Stupid tourist season begins

A 2006 Readers Digest survey of good manners in 35 world cities ranked Berlin number three, behind Toronto and Zurich, for courteousness.

If you live in Berlin, you could be forgiven for spitting out your currywurst at this point. Because Berliners aren't exactly renowned for their politeness. Quite the opposite. If you put a foot wrong in this city you can very quickly find yourself on the receiving end of Berliner Schnauze, the brusque local way of telling you to go to hell.

Since the study was published, there have been various attempts to explain the disparity. The consensus seems to be that Berliners have plenty of patience when it comes to hapless tourists. But if they think you live here, you should know better - and that makes you fair game.

However, the tourists themselves aren't always well behaved and respectful towards their hosts. On Easter Monday, a drunken Lithuanian man got himself arrested after doing a Basil Fawlty i.e. shouting out Sieg Heil and raising his right arm in front of the Russian Embassy on Unter den Linden. He was released by the police after they did a blood test, presumably to confirm that he was as pissed as a fart. A mere three hours later, the same man got arrested a second time, for the same crime (yes it is a crime in Germany), but in front of the Reichstag. And they say travel broadens the mind...