18 hours in Berlin
I made a deal with my boss that in between two work events in Stuttgart I could take a week of holidays. I spent those busy as usual and went from Stuttgart to Düsseldorf and on to Dortmund to visit my sister and my dad first of all.
Then it happened that during my stay with my sister, her favorite musician, Bruce Springsteen, would play in Berlin. So we made the decision to drive from Dortmund to Berlin to see Bruce together.
The ride to Berlin was happening on a Sunday, thus the traffic was bearable, even if the car was packed with in total four people and not much legroom on the back seats.
Arrived in Berlin, we only quickly checked into the hotel and went straight to the Olympic stadium by subway. The subway soon got crowded and it is amazing to see how people in Berlin cope, or rather not cope, with crowded trains. The trains also aren’t the best, rattling and shaking much more than subways in Tokyo and they have zero air conditioning. With lots of people on board they soon get hopelessly overheated.
We made it to the stadium all right and on the battle went through massive unregulated crowds to our seats. I am reversely fascinated what a great job the Japanese do in regulating large crowds. I’ve been often enough in Tokyo Dome which seats 50,000 and never is there such a hustle as with the Berlin Olympic stadium.
The gig was great and the unstoppable Bruce sings over 30 songs non-stop for 3 hours and 20 minutes.
His stage has no frills, special light shows, or movies, he just plays straight on, of course including his all time hits like Born to Run, Born in the USA, Dancing in the Dark.
He didn’t talk much either during this particular concert. It’s amazing to see the amount of energy this 66 year old guy still has. I find it quite amazing that Bruce attracts all age groups. There are people in the audience from their twenties to their seventies. I think that such a broad reach is quite rare in nowadays music world.
The ride back by subway had nightmarish proportions. Tons of people shoved into the subway station, did not line up in any fashion and squeezed into the train like panicked cattle to the slaughter. When the 50,000 leave Tokyo Dome, they distribute over a dozen lines, not only one that comes only every ten minutes with one or the other special train in between and it’s much less of a drama.
I have the self-imposed task of visiting at least one country I’ve never been to before per year and I’ve never been to Sweden yet, so I took the opportunity to visit Stockholm during my week off on my way to Finland and the Nummirock heavy metal festival.
Getting from Berlin to Stockholm sounds easy enough, but it was quite some hustle. My flight was supposed to leave at 12:30 so I thought I have plenty of time if I leave by airport bus from Berlin Alexanderplatz at 10:00. Pre-information said that it would take half an hour to get to the airport. It took an hour while the bus struggled through the car-packed downtown where people park all over the place and in any obstructive way possible. Funnily the bus was free of charge, at least the driver didn’t want to have any money and waved airport guests through.
Berlin Tegel airport is maybe from the sixties, tiny and not laid out for the masses of people who are flying these days. The SAS check-in counter was hopelessly understaffed and people were queuing for ages. Then, when I had almost reached one of the check-in counters, the woman in charge there switches off the monitor and leaves, despite twenty people in her row, saying, line up elsewhere. You gotta be kidding me. Unthinkable behavior in the service haven Japan. A couple in the neighboring row was so kind to let me squeeze in. The next ridiculously long queue awaited disgruntled and stressed passengers at the security check with not all machines open due to lack of personnel. Then the guys at the security check pulled me out for a “random” special screening. I bet it’s not random. They pull me out because I am “weird”: a German with a Japanese address flying from Berlin to Stockholm seems to be suspicious. Luckily that special screening didn’t take overly long. A lady with a cloth wiper sweeps over your bags and belt to test for explosives.
The boarding area behind the security in Tegel is ridiculously small and was thronged with people. The gate leading to the bus for the Stockholm airplane was so crowded that people waited up the stairs unable to enter the waiting area. This airport is truly laid out for only half of the amount of people it is handling. Pretty much of a nightmare – avoid Berlin Tegel if you can. I wonder whether the other Berlin airport Schoenefeld is any better.
Eventually the flight left some 45 min later than scheduled. How good that I’m on the road for holidays at the moment, not business…
