I’ve been living in Berlin for a couple of months now, and there are some things about this city I find completely, utterly bizarre.

Here are some of them:

The street numbering confusion

Picture your average city block. The street numbers are odd on one side of the road and even on the other, right? Not here! In Berlin, the numbers are horseshoe. That means that buildings are in numerical order on one side of the road. 1 is next to 2, and then 3. The other side of the road could have 168 and 169.

Wiki describes it thus: “Under the horseshoe numbering scheme, starting from one end, the buildings on the right side of the street were numbered sequentially from the near end to the far end of the street. The next number was then assigned to the last building on the left, opposite side of the street, the following numbers sequentially doubling back along the left side of the street. The building with the highest number would be the first on the left side, facing building number 1 across the street.”

Basically, without Google Maps, a girl like me will wander for hours, in a total state of confusion unable to find the right building and eventually give up and go home.

The museum photo scam

Berlin has over 170 museums. (For a “best of” list, check here.) There is a bizarre scam running through most of them. Entrance fee does not include permission to take photographs. What the hell??? So, you pay a bit extra, get a sticker to say that you are allowed to take photos and feel like a member of the Press Corp.

The no kitchen fiasco

I’ve heard whispers that when you move into an unfurnished flat in Berlin, it is so unfurnished that it doesn’t even have a kitchen. I honestly don’t understand why I would spend my money and energy kitting out someone else’s flat.

The pedestrian crossing dilemma

Many of the pedestrian crossings in Berlin don’t give you enough time to cross the entire road. That leaves me with a dilemma – to cross the second half illegally and potentially get mowed down by a speeding bicycle, or wait in the middle of the road and ruminate on the cuteness of the Ampelmännchen. You know me, I walk.

The personal space issue

Berliners think nothing of cutting in front of you in toilet queues or leaning on you in the train, but will smile and wish you a nice day as they do it.

The timing conundrum

It’s my belief that every city has a pulse. A time when things happen, when the going is good. For example: Eat out in Palermo before 9pm and you’ll eat alone, Monday night is only for Netflix and chill in Auckland and don’t expect to be able to go shopping on Sunday in Vienna. However, I can’t get my head around Berlin’s pulse. I have seen restaurants full at 4pm, and nightclubs empty at 12.30am, only to be full half an hour early. Obviously, more research is needed!

I’m interested to hear the things you thought were weird when you moved somewhere else. Leave a comment!