Friday, July 4, 2008

typical...?

8 p.m. head over to fischladen for vokü...i´m fucking starving. it turns out it´s not till 9 so i sit at the bar and drink a beer and talk to the bartender and take a shot of mexicaner...something with tomato juice and tabasco and mexican vodka? eventually i get up the nerve to go sit by this gorgeous hot blond girl who i assume is german and such but turns out to be from new york, living in xb, and friends with R who left this morning to my dismay. we discuss linguistics and australia and gender politics and what the fuck else.
10:30 p.m. pax and i walk two blocks to the pirate party at xb. after donning (insofar as one can don eyeliner) a pirate patch, moustasche and goatee we join the party. mad sexual tension and i meet a bunch of cool people, exploding my concept of xb as standoffish and intimidating. i also finally meet the girl i´ve seen at schwarzer kanal, making dinner at fischladen, and fucking everywhere else...turns out she´s from israel and her german sucks (i assumed she was a hardcore berliner punk). people are warm and lots of sailors get killed when cigarettes are lit. i get a "mum" tattoo in gold marker and pax gets a gold tooth. down a mate vodka. pax promises to call soon about going to a live music gig in berlin...she does minimal/electronic/techno and is super into sussing out good music. did i mention she has an australian accent? i´m a sucker.
12:30 p.m. after making out with pax i take off to catch the train to go see govinda play at this little russian bar by schlesisches tor. i get sort of lost after getting off a stop early at gorlitzer park but pick up some coffee and pommes from a little turkish place i actually recognize from being semilost there before...once with elena and once with holly. in typical govinda fashion he´s already surrounded by fabulous people, this time australians (claire, kai, scott) from the neighborhood. i down some kind of russian vodka that goes well with pickles and listen to stories about beautiful german girls and overattentive waiters that are really quite enjoyable. another shot on the way out.
2 a.m. we migrate about 10 meters to madame claude´s which is this fabulous underground (literally) bar with furniture and utensils upside down--literally on the ceiling--and i try a beer from the black forest but i´m already happily tipsy and drunk out. we chill forever, kai tells me about how useless eu legislation is and the recent history of german law and then claire and i discuss sexuality in berlin and smiling at people on the sidewalk. lovely lovely lovely.
5:00 a.m. i leave the bar and head home exhausted, first catching the ubahn and then the sbahn from warschauer and then wandering home from alexanderplatz. on the way i pick up a döner (ohne falafel und tomaten, mit sleepy cheese) from my favorite shop where i am by now very well known by everyone who works there...i´m short on change but it´s not a problem.
5:45 a.m. back home, tired but pleased. all is well.