Berlin > Praha

It's simple math, dingus. I didn't say it was all relative, that was my boy Al. It's been 4 days since I got back and my morale is through the roof thanks to the time I had in Berlin. Home to the most beautiful people I've ever seen. A dream to a subway voyeur; you really can't help gazing at all the Betty's. The group is Noah, Oona, me, and one extra ticket for a girl that bailed. Walking up to the terminal, there was this punk guy, older, blonde mohawk and had all your typical clothing. He was pestering the bus driver to let him on the bus so we just gave him our ticket- the man's name was Cole and he's been working odd jobs ever since he left Canada in 1992. Upon our arrival he told us a great hostel to stay in, and a squat party called Kopi. The hostel was great, called the Heart of Gold. It had a great bar, complimentary kiwis, and a good crowd of young people along with your creepy older men. Noah ate bad Chinese food the day before and on first walking through are part of town (Ornienburgere Shwaze, lol) he decided to take the night off; so me & Oona were to take this party head on, or whatever it was. Bought some cheap wodka to get a lil warmer, walked aimlessly into the underbelly of Berlin until coming across some German tweens destroying a piano left on the side of the street. "You're going to Kopi? You are very overdressed." Had some sips of their malt liquor and they took us to this place. And oh my fucking lord, i have never seen such a large number of neo nazi revivalists in my life. I like to go to punk shows occasionally, throw my weight around and maybe push some people, but there's a fine line between frequenting and living like these people did. It was huge dormitory complex where hundreds of these gypsys lived, anywhere from 12 to 70 all wearing their leather studded uniforms with pride. Disheveled and drunk, whatever type of nationalist creed they follow it was amazing to see the culture preserved and so plentiful. Found out later that these co-ops are sanctioned by the Berlin parliament and only require 1 Euro a month to pay the rent for the space. There is some division internally, the sub groups of the punks (graphic artists, musicians, radical warriors) aren't agreeing and there has been some petty crimes lately which is threatening the existence of it all. But man, hopefully it works out. They are all in it together, i'd hate to see it go down because of some egotistical bickering. I don't have any pictures of the place, the 15th anniversary party i attended. I thought i'd be massacred if i dared to take a picture. But it was the grungiest thing i'd ever done in my life. Band was called Molotov Cocktail and their big hit was "Guantanamo Bay Vacation." No harm done to me and i happy i got to see the place, a whole lot of pride in Berlin; it was only 20 years ago that they were actually freed from the borders of a wall. People are incredibly generous, they can leave the country, live where they'd like. The presence of communism is slowly being pushed away, there's only a few sections of the wall that still remain and the other checkpoints and Nazi bunkers are now attractions. The cordiality of the people was very apparent, we got free tea twice, a free box of tissues for Noah's runny nose, and were always pointed in the right direction by strangers who never failed to smile. Although the city is no longer held captive by the Wall or patroled by Soviet soldiers the pain the Berliners suffered is very apparent. Over 400 people died trying to run through no man's land; their carcasses decomposed for years between the borders of East and West Berlin. ---- don't feel like resuming this unfinished thought whatevs more updates bout the trip soon