Christoper Street Day Parade: Out and About Berlin, Germany

Tweet This past Saturday I joined thousands of people in the streets of Berlin for the Christopher Street Day Parade. The CSD is held in memory of the first big uprising of LGBT people against police assaults that took place in New York's Christopher Street in the district of Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969. It was a great day to be a Berliner, men and women, gay and straight, of just about every nationality were represented. I had an amazing time.

I started my day with the best intentions, meeting a couple of my Berlin friends for pre-gaming at Das Teehaus im Englischen Garten close to Bellevue S-bahn. There was a quaint stage where local students from the musicschule (music school) held a concert showcasing different cultures. We sipped on Prosecco in the sun and I tried a Rhubard and Prosecco cocktail, which was lovely. The organizers of the concert clearly did not consider that it was also the day of the parade because right in the middle of some calm Vietnamese music, a monster remix of Gloria Estefans, "The Rhythm is Going to Get You", destroyed whatever ambiance they were trying to create. The floats had finally hit Berlin Siegessäule, which is one of the best spots to watch the parade.

She was right, the rhythm did indeed get us and we made our way to the parade route. I hooked up with a fellow travel blogger, Adam of travelsofadam.com ! Adam met us a fellow couch surfer named Alex who was from Brazil. We armed ourselves with our drinks of choice andmade our way to Brandenburger Tor while dancing about Berlin behind some of the last floats.

I bumped into a few other international people that I met from the Internationals in Berlin Meetup group, peed in a cup because there were no toilets in sight ( I had tissues and hand sanitizer, no worries), and took pictures with a host of interesting and beautiful people. Adam almost died and I was almost eaten by lesbians in assless chaps. After all the drinking, dancing, and excitment we needed to rejuvinate, so we hopped in a cab and made the journey to Kreuzberg ▼ in search of great pizza. We landed around Schlesisches Tor at Heinz Minki, an almost hidden beer garden with a two dollar entry. The pizza lived up to it's reputation, the dinner conversation was great, a Texan, a Jersey Girl, a youngin from Rio, a Berlin native, and some clown on LSD straight from a Bangkok. He didn't add much to the conversation, we just thought he was funny. With a full belly and soar feet I was ready for my bed. My comrades continued on to Arena, a nearby electro club with a 15 Euro entry. I passed and made my way back to the west.

I love Berlin in the summer! G-rated pictures can be found on my facebook fan page