After five years of putting it off, I finally managed to get in the door of Berghain this weekend. For those that don't know... this is apparently the world's number one club. It's the sort of place where hysteric guests scream when they've been let in by the bouncers. Anyway, after a build-up of half a decade it was never going to quite meet expectations - but it didn't do a bad job.
After waiting the best part of an hour in the queue and seeing my body temperature drop to 10 degrees Celsius, my friends and I just managed to look disinterested enough at the front door to get in. The group of Australians behind us were turned away - tourists aren't welcome. Inside we were greeted by more security controls (no-one checking boarding cards though) and a demand for 12 Euros. I would have paid that money just for the interior architecture alone.
I mean, what a set-up! What looks like a rotting, disused power station from the outside, is actually an engineering masterpiece. It's got an elevated dancefloor, HUGE speakers hanging from the roof, motorised blinds that go up and down at sunrise and more dark rooms and chill out nooks than you could poke a stick at. Oh, and the music wasn't bad either.
