Berlin... what day is it again?

Well, it is 3 AM and I just got back to the hostel. Incedentally, this is the time when Berliners go out, as witnessed by the crowds of young people drinking beer at the Ostkreuz subway station. Berliners have no problem with drinking in public. At any hour of the day or night, you are likely to see Berliners from the ages of those you know are not allowed to drink yet, right up to those who you are sure cannot live without life support, drinking beer. No paper bags, no furtive swigging. Replace every starbucks cup in Vancouver with a beer bottle, and you get the idea. Actually, I think this is quite liberated. It just goes to show that the official religion of Berlin is hedonism, and has been since the time of Christopher Isherwood. Apparently, atheism, is a close second. Anyway, this evening I was sick of maps, so I decided to just leave my hostel and go for a walk with no guidebook or anything. You can do that at any time of day or night here. You will always find a place to get a beer, at the very least. You will probably find much more. So, I get on a tram, find this gay bar, and get to talking with the bartender. What does he do? He gives me 2 guidebooks and highlights maps showing where there are fun places to go. You just can't win. This is why I ended up at Ostkreuz at 2:30 AM, and spent time watching people drink. It was rather like those scenes in Das Boot, or Stalingrad where the soldiers get drunk the night before being shipped off.
A few hours earlier, I was in a completely different world (read West Berlin) where the subway stations are decorated with mosaics illustrating different composers in tastefull abstract forms (as opposed to East Berlin where you cannot read any of the signs because there is so much graffiti..) I attended a wonderful performance of Verdi's Un Ballo un Maschera. Anywhere else, the performance would be hailed as a once-in-a-lifetime event. I mean, the tenor even sounded GOOD! But Berliners are spoiled, and it got only a polite response. But let me tell you, it is great to see and hear good opera in a building actually designed for opera, as opposed to the barn-like acoustically vapid places they perform in in North America! Another thing about heavily subsidised theater is that they can hire armies of coatcheck people. There was literally a whole floor of coatcheck... and you don't have to pay. How civilized. Of course, at the Deutsche Oper, they also offer Veuve Cliquot by the glass at intermission. Of course I had some.. but I made the mistake of calling it 'sekt' which is the German word for sparkling wine.
The waiter was taken aback and pointed out in no uncertain terms that I was drinking CHAMPAGNE, and that if I wanted SEKT I could go downstares to the BASEMENT CANTEEN.Well I never. So, who was it that was telling me that Germany was a largely classless society? I also saw a man wearing a leather tuxedo. Only in Berlin...
This afternoon, I was having coffee and marzipan torte at a café in Friedrichstrasse, and observing people, of course. Everyone was sitting in silence, unsmiling, eating cake. The radio was playing these overwrought orchestrations of Bach, and I thought to myself, only in Germany. The Germans are not demonstrative, they do not usually talk with their hands, and they do not show much outward emotion. They do it all through their art, which is part of the reason Berlin has 3 opera companies, and why it has bequeathed some of the greatest achievement in art, literature and music to the world. This is my theory, anyway.
My day started with a jolt. I was on the subway, when a man in a blue tracksuit asked to see my ticket. Apparently, their their transit police are plainclothes, as to not arouse supicion. I thought I was going to be mugged! I didn't know I was supposed to validtate my ticket, and I almost got a fine, but I feigned ignorance.... So, if you are ever in Berlin, buy a 1 week ticket, but don't validtate it until you get caught. This way, you can make a ticket last for much longer, as it is only valid from the time you validate it, not the time you buy it.... well, I wouldn't reccommend it, really. Well, off to Bed.