social.noyu.me

random berlin observations thread

‪1. wow you can just buy club mate in like a normal shop‬

‪2. i walked to a used musical instrument shop and it has tons of treasures that greatly interest me and i spoke german to the guy running the shop and i'm having such a good time rn 🥺‬

3. queer people exist? has anyone heard of this. couldn't be me

‪4. i am walking So Much, i'm gonna have to revise my daily exercise target, and all these food options probably won't make me gain weight‬

5. oh nooo, touristy parts of this city are littered with those fucking scam ATMs by e*ronet. i'm lucky i once watched a youtube video by some czech guys who wanted to warn tourists, and yet i still almost got scammed; i tapped through too quick (but i got my PIN wrong lmao)

5½. btw it's suspicious how the machine appears to freeze up just before you enter the amount you want to withdraw; i double-tapped because i thought it wasn't responding, and before you know it i had requested more money than i intended to.

‪5¾. wasn't sure if free ATMs actually existed in germany but i decided to seek out an ATM run by a like actual bank and Berliner Sparkasse had my back it seems, no charge. thank you Berliner Sparkasse‬

6. Weißt irgendjemand wo ich eine Geldau-Tomate eigentlich essen könnte?

‪7. um, are you doing okay there germany? today i got two different ads (one on youtube, one on twitter) foretelling some impending societal catastrophe and telling you to hoard precious items / become a prepper‬

8. so the government requires me to register my address, but to do so i must book an appointment, and appointments are very scarce, so they release them in batches and you have to rush to try to get them at the start of the day. excuse me but what the hell? this is not a functioning bureaucracy

‪8½. actually this is like a fun little game for website refreshing enthusiasts. the appointments aren't released in a block at 8am, they drop new ones every few minutes in early hours. there's even a tool that will play a cute little sound when it finds a new one. i will win :3‬

8¾. update: (link voice) i won!

8⅞. it's actually kind of cool how you have to search all over berlin to get an appointment. it's like an epic quest, requiring rare items (landlord proof, identification, appointment) and travelling a great distance. i have to take the s-bahn, u-bahn and a bus! an adventure

‪9. zurückbleiben bitte‬

10. turns out interacting with bureaucracy can be really easy and pleasant if you speak german? i just did the anmeldung it was great. i am sorry everyone i am a fucking unicorn

11. who called it gesundbrunnen and not nordkreuz

12. i love to be asked for my feedback

‪13. need to get married at the S-Bahn station named Wedding‬

14. oh my god there is a trans-themed cafe owned by some uhh queer organisation??? 🥺

15. i love to ask questions about life in germany that nobody who speaks german as well as i do would reasonably be expected to need to ask

16. check out daft punk's new single “get lucky” if you have the chance. sound of the summer

17. even a big electronics and home appliance store in a shopping centre will accept cash payments??? this country is amazing

@hikari wait, is that not the case elsewhere in Europe?
ustedes' continent has some strange countries
cash is almost universally accepted in the US and Canada, and is often preferred (some restaurants I've been to recently offer discounts for cash or charge a fee for paying by card)

@flamingspork sweden specifically is a late-stage cashless society. cash does still exist but the average swede never has a reason to use it in a given year and it is extremely common for retailers to not accept cash at all