Berlin [Germany]
I went to Berlin with a bunch of friends to see a World Cup game (Ukraine vs Tunisia). It was at the solid stone Olympic Stadium that Hitler had built for the 1936 Olympics.
At first I thought Berlin it was the ugliest, squarest, bleakest city I’d ever seen. How wrong first impressions can be.
Berlin will probably never be a pretty city. Virtually annihilated in 1945 it had to be hastily rebuilt in the 50’s and 60’s. So it is chock a block with those ugly cement rendered Lego structures that in other countries only house poor people. But this is a very chilled out city. Even while hosting the feverous World Cup Berlin felt calm, relaxed and friendly. Maybe summer and football just bring out the best in people.
The Berlin wall is slowly disappearing as people chip off chunks of it to sell on ebay. The Germans call them woodpeckers. But I guess the Polizei are a little reluctant to post armed guards there to protect it…
On Saturday night we stumbled across THE COOLEST PLACE IN THE WORLD. By sheer luck we found Tacheles. It is at the corner of Oranienburger Strasse and Friedrichstrasse on the east side of central Berlin.
Imagine Tom Wait’s ‘Hang on St Christopher’ blaring over a half bombed out graffiti covered urban crater. There are little make shift bars, wacky sculptures, fire jugglers, guys selling fried haloumi from derelict kombi vans and people just lounging about groovin to the ‘this is how life should be’ vibe. This is Tacheles. An artist community space.
If you go up the graffiti smothered stair well in the middle of the half bombed buildings you come across more groovy bars and nightclubs as well as the artist studios. We got there around 6pm and stayed till 3am and all agreed it was the best night you could have.
I fell in love with the work of Tim Roelofs a Dutch collage artist who works out of Tacheles. Check out his stuff:
www.pivoandpivos.com
Berlin has the rare talent of being uber cool without being pretentious.
Berlin is quite simply d’bomb.
