photo: Saskia Bauermeister
At first it lures you in with the promise of freedom, fulfillment, love and pleasure. But you will soon find out the reality is quite a different one. It will make sure to feed you with little crumbs of each of its promises, but you will remain hungry and starving.
It speaks so many languages, but you will still find it hard to fully understand it. It will give you the cold shoulder, when all you need is a warm hug. It will keep you in a state of uncertainty, give you just enough to keep you hoping for more, but never enough to make you feel save. It will dance the night away to techno and drugs while all you want is a cosy night at home. It will give you cheap pizza on the street corner when you want a candle lit dinner. It will be your friend, when all you want is a lover. It will keep it casual, when you want to commit. And all the while it’s dating so many others at the same time. And you fear one day you will not be enough.
Berlin: heute Stern, morgen Schnuppe!!! ;-))
Maybe there are people who just want those things, like pizza on the street corner, and the adrenaline of not feeling safe. 🙂
FINALLY ONE REALISES WHAT YOU ARE SEEKING,THE LOVE,SAFETY AND ONENESS ARE NOT GOING TO BE FOUND IN THE EXTERNAL WORLD, IT IS ALREDY WITHIN…..BECOSE THEY BELONG TO WHO WE ARE
THE GREAT TRUTH ABOUT BERLIN
I don’t agree. In Berlin I have cosy nights at home and candle lit dinners. The city can be warm, and it’s easy to find friends and lovers. Maybe you are doing the wrong thing if you need all this and look for something else.
This text…like somebody read in my mind…
Wow. This is the best love declaration I’ve ever read about Berlin. Thank you. I totally agree!!!
and maybe its just a perfect place for single, lonesome loving persons who already had their hearts broken and who love to dance to TECHNO 😀
Martin
hahah almost true .))
This is a very personal account, I suupose. I’ve been living in Berlin for 13 years now. All I can say is that Berlin can be anything of what has been said in the text, and it can much, much more. It depends of what you make out of it. I think you could write something like this just about any big city. What you shouldn’t do is idealising Berlin. i think many people do it when they first come here. Berlin is not ideal, it never has been, and it was never meant to be.
Well, we all need to take risk to be free – in return, we may possibly feel lonely or isolated time to time but it should be result of your choice; we should be responsible for our own life for what you do and feel – it is nothing to do with the place where you live as far as you are free there! In short, we can say Berlin is the place that make you feel free or lonely – it all depends on you!
This is beautifully written, as it’s a pretty timeless romantic description of most relationships with Berlin after a little while.
However, some advice to those who may be feeling this to heart: I felt these sentiments most with London, before I left to move to Berlin. London after a while felt like an unforgiving violent lover, and now Berlin’s the same. The lesson that I’ve learned is that most times it’s unfair to blame these sentiments on the city… on any city. Every single place, especially busy, temporary, country capitals, will evoke these exact same feelings on us after a little while.
It’s our own heartbrokenness, not the city’s 😉
Yes, it’s true. It’s a bit universal. But sometimes it’s nice to share these feelings, regardless of the place, because many people might be able to relate, and then you feel a little less heartbroken, because you are not alone in it 😉