Christian and I shared a last drink at a cool, small bar that had a distinctive and unique flair. Of course, I'd love to be able to show you a pic, but alas, this bar didn't allow pics, either (I speculated that there must be some sort of seedy shit happening in these places -- why else would they refuse pictures?). While we were talking, Christian mentioned that he had to get up early on Sunday to finish up his work project. Ugh -- the mere thought of working weekends made me cringe. Seriously, I have no idea how I'm going to re-adjust to the "normal," make me want to stick hot coals in my ears while stabbing myself in the neck with sharpened chopsticks, work life.
Since he had to get up early, Christian planned to call it quits early. After our drinks and a quick schnapps shot (this is funny later in Athens -- but Christian was a schnapps fiend -- I talked to a bartender in Athens who was complaining about the Germans and their love of schnapps. "They always order f$cking schnapps!" he bemoaned. "They never specify which flavor -- do you know how many different types of schnapps there are! I'm sick of it!!" Ha!), we headed back to my hotel so I could turn in my sweet ride. Parting ways with the bike was immensely depressing. I rang the bell one last time and wiped a tear from my right eye. Depressing indeed ;p
As another aside -- I know everyone out there is considering purchasing a bike with a basket. Be careful with that decision -- every time I parked the damn thing, I would return later to find a basket full of garbage. Good times.
Ok, with the bike given back to the hotel, it was sad saying farewell to Christian. In a short time, I felt like I made a pretty good friend, and I know that his presence completely altered my time in Sydney and Berlin in a very positive way. His last words of advice were that I must go to what he claimed was the best the techno club in the world. I had to catch my flight to London (to get to Cairo) early -- I was flying out around 7am, and figured that I needed to be at the airport around 5am (I did forget about the Eurozone -- if you travel within the zone, not only don't you get your passport stamped -- boo! -- but the travel is treated like domestic travel, so you don't need to allocate 2hrs for "international" travel, but I digress). So, if I hit the club, I probably wouldn't be sleeping that night.
He continued to build it up, and said that it was something I couldn't miss in Berlin. He told me that he and his friends usually go there around 8am on Sunday morning, eat breakfast there, and then stay until 5pm. These hours were completely ridiculous to me. Ha! He told me that on Saturday nights, it's one of the hardest clubs in Berlin to get into, so he was also curious to see if I could gain access. At this point, it was around 11pm.
After we said goodbye, I debated the lack of sleep I was facing, and the challenge of entering the club, but I figured I had to go for it. I took a quick shower and caught a cab. Once I arrived at the location around midnight, I was greeted by a singular warehouse / factory in the middle of nowhere. It was pitch black outside and a line, about 60 people deep stood waiting to enter.
It took me a minute, but after gaining my bearings, I noticed that the door man was, in fact, turning away about 80% of the people (that figure comes from counting 20 people in front of me and seeing how many got in). Unlike other places that I've seen, the doorman didn't care if the entrants were male or female -- he dissed both equally as often. I sensed no real pattern to his decisions. In each case, the potential entrant was required to step from the darkness of the crowd, stood alone as a light shone directly on the wistful soul, and waited while the main doorman looked the potential entrant up and down. Sometimes the main doorman discussed the decision with the secondary door guys; sometimes he said nothing at all; sometimes he immediately eliminated the candidates. He usually didn't verbalize his decisions; instead, with a flick of his wrist he either pointed to the entrance (not often) or to the exiting side.
When granted access, the entrant typically smiled and walked in. On the flip side, those who were denied access, put their heads down like a dog who had just peed on the carpet and was waiting to be spanked with a rolled-up newspaper, and slinked off into the looming darkness. In one instance, one guy who was rejected (as was his girlfriend), approached the doorman and asked him "What the f$ck?!" in broken English. Immediately, 3 guys swarmed him and "escorted" him into the darkness. Honestly, watching this was amusing, but knowing that I was about to be subjected to it made it a bit daunting at the same time.
I stepped towards the front of the line and watched the two guys in front of me get rejected. Now, it's my turn. I took 8 steps forward and felt the light claw at me. I stood about 6 yards from the doorman. My eyes peered at him -- before me stood a guy roughly 5'10", wearing military boots, black jeans, a black shirt and a black leather vest. He had long, flowing silver hair; hundreds of tattoos and three lip piercings as well other assorted eyebrow and ear piercings. He looked back at me and I caught his gaze peering me up and down. He smiled (which he usually did with everyone), and turned his gaze from me for a few painful seconds. Tick.tick.tick. I stood my ground confidently, ignored the light on me, and casually looked at the other the doormen. No one said a word to me. More seconds ticked. Finally, the main doorman flicked his wrist and....
...pointed to the entrance. I didn't crack a smile, but I floated into the club.
Inside was the largest club I've ever seen. The place was massive and due to the door policy was somewhat empty (initially), but everyone I came across was very attractive and ran the gamut from super emo to gay to "normal." The main dance floor looked like (and to be the size of) an airport hanger, and was lined with speakers and crazy blue lights. Industrial and really hard techno boomed from the speakers. Welcome to Berghain.
Flanking each side of the main dancefloor were several nooks where bars and smoking rooms lied. I seriously got lost for the first hour or so. I found a secondary bar area and had several drinks while enjoying the overall vibe. The bartenders were actually really friendly and attentive -- I had no problem getting a new drink as soon as my current one was low. As the night wore on, the club progressively got more crowded until I estimated that there were 1-2k people. It was insane. I spent some time watching the happenings from a staircase that was suspended over the dance floor (very cool) and met several random people. More time passed, and I could no longer resist the dancefloor, which was now completely packed.
Unfortunately, time moved really fast at this place, and pretty soon it was 4am, and I was facing the daunting task of heading back to the hotel, grabbing my bag, and getting to the airport. I didn't want to, but I left the club (and was greeted with a HUGE line outside -- it was at least 4 times what I encountered when I first arrived -- and this was at 4am ;p), found a cab, and headed off towards the airport.
Goodbye, Berlin :( There's no doubt in my mind that I will see you again :)
No comments:
Post a Comment