Tacheles

Last night was the perfect example of how you should approach a Berlin night. Always have a plan B. The night started pretty badly off, we only managed to get out by 1am. The initial club of choice, Cookies, was a tram & U-bahn trip away. The problem was that being a weekday, the regular trams & U-bahns were not working. That means we were the ones needing to work our asses off, by walking. Oh by the way, at Warschauer Strasse we met this Moldavian guy called Dmitri, who gave us his number if we come across Chisinau. "We'll make partyyyy", speaking with a Borat accent, pumping his fist up in the air & bending his knees. Yeah so after a while we managed to find a tram that took us closer, the M1 night tram line, but even then we had to wait almost half an hour. It was 3am when we finally reached Friedrichstrasse. We came across some latinas, who told they couldn't get in Cookies because it was too full. We came too late. Frustration was eminent. In the middle of the deep silence and bottle-kicking, we started to hear a big, groovy bass not far away. If I haven't still shared the three rules of Berlin, here they are:

1. Don't talk about the war
2. Good-looking women commute by bikes
3. Always listen to the bass

And we listened to rule number 3. We soon found ourselves in the art-fortress of Tacheles (Oranienburgerstrasse 54-56a), a kind of free open-air studio space for up and coming Berliner artists. There was everything from designing & paintry to carpentry & tattooing. All the buildings had been occupied back in the day (the place has been existing since the 80's, or so I heard from a pretty Berliner) & were now in semi-ruins full of colorful graffiti. There was also this sandy, open-air squatter type of bar & jamming space, full of quirky mobilia here and there. All the people just jamming, the place just glowed good vibrations! After a night of Beck's & heavy tequilas we headed back to Freidrichshain at 6am, being home at 7am. Wasting time commuting in Berlin is somehting you just have to accept.






Waking up after a thirsty night and realizing there's no food in the fridge must be one of the crappiest feelings ever. In that frenzy state you just look at the glowing white fridge and hopelessly think "What am I going to do now??" Of course after a few minutes you remember that there are grocery stores & supermarkets in the 21st century, and fortunately Lidl is within pissing distance from our flat. So it goes.