Oh Berlin, Why Can’t I Figure You Out?

Tuesday, October 30th, 2012 ∞

I like trains. They take you from one point to the other in a comfortable and somewhat sociable way. You can do some work, watch a movie or even talk to strangers (although that could end up with five hours of weird silence between six uncomfortable people because someone said something inappropriate).

But that’s not the main point.

Unlike airplanes, which snap you out of your original context and deliver you to your destination in a very brief time, you actually feel that you are indeed traveling. You see the countryside running behind the window. You have to work your way to the next stop. In short, you get a sense of distance and context.

Because of that, and that could be only me, the feeling of being in a completely different setting isn’t as strong as if you just step out of a plane after 45 minutes of thinking whether you should try to listen to music over the flight attendant’s ban, even though that ban certainly doesn’t make sense.

Why do I talk about this crap you ask? Because for the last couple of days I can’t quite put my finger on this thing that I’m trying to figure out. In summer, I took the plane to Amsterdam. And what a shock it was. That city is so intense! This weekend I was in Berlin and I went there by train.

It was my second time there and I certainly cannot figure this city out. I fell in love with Amsterdam immediately – not so much with Berlin. It was kind of good. It has the international spirit, for sure. But I have yet to find that missing thing that brings all the diverse parts of the city together for me.

I’m not saying it has anything to do with how and how long you travel to a particular place. Hell, there’s probably no connection between those two things at all.

What I’m trying to say is that I don’t know what to think of Berlin; there is definitely the potential for me to love that city. Just trying to find what I’m missing.