Recently I spoke with a friend about nightlife in Berlin in the late 2000s compared to today. While there were obvious changes in the demographics of the various districts, i.e. the city is more diverse than ever and rental prices have skyrocketed in the wake of large-scale gentrification, there is another aspect that is perhaps not widely acknowledged: the end of low-budget air travel and its impact on the party scene.
The idea of flying to a different city for a weekend trip is as foreign to me today as it was in the 2000s. This used to only be possible for the well-off, but there was a time when it was extremely affordable to fly to a big city in Europe, party, and head back. Sluts from abroad told me that. They were flying in from places like Barcelona, Madrid, or Rome. When I first encountered this phenomenon, I could not quite explain it because, surely, it is odd when you speak to a few random women who all just flew in for the weekend. They did not come across as being particularly sophisticated whereas I was under the impression that I could tell when someone came from an upper middle-class or lower upper-class background.
The solution to the aforementioned conundrum was as simple as it was banal. Low-cost carriers like easyJet or Ryanair brought in planeloads of whores from abroad, some of which paid just five euros per flight. They landed on Thursday night or Friday afteroon, headed straight to the club, and went back on Sunday or Monday. It was not that uncommon that they did not even bother to book a hotel. Some just partied through for days. In fact, there were some clubs that opened on Thursday night and closed on Monday morning. If any of those sluts wanted to sleep in a bed, she only had to find a guy who was willing to share his bed with her. If you asked such a woman where she was staying, there was a non-zero chance that she smiled in response and said, “I was thinking of your place.”
Partying back then was wild. Clubs that were open for several days straight had various accommodations to make this possible. Some had sofas on which some people just fell asleep and there was the etiquette to not disturb them. Food was normally provided via a food truck outside. Drugs came in anyway, even though regular attendees got frisked. Only the drug-dealing friends of the owners walked in casually. While I do not condone the use of drugs, I think that partying with some coked-up sluts from Southern Europe is a great experience, and one that more men should enjoy.
Alas, nothing lasts forever. As I recently learned, low-cost airlines have not only raised their prices considerably, due to bogus taxes, there are also fewer direct flights to Berlin than there used to be. Both easyJet and Ryanair reduced the number of flights and destinations. Perhaps this was a consequence of the scamdemic, with passenger numbers not fully recovering, compared to pre-scamdemic levels. Also, inflation affected club prices, too. Well, you can probably work out how demand and supply lead to fewer sluts flying in, and as fewer sluts do that, there is less demand for flights, to flights became rarer are more expensive, and even fewer sluts fly in as a consequence. Partying in Berlin is nowhere near as cheap as it used to be, and the added diversity you encounter nowadays probably does not lead to chicks from Italy or Spain buying flight tickets. They have enough of all that diversity back home already.
In the past, low-budget airlines played a big role in democratizing female promiscuity. Whereas it used to be the case that only women of some means where able to travel abroad and get fucked by dozens of guys, easyJet and Ryanair made that possible even for women who only make minimum wage. Probably, there are cities where it was cheaper to fly to Berlin to party than go out locally. Women have become a bit less promiscuous because nowadays they all hold out for Chad who is always just one swipe away, so the overall effect of low-budget flights disappearing is probably not even that big. Nonetheless, low-cost international party tourism, at least within Europe, seems to be over. It was great while it lasted.
U forgot to mention, a lesser amount of sluts means lesser amount of guys going to those venues. After all, they are the ones doing the heavy lifting when it comes to spending (while trying to get lucky), while girls coast on all sorts of freebies.
I think we have not yet recovered from the disruptions caused by the pandemic, and likely never will. So much money was wished into existence by bankers during that period that a hefty level of inflation is baked in for the foreseeable future.
Mate you should have seen Ibiza back in the day (maybe still now?) it was rediculous for this.
Also Greece . Both had thousands of chicks per week flying in for a-week-of-drinking-and-fucking holidays.
Mainly Greece for the UK crowd but also Ibiza. Checkout the “ uncovered “ tv series – “ Falaraki Uncovered” etc.
It’s like sodom and gonmorrah in those places.
Human sexual behaviour at its most drunken and depraved.
A dude I met on a Ibiza clubbing holiday put it well “ there’s more hot pussy per-square-inch here than anywhere else on the planet” .
He was correct. I ain’t never seen the amount of quality like Ibiza had back in the day.
I think it’s all over in Ibiza now re the big clubs , not sure (?). The rave scene has died down massively worldwide now afaik.
I was not aware of this TV show. Faliraki is on Rhodes, which reminds me of a friend or acquaintance back in the days. I had helped him out a few times with academics and he was so grateful for that that he invited me to come visit him in Greece. His family was well off and they had a house with a separate guest house in Rhodes. He said that if I wanted to have a great time, I should come visit him and stay as his guest during the summer, for as long as I wanted. Back then, I tried to get away from the party lifestyle, so it was probably for the better that I did not take him up on this offer. I have heard that the nightlife on the Greek island is quite wild, though.
I think you should have gone,
If you have not yet been to Greece .. it is amazing 🤩 I went to a small resort south of Athens a few years ago. It cost $700 AUD for for 5 nights , all inclusive w amazing food plus private beach. Incredible value for the quality of the hotel and location,
And the ferry back to Athens also with the coast towns we stopped at, spectacular scenery. 👌
Yeah the nightlife in the hotspots ( especially the UK crowd hotspots ) is pure drunken debauchery, you may not have enjoyed those spots w the drunk Brits. Easy ladies tho,, 🤷🏻♂️
If you’re still in touch with him get over there ! I would imagine a well off family having an amazing house in Greece and the scenery is just next level.
The Berlin no-frills-carrier epoch of wild partying has surely ended. Instead, now you can fly non-stop from Berlin to Mekkah & Medina to “party” over there!
Isn’t that nice, huh? Make of that what you will, though…
Here is an interview, in German, with one of the owners of the once rather well-known club Watergate. This used to be one of the top clubs in Berlin but they are closing down because the economics no longer work out:
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/kultur-vergnuegen/berliner-technoclub-watergate-schliesst-interview-mit-clubchef-wombacher-li.2254516
That guy makes some interesting remarks fully in line with my article. In fact, it seems I was underestimating the percentage of tourists. He says that low-cost airlines more than doubled the number of people going to clubs, whereas I used to think that it was a pretty common phenomenon but not the norm. Well, it is also possible that he exaggerates a bit to shift the blame.
I chuckled when he mentioned that their club managed to span generations, with mother and daughter partying and doing drugs in the same club, just a couple of decades apart. There are probably a few guys out there who banged both the mother and the daughter, each in their prime, without realizing it.
A big reason was also the government model of heavy subsidies. Airlines were all competing with each other to take the biggest share of the commercial flights’ pie, although the economics were obviously never in their favour.
The subsidies are still here, yet not as generous and the consolidation (or let’s say cannnibalisaton) of the industry has probably also been finalised.