From 8 September to 20 December 2009 I lived an important life experience a Berlin. Reason for stay: stay and study abroad as per my program of Ph.D.
It is very difficult to reconstruct my impressions and experiences afterwards, because the image of the city - or rather the more or less intimate relationship with it - changes day by day. Furthermore, I feel that it is difficult to give a clear and unique judgment on this parenthesis of my life. I try.
Looking for a home in Berlin it is very different from looking for a house, for example, in Novara. In 2006 I stayed for two months in the Piedmontese provincial capital and to find a studio apartment I only needed to call some real estate agencies, which despite having charged a month for intermediation (400 €) made me a fast and efficient service. In about ten days I found remote accommodation, without going in person on site.
In Berlin it was more difficult. Not only for the language, but also because the cultural rules that connect lessor and lessee are different. Since real estate agencies are very expensive, everything passes through the electronic bulletin boards that connect those who offer and those who seek. Everything is one-to-one, in the sense that you have to make appointments to visit the houses and you have to pass casting where the competition is tough. I realized that I could not fail to go there in person and at the end of August, within a couple of days, I first made some appointments and then I booked a flight at exorbitant costs. In Berlin I took a room at the mythical and comfortable Circus Hotel, where I stayed several times and where, later, I also performed as a musician. I managed to win a "casting" by winning a nice studio in Zoo, overlooking the river (rent of € 350 monthly all inclusive). Thanks to my passion for music, I gained the trust of the lovely Korean owner, a contemporary music composer. With the keys in my pocket, I returned to Italy, satisfied with my little personal challenge. Looking for a house directly on my arrival would have been problematic: too many suitcases to manage, too much anxiety to manage. 400 € of flight and 100 € of hotel were, in short, money well spent. But I really regretted real estate brokerage. If you have an average paid job - as in my case - and you don't have the desire or material time to beat yourself up, finding a good home in Berlin isn't as easy as everyone claims. A lot of energy needs to be invested.
My work was a theoretical study. In recent months my goal was to build a conceptual model that would unite urban sociology and marketing in the study of "city branding", that is the discipline that seeks to enhance the symbolic and imaginative resources of cities to increase their economic performance and social livability. I had a comfortable shared office at a German university and I divided my time between home and university. Joining an international scientific community was difficult but rewarding and presenting your research to people from all over the world was a great challenge. Linguistics, first of all. Social, in secundis. English was spoken at the university, but German was definitely spoken outside. The question of language deserves a separate paragraph and I go to head.
Everyone told me that English is enough in Berlin. It certainly is in my university but as soon as you walk through the door you realize that this is not the case. Speak tedesco if you want to live in Berlin it is very important for two reasons. The first is that you have to call a courier or a plumber (as happened to me) English is often useless. Even bringing a shirt to the dry cleaner or asking for a particular cut of meat at the market requires the use of the German language. Having studied a bit of German in middle school, I did quite well… But I don't understand how someone who has lived in Berlin for years and prefers to limit themselves to using English. The second order of reasons is cultural: when you interact with the Germans you feel that speaking their language is preferable. It opens up a world of relationships, it makes you better in their eyes. And you really feel you are. The meeting of a person, in particular, with whom I spoke Italian and German in a sort of tandem partnership, pushed me to focus on revising the language and I sincerely thank him for opening this world to me.
In terms of cost of living and salary, Berlin is truly one inexpensive city. With my € 1 scholarship I could afford a very comfortable life, spending no more than € 500 a month in total. To the supermarket and pubs prices are really lower, as well as in the rental market. Not entirely valid speech for the restaurant (prices a little higher in relation to supermarkets) and for other activities. If going to the swimming pool is cheap (3 euros), playing tennis in Berlin, for example, is very expensive. For 45 minutes they also charge you 9 or 10 euros each. THE transports are expensive (a day ticket costs more than € 6 and a single ride costs € 2,10) but students are treated with many favors. With 160 euros I was entitled to a six-month travel document. Either way, rent and the cost of food are crucial in making Berlin one city within reach of the student.
What was the city like? I still ask myself often. I believe that Berlin is not aesthetically beautiful. Too gray, too much little urban identity for those used, like us Italians, to the historic centers of Rome, Venezia, Firenze etc. I have found that Berlin either rejects it or embraces it totally. I place myself exactly in the middle ... Hasslieb the Germans would say. It is difficult to give a single judgment when you are in one place for three months. The tourist's gaze has little time to grasp and elaborate. The gaze of an inhabitant captures both good and bad stimuli and builds a complex picture. I have lived through days of absolute darkness and days of incredible emotional charge. Days of satisfaction and days of frustration. Sometimes the city was like a cell, other times like a launch pad. I suffered from not having a real urban center, an Italian square let's say, a meeting place. I missed this. Alexanderplatz is a fake center. Even because in Berlin the center does not exist, or it moves continuously. East and West still exist in people's habits, in the different value they attribute to buildings and streets. This was very fascinating. I found human warmth in the old west, between Tiergarten, the Zoo and Charlottenburg. Perhaps it is a coincidence, of course, but more likely a joint between a multifaceted city and my personal attitudes, which made me recognize a sort of home in those areas. I have not known anyone, apart from the residents themselves, who preferred those areas to the vibes of the old East… Friedrishain, Prenzlauer Berg… Another Berlin spot I love is Rosenthaler Platz, in Mitte. Merit of the Circus Hotel, a not cheap but welcoming structure where I lived important moments. Mine first concert abroad, farewell dinner with close friends.
Now some more concrete frame. At the supermarket you don't need gloves to pick up fruit and weigh it… horror. At the canteen the trays do not have placemats, we hope they are sterilized. On the courier's postcard there is a somewhat strange option: the delivery of the package to the neighbor in case the real recipient is absent. Interesting… It tells us a lot about neighborhood relations.
La Barilla pasta it is different from the Italian one… maybe even the Santa Lucia mozzarella. The German yoghurt can't be beat, breakfast was a feast. Also for me who chose to live alone.
Un restaurant it's a dish: the brewery in Prenzlauer Berg Prater in Kastanienallee. The meat is super even if it is expensive. Try the goose or duck when they are there. For the pizza by the slice I point out Sweet Pizza in Turmstrasse Alt Moabit. As for the Italian restaurants, I condemn that of the Apostel and award the trattoria Go Mo ' in Danziger Strasse also in Prenzlauer. Not bad for desserts Konditorei near my house, on the corner of Hollsteiner Ufer and Bartningallee. But watch out for wasps. I am a sentence in Berlin in the summer.
Un nightclub particular, in addition to the fascinating and multi-acclaimed Berghain, it could be Roadrunner's Rock & Motor Club inserted inside an old industrial complex. Next to a door where you can read Alfa Romeo, in a small courtyard there is a small rock club, whose walls are overflowing with every conceivable object. It may seem like a haven for Harleisti, but no one feels uncomfortable. And one who hates motorcycles tells you this. The place is a Prenzlauer, near the SenefelderPlatz U-bahn stop. The small street is called Saarbrücker Strasse 24.
Il post foreign trauma. It is difficult to leave, difficult to return. My thought about it was that we leave to return, but then we return to leave again. I don't know if this prophecy has come true completely but after the first days of returning to Italy I noticed a tendency to commit all weekends with the most varied commitments. An escape from something perhaps. Three months later, however, I feel a strong need for to plant firm roots in one place, I don't know which one though. Today society demands high performances from us which require us to have a very delicate relationship with space and its places. In my case I felt "emotional imbalances" both on the way out and on the way back. Unfortunately, I think I fully recognize myself in George Clooney in the film Above the clouds. A film that cI recommend to anyone who is fighting with space and its distances. Those that not even a low cost flight can cancel.
