Rejection

Puppet Man

This weekend was the 20 year celebration of East and West Berlin reunifying and as such there was a festival with lots of special things going on all over town. I first went to the Reichstag, the home to the German government, with a glass dome ceiling that can be accessed to view the city. While waiting in line this puppet that was controlled by five people came up and was interacting with the people in line. Then across the large lawn in front of the Reichstag I heard music and looked to see a giant crane with a band on the side and a giant puppet in the front. As the band played the 100 foot tall puppet was dancing to the music, it was amazing.

The weather in Berlin is much colder that I would like and it started to rain while I was in line. Making the views of the city less than spectacular, but it was still a nice place to visit with free entrance and a free audio tour that changes tracks as you walk to different areas so you don’t have to manually change tracks.

At the Brandenburg Gate, the only remaining gate of those once used to enter Berlin, the 20th anniversary festivities were taking place. There were bands playing all day long and the streets were lined with vendors.

I headed to the free Alternative City Tour and met up with the group of 14 people and we headed out. Rather than seeing the normal attractions this tour was designed to show the other side of Berlin, what they called the real Berlin, but more the underground side of things. We saw all kinds of amazing street art (graffiti), art by Tim Roeloffs (check out his website), a rock wall on a water tower, a metal working shop, and the former no man’s land. There used to be two walls with an area between it where the East military was stationed to keep people from coming over the wall. Once the walls came down some people took this land as their own. The Russians left some of their vehicles and people started living in the abandoned trucks. There was another man who built a house in a tree in no man’s land and made a garden. The government tried to kick him out but the nearby Catholic Church spoke up that they used to own the land and would allow the house to stay. I found an article online about it here.

I really enjoyed the tour but it was a lot of walking and took over 4 ½ hours. In the end of the initial 14 people there were only 7 of us left.

At night I went back to the Brandenburg Gate to eat some street food, drink some beer and listen to music. I ran into a guy from the tour earlier in the day and he was with a group of people from his hostel. They were going to a Mexican restaurant and then some bars and invited me to come along. The Mexican restaurant was across the street from the metal workshop I had been to earlier in the day and was in a very fun area. The lone girl in the group had heard of a good club but that we should not go until 1am. I don’t normally go to in depth about my night life but this was an interesting night worth sharing. We went to a bar and one of the guys in the group found two girls he was interested in and went to talk to them. The conversation looked like it was lagging and so I went over to help him out. The girls were from the Israeli military and I started talking to the girls for a while and then they went to the bathroom. While the girls were gone the other guy let me know which girl he was interested in. While the girls were gone we started to dance with the group we had come with. When the girls returned they did not join us but instead sat on some couches along the wall. The other guy went over to talk to the girl he was interested in and I stayed dancing. I glanced at them a couple of times and I could tell things were going well for the guy with the girl he liked, but her friend was looking bored. I went over and asked her friend to dance with me so the guy could keep working his magic. The girl was definitely not interested in dancing or me as she stood there swaying slowly to herself and yawning. I am apparently a terrible wingman and an even worse dance partner.

We grabbed a cab to the club in an abandoned looking warehouse in the middle of nowhere. There was a huge line in front of the club and we lined up. Our group consisted of 5 guys and one girls. When we got to the front we had the girl in front and the bouncer asked if it was her and one of the guys. She told him it was all 6 of us together. He asked her if she was sure she wanted to say that and she confirmed we were a group. The guy looked us over and then turned around to a man in his 60’s with two large lip piercings and a tattoo on his face. The second man looked us over and gave his conclusion to the first guy. We would not be allowed into the club.

We headed back to the bar where we had come from so the guy from our group could continue his courtship of the Israeli girl. Unfortunately she had left and with that the guy’s interest in being out at the bars had also left. Most of the others in the group were leaving Berlin the next morning and headed out with him, leaving me with one other guy. After 15 minutes the remaining guy told me he was going to have a cigarette and would be back. After 10 minutes when he hadn’t returned I went to look for him and he was no where to be found. Apparently he had decided to leave and not tell me. I decided that was enough for one night and headed back to my hostel.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE BELOW TO SEE ALL OF TODAY'S PICTURES

10_03_09 Berlin small