gives you the right to criticize and haul insults at anybody in hearing distance.
Why would you give up being patronized, belittled and rudely treated by all waiters and service personnel? Let's face it: I refuse to have dinner in a restaurant where the staff doesn't abuse me.
Good for you Germany for rejecting all forms of manners that these foreigners try to impose on you. Good for you for not buying into this human decency and friendliness crap. Good for you for throwing off the shackles of the foreign oppressors that come to your country and expect you to change your ways and to be polite and kind.
No, I’m freaking with you :) Get a life you bitter wankers.
And before any Germans jump down my throat - my parents are both German. I just grew up in another country and have lived in several others. I have been here for a few years due to work and I am shocked by the lack of humanity and kindness here and just how rude the people are. I have never experienced anything quite like it. And yes I don't like it and yes I will be leaving :) I just wish that I would have had a different experience here.
In the mean time I will continue to be civil and super polite to you, because I LOVE the startled reaction that get from you each time you are confronted with this weird concept. Kill them with kindness people :).
I just hate it so much. Arived here and one hour later i just wanted to return home. So rude and mad all the time. One guy said to me your opinion is wrong...mmm i mean what!? And i got robbed, guys yelled at me things at the subway, people got mad if i tried to order things in german because i dont speak it perfectly. Horrible
Most of all - in line with most other people here - it cannot be ignored: on the average, Berliners suck. They are cold, narcissist, judgemental ignorants who hate every group of people that is not exactly like their own subgroup - mind you, this goes for every subset of Berliners, be it stupid conformist hipsters, political sectarians, wannabe-artists... you name it. They seriously think being friendly makes them look less cool, and it's just funny how that attitute sometimes contradicts their ultra left wing dogmas. I mean hey, you want to liberate the whole world (a noble idea in general), but you are not even able to treat the person next to you in a nice way? Thank you, but I'm not sure if I'm ready for that world you are offering me. Dogmatism is also the reason why this is arguably the only place in the Western world where a normal boy meets girl interaction (which inevitably requires a first contact from the boy's side) is not considered normal anymore by quite a few people - sadly even guys -, resulting in Berlin being on of the unsexiest places I've ever had the pleasure to encounter. (Of course those rules do not apply to the pampered gay scenes which I really could care less about. You know, I don't mind them, but it's just not my turf.) Someone said sexiness? Not only do the girls here have a hell of an attitude, they also are, well, just not very attractive since they seem to put quite an effort into giving themselves that appearance. And finally, I sadly must agree with many others, food in Berlin is really boring. Yes, there are exceptions, but given the size and the meaning of the city, it is depressing.
What happened to the history? People are so stuck in this "cold war" and WWII guilt that all the rest of Berlin history is lost! Interesting to know that for all but 10 years in the 20's and the last 24, Berlin has always been a military garrison with lots of eyes and ears watching. Might give a little insight into the mannerisms of the people who live here and the difficulty of getting accepted into the group. They can keep it really!
Dear Berlin, no one really gives a crap about your History; frankly the East/West diatribe is boring as hell! Get over it and move on! Start there.
Unless you just need to take a poop badly and can't hold it anymore then stop in Berlin otherwise skip this idiot full of the most social dysfunctional people you will ever encounter in your life and the poop weather is just icing in the cake.
I fell for the hype too. I'm blaming myself a lot. Thank god one week to go!! I spend the most miserable year of my life here, feeling despair- a close to death deep inside my soul feeling. I lost my appetite, my senses I was becoming like these miserable locals. Haven't met so many bad tempered, hostile, UGLY, pretentious people before. fornicate Berlin! And Berliners. They take what they deserve; a prison like place with all its grayness. Gosh, can't wait to leave. This week seems like eternity
I feel your pain completely. So embarrassed I fell for the marketing of Berlin and thought it would be the place for me. I had a one-year work visa (work? JOBS? In Berlin? A scream!) and left after not quite eight months. And that city broke me...I actually fell off the wagon here after proud, long-term sobriety because I had no strength left to deal with the nonstop poop (jobs, ridiculous people, climate, etc). Loved your writing and descriptions; you have too much emotion and depth, and are in the exact opposite place for those qualities.
Its nice not to be in Berlin anymore. The city and its loneliness made me depressed. Have never met so many bad people as there.
a. old locals: rude, unfriendly, aggressive (but we can understand, it s not their fault, the history was not generous with them).
b. young germans. The city where spoil and childish german teenagers from Munich and Stuttgart go and have fun. You dont wanna be with them here. Seriously.
c) Expats. Low salaries, Party culture, Unemployement means Berlin hosts the worst expats in the world. Expats is not the right word actually. These are immigrants, refugees, desperates.
Note: the three groups hate each other
Nightlife capital of Europe my ass. I fell for the hype. Note to self having the most clubs/bars in Europe doesn't necessarily mean the best. And why do Berliners swear they party hard. Hanging out in some poop bar/club drinking overpriced drinks with ugly chicks and your same two German friends till 9am the next morning doesn't make you a party animal.
Berlin is full of french wankers. People just coming here, trying to live on social welfare and NOT even speaking a sentence of German after 2 years here. Neither do they speak an acceptable english. I'm french and I'm ashamed of all this idiots who came here because of the hype.
I'm Born and raised in Berlin,and i hate this city its full with bad persons.
Berlin is one of the worst places on earth.
Ps: I'm not german.