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Someone firebombed a car on our street and seriously damaged the little van used by a local small business. Why? Because, 5 kilometers a way, some totally unrelated people were involved in a fight over a totally unrelated squat. The supposed last warriors for justice thought that they would "stand up for their rights" by threatening strangers in the city.
That isn't fighting back, that is attempted extortion. I was somewhat sympathetic to their situation before they started their car firebombing campaign. Now I can't wait for the property owners to clear them all out and make Berlin a better place.
I was just told off by the security of natural history museum. The reason: I charged my phone for 15 minutes. I paid 8 euros for this lame museum (where everything was only in German of course), you got to be f****g kidding me. I'm glad to know that while the stereotype of efficient Germans is bs, at least the stereotype about cheapness is true.
Ah, you are mistaken. Efficiency == cheapness.
See, when a German has had magnificent service at a restaurant, they want to leave a tip. But this has to be efficient, so they round up. If your meal was 23.75, they'll offer a generous tip of 25 cents by rounding up to 24 euros. Cheap _AND_ efficient. Best of all possible outcomes.
Or how about the boxes of "free stuff" that you'll see on the streets? Things like "half a vacuum pipe" or "old Germany D grade romance novels". The best that I've seen was a box of "free glass jars and lids". You know, the stuff that you throw away after you've eaten the jam inside. Ah, it's great to be surrounded by such generous and kind souls, don't you think?
Or, if you work for a German company, you might get a sweet secret santa deal where the agreed on price per gift is a staggering 5 euros. That's about 1.4 kebabs. And you'll get weird looks anytime you want to pay with a note larger than 20 euros. Filthy tourist.
You will also get laughed at if you like craft beer. I mean, you have got to be a batshit crazy tourist to pay above 1 euro for a beer if you can get a beer from Aldi for 40 cents. Also, this craft beer tastes funny, so it's bad. It's not as good as our beer, all of which tastes exactly the same.
they paid 11 euros entry. In the UK museums are free. Why do people have to feel guilty for tap water here or using a plug for 15 mins? Why were the museum management too cheap to translate the captions? No I made a mistake, German is the commerce language of the world. Yes we should all learn the language of modernism and progress...
I live here all my life and i can say that I rarely meet a decent or nice person here,I always want to travel to another countrys because everything here is negative.Someday I leave this city forever.
I just really hate all these freaking guys from Paderborn, Hannover, or other dull, rancid German small towns that walk around in Neukölln and think they are the shit. You're not, you are just peasants.
Innovation? Where for art thou innovation?. In the workplace.NO. In the streets NO. In the culture NO. You just have to look at this city to realise its all a bullshit. It is the most boring freaking dead place on earth.
Just wait until winter rolls around ;). Berlin is 10x more Berlin-y in the winter than it is now. More piss, more drunken german hobos, more gray (why do they paint new buildings gray as well?), the locals scowl even more (yes, it's possible), and the worst thing -- most expats/tourists leave so you're pretty much stuck in a cage with a bunch of cold psychopaths.
Looks like people are waking up big time about the nasty truths in Berlin....i still get flashbacks including smelling piss...f.u.c.k that shithole...for real.
I have never meet so many creeps..I mean really creepy fuckers as I have in Berlin.The troubling thing it was in every strata of society. From encounters with corner shop owners to christmas with middle class folk or the wealthy .Always some creepy poop going on.YUCK and fornicate THIS PLACE.
I hate how these folks give me dirty looks when I put trash in the wrong bin BUT: arstechnica.com/cars/2016/07/regulator-says-volkswagens-3-0l-diesel-recall-plan-is-substantially-deficient/
ahh yes!!!! German efficiency, it applies to everything! Except Volkswagen, The Airport of Brandenburg, Deutsche Bank, etc. etc. etc. After having worked with them I can say that they are the least innovative people in the world are Germans and their mythical efficiency is just a myth.
THIS. All of the rules that matter, be it following environmental regulations, not smoking in bars or not treating bike lanes are fine for others to break. I show up at 5:45 to pick up something that was promised by 6 and I"m a failure of a human who needs to understand the rules.
It's because you are an auslander. No matter what you do, you are human garbage.
See, when some German is lazy... erm, I meant TIRED, and he has to deliver your package, he'll just fornicate it and leave it at the depot for you to pick up. It's ok though - he's a German. His people have worked hard for thousands of years and he deserves a little rest. You, on the otherhand, subhuman tourist, come from a lazy country and you are expected to atone for your lazy ways.
Why phone lines have queues! Call the doctor, get an engaged tone, call 115 for the burger amt, get a "everyone's busy please call later". I even got the engaged tone calling 112 once. Wtf, automated phone lines are not a new thing!
It drives me insane, it's so easy to get through to the tax people, driving licence people, either by phone, online or in person in the uk, yet it's impossible here.
Phoned up the dvla to renew my British licence this morning, took two minutes to find out I couldn't. So I try to call birgeramt 10 times. Engaged each time.
Try to make an online appointment, but they are booked out for as far as the calendar allows you to book, tried to go in person, but there were so many people waiting that it's not possible today. Of course, only after a queueing at the "information desk" for an hour and a half did I discover that.
They said if I come tomorrow an hour before it opens and start queueing, I'll probably be able to get a "spontaneous" appointment.
Weird thing is, that in the birgeramt they can do everything, even print and produce a passport on demand. They just do it slowly.
I cannot believe these people have a reputation for efficiency.
I called the private health insurance line for the best clinic in the city for the illness I had (it could have been worse. I would have had public insurance. Then I could only call for one hour a day). I waited on hold for 50 minutes. I waited on hold for so long I actually got on my bike and biked to the office to make an appointment in person, all while still on hold. Someone finally answered while I was at the front door. When I told the appointment lady that I had been waiting 50 minutes and then biked while sick, she pretended that I didn't even say it and proceeded with the appointment. I then went to my appointment, and they agreed I should follow up in two weeks. Fine, but the next follow-up appointment they would offer was in six weeks.
What is the point of luring so many young professionals if you're gonna make them clean dishes at a restaurant. Yeah Berlin is a city with prostitutes with PhDs no wonder why. Run away from that place.
I do speak fluent German and have thousands of Euros. A German company hired me to grow capabilities in Germany that the country doesn't currently have. I'm a walking example of the type of person cities try very hard to attract.
I still get hate, because I do have money for a decent apartment in a fun area, and I spent some more doing nice things like getting good health insurance and buying luxuries like a plastic spoon rest for my stove (I was genuinely told off for the excess of getting a little plastic spoon rest rather than just put the spoon on the countertop and then wash the countertop later).
You can't win, whatever you do become, they'll hate you for whatever you aren't.
Oh joy, the kid is playing football again upstairs and there is nothing I can do. I'm not angry, I'm rather saddened, due to his Hartz IV parents and weight problem. 95% chance he becomes one of those incoherent people on the U Bahn who pissed their pants.
Don't forget - they're Germans. Whatever it is they're doing, it's The Best Possible Way of Doing Something. You, silly Auslander, cannot comprehend the full utility that their activities bring to their glorious society.
Sarcasm aside, I've got some glorious care free Berliner youth putting German hip hop and I too cannot do anything about it. Too bad these kids will never work a day in their lives until they're 30 years old.
I think I figured out the customer service thing, or lack therof.
Germans learn a series of processes required to get things done. Step b follows step a, step c follows b and so on. This is then and henceforth the ONLY way to accomplish said task. The German way.
Customer service is the art of dealing with situations that don't fit a standard template.
This is not possible here.
So if you go into every situation expecting to do it in the standard way you will not be disappointed.
I, unfortunately, and most expats also, am used to bending rules, thinking for myself and finding new ways to achieve a goal.
That's why I am always annoyed. Not the germans fault. Just their education and culture.
For me Berlin is an epitome of senseless regulation, laziness, decadence, ineffectiveness, depression, asexuality, refusal to accept reality, immaturity and urine. It is some sort of enriched concentration of everything that is bad and rotten in Western Europe these day. Just go over border and compare it to Polish people in their mostly well kept, beautiful cities, occasionally smiling people, things and persons that actually might work.
I too have had only good experiences with the funny people across the eastern border. It's ridiculously cheap and close to get to Breslau or Posen. Most fairly young people had no problems with speaking English and helping me out when I got lost. The old people there do look kinda mean, but hey, that's how you probably look after 40 years of communism, amirite? Also - yes - lots more smiles and much more open to talking about stuff.
Berliners may be rude and unfriendly, but Poles are worse. Also I wouldn't recommend a person of color to go there. They especially hate Germans, but from my impression non-whites even more (they basically don't have non-white minorities except some Vietnamese people). Also what is wrong with those ugly haircuts and trousers men wear? And the downvotes: You people plus Hungarians and Czechs are basically the biggest reason why the EU is imploding - you take and take yet are not willing to contribute anything. Have a guess why your country is getting so unpopular.
You people? I am Scandinavian, not Polish. Poles are not particularly unfriendly. People might shake hands with you - other customer - when they enter a shop. Do you really wonder why they hate Germans? I am sometimes feeling the same, even though my country wasn't pillaged by them. About minorities I can't say, it might be some truth in it with is a shame. What comes to EU, I couldn't care a less how people are dealing with it in particular country. They are not gonna change their mind whether or not I boycott them and if EU is stupid enough to pour money to them then it is surely fault of EU, not their.
All the poles I've ever met were amusing witty and friendly. Also I don't think the eu is going down because of the budget distribution favouring the east, it's mostly investment in infrastructure and culture etc and improved polish transport links etc is good for moving goods around cheap.
If you had to ask me why the eu is going down (if it is, brexit aside) i would say it's because of problems with the euro (some inherent in the model, some as a result of the behaviour of banks) and the inevitable difficulties of trying to tie 27 states with different histories, cultures and values into a single entity, without communicating to the people why this is good for them. Seeing your politicians unable to deal with problems in their own land that are important to you, because of the eu, time and time again really isn't a good thing. The eu is attempting to tie together all these countries, but as you show with your attitude toward poles, Hungarians and Czechs, it's difficult to overcome people's national identities and tendency to look for an external entity to blame
What does it even matter where I am from? Ad hocs usually tells someone has ran out of arguments. Funny thing is that I am opposing here a view that all eastern Europeans are bigots, ugly, parasites etc and you are preaching me about tolerance. :D Try to grow up and accept there are no paradises, that way you can eventually be happy somewhere. Not in Berlin as that place is poisonous, but somewhere.
Berliners (Germans and Immigrants ) are the most Disgusting people on earth,they are deformed and act like dogs,there women are whores and the men are Bastards.
Left berlin, moved to dublin. I was initially shocked by the fact that strangers were smiling to me on the street, then i got used to that and suddenly the anger i felt in berlin disappeared. Listen to me, run away. You will appreciate the value of human touch again.
Yep, this will place will wear you down until you... become a Berliner! You will become gray, sullen, angry, humorless, probably stink like piss, come to hate tourists and foreigners. Save yourself while you can!
Btw, I would be dead here if not for the expats. Man, love them guys from NZ or IE, always make me rediscover the art of laughter.