If I am being honest, absolutely nothing about my personality would indicate that you would find me in a techno club. I barely party and I don't have an affinity for music (I know, I know), so intense electronic beats with flashing lights and high power smoke machines does not fit my top interests. That being said, Berlin could be considered the techno capital of the world, and I am all about a cultural experience. After nine months of cultural bombardment, I was confident that one techno party wouldn’t be too much to handle. My incredible friend who hosted me in Berlin invited me to a daytime techno party, which is something I had never heard of. As early as 11am there would be lines out the door, and the club may not close from Friday to Sunday. This was the Berlin experience. I took her up on this offer, and we slept in on Saturday morning before cooking breakfast. Despite the chilly February day, we dressed for this party in black mini dresses and men's sweatshirts, accessorizing our outfits with bottles of wine. My friend wore a bright pink wig, and I donned my dusty hiking boots (let's pretend it was to be cool and not because they were my only shoes). At 3pm, we took off for the party.
The club was located across the city in a square, dilapidated building. It looked abandoned, except for the line of people trailing out the front door. After about twenty minutes, the security guard let us in and we paid a 10€ cover. This club was full of colorful characters, but arriving at such a strange, early time seemed to put everyone on the same playing field. There was no standard dress code - some people wore sweaters and others were shirtless. There were a few different dark rooms with loud techno music playing and an area to sit outside for some fresh air. I couldn't tell you if it was good techno or not, but we sure had a lot of fun. Drinking beer, dancing, and returning empty bottles found on the floor to redeem .50€ deposits from the bar. The usual experience - except for one thing. This didn't feel like a normal club.
I have been traveling for nine months now, and have gone clubbing from the Balkans to Finland, and all over Southeast Asia. I am not the most active partier, but I more or less know what to expect when going out: being approached and hit on by men, being touched uninvitedly by men, being danced on by men. My defenses were on high in this club, as they always are - and then I wasn't harassed at all. People were not at this club to be sleazy; they seemed to be there embrace anonymity and individuality. Dancing was all for yourself - not for impressing anyone else. The room was packed with gender fluidity, a diversity of styles, and people in general embracing "weird" in a place where nobody cared to judge. My friend and I had no problem at all just dancing and being ourselves on a completely packed dance floor. The one man that did approach me and begin touching me responded to body language that I wasn't interested - just body language! As I grimace and try to decide between lying about having a boyfriend or being honest about my disinterest, he stops touching me, compliments me, I thank him, and he walks away. I have expressed this exact same body language uncountable times in the past nine months, and this has never happened. Something in Berlin is different. While I did not leave that experience a die-hard techno lover, it was an absolute highlight of my time in Berlin. This experience was not one I expected to have (home by 8:30pm to catch my evening bus?!) but also one that I wouldn't have understood unless I took a leap of faith and went to check it out. I am so grateful to have a friend that opened her home to me and welcomed me behind the curtain of local experiences in Berlin - and I am excited to see what unanticipated adventures await me at my next destination.
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