Election night in Berlin

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The tour guide to the Concentration Camp told me about a couple election night parties that were going on in the city if I wanted to try and get in. So, I set off around 9:00 PM to get an all-american hamburger (OK….it was covered with warm goat cheese) at my favorite eclectic restaurant…White Trash Fast Food. Its sort of a punk place set in what had once been a Chinese restaurant. The early customers are all ages who simply like the atmosphere, service and American style food. Actually, they were playing country, blues with live music and song.

After dinner, the first place the guide told me about was just a few blocks away called the Babylon Theatre. There was a bunch of people standing around outside and one guy was moaning that even his contacts could not get him into this party sponsored by the Berlin chapter of Democrats Abroad. I could see the bar and the serving dishes, but there seemed little sense in pushing for my entry. The next place was at Potsdamer Platz and again the same story, and even by 11 PM, people were just starting to trickle in. The last place was Amerika (yes…with a K) Haus less than a block from the Zoo train station and more or less on my way home.

Walking up the steps, I was stopped by a couple people who were checking off names, so I played my “old man from Florida” card when the nice “all American boy” Justin asked for my name. He decided I was OK, asked me to spell my name as he added me to the list. All the other places had an admission charge, so I reached for my wallet and Justin told me to forget it and just go in and enjoy myself. Well, I could not do that before being well frisked by a security type guy, but after that I gave up my coat and hat to the coat check people and walked around. There were a couple cash bars and big TV monitors from CNN and the BBC all over the place…..but I never did find a buffet. A couple Hooters type girls were giving away promotional stuff odds and ends. The crowd grew larger and larger and must have been close to 500 people when I finally left at 2 AM. Every time Obama’s name came up with even a suggestion that he was ahead, the crowd broke into cheers. It was electric. You might ask about the people there….well, there were a lot of young people, lots of what seemed to be 40s and quite a few other gray haired folks. I heard as much English as I heard German. I talked with one girl who had been in the crowd when Obama gave his campaign speech at the Siegersaul and she said she would not have missed this party for anything. It was quite an experience, I was really glad I went…and got in. I was even more glad to see that a night bus was available so I did not have to walk about 30 minutes back to my apartment.

I went over to the American Embassy on Wednesday noon just to see if anything was happening (there wasn’t) and on the way took a couple pics of the newspaper headlines. Hopefully, I can download them into the computer so I can attach them to the next update.

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