17

!dev, !rant
Flew to Berlin for the weekend. Kinda disappointed xD
Trash everywhere, water costs more then my kidney, ugly communist blocks and buildings everywhere(I mean, yeah, sure: GDR, but like what, did nobody build anything since then? lol), almost nothing to eat .-. (I don't think we encountered even a single "german food" place walking around Berlin)

On the flip side, roads are awesome, no construction everywhere that blocks half the roads, no cracks everywhere and the asphalt doesn't make you vibrate when you ride over it. People were nice and polite, I didn't get the overwhelming urge in stores/stalls to just place everything back on the shelves and fuck off just from talking to a cashier/clerk/worker. Food, drinks, and services were cheap as fuck(Except for water, which I'm still coping seething and malding over, I thought the "Beer cheaper than water" was a joke, or an idiom, not fucking reality).

Also got to see @Ranchonyx IRL <3
So that was the highlight of the vacation.

Comments
  • 8
    Everyone drinks water straight from the tap there, right?
  • 3
    Bottled water expensive?
    Maybe they simply want to discourage single use plastic
  • 6
    @red-knot nah. tap water is just higher quality than bottled. 'cause it's not over-capitalised yet in germany, and we have regulations about water quality and stuff.
  • 1
    @red-knot Well, okay, but then put like, water fountains or something? I walk everywhere with my own bottle and I did not see even a SINGLE water fountain ANYWHERE in Berlin(or at least not anywhere where I went), so I was forced to buy bottles. Three euros for half a litre bottle is a fucking scam. Back here there are water fountains everywhere and I keep using the same plastic bottle for free, for like, half a year(or until I loose it) making water more expensive doesn't make plastic go away.
  • 1
    @tosensei Ah, I didn't know tap water was drinkable because multiple places I was at had big "DON'T DRINK"/"NOT SAFE FOR CONSUMPTION" warning signs plastered over sinks.
  • 3
    Yuri is genuinely an insane person.
  • 5
    Next time make sure to get off at the right station. Doesn't sound much like Berlin, except for the dirt and garbage. Okay, you came by plane, so it must have been the same municipality then.

    How did you manage to find the unlikely place with no construction works?
  • 7
    @SoldierOfCode that's just for legal reasons. bureaucracy is the true curse of germany.

    it's about the "last mile" of the plumbing. if it's not checked regularly for public places, and it's not marked as "no drinking water", it doesn't matter if it's pristine quality, but you get sued to hell and back.

    but in general, even the least trustworthy tap water in germany is better than the best bottled water.
  • 4
    @fraktalisman Kann ich dir sagen.
    He was too infatuated with the snow and the good cocktails to notice the construction everywhere.
  • 2
    @Ranchonyx good cocktails in berlin? doubt.
  • 1
    @tosensei I doubt your doubting.
    Was rather good I have to say.
  • 1
    Thoughts and prayers to the victims in Berlin, nothing happened but all victims there.
  • 2
    @SoldierOfCode In doors, yes.

    Outdoors, no no no.

    Regarding the 3 Euros per bottle...

    Most likely a market like DM - an overpriced "marketing gag water".

    Regular water was 0.50 € per 1.5 litre in a discounter, 0.25 c Pfand. (Whatever it's called in English)
  • 1
    Apparently the fountains are only open May-October in Berlin? https://bwb.de/de/trinkbrunnen.php/

    I bet it's easy to get anyone to fill your bottle if it's easy for them.
  • 4
    Berlin is kinda overrated. Yes it has a lot of history, and you can do a lot there, but the thing is that the only people who think Berlin being a great City are the people who live there.

    If you want to go to actually beautiful and nice cities in germany, go to Munich, Leipzig, Kologne, Nuremberg, Stuttgart (maybe except that enormous construction site in the city), Rostock and a lot of other cities.

    I'd include Cassel (the biggest city of the region i live in) too, but i guess the only interesting thing there is the Herkules, and it's kinda too small to be considered, however i excluded Frankfurt and Hamburg, because that doesn't really tick the "nice people" checkbox.

    And then again, if you want to experience Germany, you'd be better off visiting Switzerland anyways 🤣🤣

    Oh.. and take that with a grain of salt ofcourse, since that's only my opinion.
  • 1
    @tosensei it’s great that tap water is drinkable cheap and well regulated.
    Not sure what that has to do though with them selling bottled water at a prohibitive price. Can you get some of that money back with the Pfand?
  • 1
    You should come to the UK (not) the arsehole of Europe. Everything here is shit, expensive and in short supply. Wages stagnant for 13 years. Crime, litter, shitty health service, Double price fuel, energy snd food. Also can’t escape since Brexit. Life here is totally fucked. I have an exit strategy.
  • 3
    @red-knot well, if you've got people dumb enough to buy your plastic bottle with stale tap water - why not charge them a whole lot if you're at it?
  • 1
    @tosensei fine if you’re at home. For tourists who can’t find water on tap on every other street corner, bottled water can be convenient. Although they’re the worst ecologically speaking, unless they’re put though proper recycling as is mostly the case in Germany with those hard plastic bottles and the pfand system
  • 2
    @red-knot plastic can be recycled only a handful of times. so it'll end in the landfill anyway. if it even is actually recycled, and not just dumped at a "recycling plant" in the third world..
  • 0
    @helloworld Ooh~ Sounds lovely xD
  • 2
    Trash: Yes, it sucks. Depends a bit on the area however (as everything in Berlin).

    German food is out of fashion, you'll have better luck outside big cities for that.

    In a späti you'll pay no more than 2€ for a liter of water, in supermarkets about 25-80 cents. If you go to very touristy spots (or the airport) then they'll try to squeeze you more obviously.

    @tosensei The last mile can actually be a safety concern, if there's still lead pipes or some really shitty piping that can cause bacterial growth (but that's more of an issue with warm water).
    In my flat tap water tastes terrible (and the piping really isn't trustworthy), so spending 10-20€ a month for bottled is not that bad.
  • 2
    @saucyatom even in the _very very_ few cases where that could still be the case in 2023, i'd say the statistical health risk is at best on par with microplastics, and are far outweighed by the long-term problems caused by shipping bottled water around by burning fossil fuels and stuff ;)
  • 1
    @tosensei I'll have to take my chances!

    (I drank tap water for the last 10 years, but in this house there's known issues, I'll wait for them to fix that first..)
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