Monday, November 2, 2009

Halloween

Halloween is not much celebrated in Germany. Most Germans think it is a silly American custom. In recent years, however, more people, especially young people, have begun to embrace it, and I had high hopes of finding fun on Halloween night.
I had been told that German people think all Halloween costumes should be scary, but I figured there are enough expats in this town that I should be able to go as what I want. So I planned on being a zebra. I headed to Schöneberg and one of Berlin's only costume stores to find facepaint and false eyelashes. When I got there, there was a line out the door! The place was packed. It took me ages to get what I needed. I figured that was promising for the party potential that night.
Armed and ready, I dressed in my zebra PJs and applied stripy facepaint and black and silver false eyelashes. The effect was, I thought, quite fetching:

Celia came over, and was dressed as a HIPpopotamus:

We happily headed out to a bar called S.I.N. (stranded in neverland) not too far from my apartment that advertised free zombie punch, a costume contest, and a live band. The zombie punch was tasty and the band was wacky (one of their 'members' seemed emplyed solely for doing the robot on one side of the stage), but the costumes, when there were any, were indeed all scary. Most people seemed confused or scornful at my outfit. But whatever. I got up on stage and pranced around during the costume contest. I was booted out after the first round! Some chick holding a bloody cleaver and claiming not to remember what she was dressed as did better! It was rigged I tell you. Although I do not begrudge the girl dressed as Barbarella her spot at all. I have wanted to be Barbarella for a while now.
Anyhoo that got boring quick and we were planning to head to Watergate (a big cheesy club guaranteed to have dancing and expats) but in the U-Bahn station we met a group of Germans who exhorted us to join them instead at a German Halloween party in the middle of Volkspark Friedrichshain. They said it was the BEST party in Berlin that night. So we went. The cover was ridiculously expensive, and the cobweb decorations kept getting in my way while dancing (I found one tangled in my earring when I got home), and the party was pretty small. But the music was pretty bomb and it's always fun to DANCE! Once again, however, I felt my costume did not receive any props. Everyone was dressed scary! Just like Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls! It kinda bummed me out. I wish we had found an expat party.
Having paid that cover I did not feel like paying another, especially since I was kinda grumpy, so we called it a night.
All in all a fun night but kinda disappointing. Sometimes I do miss America!
Bis bald,
D.

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