Fusion Festival 2009

A long drive home, I slept most of the way and once in the flat I fell on the bed and remembered how soft duvets can be. A state a exhaustion, happiness mixed with sadness that it was so quickly over.

Ah Fusion! Tiring, messy, year 2000 hippies and people in dreamy states dancing endlessly. The music goes on 24/7, which, if you go to rock festivals, may be unusual as music stops during most of the night (except for the people in the tent next to you who just have to play Bob Marley and the Wailers on repeat during the entire festival time – Roskilde 2006). But here it never stopped. And what a joy that was! I have to admit that I became addicted to the Turmbühne area – where live delights such as Anton Piet and Bart Skils played and Monika Kruse dj:ed. I just love minimal.

There was also the possibility to dance to trance, drum and bass and hear dub bands. On Sunday I had my last festival meal to a band screaming about capitalism for the last 40 years if I understood the German correctly. I quickly directed my steps to Turmbühne…

I will go back next year, no doubt. I was hoping for magda moment like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVrOo2b_r9o&feature=related, or simply someone else playing Jason Emsley. But still, it was excellent!

post to be updated with more details once home tonight…

Here I come again

Dear Berlin Diary,

It’s been a while. A long cold time and then the sun broke out in April and gave me a small hint of a tan. Now it is windy again but the sun wants to stay. I must apologise for the lack of commitment.

What has Berlin done to me since the last entry? Now the Spring is the time when Berlin is best enjoyed. Unless you must continuously enter and leave a blank office. But in the evening I can wander to Clud der Visionäre and have a nice, cold beer. And mini pizzas everywhere. I am addicted. And of course Watergate, Watergate and the ever great Watergate!

One time I have been to Baadeschiff and it wasn’t warm enough, but almost. It was refreshing. And my plans for the summer? To branch out and explore Berlin, break out from the city that I take for granted and find new things. I haven’t even been to Wansee, the old Olympic village or the abandoned amusement park in Treptow yet! Pictures and more text to follow…

Fashion Week Berlin 2009

Fashion hit the town last week! What did I do? Tuning in my ear to German by allowing the TV to run German soaps – for instance something about a real life judge sorting out confused people’s real life problems – does it really hurt so much when handcuffs are taken off that you need to spend several minutes rubbing your wrists with an expression of severe agony? No, I don’t think so.

Anyway… Fashion in Berlin? I love shopping but I am not a fashion freak. I don’t read Vogue, Elle, etc, I prefer High Street fashion and can go crazy in London with my bank card (I hate cash, I hate to know that I am actually spending money) but here in Berlin fashion is much more laidback. But a creative individualistic and inventive laidback. I really don’t spend so much money here and have almost lost interest.

So I ignored all events, all but one, one  I think was the ultimate event of the week. Fashionweek Backstage was a club event on Saturday night which took place at Stadtbad Oderberger (did we have to wear bikinis?) with a live set by Booka Shade (oh yes!). Here are some impressions:

And it was great. The crowd was not the usual electro followers that you find in the normal clubs, granted the entrance fee was pretty high by Berlin standards but in my humble opinion to see Booka Shade it was well worth it. I will try to upload some of the videos I recorded as the quality is not bad and the music great…

Ah! Music music music

So instead of posting youtube links to Berlin inspired music that I really like, I have created a profile on Blip that I will update regurarly.

Here’s the link:

http://blip.fm/alexaore

So my latest discovery and one of my favourite songs at the moment is by Stephan Bodzi, called Liebe Ist…
I have also added the remix of Feist’s “My Moon My Man” by Boyz Noise because it is a classic here and such a good remix.
Feel free to give me tips! I am still a novice in electro …

More Pizza? Of course

As one of the Stockholmare told me about Berlin on their New Year’s celebratory visit to Berlin; this is a city where if you want pizza at 15.00 in the afternoon or a 5.00 in the morning, you can find it. I am actually giving my stomach a break from the past three months’ pizza over-indulgence but I have this month been twice to a pizza place worth mentioning.

The place is on Bleibtreutstrasse, near Ku’Damm, in Western Berlin and is called Ali Baba. True, that name doesn’t resonate of pizzaness and, in fact, I believe that they also sell kebabs. The pizza may not be the most delicious, but it is pretty good and for its low price definitely worth it. Plus it is the whole appeal of the place that does it for me. Just some steps away from Ku’Damm where lots of money will have been flying out of your wallet and where the atmosphere is a bit stiff, Ali Baba appeals with its laidback and slightly shabby décor, no fuss service, big cheap beers och the possibility to relax and take your time. The choice of pizza is, if not endless, pretty long. They also do mini pizzas. Where next?

Scouting the town for Cocktails

In my constant beer drinking blur I have failed to see what Berlin has to offer on the cocktail front… I mean Germany is after all the prominent beer producing country in Europe! And, yum!, are these beers good!

But I am girl after all, a girl who recently has been watching a lot of Sex and The City and other silly ‘girly’ MTV shows I am too embarrassed to name, a girl who now longs to take a ladylike sip from a diamond clear cocktail glass containing a pastel coloured magical mix. Plus it wouldn’t harm this budging beer-belly. So first I am trying to remember my encounters so far with cocktails in this city… Hmm… *frowns and thinks hard*. Not many, I definitely need to explore.

Simon-Dach Strasse is definitely one of my favourite chilling-and-drinking-all-at-the-same-time spots in Berlin. Bars get away with charging beers, my main reference I know, for around 2-3 euros, there is plenty of choice and most bars have the cocktail of the day offers – cocktail des tages. Are they any good? On a day of struggling with a tiring hangover I ordered a Bloody Mary in one of the bars, I can’t remember which one now, and instead of curing the ailment it instead enhanced the nauseous feelings. So I resorted to a beer. My other experience has been at the bar called Kptn further down the road heading to Cassiopeia. It wasn’t actually my own cocktail because at 2 euros the Berliner Pilsner I just couldn’t say no. My boyfriend ordered a melon based cocktail, I couldn’t help but gently, he is too sweet to be mean to, tease him about it being a girly drink (where did I get that idea into my head anyway?) but after a sip I regretted my choice. It was YUMMY, so so yummy. And it was only 3,50 euros *cringes*. Why did I have to be so cheap, cheap here in Berliner especially? Oh yes I have no income. But now I know what I will be getting there next time. Next time because not only was it cheap but the bar was nice, cramped and messy, just like I like them here.

more to come as I have a feeling that Mitte is actually a better purveyor of cocktails than the good old East…

Going Out in Berlin: tips and tricks

It’s that time of the week when work dies and you can party to forget about it. Berlin is the perfect city for this. Here’s my basic recipe for going out in Berlin. And it doesn’t have to be an expensive adventure at all!

Ingredients:

- Beers

- Party music to warm-up

- Pizza slices (or some other easy food)

- Energy: Redbull or Dextro Energy if sleep is lacking

- Cash (much easier and much more widely accepted that credit cards)

- Some sort of company

Preparation:

Start the day late, if possible. There is no point in waking up at 8 or 9 if you are planning on clubbing until 8 or 9 the next morning (or much later). How will you cope? (well there are obviously ways widely used in clubs but no, just no not in this entry). Reverse the day slightly; have breakfast when others have lunch, have lunch when others have dinner and have liquid dinner in the club in the shape of beers. After two weeks of everyday partying my days ended up starting at around 4pm. Drag yourself out of bed, put on some music, get ready – and the great thing is that this is not Paris (dress-up and fancy shoes or the doorman points you to the other direction) or London (look the coolest, the most fashionable but pretend that you didn’t try that hard – that cool, almost junkie look just happened to fall on you). Here in Berlin jeans, a cool T-shirt and sneakers are good enough, and it doesn’t mean you’ll loo bad, things are just more relaxed. Plus if you are going to be dancing for so many hours then a pair of flat and comfortable shoes are a must. So the ‘getting ready’ part shouldn’t be so long.

Ok now that you are ready, oh wait I forgot; whilst you are getting ready have a beer or a redbull (hell why not add some vodka into that redbull?) if you feel a bit groggy. Ok now that you are ready to leave your home, hostel, hotel, tent, wherever you may be sleeping, head to a bar. It should be around 9pm when this part begins, at the earliest. People party late here. Don’t hurry. Walk slowly and go into one of those local shops that seems to be mostly dedicated to snacks and alcohol. Buy a 1 euro large bottle of Becks, Berliner Pilsner or whatever you preference is. Don’t forget, as you pay, to ask the vendor “Bitte öffnen “; all these shops are equipped with bottle openers to make your life that much easier. Go first to somewhere (drinking that oh so cheap cold beer on the way) that serves food to fill your belly. You want your night to last long so forget about the London or Stockholm philosophy of ‘empty stomach + fast alcohol makes me more drunk sooner’. You don’t want to be too drunk too soon in Berlin, plus you don’t need to worry so much about prices, large beers are max 3 euros 50 in clubs and I think that is really ok. Anyway, Berlin is packed with cheap but often good food on the go places (my choice will always be mini pizza). Have a new beer as you eat. Buy a new beer in a local shop as you’ve left. Find a nice bar.Have some more beers. This is beerland after all. I recommend the bars on Simon-Dach Strasse (where many places serve cheap food and cheap beer) or around Schlesiches Tor. Most fun clubs will be in either Friedrichshain or Kreuzberg anyway. Of course Mitte and Prenzlaeur Berg are great too, and around Nollendorfplatz, if you are gay and gay friendly, there are also many great bars, eateries and clubs.

But how will you know where to party? If you are a local or knowledgeable about good electronic DJs, by glancing at any clubbing guide you will be able to guess where the party’s at this weekend. Sure bets are almost always Berghain and Panorama Bar, Watergate, Arena, Bar 25 and Club Der Visionäre (both in warmer times, plus Bar 25 will be open for the last time summer 2009) and then there are also Tresor, Maria am Ostbahnhof and TAPE.

For more worn-out looking places that caters a variety of music genres there are also Cassiopeia, Rosi’s, Kaffe Burger and Tascheles (although filled mostly with tourists, it’s worth at least one visit with it’s messy range of bars, exhibition spaces and clubs over a range of floors).

My goal for 2009 is to widen my horizons and explore more clubs and bars in Berlin as I seem to have become stuck in the Watergate and Panorama Bar routine. And if there is something that this city has to offer is definitely an eclecty and broad array of party holes.

So now you have spent some time drinking in a or some bars and it is past midnight. Clubs during weekends really start to get active around 2am but this also means that the queues to get in are the longest around 2-3am. I may be lame but I don’t like queueing (for Berghain the queue can be up to 2 hours long). So what do I do? I go either around 1 am when the queues are ok (although be careful, if the DJs are really kickass the queue will start early) or around 4-5 am (yes there is still plenty of time to party, especially if the DJs are kickass). Only problem with the second option is – what do you do until then? Well you either start everything later or you stay in bars or smaller clubs until 2-3 am (Cassiopeia, in particular in the summer and with its often cheap or free entry fee, has proven a good compromise at times). A word of advice – don’t be too drunk or don’t act too drunk when waiting to get in to the club, you want to give those doormen a good impression! And the ones at Berghain are particurarly tough. I have not had a problem to get in yet but I have seen people be told to forget about it. Some Berliners told me in confidence what the great secret to getting in to Berghain was – that big ass, tattooed (cool I think) doorman only lets people in who are “comfortable in their style”. Great. That means nothing. Just look relaxed, not too brassy American or drunken British (if you are speaking English accentuate your original accent if you are neither of these) and if you have taken something that is not alcohol don’t look them in the eyes (this part I am a bit confused about – you can’t look like you have taken anything but once inside it’s hey ho let’s go wild in the toilets). Oh yes the toilets: expect to wait a long time and not because people are doing number ones and number twos or getting to first and second base. But who knows! Now that you are inside, let loose, enjoy the beats and dance. Have some more drinks and listen out for when the bass goes out and comes back; many Berliners get ecstatic and shout, shake their arms in the air, when this happens. Chat to some people and dance some more. More your party finger or party hand in sync with that addictive bass. When you realise that you are exhausted, go home, sleep and start all over again. Enjoy the sights on your way home as the sun may be coming up (or has already come up many hours ago) and sheds a nice soft glow over the city that really never sleeps but still feels calm.

Sunday morning

Where to find good nights in Berlin:

- Tip Berlin

- Zitty Berlin (they are sort of the same)

- Berlin Unlike (online, not that many listings but the ones they have a well

worth it)

- Other people

- Your favourite clubs websites

And then there’s this specific Berlin website but you need to be invited by a member etc.

Now go on, have some fun, it’s the weekend and time to play! (TAPE has an interesting night tonight by the way)

Verliebt in Berlin

Government Seat in Berlin

The German Government buildings seated around the Reichstag (one of the few surviving buildings but still damaged with a need to be restored by I believe none the other than Norman Foster) was erected when it was decided in 1991 that Berlin would once again be capital city (a move accomplished in 1999). Some people prefer cities with a more architecturally visible Historical past, like pompeous Paris, but I not only enjoy modern architecture but also feel touched by being a witness of the History that these modern buildings here in Berlin represent. A sometimes heavy History.

I found my way here from Friedrichstrasse following the river, not long before sunset. For some reason there were about 20 polizei vans parked along the way and policemen seemingly way for something. Ihad  just about crossed half the road eventhough the light was red for pedestrians when I remembered that this is illegal but carried on anyway (hey, the crime was already half done!) and none of about 30 policemen nearby seemed to care. Did I look like such an obvious tourist that they couldn’t bother with? Phew. I renounced the long queue for the Reichstag’s dome (four times I have thought about going up there, and every time the queue has been longer thank the previous time, as if taunting me…), so instead I turned away from the tourist path and followed the water in between two Bundestag buildings. It makes for an extremly photogenic environment. And you can walk along as the water tangles and untangles to Hauptbanhof and then down again near the Reichtag, leading you to what Berliners call the “Schwangere Auster” (Pregnant Oyster), which is really a thriving cultural house, built in the 1950s as USA’s gift to Berlin as part of the Interbrau (International Bauausstellnung). But I walked back to the Reichstag and then headed to Zoologischer Garten by Bus.

By the way, a new U-Bahn station is being built just nearby, Bundestag. If I got it right with my poor German, it should open in 2009

ps: I have of course played with the colours of the first two images as it was really a grey day. Nonetheless, the setting is beautiful and photographs do not need to be “enhanced” to represent the intriguing and aesthetic architecture of the Governmental area of Berlin.

And so begins 2009

With hopes and dreams. Higher hopes, same dreams. We finished off the year, as mentioned previously, at Café Wendel. But there was no time to drag our tired feet and party fingers over to Watergate. Well there was time but by 9am on the first morning of 2009 we were exhausted…

It was full. In fact it was so full that you could hardly move, the line for the toilet was at times ridiculous and the bar owner must have been counting the euros with a grin. At some point even there was a long queue to get in, the doors closed and party people poured in through the windows that also had to be closed. Ah don’t you love how desperately bad Berliners wants to party? And as the new masses sipped through, one of my cousins could only remark upon how beautiful the new arrivals were (which was also her comment for the whole crowd already there). Superficial thinking? Probably. But also one of the simple Berlin realities …

All in all the music was great, the atmosphere fun, the people silly and the time partying was cool.

So what next? When the sun was up and we hopped into a taxi I realised that, as the scheisse year that 2008 had been died, there is much to be achieved in 2009. This is the year that I will master the German language, ja?! And the Berlin club scene. Berlin was still recovering on the first weekend of the year but soon it will all begin again. Bring on the Spring and the Summer times, because, however beautiful white Berlin may be, it’s cold!