Berlin – Summary

I was in Berlin from August 3rd until the 22nd. This wasn’t enough time to say that I “lived” in Berlin, but for a brief moment I had a daily routine. I would get up in the morning, do my standard morning routine, go to work, and in the evening go to some Berlin activity. Since Berlin is a new city to me, there were always new things to see and do. Since I would work throughout the day, this didn’t even count as a work vacation day. My company has offices in a few other places, so when I feel the need for another vacation, I have an idea of what I will do.

Berlin Style

One thing one of my readers pointed out to me, was that although my sister may not approve of the fashionability of a fanny pack, Berliners love them. Although, rather than wearing it on the waist, they strap them around their shoulder. Now I understand the joke from Friends about the male purse.

Intersections

Light

In Berlin, or more generally in Germany and many more places (but notably not Israel and the US), the traffic lights are before the intersection. For example, examine this picture (found on the internet, from Holland, but uses the same concept).

Imagine you are a driver approaching the red light intersection. If you decide to stop on the crosswalk, like many Israeli drivers do, then you won’t be able to see when the red light changes to green.

In Israel (and the US) there is another set of lights on the other side of the intersection, that allows the driver to advance nearly to the other side of the intersection while still being able to see the light.

The solution is to do what they do in many places in Europe and remove the far traffic light. It is a very simple solution, that is even cheaper than what is currently done in Israel, and it will prevent drivers from stopping on the crosswalk.

Emergency Vehicles

On the other hand, one thing that Germany does worse, is the noise pollution. Every time an emergency vehicle reaches an intersection, whether the light is green, it is the middle of the night, or there are no people nearby, they sound the siren at full volume. I slept on a low level, near an intersection, so throughout the night I would periodically hear an emergency vehicle siren for a few seconds.

Brief Tours of Many Places

I had access to the 9 EUR ticket, so I wanted to visit as many places as possible. However, that did mean that I could only spend a brief amount of time in any place. I’m more used to getting to know a place a bit more, but there was something nice about only seeing the best few hours of a location.

quickly seeing everything

Holocaust History

Last time I was in Germany I was doing an exchange program in Munich. Munich is right next to the Alps, so almost every Sunday I would take a train there and go on a different hike in the Alps. However, this time I visited cities and villages. It was then that I noticed how so many places have some remembrance of the Holocaust. When approaching a city or village, I would read a Wikipedia article about the place. Many places had a horrible history, like a gypsy death camp or a horrific POW work camp. When travelling between cities by bike I saw a concentration camp in Osthofen and an abandoned Jewish cemetery in Oppenheim, it was very surprising to me to see them so often.

Conclusion

This was a short post. Mainly because at Ecotopia I don’t have easy access to electricity and internet. I will try to write the post about Ecotopia not too long afterward the event, that way I can recall the events better.