A busker in the subway playing the violin so absorbed, he almost forgets to stop and collect the money. His wonderful and emotional music almost brought tears to my eyes and a huge smile, not just from me, but also on the faces of the other commuters
Two young dark-skinned girls tell an elderly white guy smoking in the subway: “Show some respect!”, and an elderly woman thanks them for it. The smoker hides in a corner and kills his cigarette. Nice to see “Berliner Schnautze” (Berlin Big Mouth) is a tradition still going strong :).
Alexanderplatz: Woman in her 60s carrying part of her Xmas shopping in a paper bag. The bag splits and her things fall out, luckily on a bench. An elderly guy sitting on that bench asks if he can help, but she’s already pulling out a fabric bag from her handbag, murmuring “stupid paper bags”. The guy agrees, but tells her to see it positively: at least the stuff didn’t drop when she was walking the wet streets. She nods and says: well, still it is better than plastic bags.
Too many shoes in the free shop. So I take some with me and display them on my window ledge. Many of them are gone the next day. When I go to work, I see a guy taking a pic of the row of summer high heels.
Almost all of them are gone when I come back from work. Strangely enough, the winter boots are still there. I put them on the corner of the main street, in the hope someone wants them. Unfortunately, 3 days later, still no one took them. When I start my shift in the free shop, a well-dressed guy comes in with a bag. And he takes out those boots, yes those same boots, which were gathering dust in our shop for several years, and which I put on the streets. Some things are really hard to get rid off…
Free shop. We still have too many frikkin’ shoes. But they are needed too. We put some outside, and a guy comes by, shows me his leaking shoes, which he had stuffed with toilet paper, since he had no socks either. I quickly invite him in, and he not only finds shoes in his size, but also the socks, and quite a few other things to keep him warm on the street….