Plucky Survivors See Europe Day 7: Berlin

Not a lot to report today as I didn’t do much on my last day in Berlin.  The toll of walking almost 40 miles in a week caught up with me and I’m tired, y’all.

I slept in this morning then packed my week’s worth of dirty laundry into a duffel bag and hauled it a kilometer or so to the nearest laundromat.  I didn’t do a lot of research on places to wash clothes in my various destinations but one thing is clear: the next time I have to haul that much that far to a washing machine, I’m putting it in one of my roller bags.  It was heavy.  Or maybe that was the 40 miles talking.

The laundromat was clean and spiffy and completely managed through a touch screen kiosk that offered all the instructions in German.  A very nice man helped me out and a coupe of hours later I hiked back with a duffel bag full of clean clothes.  I was hoping that an absence of dirt would make them lighter.  It didn’t.

Lunch was at a nearby burger spot called the Smoky Bite.  The SBB came with two smash patties, bacon, melted cheddar, ranch BBQ sauce, and fried onions, plus a side of curly fries.  I know we tend to think of burgers as an American thing, but it was invented in Germany, and they know how to do it right.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing as I did a little work, did a little bit more advanced work on car registrations for tolls and parking, and packed, packed, and repacked.  I brought too much stuff.  Oh well.

For dinner I went to the Georgian restaurant in the hotel, Madloba.  Beautiful restaurant, nobody there.  Okay, one table of people speaking what sounded like Russian, but other than that it was empty.  Too bad because the food is phenomenal.  I’m a fan of the cuisine and had high hopes that weren’t diminished.  A basket of super soft bread with a garlic-yogurt sauce and a spicy pepper chili sauce started it off and was followed by mtsvadi hanchen, tender chicken cooked on a skewer over and open flame and served with roasted potatoes. Onions, and more of that wonderful pepper sauce.  I ate way too much of it, which tells you how good it was.

And that is Berlin.

Overall, I liked it here but didn’t love it.  The city itself has some pretty parts to it – the Kruezberg neighborhood is a must visit – but it doesn’t have the kind of European flavor to it that I was hoping for.  The buildings are mostly square blocks, the people are reserved at best, and everything feels ordered and civil to a fault.  I was expecting a little more ”Cabaret” decadence and drama.  I’m sure it exists in places, but none that I visited.

My pro tips for visiting… learn as much German as you can.  People will still be annoyed with you, but a little less so if you have even the basics of please, hello, I’m sorry, and I don’t speak German.  Feel free to add the optional “because I’m a stupid American” to that last part.

Definitely get a Welcome Card pass for the BVG transit system.  Not only is it run with fine, German precision, but the Welcome Card gets you discounts on most major museums and attractions.

When you do take the U-Bahn or streetcars, do yourself a favor and pull up the list of stops on whatever route you’re taking before you get to the station or stop.  This will help you figure out which train or tram to take in which direction and when to get off.  Trusting Google Maps can lead you astray on this.

Beware of Berlin Uber drivers.  You take your life in your hands riding in one.

Despite what you may have read (like I did), tipping is very much expected here, at least at most of the restaurants I visited.  Every resource I checked said that tipping in Berlin was not an obligation and that most people just round up the bill or might add 5-10% at most for truly extraordinary service.  Every time I paid with a credit card (which was most of the time), the option for a tip came up and usually started at 15% and went up from there.  Maybe actual Berliners ignore this and/or the restaurants knew I was American and adjusted their little handheld machines accordingly, but this was very standard at every place I dined except for the quick serve places.

I actually enjoy leaving a good tip for good service, so I didn’t mind it, but much like Berliners in general, the wait staffs here have been reserved and the service underwhelming.  I’d say at least half the restaurants I visited had what I felt were unnecessarily long wait times to get a menu, order, and/or get the check.  And forget thinking the server is going to check in during the meal.  I think it happened twice while I was here and in both instances, the servers were from other countries.

I felt very safe everywhere I went, although did have one experience that wigged me out a bit.  I was walking to a restaurant on a fairly lonely street in the early evening and passed a guy standing in a doorway.  He didn’t look hinky – he looked like a German version of a dad – but as soon as I passed him, he stepped out of the doorway and started following me.  Not just following me, but directly in line behind me on a very wide sidewalk about 10 feet back.

I immediately adjusted my anti-theft sling bag to the front of my body and then stepped toward the street to look around as if I was trying to figure out where I was going, allowing me a chance to keep an eye on him as he approached.  When he got closer, I crossed the street and he didn’t follow anymore.

It could’ve been nothing or it could’ve been something but having situational awareness when out in public anywhere is important.  99% of the problems that people run into, especially when traveling, can be avoided if you just pay attention and listen to your instincts.  I’m not saying I won’t get mugged or pickpocketed or abducted and sold on the dark web while I’m in Europe, but if it happens the people who do it to me will be really, really good at their jobs.

Tomorrow, the real adventure begins as I try to pilot PluckyMobile to Prague.  It’s about 216 miles and three-and-a-half hours of driving if I take only highways, but I usually find that boring so I prefer to take a more scenic route when I can.  On some days I won’t have that luxury as I’ll need to get where I’m going on the early side but tomorrow kicks off several days in Prague so it will be fine for me to get off the main roads for at least part of the route.

A saying Mary and I learned at the Hobo Museum in Iowa on one of our Plucky trips: success isn’t how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.

Wish me luck.