Berlin

Berlin Hauptbahnhof

If you're up for an intense bladder workout, Hauptbahnhof could be your shopping answer especially if it's Sunday afternoon and you realize that you're out of Brot and Käse and you forgot to buy your friend the "I'm sorry" flowers you owe her after you drunkenly hooked up with her boyfriend last weekend.

If you’re up for an intense bladder workout, Hauptbahnhof could be your shopping answer especially if it’s Sunday afternoon and you realize that you’re out of Brot and Käse and you forgot to buy your friend the “I’m sorry” flowers you owe her after you drunkenly hooked up with her boyfriend last weekend. Oops. Unfortunately it’s Sunday so the city’s practically shut down. (A huge annoyance for those of us who come from the land of Super Wal-Marts and instant gratification.) But then you remember Berlin’s newest invention: the open-seven-days-a-week shopping center … er … Bahnhof.

Although the city’s extravagant Hauptbahnhof is touted as Europe’s biggest railway station, only two of its five stories are actually for trains. The other three make up a giant mega-mall open Monday through Sunday from 8:00 to 22:00. But the architectural geniuses forgot one very important thing: Out of the 300,000 people who pass through daily, a good majority are probably going to need a bathroom at some point. There’s only one WC-Center in the entire gargantuan structure, maybe because they thought it would be funny to watch people squirm in long lines and then charge them 80 cents for the privilege of using a toilet. If you haven’t been giving your bladder the workout it deserves, head to the station for a day, browse through the 82 shopping, service and dining Möglichkeiten, and put your bladder’s endurance to the test!