Garbage... after being here for a number of years you just kind of get used to the smell of stale urine in every doorway or semi-secluded place, the wrappers, cigarette butts and discarded Donerfleisch littering the walkways of every corner of the city. Even the "nice" areas are the same to only a slightly lesser degree. When you go to a really nice city, the contrast is almost shocking. Cities where people care not to live in constant filth. Walk through Tierpark, a supposedly beautiful green inner city park and find more discarded condoms and wrappers per square meter than the bin behind a popular house of ill-repute. If you stay too long this kind of thing becomes normal. Is that really what you want to get used to? The garbage is just the tip of the iceberg. God I hate this city, rotten to the core.
GET OUT NOW WHILE YOU CAN- If you think the summer was bad wait for the next 6-8 months my god what a depressing freezing, silent dark poop hole Berlin is. The German faces start to drop, the women start to moan and the freeze sets in.
I didn't think it were possible to be in your 30's and still: Lack Social Skills, Own no decent clothing, carry a NOKIA mobile phone, have NEVER lived alone, have only worked ONE job, have no hobbies and no Sense of Humor. <<<This is the standard in Berlin.
Honestly, Berlin is a shithole!!! I am pissed more ppl dont tell the truth, these brooklyn hipster wannabes have NOTHING on NYC! Please do yourself a favor and stay out. Dumb broke ignorant ppl. You lost the war twice, suck it up and stop being so shitty. No partying here, its disgusting, stay away
I agree the sheep that are trapped there are afraid to tell it like it is. Afraid to leave because their other sheep friends are trapped there too. Afraid to offend the media as it may damage their artistic career / reputation. Its one big boring depressing poop hole with NOTHING TO DO. There is no culture. Just 2 types of people. The sheepish international party crowd who are from boring small places and the boring local depressing German Berliners.
Indifference mistaken for tolerance and freedom. Summer's over. I am so not looking forward to another 8 months of grey skies, grey faces, grey attitudes. Bleh! Please kill me now!
What a dissapointment berlin is. It pisses down most of summer then its a silent dark depressing 6 months of winter. The clubs are dark depressing places half full with cheesy tourists from poop places. If your unfortunate to have german neighbours at home they will complain about any noise any time of the day as the probability is they wont have a job and will be depressed. Anything from a little music during the afternoon to complaining about footsteps or using a washing machine on a sunday. The food selection is absolutely terrible from the crap turkish bakeries to the supermarkets. The women here are the biggest complainers in the world and apparently the government offer men free courses to help deal with them.
They wont DARE leave there small rundown little neighborhoods, but will gladly trek hours on bike to the darn Woods. Since when did going to a darn Lake or Forest replace real Human Interaction?? But they dont have to interact with people in a forest or Cesspool of a lake do they? No, they can remain just as miserable and antisocial as they are in the city. The only thing they have going for them is the fact they are easy to get into Bed. Of course, this is accomplished after listening to them WHINE about their lives and their Country and how they cant stand other Germans. Everytime I invite a Berliner over, I spray my apartment after they leave...few of the vaginas bother to bathe. Only in Berlin is Deodorant/Cologne a turnoff.
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.