From traditional established Munich to its edgy budding cousin Berlin I feel like I've had a pretty decent crash course in German culture in all it's diversity. On our free walking tour we were given a glimpse into Berlin's Nazi and Cold War eras while the 'alternate' tour explored modern Berlin since the fall of the wall just 22 years ago and how the youth have come to terms with their past and found a means of self-expression through street art. The art has been extremely interesting, ranging from serious messages about the gentrification of liberal and artistic hotspots to the infamous Mr.6 who goes around town painting big 6's (the German equivalent of the American grade 'F') on buildings and art he doesnt like, to the playful guerilla knitters who knit woollen covers for trees, train carriages etc. in the dead of night. I found the East-side gallery particularly interesting - a commisioned serious of international street art works painted on the death-strip side of the remaining Berlin wall, and the largest outdoor art gallery in the world. The works have vastly contrasting outlooks from liberal to quite right-wing, from hopeful to pessimistic about human nature, but all reactions to the same past which is so present in the collective consciousness of the people, and for me a sign that Berlin is still finding its feet in terms of cultural identity.
On a completely different note we saw the hotel window Michael Jackson dangled his child from.
Another big attraction for me was the famous squat called 'Tacheles' once the factory of a Jewish businessman sent to his death, then a Nazi office block, then a holding place for French P.O.Ws, now an empty building filled with squatting artists and musicians in a losing battle with the owners of the Adlon hotel (the Michael Jackson one) who want to make it into a 5-star hotel. The people who live there are so interesting (and smelly) and the place is full of the coolest art and jewellery and stuff.
We took an easy night to visit the English movie cinema. During the previews, directly after an ice-cream ad they stopped the projection and ice-cream men came in and offered the whole cinema! Not interesting you say? Well I thought it was cool and it's my blog so you better sit there and like it!
We tried a couple of the pub crawls on offer, the mainstream one and te alternate one, and without wanting to sound like a hipster, alternate is always better. The bad pub-crawl took us to a bar where the tables have their own taps so you pour your own beer on a meter-based system. At first we thought it was a great idea. We then remembered that we have bartenders for a reason - it's really hard to pour beer without heaps and heaps of foam! Tilting the glass does less than I was told it would!! By the time we left the bar nearly every table was in a heated argument over splitting the complicated bill and we concluded that it was a terrible bar idea after all. The lame pub crawl left us at a club in nomansland which despite it's obvious drawbacks led to an eventful tram ride home with some of Berlin's finest homeless socialites.
The good pub-crawl took us to a bar with a grassy meadow on the roof, a goth bar, an absynth bar, an indie rock joint, and a place called Dr.Pong (yes, like in Sydney, but better). It's just a concrete room with a bar and a table-tennis table in the middle. People form a circle around the table, making one hit and continuing to rotate around until someone makes a mistake. By the process of elimination two champions emerge who battle it out for the win. But some people took it really seriously, bringing their own custom bats and grunting as they dueled ping-pong style and frightening us normal folk. But the crux of my pub crawl story is yet to come.
The club at the end of the tour was some random reggae club that we never would have found without the pub crawl. We'd been there for a matter of minutes when in walked every random Jewish person we knew were traveling in Europe, from Sydney and Melbourne alike, randomly together on Rosh Hashana for a little reunion. We'll probably end up seeing them all in Vienna for Yom Kippur somehow..
For me however the highlight of Berlin nightlife was last night, the 20th anniversary party for Berlin's oldest, heaviest Techno club. Based in the underground of a powerplant this was the grundgiest, most industrial club I've ever been to, and exactly what I had always imagined thinking of Berlin. The dancefloor, as well as being badly ventilated, was pitch black except for occasional flashes of strobe lights and the blue trickle of light on the roof showing the way out for those who found the consistent doof-doof too much. This not our normal scene nor style of music, but it was one of those 'when in Rome' moments, so Zac, Steve and I danced crazier than any ecstasy-popping raver in the building emerging wet with sweat and buzzing with caffeine at 3:30am. I think 4 espressos and a redbull may have been a tiiiiiny bit much judging by my uncontrollable urge to run around and do pushups at 5am. Anyway I eventually slept, and luckily, because now we're off to Prague and tonight is the world's most famous pub-crawl ending at Europe's largest (and apparently worst ventilated) club.
Better squeeze my wet jeans back on because last night was just a warmup!