Berlin is falling apart; Bucharest is depressing

Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu recently spent six months living in Germany. His experiences failed to confirm the myth of a Germany where everything functions smoothly. Berlin has changed, he writes in the daily Evenimentul Zilei: "The Germans are no longer what they used to be, and they know it. I lived in Berlin for 18 months ten years ago. Back then the subway trains weren't jammed with passengers. They didn't run irregularly, and you didn't have to get out to travel part of the journey by bus. Nor was it usual for them to arrive 20 minutes behind schedule, because that would mean you would miss your connection or have to stand around waiting at some remote train station. … This time even when I left Berlin I saw potholes in the road (I had to take photos otherwise no one would believe me) that must have been unique in Germany and are as big as those near Valea Oltului or in my beloved Bucharest. … But no matter how run-down Germany has become, when I returned Bucharest was, as always, a shock. In the first days I could have committed suicide."

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