Observing Sweden

Most of these posts are a bit of a flaneur pretension from Berlin, but we did visit Sweden over the winter holidays, of course. Many things have not, but some things have changed from the Sweden of my childhood: where Berliners all wear fur-rimmed parkas, Swedes are really keen on fluorescent vests, jackets and stripes…

There are so many… crime scenes

Yes, Tatort is one of THE German TV rituals. Every Sunday evening a good chunk of the nation sits on their sofa for 90min to witness the solving of a crime, usually a murder. Tatort is the scene of a crime and it is usually a pair of detectives that investigates. There have been more than…

Banning AirBnBs

I’ve noted previously, that some of the discussions about gentrification and the lack of affordable housing in Berlin resemble Vancouver discussions. Among the discussions on these topics is a serious backlash against the sharing economy. Everyone agrees that AirBnB-type rentals are fine if people are renting out a spare room or their place when they…

Wacky Business Idea: Service Kiosk

The Kiosk is definitely not a modern dinosaur. But, when I recently saw an add for a Kiosk location in a subway station that could be leased, I started thinking about how I would run a Kiosk. If you’re curious about these business opportunities, check for available locations: http://urbanis-berlin2.de. Building on the general Kiosk strengths of convenience and…

…but there are so few church bells ringing now.

I remember of trips to West Germany that you almost always and seemingly inevitably stayed next door to a church wherever you stayed over night, whether that was with relatives or in a Pension. Nothing wrong with that, but inevitably, the bells at these churches would go into full aural attack mode round about 5:30h…

There are so many … clocks

Without going into a deep discussion of German punctuality (you know how I hate those national identity arguments!), it does seem to me that there are many more clocks in Berlin than there are in Vancouver. Maybe it’s just that I’m riding public transit so much and it is obviously clock-focused. But more so in…

Riding to the End of the Line: Strausberg

The train lines that go West-East right through the middle of downtown have been a big part of our first five months in Berlin as we lived right near a station on that line. It’s also very nice to ride with the great views on the Tiergarten, Chancellory, Reichstag, government buildings, Museumsinsel, etc. it provides….

Born on the Train

One phrase that thousands, nay probably hundreds of thousands of Berlin parents have uttered at some point in the last 100 years: “Biste inner U-Bahn jeboren?” [Were you born on the subway?] This is the modern update on “Bist Du in einer Scheune geboren?” [Were you born in a barn?]. In both cases, this is meant to…

No Winter Coats?

Wow, what is with all the parkas with a fur-rimmed hood in Berlin? Everyone is wearing them, certainly everyone between 12 and 22. Even the men. It’s out of control, really! Lack of Winter Wear I suspect that one of the reasons the fur-parka is ubiquitous is that many people suddenly had to buy winter…

Graffiti

I’m all for public art, especially in the city. Generally, there is more visible public art in Berlin than Vancouver, in part because developers are obliged to spend a higher portion of investments on public art. There is a LOT of informal public art, i.e. graffiti in Berlin. However, I have to admit, I’m not…

Remembering Dictatorship

I’ve been happy that history education in high school in Berlin still seems to be quite different from what it is in Vancouver. My experience from what I was able to see in T’s history classes was fairly disappointing, i.e. a whole lot and way too many multiple choice tests. Obviously teaching toward those tests…

Free-Riding Public Transit

A subway/train system that has no wickets is such a delight! We generally buy a monthly pass for all members of the family (including the very cheap “sibling ticket” for one of the girls) and off we go. Meaning that on subways and trains, we show a ticket perhaps once a month when they are…