Berlin (Still)
Trip Start
Feb 2008
1
10
26
Trip End
Ongoing
Berlin,
Germany
Thursday, March 27, 2008
After I was dragged out of the house, the four of us, Cimi, Paz, Sacha and myself set out towards the Kopi squat again.
We took the U-Bahn down to the center then decided to walk the streets the rest of the way.
Along the way Paz bumped into an old man on a wheel chair, he was resting on a corner, close to his house. As Paz passed, he offfered to push the man home (only round the corner) and even ran a little with him down the road :)
Anyway, we continued walking towards Kopi, and popped into a Kiosk, picking up 4 beers (60cents each!) and stopping in a park round the corner we chilled on the swings and roundabouts :P Although had a slight accident on a large spinning disk, as you walked along the edges, it slowly sped up untill I was running at full speed, just on the cusp of losing control! And after about a second later I lost it, jumping almost, as the ground underfoot rotated I fell off and slammed into the sand (luckly)!
Still, only a minor accident and a sore hip after I am ok.
Soon after we entered Kopi, although by this point
When we entered Bethaniendamm, to our delight, a free meal (donations accepted) awaited us and a film screening was being hosted. We sat down to a vegan meal, freshly cooked and once again delicious. I think all these squats and alternative meeting places all seem to have amazingly great tasting, and also importantly good healthy food. But of course this is all part of the solution, to help yourself and heal your body.
While Paz and Cimi watched some of the film in a diffrent room, Sacha and myself played around with Cimi's guitar, improvising songs, and listening to Sacha's beligium rainbow songs.
After we regrouped, we left for the caravan site next door to Bethaniendamm and payed a vist to Vodna, with whom we sat around inside his caravan with listening to his music (see if you can youtube Yello I think?) and sharing a joint. We left soon after, as we decided we should go back since we didn't have the key to the shop.
We woke on wensday with a full day planned, We had earlier decided that wensday would be a day of events, A dub reggae party was the night, and during the day we prepared ourselves. Paz and Cimi left for a dry cleaners, clothes in tow, While I had already cleaned mine the day before. Mark had told us of a friend of his, who he had met through his shop, and who he taught the didg to. She was a sharman in Berlin and had invited us to join Mark and others to a drumming session with her. Of course we accepted and left with Mark when the shop was closed for the day. As we left for the drumming session, Sacha left for a skipping mission to collect food from the bins of supermarkets (thrown out since they had been damaged or past the sell by date but of course these are still edible!).
After a short walk we arrived at Katja's place ( http://www.katja-neumann.de/ ) and soon we had taken seats in a room, lit by candle light lined with hard straw in place of carpet. We each sat on a pillow and took a drum each, mine a very deep drum, which I like was great, rested on my legs while I played. We started with a basic beat and slowly the beat changed, with people bringing in diffrent levels, building up from the base melody. Mark played his Didg wonderfully and Cimi, Paz and Katja brought in their voices to join the drums and add even more depth. We played in total about 4 or 5 times, each song diffrent and although it was diffrent from what the group normally plays (a slow non changing beat over a long time) everyone agreed that it was a great and energetic change.
We left Katja's about and hour and a half later, heading back with Mark to the shop, as we walked Sacha pulled up along side us, returning from his skipping mission, fully loaded with goodys! He had a massive amount of vegables including artichoke, carrots, cabbage even two boxes of Sushi! We returned fully laden to the shop, unloading the "shoping" in the fridge and had a coffee for the night ahead!
After a bit of food, we all prepared ourselves to leave, Cimi and Paz leading as they had already been to the reggae and other venues planned for visting tonight. We set out via the U-Bahn heading east again and then changing to a tram halfway. Intresting fact for Berlin, only the east of Berlin has tram lines, it seems that during the former GDR only the east kept their side of tram lines in the roads, the west however ripped theirs up (unfortunatly, since I quite like the trams).
Our first stop of the night, was a small bar/cinema called Durchsfenster. The building itself was completely covered with paintings, all colours of the rainbow. The building itself was a former squat, although now I guess its publicly owned? anyway, the bar was only accessable via a window, acting as the only entryway :) Inside was a small bar, a couple of sofas and chairs around two tables. Posters stuck to the walls and over the windows large sheets covered. We took our seats and ordered four beers, the cheapest of course!
I ventured back, since the bar was the first room we entered, through the window, but directly behind the bar was a small screening room, with I guess about 20 seats, all kinds, some it seemed ripped from cinema's others were single leather bound chairs and even a sofa or two, a projector was set into the back and a small screen lay ready at the front of the room. Paz spoke to one of the guys running the night, Stefan, who gave us a joint to smoke while we chatted. Stefan told me about the place, it seemed the cinema was run by 8 or so groups, rotating each day between one of the groups. Each group decided what films were to be screened on the night and also ran the bar. The venue served as a place to watch non-mainstream (ie Hollywood et al) and also for filmmakers to screen their own films to audiences.
After chatting to stefan about the films his group had screened and ones both of us had watched, I picked up a program and planned to come back at some point, his own group ran the place each wensday.
We jumped out of the window once more into the street, this time heading for a small church looking building, under in the celler was a live jam event, although we thought it was free, but we were asked for 2 euros each, so we decided to ead stright for the reggae night. Sacha decided to head back to the jam session, since they were playing a type of music he really loved, and even haggled with the doorman to get in for free! The only consession was that he was told that - "here we are all friends, just so you know" which of course was no problem for sacha and was even better :)
Cimi, Paz and myself still headed for the Reggae party, leaving sacha for his own adventures for the night (later we found out we missed him at the reggae party by 30 mins or so) The reggae party was hosted in a warehouse complex, each warehouse played host to a diffrent night and diffrent music. Our own warehouse was dub reggae with hints of drum and bass in the songs at times :) As we waited outside, finishing our beers, anthony walked out and we greeted each other warmly. After sorting us out with a nice amount we entered with him and what followed was a night of dancing, smoking and the odd beer. We met many great people here, and completely enjoyed ourselves. Now..during the night we also met someone, whom had already heard of us..even without meeting before..a great suprise, not to many details now, since we are going to his house in a few minutes now, so when I get back I shall write full details!
Needless to say, the night was amazing, and Berlin is great!
On more travel news, it seems we have agreed to stay in Berlin perhaps for about 40 days or so, before we head to Poland and a rainbow, just south of Krakow! Although of course this isnt set in stone, as none of our plans are, but its seems like the most likly to happen, besides Berlin has so muc to offer!
Anyway, enjoy the story, as we are too!
(Taking the camera tonight, so expect pics soon too!)
