Berlin City Alternative Underground Tour
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
133
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Berlin,
Germany
Thursday, August 7, 2008
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. Nice one. We need to buy a cooker though so we can have the odd vegan sauso when we want to. We are not really in the head spaces for the city at the moment.Berlin city is large, 3.8 million people and has lots to see and do like superior art exhibitions and museums but we found it a little depressing to be looking at the historical sites like Hitlers bunker, the remaining section of the Berlin wall and memorials to holocaust victims. So, today we ventured out on an alternative walking / train tour of the city with an Australian guy from Melbourne who started this business after living in Berlin for 8 years. He also sells Kangaroo Feet which are large steel spring shoes that you can bounce around the city on. There is also a city tour called Bad Boy Bikes where he uses chopper style pimped up bikes to ride around the city on. Today we used our own feet.
Just two decades ago Berlin was still a divided city, split between the communist east and capitalist west. Today, it's the European Shanghai with world class architectural icons emerging. Berlin is renowned for its diversity and tolerance, its alternative culture, its night owl stamina and its affordability but the best thing about the capital is the way it continues to reinvent itself and isn't shackled by its powerful history. We were keen to get a glimpse of the new Berlin as it is today so we took a look at the underground alternative scene on a tour that would take us right the way across the city and give us a good glimpse into how the real locals live.
The tour met at the TV tower called the Fernsehturn that is a much loved symbol of the city and stands at 368metres tall
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. We visited Hackescher Market which gave us a peak into how the rest of Berlin looked 20 years ago before it was gentrified. This area was saved by artist squatters and ravers who opened up galleries and performed protests to keep these buildings intact. The tour visited some sites of urban street art galleries and hidden spaces and places we would not find on our own. The street artists of Berlin are world famous and we witnessed some fantastic, creative pieces during our time here. We visited one of the beach bars that are ridiculously popular in Berlin summer time. The bar we visited was on top of a shopping centre roof and was basically set up with real sand, deck chairs and low tables for sun lounging. Typically, a DJ will be spinning minimal house or progressive trance on decks and the vibe is very relaxed. The people of Berlin really run the show. When the smoking ban was introduced to clubs and pubs, the Berliners refused to butt out and all of them smoked in protest so there is no smoking ban. Berlin is a party city with an active night life. We are told there are 150 illegal parties held across the city on any given weekend. Last night we were invited to visit the Gothic bar owned by German heavy metal band Rammstein and to an old style rave party being held in an abandoned train station building complete with 5 stages, 30 DJs and a 17 hour duration. Pass for now thanks. We visited the Takeles building which is an art and theatre space in a building that stands since World War 2
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. Squatters saved it in 1990 and now it is home to 51 artists who have galleries and studios here. We also went to the funky suburbs of Kreuzberg, Ostkreuz, Freidrichstein and Prenzlaurberg, a skate park that featured an outdoor cinema, rock climbers, a nightclub and hip hop DJs, a man made waterfall, a shop where the vendor talked like Borat and sold authentic Absinthe (we bought some of course) and a beer garden. We also ate the traditional German dish, Curry-wurst that we loved. We tried to find Schnitzel with sauerkraut but it couldn't be found. The last stop on the tour was at a series of painted murals that featured 50 human faces painted with spray cans by a talented artist named Daisy Lake, i will post some photos of the work here. Graffiti covers many of the buildings in the city including nearly all of those that the train line runs along, it adds some interest.We have been riding all the trains and trams without a ticket but have been told there is giant fines if we had been caught. Rebels. So, we slept for one last night at the horrendous Generator Hotel then left for the airport in the early hours of the morning. The line up for checking onto a budget Easy jet plane was huge and then they wouldn't let us take our Danny Deckchair folding seat onto our hand luggage. So, we left it behind and had a very uncomfortable and tiring flight seated separately on the plane to Lisbon in Portugal.
Most of the photos are of graffiti. Those who know me know i am a fan of urban art especially in fringe suburbs. Berlin was completely coloured in paint and it would take weeks to cover the city archiving it. There are some famous Berlin artists amongst the images i took.
