Berlin fireworks
Jan. 1st, 2023 12:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
totientBerlin isn't at the top of a lot of lists of places to spend New Years in Europe, but it's *on* every single list, and the fireworks are why.
In Berlin you don't go to the fireworks. The fireworks come to you. And they're amazing.
Imagine the Somerville 4th of July fireworks, only instead of all happening at Trum Field the launchers are spread across Somerville. Parks, street corners, balconies, whatever. Every second or so a firework goes off somewhere in a 4 square mile area. Got that?
That's how it was when I got here, at 3:00 in the afternoon on the 28th.
It has only escalated from there.
The finale, as it were, really came to a crescendo at about a quarter to midnight and started to taper off around half past. It's still going as I write this, at around 1:00. There still weren't any fireworks that are any bigger than what Somerville has. But there were fireworks going off in the street outside the house, and every block or so on Karl-Marx-Strasse, and in each of the little parks, and who knows where else. It's like a front row seat at Trum Field. Or maybe like what being *on* Trum Field would be like, because you're surrounded by fireworks, in every direction, and some of them are definitely closer than you can get in Somerville.
None of this is coordinated or government funded. Just people setting off fireworks whenever and wherever they want. Which is pretty much constantly and everywhere.
In Berlin you don't go to the fireworks. The fireworks come to you. And they're amazing.
Imagine the Somerville 4th of July fireworks, only instead of all happening at Trum Field the launchers are spread across Somerville. Parks, street corners, balconies, whatever. Every second or so a firework goes off somewhere in a 4 square mile area. Got that?
That's how it was when I got here, at 3:00 in the afternoon on the 28th.
It has only escalated from there.
The finale, as it were, really came to a crescendo at about a quarter to midnight and started to taper off around half past. It's still going as I write this, at around 1:00. There still weren't any fireworks that are any bigger than what Somerville has. But there were fireworks going off in the street outside the house, and every block or so on Karl-Marx-Strasse, and in each of the little parks, and who knows where else. It's like a front row seat at Trum Field. Or maybe like what being *on* Trum Field would be like, because you're surrounded by fireworks, in every direction, and some of them are definitely closer than you can get in Somerville.
None of this is coordinated or government funded. Just people setting off fireworks whenever and wherever they want. Which is pretty much constantly and everywhere.
