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12 of the best
To celebrate my 1 Year Berlinniversary, I've tried to come up with 12 of the most special moments of my life these past 12 months. They may not all seem incredibly wonderful, but they are all times I will never forget, and have contributed to the enjoyment of my debut Jahr.
1. Autumn days
When I first got to Berlin, my life basically consisted of two people; who I relied on for taking me out, accompanying me to concerts, giving me advice, and generally helping me settle in. One, my housemate Nadi, who I can probably say I wouldn't still be here without, really helped the move abroad. She provided accommodation before even meeting me, took me to gay bars, and held my hair when I was sick. The other is my ex. He took the place of the 10 or so "best friends" I really missed from UK. Adriell, (aka "my ex", or sporkboy) introduced me to loads of cool places in Berlin on our countless "dates", and pushed his way to the front for me at a Hello Saferide concert.
But the one memory I will always cherish above all is one drunken night as we made our way home from somewhere or other, we came across a giant pile of leaves that a tree had shed. And for a few magical moments the three of us were united in a sycamore street shower. It was beautiful.
2. One hand on his pocket...
A day of hilarious manhunting with my first and only proper English friend in Berlin. The absolute highlight is Sadie putting a cigarette in the top pocket of an Indian restaurateur, and patting it, to thank him for aiding our quest. Whole story is available here:
http://www.offexploring.com/wirraltoberlin/blog/germany/berlin/2009-10-30%2000:12:06
and it turns out that when she eventually arranged a date with the guy we'd gone to so much trouble for, it was the wrong man!
3. Smelling of Roses
This place has far too many immense memories, it is my lieblingsbar by far.But I have to pick one moment (under my silly rules) so I will go for the moment I was sitting there minding my own business (well, perving on guys I guess) when all of the sudden Mamo (Russia's 2009 Eurovision song) was played. It was my fave song of that year, and really not the type of song you'd hear in a bar. But Roses is no ordinary bar! (I'm also quite proud of refusing point-blank to be dumped in there!)
4. Christmas Eve
Natalie has been my biggest party buddy in Berlin this past year. There have been some good times, some great times and some times that I'm not sure really happened. But our first night out was Christmas Eve. At a young gays club, with screaming orgasms, hot black men, silver angels in underwear giving out hairspray and general depravity. But the best part was dancing to All I Want For Christmas Is You. Of course!
5. Living for the Weekend Club
This place was recommended to me a lot. A gay Sunday night in a hotel with two dance floors (as in entire floors) and a rooftop terrace. I expected to go there and find myself a sugar daddy. When I did get there, however, I realised that it was actually full of what I call "the pretty gays" - the campy, b****y 18-22 year olds. Which only made me like it more. I've never met a boy there to snog even (that I can remember at least!), but the place makes me feel young, gay and classy. Highlight moment: dancing to Glow.
6. Like a Satellite I'm dancing at Brandenburger Tor.
2 Eurovision songs combined at a giant gay party in front of Berlin's iconic "gate". Costas and Felix had gone home and Noel had disappeared, but I was happy enough dancing on my own, mojitos in hand!
7. Eat and be merry
A not drunk highlight! OK there was still a bottle of wine, but it was shared between 4 of us! Having dinner at Belinda's with Tim (sophisticated with nice hair) and Elisabeth (long and beautiful) was a very nice chilled out and grown up evening. Even though we ate on the floor. Favourite part: sitting there looking pretty while everyone else made the food.
8. 8 out of 10 gays
While I always had a lot of female friends, and I made friends with the Women's Rugby Team in my first year at Uni, which provided a lot of lesbian friends, AND I even had several really close straight male friends, what I have always lacked is a Proper Gay Friend. I tend to think if a gay guy is hot enough to be my friend then he is hot enough to offer other benefits... but thankfully I'm way too young (about 20 years minimum) for Costas. So we can go out together, stay in together or swap slutty stories over the phone (Costas invariably wins!), and it's fab that even though I haven't really "known" him for a year yet, that we know we can tell each other anything (trust me, you don't wanna know!!) and know the other won't judge us. And has probably been there before.
A particularly fun night was when we went for some drinks in Prenzlauerberg (the posh northerny bit) and found ourselved in a busy gaybar. We had to squeeze ourselves into the doorway between the 2 rooms. But this gave us a perfect point to people watch. As we sat there, every guy that passed us were given a mark out of 10. We rarely agreed (though there is a certain young bearded guy section that has cross-appeal) but it was fun to be superficial gay friends, and I'm glad he's here.
9. Späti Man
On the way zwischen my house and the U-Bahn station, there is a little drink shop. I call it a Späti (Short for Spätkauf - "late buy") even though it doesn't stay open that spät. Mainly cos I'm cool. But when I'm heading out and I need a beer or 5 for the train journey or park, I venture in and pick some out of the fridge.It's not as cheap as the supermarket (though still only €1 for a half litre), but it's worth every cent. The reason: Späti Man. He is very friendly, never switches to English when he hears my bad accent, he calls me "Chef" (boss) and as I walk out the door post-transaction he hollers a cheery "Schön Tag noch jung Mann" (have a good day young man!).Never fails to make me smile.
10. "The Evening Of Love"
The name was given by Elisabeth, and it is not so long, but definitely a beautiful one.
I guess a bit of background is needed... me and Natalie met a couple of French boys one night while wasted. One, Rorie, was half English and from Liverpool originally. The other Matthieu, was originally Ivory Coastian. I invited them to watch the World Cup with me on several occasions, and the Evening of Love was one of these nights. On this night, Rorie finally clicked that I was a gayer (I hide it well) and informed us that Matthieu also was. I had a little soft spot for Matthieu, so I was happy at the news.
So a while - and several drinks - later, we're walking down a long road looking for a random party to join in on. I'm walking along talking to the French boys, when Belinda and Elisabeth call Rorie to them to give me and Ivory Coastian some privacy. For some reason Rorie is more eager to talk to us though, so Belinda and Elisabeth took him by the arms to keep him away. As they are walking along in front of us - holding hands, I have my drunken arm around Matthieu. I make that decision, and go all La Roux (in for the kill) on him, but he rejects me.
Very politely and calmly he points out that he's not gay, and Rorie likes to tell lies when he's drunk. And that's it. No "EEEEEE get off me ya queer" or anything. And we all stayed friends and will live happily ever after.
11. Cevapcici
My summer partying blog never came, as I was too busy summer partying. But one of the major highlights was going down to Görlitzer (Görli) Park for some beers, and from time to time, a BBQ. One particular week we (that is Belinda, Claire and me) somehow randomly decided on a Friday BBQ. It was kinda disorganised and informal (as everything good in Berlin is!) but we ended up with a good selection of people from various friend circles. On my meat buying mission, I happened across Cevapcici. At the barbecue, I peddled my precious meat rather heavily, encouraging every picnic guest to sample a bit of cevapcici. It got rather absurd as it soon turned into me saying the word cevapcici every other sentence virtually, and it was turned into a drinking game, where every time I said the C-word, I had to take a swig of my beer. So then I became very careful to offer out my "Croatian delicacy" instead. The day led to night and great fun, ultimately ending with a karaoke session and a very cheesy rendition of A Whole New World (I was Princess Jasmine naturally!), but the day will always be remembered as Cevapcici Day.
12. Umbrella techno
When I arrived in Berlin, I never really envisioned a weekend as fab as the last one of August. A techno party in an abandoned Amusement Park set up in Soviet Eastern Berlin in the 60s. The most recent owners sailed away in 2001, with 5 stolen rides including the rollercoaster, to set up a new amusement park in Peru. They also filled one of the rides with cocaine, but got caught. Whoops. But the remaining amusement park has very unrealistic and knocked over giant dinosaurs, creepy swan boats, a giant ferris wheel, and - for one weekend only - a giant techno party. Techno music isn't really my thing, but the venue was too good to miss. And it turned out the weekend was absolutely immense. The whole thing is summed up by the moment late on Sunday night when the rain began to pour down, and Natalie whipped out her umbrella. Dancing in the rain, in an abandoned Cold War era theme park, to techno, in my favourite city in the world, with great friends, wearing pink sparkly sunglasses and with beer number way-too-many-considering-you-have-work-in-the-morning in hand, while brandishing an umbrella in every direction in rhythm with the music was just euphoric.
And what makes it even better is that I know there will be SO many more memories as fabulous as these over the next 12 months. Bring them on, Berlin!
- comments
Caron Brilliant! So delighted and proud that you're doing well & making amazing memories and that I have you in my life :) xxx