Landing in Berlin last Sunday was terribly exciting for me. It wasn’t just my arriving in a new country. I’ve been to lots of those before; most of them are rubbish.
But the source of my excitement was principally due to the German people. I was surrounded by Germans. Actual, real Germans. They were talking German at each other, looking at each other and generally regarding their countrymen with distant, Germanic familiarity.
The Germans are a funny lot. Treated generally as objects of derision, it’s hard to regard a German as an equal. Either you look up to their towering genius or down to their ridiculous po-faced demeanour. Either they’re a Goethe or a Goon.
It’ll take me a while to fully pin down these buggers, but there is some truth in both of these caricatures.
So far, I can only describe the Berliners. They are, much like Londoners, rude, self-absorbed and pushy on the street. So I am feeling at home already. It’s great to push old ladies out of my way on the train again.
More to follow…
