Current Events > Berlin does not seem like a top tier city.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I didn't know anything about Berlin, but decided to go anyway. So Berlin being the capital of Germany, I expected Berlin to be clean, full of people, a show of force (like all capitals), and overflowing with history along with its arts and music.

Instead, there is graffiti everywhere (we're staying at a four star hotel in a supposedly good district in Berlin: Tiergarten, and even here, it's full of graffiti), garbage on the streets, people jaywalking all the time, lots of beggars (more so than London, our previous city we visited earlier), no show of force (is there even police here? I don't recall seeing a police officer!), and almost all museums on the museum island is dedicated to non-German topics... On top of all this, I found out pretty much every single building here is a reconstruction, and even the Berlin Cathedral Church is a more modernly built church only made to LOOK old...

The whole vibe here seems more akin to Russia and Eastern Europe, moreso than what I expected of the capital of Germany, the strongest economy of the EU.
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IdiotMachine posted...

there is graffiti everywhere (we're staying at a four star hotel in a supposedly good district in Berlin: Tiergarten, and even here, it's full of graffiti), garbage on the streets, lots of beggars (more so than London, our previous city we visited earlier), no show of force (is there even police here? I don't recall seeing a police officer!), and almost all museums on the museum island is dedicated to non-German topics... On top of all this, I found out pretty much every single building here is a reconstruction, and even the Berlin Cathedral Church is a more modernly built church only made to LOOK old...

I was there five years ago and none of that was true.
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Goats posted...

IdiotMachine posted...

there is graffiti everywhere (we're staying at a four star hotel in a supposedly good district in Berlin: Tiergarten, and even here, it's full of graffiti), garbage on the streets, lots of beggars (more so than London, our previous city we visited earlier), no show of force (is there even police here? I don't recall seeing a police officer!), and almost all museums on the museum island is dedicated to non-German topics... On top of all this, I found out pretty much every single building here is a reconstruction, and even the Berlin Cathedral Church is a more modernly built church only made to LOOK old...

I was there five years ago and none of that was true.

I guess lots of things changed in five years then. Because there is graffiti, the museums on museum island focus on Egyptian, European, African, and Asian art and history (instead of Germany), bunch of "historical" buildings are reconstructions (Berlin Palace is undergoing a reconstruction right now), and the Berlin Cathedral Church was rebuilt in 1900s but looks to be as old/designed as the St Paul's Cathedral in London...
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I lived in Berlin from 1988-90 so I can't speak for it now, but I do recall it was rather...urban. Ghetto is too harsh a word, I think, but I think that industrial-type aesthetic was by design (though I don't really recall it being actually dirty, with trash and transients and whatnot).
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Oh heavens people jay walking! *clutches pearls*

Lol btw what parts of Russia have you been?

i mean ive never been to berlin but it was pretty much destroyed in wwii and then subsequently occupied for most of the rest of the 20th century
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Well.. It's obvious why all the buildings are newer reconstructions right?
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PsychicHippo posted...

I lived in Berlin from 1988-90 so I can't speak for it now, but I do recall it was rather...urban. Ghetto is too harsh a word, I think, but I think that industrial-type aesthetic was by design (though I don't really recall it being actually dirty, with trash and transients and whatnot).

Ghetto is definitely too harsh. And it's not too urban, as in there's no real tall buildings or a "city-like" vibe. I guess the "industrial by design" makes more sense.

CruelBuffalo posted...

Oh heavens people jay walking! *clutches pearls*

Lol btw what parts of Russia have you been?

Well it's like a lot of jaywalking. It's all encouraged, since there seems to be like no traffic signs except in very high traffic, touristy areas.
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Vamp_Aubrey posted...

i mean ive never been to berlin but it was pretty much destroyed in wwii and then subsequently occupied for most of the rest of the 20th century

glitteringfairy posted...

Well.. It's obvious why all the buildings are newer reconstructions right?

..........................okay I'm an idiot. Ignore the reconstruction complaints..... My bad.
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They have a top tier song though. Take My Breath AWAY
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they have a pretty significant refugee crisis going on

VoightKent posted...

well it is the center of Germany's far right

ever seen a far right city that actually compared to leftist cities?

The tour guide said Berlin is one of the most liberal cities tho... And I can believe it. There were advertisements for gay and lesbian bars stickered on the wall, and in front of the Brandenburg Gate today, there was a guy wearing only a thong advertising for a gay bar.
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IdiotMachine posted...

VoightKent posted...

well it is the center of Germany's far right

ever seen a far right city that actually compared to leftist cities?

The tour guide said Berlin is one of the most liberal cities tho... And I can believe it. There were advertisements for gay and lesbian bars stickered on the wall, and in front of the Brandenburg Gate today, there was a guy wearing only a thong advertising for a gay bar.

Berlin is one of the most progressive cities in the world in this regard. If not the most

So a funny tidbit: our tour guide got us to a playground/parking lot area, and started telling us about Hitler and how he committed suicide in a bunker. During that talk, two Berliners relaxing nearby on a bench glared at us, stood up and left... Our tour guide made light of the situation.

Turns out the bunkers were underneath where we were. The tour guide also said they made the place inaccessible; he also noted that if it was accessible, Germany would never allow tourism there, and it was intentional that they made no markers of the place above ground, as the German government does not want the place to become a shrine.
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IdiotMachine posted...

On top of all this, I found out pretty much every single building here is a reconstruction

well, i assume a lot of it was destroyed back in 45
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