Berlin (5/29/08)

Detroit and Berlin in consecutive weekends... ahh, it's tough being an international party rocker! I got to Berlin at 10am Friday morning and took the bus to the Park Inn at Alexanderplatz to meet my friend Esteban who had flown in from Paris. [Many of you probably remember Esteban from previous adventures in Costa Rica, London and Barcelona.] After we checked into our 34th floor- corner suite- pimp palace in the sky we spent the afternoon eating, napping and riding bikes around Mitte Scheunenviertel and Prenzlauer Berg. After a few hours of exploring the city, we ate dinner and then went back to the hotel to greet Sami (also in from Paris) and KJ (in from London). We spent some time drinking and catching up in the hotel before meeting up with a few more Frenchie friends and a newly local Berliner that I had met last summer in New York.

The first stop of the night was a loft party on the 5th floor of a seemingly abandoned building which provided the exact graffiti-riden, gritty setting I had expected from Berlin. The loft was fully equipped with a bumpin sound system and a few locals pre-gaming. As Sami and Megan were introducing me to everyone, the host started shouting and gesturing in my direction. It turns out he had recognized me from Detroit... apparently I had nailed him in the forehead with my marshmallow blaster at DEMF...ha! He also happens to be the dear friend of NYC promoter, Minimoo Jenny... small, small world. We spent a few hours meeting people, listening to tunes and having photo shoots in the incredibly ghetto bathroom before making our move to our first club of the weekend, Watergate.



Watergate is a wicked split level club right on the River Spree. The upstairs is a dark and dirty mid-sized room with an extremely unique LED lighting strip that starts behind the DJ booth and goes all the way across the room's ceiling. The downstairs room has floor to ceiling plate glass windows overlooking the river - the view was beautiful at night and even better when the sun came up (at 4:30am!). And finally, the club has an outdoor terrace area that sits right on the river's edge and serves as the chillout area. I've included photos from the club's website so you can get an accurate representation of the scene. Clubs in Berlin are EXTREMELY vigilant with their no cameras policy (PRIVACY PLEASE!) so any snaps we did get were sneaky shots by KJ. The Friday we were there was Mo's Ferry night featuring Dapayk and friends. The night took a bunch of interesting turns (some of which aren't fit for print) but the highlights were as follows:

--Building a massive straw and sipping a drink from 4 ft away (Sami!)
--The dirty mo*fo mini rabbit smoking cigarettes on the patio
--Picking up some chick from LA and nearly tossing her in the river
--Quizzing party goers about how many straws it would take to retrieve a pirate flag hung on the top of a nearby building
--KJ and Esteban's stomachs of steal
--Chatting with new friends from the UK and Berlin
--Straw sword fighting perfect strangers
--KJ passing out and Esteban putting twists in her hair

We spent a ton of time downstairs and on the outside patio enjoying the incredible weather and then finally decided to call it quits sometime around 9am.





Sometime Saturday evening we rolled out of bed to return our rented bicycles and grab an authentic German dinner of sausage and lard. After that we showered, goofed around and met up with Sami, Megan, Roman and Damian at the Weekend Club rooftop (which is on the 12th floor of an old office building). We took in the view and a few drinks and then headed over to Club der Visionaere a riverside, outdoor club where I was meeting, Bill Patrick (Robots NYC) who just recently relocated to Berlin. Billy and I spent a couple hours catching up and enjoying the chill vibe and then around 2am the crew decided to make a move to one of Berlin's best clubs, Berghain/Panorama Bar. Unfortunately we got rejected at the door for no good reason. It seems that trying to enter with 7 non-Germans was enough for them to think we were regular tourists instead of party pilgrims. We were gutted not to get to experience the infamous power plant-turned club but decided to grab some zzz's and resume the party in the morning for afterhours.

We got up bright and early to go to another outdoor, riverside hot spot (Bar 25) which goes non-stop from Friday until sometime Monday morning. This place cannot even be described as a club - it's more of a wooden, cracker club house outfitted with broken glass, ripped couches, a bumper car, kiddie horse ride, photo booth and other misc. items and furniture. It's almost like the low-budget but better version of Miami's Pawn Shop. We spent the day rockin out to beats while party goers jumped into the river and tourist boats passed and waved with puzzled looks. Sometime in the late afternoon I looked up and saw an old party pal, Rozby, walking toward me. Rozby and I originally met back in 2006 while I was living in Barcelona. My friend, Andy, had invited me to go to the M2 Festival in Zaragoza with him and his German buddies, one of which was Rozby (who was visiting from Berlin). Yet again, it's a small world for the global party elite. Sadly the weekend had to end for me sometime in the late afternoon when I had to leave the party to head to the airport. It's always tough to call it quits and this time was no different...but at least I wasn't headed home... I was off to Istanbul!

We Came to Make Party™ baby!







Photo credits: Club websites, KJ