Berlineric: A Friday Night

Daniel and I started off the night at 18.30 at the Cinema Cafe, which is an incredibly smokey, but really cool, old cafe on Rosenthalerstrasse in Kreuzberg. It has been around since 1990 which is pretty much as old as cafes like this get in former DDR. After a Hefeweizen (both Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr are available in Ottawa beer stores. Honestly, if you have never had a Hefe you have never had a beer) we went to a vernissage at the Johanssen Gallery for the opening of the Olaf Hajek - Maskerade exhibit. The art was so-so but the bar included FREE redbull and vodka. This turned out to be important later on in the evening.

The vernissage was very much like one you may experienc at Art Guise in Ottawa. Only way busier. The "art-lovers" along with their drinks soon spilled out of the gallery on the sidewalk, this then drew yet a bigger crowd and we soon took over the street and the sidewalk on the other side. I commented to Daniel that this type of situation would bring Ottawa riot cops unnecessarily to the scene within minutes. I do not feel I was exaggerating either. We were now hanging outside with some of Daniel's Russian and German friends, among them Svetlana, Luba, Georg, Michael, and one name erased by the night.

After the well of free booze ran dry, we all hit a quiet typical old Berlin Pub for a drink before heading over to Clärchens Ballhaus for some dancing and where Daniel introduced me to a new drink simply called "Sekt-Aperol" after its ingredients. "Sekt" is German fo sparkling wine. This is also important as I will now explain:

It was around 2:00 and things were getting very messy in the dancehall, young people believed they could swing dance, english people believed they could talk German, Russian girls thought they could stand up straight. It was this last thought that combined with the speed they put into Redbull. This amalgam allowed Sveta to start dancing on the rickety table. However, It was the Sekt-Aperol which had so thoroughly refreshed me and thus allowed me, without thinking, and with the strength of a soccermom whose yoga mat is pinned under her Prius, to get up on a chair and pick Sveta up and place her gently on the floor - before the bouncers could make it over and bounce us. I am glad she does not know how close I came to falling off the chair and smashing her to the ground. Sekt-Aperol saved us from both humiliation and unintentional brain damage.

Daniel