Do Germans sleep?

It’s annoying to find out how cool Germans are. That most parties here don’t get going until 12 is cool. That the last two weekends, I have got back into bed about seven, however, is not so cool.

The Germans are amused, if a little amazed, at the English night out. In the pub at six, out by 11 and in bed by 12. Then, it’s Ikea first thing the next morning.

With the English approach, German evenings can be exhausting. You’re practiced at getting in as many pints as possible before closing time; the speed ensures you that are you are suitably inebriated and fired up for the fighting that follows.

Now, in Berlin, you have to sit around for hours and hours. Talking. It’s as if they enjoy each other’s company.

But, this general nighttime longevity does not stop at painting the town red. Sunday night, eleven o’clock. Any sane, normal civilisation would be thinking about bed and getting ready for the start of the working week.

Not the Germans. The Germans would invite their friends around for Glühwein and biscuits. The Germans would stay until 2 o’clock in the morning, discussing society and its ills.

Then, they get up at six am, run three laps of the nearest racing course and have three bowls of muesli before work at eight.

Whereas the rest of us are staggering around the office, downing coffee and pleading for an easy death.