A week ago today I was in Berlin, running around the city, visiting a few of the old haunts. The friend I was with had been to Berlin before but didn’t know it particularly well, and, because I spend a lot of time there, he was keen for me to act as tour guide.

It’s probably worth mentioning that this guy has nothing to do with ‘game’ or the dating scene or anything like that. His interest is more in the—how can I put it?—seedy side of life. So he wanted me to show him some dives.

Of course, I was more than happy to oblige. If you’ve read this site for any length of time, or read my Twitter feed, then you’ll be aware that there’s a special place in my heart for the kinds of ‘naughty’ nighttime places that Ernst Graf writes about so lyrically—the strip clubs, sleazy bars, late night clubs frequented by ‘ladies of the night’, and all of that stuff.

I guess I have a fascination with urban low life. As I’ve observed before on this website, I’m sure there’s some deep-seated psychological reason for this. But perhaps it’s just because I’m a filthy animal. Either way . . .

I met my friend (we’ll call him ‘M’) at lunchtime on Monday. As you can imagine, Monday is about the worst time of the week going to explore naughty, night-themed haunts—particularly when you’ve trying to explore them in the daytime. But still, this is Berlin we’re talking about—the city that not only never sleeps but has a permanent erection as well.

We took an Uber from my friend’s hotel down to Kurfustenstrasse, always a great place to start since it’s name-checked in the classic Berlin movie Christiane F and is basically the closest thing going to a ‘red light district’ in town (Berlin is very spread out and there isn’t really a single ‘pleasure zone’ similar to those you find in Amsterdam, Hamburg and other places.)

We saw a few listless hookers hiding from the drizzle under umbrellas, flagging down the occasional car to talk money with prospective punters, but, being early, there wasn’t a great deal of action.

As we were nearing the end of the road, we passed the old Music Bar, which was now an empty shell with whitewashed windows and a padlocked door.

‘Damn,’ I said to M.’That place used to be fantastic. Full of hookers and Albanian pimps and all kinds of crazy stuff. I used to sit in there, lost in my own thoughts, taking in the street scenes. I can’t believe it’s closed. Such a shame.’

‘Well,’ said M. ‘All good things come to an end.’

After that we visited the Love Sex Dreams sex emporium and cinema, and saw some bizarre things happening there. Then we had lunch and popped into a bunch of other places.

In the evening we took a cab over to Stuttgarter Plaz. This street, in Charlottenberg on the west side of town, was formerly sleaze central. But slowly, over the years, as gentrification took hold, each of the little fleshpots was closed down, one by one. But there were a couple of sleazy ‘night bars’, largely staffed by obese and toothless Bulgarian ladies of the night, that I was keen to show M.

But when we got there, I saw immediately that both of these premises—Monte Carlo and Sissi—were closed.

This on top of the closure of such classic venues as Follies, Big Sexyland, the erotic DVD store near to Zoo Station and many more.

Having lived in London for many years I am of course entirely accustomed to filthy red-light places being shuttered up overnight—it’s been happening in Soho forever.

And in many ways it’s hard to lament the passing of establishments that were at best grubby in nature, and at worst criminal and exploitative (in some cases. Allegedly).

Nevertheless, there is something sad about these old palaces of sleaze that characterised cities, being eradicated. Time is passing and times are changing—and with them, cities are changing too.

And when the cities we’ve spent much of our lives enjoying transform almost beyond recognition then we must acknowledge (to ourselves if no-one else) that things are changing and one day they will continue to change when we are gone forever.

And in other news . . .

Today sees the launch of my brand new YouTube channel

The channel, called simply Troy Francis, will feature infield footage of me doing daygame plus instructional videos, vlogs, interviews and other lovely stuff.

Go here to visit the channel and be sure to hit Subscribe and Notifications to stay up to date with all my latest videos.

Right now I’ve only got one video up, but it’s a good one . . my first ever official infield footage. Enjoy it now:

Some guys have asked if my previous channel was closed down – no, I’ve decided to make a brand new channel myself for the new content.

So my original channel will stay up for a few more days only before I pull the plug. After that all my new video content, plus my podcasts, will be published in the new location.

To buy all 9 of my dating / game books for just $35 go here now

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