Okay, so we reached the middle of the year yesterday in our review of 2011 via Circus blogposts, and as the cold wind blows outside the windows of the office here on Rosenthaler Platz it is hard to picture those warm and sunny days of barbecues in the park where we left things, but we will use the power of the blog and an ability to link to take us back to the recent past…
July. The Women’s Football World Cup got serious as we reached the knock-out stages. Germany, as always, were great hosts of the tournament, but they fell foul on the pitch to a surprise defeat at the hands of the eventual winners Japan. Here at The Circus we made a film, brought Dandy of the Grotesque into Fabisch, and began our tours to Kreuzberg with Jim Hudson whilst Jule and the other Jim took people to explore Marzahn.
Into August and Rani delivered the first designs for the new cafe and lounge at the apartments, whilst Sasa and the gang began the long process of deciding what special things would be served there. Berlin commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall with a series of different events and exhibitions around the city, whilst we met a 70 year-old on his birthday who had been born in the very building that now houses The Circus Hotel. Meanwhile Andrew was having a weekly struggle with the weather, Toga was off to watch his team at the Olympic Stadium, and Sandra was getting “in the mood” with her plans for new apartments. It all seems so long ago…
In September we met Carl Oskar for the first time when he popped by the hotel for a visit, but otherwise it was work, work, work, work, on the Circus Apartments. Meanwhile, we were checking out the international literature festival, and many of our guests were gaining our complete admiration as they took on the Berlin Marathon course. As we moved into autumn a friend of ours published a book on a subject close to the hearts of the English-speaking staff members of The Circus – beer – whilst Preston ran a special photography tour for the festival of lights and Digel waved to passing members of the St Pauli football team on Torstraße.
Into November and we hosted the inaugural meeting of the Berlin St Georges Supporters Club down in Goldman’s Bar, began our new fundraising campaign with our friends at Multitude, celebrated Thanksgiving in the Circus Cafe and drank our first glasses of glühwein at the Berlin Christmas Markets.
And so we reach December and the end of 2011. Sometimes December can be a calm and quiet month at The Circus, but not this year. We had a film crew come by the hostel to make a special clip for our website (coming soon!) but mostly we were getting the apartments ready for launch, which we did last week.
So as Christmas and New Year’s Eve approaches, we reach the end of our special review of 2011 (part two), and we would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone – guests, staff, partners and friends – who have been with us during 2011 and the next year of the Circus story. In 2012 the Circus will be FIFTEEN years old… who could imagine what would have happened when the doors opened on that first 40-bed building close to Friedrichstraße.
Ah, enough of the nostalgia. See you soon.
Right at this moment we are in the middle of the Festival of Lights, which is one of the world’s largest illumination festivals and offers a view of some of the most famous sights of Berlin in a way that you have never seen them before. This is the 7th edition of the festival, and it is well worth checking out. There are over 40 locations throughout the city, and three clusters – around the Zoo Station, Unter den Linden, and Alexanderplatz – are good starting points.
Twice a year the museums of Berlin open their doors long into the evening to show off their spaces under the cover of darkness, often with special events and performances to mark the occasion. This coming Saturday is the summer edition of the event, and 105 different venues are taking part. Before we pick a few things to look out for, here are some practical details:
On the 13th August it will be the 50th Anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall. As you can imagine, there are a number of things going on in Berlin and in the run up to that date we will be posting some of them here on the Circus Blog so that you can go and check them out.
Just down the street from the Circus is the U-Bahn station at Weinmeisterstrasse, which is home until the 7th September to an exhibition of photographs from the artist and photographer 
Beginning this Friday in Berlin is Gallery Weekend, which runs through to Sunday and offers up three days and nights of exhibition openings across 44 galleries in the city. As you might be able to imagine, with such a number of galleries taking part, there is a wide range of visual arts to enjoy from artists all around the world.
The morning after…well, it was an absolutely wonderful slow day yesterday, with tours, books, cake, beer, films and talks, and I just wanted to use the opportunity to say a great big thank you from the Circus to everyone that came by, joined in the fun, and of course those who brought their energy and creativity as part of the Slow Travel Day:
