Cigarette smoke filling the air while someone waits for the bus to arrive. One, two, three whole cigarettes in only five minutes, then it’s time to leave. We are told to show our bus tickets upon entering but in fact, the driver has stopped caring long ago.
A free seat near the window. Shall I take it or not? I might. I still feel tired from a night full of nightmares and no sleep but more and more elderly people enter through the doors as the stations pass by. I leave the seats for them or otherwise they will just tell me to leave and let them sit because they are so old and sick.
People standing in line to get their breakfast at the train station. Some making their coffee, some picking up a sandwich or a donut. A Berliner, an American or a Canadian for breakfast. Making another line at the cash desk, rushing everyone else to go faster because time is money.
Someone is sleeping in the seat on the train. There are enough seats now, so why not sleep? He just lays there, leaning against the window, a backpack on the seats in front of him. Wearing a shirt? No, why? Shorts and trainers with no socks should be enough, so he thinks. Why bother what everyone else thinks of you? At least no beer gut this time.
Leaves shining green as the sun shines down on them. Trees pass by the windows. The cold of the morning is vanishing. It is getting warmer.
Another train, another wagon, another group of people. Again no place to sit. Children are crying and their parents are too tired to do something about it. Just let them cry.
The noise of a streetcar driving down the tracks. Tourists with cameras around their necks. What is it they are taking pictures of, I wonder looking into the same direction as the lens?
Everything’s still closed. The movie theater, the shops, the banks. But the construction site is already ongoing. Another mall to be built. As if the other three within a few hundred meters of reach are not enough yet. Long live consumerism, would some of you say and maybe you’d be right this time.
The fair on the square is standing still. No visitors in sight, no vendors and no noises. Everything’s just there, waiting for another day to come around. Food stands. Food stands everywhere you look.
Welcome to Berlin in the morning.
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