Labour day

Today was labour day. I’d heard a lot of horror stories about protests turning violent and over vigilant police officers, specifically in the Kreuzberg area of Berlin. The day started off slow. It was fairly sunny. Lara and I sat around in the kitchen with the window open, chatting away and wasting time. Around 2pm we decided to move out. Our flat is in Friedrichshain, the district adjacent to Kreuzberg. We walked down to the bridge that connects the two districts, to find hundreds of people on the road dancing and listening to music. The entire bridge had been closed off and there were numerous police cars. We walked through the crowd and across the bridge, there were a few buskers performing. We take our first step into Kreuzberg and there’s an air of apprehension yet excitement. We go to a spati and grab a beer and have a wander about. The streets are buzzing with people. A lot of Turks took the opportunity to bake a lot of fresh food and set up their own stalls.
We stroll down towards Görlitzer park, absorbing the atmosphere. The outside of the park is heaving. There are a lot of police and a lot of people. There seem to be various entrances along the park. We see signs forbidding glass bottles, so Lara and I decided to walk the length of the parks perimeter to finish off our beers so we could enter. By the time we finished and found another entrance, the police weren’t allowing anymore people in. The crowds grew and grew. We walked from entrance to entrance, with no luck. Eventually people started trying to leap over the fence/wall. Few were successful. A lot either couldn’t make it, or the police ran over and pulled them down.
Lara and I walked round the parks outskirts for another hour or so, trying to find a way in. Overcome with a desperate need to get in and party, we said fuck it. We found a quieter place on the wall and leaped over. The adrenaline rush was insane. We ran further into the park to conceal ourselves from any potential police, inside or out. Once we were in the clear, we were buzzed. After at least three hours of hearing music and partying, but being unable to get in, we had finally reached the holy lands.
Inside there were a ton of people but it wasn’t monstrously busy. We grabbed a beer and headed towards the music. We danced and drank the rest of the afternoon away.
We made it back to the flat at 9pm. Both knackered, we retreated to bed. This photo I took on our drunken walk back. The bridge we had originally crossed to get into Kreuzberg was now teeming with police. It was intimidating to say the least.
Overall it was an amazing day.