Tom Insam

Things about Berlin

Random thoughts about Berlin since I moved here:

  • It was really really cold when I arrived. But recently it's been a lot warmer. Very nice, in fact. I'm living out of a suitcase because my stuff is being held in storage till I get a house, so I've been having to buy more warm clothes, but apart from a day of snow earlier it's been pretty decent.

  • Lots of smokers here. Even indoors. It's weird. And annoying, as a smoky bar means that I write off half my wardrobe.

  • I get phone service on the U-Bahn. This is awesome. I haven't been somewhere without phone service in days. This is beginning to give me a rather blasé attitude towards offline caching.

  • Living here is a lot cheaper than London. I found a place to live that's about 80m2 in the middle of the city for less than I was paying for a shoebox 45 minutes from the centre of London. But then, most places are cheaper than London..

  • I can't pronounce words. This is more debilitating than merely not being able to speak the language. I know I can't speak German, but as it stands I can't even read things off menus to order food, or pronounce street names to taxi drivers. I'm reduced to pointing at words on bits of paper. I'm sub-literate in this country. Have to work on that one.

  • I like it here.