Berlin: Alternative Berlin's 666 Anti Pub Crawl

18/12/2014

Absinthe shots at Druide.

Alternative Berlin's 666 Anti Pub Crawl is a great night out!

I had looked at the flyer several times on my first day back in Berlin although my mind stayed indecisive, as I was travelling alone and had not met anyone in Berlin yet. A travel buddy, Dan (who I had previously met in Barcelona) was flying into Berlin and invited me along. I'm glad I went to this.

As one could imagine, the last thing Berliners want is large groups of drunk and loud tourists crawling around in the street and taking over their bars and nightclubs, so the idea of the anti pub crawl is to blend in as much as possible and have a great time without acting like a tool. They are very clear that if you make any loud noise on the street or cause any annoyance to others during the night, you will be asked to leave.

The crawl took us far away from the nightclubs found in guidebooks and to really different, alternative bars we most likely would never have stumbled across on our own. It is also really well structured, starting off at a quiet bar and ending at a nightclub so by the time we were nicely drunk and overly loud, nobody could hear us over the music.

The 10€ price for this tour is cheap and covers entry fee to all 5 venues and includes 6 free shots. I believe the free shots we're Lemon Drops and Apple Sours however a fellow pub crawler thought he could taste mango, so who knows. Either way they were pretty good.

Although presented in English, the 666 Anti Pub Crawl attracted people from all over the world. Our group was predominately made up of Australians, Americans, Irish, Italians and Argentinians (whom I also bumped into later in the week at Matrix and then a week later in Amsterdam). Everyone was really friendly, sociable and was there to have a good time.

Yesterday Bar.

Bar #1:

The meeting point, and first bar on the pub crawl was Yesterday Bar. Since you are not required to pre-purchase a ticket to the pub crawl this is where I paid my 10€. We then received a run down of the rules and what to expect before entering the first bar. Yesterday bar is an awesome little place heavily decorated with 70's pop culture and memorabilia. I loved their bar stools, they had vinyl records placed on top of the seats. Very kitsch but very, very cool. I arrived earlier than the 9 pm meeting time - a first for me, and Dan, Jess and Kate were around 40 minutes late so I spent the majority of time here getting to know the other crawlers. In hindsight I don't really know why I was initially worried about going to this, there were other people on the pub crawl that were also alone, it wasn't an issue. We stayed there for roughly an hour having welcome drinks before moving onto the next locale.

A painting of Jim Morrison on the wall at Yesterday Bar.

Yesterday Bar.

The kitschy-cool bar stools at Yesterday Bar.

Alternative Berlin 666 Anti Bar Crawl, Berlin, Germany - Decor at Last Cathedral.

The decor at Last Cathedral.

Alternative Berlin 666 Anti Bar Crawl, Berlin, Germany - Kate, Dan & Jess at Last Cathedral

w/ Kate, Dan & Jess at Last Cathedral.

Bloody Mary's at Last Cathedral.

Bar #2

The second venue was a bar called Last Cathedral. Walking into this heavily themed gothic bar was like walking into a Vampires Lair. As you head down the stairs you are met with coffin shaped tables, antique gothic-style furniture, beer taps adorned with skulls and an oddly attractive goth bartender. Bloody Mary's fit the theme really well and I was pleased that we were at a place where I could purchase one. We chose to do this tour on a Monday night, so the venue was pretty empty. Considering it is part owned by Rammstein, I really would have like to have seen what it is like on a weekend. My guess is that it would be a pretty wild night. We we're at Last Cathedral for just under 1 hour before catching a short train trip to Dr Pong.

Ceiling decor at Last Cathedral.

Skull beer taps at Last Cathedral.

The seating at Last Cathedral.

Dan & Jess at Dr Pong.

Dr Pong.

Some of the graffiti at Dr Pong.

Bar #3

Dr Pong would have to be the most random establishment I have ever walked into. A definite dive bar, the drinks were served in plastic cups, and the venue itself was very basic (almost fashionably derelict) with one ping pong table in the front room, a bar with salvaged second-hand or third-hand (probably fourth-hand) sofas in the back room and graffiti/ tags covering some walls.

You place a 5€ deposit on a paddle to play. We were all already pretty sloshed by this point, and this random concept for a bar was pretty fun. Everyone joins in and walks around the table taking turns hitting the ball - you miss you're out. The final two competitors left aim to be the first to reach 10 points and therefore be crowned the winner.

Drinks outside Dr Pong with Jess & Dan before moving onto Druide.

Bar #4:

At roughly midnight we moved onto Druide, an Absinthe bar known for having the best selection in Berlin (this being one of the few places where more potent varieties are still sold). It is right around this time that my memory starts to go a little fuzzy. I wasn't really in the mood for absinthe/ I knew if I bought one that I would probably fall over, so I took advantage of their 2 for 1 cocktails.

Bar #5:

The fifth and final stop on the crawl was Cassiopeia. A nightclub that plays Pop, R&B and a splash of terrible 90's music. Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, if it was tacky, it was played. We danced, we laughed, we sang. Everyone was so drunk by this stage of the night that it became a giant, hilarious sing-along; and even though not my type of music at all, I had a perfect time there. After a couple of hours on the dancefloor, everyone started heading off, and we caught a taxi back to our hostels.

Cassiopeia. Stop #5 on the crawl.

I don't remember arriving back at the hostel. It was a "scene missing" type of situation. I did wake up the next morning (half hanging out of my bottom bunk, fully clothed with my shoes still on) and was greeted by my room-mates, Kirsten and Luisa's laughter and questioning "what the hell happened to you last night?".

I highly recommend this pub crawl. It caters to a lot of different tastes, was insanely cheap and a lot of fun.

Alternative Berlin Website

A few nights later my camera was lost/ stolen at another nightclub so I ended up losing the majority of my photos. The images in this post are either photographed with my iPhone or taken by Dan, Jess or Kate.