Berlin

So my first impression of Berlin in comparison to Barcelona is the incredible difference in proportions. Berlin is definitely wider than it is tall, while Barcelona is much taller than it is wide. Buildings, roads, empty space, all of it. Berlin reminds me most of LA just in terms of its space – very large buildings that are very solid and rectangular and seem to weight down the entire block they run. And these, my friend, are not small blocks! Some seem to be half a mile long. No kidding. The streets themselves are incredibly wide – people park perpendicular to the street on *both* sides, and there’s still room for two lanes and a green space down the middle! Not to mention the sidewalks themselves could nearly all be two-lane roads. Even the small side streets are wider than most in San Francisco. Barcelona on the other hand has very, very skinny buildings, and even thinner streets. I don’t think I saw more than a few two lane streets the entire time I was there. Many of them even require three or five point turns to get around the corner - which is pretty hilarious to watch. This makes for very shaded tight feeling spaces which can be comforting but then again a bit restrictive. the perspective of only being able to view a building from at most ten feet away from it is very different than what the building would look like half a mile away. The inner spaces follow suit – giant, and I do mean giant apartments in berlin – and teeny, tiny apartments in Barcelona. Six of the Barcelona bathtub I had could fit in the berlin bathtub. Because of Berlin's wide open spaces and long, lumbering buildings it does certainly feel much heavier and more solid than barcelona, it's old, thin, dainty cousin. There's nothing dainty about Berlin, including its people!

The Germans have a really obvious group personality. They are really into rules and upholding of those rules for the sake of upholding them. Take crossing the street for example – the germans will not Jaywalk. It doesn’t matter if it’s a one-way street you can see for miles down with nary a car in sight – they will *not* cross that street until the cross-walk light turns green. It blows my new Yorker mind – I can’t even conceive of such a thing. It’s not like they think a car is going to fall out of the sky and squash them if they do cross before it’s okay to, it’s just that they like to uphold rules. They also won’t smoke where they’re not allowed to (which is fantastic!), and as we saw a couple of times, if one German thinks another is doing something wrong, they will certainly be sure to let them know. As Shawn said - there is no sugar-coating here. Whenever I asked someone a stupid question, they were sure to answer me as if I were an idiot. One night in a bar I asked for a fork for my food, and the guy was like 'your fork is right here' and gave me a look like i had three stupid heads. I guess I hadn't looked at the bottom of the breadbasket to find it! He later warmed up to me though. You definitely need to have thick skin to live here. No lightening up the moment with a joke either, they are not jokers. It is refreshing though to have people be so straightforward, and being pretty tactless myself I certainly appreciated the directness. Of course I also couldn’t understand most of what was being said, so that may help too!

Everyone bikes here. Shawn and Flora convinced me I should rent a bike which I was apprehensive about 1) because no one wears a helmet except a few small children and 2) because the only time in the last 9 years I have ridden a bike was at Burningman on a very flat desert riding a no-gear heavy cruiser. With no vehicular traffic to speak of. It was so much fun! It took me a really long time to get used to the back pedal = brake idea. I tend to back pedal a lot during the normal course of biking and each time would get lurched forward until I trained myself not to do that. The really amazing thing is how integrated bikes and vehicles are here! Truly amazing. The cars completely respect the bikes, are aware of them, don’t hit them… don't open their doors without looking first... and there are bike lanes on *nearly* every road! Sometimes painted on the road, and sometimes a separate part of the sidewalk. Fantastic. I can’t imagine a day when it will like that in San Francisco, which is unfortunate because now I see how fun biking around a city can be.

The one thing about berlin I didn't get to participate in which was a slight disappointment is their intense ping pong matches. Parks have permanent stone ping pong tables! Even the women in work clothes, tight skirts and high heeled shoes pretty much kicked ass. I for one am a big sucker for ping pong. Ah well, something for next time.