Rant No. 13: Personal space.

Some friends and I took a trip out of Berlin to the beach. We went by train, and when we got on the train was almost empty.

We had brought a picnic with and a bottle of wine, and we were having fun on our journey, when another group got on. They were German.

Despite the train being almost empty, for some reason, they decided to sit right next to us.

One woman sat right next to my friend, who didn’t disguise her displeasure, and the others sat across the aisle.

The whole journey this woman stared at us, and took up my legroom and generally invaded our personal space.

What would possess a person to do that when there was so much empty space?

We really wanted to say something, but what do you say?

By the end of the journey I had irrational hatred for this woman, her face, and even the t-shirt she was wearing.

This seems to be a common problem in Germany, for some unknown reason.  Whether it’s in a queue or on an escalator, the Germans seem to know no boundaries when it comes to personal space.