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‘Like it had been put on Earth specially for me’: readers’ favourite European city breaks
(www.theguardian.com)
A very good list. Thanks!
this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2025
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Berlin is my favorite of the list! Even with all the gentrification of the last years, it shines. The Museum Island is my personal favorite place, but there is soooo much more.
It's a gorgeous city, and so much history. What gentrification has their been?
While salaries have been quite constant for a big part of the population, the costs of renting and buying had skyrocketed, killing the artistic ecosystem that was the soul of Berlin after the fall of the wall. An influx of high earners has displaced lower earners from much of the city center, somewhat killing the underground vibe and driving prices up across the board. We are talking about rent hikes of hundreds of percent in a handful of years.
What's a bit of a mystery to me about Berlin is that there's so much space! It does not have the excuse of historically dense cities in much of Europe, and neither does it have a conservative nimbyish city government. So why is it not building housing?
The short answer is that I don’t know.
I think there are enough apartments, just not enough apartments that are nice and in the city. Being in the outskirts could add a good half an hour to your commute (that is pretty big on EU standards) and are mostly hundred-year-old social housing, not really glamorous. If I remember correctly, Berlin’s population has also been increasing dramatically since the fall of the wall.
What I noticed is that some 20-30 years ago there was a lot of artsy undergrowth in the city, because you could live off of a 2-day a week odd job and dedicate the rest of your life to anything else you wanted. Nowadays that’s not viable anymore and a lot of cheap artsy places don’t exist anymore (I had skateboarding lessons in a squatted building, I went to a small club set up in the basement of a half-demolished house whose owner was still undetermined, I went to small “pop up” art galleries set up pretty much anywhere, I went to art flea markets set up in abandoned buildings, none of this is possible anymore)
Well it certainly seems to have given you fond memories!
The 90s was definitely the decade to be in Berlin. A bit like, say, Madrid in the 80s, maybe Amsterdam in the 70s, obviously Paris in the 20s.
Oh blimey that must have a huge impact. Thanks for explaining!
Thank you for sharing !