Watch out, they spit!

I was on my way home last night from the train station and was just thinking, "I caught this train just in time" as the U6 barrelled into the Friedrichstr. station when the doors opened and HOCH! and big reddish brown loogie exited the ubahn door. It landed centimeters from my New Balances. Some dude then casually followed his nasty deposit through the doors looking totally pleased with himself.

I looked around at my fellow travelers for their looks of disgust and outrage, yet no one seemed to notice... or care that he defiled the ground with his (scarily) off-colored flem. I've seen Germans get into yelling matches over whether a bike should be locked on this side of the bike rack or that side of it, so I braced myself for the yelling to follow.

Nothing happened.

As I rode home I realized that I see piles of spit everywhere in Berlin. Berliners must be spitters. It's on the sidewalks, in the Metro stations, even in my elevator in my building on occasion. When I first moved to Berlin, I missed all of the people smiling as we walked places. Berliners seemed to keep their heads down (shame from ancestors, oder?) but yesterday night I got it. Their heads are down to avoid the ground loogie. Or maybe the dog poo.