As Cliche As A Rom-Com Can Be

Time flies, right buddy ol’ pals of mine? It’s as cliché and cheesy as the worst of rom-coms, but hell it’s as true and hard as a heart-attack. Time flies,  -for me- people don’t change but they learn to adapt, some things change for the better others for the worst but whichever the case might be I’m of the opinion that whatever happens we bring it to ourselves –minus some cases-

As weird as it may sound I wrote this intro to begin telling you what I talked about for 2 hours with that 45 year old or something German bar owner when in Berlin.

We were staying in West Berlin as I might have mentioned in the previous entry. We booked in advance at a cheap hotel in a very posh area of West Berlin without knowing. In an area where the prices from the shops’ windows didn’t fall beneath the 250 euros and the price of a watch could pay 2 days’ meals and clothing of 2 families.

When I asked what was the deal and all the bars were empty or closed she told that once West Berlin used to be the place to be. It used to be full of artists, painters, bohemians and “free spirits” and students.  She also told me that once West Berlin used to be “alive” 24/7 and the bars were mostly packed every hour around the clock.  Now people travel to West Berlin to do business and then they leave.

The shops’ windows are there for those who can afford these kinds of things, only because, people who can afford these things come around that neighborhood anymore. That’s when I finished my beer and asked for another one. And as the bar was empty she said that the next one was on the house.

She said that she misses the days like 10 or 15 years ago when every bar in West Berlin was never empty and people didn’t have to work 2 or 3 jobs just to get by. The unemployment rate was low, everyone had a job and could get by just fine.

Nowadays there are more than 3 places where you can get daily meals for 3 euros and the buildings for homeless people are usually packed. From supermarkets to church donations, more and more people get sacked or remain unemployed and the lucky few, like one of her friends, have to work 14 hours a day –factory and old people’s homes- and still get some kind of welfare just to get by and be able to pay rent and send their kids to school.

She also told me about old neoclassical buildings in East Berlins, with big houses, which are now inhabbited by two or three families each house and 14 year old pregnant girls with baby-trolleys, high-school degrees to get and a baby to feed.


Now she might did exaggerate a little bit she might didn't. But either way, even if the situation is half as bad as she painted it to be, to me this still sounds as scary as a quadruple anal scene does to even the most experienced of female porn-stars out there - as I'd like to think it does.-


Till next time, keep goofing it up and bababooee.

Ooooh We're On Fire

It has become something like a tradition in Athens Greece, during the summer time –mostly during July and August- a fire to be spreading and burning a great extend of forest ground but also residences.

Same images on T.V every year around same time on the evening news, residents running amok trying to stop the fire and complaining of not having enough help from the authorities.

But I’m one of those who always see the light at the end of the tunnel. I always find happiness and reason to believe even in the toughest of the situations. Think about these facts: 1 Greece, 2 Athens, 3 fire, 4 evening news, 5 top story in 3 international channels…and number 6…of course…*drum roll* FAME!

1: http://www.newser.com/article/d99nlhe00/greek-firefighters-contain-blazes-near-athens.html

2:http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Greece-Forest-Fire-Villages-Near-Athens-Threatened-By-Growing-Blaze/Article/200908415367012?lpos=World_News_Top_Stories_Header_2&lid=ARTICLE_15367012_Greece_Forest_Fire%3A_Villages_Near_Athens_Threatened_By_Growing_Blaze

3:http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/08/22/wildfire-rages-outside-greek-capital/

That’s fame for us folks and don’t pretend you don’t just love it. We are the Greeks who own beautiful islands and charge crazy amounts of money for our famous greek salads and sell cheap impure alcohol to teenage English tourists and then complain about them passing out on the streets, we are the Greeks who became famous for the 2004 Olympic Games and our laziness (we are the Greeks who invented homosexuality as one might would like to add to that…); and to this wall of glory, the bush-fire and conflagration have been added as a “glorified” tradition since 2007.

Two years have gone by and we’re still keeping strong. Burning down the forests, building resorts and villas on the burnt ground. Let me reveal a secret here, that the news won’t tell…the fires and the residents running in panic trying to save the properties is not an accident. It’s another sort of Big Brother, it’s more like an emergency test for the end of the world. It’s an emergency test turned into a reality show which is broadcasted not as a television programme but through the news. Clever huh? Beat that if you can. Take it away Bruce...