Bye, Bye! Berlin.

on the 30th August 2009 I left Berlin to try and pursue a career as creative in London. Living with the English I won't have any more crazy German stories to tell.

Oh! Just one last post. I spotted this sign post with an arrow pointing to where the dole office is "Agentur fuer Arbeit". No wonder their is such high unemployment in Berlin. You're meant to hide the damn office so as few people as possible find it and apply for dole money.

Ghost bikes

These are called ghost bikes. They are scattered around the city and painted white to highlight where cyclists were killed in road accidents. I like this form of communication. It is direct and works.

Hungary?

Haehnchen means chicken in German. Eis means icecream. I don't think the owner of this takeaway stand meant to advertise chicken flavoured icecream.

I saw this birdcage with bird inside purched on a window ledge today. It was 28 degrees so obviously the owners thought they would give the little bird some air. But just how cruel is that, teasing the bird with freedom.

This is a German window display for a bank advert. I am not going to get carried away by saying why this advert is crap. I am just going to suggest that it doesn't make the greatest advert to have a window sticker of the rear view of a 50 year old man. Why would I want to see how this mans' arse looks in a pair of black pants and more importantly what has it got to do with investing my money? Absolutely nothing. Think please Germans!

This is a German hairdressing salon. Would you trust this hairdresser with your hair based on the very creative display window? I quickly peered in there was only one customer.

Protest

I saw this protest outside the American Embassy yesterday. I think this is a great form of advertising especially when you are there because you feel the anger from the protesters and they make there point very clear when they chant. "Shame on you the American Embassy for not protecting my Iranian family against the massacre."

Give me some cream!

Ho hard can it be to find single or double cream in this land. Well let me tell you it's very hard. They simply don't have any. They have all kinds of other cream but it simply seems the Germans don't want runny single cream that you drip all over your dessert. They just want whipped. So I had to buy whipping cream and just pretend it was single runny cream. I think I have found a nieche market here.

PANTS>

The other day I had to collect something from my friends house. She was at work so I had to ring the main doorbell for someone to let me in. I rang every single flat expecting someone just to buzz me in. Very simple. What happened though was a very angry German ran all the way downstairs to the main entrance to let me in. He could have just buzzed me in, but oh! no! I think he wanted a fight for ringing his doorbell 3 times. The guy was obviously crazy because he came down stairs wearing just his boxers. Sorry, but I really can't take any argument serious with some stood there in their pants. Didn't he feel a bit naked stood there in the porch with the main door open for the whole street to see him? Perhaps he was wanking and I had really disturbed him. You just don't come down to a complete stranger in your pants. Or perhaps this was a clever German, who knew that having to look at him in those pants was a good enough punishment for I had done.

Crazy dog and girl.

The other day I was leaving my flat when a punk girl came into the main building with an alsatian. It growled at me. I couldn't help but scream. She laughed at me and said it's only a dog! This is a prime example of a crazy German. Didn't she realise I screamed because I thought the dog was going to attack me. It seems some Germans seem do find alsatians cuddly, especially when they growl at people.

I see a lot of cool things in Berlin, this weird van being one of them . With blacked out windows and the size of a small caravan a daddy jumped out and let is 3 daughters out the side door. What a beautiful beast this is, imagine your Dad dropping you off for school in one of these.

German Accident!

When Germans have car accidents no matter how minor the police have to be there and record EVERYTHING. If you actually look at the two cars that have apparently collided they look pretty much still the same! The German police stand round for ages looking all serious , having a million conversations on their walkie talkies with other policemen back had the depot who can do absoultely nothing because the accident has already happened. I mean what is the police officer on the left actually writing on that note pad of his??