What a **** shit hole….

Is “Flair” just a nice way of saying run down and dirty?

Why so much dog shit on the pavements? Roads full of pot holes. Broken beer bottles every few hundred metres. People’s rubbish left on outside houses.
Run down, squatted buildings.

So many people trying ever so hard to be alternative with their piercings and tattoos that they all look the **** same….

Maybe I’m biased living in Munich with its clean streets, presentable buildings and next to zero unemployment.

I’m sure there are nice parts of Berlin just as there are shitty parts of Munich, but the ratio of each are at opposite ends of the scale…. In fact there isn’t anywhere in Munich that i would expect to find the same scabiness I’m currently looking at out of the window here in Friedrichshain….

Did I mention the dog shit?

Friends of ours rent their place via air bnb and have to hang up notices asking people to check their shoes before entering the flat there is so **** much of the stuff.

And everyone here looks so poor and destitute, yet they seem to be able to fund their full sleeve/neck/body tattoos and the several kilos of metal piercings hanging from various fleshy facial features.

Despite all the negatives about Bavaria, for which there is only one, the police, i can’t wait to start the engine and get back down south….

I found Munich to be one of the most unpleasant places I’ve ever visited. HTH.

Berlin must have changed then. The bit I went to a few years ago was lovely. Very modern and fresh, but that was the center of town and the Zoo area.

s’funny, I spent some time in Bavaria the other month. Like Munrobiker, I didn’t enjoy Munich at all – found it almost oppressively sterile, and a few of my friends have said similar. (the rest of Bavaria was great though)

But I’ve always loved Berlin. I know it’s a bit hip and all that but it’s also got amazing markets, art galleries, museums, music shops, bars and everything else.

The dog shit is annoying though…

Hmmmm. I lived in Bavaria for 6 months & loved it; a small town near Hof, called Helmbrechts.

We (me & the girl I was on a uni work placement there with) spent the weekend in Berlin & really like the place. I’d love to go back.
I’d previously been while doing A-level German & enjoyed it then too.

Munich on the other hand – we drove down for a day trip & found it all a bit sterile. Probably didn’t get a good enough impression from a day trip…..it was very clean though.
I preferred the smaller places in Bavaria; Bamberg, Kulmbach, Bayreuth etc.

EDIT – weird double post while trying to edit…

EDIT – interesting that I used the same description as doris above; sterile. I was typing while that was posted…..

I’ve lived in Berlin and Munich and like both cities. Munich is still one of my favourite cities – the only real downside is all those drug-drivers…

Berlin is one of the most human places I’ve been. Everything and everyone is in Berlin, yourself included.

Was a building site when I went there, but that was quite a few years ago. Went to the top of the Reichstag to get a city skyline photo, and the skyline was all construction cranes.
Place seemed OK, but it did pi55 down all day, so maybe the dog turds got washed down the drains.
One of the main streets with restaurants was a bit odd though, sat out on the terrace (rain stopped eventually), and there were prostitutes operating in a busy street.

My only experience of Munich is that it’s in the way and needs to be navigated around as swiftly as possible to get to the alps that are on the other side.

3/10. One point each for the swearing, the spelling mistakes and the rhetorical questions.

Points lost for clarity. Is your rant about the run-down area you found yourself in, or is it about you being personally offended by some young people dressing in a way you disapprove of?

😀

Ha… Stumpy… I was there in Helmbrechts yesterday night. Parked the van near the Teich. Great spot as it is pretty much half way between Munich and Berlin.

But I’ll have to correct you….

Hof isn’t in Bavaria. In fact most of Bavaria isn’t in Bavaria, at least culturally. Anything north of the Danube is pretty much Franken/Franconia. They speak funny up that way and their beer is not as good. 😉
(WTF were you doing in the arse end of nowhere?)

I’m sure there are nice bits of Berlin, they just seem to be few and far between.

I’m off out no for a game of dodge the dog shit/broken glass/missing cobbles walk.

Should probably chill out with a smoke 😆

I went a couple of months ago and can’t remember lashings of dog crap while out walking around the city.
Maybe they import it in from Paris at this time of year ?

But you are allowed up to 15g of weed before they will prosecute in Berlin rather than the 6g in Munich.

andytherocketeer – Member

Was a building site when I went there, but that was quite a few years ago. Went to the top of the Reichstag to get a city skyline photo, and the skyline was all construction cranes.

Ha, it was when I was there too – in ’99. We had a competition to see who could get a photo with the most cranes in. I managed 17 in one shot.

alpin – Member

Ha… Stumpy… I was there in Helmbrechts yesterday night.

(WTF were you doing in the arse end of nowhere?)

😆

The towns biggest employer is a plastic injection moulding company called Kunststoff Helmbrechts…a family business ran by a top bloke called Axel Zuleeg.

http://www.kh.de/en.html

At the time it was mainly ‘handy’ components – chassis’, covers & displays, but now they do tons of automotive parts.
2 of us were over there on industrial placement as part of our degree.
Our favourite pub in the town was Hoppels bierkneipe right up by the Teich. Hoppel was a German biker dude who’d spent a lot of time in South Africa. I think he’s gone now (the website didn’t exist anymore last time I looked.

My time over there was probably the best time of my young life. Bier-fest after bier-fest, some great people, the scenery, the weather, new experiences like cross-country skiing, wandern-tag on the 1st of May…..
We regularly used to go to a nightclub in Plauen with some girls we worked with who were from that area, so some interesting trips into the ‘old East’ were had.

Yeah. Slapped wrists for calling it ‘Bavaria’ I suppose….

Good job you’ll be getting expelled from the country soon then 🙂

^^ do you know more than I do?

andytherocketeer – Member

Was a building site when I went there, but that was quite a few years ago.

Is this you?

Ha, it was when I was there too – in ’99. We had a competition to see who could get a photo with the most cranes in

Wikipedia tells me it must have been in 2000 when I last went. Couple of weeks after the new British Embassy opened.

I hated it too. I last went in 2001 mind. Boiling hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. Have travelled quite a lot in Germany for work and holiday and Berlin is equal bottom with Frankfurt in my view. Munich must be one of the best cities in the world btw in which to live and work

According to the UN and some other ranking Munich is always top ten.

It’s always fun trying to dodge the junkies in Frankfurt. Quite a juxtaposition with all the suits and the addicts in the doorways.

equal bottom with Frankfurt

Lived 15 minutes away for nearly 15 years. I won’t defend that. Only been there about 3 times, excluding the few times I’ve changed trains at the Hauptbahnhof.
Must rival London for the number of beggars.
Although Vienna was the only city where it was so obvious that the pick pockets were eyeing up everyone’s arse pockets whilst crossing every pedestrian crossing.

Vienna is a nice city, spoiled by its location.

The best thing about Berlin for me, is leaving it.

About to hit the A9 and go south!

No more dog shit on front of the door. No more glass. No more mindless graffiti and vandalism. One building around the corner from where we were staying had just been newly renovated, new paint on the facade, new windows. And already the windows have been gratified and some arschloch has scrawled “stop gentrification” across the front.

Nice.

….or not.

I’m going to enjoy the six hour drive regardless of whatever traffic jams, roadworks or sonst irgendwas awaits us.

Did you find any parts of Berlin that you felt comfortable in?

You have some odd ideas of fun Alpin, re comments about Frankfurt. Makes you sound a right cock to be honest.

Fun might not be the best word…. Sad, would be more fitting.

hmmm this isnt good news we’ve chosen Berlin for our yearly long weekend away in November, maybe should swap to Munich.

I really like Berlin. That said, most Germans have the same opinion of Berlin as many Brits have of Liverpool. They feel it has been handed money for years, so much so that the local population are lazy and only whine …
In reality it is a fantastically diverse place … a real cross section of the population. And loads to do …

Munich, on the other hand, is right up it’s own arse. It’s a likeable place , some really nice thing to do, but very stuffy about being Bavarian (rather than German) … and a strange, not very well hidden sympathy towards the far-right …

Hamburg is a fun place …

Berlin is ace.

Dogs shit. It’s natural.

Not the buildings it’s the decent working people that make it good

Been to both and liked them but it’s Berlin I’d go back to in a heartbeat.

Munich would be great if it wasn’t populated by Müncheners.

Das Problem mit Minga….?

Was ist den Unterschied zwischen ein Preiß und ein Saupreiß….?

Der Preiß kimmt,aber der Saupreiß, der bleibt. 😉

Ich bin ein Saupreiß.

Berlin is doable for a long weekend depending on where you are staying…. I just hope it isn’t Friedrichshain. It really is a shit hole IMO.

Museums are great. The history is interesting. It’s the whole scene thing I fail to embrace.

Random factoid, my partners family are from helmbrechts…

Helmbrechts…. Centre of the (STW) universe…

Remembered this morning I have some scanned photos on my memory stick from when I was over in Germany

Behold – The natural Beauty of Berlin!! Part of our exciting ‘how many cranes in one pic’ competition. I don’t think this was the winning shot:

Helmbrechts when we arrived – Feb 1999

Winter reifen – kein problem!

‘De-icing’ the car…..

A day trip to Pottenstein in warmer months!