NYE2009

New Year’s Eve 2008 – Berlin


For the last few years, Berlin has had a HUGE party to ring in the New Year at the Brandenburg Gate. A few friends (and one million other people) were going to be there so I hopped a train to check it out. I met up with Eric and Maylian, friends from Eugene and we ate a currywurst and took off in the direction of the Gate. Simply put, the city was on. There were crowds everywhere, and the Christmas and New Year lighting illuminated the cold night with a festive holiday glow. Multi color strobe lights from the Reichstag were picked up by the clouds and smoke from fireworks. There was a strong vibe of activity that became stronger as we got closer to the Gate. We got burgers (first one in four months) at a restaurant in Potsdammer Platz and cut through the relatively new Jewish Memorial behind the US Embassy to get to the big party.


Eric and Maylian at the Technical Museum


I took a picture like this at the Air and Space Museum in DC four months ago.


The Wall, East side.

The entire night was filled with explosions. Constantly. There were pretty fireworks and the kind of rockets your friends would bring from out of state and then there were what I would call bombs. Even on the way to the train station in Magdeburg, I saw a guy pulling little things out of his pocket, lighting them, and throwing them left and right, not even breaking stride. A few seconds later – small explosion. Some were relatively small but after hearing some of the others, I expected to see a burning smoking tank and a platoon with a missile launcher around the corner! Really bizarre. The official New Year’s Eve (Silvester) party at the gate had several performance stages and the whole Unter den Linden Straβe was lined with bars, food stands, and small booths where you could buy wild hats and things that light up. The main crowd was tight enough that you could probably lift up both feet and not fall. TONS of people crowded the 2km stretch dancing, freezing, drinking, and eating all sorts of fried foods. My friends and I walked through the event and then made our way back to a small Italian restaurant for the year change, dodging little bombs and catching glimpses of floating candle lanterns and small rockets.
2009