7:38pm Sunday 31st January 2010
By Pencils Down
Since first going to University, leaving my family home and getting my first real taste of independence I, like many, have wanted to experience the whole world all at once.
So when I found out I'd accidentally booked my return flight from Berlin a day later than my friends (an act which MAY or may not have something to do alcohol, my debit card and an online booking system) I was excited for a day on my own.
The 10 other lads who took the short trip to the (freezing) German capital with me got their flight back this morning so, after a brief snooze to blow away the cobwebs caused by five days of currywurst and weissbier, I've been wandering the streets taking it all in.
Earlier in the week we visited the structurally impressive Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag - Germany's parliament building - and the somewhat eerie remains of the Berlin Wall, now known as the East Side Gallery. Trying to fit it all in to five days is like trying to do the same thing in London; impossible. As none of us speak the language fluently we had to keep our wits about us to get to where we were going, but today I've just meandered around the snowy city with no agenda. After embracing a lazy Sunday and reflecting on the past week, there are two endearing characteristics I've really picked up on from my German hosts: pride and honesty.
To quote my hostel's brochure: "Berlin is not pretty... Berlin's attractiveness is rather in its character than its appearance". They couldn't be more true. There are still buildings missing bricks and walls from WW2 bombs and the city planners in the mid 20th Century certainly had a thing for unimaginative poured concrete rather than restoring them to their original form. And when strolling round the East side you'd struggle to walk 50 yards without encountering graffiti. However, this is where their pride comes in to play. Rather than fretting that a 30 foot tall graffiti painting of a giant slug, a robot or two young lovers getting intimate on a delapidated building may look messy, the Berlin philosophy is to leave it up. This results in the "vandal" creating a masterpiece instead of a pointless squiggle as they know it will remain to be seen by the world, producing a scenery like nothing I have seen before. There's also a distinct lack of litter. Maybe the odd broken beer bottle by a hostel front door, but they certainly pride themselves on cleanliness here.
And as we stood watching bottom of the table Hertha Berlin struggle to a goaless draw against Vfl Bochum in the breath taking (and flipping freezing) Olympa-Stadion, it was unblievable to see 38,500 passionate Berliners shout, sing and bounce for the full 90 minutes. Their team played poor and are nine points away from safety in the league, but it sounded as if they were winning the title yesterday.
Now for Honesty. You may think it's rudeness, but I saw it as gorgeous honesty. As we approached a club on Thursday evening (Friday morning) the doorman told us, quite simply, we weren't allowed in as he only wanted couples or women in his building. You can't argue with that! On another night in a quaint, quirky bar my friend asked the owner if the cake he was selling was nice, to which he replied: "if I was you, I wouldn't buy that". That's certainly unconventional market. Brilliant. And finally, on our way in to the football stadium a fan turned to me and said: "you can't take beer in to the stadium, you have to buy it in there. I'll finish it for you if you like?" And with that he downed the last half of my pint. Not in a million years would I ask an English football for his beer, this man deserve it. You know exactly where you stand in Berlin, and that's truly a nice feeling. There's no faffing around here.
So yeah, it's not a traditionally beautiful city, but personally I think the fact they are aware of it and will happily promote themselves to tourists in that way is a beautiful thing in itself. So what will I do tonight? I think I'm going to see if there's a way to bottle the Berlin perspective of beauty and try and smuggle it back to England with me.
P.S. The one thing I will say however is that even though Germany coined the term schadenfreude, they certainly do NOT appreciate you laughing at them when they slip on the ice. Just thought I'd warn you.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/trade_directory/