free rommy New York → Kansas City → San Francisco → Stockholm → Berlin

The best time to be in Germany

I've been hearing from a lot of people that I couldn't have picked a better time to move to Berlin. They're right.

I haven't gone out yet. By this I mean I haven't gone out barhopping on a Friday or Saturday night. My time thus far has been split between fighting off my allergies throughout the days, watching World Cup matches in the afternoons, and apartment hunting in the evenings (between the 4:00 and 8:30 matches) so I can make it to a bar in time for the 8:30 match to start.

World Cup fever has taken this over Berlin (and the rest of Germany). What makes the excitement (read: hysteria) even more compelling is that Berlin is an extremely international city made up of Turks, English, Americans, French, Italians, Australians, Kiwis, Serbs and pretty much other nationality that happens to be represented in the global event. So even though the Germany matches command the biggest crowds at bars, there is no bar or cafe that doesn't have a crowd gathered around a television on a street corner or on a sidewalk or in a biergarten during any match. As a Berliner, you try to watch every match you possibly can because it's fun (and because it's hard not to).

My social life is non-existent. And I don't really have any good friends yet. Outside of the couple buddies I have at work with whom I've seen a few matches, my acquaintances have been made up of people I meet at cafes watching World Cup matches.

But it doesn't matter, because the energy you get from seeing from 20 people gathered around a 40 inch flat-screen television on a street corner, cheering and screaming at the screen in German is enough to get you smiling and joining in. As soon as the fans ask you where you're from, the first thing they do is start telling you what they think of your team's performance in the Cup. In my case, they lament the horrible call that was made against the US in the Slovenia match.

Last Friday, Germany had a 1:30 match against Serbia. In most American companies it would be business as usual. In Germany, the worker's union would file a complaint against a company's leadership for "undue psychological stress" resulting from not allowing its employees to watch a match. In our case, our bosses ordered pizzas, set up two flat panel TVs with surround sound, and we all took two hours off to watch the match. The only psychological stress we endured was from the unfavorable result in large part due to horrible officiating. At 3:30, we were back to work, trying not to think about the dozens of different ways this could end for Germany.

I've been trying to get my Swedish friends down here before the World Cup ends. I'm pretty sure there's no better way to see Berlin. The excitement is contagious and everything I could've hoped for.