*crash*

Back home after a very long and tiring but fantastic weekend in Berlin.
I bought a few CDs, went to one of the coolest (at least music-wise) clubs EVAR, walked around far too long lobbing around far too much equipment, took a few hundred photos of nice, interesting, touristy and downright ugly things, met some interesting people (incl. a surprise one but more of that tomorrow) and discovered a city i really rather like.

Many thanks go to lsur who picked me up from the airport and acted as a valuable guide and source of information and him and his flatmates for the most comfortable crashspace in years.

Full report tomorrow, shower and bed now.

[Berlin Diary] Friday - daytime

As I had managed to go to bed just before 9, getting up at a bit after 2 wasn't too bad. Had breakfast, got ready and took taxi to Drummer St.
The coach was quick and the check-in queue was short so I had some time to kill which I spend having another breakfast and reading. Boarding involved the usual hecticness with Ryanair but the flight itself was fine, even if the seats weren't really comfortable. It was a bit wet in Berlin but at least the main queue for passport control was inside but long. Because of that long wait, my luggage had arrived by the time I got to luggage claim and lsur was waiting outside, too.
We took the S-Bahn in and only had to change once to a tram. lsur's flat is literally around the corner from the tram stop and has various other amenities (like a baker's where we picked up some cake) nearby, too. Met two of his flatmates, Miran(sp?) and Dean(sp?). It's a huge place with huge rooms (formerly a factory/warehouse building) and quite cool, actually, just a bit unfinished.
Got settled in, chatted a bit and then headed out. My first object was shopping so we went to find the record shops I mentioned on Friday, found that another one mentioned in the guide book had disappeared but the final one was still there and boy was it good.
It's in Haus Schwarzenberg, which houses various historic exhibitions, art projects and other stuff, including Neurotitan, a combined book/comic/record/stuff shop with attached gallery.( Neurotitan )

. The rest of the house is very interesting as well, quite dilapidated but still maintained. There are two very odd mechanical sculptures in the courtyard (photos forthcoming). Very interesting, you could probably spend a day exploring it all, if you wanted to see all the exhibitions and projects.
Then there was more exploring of Berlin (Museumsinsel, Berliner Dom, former GDR Palast der Republik and then towards Alexanderplatz. We were both quite hungry at that point so we thought some typical traditional German fare would be exactly the right thing to get us through the long night ahead and it was. We both had game (lsur wild boar and I a "Hubertus-Pfanne" with roast deer and boar, both with all the trimmings and a nice dark beer to wash it down with. Well sated and satisfied, we walked around Alexanderplatz for a bit made our way back to the flat to rest a bit and then get changed to go out.

to be continued

[Berlin Diary] Friday evening

We headed out to K17 a bit before 11 (nightlife in Berlin doesn't really start before midnight, anyway). It's not that far from lsur's place (easy walking distance afterwards, even for me) and we got there when it was still quite empty.
It was Night of the Living Dead this time, run by a Hamburg based promoter. Music on three floors: downstairs was trad, 80s, death/goth rock/metal etc., middle floor was the generic EBM/dance floor and upstairs was Stahlklang, with Harsh EBM, Noise and stuff and the main reason I picked this particular weekend.
Stahlklang wasn't quite what I had expected but in a good way. I had expected a playlist like this one but what I got was a lot harsher and more obscure than that. Lots of Structured rather than Power Noise and some ambient stuff to start with. I was in heaven and people like rivetmike, wintrmute and others would have been, too. Proper stomping/invisible ninja killing on the dancefloor, too. ;o)

I went to the middle floor to relax a bit. What was supposed to be the generic EBM floor turned out to play Fixmer/McCarthy, Feindflug, [:sitd:] and Rotersand (EAD).
There, the surprise of the evening happened. I was standing on the side opposite the bar, chatting to lsur when a pretty blonde woman came bouncing up to me, held out her hand and went, "Hi, I'm Stella!"
Confused, (pretty women usually don't introduce themselves to me like that), I went blank "Who? What? Sorry?" - "I'm stellalive!" - "D'oh!"
Small world syndrome again but I still don't know how she recognised me in the dim light. OK, I looked pretty much like in my recent user pics but still. Remarkable. I'm pretty bad when it comes to faces, anyway, especially when I actually have never met (or seen a photo of) the person in question. Very cool!
Danced a bit and then went downstairs which was quite good to sit and chat but the music wasn't really my thing so I went all the way upstairs again. Unfortunately, I was still a bit under the weather from my recent bout of flu so hadn't much energy for dancing but it was fantastic just listening, too.
Off to the middle floor again after an hour or so. There was a nice crowd there by that time and the dancefloor was well filled.
Again, the German goths confused me with their almost uniform dancing style (at least they weren't line dancing like at the Top Act!) in a sort of leaning back goth two-step, no matter what music was played (trad, synthpop or harsh electro). I think I confused quite a few people with my stomping and using my hands/arms a lot. ;o)
The other thing you notice is the more generic style of dress. In the UK, you can tell apart Tradgoths, Deathrockers, Cybers, Rivets and so forth, in Germany, there isn't much of a genre distinction. Even in Berlin, there were no Cybers and only a few with synthdread or plastic hair exensions but nothing as extreme as you see over here. The only exception was one of the barmaids.
We only held out until 3 or so as I was feeling really rather shattered and had big plans for Saturday, anyway. Still, it was fantastic, good value, too (€5 at the door and humane drink prices).

Walked back home (only about 20 mins) and crashed - at least after I managed to disable the clock (one of those with flipping analog display which meant there was quite an audible *clack* every minute).

Gah

The problem with buying really obscure music is that it's most likely not in the IMDBs so you have to type the tracks by hand when you rip them...

[Berlin Diary] Saturday

Slept long, went to the baker's to pick up breakfast, chatted and then we headed out again.
First stop was the Saturn (big electronics supermarket, a bit like Curry's etc. but with a huge music, DVD and computer/console games section) where I satisfied my craving for mainstream music. Well, when I say mainstream, I mean mainstream in Germany. Imagine most of the stuff you find at Resurrection Records (with the exception of the really hard noise stuff) in a high street shop. Discovered that Benzin is No. 1 in the German charts (the regular pop charts, not the alternative charts) and found pretty much what I was looking for (Subway to Sally, Xotox etc.) and a few German things (Rosenstolz, 2Raumwohnung). I should have bought a copy of Sonic Seducer before then and not last night. Now I will need to put in another infrarot order soon. Bah.

The rest of the day was tourist day, so we went exploring the major attractions (Unter den Linden, Brandenburg Gate, area around the Reichstag/Bundestag etc.) There was a huge queue for getting into the Reichstag and it started to rain quite nastily so we scrapped that idea and went around in a bus instead, leaving the Reichstag and Holocaust Memorial for the next day.

Headed back to the flat for some much needed rest (and listening to CDs). Out in the evening for the best Fajitas I've had anywhere, very flavourful, nicely prepared, good tortillas with good dips and, most importantly, at €8.50 per portion. That's about a £5.80. Chilli's in Cambridge charge almost three times as much for inferior quality. lsur and I shared a nice bottle of Rioja which went down well. For a Saturday night, the restaurant wasn't very busy at all so we took our time and talked about, well, stuff.

As I wanted to get up early on Sunday, we only had a few drinks at the Last Cathedral, a very cheesy Goth/Rock pub in a basement with fake stone walls, carved wooden booths, all kinds of goth paraphernalia, DJ music and a tiny dancefloor in the back. Good place to have a couple of hours, though.

Got back to the flat and then spent ages sampling lsur's little whisky selection and chatting with two of his flatmates. I wasn't allowed to go to bed before 2 so that's when I went. ;o)

[Berlin diary] Sunday daytime

Got up at about 8, despairing at the rain outside but decided to go anyway. lsur was busy with various things so I went on my own.
Had cakey breakfast at the pastry shop around the corner and by the time I had finished, the rain had slowed to a light drizzle. Took the tram and then got confused a bit a the S-Bahn station as to which platform I needed but found it eventually. Outside the Friedrichsstr. station it was literally chucking down with rain so I went back in and bought a cheapo umbrella which I then almost didn't need. D'oh. Various delays meant that I reached the Reichstag building at 9:30 where there was already a sizeable queue so I had to wait for not quite half an hour to get in and through the security check (like in an aiport). Entry is free but you can only go up to the roof and inside the glass dome, if you want the tour of the parliament portion or access to the gallery, you need to book in advance.

The modern steel/glass dome is quite impressive and makes an interesting contrast to the old traditional building into which it sits. Had the weather been nice, you would have had a fantastic view of Berlin as the area is quite flat and it's one of the highest points. Only the Fernsehturm (TV tower) in the former East is higher. As it was, it was far too gloomy to make out much detail. Still quite impressive, though.
Inside the dome are two spiral walkways along the inside wall (one for going up and one for coming down) with a panoramic walkway across the top. Despite the dull light, I managed to get some interesting photos of reflections and angles, I think.

Obviously, just when I had left the roof, the sun came through nicely and the weather cleared up. Bah.
Next stop was the Holocaust Memorial, a fascinating and huge array of differently sized granite blocks arranged in rows. I could have easily spent a whole day there taking photos because the light/shadows change constantly as the sun moves. The whole thing isn't on flat ground (slanted in one direction, rolling hills in the other) which adds another dimension. Very impressive.

Walked further along to Potsdamer Platz which used to be one of the busiest in Europe at the previous turn of the century and ended up being No Man's Land after WWII, just a barren wound in the city. Now it's all high rises, posh business and residential buildings and shopping centres etc. Lots of interesting things (and people) to see and take photos of. Had lunch at an Australian themed restaurant which was quite good (kangaroo filet strips, stir-fried veg and big jacket potato).
lsur joined me later so we took the 200 bus again for a small tour during daylight (on Saturday you could hardly see anything for rain) and got off at the Zoologischer Garten. Took photos of the ruin of the Gedächtniskirche and the inside of the new one and then we wandered along Kurfürstendamm for a bit before making our way back to the flat again.

For raggedhalo and people like him (and those who laugh about t

I must be emo
(4.4MB wmw video)

[Berlin diary] Going home

Packed stuff into rucksack (the yet unused compartments in the photo bit are great for CDs) and my suitcase, made sure I hadn't forgotten anything, relaxed a bit and chatted for a while before going on another tram/S-Bahn trek. lsur put me on the right train and stayed on for a stop, we said good-bye. Watched a pro photographer (I assume he was considering the equipment he was carrying, including a graphite Manfrotto monopod) reading (women's) magazines. First I thought he was looking at ads and similar photos for inspiration but I think he was actually a paparazzo as he flicked through the mags until he found random celeb photos and then checked the photo credits.
I then realised that someone had left their shopping (two jars of sliced garlic, a cucumber, a corn cob, two onions) on the seat to my left. They were of no use to me on the flight so I left them where they were.

Got to Schönefeld, went through the first security check and found that there were no seats in the check-in lounge and the Ryanair one would only open 45 mins later. So I went back out, found a seat and read a bit. Checked in and went through the tightest security control ever. Despite the thing not beeping, I was still padded down with the hand sweeper, had to open my belt and whatnot. The lady at the conveyor belt then wanted to see my camera gear and was amazed at the amount of CDs I had with me.
No problems, though, so I got through eventually. Found a seat and watched people a bit, including a young couple whose language I couldn't figure out. They looked (Northern) European but didn't sound like anything I've heard before. I didn't ask them but I assume they were from somewhere in the Baltic states.
Then I remembered I could buy a music and photography mag or two, picked up a Sonic Seducer with CD (superb selection!) but they didn't have any photography mags.
Eventually the gate was called and I marched over. Another passport control and again at the gate and another 40 minutes of waiting and we finally were on the plane. On time, too.
Flight was reasonably quiet but I couldn't get comfortable. I wonder how taller/bigger people than I cope with Ryanair seats...
It was a long walk from the gate to the terminal but at least that meant I got to the luggage carousel just when the bags started to appear. Mine came up pretty quickly so I grabbed it and made my way to the coach station. As luck wanted it, I had missed the coach by 10 minutes and had to wait for another 50 minutes. At least there were free seats in the waiting lounge. Got on the bus, got off, grabbed taxi, crawled inside and collapsed.
Managed a weak "I'm back" LJ post and download the photos but that was it.
Still shattered this morning.

All in all, it was a tiring but fantastic short break. I like Berlin and if there was an opportunity to go there for a job, I'd grab it immediately.

[Photo] Berlin preview

It wasn't easy to pick just a few (21 in total) because I have many i really like and want to show. I also have a few that show lack of concentration/tiredness (angles/framing) as I still wasn't feeling 100% fit but all in all, I've come up with some nice results, I think. So here we go:

( A small set under here )

Full preview set on flickr.