Berlin cont.

Welcome to Berlin, the cleanest of the European cities so far and the most graffitied!

I rolled into Berlin last Tuesday after a 6 hour train ride from Amsterdam. Let me tell you, as much as I loved Amsterdam I was happy to see the back of that city, tourist lifestyle in that city can be taxing on the mind and body.
My first impression of Berlin was 'large, graffitied, German'..

My hostel was the best I'd stayed in so far, clean with fully functioning amenities, but unfortunately no wireless in the rooms. There's a bar on the rooftop too which runs an all night happy hour depending on the mood of the bar staff. They ran all night happy hour on Wednesday night to celebrate the birthday of a staff member, which was good for the hip pocket as it cost about 10 Euro to get roaring drunk. Tuesday was quite packed in the hostel as System of A Down were playing a concert the following evening in Berlin. I had it on good intelligence though that the best party in town would be on the eastern side of Mitte, old East Berlin, warehouse districts. Always a fan of the underground party scene I found my way to the warehouses, which is a large block of dilapidated buildings turned into a web of cafes, art studios, night clubs, squats and assorted boutiques. There were 2 parties on that night, progressive/psy and Berlin minimal themed. So cheap for entry too, 6 Euros for both parties, needless to say, Berlin being the home of electronic in Europe, the tunes were bangin' and the party raged into the wee hours. The thing I was most blown away by was that outside the clubs were scores of people hanging out drinking and partying, painting with spray cans and just generally taking advantage of the sense of ideological freedom provided by the culture permeating from the community that has come to call this part of Berlin home.

Berlin struck me as this town which for so long had been oppressed by Soviet dictatorships, and when the wall came down Berliners said to eachother.. 'OK, now we may do as we please. So, we will.. And we who are visual artists, the city is our canvas. And we who are musicians will create a sound so unique the only way to describe it is Berlin Minimal'.. And I understand a little more the meaning of JFK's statement, 'Ich bin ein Berliner'. All Berliners should be proud to be from such a liberal and open part of the world, especially in such a backwards racist continent like Europe. I mean, you have Szarkozy and Berlesconi in the south who are trying to close their borders to stop the inflow of refugees and banning the wearing of burkas, and then you have Berlin, where it is OK to get around nude. I just wish Australia could take some cues from cities like Amsterdam and Berlin and relax a little.. like Cypress Hill says, legalise it.
I mean, there are parks where you can go and be nude, there are people dressed in all sorts of clothes, there are districts like Mitte which are full of some of the largest murals and stencils I've ever seen, and most of all I found Berliners to be relaxed. Unlike Paris there seemed to be no rush to be anywhere.. You're in Berlin, that seemed to be enough. I suppose the only problem I had was that I was so wrecked from travelling I didn't feel interested enough in taking in any of the culture.

I did find though a part of Berlin with a 40 metre high mural behind a wall which marked a part of where the wall once was, and had plenty of info about the cultural influence of the wall and how it was received both in East and West Berlin. It moved me inside reading about people who jumped from their East Berlin windows in the hope they'd land in West Berlin and survive the fall. When I lived in Sweden I listened a lot to a band called Ebba Grön who sings in Swedish about the wall and I finally felt a higher understanding towards the emotions Berliners and indeed anyone who is even moderately socially aware feels towards the period of time the wall was in existence and the cultural rebuilding that took place after. It almost moved me to tears reading everything on this wall, the fact that I will never fully comprehend how it was, and that finally I could comprehend on a higher level than I had previously experienced. And it troubles me that I can't fully describe in words the experiences I felt whilst in Berlin.

All I can say otherwise is go to Berlin and experience for yourself. Be a Berliner for a day.. I loved Berlin and I will certainly return for a deeper cultural experience.



Besides taking in and acknowledging the liberal vibe of the city, I met more Australians than I had anywhere else. I met one dude named Evan from Byron Bay who had been travelling for some time and was on his way to Norway to work and we both agreed that travelling takes its toll on ones back so we found the nearest massage parlour and had the most amazing Thai massage anyone could hope for. So after feeling like a new person we decided to take the train together to Malmö where he would take the train to Stockholm and I to Kristianstad. It was nice for a change to have a like minded individual to travel with and share an experience with, and hopefully we'll get to meet up again in either Norway or Sweden.

(This piece of graffiti is quite famous, I'm not sure the name of the artist but the character is rather well known amongst fans of graffiti and street art. I was fucking stoked to see this one!)

So here I am, coming to you direct from Sweden.. Soon will be time for writing about Sweden, but for now sharing my experience in Berlin seems enough.