Our friend Katie is visiting Berlin and seems to have encountered an interesting phenomenom:
Well, since those feisty Berliners already appropriated our beloved mission burrito, the least we can do is adopt something from them!
[Photo by andrewlove]
Previously:
Move Over Dolores Chiller, Meet The ‘Beerdolero’
Umm… looks like those people are playing Footdown– which usually involves drinking. …not really too surprising…
photo is not from berlin . . . but what the heck is FOOTDOWN????
Kind of like a ‘bike fight’ — last one to step off bike wins. Go in a circle until everyone’s moving, crash, bump, push, pull or throw things until you are the last one on a bike… lots of fun. Here’s a random video of one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0QAupwBwcc — lots of fun.
Oh– and here’s the extreme of it in Portland… http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=370474085864&ref=share ‘Ben Hurt Chariot Wars’ at Mini Bike Winter. Lots of booze, especially on bikes.
rad!
Of course the difference between Berlin (one of my favorite cities, ever) and San Francisco is they don’t have the same open container laws we do. I realize I’m stating the obvious, but if we start doing this, we’re setting ourselves up for lame tickets by the SFPD.
Actually, Germany has a 0.05% BAC– lower than California’s 0.08%. And, has stricter penalties for ALL road users for being drunk on the road… (see http://www.bicyclelaw.com/news/n.cfm/germany-drunk-cyclist-gets-15-year-cycling-ban-hes-not-allowe )
I worked for a German company once, and when I visited the home office, they all drank beer at lunch. Every single day. DUI laws be damned, the germans will drink beer while peeing.
Very true, Berliners drink beer on the go regardless of the mode of transportation. They call it a Wegbier, or “beer for the way”. DUI’s are more strictly enforced (though passengers are free to openly imbibe), but BUI’s in Berlin, not so much.
The bigger issue as I see it: why drive drunk when the bars don’t close and viable public transport runs all night? After living here and seeing another way, it looks as if American puritanism manufactures its own problems.
who writes this blog? can anyone post?
In Jackson, Wyoming, I’ve seen kids (actually 20-something adults) swigging PBRs during daylight hours on bikes. No big deal. I saw the same thing when I lived in at Valencia and 16th in SF. Get over it.
I live in Berlin. One of my favorite things to do is drink beer on the tram.
It works like this:
1) Buy a nice cold bottle of beer at the Späti (corner store). That’s 1 EUR.
2) Get on the tram.
3) (optional) Buy a ticket from the machine (if you don’t have a pass and don’t want to risk the fine). That’s 1.30 or 2.20 depending on how far you’re going.
4) Drink a very good beer while watching a very good city cruise by your window, simultaneously doing some people-watching and shitty-weather-enjoying.
Duration: approximately 30 minutes.
Locals will notice that even if I’m a goody two-shoes and buy a ticket, I’ve not spent more than a beer in a hipster bar would have cost.
The same thing works on the S-Bahn but it’s harder to get a seat. And you could do it on the U-Bahn if you’re subterranean by nature.
All completely legal of course. Projectile vomiting out the window is reserved for Marzahn, but over there that’s legal too from what I understand.
Oh yeah, and at one of the subway stations I can not only get beer and sandwiches at midnight on a Friday, but – dig it – couscous. In the subway station.
All very true except “sandwiches at midnight” doesn’t really do justice to Mustafa’s Gemüsekebap at 3:30am. Wow, and it seems to have the best website of any Döner Imbiss too: http://www.mustafas.de/ It’s like you’re THERE, minus the amazing food…
OMFG that site is insane! All Flash so no JesusPad love, gotta click on it with an old-school compy.
Now I have to go there just to see if there are really winged lumps of döner meat flying around.
Also, if you use free range street chickens to make your chicken döner but the chickens are eating leftover mixed-mammal döner, does that make the eater of the chicken döner less chickentarian than she thinks she is?