NEW LIFE

Today marks the 6th anniversary of my permanent arrival in Berlin. I had visited the city four times in the previous two years. There was almost this voice in my head: “if you build Berlin’s new airport, AirBerlin will come to Rio with a non-stop flight to pick you up”.

To no one’s disappoint, Berlin’s unfinished airport’s current opening date should be fall 2020. The original plan was to open it some time in 2010, but then the delays started. In one of my trips, I even got to get a flight ticket with BER written on it as my destination. About one month before the trip, Lufthansa emailed me saying the destination would be at good old Tegel airport instead. The airport has had so many unfulfilled openings, that no one takes whichever is the current one seriously (me neither). Along with the eternal delays with the airport, AirBerlin ended up filing for bankruptcy because they were counting on the new airport . They even did actually have plans for a Berlin-Rio non-stop flight. But it never materialized and it’s all history now. A buried past for AirBerlin and a mysterious future for Willy Brandt Airport, Berlin-Brandenburg (in case you were curious to know the full name of what Berliners simply call B-E-R).

Enough with Berlin trivia. If you want to get to know tons of information about the city that not even Wikipedia will tell you, I strongly recommend Notmsparker’s books.

There are many first-world-problems to whine about Berlin. “Berlin is not Germany”, some will say. They’re not that wrong. But to me, it’s almost like a Dorf (a small village) with the infrastructure of an European capital. Yes, there are stereotypical yoga-vegan-punk Berliners. But part of the German way of life is present, nonetheless. People say good morning, hello, thank you. The “bitte” culture is nice. I sometimes say it two or three times in one sentence just to be sure. But, hey, Germans, it’s not that us, foreigners, are rude for not saying the almighty “bitte” once in a while. Its just that sometimes it’s already understood in our mother tongue’s spoken language. The intonation implies everything. And sometimes one language interferes with the other and the bitte gets lost in translation. But when in Rome… I mean, Berlin…

Also, traffic is not an eternal gridlock. I laugh at the face of Berliners that complain about traffic. The maximum speed limit is 50km/h (I think there is one avenue that has an old limit of 60km/h, a relic from East Germany times). I had to cleanse myself of all the rage I had built upon the vicious circle of hate that is the traffic of Rio. People drive badly, so you drive even worse, which will lead someone else to drive badly… you get the point, right? Leave all that behind and simply drive calmly and with attention, specially with bicycles. And what’s not to love in a flat city much more welcoming to bikes? They’re not perfect, but don’t get me started on Rio’s bike situation.

There are some trade-offs, of course. The consumerist mentality is quite different. Apart from a handful of times per year, normal shops are not allowed to open on Sundays. Movie theaters have almost half an hour of advertising before the film starts. And, despite the magical convenience of simply hopping into a train or subway without barriers on the platforms, Murphy’s law says you will be controlled exactly on that day you forgot your monthly ticket expired the day before. And obviously, the one thing from Rio de Janeiro that Berlin can’t top: all seasons are more or less the same. In Berlin, it’s like living in 4 different planets every 3 months. But I will always have room for both cities in my heart. Rio, ich liebe dich, mas Berlin é a minha amante. pobre, mas sexy*

*(Rio, I love you, but Berlin is my poor, but sexy mistress)