May Day Mayhem

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Yesterday we experienced, within a few hours, both the quiet ego and the messy id of the German character (the folks above would be the id part).

In the morning we drove with German some friends about a half hour south of Berlin to Beelitz a farming village that is well known for its white asparagus. Spargel, as it’s known here, is a seasonal phenomenon that is feted in much the same way that the yearly Beaujolais is in Paris. Stores will announce the fresh shipments, restaurants prepare special dishes, and everyone seems to be talking about how funny their pee smells. In any case, we decided to visit the source. It was a sleepy town. We walked for an hour under a fierce sun to take a look at an unimpressive lake. And then we sat down to the main event:

It was…okay. Not quite the delicacy we imagined. Later that day, though, another German friend informed us that we had not really had the real spargel experience. First, because we hadn’t eaten nearly enough. And second, because spargel should only be eaten with melted butter and not the hollandais sauce that was poured over ours. So, it seems, we’ll have to try again.

When we returned to Berlin, May Day was in full effect. We’d been reading for weeks about how the Berlin police had been preparing for riots–the papers actually called them the “traditional” May 1st riots. For weeks, gangs of black-clad extreme leftists have been setting expensive cars on fire all over the city. Almost 6,000 riot police were expected.

We made our way through Kreuzberg. It looked like a massive street fair with more broken glass, drunks, screaming anarchists, and thumping rave music than I’ve ever experienced. It was a struggle just to make it down a block. We also saw loads of riot police with their helmets and sticks. The political aspect of the day seemed lost on me. The kids causing trouble–and they did, later in the day, looting, breaking windows, hurling stones at the cops–were just looking for an excuse to fuck shit up. It was funny today to read newspaper articles talking about the demonstrations as reflections of the economic crisis. Here in Berlin, it’s been hardly felt. What summed up the day best were the kids throwing beer bottles at the sidewalk near the Skalitzer U-Bahn stop and loudly screaming along to the Beastie Boys: “You’ve got to fight for your right to party!”

Here’s a little video of the street scene, which only begins to capture a bit of the buzzy energy. We have some photos on the flickr as well.

done

– Gal

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