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Being homosexual doesn't mean being left-wing! I know a couple of them and I can't say they're those who have sex on the street. In Berlin, homosexuals are like extremists! But who does not behave in Berlin as an extremist? My friend is gay and hates Berlin! He explained to me why and it's exactly the same as here all you write!
Why do people in San Francisco still resemble Hippies? A similar phenomenon is Berlin and Techno. But If you look in Berlin today around you, you can see mainly Muslims and Hipsters! I'm in Berlin for three months because of the job, I'm gay and I don't like it here! I do not like homosexual activists because until they were there and they were not looking for a problem in every little thing, so it was all OK! Before Gays started screaming for every fart, I felt good at this company. Berlin is now the top of all extreme. Berlin is terrible and the local people are embarrassing!
The aggressiveness of people in Berlin is something terrible! I'm not surprised that there's never been anything good here! Fortunately, I'm leaving here next month. Local people are really evil and the worst are in the east. They need a new wall!!!
Reading through these pages I wonder how the hell some have managed to stay here for years on end. I've been here less than a year and I'm feeling suicidal. Anxiety and depression like I've never experienced before. I wanted to thank the people who put this site together - it's nice to know I'm not the only foreigner who has struggled in this part of the world. I keep on keeping on only because I've invested so much time, money and resources into this place and that I'm afraid if I leave I'll regret it. I joined a chess club and started some German classes last month. This has helped to deal with these horrible feelings but I don't know how much longer I can hold out.
Sounds like you haven't been here for all that long. Nevermind the lost time. If you can be a better person elsewhere, it may be a good choice to cut your losses and just leave. Hope and persistence isn't always a good thing. This city is unlikely to change significantly. But you may find yourself changing under its influence. Sit beside a chimney and you will start to smell, no matter how attentive and mindful you are. Don't mean to sound condescending. This comes from exüerience.
The longer you stay in Berlin, the more money it will cost you and you'll become even more emotionally unwell.
As soon as you get out of Berlin, you will start to feel your real self again. I went to the Swiss Alps on business for 4 weeks last year, and I was on the verge of crying at the thought of going back to Berlin. It never et's better here. You keep thinking to yourself, "it can't be the whole city, it must be me", or "If I stay here longer, I'll crack teh social code". We've all been through it.
If you are not a brainwashed left-wing, homosexual, sexist feminist, pseudo-anarchist student, you have no need to be here. In fact 85% of them will be gone when they finish their studies and find out what the real world is about. Then a new lot of fresh meat will take their place for the hardcore Berliners to corrupt with drugs, alcohol, hedonistic debauchery, homosexuality, anti-anti-anti anything you can think of, they'll suck the fresh meat into polygamy culture to screw them up even more. Plus a hundred other excapes from their sad and miserable lives.
I know you probably won't listen, but I'll say it anyway: BEREXIT. Leave. Just do it.
'If you are not a brainwashed left-wing, homosexual, sexist feminist, pseudo-anarchist student, you have no need to be here. In fact 85% of them will be gone when they finish their studies and find out what the real world is about. Then a new lot of fresh meat will take their place for the hardcore Berliners to corrupt with drugs, alcohol, hedonistic debauchery, homosexuality, anti-anti-anti anything you can think of, they'll suck the fresh meat into polygamy culture to screw them up even more. Plus a hundred other excapes from their sad and miserable lives. '
Yes, much of what passes for modern culture is in fact quite rotten. I'm hearing you loud and clear.
I'm turkish till 2017 I had never been to Berlin nor Germany. I came to Berlin and stayed for a year and let me tell you something guys turkish people in berlin are ignorant and rude af compared to turks in Turkey. They are stuck in 70s 80s with their meaningless nationalistic minds. There also many religious nutjobs i really think germany tried to pick worst Turks and took them all. For gods sake we have much less hijabis in İzmir( cool city in west of Turkey) than Berlin! . Happy that i left Berlin hope you can all get away from that idiot
I've heard this from other Turks. Thanks for the tip about Izmir. Muslims and these kind of Turks have no place in the West. If they think Islam is so great, they can stay away from Christian countries and live in Muslim countries and stop telling us that we need to be Muslims to be saved. Religion is another word for brainwashing.
I have now figured it out: avoid any restaurants in Berlin which are run by Germans! Every time I went into a restaurant and the waiter was German, whether with or without an 'migrant background' I got into an argument with them - over payment, rudeness, treatment of me as a customer, and so on. I NEVER had this issue in an Italian, Vietnamese, Spanish, or any other restaurant besides German! Do some research before you go out and don't give them your money!
As far as German customer service goes I've had good and very bad. I've had instances in which I was so disgusted with the rudeness and inefficiency that I just got up and left. On the other those who ran Vietnamese or Ethiopian restaurants were very welcoming.
There's a lot of things like laughing because the other one might think they lie because they laugh. Lots of such things here. Then losing the page.
One more petty annoyance that bothered me so much I refuse to go to bakeries here anymore. In the summer there are always flies and bees all over the place, crawling all over the food behind the glass. Where I'm from a food establishment would be shut down for a health violation if they had live insects walking on the food. And then the invariably indignant saleswomen often have the nerve to touch the food with their bare hands to put it in a paper bag. And to top it off they insist that you use the idiotic coin tray to pay for it. Nasty people here.
I'm not sure where you live but in my part of Berlin bakeries are heaven. Germans make amazing bread and cakes, and the bakeries I visit have no flies or bees and are incredibly clean. The shop assistants are always really kind and nice. They appreciate a few words of German and try to help when I struggle and switch to English. As a comparison, the cakes and bread are *miles ahead* of what I could find in the UK, or the USA, where bakeries are poop (GREGGS? Tesco Bread? Vomit inducing). Anglos can't bake for poop - cupcakes are the worst, most disgusting stuff in the history of mankind - just eat a spoonful of sugar, it's the same.
Sometimes I think everyone complaining here lives in some pooping expat bubble in some pooping corner of Berlin , surrounded by other pooping miserable expats like themselves. Get out more.
He's a delusional German as evidenced by the fact that he thinks German bread is good. In Germany bread is only good if you can't bite off a piece without shaking your head violently like a rabid dog. 90% of the bakeries in Berlin are massive chains that don't even do anything other than heat up frozen dough. And about sugar in cupcakes - what the hell were you expecting a CAKE to taste like?
I noticed something finally a few days ago. Was trying to enjoy a little walk through a park near my apartment and it hit me that the groups of people you see there on the weekends hanging out and having fun are always foreigners. You never hear Germans sitting around and chattering and enjoying themselves. It's always English or Spanish or Russian or Turkish. The Germans always lie around completely alone in baseball caps and sunglasses (especially men) or groups of 2 or max. 3. The only time I ever see Germans doing anything in larger groups they're doing some kind of weird sport. Germans seem extremely cliquish, probably because they spend 15 years going to school with the same exact classmates all day long. A German acquaintance even once told me about a kid who moved and joined his class in 4th grade and how that kid was never accepted into the group (even 8 years later). Just an observation.
You're right in that there are a lot of weird parks in Berlin where social outcasts hang out like Hasenheide and Gorlitzer. The one near my apartment isn't that bad and I've never seen a drug dealer there but way too many people smoking weed out in the open, way too many people openly pissing all over the place and a corner where a lot of gross gays congregate and have anonymous sex. Actually now that I think of it the park is completely messed up. I honestly can't believe that Berlin has messed up my judgement so much that I think that what I described above isn't that bad. Where I'm from even the park near the most squalid ghetto isn't that disgusting during the day.
This is not a practical but rather social rant about Berlin. I just don't fit. Berlin is famous for being super accepting you'd think? Nope. The lifestyle, the culture, the crazy public transport the overall "U GOT TO BE COOL ITS BERLIN BITCH" vibe that my so called friends have. I don't care for people here and people don't care for me. I'm a simple 24 year old dude who works as a photographer for ANOTHER SUPER DUPER Berlin start up. Sounds kinda cool right? Sounds that maybe I can sort of fit in and be on par with the supremely entitled hippies, endless party goers and drug addicts, oh, and also robotic arrogant German businessmen. I arrived here with my now ex GF who got sucked into this shit. I don't want to smoke weed every evening, I don't care that you're going to Berghain, I really really don't wanna go to another gay club just because it's cool. I don't have much of an Ego to throw around in these toxic social circles, neither do I want to. I rented a flat on the outskirt just because 99% of flats in the city are utter filth with a crazy price tag that you'd probably be trying to get into for a year or two if you're lucky. I have never felt as lonely and disconnected from people and the city culture as I do in Berlin. I lived in Moscow, New York, London and of course there are downsides to every single one of them, crazy prices too! But I felt alive, I felt that I can connect with my kind there to just be me and not put up an agenda mask. In all previous cities I have created a new social circles and connections, but not in Berlin. If you don't live the lifestyle or are too far away to come over and hang out you're worthless. Watching movies at Sony Center is the only pleasant experience that I have. I am praying every day to score a good job abroad and get the fornicate away from this city. I really tried Berlin I really wanted to see all the good side people are raving about. But the closer I got - the more I wanted to vomit.
Your eloquesnt ps is spot on, you've nailed it. People here are on too many drugs, so boring and old-hat. Move on Berlin you are still stuck in the 70's and 80's and it's incredibly embarrassing to be around. Talking all their Marxist left-wing BS. Everyone smooking cigarettes, even thoiugh they know it's most likely going to send them to an early grave. They've all got the same unifomr, beard, botle of cheap beer in their hands at all times, the ubiquitous dark t-shirt culture, or the other extreme of Charlottenberg designer labels that look brand new. Busy, busy, busy, with their hipster uni courses that will take them nowhere in life, they will never be able to afford to have a family with an Early Ottoman Literature degree. I hope you like doners, the equivalent of MacDonalds, actually, probably worse, I hate to thnk how that cheap 'meat' was produced. Te only good thing about Berlin is the amount of veg options, but even most of them are just junk food and the same the same. While we're on the subject of boring, 95% of the art here is crap, but what do yo expect from people who want to party and do druh=s all the time because "it's cool man".
I'll tell you what is cool in the 2020's, self-respect, monogamous relationships, family, learning a useful trade, proper nutrition, going cigarette, alcohol and drug free. Having time to chill out with friends, somethig that is impossible here because everyone is too busy being overworked by their uni professors selling Mickey Mouse and Kellog's Corn Flake degrees, while also working two part time jobs to keep up with Berlin inflation.
Big cities are so passe, they are for the ignorant, greedy, egotistical, moronic hedonist. Real people don't live in big cities anymore, they can see through the scams.
I have to go and wash off the human street-shitt from my shoes. And wash my clothes to be free of the smell of the Berlin homeless alcoholics and drug addicts.
Treat Berlin as you would Disneyland or Vegas, great to visit these weird and surreal places for a few days, once in your life, but don't live in them. Actually, New York, Paris and London are also boring these days, but as you say, you can at least make some connections there.
By the way, most of the young people in Berlin have never had a taste of real life, they are straight out of school and into uni, supported by their hard working parents and being coddled by the state. Their 'education' costs the hard working middle-class and working-class tax-payer billions each year. I hate to think of what their future will look like. Lonely childless feminists, or worse still, single-mothers, soulless men wandering around in daze or hanging out at the local spati in denial of their alcoholism. Don't fall for the bigger is better con-job, go to a smaller city and enjoy contact with people, rather than things or the promise that work makes freedom. And stay away from Left-wing feminists and 'anarchists' :o))) they are living in a dreamland where they all say the same thing, that is expected of them. but still want to take advantages from the capitalist system.
About doner: I am sick and tired of hearing about how it's so cheap here and how that is somehow proof that Berlin is a great city. Did you know that probably 99% of it was almost banned a year or two ago because the meat contains off-the-chart amounts of phosphates? Just like most other German Haute Cuisine that consists nearly exclusively of processed pork sausage. And I guess we can just ignore the frequent doner scandals that pop up about once every year or so when one of Germany's bumbling, incompetent health and hygiene agencies finds a batch that is being used although it expired several years ago or that contains some weird type of meat that isn't fit for human consumption. And definitely don't research Charlene Downes' death and what allegedly happened to her body if you ever want to be able to enjoy this filth again.
I'm the guy who wrote the original post and I would probably frame this paragraph -
"While we're on the subject of boring, 95% of the art here is crap, but what do yo expect from people who want to party and do druh=s all the time because "it's cool man". I'll tell you what is cool in the 2020's, self-respect, monogamous relationships, family, learning a useful trade, proper nutrition, going cigarette, alcohol and drug free. Having time to chill out with friends, something that is impossible here because everyone is too busy being overworked by their uni professors selling Mickey Mouse and Kellog's Corn Flake degrees, while also working two part time jobs to keep up with Berlin inflation."
It's incredibly refreshing to see these healthy thoughts, and thank you whoever you are for taking the time to write this incredibly constructive comment. Hope you're doing great.
I'm in a similar situation than you I guess, frm the outside I might seem like a person that would easily fit in, but I just don't, I can't help it... I know some people here to hang out occassionally, but neither do I feel any connection to them, neither do they care about me. I've also lived in different places/countries before and never had any issues to create a social circle with some people I care about (and who care about me) - hasn't happend here in almost 2 more years, and I kind of gave up that this is ever going to happen. Even friends I've known before moving here got kind of sucked in this Berlin thing and have somehow changed (e.g. became incredibly flaky and unreliable), so I kind of lost touch with some of them as well. I am feeling lonely and disconnect, even when meeting with people. I questioned myself a lot recently if anything's wrong with me that I can't fit in, but reading posts like this makes me realise it must something with the city. And I think the reason I dont fit in is because I am just way too critical how things are going here, and people can probably sense this. I see no point of going to some pooping night club, waiting in the queue for ages and pay a lot of entry to see some average techno dj, I don't see a point of going to some lame bars in kreuzberg or neukölln, furnished with some stuff from the flea market that charges double because it's cool and hip, I see no point in paying high rents for some rundown altbauwohnung just because the district is supposed to be trendy, I am pissed off by people who live in places like neukölln living their cool and edgy wannabe-artist life (sponsored by their parents back home), while there's so much misery around them on the streets and they don't even realise that they make the problem worse by pushing the rents high......there are so many more things I could rant about here, but I think everything's has been said here before. My point is: as long as you're questioning these things, people will never accept you here (I guess because the truth hurts too much or just because they're comletely in denial of everything going on in their lifes). Anyway, that's why I am out of here in 3 months. Cheers!
Living in Berlin since 2014. I thought that things will change with time and I'll start to like this city - Nope...5 years later and I still hate it to the core. I'm stuck here because of my studies, but trust me once I finish with university and move away from here, it'll be the happiest day of my life.
Some people call this place a hellhole. I disagree somewhat. After my time here I would call it a walking calamity.
I was at a conference in Dresden in April and got aquainted with a lovely couple who live in Berlin. He is Japanese, she is a German and they have a beautiful 2 year old daughter. In my experience, the Japanese are very cultured and polite and won't raise an issue with something or give opinions unless they feel it's absolutely needed. It was therefore interesting to hear his thoughts on his time in Germany. He told me that Germany is a tough case and that he is often baffled by the politics here and by the treatment he has been subjected to. He also said Berlin can be tough and that they may consider relocating, for the sake of their own well-being and their daughter's.
'Of course he is baffled by the politics. Germany is a dictatorship - again.'
'Germany is a hedonistic nanny state, it certainly hasn't been a Christian nation in a long, long time.'
Germany is certainly headed in this direction, if it isn't there already. The political (and social) situation here is rotten.
Germans need some spacial awareness therapy.
Berlin, and indeed other places in Germany can seem like such joyless places. I have seen this everywhere. You walk into a bar, club or a resturant and it's almost as if someone died. If you smile or laugh they'll think somethings up with you. If you are a happy, positive person and easygoing then this place could destroy you.