Transportation Crisis: For Exactly 10 Days (or longer)

The Skinny: The u-bahn (the tastefully yellow-colored subway which connects the various districts in Berlin) is on strike for the regular reasons unions strike- not enough pay or benefits. Unlike strikes back home, though, this one is scheduled (in the traditional German style) to last from March 4 to March 14- exactly 10 days. At the same time, several sources including the BVG itself are calling it an unlimited strike- saying it will last "at least until March 14th" indicating that the strike could go on as long as it needs to until union demands are met. The strike is also affecting the bus & tram systems, although some so-called "emergency busses" are running on emergency schedules (which seem to be sporadic at best) as per the request of city officials: http://www.bvg.de/index.php/en/Bvg The strike is following a 39 hour long warning strike that happened in February that apparently didn't do much aside from make us all stranded for a couple days. It is also rumored that the S-bahn (the train system which forms a ring around the central districts of Berlin as well as connecting inner districts with their astranged cousins out in the boonies) will also strike starting either this weekend or Monday, but there is no concrete information on this so far (unless text messages from my friend Dennis count as "concrete information".

How To Survive The Strike
Schnitzel and Vegi's Advice:

1. If you don't already own a bicycle, now may be an excellent time to purchase one. You can get them at the flea markets (on sundays) for about 30 euro and up. They'll even let you test-ride them to find the perfect bike for you.

2. If you purchased a monthly u-bahn pass you may be able to talk your way into getting a discount, especially if your German is good, but don't count on it.

3. Meeting new friends with cars will also help. When you make friends with someone who has a car, it's like you're making two friends.

4. In light of the fact that it's been freezing and snowing and raining lately, it may be a good time to take it easy on the clubbing for the next couple of weeks. Just a thought.