klubnacht

Today having a lazy monday (one of the many, many joys of not working (yet)) full of couch and movies. And red wine soon. I downed my average price per bottle to 3 euro, will see if it tastes any good. Selecting wine on label design and bottle shape feels wrong but I haven't gotten a bad bottle yet so..

Anyway, finally had a good night of rest after friday and saturday night. Started off friday in the Kitkat club for "15 years of Mystic Rose celebration" which was a Goa party with an entrance fee of .. 20 euro. Not very hippie. What that got you however, was a great place with great music, feel and awesome decoration. Oh, the first thing you'll notice if you google on kitkatclub will be the freely use of words like "hedonistic", "fetish" and "sexual". Not too much of that on friday night though - being a goa party narrows down the crowd a bit. I wouldn't have gotten in either if it would have been a "normal" evening, with my plain looks. Although there did come a barrage of questions: whether I was alone, where I was from (the female door bouncer even knowing that Belgium is separated in a flemish and wallonian part), what I was coming for.

The club is located right at an U-bahn station, and you actually hear the pounding basses through the ceiling when you come out of the station. The club is very nondescript for the rest, like most of Berlins cool places. Look out for the signs on walls around the club location and enter the kind of garden at front, with a single bouncer. Door opens from the inside.
The crowd was a mixture of hippie-like folks, "regular" people like me (funny thing is: in those places there is always a guy EXACTLY like me. Same kind of glasses, same kind of clothes, same kind of look. I should buy the next one a beer), some gay people and a bunch of the truly crazy - the best was an older guy with a huge naked belly and white pants, holding up a UV-reflective cross walking around suddenly stopping, rising his cross high in the air and shouting something inarticulately. Was he paid to be there, as some kind of attraction? Perhaps so, but very cool nontheless :)
The place is separated in two rooms, one large main room and a smaller one. White paper confetti on the floor, cool effect with the UV lights. Main acts in the large room and faster fullon stuff in the smaller room. Started off in main and moved to the smaller room later on.

Picture is of the still-illuminated Fernseheturm while walking back to the sbahn bhf in the morning.









After resting and rehydrating for a couple of hours at home, went to another small goa party right across the river, close to the Ostkreuz bhf. Got in for free there, even though the group of organisers at the entrance jokingly asked me to pay twice the income price, as wearers of Armani glasses must obviously be well of. Damn hippies :) Was a cool party, several rooms and a chillout, still quite some crowd (11 o'clock), nice decorations and: beer at 2.5 - a first!

The rest of saturday was some idling at home, in preparation for saturday night. Berghain all right! Not really counting on getting in, I already considered a couple of other places to go to before I took the s-bahn from Ostkreuz (missed the one in Treptower park so I rode my bike to Ostkreuz) to Ostbahnhof.
Arrived at Berghain at about 2 o'clock - at the wrong end of a one-hour waiting line. My guess is about 1/8 of the people are politely asked to "step to the right", which basically means you aren't getting in and are supposed to go and take one of the tens of taxis waiting at the entrance. All kind of people were sent away, door policy seemed pretty random but looking at least 25 and not being in a large group of excited-looking girls certainly helps. The waiting line moves very slowly, as they don't simply let everyone who is "accepted" in, but maintain a slow entry pace to let the entering and paying (12 euro) run smoothly.
So after one hour of waiting, I ended up in front of the main bouncer (one of 3 or four outside), awaiting my fate. He asked with how many I was, on which I answered I was alone, pointing my index finger in the air to indicate. As I tried to come over as a local (another thing that should get you in more easily) I talked german ("Ich bin allein" being something I can manage ;-)). Those of you who watched Inglourious Basterds will know that I utterly failed trying to be german, as all germans use their thumb as first number-indicating finger... I got in after a couple of hard stares however (were it my glasses? I bet it were my glasses. I love my glasses), which was great. Not only for actually being in Berghain, but also for I was getting a headache from the cold wind outside :-)
Small thing of notice: as lots of partygoers were drinking beer awaiting to get in, lots of glass bottles were left besides the waiting line. At least 3 lidl-plastic-bag carrying people were collecting those for the, erm, "return money". Is that how you say it?

So after exchanging 1.5 euro and my coat for a cool metal dogtag with my number of the coathanger on it, I rose the stairs to the temple of Berlin techno :D Awesome people, music, sound, lights.
Overhyped overpopular overpriced tourist-trap whatever, this is a seriously cool place.
Crowd was actually quite "normal", except for the pretty numerous barechested and heavily muscled gay group which, as in the kitkatclub of the day before, had kind of a headquarters there. I didn't venture too much out of the main area as I didn't really want to end up in some dimly red-lit corner or cellar which Berghain is told to include, but the main dancefloor bid enough entertainment for the night :) Pounding dark techno beats - actually felt my hair vibrate. Great, friendly staff as well. Can't wait 'till next fridays dubstep evening! - If I get in.

Oh, by the way: the best way to stay hydrated in clubs is to simply refill your Becks beer bottle with tap water in the toilets. It's perfectly drinkable and actually pretty good, I've not bought a single water bottle in the here. Water in Belgium often tastes like lime or whatever other stuff they put in there, but the water here tastes as good as mineral water out of a bottle. Brilliant.

Picture on the left: I guess this guy didn't get in ("Panorama" means the Panorama Bar, which is part of Berghain). Shot this on the wall of an industrial building in the area between Berghain and Ostbahnhof.




Both nights set me away almost 50 euro (even with the tap-water-refill trick). Was it worth it? Hell yes. Still quite painful, though :)

Last picture is of the heavy construction work going on at Ostkreuz at saturday morning. They have been demolishing an old rail bridge since I arrived here, and that morning they were placing a part of the new bridge in place. Berlin is very much renovating as you see, their historic landmarks as well as their infrastructure.