I moved to Berlin. Turns out Germany is not all it’s cracked up to be

September 15, 2026 — 5:30pm

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“I could definitely see myself living here.” This is the standard line of thinking from most Aussies who spend at least a week in Berlin during its dreamy summer months. I should know, as I actually did move here at the end of last year, after many prior visits to the German capital in which I fell absolutely head over heels for it.

There are plenty of reasons for this. Firstly, the city is full of lush, tall trees and you are never more than a five-minute walk from a park. The public transport system is such that at all hours of the morning, every day of the week, you will never wait longer than nine minutes for your next U-bahn. There’s the world-class nightclubs, the riverside beer gardens, the huge expanse of lakes and forest lands under an hour out of the city centre. What’s not to love?

This has been the line of thinking from many of my friends this year, as a steady drip-feed of Australians have passed through Berlin on their Euro summers. Their questions were surprisingly aligned: what clubs are good? How often do you go out? What shows have you seen? What countries have you visited?

The light goes out from their eyes when we tell them, well, we don’t really go out that much and we haven’t been on a........

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