Gotta come!

[imomus]

"My Berlin is over," says Craig Robinson (of Flip Flop Flyin fame) in a blog entry entitled Gotta Go.

"My Berlin is one where someone cutting me up on their bike makes me really angry; a Berlin where holding a door open for someone with a bicycle illicits a look of disgust not a smile or a thank you; and a Berlin where someone will be watering the plants on their balcony just as I'm walking underneath... I need to get out as soon as I can."

Of course we all experience these feelings of frustration from time to time. Except me. Except here. I fucking LOVE Berlin. I love it three years in. I love it every time I come back. I'm loving it this week, even despite the World Cup (the one thing Craig finds redeeming about the city: he calls it "the plaster over the wound"). I'm loving the banner hanging on the Oranienstrasse that says "Stupid football nationalists PISS OFF!"



The fact is, if you think Arsenal is a football team, Berlin only makes sense right now, in the grip of football mania. But if you know that Arsenal is in fact the art screen at the Potsdamer Platz showing the early films of Shohei Imamura this month, the "film poems" of Clive Holden, a "magical history tour", a "festival of festivals", and bits of the Tanz im August season, you're fine.

Business as usual in Berlin means not so much business, but tons of culture. But it's also got delights unmatched by either of the cities I've recently spent time in, London or New York. The clean air. The fact that you can ride your bike on the pavement. The forests and lakes just a short elevated train ride away. The Dahlem museums, which I visited last week. The Slow Life and the sobriety. The radical politics. The environmentalism. The loud, loud birdsong. The great theatre and visual art and design you can see here. The cutting edge international architecture. The excellent public transport. The trams! The fabulous zoo. The great coffee. Such high quality of life at such a low price! How do they do it?



A classic "God, I'm glad I'm in Berlin!" moment came the other day when I visited the new organic pasta cafe at 33 Mulackstrasse in Mitte. Leo Bettini is a South Tirolian-themed place (but in fact it's terribly "Mitte") with a deliciously cool interior (loose wooden slats around the kitchen, plain white tables and chairs) and staggeringly excellent food. Even the trip to the bathroom (with views out over a bamboo courtyard, and a delightfully clean, stark design) was great; I snapped photos, thinking how Japanese it felt. Japan with more space.

Or what about white beer for less than a euro a bottle? Apartments for less than 400 euros a month? One of which I yesterday signed a lease for! In fabulous Neubeca, with its aromatic Turkish market!

I'm sorry Craig walks around Berlin wondering "why does it always rain on me". My experience couldn't be more different. Berlin is my place in the sun. The rain is just an old lady watering her plants, Craig. And Arsenal is really a cinema.

Comments

[imomus.livejournal.com]

It would be great on price alone, even without all its other attractions. Let me give you an example. My rabbit has gnawed through my USB 2 cable. I need a new one. I'm in London. I go to Argos, a discount electronics store. The cable costs £9.99 (http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=4501&productId=223735), which at today's conversion rate is €14.43.

I decide to wait until I'm back in Berlin. Sure enough, today I find the same cable at Saturn (http://www.saturn.de/frontend/html/outlet/12/home.html?CFID=2682509&CFTOKEN=58824075) for €6.89. Less than half the price.

Now, I'm not an economist. I have no idea why this cable needs to cost twice as much in London. It's not as if German workers are paid less, or work in worse conditions, than British ones -- quite the contrary, they have better holidays, better health and pension arrangements, etc. It's not as if fuel costs more in the UK. I assume it's just that more people in the UK are prepared (and can afford, apparently) to be ripped off, that more people are marking stuff up and therefore others have to mark up, and also rent and storage are much more expensive in the UK because of the silly property market bubble that reigns there, where shitty housing is sold at astronomical prices.

But as long as British national sentiment makes Britain hold back from the Euro, British people won't know how badly they do on basic commodities; how absurdly they're overpaying for everything. Worse products and services, higher prices.

I'm actually doing an interview with the Financial Times about Berlin's extraordinary cheapness later in July, so if anyone wants to give me some economic tips as to why the differences in price are so extreme, I'd like to hear about it.

[martinish.livejournal.com]

Maybe people here in Britain shop like they drink. We don't like to leave gaps, we just chuck it down our necks. Argos, supermarkets etc. rely on the fact the people aren't going to go away and think about it, with a wallet full of credit cards why wait? Ikea will always be in profit so long as they keep a store open in Britain - the exits are full of dazed people wondering how they went in for a door mat and came out with £150 worth of candles.

[akabe.livejournal.com]

in tokyo you can get a decent USB2 cable at the 100yen shop. or if you want a brand number you can go to bic camera and choose a out of 372 types (http://www.biccamera.com/bicbic/app/w?SCREEN_ID=bw011100&fnc=f&SORT=0&ActionType=bw011100_RE&NUMBER_SELECT=50&DISP_CATEGORY_ID=399915&PARENT_CATEGORY_ID=39&BACK_URL=pcsupply/i_cable.jsp&MY_PAGE_FLG=&SEL_CATEGORY1=&SEL_CATEGORY2=&SEL_CATEGORY3=&LIST_PRODUCT_CATEGORY_ID=&HEAD_DISP_CATEGORY_ID=&FREE_SEARCH=&MAKER_NAME=&PRICE_VALUE1=&PRICE_VALUE2=&SPEC_VALUE1=&SPEC_VALUE2=&SPEC_VALUE3=&OPTION_VALUE=&RELEASE_MONTH=&NUMBER_SELECT=10&DETAIL_ALPHA=&SEARCH_LOG_FLG=TRUE&TMP_MAKER_NAME=&TMP_PRICE_VALUE1=&TMP_PRICE_VALUE2=&TMP_SPEC_VALUE1=&TMP_SPEC_VALUE2=&TMP_SPEC_VALUE3=&TMP_OPTION_VALUE=&TMP_RELEASE_MONTH=&TMP_NUMBER_SELECT=10&TMP_DETAIL_ALPHA=&PAGE=1&START_PAGE=1&NOW_CACHE_NO=6) starting at 430¥ (2.944990 Euro - less than half price.

[uberdionysus.livejournal.com]

The one thing all my friends said is that it's very difficult to find a job in Berlin. They all said that it's super cheap, but difficult to surivive unless you find or make a job that gives you a tiny bit of income.