Small Town Berlin

The Spree

Berlin has about 3.5 million people.  When it takes 45 minutes to get halfway across the city, I count that as big.  A bit bigger than where we moved from (maybe more than a bit).  However, I find that Berlin sometimes feels like a smaller place. 

For one, things close here on Sunday. It is hard to find a grocery store or any shopping that is open on Sunday.  I thought that it was rough in the South, but Berlin wins.  However, they aren't opposed to voting on Sundays apparently.  It's not so much a day to go to church as a family day.

What I have found more striking is that I run into people I know.  I have twice run into a man from T's work on the U-Bahn.  Of course we all work near the same stop, but I don't leave work on any schedule.  The other day on the way to work I passed a colleague who was biking to work (I was walking to the U-Bahn).  I didn't even know she lived near me.  And later that same morning I sat on the U-Bahn right across from a different colleague.  That puts my count of running into people commuting to work at 6.  Again, we are all going to the same place, but for the most part we are coming from different directions and at different times.  The craziest instance of how small Berlin feels is when I came to our courtyard and heard someone yell "Hello."  No one else was near me, so I looked although I didn't know who they may be talking to.  It was a woman who works at a cafe near where I was taking German classes before work started.  I had been in several times.  It is a 30 minute train ride away.  Apparently we're neighbors.

I imagine big cities like Berlin to feel big.  Like you won't know anyone unless you are going to a specific place or meeting someone.  I sort of like that it can feel small here sometimes.  We are working on spending time at our favorite cafes to be regulars and this will make Berlin feel like a small town as well.  But that is all in our little section of the city and not as we travel across it.

Or maybe it's that the people we know in Berlin are just so similar to us.  I mean, we did run into friends of ours from Berlin in a restaurant in Baltimore, a city none of us should really have even been in!