Wake up: tick.  Brush teeth: tick.  Breakfast: boom.

I’ve had a few great breakfasts during my time in Technotown (beer and sushi being the highlights) but after this February, I think they’ve got some competition.  My new favorite frühstück?  Berghain.

I know this doesn’t click with a previous post (where I claimed there was nothing normal about Sunday clubbing) but after two straight weekends of making a morning pilgrimage to the Techno-Mecca on the holy day, I hope to make it my normal.

The vibe, atmosphere, whatever you want to call it, especially at Panorama Bar, is something else.  Sunlight sneakily seeps through the blinds.  People have smiles plastered all over their face (fitting, given many of them are plastered themselves). The main thing, though, is that you can see there’s nowhere else anyone would rather be.

In a town where going out to trendy places (or, as a friend aptly calls them, “art wank” parties) often comes with people playing too-cool-for-school, there is a sense of community between the party-goers which is a welcomed rarity.  Smiles are being shared all around by strangers as if they were friends (in this town though, they often are - see here).  There is communal anticipation and joy with every new drop in the mix and this is shared.

So far, pretty cheesy.  Well, I don’t want to mislead you by making this seem like some happy-go-lucky party date.  It is not.  Berghain remains grimy and hedonistic to the core.  But in that backdrop (which is present in other parties around Berlin though not quite in the same way), there’s a glaring absence of pretentiousness.  Perhaps because, after surviving Sven’s stare, we are all equal.

Whatever the explanation, it’s the kind of breakfast I could get used to.  Yum.

foto: thx.