Citytrip Extraordinaire: Playing 'Tourist' in the Dance Clubs of Berlin

Time flies! Already a bit more than two weeks ago, I set out for a weekend trip to the capital city of Germany, Berlin. A trip I make a few times a year. A trip different to many other travellers. The goal was not a city trip to play tourists but to meet friends and family. A trip to hang out while eating great food and dancing together in the best clubs of Berlin. Heck, the best clubs in Europe. Perhaps even the best clubs in the world.

Altogether we mastered around 24 hours inside two clubs.

We hit the first one directly after arriving on Saturday. A quick visit to our accommodation, a great, comfortable hotel with a tremendously late checkout option, one we need for Monday after all the partying. Normally, late checkout is like 12, 13 or perhaps 14 o'clock. This hotel allows us to check out much later, like 16 to 17 o'clock. How cool is that?

Anyways...

As mentioned already, after arrival, checking in at the hotel, dropping of our luggage, a drink in the hotel bar, we hit the road to our first destination, a club named "Heideglühen". Never been. Recommendations we got from some locals the last time we did a Berlin party weekend, back in July. I didn't know what to expect. Late afternoon early evening, we stepped out of our Uber cab and found ourselves in front of a very old building. House sounds escaped the closed doors. We figured we needed to get to the backside of the building for the entrance. No queue. Door lady let us through quickly. Then, the usual. Doormen going for (almost) strip search, I thought. To my surprise, the guy said: "Leave everything in your pockets", while he pointed to round sticker sets and asked if I know the drill. Sure, I do, but wasn't expecting selfservice. The standard in Berlin clubs is to cover all the cameras of phones with stickers, since the number one rule is: No Photographs. They can be fierce when taking photos. It is one way exit and possibly a photo on the board as a memory to the doormen to refuse re-entrance hours to a day later.

The number one reason I have so little photos of my adventures in Berlin. But fortunately, I met this lantern pole when we left the hotel and waited for the Uber cab to show up. Don't you love this one? In my town (the city of Amsterdam), we have similar but aren't covered with stickers and such. We used to have those, but the city council decided our town needs to be clean in all aspects. Stickers like these aren't allowed anymore. Sure, some glue them anyway, but we have these cleaning teams who take them away, almost as quickly as one sticks them.

Anyways, back to Heideglühen. Wasn't expecting what we entered into. Super cosy club, almost like an after-ski place in an old Austrian winter sports town; All wood. Fairytale-like decorations. Everywhere little corners, chairs and benches. Balconies around, covered with tent material sheets. Terrace heaters here and there to make it feel sort-of-cosy in t-shirt. Tiny dance floor, filled with happy people with big smiles. Ok-ish House sounds escaping the somewhat moderately ok speaker system. House music: Not my most favourite style. But very doable due to the selection of some of the better House DJs around.

Cocktail time.

Since my friends and brother didn't feel the music vibe too much as well, we decided to take some of the chairs and benches hostage. Lots to catch up on. Lots to talk about. Hours and hours later, we found ourselves still chilling and hanging out. Though we moved a few times, still the benches and chairs had to deal with our buttocks warming their heads and laps. In between we sneaked away a few times to test the dance floor.

When finally the headliner started, Ian Pooley, we decided to give him a handful of records before drawing our conclusions. An hour or so in, we decided it wasn't worth it to listen to the end and reduce our sleep time for what was coming our way the day after. Not that Ian wasn't any good? His approach to House was one with a lot of dynamics, an interesting way of mixing and some pretty cool records with more than a few golden oldies. But our Sunday 'church' time was way more important! In the end, the Sunday happening was (next to catching up) the prime reason for us to travel from various places in Europe. A great friend came all the way up from Nice (France). My brother joined from some Roman city in Germany. And a few friends and I came inbound from Amsterdam. When we arrived back at the hotel, another friend just arrived, the one that was going to give us his best in music while most of the city would be sleeping in or having breakfast.

7AM, the alarm. Only 5 hours of sleep. Quick shower. Quick coffee. Meetup at 7.30. Driver ready to bring us to our church, the temple of Techno, the place where magic happens, all the time, every hour, every minute, as if this is the 'norm'. A place of True Freedom. No rules. No guidelines. Except? Yes, except for the no-photo policy and the 'have respect for anything and everyone' policy. Anything you can think of is allowed in this club. No barriers. No nothing. You want to lie down on the floor? Go ahead. You want to take a nap on some bench, chair or big ass swing? Nobody kicks you out. You want to dance head standing? People make room. You want to undress yourselves somewhat (or completely)? No questions asked. Not that I go bare-chested, but just saying, no barriers in this club. Total Freedom.

While many think Freedom means, little to no government interference in our daily lives, Berghain provides the place for True Freedom. Enjoy the music. Enjoy the company. Enjoy the friends for the night, the strangers. Party together. All together creating a place like heaven. All within a sea of sounds brought by fine artists and one of the best speaker system setups in the whole wide world.

When we took position on the dance floor around 8AM, an artist behind the decks I never heard before. A woman. From Colombia perhaps? Turns out she is from France. With perhaps Senegal roots? What a nice sound I was hearing! Great records. Groovy in a way. Warm. Full on Techno. Will I remember her name? Probably not, so best to take a note on my phone for later explorations when back home. Still not explored her musical history therefore, you will have to wait until I do and post some of her music that I like.

A little to an hour later we lost our DJ friend. Well lost? He was getting ready to take over the decks for a 4-hour set. A musical trip I so much longed for. Turned out, a trip that was better than anything I had heard in the last few years or so! Did he record the set? No, was the short answer I got. Not allowed by the club. Uhm, owwwk, I guess the club has three rules: 1) no photos, 2) have respect, and 3) no recordings. Ah well, I can live with this. It's not that I don't have the chance to hear my friend play on other occasions. Never he is boring. Mostly he is darn good. And sometimes, he is exceptional. And when I say exceptional, I mean darn exceptional extraordinaire.

Time flies while having fun is a very appropriate statement to make. Hours felt short. Heavenly music is done and over with. The next artists took the stage. 1PM. The first record: Meh. Three records is the rule; Well, my rule. Listen three to decide if it is worth staying on the dance floor. Five records later the decision to hang out. Find those big ass swings. To chill. To chatter. To engage with peeps we didn't know before. To drink cocktails and water. To eat some fruits I got from the little shop somewhere tucked away in the building. To lose sight of my friends since they found some of the new peeps, annoying. Annoying? I felt totally different! Interesting peeps. Lots to tell. Many adventures they shared. Happy peeps. Funny peeps. Far off from being annoying. Ok, one girl was a bit clingy, but who cares? Her positive vibes were rubbing off; All good.

Again 4 hours later. A bit after 5PM. What was happening on the other side of the club, behind the glass panels? Sounds darn good! 😱🥳

Super minimal Techno. A style that gets boring very very quickly. But not when MARRØN handles the decks. He must have magic hands. Full on power. Fast pacing, like a train. Energy. Tribal sounds; African drums. Rounded rolling base; Not the dry kick sounds we hear so often. Think of the best (heavy) Bordeaux wines, full body, rounded edges. That is what MARRØN is known for, at least in my book. Time to get back onto the dance floor.

but but but where did all these peeps come from? Way to busy! Felt for a moment like a sardine, canned and all. Room! We need more space! Fortunately, at the back of the floor, close to a little bridge connecting both sides of the club, we found some space. Sound quality slightly less, but sometimes compromises have to be made.

While I tried to enjoy the music by crawling into it, eyes closed, I wasn't able to keep my body straight and still. It had to move. My legs had to dance. My head had to act like a little parrot being totally happy. Three hours, three full hours like this. I could've gone for many more hours, but we (I) also wanted to have some great dinner before going to bed. Though anything goes in Berlin, 24x7 restaurants are rare. Just before the end of the set, we left the building. Our heads buzzing from joy. Still some goosebumps fighting with some wrinkles we all get when we grow older. Still with a big ass smiley on my face. A smiley that would stay there for hours to come. Not only because of all the fun we had, the kick ass music we heard, but also because of the enormous amount of delicious Asian food served to our table and the company we were with. Again, we mastered the art of njoying an (almost) full weekend without any negatives. Nothing. Nada. Only pleasure. In many aspects and in many ways.

Darn, no recoding of my friends set? An no recording of MARRØN's set! That is a bummer. Interested in what MARRØN sounds like? Check the Soundcloud thingy above. Similar sound. But he was better at Berghain. Advise: proper headphones, this style of Techno needs them. Chill on your couch, or bed. Close your eyes. Think of nothing. Crawl into the music. Let it run. Give it a bit of time when you feel like it is too much of the same same. I kid you not, it is not boring at all. But you have to stop doing anything, to stop thinking and crawl into the sounds. I assure you, the best meditation you can get.

To get back out of your meditation, I give you some cool views. Pictures I took on my way to Berlin. Beautiful sky. Low humidity when we approached Berlin. Was able to get some stills of all the green you can find outside this enourmous city. Always when I see this, I am struck by the amount of forests and greens surrounding the city which measures more than a few 10s of kilometers from north to south and similar distance from west to east.

NJOY and see ya next time 🎶