More of my favourite... the little things

Orange People - Berlin is full of overtanned people who frequent the solariums... usually these are also the types to be called in Russian 'Качок' (lots of muscle) and listen to techno music. So every time we pass by such specimen one of us says "Here goes another one..."

Paid toilets - even though Deutsches pay one of the highest rates of tax in Europe somehow that money does not get filtered to provide free toilet fascilities. And one can pay up to 80 cents (about 1.5 Aussie $) to use a loo. What is even more annoying - most bars and restaurants have a person collecting money in front of the toilet entrance. Thus even if you just spent 30 Euros on cocktails, you'll have fork out money to dispose of it.

Useful advice - whatever you do in Berlin, do Not, and I repeat DO NOT abuse a punk's dog. From our recent observations a punk can get rather disturbed should their dog be inconvenienced. On one of our trips on the S-Bahn a girl-punk (GP) completely went off at some poor woman who either stepped on her dog or did something to it by accident. The GP continued yelling and carrying on at least two stops and then upon getting off started kicking and punching the train carriage and doing other violent gestures.

Beggars - due to the fact that in Berlin unemployment rate is ridiculously high at 20% there are a lot of people on the streets and other places asking for money. What is sad and strange is that a lot of these are very young people - ie. my age and younger who seem to be fairly well dressed and asking for small change for what almost seems like going for coffee. A lot of these are in fact professional musicians who come for a couple of months from Russia or other Eastern block countries to make a bit of money. Some people _attempt_ to play a musical instrument, and seem to get money out of pity or for lack of abilities, rather than the opposite. This prompted me to wonder how much would I be able to make in an hour by playing our Bangkok drum... I think may be when the weather gets warmer... around the World Cup perhaps ;)