Being cool and on the ‘in’ side of Berlin does not only imply spending a lot of money on the appropriate attire; more than that it’s about where you let yourself be seen. The annual Beermeile, a good stretch of the Karl Marx Allee packed with all sorts of beer stands, is definitely not one of the cool places.

But then again it’s so easy to dismiss the obvious. Sure, the music’s a mix of awkward shabby cover bands and German Schlagerpop, but in the end the tourists, the hipsters, the students, the Berliners, those who are too old to label themselves and those who fit neither here nor there all come to the same basic instinct: drinking. Yep, they all get wasted here (except for myself). So why even judge?

The Biermeile is certainly long, and there’s one distinctive difference between the festival in Berlin and the Oktoberfest in Munich: the Oktoberfest concentrates on the Bavarian tradition (Augustiner, Paulaner) while the Biermeile sports a gazillion sorts of different beers and cultures. When we hit it on Sunday, we discovered unique and never seen brands from far away countries, snacks and music that you wouldn’t get anywhere else, and, well, puking people on the side.

I could go further with my interpretation on how Berlin tends to reach out for the multicultural, while the more conservative south (ie Munich) likes to stay with those of its own, but we’ll leave it at that for now.