Berlin unraveled

Here are some random tidbits about Berlin I've experienced, noticed, thought or wondered about:

Dogs
Berliners seem to love their dogs; they're everywhere here! I see all kinds running around: big and small, sitting in restaurants and bars, riding the subway, walking in stores. The dogs are so well behaved that most aren't even on leashes. They loyally follow their owners throughout the city, stopping at crosswalks, not running in the street, not barking at other dogs and not chasing anything. It's amazing.

I mentioned it to Sarah, our guide from the walking tour, and she had a theory that the dogs here are so well behaved here because of cultural reasons. She said that while Americans consider dogs part of their families – they have birthdays, sleep in the bed, get Christmas presents – Germans consider their dogs as just pets. While they love their pets, they also don't mollycoddle them and so the dogs are more submissive to their owners. It was an interesting insight.

Ticket Police
There's a lot of trust in Berlin. Pet owners let their dogs walk off-leash, parents let their kids take public transportation by themselves and there aren't any ticket takers or turnstiles to get onto the trams, trains and subway. The way the city enforces that people actually pay for public transportation is by doing random ticket checks.

Hannah and I got stopped on Tuesday when we were returning from David and Stefan's apartment. We both had our tickets and were fine, but one woman wasn't so lucky. The ticket police, as I call them, wear plain clothes and work in pairs. One gets on each end of a car and as it is moving between stops, they work their way in from the outside to the middle checking that you have an unexpired ticket. If you don't, you're in trouble!