Bulldogs, Berghain and the Capital

Bulldogs, Berghain, and the capital.

A work of travel, expansion and discovery through Europe‌

Words and photography by Mike Crompton

‘We were planning a trip that would separate us from other holiday’s makers in the UK, a kind of coming of age getaway bringing 6 similar lives together for an experience on the road’

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Travelling, with a decent group of friends, is definitely an experience to be had at some point in a lifetime. Eddie, Shane, John, James and my brother Tom are some of my closest mates. Were quite a unique group in that we’ve been friends with each other since we were as young as 5, Although me being 2 years younger than the rest, I came to know most of them a little bit later on in life. Between us, we have 3 graduates, an Engineer, a postman and an IT technician, a pretty normal bunch of guys in terms of everyday life. The purpose of this trip was to just basically get free of all the hassles and stresses that come with our Jobs and lifestyles, day in day out. Having a good couple of weeks to retire to several destinations seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up on.

We wanted to go on a trip that we had never been on before, expanding our horizons and bring some excitement into our lives throughout winter…

The plan was simple. We had 2 weeks to hit 3 cities, to explore a continent only known to us from home life and ‘family holidays’. You can take the usual, hassle free trips to warm climates like Spain and Greece in the height of summer, meet other English holiday makers on your travels and come home with a cracking tan and a bank account with a minor price taken from it. Or you can take a much, from a certain point of view, off the map kind of trip. Go to places that you wouldn’t normally expect a group of his isn’t a tale of heroic feats. It’s about 6 lives running twenty something lads to visit. Now, bearing in mind parallel for a while. Or in this case a lifetime up until the previous summer we spent a week in now, Sharing common aspirations and similar dreams. Magaluf, a small town in Majorca basically filled You can have all different kinds of friends throughout with drunks 24hours of the day with as much of 90% your life. Friends you grow up with, friends you study percent of them from the UK, we had our fair share with, friends you party with, friends you like and dislike of the ‘party’ lifestyle. This trip was intended to be from time to time, they can drift in and out of your life much greater than anything we had done or been as fast as you know them. on before. We wanted to expand our horizons, visit The friends of mine, you could say are more of a way of cultures, people, new food, languages, see a life rather than a group of social advantages, especially different way of life than of our native Britain. We the guys about to go on this foreseeable trip with me. were planning a trip that would separate us from These are guys I’ve known my whole life. They are not other holiday’s makers in the UK, a kind of coming just a bunch of people that I’ve come to know in recent of age getaway bringing 6 similar lives together for years. an experience on the road.

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From the sound of it’s night scene and culture it could have given the big apple a run for its money for the accolade ‘the city that never sleeps’.

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John and Shane catching some sleep on the flight (Above) * Checking directions in Berlin (Middle) * Checkpoint Charlie (right )

Picking the locations was the first thing we had to do

Berlin was at the top of almost every list we found across the net relating to nightlife in Europe. It had the biggest clubs, the longest and surprisingly the easiest. For a long time we’d opening hours, lots of locations, and above all talked about a short city break to Amsterdam. Its very cheap. Flights were starting at £42 return reputation for stag dos, red light and legalised drugs in the middle of January. From the sound of its culture was far too appealing for us to ignore so, as night scene and culture it could have given the easy as that, our first destination was sorted, a week big apple a run for its money for the accolade in Amsterdam was booked before we knew it. With ‘the city that never sleeps’. Berlin was sorted. For 2 weeks to fill, we knew that to save money and our last destination we decided on a few days avoid long hours of airtime we had to pick locations in London, our homeland. The flight back from fairly close and cheap enough to last the duration.

Berlin was to land at Heathrow so we thought After a few days researching potential cities, we had rather than get the train straight back up north 3 places in mind. Paris, Rome or Prague. None of on arrival we could spend the last few days in us had visited either city before and they all looked the capital. 2 weeks, 3 cities, 6 people, we were like amazing places to go to. Prague eventually got ready to leave the UK the final vote out of the 3. As me Tom and John were about to book the flights and hotels for Prague, Rejection we got a phone call from Eddie, shouting, “Don’t * Book it”. After some unkind words thrown about, The lobby of Manchester terminal 6 is a winter’s much to do with the stress of booking the holiday, nightmare. The temperature inside is just about we spent the next half hour listening to him as unnerving as the blizzard greeted outside. persuading us to go to Berlin instead. At first Not to mention the crowds. It’s been three thought, I wasn’t too keen on the idea and the hours since we vacated our homes, packed our feeling seemed mutual in the group. Berlin to me seemed like a place with a bleak landscape for us to bags and hit the road for Berlin. The feeling in spend a couple of days never mind a week. Up until the group was a mixture of tension, excitement and anticipation. In all our minds Berlin was a we started reading about its nightlife though. That city with much to offer. aspect of the city sealed the deal in the end.

We touched down in the city and instantly felt the chills when we departed the airplane. It really was freezing at this time of the year. After finding a taxi, mumbling 2 or 3 words between us in German and finding the Hostel 1 hour later, we settled into Berlin life fairly well. The first couple of days were typical days you’d expect the average tourist to do in Berlin. The city itself had a lot to offer to say the least. Apart from its historical background as the centre of the bloodiest war in history, modern day Berlin does have its appeals.

Firstly, it’s a sight seeing Mecca, The war, the wall, the politics, the art, the bars, and the infamous nightlife. We basically covered the major attracting in the city over the first 2 days of Monday and Tuesday.

On the third day, we got our usual dunking doughnuts for breakfast at around 8am and then planned to visit the World War 2 sachsenhausen concentration camp, now a tourist museum. We arrived at the concentration camp around mid day. We spent roughly a good couple of hours walking round the camp reeling in every aspect of information we could find. It really was one of the most harrowing experiences of our lives. The atmosphere was very quiet amongst the group for the majority of the day here; taking in the humbling stories from the prison survivors was definitely something that stayed with us all for a while.

For Thursday and Friday we hit up the more famous spots that have come to define Berlin as one of the best cities in the world. We visited the east wall gallery, showcasing the surviving parts of the wall stretching 1.3km at present day. We then went to see Checkpoint Charlie, a former checkpoint stand used by the Americans during the cold war. The Berlin underworld was our last tourist attraction visited on the Friday, which was an old World War 2 bunker that still remains present day as a museum. We also visited several restaurants, bars and of course a MacDonald’s over the week.

An Irish Bar came to become one of our favourite spots in the city, somewhere we visited on numerous occasions. Saturday morning we woke early, Dunkin Doughnuts again for breakfast, a last walk round the city and lunch at a pizza restaurant saw us through the day till about 6pm. We then started thinking about and planning our last night in the city and our visit to the infamous Berghain nightclub.

The plan was to head to the club around 9pm. bearing in mind the nightlife in Berlin usually starts from 11/12pm and lasts till 11am the next day, we wanted to get in early, drink and leave plenty of time for the partying. The night was destined to be a great one to remember. After a monstrous mixed grill for tea we headed back to the hostel to get ready.

By now we were all excited to get inside.

( One of Amsterdam’s many scenic spots around the city. You cannot loose the Bikes.)

The conversation was in high spirit until Tom decides to do a bit of research into the ‘Berghain’ nightclub which we had been planning to go to all day. “You seen the bouncer for this place!” he says looking amused yet shocked at the same time. We all crowd round the phone expecting something big from his reaction. The image was of a man…but not your average looking bouncer on a door. This guy was fucking huge. 6ft 3” at the least, arms and face covered in tattoos, chains, rings, long straggly hair, and a beard with a statement. This wasn’t a guy that looked welcoming on entering a club; even just from a picture you could feel intimidated. Then we hear Eddie who’s sat on his bed behind everyone else say “You know what, Paris Hilton even got rejected from this place”. We all thought this was hilarious at first sight. Paris Hilton, the party mad American heiress getting rejected from this bouncer something anyone would love to see. But then we really thought about it. If a celebrity, with thousands of euro’s ready to spend, getting turned down from one of Europe’s biggest and most established nightclubs , what chance would 6 lads from Wakefield, a small town in Yorkshire have.

After a good hour of conversation been thrown back and fourth, “lets just go to an Irish bar tonight, guaranteed entry and cheap beer”, “nah lets just try the Bergain, its worth a shot at least”,

“Fuck that its an hour away and we might not even get in!”, “Lets just get out of this hostel!”, we finally decided on giving the Bergain a chance, after all if we got in it was guaranteed to be amazing.

It was 9pm, in the middle of January, -5 conditions and we had been walking for almost an hour. The anticipation for this club is beginning to wear off, especially when we had no map and only an iphone map guiding us which seemed like it was taking us nowhere. The Berghain is situated about 3.3 kilometres from our hostel between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain. The night was quiet with only our conversation heard within the dark streets. After another 50 minutes of walking, we were pretty sure we were finally heading in the right direction. Suddenly the buildings were beginning to light up, with the occasional red light style hotel appearing with curtains covering the entrance. The area seemed to be the right place but still there was hardly anybody in sight.

After a further 10 or so minutes, we turned a corner to be greeted by what looked like an abandoned prison.

Metal fencing surrounded the perimeter of the building with the occasional flashing light beaming out of one of its many windows. The entrance was a long path with no signs or allocations, just a small sign on the buildings wall that resembled the word Berghain.

We had finally arrived…

By word of mouth, this place was supposed to be one of the best nightclubs in Europe; we were here ready for the experience. We decided to approach in 2 smaller groups.

One big group of English lads can be one of the worst assets on a night out, especially in foreign land. Shane, John and Eddie go first while me Tom and James fall back a couple of meters. We thought that Shane, being a 6ft 3inch fairly built guy going first was our best option of getting in the club, he looks the oldest and probably the toughest! As they approached the door, a German Sheppard appeared from the outer fencing barking and scaring the crap out of everybody. Guard dogs for a nightclub are definitely something we’d never come across before but the dog wasn’t the worst part. The bouncer that we’d read about a couple of hours earlier appeared. This guy looked worse in real life than the stuff we’d seen and read about on the internet. After all 6 of us had our eyes fixed on him for a good 30 seconds or so, he went up to the first 3. “German?” he asks surprisingly in English. Shane tells him they’re from England, “Do you know where you are?” he asks them again” “Yeah the Berghain nightclub, we read about it earlier online for nightspots around the city” By now were only just behind them and you can tell from the answers all three of them are surprised by the questions. He then takes a long pause and stares across Shane, Eddie and John, as if he’s concerned somehow by their appearance.

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This guy looked worse in real life than the stuff we’d seen and read about on the internet.

We came to know that the bouncers name was Sven Marquardt, a notorious bouncer known around the Berlin night scene, someone you don’t want to bump into on a foreign night out with friends. After that night we had a couple of beers at some more friendly orientated bars closer to the hostel, the Berlin trip was coming to an end. The disappointment from the nights events put a bit of a downer on the remaining night but anticipation soon had us buzzing again after a couple of beers back at the hostel and our 11am flight in the morning ready for Amsterdam. Berlin was a disappointment in many respects but we still had the remainder of our travels left to look forward to.

The next morning was fairly hectic as we were running late, so after a long day of airport food, waiting, sleeping and more waiting, we boarded the plane taking us from Berlin Schönefeld Airport to Rotterdam. We were knackered but couldn’t wait to arrive in the Dutch capital.

The bouncer then asks the strangest question by this point; Temptation we even doubted the place ourselves from the experience * so far. “Do you know what Music is playing tonight?” this We arrived in Rotterdam just confused the shit out of all of us. We were supposedly at the centre of the European night scene, the nights fairly around 8am. quiet, no cues and above all no trouble from our behalf and to get in the place he wanted to know if we knew the music of the night ahead. Eddie takes a guess “Hip Hop”. The atmosphere was both cold in temperature The guy then looks across to two other less provoking bouncers stood across from us, they give him a friendly looking hand signal back and then he looks back at us all. By now were all stood together obviously as a group looking like a bunch of kids entering a sweet shop. He raised his arm, no emotion in the face, tattoos on show, cigarette in hand, and simply says “Auf wiedersehen” and points back down towards the eventual exit. That was that. We couldn’t even make it to the front door never mind spend the night at the club. It was quite embarrassing, annoying and funny at the same time.

No matter how cool you look, stylish, good looking, big groups, little groups, peak, off peak hours, getting in the Berghain simply is down to luck.

and landscape. Rotterdam is a very bleak and grey place with little reflecting its neighbouring city Amsterdam and its ‘lively’ atmosphere. We wanted to get out. Get as far out of the place as possible and head straight to the capital.

Thankfully we didn’t have to wait long for a coach to arrive. One thing different about the Dutch to the English is their driving style. Either, we as a nation are really crazy on health and safety or their just damn crazy. I’d say from my point of view and the rest of the group that we had at least 10 close calls, one almost sending tom across the coach, although the look on the driver disagrees.

In the afternoon we decided to head to the Anne Frank museum situated on the Prinsengracht canal.

Being one of the most famous attractions in the city, it was definitely a must see as well as an opportunity in gaining some knowledge of the local area.

We had lunch later that day at an old fashioned style sandwich bar, the kind that really makes you appreciate independent food cafes rather than usual junk food like McDonalds. It turned out to be one of the best meals from the weeks so far!

After a good 20 minutes or so, conversation within the group quickly turned to what we had planned for the coming nights in the capital. We wanted to cover 3 aspects of the city we hadn’t seen so far.

Firstly the bars, we saw some interesting places throughout the days walking round the city which we wanted to visit. Secondly was the red light district. A place so directly linked with the capitals lifestyle had to be seen. Our last choice for the final night was an evening at a Dutch coffee house.

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Later on in the evening, we took a short 15 to 20 minute walk to visit the infamous Red Light District.

We didn’t know really what to expect. Hearing about the place back in the UK made it sound like an interesting but unusual environment at the same time.

As we approached the opening streets of the Red Light we could instantly sense a change in atmosphere.

No more bikes in sight, louder atmosphere and very bright lights. People were in large groups, mainly males on stag and binge sessions. The police and their horses were out in full force as well. It was like walking into a city zoo.

After walking up and down the narrow streets, we began thinking about the place and its environment and whether we fit in or not. The streets, cluttered with seedy looking men laughing and joking at semi naked women in windows, The DVD booths with queues forming, and not to mention the live sex shows. It wasn’t the attraction that we originally thought it would be. It was very much a darker and mysterious environment.

In some respects, we were a clear reflection of what we were unsure about. A group of young English men trolling the Red Light, taken away from the landscape yet we still found ourselves walking through it.

We definitely respected the workers and their profession, after all prostitution has been around for hundreds of years in this capital, but ultimately we felt it wasn’t a place for us. Love it or hate it, it was definitely a surreal place to visit.

We headed back to the hostel talking back and fourth about the night and the things we’d seen. All we really wanted to do though was get some sleep.

By this time it was pretty late in the night so we got back and were all fast asleep within the next hour.

The last day, we had some free time around mid afternoon, so we visited the Van Gogh museum, situated south of the city. We all found the place fairly interesting to say it was an Art museum.

Although Shane sat on the bench in each room looking like he was going to throw up at any second. Art really wasn’t his subject, never mind spending a good 2hours looking at it. For the rest of the evening we had a meal at an Italian restaurant, getting ready for our evening at a coffee house.

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John, the quieter one of the group, was really taken back from the stuff he was smoking and had a c onstant ‘promoted from work’ expression on his face

Bulldog’s coffee house was definitely one of the coolest places we had ever visited. The walls were covered with everything from pictures of musicians, rock stars, politicians, flags, rebels and objects scattered around the room such as stuffed animals and a statue of Mike Tyson.

Having never been to a coffee house like this, we didn’t know how to order the drinks, and the Marijuana. It wasn’t something we had done before until now. James had the best idea simply suggesting ordering a cup of English tea and a joint of your finest Jamaican shit. It cracked us all up.

We got to the counter only to realise that there was a whole menu of joints to buy. White Widow, Super power plant, Bubblegum, big, small, hand rolled, pre rolled, we didn’t have a clue what to get. We got coffee and tea between us and 2 joints each, that quickly turned into 4 and by the end of the evening, 3 cups of teas each , 5 joints of varied marijuana strengths and some biscuits.

We spent a good few hours in the coffee house, laughing in turn at the least funny things possible to a point where you could feel your stomach hurting. John, probably the quitest of the group, was really taken back from the stuff he was smoking and had a constant ‘promoted from work’ expression on his face. The rest of us relaxed soaking in the good music and vibe in the place. When we eventually left the coffee house, we didn’t realise how strong the trail of weed we left between the place and our hostel. By the end of the night, the hostel smelt more like a drug den rather than a tourist accommodation.

(The Bulldogs coffee house, one of our favourite destinations in the city (Above) * This guys clearly had one too smokes, John after the coffee house sessions, Left).

Arriving in Amsterdam in peace, we set about the city for some exploration. The first thing we noticed about Amsterdam natives is their need and desire for bicycles. Everywhere you go, look, and road you cross, you’re looking at bikes. Their literally everywhere. You can kind of see why judging by the narrow streets around the city. A car just wouldn’t fit in around here, nor would you want one.

Of course, as an outsider another place that really sticks out around the city are the coffee shops. Not like a star bucks or Costa back in the UK though.

You get a coffee here and you walk out smelling differently and in a better mood than normal. The legal drug scene is fairly laid back. The coffee shops are literally everywhere but you can sense that to regular city goers there just normal places to visit.

After finding the hotel around mid day, we spent the first day roaming the city streets before catching some well needed sleep ready for the next few days. We awoke early to loud noises coming from the hallways of the hostel. A large group of Chinese people well filling the rooms up quickly, from what looked like an educational trip. The noise though was quite overpowering, especially with us still being tired from the previous week so we decided on the best option of leaving the Hostel and spending the day around the city.

Homeland * London, in the middle of winter, was fairly busy to say the least. The airport was flowing with all kinds of people, business men and women, families etc. We arrived at Heathrow around 11.30am with a travel inn booked just next to Kings cross station. We all had our bags with us at this point and were pretty sick of carrying them around. John and James got a taxi sorted for us out front while the rest of us got some food from a sandwich bar, which was the most expensive sandwich I’d ever bought in my life.

In the evening, the sun came out and brought upon us one of the best sunsets to witness in the UK. We sat there, looking over the Thames thinking about the stuff we’d done, places we had visited and people we had met over the trip. It was one of them Hollywood cheesy moments when you’re surrounded with the closest people in your life thinking at that moment things couldn’t really get any better.

The taxi through the city was quite special, especially to us lot who hardly ever visit the capital. Street after street, famous sites and buildings appeared. Having this amazing city right on our doorstep is definitely something to take advantage of.

We dropped our bags off at the travel Inn and headed straight to Trafalgar square, which to our knowledge was at the centre of the city with easy access to many other landmark spots.

We headed to Leicester square for our final hours of the night, got some drinks in the surrounding bars and relaxed. The next day we had a train booked at 9am straight up to Leeds. The journey was over.

We spent the day wandering endlessly, soaking in the beauty of the capital. There really isn’t anything London doesn’t have. Buckingham palace, downing street, Big Ben, Piccadilly circus, the underground, we visited as many places in a day that we had visited over the last 2 week, or so it seemed. In the afternoon we caught the tube from Covent Garden to Camdem Town. This was one of our favourite places we had visited. The culture and atmosphere surrounding the streets had that look and feeling to it that makes London such an iconic city.

It was easy to think of our trip as cliché’s, Berlin for cool, Amsterdam for canal and stag doo’s, London for landmarks. It’s easy, but certainly wrong.

Each destination we visited had a lot more to offer than the things we had read about them. More to the point, the trip was definitely a worthwhile time spent with friends. It’s true, some of the best times in your life, no matter where you are or what you are doing; the people with you are what make them times special . For me, the group of lads made the trip what it what, possibly a journey of discovery or searching for the meaning of life.

Either way, its something I will remember for a long time…

We travel just to travel