Of bikes and dogs

Posted on August 13, 2009 by mpfl

Coming from Perth, there are two things that are immediately noticeable about the way people live here in Berlin. Bicycles and canine companions are far more visible. Every single major road will have either a bike path, or a shared bus/bike lane. Dogs are also allowed in shopping centres, restaurants and on public transport. In Perth, only assistance dogs are afforded the same priveliges.

Unfortunately, I have observed that the popularity of dogs and bikes leads to some tensions. Let me tell you some stories…

The most common type of bicycle in Berlin is a city bike. They have big, padded seats with springs, fat tyres and frames that remind me of exercise bikes more than a “real” bike. They’re built for short-distance trips to the shops or to friend’s houses. The problem, though, is that they are incredibly slow. I’ve never seen anybody ride one faster than 10km/hour.

On my recent trip back from Potsdam, I was riding along one of the narrow bike paths along a major road. These paths have very little room to manoeuvre. I was cruising along at between 20-30km/hour. My heart rate was up and I was thoroughly enjoying the sweatiness. Suddenly, there was a middle-aged woman on a city bike in front of me, riding in the very middle of the lane.

She either didn’t notice me or didn’t care, as she made no effort to give me any space to overtake. When it was safe, I nipped onto the adjacent footpath and quickly passed her. I didn’t think any more of it. What really got me was what she did next…

I came up to a red light. Bicycle lanes have their own traffic lights, and the white line at which you have to stop is generally about 2 or 3 metres away from the intersection. The delightful lady that I had previously passed rode off the cycle path, onto the footpath and forced her way through the pedestrians until she was at the kerb of the intersecting road. When she had a green light, she crossed the road, went back onto the cycle path and was in front of me again. Of course, I had to overtake her again. Unfortunately, this happened several times.

Her behaviour irritated me a little. I suppose that you, dear reader, will have some sort of opinion based on what sort of cyclist you are. Needless to say, I felt that she was extremely rude, inconveniencing cyclists and pedestrians alike.

Now, my dog story. I wasn’t personally involved in this one, but it’s certainly a good example of how Berlin’s variety of people and lifestyle sometimes don’t mesh very well.

I was sitting in Alexanderplatz, waiting for a friend. She was running late, so I enjoyed the chance sit down and watch the people go by. I was approached by no fewer than two beggars, but that’s a topic for a later post.

There were many people sitting around me, including a reasonably well-dressed white woman with a large white dog on a lead. I’m afraid I couldn’t identify the breed.

Suddenly, her dog started barking – I looked up and noticed three bohemian looking gentlemen, complete with dreadlocks, numerous piercings and well-loved clothing walking by. Accompanying them was another large dog, a brown one of also unknown species.

The brown dog looked at the white dog, sniffed the air and made a couple of steps towards it. The bohemian gentlemen just ignored the barking dog and kept walking. The brown dog decided to follow their lead, ignoring the white dog. It was a perfectly happy and harmless encounter, until the well-dressed lady started yelling at the bohemian gentlemen, telling them to keep their dog on a lead. The gentlemen yelled back and the whole thing degenerate into an argument at 4km/hour.

I found the whole situation quite amusing, really. The brown dog was incredibly well behaved and obedient, and certainly didn’t need to be on a lead. If anybody needed any kind of lead or muzzle, it was the owner of the white dog.

Right! That’s enough storytelling for today. Not many pictures either, I’m sorry. Next week I’m flying to visit my grandmother in the Rhineland. There are bound to be many pictures of the breathtakingly beautiful scenery.

Touristing Berlin

Posted on August 3, 2009 by mpfl

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned. It has been over two weeks since my last post.

The past two weeks have been reasonably eventful. Some of the stuff I’ve gotten up to:

Offered a job as a walking tour guide
Commenced training as walking tour guide
Stopped training because I realised the job was utter shit
Showed a friend around Berlin
Incremented my age (in years) by one
Invited to an interview in Vienna

The biggest benefit of doing the training to become a tour guide is that I went on a few tours and visited a few parts of Berlin I probably wouldn’t have, normally. These include the Sachsenhausen concentration/work camp.

Sachsenhausen was not specifically a death camp, although many thousands of people still died there. It was initially set up to be a prison for political prisoners, and a way to encourage German Jews to leave the country. It was also the site of experimentation into efficient methods of killing. Most of the dead, though, were Soviet soldiers (The USSR never signed the Geneva Convention, so Soviet POWs were not treated humanely by Nazi Germany).

A quick visit from an old friend resulted in a whirlwind tour of Berlin’s Greatest Hits including the Brandenberg Gate, a Bugatti Veyron, the Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Schloß Charlottenburg and some other places I can’t remember.

We also attempted some urban exploration. We hopped over a wall surrounding an old 19th century building called the Eierhäuschen. We spent about an hour trying to find a way into the main building, but only managed to enter some cellars that didn’t lead up to the rest of the house.

We wanted to visit the Spreepark – an old East Berlin amusement park that closed down a few years ago. Unfortunately, our visit was short-lived as we spotted some other people and didn’t want to find out whether they were legitimately there, or just exploring like us.

My God! Help me survive this deadly love

On Saturday I celebrated my 28th birthday (my 2nd birthday in Germany – the first was my 18th) with my family. It was a fantastic evening; one cousin gave me a bottle of vodka which we managed to empty over the course of the night. My other cousins gave me a bottle of Cointreau, which will not be wasted in a similar manner.

This morning I was, once again, woken up by a call from a potential employer in Vienna – they had already called last week to make sure I was really interested in the job. I managed to score an interview, so I’ll be visiting Vienna on the 11th very quickly. A lovely Kiwi couple I met here will also be in Vienna that day, so we’ll wander around the city after the interview is finished.

I’ve also planned a trip to visit my grandmother in the Rheinland. It’s a supremely beautiful part of Germany – there’ll be plenty of photos.

Selling myself to the highest bidder

Posted on July 11, 2009 by mpfl

After a rather slow start, and a very enjoyable weekend with my friend (not my sister) Tamara, I’ve really started applying for jobs in earnest. I’ve been doing this from the comfort of my home office:

The Airport Express I brought is a boon, as I can leech my uncle’s wireless from every room in this rather large house. Incidentally, my new camera arrived, which is why I’m able to show you these lovely photographs.

I’ve applied for a wide variety of positions, including:

English language trainer (already been rejected)
Librarian
Library technician (sort of)
Library assistant
Tour guide (and pub crawl guide)
Customer service representative
Web analyst

All of these jobs, other than the Customer service assistant, are located in Berlin itself. The three library jobs are the sum total of library jobs for which I’m actually qualified. There’s a couple more, but I would need either a degree in agriculture, be able to speak some eastern European languages or have years of experience leading a team of people.

The Customer service representative position is with an international games company, and is situated in either France or Ireland. I was going to wait a little while before applying for it, but I’m starting to go stir crazy. Can’t go out without money, can’t get money without a job.

Wish me luck!

Becoming German

Posted on July 5, 2009 by mpfl

I was going to write a post about the awesome weekend I just had. Unfortunately, I’ve misplaced my camera and I feel that updating without photos wouldn’t do it justice. Instead, I’m going to write a little about what I’ve been doing to settle in.

The day after I arrived, I went to the Bürgeramt (Residents’ Office) in Steglitz because I wanted to get a real German passport (my current one is only valid for a year). I still had the photos from when I applied for the temporary passport, so I took them along.

The Bürgeramt is a little like CentreLink, but offers many more services. I took a number, sat down and proceeded to be annoyed that I didn’t bring a book for the next hour.

When my number was called, I sat down with a nice lady and asked her for a new passport. She was a little confused when she couldn’t find me in the system, and we determined that’s because I hadn’t registered as a resident in Berlin, yet. So register I did, and we organised a few different things for me:

Real passport. This is going to take about four weeks to organise. I’ll have to go and pick it up when I get back from my first Tour d’Europe.
Personalausweis (ID card). In Germany, every resident needs to carry either an ID card or a passport. I’ll also be able to use this to travel throughout EU countries, rather than having to take a passport with me.
Lohnsteuerkarte (Income tax card). When I (finally) get some gainful employment, I need to hand over the Lohnsteuerkarte, upon which they will record some details. I get it back at the end of the tax year (which is the same as the calendar year in Germany). Not sure whether I need to do a tax return, I’ll find out in six months!

They also told me that if I want a German driver’s license, I’ll need to get my Australian license switched over within six months. After that I’ll have to go through the same rigmarole that new drivers have to.

After leaving the Bürgeramt, I went to open a bank account at the local Sparkasse (one of the German banks). Opening an account was quick and easy. I spoke to a lady that had an uncanny resemblance with Maggie Gyllenhal. About fifteen minutes later, I had an account and she gave me all the details I needed to transfer money from Australia (which is where most of my money still is). Unfortunately, I still have to wait for my key card, so in the mean time I’ve been living off cash and credit card.

Speaking of which, credit cards aren’t nearly as widely accepted in Germany as in Australia. I was caught out when I wanted to settle the bill at a restaurant and didn’t have enough cash on me. EFTPOS (or EC) is much more common, but only for transactions above a certain value.

Needless to say, I can’t get a German credit card until I have a job. Sparkasse offers one that will make travel within Europe a lot easier for me.

So after I had that all sorted out, I’ve started applying for work! I’ve applied for two, so far. One as an English language trainer at Inlingua (I’ve already been knocked back) and another as a librarian for the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek (Central and State Library) Berlin. The librarian job looks to be rather awesome, because it involves a fair bit of tech. It’s also quite well paid, so I’m concerned that I’m not qualified for it.

Regardless, I’m flying out in four days for Vienna. I’ll have a camera by then, even if I have to buy a new one.