Sunday May 11, 7:58pm Freiligrath Strasse 10 Kreuzberg, Berlin Germany Dear John, It was so packed. Yesterday turned out to be a fun and full and very long day and I wanna tell you a bit about what happened, hoping you’ll get a feeling what a Saturday can be like in Berlin. The key take-away today for you is: **It’s been amazing and you would like it a lot**. Before noon, the remaining One Month team Mattan, Sydney and Lee landed and checked in to the apartment where Chris was already waiting. From what Chris told me they went straight to bed and slept for most of the day after a long night of traveling. I’m very excited for them to be here and I met them briefly when I went to see Chris to take a walk and explore his neighborhood. Last year around this time I happened to stay in Berlin for 10 days and an old friend of mine, Kris Merken, showed me around the area where Chris and his team now live. I vaguely remembered this one small and very nice coffee shop that sat on a little plaza only a block away from Tempelhof airport-runways-turned-public-park. We found the little place (whose name escapes me, “Edels”?, “Edile”? something french I believe), sat down, ordered coffee, tea and two excellent slices of “Kuchen” (German for cake, Chris got a pecan pie, I got this delicious red-currant whipped cream sandwich pie thing. Both excellent.) This little coffee shop represents very well what I call a typical Berlin experience. It’s running well, has lots of customers, has good food, good drinks, looks a little run-down (they all do) and charms you with its imperfections. Chris and I had a good conversation and waited the passing rain showers to end to continue our little journey. We stood at the brim to the former runway of Tempelhof airport only a minute later and we took a nice walk around the area which, for a Saturday, wasn’t very populated. I assume the on-and-off rain showers kept people staying inside. If you can take one thing with you from Tempelhof, it’s the air. In fact, the air quality in Berlin is phenomenal and it is especially fresh when you’re standing in a mile-wide open space. It felt like standing close to the ocean. Once I got back home, our mutual friend Tobi invited us to join him to go to a party he and his friends “had waited weeks to happen.” We got our tickets online and I slept a few more hours knowing that parties in Germany begin late, usually around 1pm or even later. After a quick shower around 11:30 we was off to the races! **_The [Party](http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?586646)_** Man, I had forgotten how these things exist. This wasn’t just some little club in the East Village with a few people inside and some waiting to get in. This was a full-blown rave in the back of a former factory of sorts drawing hundreds of Berliners and travelers to form long lines to get in. Luckily we got tickets hours before online so Mattan, Chris, Sydney, Lee and I were able to go directly to a very short queue and got in within 30 minutes or less. The check-in personnel (three women, the security guard and their guest list) were so friendly! I couldn’t believe how we were greeted with a smile and how understanding they were. I surprised me because that situation is high-pressure, intense and people do get upset. Especially since it had just started pouring rain again, too. Getting in didn’t pose a problem for our little travelers’ group and the positive vibes I got from those three people during check-in colored my night with a smile. Since I’m not going to give you a boring run-down of what happened step-by-step of the evening (I frankly don’t remember a linear story either), I wanted to share with you a few observations that Chris, Mattan, Sydney and Lee and I shared throughout the night. 1. People come to dance and are serious about their dancing. 2. A party like this with ~2,000 people is not a place to meet someone (See #1) 3. People travel and stay in circles of 5. That’s where all the dating and sex seems to happen. 4. Besides Vodka there isn’t a huge selection of hard liquors. We mostly drank Beer, Club Mate (a yerba-mate tea soft drink) and one or two shots of Vodka mixed in. 5. Every second overheard conversation was in English. 6. There are a lot beautiful women in Berlin. However, they’re usually not dressed up and usually do not even wear make-up. “Poor but sexy”