May Day, May Day!

Here I sit, drinking my coffee as usual, enjoying the peace and quiet of a Saturday morning. However, I have been warned that my peace and quiet will be short lived today.

It is May Day (or Labor Day) here in Germany. For most of the country, this means a day off of work and a whole lot of beer drinking and barbecuing (ehh, sound familiar?). But in Berlin, it's another story. This week as I chatted with new friends, they cringed upon hearing where I lived.

"Oooh, be careful over there this weekend," they said. Who likes the sounds of that? Then the other night, I came home to find a notice on our front door which listed a whole lot of local streets, ours included. My roomie said that it was a warning to not park cars on any of those streets. The fear, of course, is that they could be torched. Apparently, that's a specialty of Berlin anarchists.

Since I'm not completely clear on all the issues at hand, I'll let you do some reading about it here. Or (heh heh), here. What I do know is that this is a day of anti-capitalist demonstrations that are known to get very out of hand. In fact, the ExBerliner ran an article with a sidebar about what to do if you get arrested. This is because the demonstrations are known to get so crazy and confusing that the police just start arresting groups of people whether it's warranted or not.

Anyway, I wondered if people were exaggerating about all of the mayhem until last night when I trekked down the street to deposit a bag of bottles for recycling like I always do. At first, when I couldn't locate the three huge bins on the street, I thought I was losing my mind. Am I on the wrong block? I wondered. However, it all made sense later when my roomie came home and said, "It's starting already. Police everywhere. And the grocery stores are putting barricades in front of their windows."

So I suppose they moved the glass recycling bins from our street to avoid them from being toppled over tomorrow. A parade of sorts might be moving down our street sometime today and our local subway stops are shutting down. Forget about getting cash out of a bank ATM. Most of the banks in the area not only shut down but also reinforce their storefronts. Some local friends have left town altogether. Others plan to get some beer and stay inside the entire day. I've been told that I might as well plan a night of clubbing since sleep is probably not on my horizon until sometime Sunday morning.

Ugh.

I can handle some spunky protesters and I guess I can handle some noise but I cannot deal with violence and looting for no apparent reason. I live in a pretty working class neighborhood. It's extremely disheartening to think that some of the local proprietors have to worry about broken storefronts, stolen merchandise, and the safety of their families.

I also have heard that there is a large group of neo-Nazis gathering for the demonstrations, too. BMW torching anarchists are one thing. But a few thousand skinheads causing a ruckus? Sort of makes me want to stay holed up in the ole' flat with a few beers. I mean, do I really need any of this?

But I admit that my curiosity could get the best of me. I just might take a stroll later on today with some friends to Kottbusser Tor. Then again, the idea of a stray brick at the head isn't all that appealing. Such decisions. Back home, the big decision on Labor Day is hamburger versus brat.

Well, if I decide to don a helmet and check out the scene, I will most definitely report back. Hopefully, not from a jail cell.