Observations from A Brexile’s first month living in Berlin
So it’s been a full month and I’ve learnt a lot of things. Berlin is a great city but there are certainly some oddities, differences and certainly a number of assumptions I’d previously made that have been blown out of the water. I will share them with you here.
Germans are better at queueing than Brits.
We’re told that we love queueing more than any other nation in the world. Not so. In Tesco in the UK, if a queue is more than two deep, people will moan and they’ll open another checkout. In one of the proper large supermarkets here, like Kaufland for example (which is HUGE), two or three checkouts will be open and queues can be up to ten deep. Nobody complains.
It’s easier to be vegetarian/vegan in Berlin than it is in London. But sadly, it’s also far better to be a meat-eater.
Everywhere in Berlin does a reasonable vegetarian option. Sadly, these options are normally laid out in front of you whilst a meat-eating friend devours the most incredible pork sausage or doner kebab. Thanks to a large Turk community, kebab shops are everywhere in Berlin (almost universally 3,50€ for a doner kebab or a falafel/halloumi kebab) and they’re actually really good — you can enjoy a quality chunk of fast food without worrying about taking a week off work with food poisoning. For vegans/vegetarians with a more discerning taste, join the (very long) queue for Mustafa’s in Mehringdamm or Rüya Gemüse Kebab in Schöneberg.
The best veggie/vegan supermarket options I’ve so far found to be at The Bio Company. There you can find vegan steaks, vegan sausages, even a vegetarian doner kebab.
Everything is cheap.
I like two beverages — diet coke and booze. The former costs more than the latter (beer anyway). Otherwise, despite Berlin’s rent prices going up as of late, it is still one of the cheapest cities in the world to live. The amount I paid for my tiny studio in Covent Garden would get you a generously-sized Mitte penthouse here. On my first night in Berlin, I bought a round of three beers for 6,50€. Try using that to buy a single drink in central London.
To Berliners, an absolute nightmare day on public transport is the equivalent of a normal day at London Waterloo.
At no time and no place in Berlin have I ever been rammed into a carriage like I was on the Northern Line in London. I almost always have a seat on my commute to work within central Berlin (Schöneberg to Kreuzberg) and there are plenty of transport options: the U-Bahn (underground), the S-Bahn (Overground), suburban rail, the tram and the bus. On the weekend, unlike in London, the entire system works 24hrs.
The cost of public transport is cheap, but it makes sense to buy an annual/monthly ticket rather than pay by week, day or singular journey.
Berlin going-out time is the same as London last-orders time
Be aware that people will suggest meeting at a bar for the beginning of the night at 10:30pm. Berlin is a city that does not sleep.
The beer. Oh my goodness… the beer!
In England I drink wine. In Germany I drink beer. The options are endless and the prices are cheap.
Berlin is far more Shoreditch than Shoreditch
I mean, sure, you can find plenty of very modern-looking wine bars in Berlin — this largely depends on the district you happen to be in. But certainly in the more hip areas, like Kreuzberg or Neukölln, you’ll find yourself in bars with a sort of decor that you’d expect to wake up in if you’d been captured in one of the Saw films. This isn’t a bad thing. If anything, do not judge a book by its cover. Some of the best bars in Berlin are fronted with graffiti-covered run-down doors that a discerning Londoner would probably dismiss and walk past rather quickly.
Everybody has a beautiful dog and it will make you want to have one too
Berlin is a city of pet-lovers. Germany itself, with a renting culture, typically allows you to keep pets (in fact, an estate agent told me that small animals were a right enshrined in law — landlords can only say no to large animals that may cause damage or animals that are antisocial to other neighbours).
You will regularly see dog-walkers out and about. You’ll encounter plenty of dogs on public transport and it will make you want to get one.
There are very few lifts
For a city that’s typically quite progressive, you’ll find a large number of buildings without lifts. Whilst this is certainly not as much of a problem for me as it is for those with permanent walking disabilities, I did experience how difficult it was to carry everything you own up four floors of stairs when moving into my new flat. Luckily, I had lots of lovely friends to help.
Get all your shopping done on Saturday, because you’re not getting anything on a Sunday.
Even if Berlin is largely secular, Germany is still very much in the grips of Christianity, so Sunday is considered more sacred than in the UK. Not only that, but you’ll likely have rules in your contract about what times you’re allowed to play music. And thinking about a bit of Sunday DIY? You’ll be breaking the law if you do.
Cyclists own the cycle lanes. And the pavements.
Berlin is a great place to be a cyclist, although as a pedestrian it can be daunting to see them weave in and out of a crowd at speed. In London, this would obviously be illegal. In Berlin, it somehow works. Probably due to the fact that pedestrians get a vastly generous amount of space on the pavements.
Berlin is a city that acknowledges its awful past
From WWII to the Berlin Wall, the city is creaking with history. It has changed vastly over the years and you can still see the east/west divide, not just with the old Soviet-style buildings that still stand in the old east, but with the political demographics from recent elections too.
Near the centre of power in Germany, the area around the Reichstag building is littered with monuments and memorials. From the notable and powerful memorial to European Jews killed in the Holocaust, the brilliant and subtle memorial to gay and bisexual people murdered by the Nazis and the various memorials to others such as murdered Reichstag Members and Gypsies; Berlin proudly bears its scars as a cautionary tale.
In summary, move here (please don’t move here)
Berlin is an amazing city and if you move here you’d love it. However, if you moved here, you’d probably help drive the rent up and increase the number of people on the public transport. So, you know, feel free to stay in the UK…
