I just got back on Tuesday from a week in Berlin. I went to visit my friend Mark, who had already been there for six weeks, doing research for his forthcoming book about electronic dance music. Needless to say, we spent a good bit of time in dance clubs - and if there's any place in the world to go clubbing and hear techno, Berlin is it!I'll try to reconstruct my week here, to the best of my recollection!
I arrived pretty early on Wednesday morning, August 16th. We had some coffee and walked to a nearby outdoor market to buy bread, cheese and fruit (a very European way to start.) We walked around a bit through the gay area of Schoeneberg. Here's a picture of us wit
h the rainbow bear that was out front of an enormous (ahem) "book" store. I was pretty tired, as I hadn't gotten any sleep on the overnight flight. So I took a little nap, then we went out on the town. The first club we went to was called SO 36 which was having a night called kurzurlaub. The music was good, they had a strange little show in which some people (some in drag) danced around and threw various items at the audience - chocolate coins, condoms... I can't remember what else. Then we went to a nearby bar called Roses, which had interesting tacky décor, and was kind of quiet.On Thursday, after a sound rest, I went off on my own. I took a little walk on the Kurfürstendam, which is a big shopping street. There were 3 H&M's on one block - crazy! There's a church known as the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It has been kept in its bombed-out condition from WWII, with a new church built next to it. The inside of the new church is quite striking - it has small block windows surrounding the entire sanctuary made from shards of mostly blue stained glass:
So... I did a little shopping and then took a tourist bus through the Tierpark and got out near the Reichstag, where the German parliament is located:
I walked around and looked at some of the other sights in the neighborhood. Some modern government buildings were nearby, along the Spree, the river that runs through Berlin:
Then I met Mark at the Brandenburger Tor (the Brandenburg Gate) : 
It soon started raining. We tried to find this vegetarian restaurant in the neighborhood, but the weather turned really nasty for a while and we got out of there. Originally we were supposed to go to this cool open-air bar called kubik (we went the next day... see below) but they closed down due to the rain.
After dinner at a fantastic Indian place right near the apartment, we went out, first to Möbel-Olfe, a nice, bohemian kind of bar, then we went over to Alexander Platz, to a club called Kinzo, which was having a night called Chantal's House of Shame. There was another strange drag show hosted by a very drunk Chantal (I presume). We danced there for a while, then headed to Weekend, where a DJ that Mark knew was playing. This place was up on a top floor of a tall building, so it had nice views. It was a mostly straight crowd, the dj was good, and we danced and hung out until the sun started coming up.
On Friday, again I took a little jaunt on my own, this time over to the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie where they have a very cluttered-yet-interesting museum about the Berlin Wall.
Then I went down Mehringdam in the Kreuzberg neighboorhood, and stopped in at Barbie Bar, which proved to be more interesting than I expected. No sooner had I sat down a few feet away from a sidewalk table at which sat several wild-looking drag queens, than did one of them walk over to me and hand me a glass of champagne, explaining (I think) that they had an extra glass! So I thanked them and toasted with them. Another came over shortly thereafter and handed me an ad for the show they were doing that night. I told her I had to go meet a friend for dinner, but perhaps we'd come back for the show. So I had my drink and then went home.
That night we went to Kubik which looks like this:
It's a really cool outdoor space made of these glowing blocks that slowly blink on and off. It's also on the Spree, so we were able to walk over to a little "beach" area and sit by the water. Then we went over to a club called Maria - actually that's what half the club is called, and the other half is called Josef, which is where the action was that night. Mark was videotaping the DJ for a little over an hour, then we hung out for a while. It also had an outdoor area overlooking the Spree. After a while we went back to Kubik to see what was going on and have another drink, then went home.
Okay now I'm getting confused, because I seem to remember that it was Thursday when we went to the Pergamon museum... hmm... so maybe I skipped something, or got my days mixed up, but anyway, it doesn't matter too much. We did go to the Pergamon on Thursday, though, because that was the day they were open late and for free. It's a really huge antiquities museum. One of the coolest things was the Ishtar Gate.
It's got these weird mythical creatures on it called Mushrushu:
Anyway, on Saturday and Sunday (I think!) during the days, we saw the Berliner Dom, 
...the Dome of the Reichstag,
hung out in the Tierpark, and saw the Siegesäule (see first pic at top of this post.) It's a bit of a blur what happened on what day. Oh, and we also happened upon a big festival that was taking place on the Kurfürstendam, where we took a ride on a ferris wheel from which I got this great shot of a guy bungee jumping:
We were sharing a ferris wheel car with a German couple, and when the woman saw the jumper, she gasped and said something like "Nicht für alle die Gelt in der Welt!" (I'm sure my grammar is off, but it means "not for all the money in the world!")
On Saturday night we went to Three more clubs. (It never stops!) The first was a party called Irrenhaus ("crazy house") where the craziest things were the unbearable heat and overcrowdedness. We did get a piece of birthday cake (it was the club's birthday apparently) with chocolate penises on it, though. On the way out we shared a cab with a Swedish guy named Peter and an Austrian guy whose name now escapes me. Interestingly, the Austrian was from Salzburg and had worked at the pizza place (the Büro) that Maria and I frequented when we were there back in 1997! They persuaded us to join them at a club called Volksbühne which was in a partially-renovated theater.
I should mention that by this time it was after 4:00 am. Sometime after 5:00 or so, Mark and I left to go to Berghain, which was the most enormous and crazy club yet. It was in a huge factory/warehouse type space - three floors, insanely packed at dawn. It was still going strong at 7:30 or so when we finally left. At that point, we were dancing on the upstairs floor, which was packed with people. Every so often, the window blinds would open by remote control, and daylight would come pouring in over the crowd, provoking everyone to cheer loudly! Insane. Mark was ready to stay, but I didnt want to sleep all day Sunday, as we had plans to meet up with Arne (a guy I had met at Newark airport on Tuesday, waiting for our plane to Berlin) and his boyfriend Christian. We met them up in Prinzlauer Berg for coffee (Mark and I had breakfast) around 5:30pm. They showed us around for a little while after that.
On Sunday and Monday nights we went out in Schoeneberg, trying to take it kind of easy - if that's possible. We went to Heile Welt and Tom's on Sunday, and Hafen and Tom's again on Monday.
Besides the Indian place, some of the great food I had (I have trouble remembering which day at which place!) includes two Imbiss places - one was middle eastern (we went there twice - great Halumi sandwiches, grape leaves, mtaba, baklava, etc) and the other was Thai. Also two great Italian places.
