Kotti

After some lovely days in Sitges with my family I am back in Berlin, back at work, back at Kottbusser Tor. Or Kotti, as it is called in the caring loving way parents refer to their child of sorrow whom they love but also fear for its future. Lately – or maybe since always – Kotti has been in the news because of its problems (drug dealing, fights, drunks, pick pockets etc.) but most of the days I don’t feel more threatened here than in any other dodgy place in Berlin. Maybe because I pass here everyday on my way to work and I have seen it at every possible hour: with its food market; the guy who has been sitting on top of an old phone cabin weaving a cape for the past weeks; the cashiers at the Kaiser’s who remain calm even if the loudest and drunkest of the buyers; the tourists in the evening drinking their Wegbier while waiting for someone and feeling really cool; the group of youngsters trying to impress every girl who is passing by; the parents in the early morning who bring their children to the near by school or even the bouncers of Xara Beach who start their shift as early as 6pm and are always there when I am on my way home… somehow I like Kottbusser Tor. But maybe this is because I don’t live here.