new year's eve in berlin - part one

even though some time has passed i want to tell you about berlin on new year's eve. i can sum it up in two words - crazed anarchy. it was like nothing i have ever experienced before. it was the kind of evening you'd see in a end of the world film or hear about about happening to a friend of a friend of a friend, but never something you think you'd expereince yourself. it started off pretty normal, the usual new year's dinner and some drinks, but as soon as we left the house things got crazy with a capital K. (to warn you beforehand, this is gonna be a big post so grab a coffee and relax yourself into that arse groove in the couch homer simpson style. hell grab yourself a nacho hat if you've got one lying around.) okay, let me explain the evening...

so, alexis and i headed out in the late afternoon to go grocery shopping, you know, grab some food, some alcohol and champagne and all that stuff. you see everything closes down in germany on a sunday and public holidays, so we had to grab a couple of things to tide us over for the next day or so. when we got the grocery store we found it to be full of people grabbing at whatever was left on the shelves (there wasn't much) and having a hard time finding anything, we were lucky to be able to find enough food to put together a couple of meals. to give you an idea of what it was like, alexis stole a cucumber out of someone's trolley because there was nothing left on the shelf! it wasn't as mean as you think, they had the last five and we figured they didn't need them all and christmas is a time of sharing after all... but anyway, the store was closing soonish, so we seperated and decided to grab whatever we could. left to my own devices and not understanding what half the things were i was pondering at, i wandered around looking for whatever made sense or i was curious about, and that is when i saw it. a multi-pack of FIREWORKS!!! they are legal here and cheap, so after i pulled a face to convince alexis (something between a sad little orphan and someone willing a dish out a damn good stabbing) we trundled back home through the zero degree temperature, our bags full of food, french champagne (which incidentally is alot more expensive than your basic alcohol), and my beloved fireworks.

skip to some time later and after food had been inhaled and alcohol (beer and wine) had been drunk, it was time for tim to play with the explosives. i was looking forward to this almost as much as the damn countdown. after all i am a boy and boys like explosions of any sort, be they small, big or massive enough to bring down a building. (i secretly hoped mine would have, but given they were bought from a grocery store i thought that would be too much to ask for) so beer in hand alexis, myself and our holiday housemate paul climbed through the window in paul's lounge room to the buildings courtyard to set of the fireworks. all i can say is that even though it wasn't the fourth of july i giggled insanely and totally enjoyed myself watching my store-bought goodies whizz, bang, shoot off into the sky and explode. there was one big one in the pack that i demanded to set off last, hell i might not be able to do this again and i'd be damned if i was going to give away my fun. as it turned out the biggest one wasn't the funnest one in the pack, but it sure as hell went into the sky the furtherest and had the biggest bang. the funnest (is that even a word?) one was this little tiny thing that shot out a fair few sparks and squealed into the night, causing all dogs in a five block radius to howl. but then again i couldn't tell if it was us or the millions of other people on the streets going crazy with their own fireworks. bottom line, it was fun and just the begining of a night i would remember forever. if you ever get the chance to be in berlin for new year's eve, do it!

now skip to about an hour later, we were in potsdammerplatz awaiting the countdown. we had arrived by cab (passing exploding fireworks and drunk euros with champagne in hand) or as close you could get to there by cab and only had about 30 mins til the stroke of midnight to reach the centre. you see potsdammerplatz is in the middle of the city, near the reichstag and the brandenburger tor, and because of the new year's celebration all the roads were blocked off and the streets were full of people, fireworks and polizei. there was an estimated 2 million people on the streets, and for a city that's only about 3.8 million people, that's a hell of alot of crowd to get through. it seemed as if the whole of europe decided to be in berlin for this most intense and insane night and judging from all the languages and accents i heard i wouldn't be mistaken in thinking it wasn't just europe that had turned up. now we didn't have a chance in hell of making it to the brandenburger tor, which for the festivities was decked out with a stage and crammed full of people, so we decidd to stay in potsdammerplatz. it wasn't too bad being there, in fact it turned out to be a brilliant circumstance. potsdammerplatz was the better place to be, even though it was totally full of people you could still move around, like being at the back of the standing crowd at the big day out. sure you were crowded, but you could still hear each other, dance around like a fool and still retain some annonimity without being drenched in the smells and sweat of the throbbing masses. if you've ever been to a music festival you know the smell i'm talking about. ew. it seemed as though whoever was in charge of crowds or whatever knew this 'spill out' from the brandenburger was going to happen and instinctively put some amusement in place for the evening. you see in potsdammerplatz a ferris wheel had been set up. i don't know who would want to be in that thing while fireworks were going to be the evening's entertainment, but they sure must have some kind of deathwish (you'll understand this if you keep reading). other than a ferris wheel there was also little stands put in place that sold alcohol and fireworks, now of course the fireworks had all been pretty much sold out and i don't know how they did it, but the champagne at these stalls was cheaper than at the grocery store. they even handed you free plastic cups. we ended up buying two bottles of champagne and stood around close to the stall, for two reasons (well i had two reasons for wanting to be there), 1) we could always buy more champagne without the threat of losing each other in the massive crowd and 2) there seemed to be some breathing room around the stand. the champagne was even nice champagne, not the kind of stuff you drink cause there's nothing else, or you're told is nice, but the kind of stuff you drink because it's actually good. a first for myself and champagne.

so there we were, three half-cut people in a sea of drunk and disorderlies. it would have been a little scary if it wasn't so damned exciting. you see, you don't walk on the roads in the city on new year's cause that's where you throw the lit fireworks. even the ambulances which drove past every couple of minutes had to manuevour around them. you also had to keep looking up at the sky to check for random shit coming your way. and most importantly you don't go on the damn ferris wheel. more than once i saw brightly coloured bits of flying emergency-room-accident-waiting-to-happen hit the sides and explode. it looked cool as hell from where i was standing, but to be on that thing you'd have to be drunk or a complete moron, or a tourist without the good sense to see what was coming. it's not as silly as it sounds, i saw two little indian women looking very confused and scared standing near us. to balance that out though there was a group of italians on the other side of us and they were having the time of their lives, singing, dancing, showering each other with champagne.

from where we were it was impossible to hear what was going on at the brandenburger tor and the concert, so much so that the countdown to midnight would never reach our ears. but that didn't really matter as there was more than enough fireworks going off and amusement happening around us to fill up our time. now if you remember all this insanity was happening in the space of 20 minutes. it took us about 10 minutes from getting out of the cab to get to potsdammerplatz and from there we were witnes to an amazing amount of near death, explosions and drunken behaviour, but that was nothing compared to what happened at midnight. we're not too sure when midnight was, but from where we stood you could just make out where the brandenburger tor was and as soon as firworks went up in that area it was time. it was like a ripple effect. people all started screaming, hugging, kissing and shaking up champagne to spray on everyone to the screams of happy new year! frohes Neues jahr! feliz ano nuevo! boa passagem de ano! it was exciting. it was crazy. it was fantasic. it was dangerous. IT WAS COOL AS FUCK!!!

this is where the new year's got extra crazy. from that moment on champagne seemed to fall like rain, fireworks from the brandenburger tor concert filled the sky, people were losing themselves in the moment and, most impressively, the general public started to let their fireworks off like no tomorrow. that shit was everywhere. imagine the sydney or melbourne fireworks comfined to a small area, not up and down a river, let off with not a care in the world or any concern for public safety. fireworks shoot off from everywhere. they were thrown onto the road, standing in empty champagne bottles for balance and set from deep inside the crowd. they slammed into buildings, they narrowly missed people, and if you were ignorant or stupid enough to be on the ferris wheel you may as well have painted a red target on yourself as i think more fireworks hit that thing than they did the couple of skyscrapers that scattered potsdammerplatz. but most impressively, the public's fireworks went for alot longer than the official fireworks of berlin. so much so that i heard fireworks going until the morning and even the next day you could hear things exploding and bottles clanking.

we stayed there for about an hour and half watching the insanity that was berlin at the stroke of midnight until it was time to go to the train station and make our way to berghain for the next part of our new year's adventure. and that my friends, will be the focus of the next post, the journey to the train station, the rambling new year's phone calls, the cramped beyond cramped train ride and the eventual arrival to berghain for the first big clubbing hurrah or 2008. i would love to type more but i have an ever growing fear that if i type too much blogger wont let me post. i already have issues with the spellcheck and adding photos, so why rock the boat when the ship's full of holes and a storm's a brewing?

til then
tchuss