DAY 11: (Dec31) - New Year's Eve Mon
In the morning, we went to Karstadt. I wanted to buy a new tie for the opera. The week before, we had secured two tickets to the opera, to see "Die Fledermaus," the opera and namesake for my blog. It was very fortunate that we got the tickets and I was so excited!

We knew that we didn't have that much time, but decided on a relaxed, laidback lunch at a gay-owned café called MaVie. We ate on the outdoor patio amongst the other 'mos.



DIE FLEDERMAUS

We needed to leave for the Komische Oper around 5:00ish because the show was to begin at 6:00.

The time crept by us and I suddenly realized that I had so little time to: shower, shave, iron my shirt, pants and Jason's pants. Plus, we still needed to get the tickets at will call.

I rushed to get everything done!

ARRIVAL AT THE OPERA

Looking rather dapper, we left around 5:15 and made it to our seats with time to spare! They were great seats. First row on the first balcony toward the center.



The show was spectacular from beginning to end. It was fun, colorful. The singing and acting were first notch. I was pretty familiar with the show which is good as it was all in German (and sometimes have problems dissecting sung music.)

What I did understand, I whispered over to Jason. The playbill did have a really good synopsis, in English. This helped a lot, as well.



What was very unique about the show was the staging. Being in the Komischer Oper, or the comic opera, it didn't surprise me that the staging was lighthearted.

The stage looked very normal in the beginning (despite the fact that the stage was actually an inclined plane, which allowed viewers to better see the show.) By "normal," I mean, all the furniture for the house was carefully arranged.

The show is a lot about alcohol and getting drunk, as well as about deception. As there was more alcohol ingested, the furniture was moved to obscure angles, or even upside down. At one point, one wall went down and became part of the inclined plane. A large chandelier dropped to the ground. All the strange angles matched the insobriety of the players.

The audience was also a bit tipsy. We were offered complementary wine/champagne, etc. at the beginning of the show. Then during the 30 minute intermission, we had more and more alcohol. I would guesstimate that I had the better part of a bottle of wine. It was New Year's Eve!

The show came to an end and Jason and I got up quikly and beat the crowd to the cloakroom and out of the opera house. We abruptly walked to toward the Tiergarten. We had two hours until midnight, but we wanted to find a good place.

TIERGARTEN FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE

There were checkpoints set up at the major streets leading into the Tiergarten (the big park near the Brandenburg Gate.)

They were not letting more people in. A kind female police officer picked up a bullhorn and said, in German, that the entrance was closed because of the fact that the area had enough people. She suggested all visitors walk up the street to the other entrance at the other side of the park, as it was open.

There was something Schindleresque about hearing in German over a bullhorn, that didn't quite appeal to me.

We walked a ways and a group veered off, into the wooded part of the park, through the wilderness. We met up with a dirt road that eventually took us into the party that was going on. (We found out later that all official entrances had been shut down and that we had basically got around the system.)

The party was in full swing. There were stands with live music along with places to get food and drink. We especially liked the mini doughnuts. Jason also had some sauerkraut and I sloshed down some beer. The crowds were really not that bad!



It was cold. Very cold. While we were bundled up in hats, gloves and scarves. There was one guy in his early 20s who was wearing just a sweatshirt and pants, apparently to impress some chick. Well, he didn't impress us. Although cute, he was really retahhhded.

There was a very festive mood in the air. It was smoky with all of the fireworks going off. Before we knew it, it was almost midnight. Around midnight, the fireworks came to a crescendo and people cheered and kissed and passed around bottles of champagne and hard liquor.



We were both a bit tired, so we hoofed it in a certain direction, which ended up being the wrong direction. We continued on, following the crowds. I'm not completely sure why we didn't go the way we knew.

Jason finally suggested going to Potsdamer Platz, where we took the U-Bahn home. There were a lot of partiers in the subway, which was kind of fun. We hit the sack around 2:00 am.
- posted by Matt @ 8:42 PM