BERLIN NIGHTLIFE ALL
NIGHT PUB CRAWLING
Bars, Restaurants and Sex of Oranienburger
On
a first visit to Berlin ten years ago, only nine years after the fall
of the wall, a local friend took me down a street distinctively Berlin.
Underground 24-hour all night clubs of graffiti anarchist art, local
bands and
a street filled with dolled-up hookers surrounding passing cars on the
dark
street baldly displaying their wares for a quickie under the S-Bahn
rail tracks. Well, in the passage of time, the anarchy of the east’s
melding into the ways of capitalism, that street is still the undisputed
center of Berlin’s round the clock nightlife, but the good and
bad side of capitalism has taken its toll. The quaint hidden anarchist
clubs have bloomed like sunlit algae into a mile long street of wall-to-wall
bars, dance clubs and restaurants, packed with dining tourists in the
early hours and dance till you drop nightclub bars after dark. And
the hookers
are still there on Oranienburger Strasse.
Starting
from just outside the Hackescher Markt S-Bahn station
between Alexanderplatz and Friedrichstrasse the clubs and bars begin, starting
with the 24 hour Am-Pm Bar. It is along Oranienburger Strasse past
Rosenthaler Str. with its mile
of night
clubs that the popular guided Pub Crawls of Berlin take gangs of thirsty
tourists from bar to bar with the aroma of vodka, cigarette smoke and
random acquaintance sex wafting heady in the night air. The bars and restaurants follow one after another, some dark and cavern-like, some
gaudy emporiums of mirrors and golden idol elephants at the Indochina.
The music is loud, the drinks expensive and remarkably, almost evenly
spaced
between
each, a prostitute stands on the street, in almost identical outfit
of boots, and thin waist bustier under down jacket covering nearly
identical
sized Double-D bosoms like living blow-up dolls. It’s as if Walt
Disney had decided from his cryonic chamber to re-invent raucous underground
Berlin
into an adult night-time entertainment theme park, about which
a local Berliner has said, “This is not Berlin, this is Ibiza.”
One can
lament the loss of the underground Berlin to the raw lust of capitalist
success, but that is perhaps part of the new Berlin. There are still
a few less
crawled spots locals prefer, usually in the small streets off Oranienburger,
look for Keyser Soze (yes, named after the movie character)
and Zosch on Tucholsky Strasse and Veb OZ on August
Straße.
Getting
to Oranienburger Straße is quite easy, just take any
S-Bahn to Hackescher Markt station in Berlin Mitte and walk outside,
heading north, or the U6 to Oranienburger Tor station
and head toward the TV
Tower
easily visible. If traveling in a wandering gang of like minded outsiders,
sharing a same language and like curiosity sounds like a good idea,
there are
number of guided Pub Crawls available. Nearly every hotel or tourist
stop will have a flyer or brochure. The Fat
Tire Bike Tours to be found underneath the TV tower at
Alexanderplatz offers a pub crawl,
not on bicycle fortunately. Stop by during the day to get the details.
Another meets every night at 8:15 pm at the Erdbeer Bar just
outside the Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz U-Bahn subway station, with a little
more of that old Berlin underground feeling and a chance to sample
one of their signature giant
Strawberry
Daiquiris (Erdbeer is German for strawberry) in a glass meant for a
root-beer float, rather than
alcoholic beverage, before heading off to Oranienburger. Pub Crawls
usually cost somewhere around 10 Euros and some include a group alcohol
shots at select stops, before having to buy your own drinks. Consider
that your bar bill will significantly add to your tour tab. In busy
summer months, pub crawl groups can sometimes bloom to as many as two
hundred club crushing seekers of nighttime drunken pleasures. Sounds
like madness, but can introduce you to like minded souls lost in a
big city of foreign language. If the camaraderie wears off, or if you
perhaps just get lucky, you can wander off on your own at any time,
as long as you’ve brought your subway and S-Bahn map to
find your bleary-eyed way home. And if you don’t get lucky, there
will always be a double-d sized pay-for-play girlfriend eagerly waiting
at every corner. © Bargain
Travel Europe
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See Also:
TIPI AM KANZLERAMT - CABARET TENT THEATER
SEX IN FRANKFURT - BAHNHOFS VIERTEL
RED LIGHT DISTRICT SECRETS AMSTERDAM
OSTEL - BERLIN’S DDR DESIGN HOSTEL
