Trainspotting Berlin: Near, Far, Wherever You Are…

Trainspotting Berlin: Near, Far, Wherever You Are…

Collecting small anecdotes of transitory moments.

The underground is full of myths. A place that we share with so many others, yet hardly experience together.

A place where collective memory resides; and although mostly not crossing over the borders of personal experience, some moments transcend into the wider consciousness of the masses.

She was one of them.

Just a mystical rumor at first—captured in shaky Instagram videos and hollow voice messages—spreading along the U8 like a wildfire on a dry day in late August.

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Trainspotting Berlin: Morning Misery

Trainspotting Berlin: Morning Misery

Collecting small anecdotes of transitory moments.

One of those mornings. The night was too long, the alarm clock too early, the coffee too late—and three cups too little.

As I fall over my open shoelaces in the hallway, I do wonder if I should have called in sick.

On my way down the aggressive miniature dog of my second-floor neighbor greets me with noisy, squeaky barking and jumps right at my throat. My day hasn’t even properly started but my heart rate already reaches unhealthy heights and my mood hits a new low.

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Trainspotting Berlin: Don’t Forget to Smile on the U7

Trainspotting Berlin: Don’t Forget to Smile on the U7

Collecting small anecdotes of transitory moments.

I sit down on one of these uncomfortable metal benches in indecisive greys and blues. Rathaus-Neukölln. 4.30h. Saturday morning.
Can’t figure out if I’m still drunk or already hungover.

The party was too long, the re-fills too many, and–of course–this cute Brazilian had to open a ‘Berliner Luft’.

I look up, left and right; wondering which interior-designer figured eggshells-vomit was a fitting color choice for public transport…
But then again–The U7-line dates back to the 1930s, times when brown was en vogue.

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Quiz: How well do you know Berlin’s Subway Stations?

Quiz: How well do you know Berlin’s Subway Stations?

Berlin’s subway system is not only known and loved for their cute yellow trains, but also for the iconic designs of its subway stations. All the different lines sport different styles and colors from different time eras that go through several decades of Berlin history. We traveled through the city one day and tried to capture some details of some of the stations to create this little quiz for you. How well do you know the subway system to be able to guess all of these stations? You can use the colors and tile shapes as clues for where this might be. Good luck!

How to play? Just click on one of the three possible answers underneath the picture and you will immediatly know if you were wrong or right. After that you can click on “Continue” below the answers to get to the next photo. In the end you will see your results below the final answer. Refresh the page to reset the game.

photos: Liz Ketcham

[wp_quiz id=”51778″]

A New Subway and Train Map for Berlin

A New Subway and Train Map for Berlin

The Berlin transit map is probably one of the very first images a newcomer in the city gets familiar with. For a variety of reasons – the most obvious one being that it’s the ultimate guide when you’re coming back from a night out and your phone dies. But did you ever question the design of the map? Were your tired eyes ever lost along the rigid straight lines? Well, the bright minds behind the New Berlin Rapid Transit Route Map project thought the current official map needed some updating – read on to find out what they came up with!

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The No Pants Subway Ride in Berlin

The No Pants Subway Ride in Berlin

photos: Aviel Gan

When I first saw the event about the No Pants Subway Ride happening in Berlin I thought this was one of those joke events that are not for real. It wasn’t until yesterday night when photographer Aviel Gan submitted his pictures of the event to us that I realized that this was actually for real! So yesterday a group of people gathered in the subway and took their pants off. Just for the fun of it. It’s true, I read up on it on their Facebook page, there is no deeper meaning to it, simply an improvisation with open participation. Well, why not. Anything is possible I guess, especially here. The whole thing was initiated by a group called Improv Everywhere and hails all the way over from NYC, it’s been happening in Berlin already for 5 years in a row and it’s really the first year that I took notice of it. How could I have missed that? Enjoy the photos of the peculiar subway ride below.

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Illegal Art in a Berlin Subway Station

Illegal Art in a Berlin Subway Station

Whenever a cool graffiti turns up over night inside the subway stations of the Berliner U-Bahn or even on their trains the artwork has a relatively short life because the BVG will probably remove it soon. Of course they see it as an act of vandalism on their property, even though they might recognize some of the graffitis as quite artistic, it’s still a disruption of their daily business that they need to remove. It’s a shame really, in some cases especially, because these pieces will catch the attention of so many passengers and will distract them from their daily routine of commuting, even make them think about the messages incorporated into the graffitis, just like art should: make people think about it. In the end it’s also just a nice change from all the bill boards.

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An Intervention about Public Surveillance in the Berlin Ubahn

An Intervention about Public Surveillance in the Berlin Ubahn

Who draws the line between privacy and policies aiming at public safety? Is it the people through voting and demonstrating or is it the governments, who are in total control of this somehow delicate matter? The fact that these questions cannot be answered with a simple yes or no, but need to be thought through first, before shaping an opinion is what it renders this issue one of the most controversial and exciting topics of this century.

We are currently living in countries that are constantly under the shadow of potential terror attacks. As far as Germany and more specifically Berlin is concerned, this has led to the installation of nearly 15.000 surveillance cameras around the city, the vast majority of which are part of the system of public transport. Their presence is discreet making the feeling of being monitored rather rare. One of the current governing parties, the CDU, has always pleaded for the presence of closed-circuit television. Yet one inconvenient question seems to linger: does this measure have a positive effect on people’s safety and if yes, is it substantial enough to justify the countless eyes following us in our daily life? Especially in light of the recent assault of a young woman in the Berlin subway this topic has come up in people’s minds again.

The intervention artists Rocco and his brothers have addressed the issue through the following brass initiative documented in this suspenseful video.

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Leaf the Train: An Intervention in the Subway

Leaf the Train: An Intervention in the Subway

Their name fits Berlin’s quality of being a playground for grown-ups. Here you can try out all your crazy ideas and it doesn’t matter if you succeed or fail, it’s all about living it out. For the street art crew TOY this is true in the most literal sense.

Just last week we chuckled about their live intervention with an S-Bahn train that received some flower pots glued to their windows. And this week we received yet another, even more spectacular one: They filled up a wagon of the U-Bahn with Autumn leaves and played around in the fun mess. But how do you get dozens of huge garbage bags full of leaves into the train without being noticed? Their latest intervention video shows how it was done…

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The Funniest & Weirdest U-Bahn Flash Mobs in Berlin

The Funniest & Weirdest U-Bahn Flash Mobs in Berlin

photo: Berliner Stage Company e.V.

I think one of the most peculiar symptoms of this digital era of self-representation are flash mobs. It does not matter how talented in acting, dancing, and singing the performers are. From the moment on they are willing to sacrifice their last bit of integrity to perform to an involuntary audience we can not stop watching.  It’s like being the spectator of an incredible stunt that could turn every moment into a horrible (and by horrible I mean horribly embarrassing) accident.

A favorite place for those public flash mobs (or flash tortures) is the Berlin subway or train stations. I guess the idea is to turn an everyday boring situation like a subway ride into a magical eye opening experience. Sometimes the results are close to that description. But it can also happen to be a deadly trap for the poor innocent Berlin souls who just wanted to have a chill ride to their workplace.

After the jump I collected some of the funniest and some of the weirdest U-Bahn flash mobs that you can find on Youtube for your amusement.

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