These five stations are the most memorable places for me. Lived in an old and quiet Berlin apartment, walked to grocery stores in cold and gloomy late autumn, got off together with talkative drunk person at the U-Bahn station—a typical Berliner life for me. I was always scared at night. And it was not the kind of scare one has when no one was around, but the kind of scare when the whole street is so quiet, and suddenly some drunk guys jumped out. Sometimes human beings can be the scariest creatures, and I deeply got what that meant in Berlin.
We didn’t have wi-fi at home, so whenever my homework was due, I walked fives minutes to a youth hostel. The lobby was designed like a combination of cafe, bar, and game center. I didn’t feel disrupted at all sitting in a noisy but cheerful environment—the sounds from kids crying, people chatting and laughing, and playing the pool made me feel alive and killed the feeling of lonliness, even though I knew none of the people there and I never talked to any of them. Suddenly, condiments were found for this boring life. The apartment was so quiet, the trains was so quiet, the library was so quiet, the Spree River was so quiet, Germans are so quiet. The youth hostel was one of the best places to find some noises. Other places to kill boredom in Berlin are Kreuzberg and the night market or fairground near Alexanderplatz.
The nightlife in Berlin is similar to that of China, except fewer Karaokes, which made me miss walking through the crush and hanging out with friends at midnight in China. People who grew up in a big city can be afraid of being surrounded by quietness.
Doria Niu is a senior JSIS major. Likes to travel, cook, dance, and play badminton.
Comments are closed.