European Escapade

Aha my beautiful friends and family! How are things back home? It feels like ages since I posted last because so much has happened since Thursday. I spent almost two hours today just trying to catch up in my little pocket journal, in point form.

Right now I’m sitting in an Internet cafe and waiting for my DVD to burn. Finally found a place where I can do it for a reasonable fee and they even include the DVD, but I have about 3Gb of photos to burn off, so it’s taking a while. What better time to bring you all up to speed with what it is I’ve been doing.

For those of you who are the executive summary type, I could say it in one sentence: I’ve been having an absolute blast.

For those that want the more detailed version…
OK so my last post was before the Robbie Williams concert in Berlin. Let’s see now… One thing I didn’t mention in that post, which becomes important in this one, is that at some point at the beach bar on Wednesday I was kind of invited to a wedding. I say kind of because the invitee may have been a little inebriated at the time…

On Thursday, while all the good little boys and girls in Australia were asleep in their beds, I met up with Friederike and went to the Olympic Stadium here, which is where the soccer finals were recently held, to watch our favourite Mr Williams beat out the hits.

Unfortunately we had one allocated seating ticket and one standing ticket, and they were sticklers for where people could go with each, so something had to be done. Luckily, scalping tickets immediately outside the stadium is completely legal in Germany so I picked up another general admission ticket for a steal. Only problem was we now had three tickets and needed only two. It reminded me a little for the brain teaser in Die Hard 3: fill one of the jugs with exactly three gallons of water and place it on the scale…

We tried to move our allocated seating ticket onto people as they came to the stadium but no one wanted it. We then tried to move it (for a bargain price!) to one of the people selling one of the same, based on the logic that they could sell two at twice the price. How many people are going to show up wanting just one allocated seated ticket anyway? Friederike wasn’t having much luck, so next it was my turn. I did worse. Imagine me standing there with a ticket in my hand, trying to explain in a combination of English and extraordinarily simplistic German, that I wanted to sell a ticket to someone who was already themselves trying to sell their ticket. What I learned is that if I move to Germany, I can’t be in sales until I’ve at least learned more of the language… Seriously though, my recent experiences have helped me understand exactly how much I want to be able to speak another language, and German is it for me, so when I get back, someone force me!

Ultimately we had no luck moving our spare ticket, and it was getting hot standing in the sun, and we just couldn’t be stuffed any more, so we copped the loss and went on in. I’ve seen at the link about that this stadium holds fewer people that the MCG but I tell you, it sure doesn’t look like it from ground zero. The place is absolutely massive and really nicely architected.

We weaseled our way towards the front and found a good spot between the stage and the little pill-box where the lighting and sound technicians sit (sight in front of the main stage). It was good because it meant that when the show started, and people pushed forward, we were sheltered. It also had a little ramp over some power cables which we could stand on to get a marginally better view.

In writing up this few hours (the conceert) in my journal today I used as much space as I did for certain other full days; there was so much to take note off, so I’m going to have to try to keep it a little more brief here.

At the open end of the stadium there was a massive stage which looked a little like a set of jaws in its construction. There was a giant screen in the middle, and the rig was symmetrical about that. To the left there were three massive vertical constructions, each of which looked checkered, like massive (we’re talking 40ft high) LCD screens with really big pixels and space between each pixel. These turned out to be screens also, but they only lit up in the white parts, and the gaps remain black. It’s hard to explain but it made for a cool effect. Farther left again there was half an arc which must have been at least 50ft high, arching over the stage from left to right, to almost touch it’s twin which arched from right to left. And farther left again, another massive screen. The stage itself sat in front of, and slightly below the middle screens, flanked by those LCD-like constructions and had a tear-dropped shaped extension which came right out into the crowd, only about 10m from where we were, but crammed with more people than you can imagine.

Maybe I should just post a picture of the stage… remind me to do that before I log off , I’ve got all my photos right here OK… see it here.

Anyway, I didn’t know who the opening act was, and neither did Friederike I think. When we arrived there was music playing (strange but cool slightly dance versions of pop songs such as Destiny’s Child and MC hammer… And Vanilla Ice. Nice range). So we were standing there, bopping a little, trying to get our hands on the free cups of water they were passing back and back trough the crowd (the list of disallowed items at entry included any refillable, non factory sealed drinks for some ridiculous reason… and tear gas which I was really disappointed with, since it meant I had to leave my whole stash with the security guard. I’d planned on pulling it out when Robbie sang Angel, to get everyone into the correct mood; that is, teary)… Anyway, we’re standing there, when, out of the blue, there’s his awesome drum solo and the screens light up with… “Basement Jaxxx”….

Watch Jesse freak out. Wohoo! But I barely had time to freak celebrate before they stormed on stage, with three massive afro-English women and started playing Rendezvous. Now, if this were Melbourne, Basement Jaxxx would probably be big enough to draw the sort of crowd that was in attendance, by themselves. But that wasn’t the case in Berlin. In fact, while people were happy to have live music finally, the elation seemed to wear off after about two songs. The crowd went quiet. They didn’t do the clap in time thing. At the end of a song you could almost hear the wind whistling and crickets calling, as opposed to thunderous applause and calls for more… The Basement were really suffering.

As the songs went on, the singers picked up the feel of the crowd and became increasingly less interested. They tried everything to get people back into it. At one point, the main keyboard dude got down and yelled things like “I want to bloody well see you move… Hands up! Clap with me” He then proceeded to dance, no kidding, by kicking his legs in front of him, one at a time, as high as he could, and clapping his hands together under them as they went up… He looked like a marionette some kid was playing with. But it worked. The crowd got into it and started to clap along… For a bit. After a while it became apparent that this crowd only wanted Robbie. As great as Basement Jaxx are, you’ve got to question which person decided they are a good opening act for Robbie Williams, considering how different the music styles are.

Hmm so this post is crazily long and I’m still on Thursday. Time to shift gears.

Put it this way, basement Jaxx got their biggest roar when they told everyone it was their last song. And the Robbie Williams UNICEF ad which came on after they went off stage got more applause than they did for any song just because we got to see Robbie… But the Berlin crowd cheered them as they deserved when they left- I think ppl like them, they just wanted Robbie, and now!

And they got their wish. I would guess earlier than expected, Robbie’s show began in style. It was about 8pm and there was still a fair bit of daylight as the arches over the stage lit up in various combinations, in sequence with a five note melody which I immediately recognized. Anyone who has seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind would also recognize it as the music the space ships make. It started quietly, *dum dum dum, dum, dum* but I held my breath and Robbie didn’t let me down. On the third iteration, the first three notes got louder and louder and the last two were a deafening roar, accompanied with fireworks shooting out from all over the stage and the arches, huge plumes of fire and a massive roar from the crowd, although I think most of them didn’t know the music was from a film. The stage was set for a classy act.

The show went for a few hours, and was pretty much non-stop, good music. I say good, not great. He’s a showman, and it was definitely a great show but,  I’m a hard judge of male singing talent… Anyway, it was well worth the effort to get there. Highlights included:

• The appearance of Johnny Wilkinson (the UK Rugby player), who participated in a duet surprising well, then worked with Robbie to see who could kick an autographed football farthest into the crowd, and who had the lion’s share of the crowd’s adoration (no prizes for guessing who won each of those challenges).
• When Robbie jumped down into the crowd to be malled by crazed fans, and then kissed one of the girls in a pretty full on way, to have all the others scream even louder (as though it was even possible) and the girl burst into a flood of joyful tears and almost fall over.
• When the whole crowd sang Feel, with Robbie leading, and the giant screens showing the words like one massive Karaoke club.
• When Robbie sang Angel… because I knew the words
• His new track which he sang wearing a tailor made Adidas jumpsuit, looking like Eminem, with his initials (RPW) all over it… I’d like to hear the album version of this because it’s very… kinda half rapper thing and sounded a little… well bad to me, though it had a catchy hook.

Ultimately, by the end, Friederike was a complete convert and I was now comfortable with saying I quite like Robbie’s music and he’s a very good showman.

With typical German efficiency, a massive stadium full of people emptied pretty quickly and somehow evaporated onto what must of been heaps of waiting trains at the station immediately beyond the stadium. We were hardly crowded at all and even got a seat. On the way we stopped and bought a giant bratwurst each… that becomes important later on.

We made our way back into the city and chilled outside Häagen-Dazs, drinking sorbet cocktail things and watching the street performers including a guy who juggled and spat fire like nothing I’ve ever seen, and a chick with giant (and I would guess, flammable) fairy wings, standing only about 2m away singing… It was a really clear and pleasant summer evening.

Back at the hostel I chatted to some people from Amsterdam, who were super interesting and really good company, before crashing. Ultimately I was quite early to bed. We didn’t make it a big night because the next day I had to get up and… that’s right… hire a tux for the wedding!

I could tell a story there. It involves Jesse originally being told to go to number 15 something street by the hostel, only to find that place has closed down, returning to the hostel and spending 1.5 hours with the hostel owner, trying to find a suit hire place both on the net and in the phone book, calling F and saying that there seemed to not be one in all of Berlin. But, if I told that story, I would also have to tell have F called back about 10 minutes later to say she’d found one, and it was on the same street that Jesse had been on, at number 15a(!), next door, and he had an appointment in an hour for a fitting… Thanks mum

My suit was fitted by a dentist. What a great line. I should start a book like that. Anyway, this was of course because his wife, the tailor, doesn’t speak English as well as he does. She also didn’t seem to like me too much when I arrived early for my appointment (because I had heaps to do that day and didn’t think I could get it all done). Turns out I just misunderstood her manner. The dentist was a great guy, who had visited Australia and was very nice. The suit, it was in fact a smoking suit (so no tails or top hat, but the rest was like a tux) cost a bomb but looked the part and I haven’t lashed out on anything yet so I was happy to do it. Before I knew it I was strolling out with a big box complete with pleated shirt, cuff links, suspenders (Fashion Police please note: I didn’t wear them, on advice from my fashion consultant), cummerbund and shoes.

At the hostel I packed my crap in the best way I could such that I could still carry the box flat in front of me, and made my way to Friederike’s place. We killed some time then mutually agreed to risk pizza for dinner.

The place we went to was Italian. They made real pizza (I can say that now, having bean to Italy) and the waiter was a real Italian. This made for a great situation. You see, I speak English and a little German, and picked up the pieces of Italian I needed (especially for food ordering) while in Italy. Friederike speaks all three languages, as did the waiter. You can imagine the kind of multilingual slips (and fun) we had when he would say something in Italian and I would accidentally respond in German, since I’ve gotten used to it, and then he’d respond in English and Friederike would say something in Italian or German. It was like a skit from the Marx brothers. We ordered the cheese pizza… but since we’re both allergic to dairy, we got reduced cheese. No jokes. The waiter even asked us if we wanted an ambulance yet towards the end of the meal He was cool and the pizza was awesome.

Next we went to visit Vera so they could talk girls stuff. Which handbag matches which shoes and which dress. It was really nice to see her too and catch up.

Vera took us to the awesome Berlin Haupbahnhof instate train station (it really is cool looking) and onto an ICE train, just in time. The two hours to Hamburg were spent contemplating how to violently silence the group of children playing behind us on their Nintendo DSs. It wouldn’t have been necessary but they were playing a game which involved training a dog through a combination of key presses and spoken language. Imagine a little girl (whose name was also Friederike funnily enough) saying “Sitz. Sitz! SITZ! Gut hund.” for an hour… Then imagine her brother deletes all her save points when she gets up, and resets the game so she has to start over. *Shudder*

We also passed the time by talking about nuclear physics, wind farms and diamond mines. Or I did. Yup, fun to have on a long train ride, me.

Hamburg is wicked at night. The city has two lakes, one which the main CBD is right next to, and one further out which is where there is a lot of residential areas. The whole place is by the water, and people can literally ’sea buses’ to work, etc. We checked in at East Hotel, possibly one of the best interior designed places I’ve ever been inside (Kel, check it), then met up with the rest of the family (sister and partner, father, mother). They are the most friendly and welcoming people. Absolutely lovely.

That night we younger ones went to Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s red light and club district. It was packed out. We began at a more traditional kind of pub and ended up in a karaoke bar run by Thai people, singing along to the hits as our entries mysteriously got pushed farther and father down the list to make way for the friends of the DJ to have their turns. Robbie Williams was a favourite for lots of people, and I, freshly versed, was keen to participate. I actually chose a Robbie song myself, but after hours of waiting my turn was stolen by another guy who had apparently chosen the same song and was simply bigger than I was and muscled his way to the stage before I got my chance. Still, we left in very good spirits… at 5am. Oh oh, wedding today.

Despite the time, there was of course time to stop for a hot dog on the way back. Extra pickles please.

Understandably, breakfast the next morning saw us pretty tired on only about four hours of sleep. It also saw Friederike and I feeling really, really sick and not at all hungry. We decided it was the post Robbie hot dog from Thursday because no one else was feeling the same. There were a few points at which we both thought it would be an awful shame to get dressed up only to throw up everywhere, but we soldiered on.

Being a guy I wore only one outfit all day. Standing in the hallway we made a very elegant group. The ceremony started at 1.30pm and was a very nice affair: not too long, which was great because the church was sweltering and I couldn’t brin myself to take my jacket off. That didn’t help the whole “I think I’m going to be sick” thing but it passed fast enough. After the ceremony we gathered outside but it began to rain, so we ran inside and had some casual drinks and cake. Actually, we two avoided cake considering how we felt, but we watched everyone else indulge in the most delicious-looking cake.

I learned a few cool wedding customs which anyone getting married should consider doing. There was one room full of about 50 helium balloons. Each had a string and attached to the string was a stamped, addressed (to the bride and groom) post card. The concept is that you write a wish or something nice for the couple on one of the guards, then set the balloon free. If a stranger finds the card on the street (once the balloon has done its dash and landed somewhere), they pop it in a mailbox and supposedly the wish comes true. Cool concept and apparently known well enough by other Germans that anyone who does find the card, will mail it. Another was to have the photographer get a list of every pair at the wedding, take their photo, then a book goes around and you write on the page allocated you, to later have the corresponding photo stuck in under your message. Nice little touches.

That was Act I over. En route back to the hotel some of us stopped at a new … I guess you would call it theme park … in Hamburg which had just opened with a fireworks display the night before. We rode the huge ferris wheel and ate local sweets, etc. Talked about sky diving. Back at the hotel the guys took it easy and the women got dressed up into their evening outfit. Soon thereafter we were on our way to the pier to catch a ferry to the reception centre. This was another awesome experience. The harbour in Hamburg has little islands connected to the mainland which are where cargo ships are loaded and unloaded. Off to the side, on one of these little islands is a former storage warehouse or similar which has been converted (by the resident artist into a three level reception centre. Drinks are held on the roof, dinner and dancing on the second level and the whole thing eminates a combination of class and modern art. It was the perfect venue.

After photos and drinks on the roof we sat down for dinner. We were pretty much over feeling sick by this time. The five course meal was amazing and varied. At my table were a range of people, including some family and some friends, most German but some from elsewhere. Everyone was fantastically nice and put up with my complete incompetency when it comes to German; we spoke 99% English. Click here for my favourite shot from my table.

During and after dinner there were speeches by a wide variety of people, followed by several specially written comical songs, and even a play which had been put together by the bride’s family, showing how the couple met. The whole thing was fantastically entertaining even if I only understood parts. I even received a special mention from the groom, Ulrich, who said in his speech he’d had to change his wording to account for the fact that people had not just come from “far and wide”, but from the other side of the planet, to attend.

After dinner came dancing. The music was 80s and 90s English classics mixed with German hits which I of course didn’t know, but I danced as much as anyone. I was even fortunate enough to be asked to dance a few times, apparently on some perceived skilled… maybe it’s just my strange Australian style. I have an awesome video of everyone doing the YMCA song and dance actions together as well as some really great shots in general. As the night wore on, the flood lights which keep the docks and loading bays illuminated made for fantastic shots across the water, and the reception centre itself, decked out as it was in such a classy way, gave me heaps to take snaps of when I wasn’t dancing or talking to someone. See this. Everyone had a fantastic time, myself included. I was extremely lucky to be invited.

We ended up back at the hotel at about 5am…. again. The next morning we were just as bleary eyed at breakfast but luckily over all that feeling sick, so we had a massive breakfast. I was then lucky enough to travel around the city with Friederike, her farther, and mother, seeing the main sites. The entire family have been so kind and hospitable, it’s contributed massively to my enjoyment of the last few days.

Hamburg was terrible to navigate because heaps of roads were closed due to some big bike race which was going on, but we eventually made our way out of the city. in the two days that I spent there I think I saw a lot more than what I would have seen as a tourist; I saw and learned about the culture from people who live there and love it. It was a great, unplanned addition to my trip.

Another thing I got to experience the same day was the auto-bahn, in Hans’ (Friederike’s father) Mercedes at 220k/h. Woosh! We actually fell asleep after about 10 minutes the ride was so smooth.

Back in Berlin there was shocking traffic too. We had to take massive detours and the lady on the GPRS guidance system was getting increasingly annoyed at us for not turning left when she said. Imagine us all sitting in the car, her telling us to do a U-turn, and us all telling her to shut up… Maybe you had to be there :)

Last night my original hostel was full so I’m now staying at a place called The Circus which is in a more lively part of town. Last night I got to know my room-mates: one German guy waiting on keys to his apartment, and 6 Spanish guys, one of whom might win the award for most friendly person I have ever met. Within 2 minutes of me walking in he was saying things like “If there’s anything I can do to help you out, or if you need anything, just let me know. Have you eaten? Would you like some of our dinner?”. Albert is name. “But you can call me Alber, or Al, or whatever you like”. Great guy.

The Spanish guys were heading out as I checked in at about 10pm last night and I was invited but I had to do some washing and get some sleep. Unfortunately both were kind of unsuccessful. After meeting everyone and talking until about 11pm, I found myself at the laundromat which I was told is open until 1am, confronted by a German owner who speaks no English… His gestures were encouraging, so I put on a wash. But when he came back later and saw I had, he seemed frustrated. He made it clear through gestures that I couldn’t do any drying when the was was over. Turns out they close earlier than I was told by the hostel… So I brought back my wet laundry and hung it up about the room. It worked well enough. Met a couple of cool people while I watched my laundry tumble over and over.

Back in the room I crashed at about 1am, to be woken at 2am, 3am and then again later by the Spanish boys coming back in and doing anything from wrestling, to just laughing drunkenly. I don’t begrudge them their fun. Al saw me sit up in bed and immediately took to shushing them all but he was a bit drunk so his shushing was louder than they. Classic

This morning I was up bright and early to drop off my suit. The tailor lady was much nicer this time: I made sure to arrive right on time, not too early. I then went to Reichstag, to see the famour glass dome, where I haven’t yet been. See this, and this. Who should I find was also there but Friederike and her family, having lunch at the restaurant. I joined them, and we spent the afternoon at at few cafes nd parks before her parents had to depart on their trip back home. Despite 3 days of endless Jesse-exposure, they were as welcoming as ever.

And that’s it gang. I’ve spent the last… almost 4 hours… writing this and burning DVDs of my photos.

And plans going forward? I have no idea. I don’t have time to do Amsterdam, Paris and London any more. I don’t even have time to do Paris and London properly I think, since I can’t leave until tomorrow (1st) at the earliest and I have to leave London on the 9th. I can’t believe how fast the last week or more has gone. I’ll be on my way back soon! That’s a good and a bad thing.

I think I might just chill here in Berlin another few days, then go straight to London and do Paris another time rather than rush it. That is what I will figure out tonight based on prices for airfares, accommodation availability, etc.

Anyway, after that ridiculously long entry I’m going to go get something to eat. Congratulations for making it through and I hope you enjoyed it. I’m sure I’ve left out some great stories in every single post, but if I told it all, I’d not be out experiencing it.

Hope this finds you all well. Lots of love, jess oxox

PS - I think I almost have a new favourite photo. This one, of the view from the beach bar, late at night on Wednesday.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 at 4:04 am and is filed under Germany. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.