It's all part of the adventure
As I'm sure you'll be able to read about in Nick's blog, a friend of his (Shez) happens to be living in Berlin at the moment, so last night we hung out with him. We went to meet him at his station, and after waiting 20 minutes we called his room mate. He could come to meet us because the landlord was showing him around their new digs, se he gave us directions. From there we went to meet Christian, who is from Bonn and has been living in Berlin a couple of weeks. We figured it would be good to have a (somewhat) local to show us around.
Christian is quite a character, very serious, and very funny because of it. We went to his place and had a beer and a smoke before we went searching for a bar. I asked him where we would go, and he suggested that we be spontaneous. Sure thing, there's a bunch of bars around Berlin.
So we're walking, passing a lot of bars, and we occasionally ask Christian where he's taking us, to which he invariably replies "Where ever you want to go."
"But, no, you suggest somewhere, you're the local. What's good?"
"There is lots of good places, it is all good."
"Well, this one looks alright."
"No, it's this way."
So we walked a couple of a kilometres down a street lined with bars, occasionally suggesting that we've walked a long way and maybe we should stop here, but somehow we just can't get Christian to stop, despite the fact that he claims to be taking us nowhere in particular. We finally reach the end of the long, bar-filled street, and Christian keeps walking. We ended up passing a club called Club 44, and there was a scary man in the doorway and a sign on the door indicating that the club was closed. We walked past that for a while, then finally stopped and asked Christian where he was taking us. It's turns out we were going to the club, be since it was closed we just kept walking.
Okay, that's it. We've walked a long way, and there's nothing here, we're going back to the bar filled street. We stopped at a couple of places along there and had a beer. By then it was getting pretty late and Christian had to go home, so he pointed us towards the train station with the claim that they run all night. We discovered that in fact they had stopped running, so we were forced to walk all the way across Berlin to Shez's appartment, stopping for a kabab and some beers on the way (80 cents for half a litre of beer at the kiosks). When we finally made it back to Shez's his key didn't fit the lock. We had a smoke and decided that Shez should walk with us back to our hostel, where there would certainly be a spare bed for him.
We followed the train line again, picking up more beers of the way of course. At one point a girl on a bike rode into a driveway in front of us. I thought "there must be something going on in there," but then she rode back out. I had just read The Alchemist, though, and I considered it an omen. I stopped to survey the area, then called out to the guys to tell them our plans have changed and we're going in here. We walked into an area that seemed to basically be disused, including a warehouse that housed piles of rubble, and a bunch of pretty cool graffiti. Then we came across a big sign that had the word "PARTY" written inside an arrow pointing to a building, which had a couple of windows illuminated with lights of red and purple. We saw a couple of girls dancing to what sounded like Nirvana in one room, so we decided to go knock on the door and try to join the party. After our knocks met with no response we were about to give up and leave, when a guy in a black hoodie, followed by two friends who looked pretty unsure about the whole thing, came up and just opened the door and walked in. So we walked in after him. Inside it looked like it might be an art school or something during the day. I said hi to hoodie guy's two friends and asked if they knew what this place was, or if any of them had any idea what they were doing here. The answer was no.
We looked around, and eventually two girls of about 40 came out of a room into the corridor we were in. They didn't look too shocked to see us, especially one who seemed like she might be on pills. She was very friendly. We got talking to her while her friend tried to drag her away into a bathroom. A guy came out and aided in the effort to silence with friendly girl, and eventually they dragged her into the bathroom. The guy stayed out in the corridor with us and said "You can talk to me, I am the toilet manager." He slowly walked us towards the door while we tried unsuccessfully to get information about what the place was and what they were doing. He wasn't as fun as the friendly girl, and clearly wanted us to leave, so we did.
We walked back to the hostel, and there were no spare beds, so Shez crashed on the floor.
Christian is quite a character, very serious, and very funny because of it. We went to his place and had a beer and a smoke before we went searching for a bar. I asked him where we would go, and he suggested that we be spontaneous. Sure thing, there's a bunch of bars around Berlin.
So we're walking, passing a lot of bars, and we occasionally ask Christian where he's taking us, to which he invariably replies "Where ever you want to go."
"But, no, you suggest somewhere, you're the local. What's good?"
"There is lots of good places, it is all good."
"Well, this one looks alright."
"No, it's this way."
So we walked a couple of a kilometres down a street lined with bars, occasionally suggesting that we've walked a long way and maybe we should stop here, but somehow we just can't get Christian to stop, despite the fact that he claims to be taking us nowhere in particular. We finally reach the end of the long, bar-filled street, and Christian keeps walking. We ended up passing a club called Club 44, and there was a scary man in the doorway and a sign on the door indicating that the club was closed. We walked past that for a while, then finally stopped and asked Christian where he was taking us. It's turns out we were going to the club, be since it was closed we just kept walking.
Okay, that's it. We've walked a long way, and there's nothing here, we're going back to the bar filled street. We stopped at a couple of places along there and had a beer. By then it was getting pretty late and Christian had to go home, so he pointed us towards the train station with the claim that they run all night. We discovered that in fact they had stopped running, so we were forced to walk all the way across Berlin to Shez's appartment, stopping for a kabab and some beers on the way (80 cents for half a litre of beer at the kiosks). When we finally made it back to Shez's his key didn't fit the lock. We had a smoke and decided that Shez should walk with us back to our hostel, where there would certainly be a spare bed for him.
We followed the train line again, picking up more beers of the way of course. At one point a girl on a bike rode into a driveway in front of us. I thought "there must be something going on in there," but then she rode back out. I had just read The Alchemist, though, and I considered it an omen. I stopped to survey the area, then called out to the guys to tell them our plans have changed and we're going in here. We walked into an area that seemed to basically be disused, including a warehouse that housed piles of rubble, and a bunch of pretty cool graffiti. Then we came across a big sign that had the word "PARTY" written inside an arrow pointing to a building, which had a couple of windows illuminated with lights of red and purple. We saw a couple of girls dancing to what sounded like Nirvana in one room, so we decided to go knock on the door and try to join the party. After our knocks met with no response we were about to give up and leave, when a guy in a black hoodie, followed by two friends who looked pretty unsure about the whole thing, came up and just opened the door and walked in. So we walked in after him. Inside it looked like it might be an art school or something during the day. I said hi to hoodie guy's two friends and asked if they knew what this place was, or if any of them had any idea what they were doing here. The answer was no.
We looked around, and eventually two girls of about 40 came out of a room into the corridor we were in. They didn't look too shocked to see us, especially one who seemed like she might be on pills. She was very friendly. We got talking to her while her friend tried to drag her away into a bathroom. A guy came out and aided in the effort to silence with friendly girl, and eventually they dragged her into the bathroom. The guy stayed out in the corridor with us and said "You can talk to me, I am the toilet manager." He slowly walked us towards the door while we tried unsuccessfully to get information about what the place was and what they were doing. He wasn't as fun as the friendly girl, and clearly wanted us to leave, so we did.
We walked back to the hostel, and there were no spare beds, so Shez crashed on the floor.
posted by Nick Tresco at 8:17 PM
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