1. Mai: "Saufen, Fressen, Drängen"

 We attended the "MyFest" in Kreuzberg yesterday. It was really crazy - they estimate about 30,000 people attended. They had 19 different stages, so everywhere you walked there was music, and TONS of people. As soon as you couldn't hear the music from one place anymore, you could already hear the next. And besides the official stages, every club and bar seemed to have their own music blasting from speakers facing towards the street. We ate some good Turkish food, had a couple of beers, walked around, danced...it was a nice afternoon/evening. So many people!

We left around 9:00, and I guess there were some incidents later in the night (drunk people throwing bottles and stones at the police), but nothing too intense, so it was called the most "peaceful" 1. Mai in years. Crazy though, how many police there were! And when we were walking by Kottbusser Tor station, some people were yelling at the police, and they all started putting their riot helmets and gloves on. But I think people just want to provoke a little bit...In my video below you can see all the police cars that passed us while we were on our way. It was strange walking to the MyFest thing...our side of Kreuzberg is completely quiet and clean. ("Gentrified") The eastern side of Kreuzberg is still a little bit more grungy, and that is where everything was taking place. More bars, clubs, etc.

 It was so much fun people-watching yesterday. Berlin has more diversity of people, fashion, craziness than I've ever seen anywhere else. You wouldn't believe all the various things people were wearing yesterday. Really fun to see all these young people out and about. But not only young people--I was surprised also that there were also older people, young families with kids, you name it. Everyone. It's like getting perfect weather for the Fourth of July, too. People were just enjoying their day off.

By the way, I thought the May Day protests were a specifically European phenomenon, and then I read some headlines that there were protests in Seattle and New York and LA, related to the "Occupy" movement, and that many people were arrested.