Just about recovered and caught up on sleep etc to report back!
I arrived Thursday night and had a night at a hostel in the city centre before the other guys arrived on Friday night. Thought it would be a quiet one but the hostel had its own microbrewery and ended up having a load of beers with hostel randoms and then hitting a table tennis bar playing killer with a lad of germans until 4 am! Friday was a beautiful day but I felt pretty fragile. I spent the afternoon shooting round on the U Bahn to a few different record shops that I had found out about. Favourite of which was Record Loft if anyone was interested - this place is paradise for anyone looking to pick up old house and techno gems at reasonable prices. Anyway then headed to the Airbnb that we had lined up in Kreuzberg in a really decent location near to Burgermeister, Watergate etc.
Clubbing wise Friday night was an absolute joke - we were three guys which wasn't ideal, we were splitting down into a one and a two, and often the one who went first would get in and the others wouldn't. Sure we all did get into one club at one point or another but never together - it was so frustrating. Some of the doors - particularly Stattbad and Tresor which have never been a problem before, we thought they were our bankers! They were more savage than I had seen previously even by Berlin standards! So eventually the other two guys gave up around 5am and went to bed! I tried Berghain on my own before hitting the sack just to see if the night could turn around…I was on my own, no queue, up to the door. The guys all looked at me and said hello - I asked if I could come in, then the lead guy said "I don't know, do you have an invitation?" I said I had no guest list but I would like to come in anyway. The same guy says "I don't know, we'll think about it a minute" and then turn away and have a chat in German for what seemed like a good minute or so, before turning back and saying "sorry, not tonight!"….bummer!
Saturday we had a good sleep and woke about midday, no hangovers or anything so that was a plus point but spirits pretty low. The weather was good again - it was still cold but nice and sunny. We spent the afternoon and evening drinking, eating having a good laugh and formulating a plan for the night ahead. We thought it best to start early and all try and get into one place at least. We all got into Tresor at the first time of trying about 1 so we all had a stamp from the same place if all else failed. We decided to try Berghain…got dropped off way before we had sight of it and went one by one a few minutes apart. The queue was longish, we all waited a good 30 mins but more seemed to get in than didn't, and luckily after a few good glares at the front of the queue we all got in. It was a great night - I spent more time in Panorama bar as I am more into my house and I can honestly say that I danced through til about 11am! The crowd was very mixed but very friendly and interesting. The whole place seemed a little smaller than I had imagined but still it lived up to all the hype, and on a night when the line up wasn't particularly special! Headed back for a good sleep before hitting it again later for a couple of hours and it was still going strong! Overall a really good weekend just a shame about Friday but I guess it just goes to show how random it all is!