"It could either be fireworks or artillery rounds..."

I've often wondered what it would have been like to have been in a major city during a bombing raid in World War II. London during the Battle of Britain or when the Allies completely laid waste to Dresden towards the end of the war. This year is my first year in Berlin and my first New Year's in the city, and from the celebrations going on in the city, you could have swore there was some kind of battle raging throughout the city and nobody had bothered to tell me.

Berliners don't believe in any sort of normal American New Year's celebration. No "let's sit our ass on the couch and watch Dick Clark and 1 million more people have more fun than us". No, Germans buy tons of fireworks and proceed to shoot them off anywhere and everywhere. Streets. Sidewalks. Subway cars. On top of Subway cars. I could barely walk a block without some firecrackers whizzing past my head or people launching M-80s into empty streets. Watching all of this made me laugh thinking that as a Michigan resident, I have to drive all the way to Ohio just to buy damn fireworks. I should have just came to Berlin.

Anyways, Myself and Noel got to spend the New Year's together, and luckily we had some of her friends from her program coming into town for the festivities. We decided to meet up at the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) festivities going on downtown. The Brandenburg Gate New Year's is pretty much the equivalent to Time's Square. They had a concert stage set up behind the gate, and on either side of the road that leads out from it were nothing but small tents selling gluhwein, brotwurst, and other things. We met up with the freinds and had a good time there for a bit. We didn't plan on staying there until 12 because we didn't feel like fighting our way through 1.2 million people, and we also had a party we were invited to. On top of all this, there was a awful cover band playing on stage playing some aborted version of Queen's "We Will Rock You" and other shitty 90s American music. They were all dressed up in red leather..and to be quite honest from my viewpoint the lead singer looked like a female..until he started singing and I realized the singer made RuPaul look like Sylvester Stallone.

This night wasn't without its ups and downs of course. While at the Gate, I managed to break Noel's camera. The camera she had for only 4 months. And this was after we had been at the Gate for barely an hour. Needless to say, she wasn't thrilled with me. And I don't blame her. I politely explained that the camera, under a bout of depression, wrote a suicide note and jumped from my hand periously into the ground, but for whatever reason she didn't buy it. I don't know why...solid reason if you ask me.


Around 11:00 and 7 camera breaking apologies later, we made our way to a party that we had been invited to by some friends. Awesome place. Penthouse apartment overlooking much of the city. Great view of the fireworks and festivities. Most of the people were all expats and members of the Toytown germany website (A website for english speakers in Germany) Had a great time and met some really cool people.

Now, coming back to the whole Germans-fireworks thing. So 12 came around and everyone in the apt celebrated. The view outside was absolute insanity. You could hear fireworks going off every couple second for about an 1/2 hour to an hour. Looking out at the buildings and the landscape, you could see nothing but fireworks and clouds of smoke rising from the streets. I thought maybe the Russians had thought "eh...better late than never" and just drove their tanks through to West Berlin and started shooting.

This New Year's was a first for a lot of things...not the least of which was trying to stop a guy from committing suicide. Definitely a first for me. Not that I see a lot of attempted suicides. I've never seen one. Never knew anyone that committed suicide (at least personally) So when I saw a guy climbing the balcony at about 2:30..my first instinct was to just run to the balcony and grab the guy. Myself and a few others managed to grab the guy and yank him back, who was about halfway up the railing when we got him. From what I had heard, at least hearsay, was that the guy's girlfriend had broken up with him that night. Talk about the absolute worst fucking timing in the world to break up with someone. The guy was shitfaced and apparently decided to call it a night by leaping off the ledge. Haven't heard what happened to him after this, but hopefully he's got his head in the right spot now.

So all in all a good time...friends, booze, fireworks..and luckily no foreign invasions..

cheers.