Underground

Berlin is different. There are so many little things that are different to what we experienced in Nurnberg, Regensburg, Cork or Munich. The biggest difference is that almost everyone seems to take the underground every day. Well, it is not really a surprise as it might take you up to an hour to visit friends in another district if you go by care. Traveling by underground is definitely easier.







That is why I go by underground as well either to work or to the train station (from there I take the train to Leipzig or Dessau). This is so much more relaxing than driving by car and while traveling one can either work on the laptop, read e-mail on the blackberry or you can read the latest news (of course with my blackberry apps which I really love). And if you are sick of this digital stuff than you start observing people. You meet all the different nationalities on one day which you might meet in Regensburg in one month.






However, if half of the city depends on the underground (on a normal working day almost 1.3 million people take the underground) delays have an incredible impact. And that is exactly what happens regularly this winter. The old trains from the manufacturer ´Bombardier` are very sensitive to this kind of weather and thus reparations have to be done all the time. Therefore, instead of 600 trains there are only 200 available right now. And not just the trains are sensitive to the weather also the rails. While you can heat them all in cities like Hamburg and Munich, they wanted to save money in Berlin. Seems that was a pretty bad decision at the end.

Well, it does not prevent people including myself to hope every day that there are no delays. Thanks to mobile internet and the interesting people the wait time seems to be short. The only issue is the cold!

Thus with less trains the same amount of people are commuting. No wonder that the trains are packed. And while you have to wait for the delayed train the crowd gets bigger and bigger. The moment the train arrives it is already packed and you believe there is no space left. Well, I was wrong the whole crowd pushes you into the train and when it leaves the station platform is empty.

And thus traveling by underground is a special social event. In rush hours you have business people, punks, hippies, grandma & - pa, farmers and all sorts of people from all sorts of countries… No surprise that Berlin is so extremely respectful and tolerant.

Look alike

Everyone has a look alike. Usually it is hard to find him/her unless you are a celebrity. Well, it isn´t really surprising with more than 6 billion people. Of course the amount of lookalike is limited. So take me for example all women, kids, senior citizens and people with another skin color like in Asia, Africa, and Latin America cannot be my look alike. Nevertheless, there are enough left to become my look alike.

Well, nice thing is I found my look alike already. By chance both of us were living in Cork, Ireland. However, not at the same time and both of us were not born in Ireland. As you might remember I lived in Ireland from 2007 – 2009. My look alike arrived in Ireland 2010. He is Italian, his name is Fabio Giordano and believe it or not he works for Amazon. And that is how I happen to know him. When he entered the building for the first time he shocked people as some thought it was me. I returned as an Italian customer service agent with another name. Soon I received an e-mail telling me `Jochen has returned `and a picture of Fabio. I could not believe when I first saw him. The surprise was big as I thought that could be me. When my parents saw the picture for the first time they weren´t sure either if it was me on the picture. Unbelievable!

Well I am connected with Fabio on Facebook and I have saved some of his pictures on my hard drive. Thus sometimes pictures show up on the laptop screensaver.

Well, can you imagine how shocking it was for Michaela when for the first time a picture showed up with me and a beautiful blonde – she thought it was me holding this beauty in my arms – however, it was Fabio…

Jack is dead

Some time ago we received bad news from US: Our dear friend Jack is dead. We spent thousands of miles with him last summer while we travelled through the USA and then in autumn last year he retired in Seattle. Well, maybe he couldn´t cope with the situation that he was not needed anymore and that is why he died quickly. He was sold on the internet for a give-away price, then everything was taken from him which was useful and later he ended up at a junk yard. Yes, I know that is tough, but it is the bitter truth.

Life goes on and so good old Jack was replaced by Jacqueline! No kidding! Will and Erin bought a new Ford SUV with a more feminine touch to it and thus they decided her name is Jaqueline. Nice!

We are looking forward to meeting her and maybe to go on a little tour with her around the block.

Arrived

Finally, after 4 months looking for a place to stay in Berlin, we moved into our new home. We will stay for the winter in our Kiez (that is how they call the districts you are living in). It is the Prenzlauer Berg being more precisely the Gleim neighborhood. Now we want to figure out till end of February if ‘Prenzlberg’ is the really going to be our district and how commuting to Berlin Wilmersdorf, Dreilinden, Dessau and Leipzig work on a daily basis. As soon as we figured it out, we will move on or just stay where we are.

Our new apartment is a very special place. It is a loft – one big room and only the bathroom is separated. The apartment layout is so excellent and the decoration so nicely done that we loved it from the start. And actually it feels much bigger than 90m². One of the biggest plus of the apartment was the open kitchen. While cooking one can be part in the middle of the action.

The decoration as well is very unique. Most of the furniture were built or bought by our landlord with so much love and gives the whole apartment its own sweet character.

As you can tell we already love this apartment even after some days. Well, we are interested in how you like it? Do you like it? Was it a good choice? Please vote! If you want to find out yourself feel free to visit us. However, remember we do not have a guest room. We are looking forward to getting visitors.