Midsommar!

As you will already know if you take notice of these things, last Thursday was the summer solstice – the official first day of summer. In England, not a place renowned for its summeriness (as demonstrated by the fact Sheffield is currently flooded), this is no big deal, but the Europeans, especially the northern ones, tend to make quite a fuss about it. Being as I associate on a frequent basis with a number of Nordic types here in Berlin, and with a view to my time in Sweden, it was inevitable I take part in the madcap schemes planned for the weekend.

These schemes began on Friday with a journey to Tierpark in very East Berlin, where hordes of (mainly) Swedish students were amassing on the lawn. By the time we arrived, the afternoon as sunny, but not ridiculously warm, blue and yellow ribbons and ballons were strewn around the vicinity and a banquet-sized table cloth lain out on the floor was slowly filling up with all manner of things both Swedish and edible. Within a couple of hours, all the food was ready, a cross (of planks appropriately purchased from IKEA) had been erected, and the guests numbered anywhere between 30 and 50. And thus we tucked in.



On offer, amongst other things, were köttbullar, various types of herringsil, crackerbread, potatoes and a range of cheeses. To go with this, pear cider and Vodka (snaps substitute), and to go with these, Snapsvisor – Swedish drinking songs, which I was surprised to recognise a couple of. It was a most luscious spread, topped off later by excessive strawberry consumption. And dancing around the midsommarstång, something which has to be seen to be believed.

After a couple of hours, Mr. Rain started to feel a bit left out and attempted to join in the festivities, thus causing us to take them inside. Later on, the fun continued in not one but two clubs, until the break of dawn. Well, when in Berlin…



Though not as madly into the whole thing as the Swedes, the Berliners were also celebrating midsummer this weekend, and to that end myself, Johanna, Jenni and her 2 Finnish visitors had a wander down to the island in Alt-Treptow, where word had reached us there would be a medieval festival in order to celebrate the “Sonnenwende”. After a little confusion at the fact the festival wasn’t in the main park itself, and a wander down the river, we eventually found said island, and, along with it, said festival.



The poster had promised, amongst other things, a medieval market, music, dancing and knights, so it was a bemused group of ERASMUS students who wandered through the gate into an area not much bigger than my back garden. Yes, there was a medieval market, but as to just where the knights were meant to joust, and indeed where they were at all, we were somewhat uncertain. However, the market felt pretty authentic, and after a look around it, we settled down at a table to watch the music and dancing. The audience wasn’t huge, but numbers began to swell as the show went on, and it was both a pleasant and interesting experience, with a great range of quaint and intricate wooden instruments being put into use.



However, we tired before too long, and while the Finnish girls went off to do more sightseeing, myself and Johanna took to exploring our general area a little more, having never previously been to Treptow. After an hour walking through the woods and the park, we came to the conclusion it was big. However, we did eventually find our way out, and decided to stop for food and ice cream at a bustling biergarten on the way. The ice-cream was good, but the real attraction soon revealed itself in form of the ‘entertainment’ provided. There was a small stage, occupied by a DJ spinning the kind of “classic disco hits” one would expect to find at a family reunion party or wedding anniversary - Whigfield, Cotton-Eye Joe et. al. And dancing to these songs, in all their timeless glory, were the largest group of tipsy, elderly Germans anyone could ever wish for. And they were really going for it. Pointing in the air, hip-thrusts every which-way, the lot. Dani, if you’re reading this, you would have loved it. Some of them were even wearing bum bags.

A fitting end to a glorious weekend’s celebration of a festival I’ve never even paid attention to before, I feel. The next weeks promise to be busy: there are only 3 weeks of semester left here, and as such my time is drawing to an end, but before I finally return to the hallowed land known as Engl, I’m going to be on the road again to visit Clarissa in Freiburg, as well as friends in Graz and Munich, before catching a bit of Dresden and showing Matt the delights of Berlin. Then there’s Wacken. And somewhere in the middle of all that I have some exams too. Joy!

Type O Negative

So, as I was saying…a few weeks ago, I was going to see Type O Negative at Columbiahalle in Berlin. And see them I did. And it was one of the strangest gigs I’ve ever been to.

I suppose the clue should have been in their surprise opening track, a cover of The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. Not many bands would open on a cover, least of all one so far away from their own stylings in its original form, but then, Type O Negative aren’t many bands. They proved this further by continuing at full pelt (if the term truly fits) through songs mainly from their new album, Dead Again, for 40 minutes before disappearing off the stage without having spoken a word to the audience.

This turned out to be a theme for the evening. Whereas most bands, when doing a headline gig, would go out onto the stage and play for 90 minutes to 2 hours, briefly disappear and then return once, possibly twice for an encore of no more than 3 songs, Type O disappeared off the stage no less than four times throughout the evening, each for about 5 minutes, and only once at a point in the set where one would traditionally expect an encore. To be honest, I found this a little frustrating, though it didn’t seem to unduly bother most people. I doubt very much whether anyone else would have got away with it though!

Another thing that was strange was the fact that Kenny, the guitarist, seemed to be singing a lot more than he does on the records. He actually has a very good voice, so I didn’t mind at all, but it was strange nonetheless, especially as I don’t remember him singing much, if at all, the last time I saw them. What was also funny in this respect was that, last time I saw Type O Negative, I knew none of their material, whereas this time I was quite familiar with most of their back catalogue, but still didn’t recognise a lot of what they played. Nor did they play the songs I expected off the new album, save for The Profit of Doom. Still, Type O Negative have never really been a band to do the expected, and they pulled off a good gig in spite of it. As only they could.

A bit of Berlin

This month is my month of simply "being" in Berlin. No travelling (til the very end of it), no visitors, just living as one would normally live in such an amazing place. I can't remember exact details of everything that's been happening, but here's some highlights...

1) Weinerei. Been here a couple of times this month, and I expect there shall be more to follow. The idea is that you pay €1 for a glass when you enter, then you keep refilling this glass from the selection of wines available, and upon leaving, you pay what you belive your evening has been worth. I'm not a big wine drinker, but this concept appeals to me, and also seems quite typical of Berlin, which is fun.



2) Gigs. Actually, I went to one just before I went to Salzburg, Mnemic, Nightrage, Slowmotion Apocalypse and Karras @ Knaack Klub, which i forgot to mention in my hurry to recount all my travellings. Generally a thrash/"melodic death metal" (an odd term if ever there was one) evening, in rather a small club...nothing too amazing, but good fun nonetheless. Good to get gigging again, it had been a while. This Friday I'll be going seeing Type O Negative, so more on that story later....

3) Swedish things. Last Wednesday was Swedish National Day, so myself and Johanna went to celebrate at Ikea. Not most people's first choice of a party venue, I know, but it's the most obvious place to eat Swedish food in Berlin. After that, we went for cocktails somewhere in Kreuzberg with hanna and a load of friends from back in Sweden she had visiting. This was fun :) Also of note, in IKEA we found the first written evidence of our new language, "Schweutschlish" (Swedish/German/English), in a sign advertising "Köttbullar to go für €1".



4) Uni. Sadly, I am actually here primarily for "business reasons", and as such I have to do some work every now and then. This morning I did a presentation on the German Hausarbeit (it's sort of a dissertation), and I may also have to say something about a poem this afternoon. It's also not too long til the end of the semester now, where we have to sit some lovely exams. Oh joy.

5) Neuer Mitbewohner. I have (another) new flatmate. Except this time there are 2 differences to my previous ones. He's both German, and Normal. This can only be good, so I felt it was worth a mention.

6) Flunkyball and BBQ - being as Berlin has a bloody great park in the middle of it, as is our wont (and that of many other Berliners), we have been known of late to go and have a Grill there. Here we also play flunkball, a game involving balls and bottles of beer. I'm not sure if it's German (it was introduced to me by Norwegians), but it's fun.

7) Mauerpark/Flohmarkt - I currently live surprisingly close to where the Berlin Wall used to stand, and right on the border of a Sunday there's a sizeable flea market in the park there. You can buy everything from bikes to portraits to plants to hats...it's great, and as such I've splashed a little of the old birthday money on a couple of things.

Think that's about it for now, pictures and further reports of things to follow!

And this is our cat, Lulu:

Salzburg! – 25-28th May 2007

It’s a while since I’ve been to Austria, so I was rather looking forward to my next trip. It’s been a pretty hectic month, and as it turned out, this was the perfect way to wind down a bit. My friend Werner (amongst others), who I know from Sweden, lives and studies near Salzburg in Tirol, so it was time for further reunion activites and a bit of a break from the hectic big-city lifestyle of Berlin for the bank-holiday weekend (Pfingsten, or Pentecost, in Germany and Austria). After a few technical issues (unusual for German trains) and a missed connection, I eventually arrived in Salzburg early evening, and myself and Werner took a stroll through the city before hopping into a local eatery just in time to avoid the sudden onset of a summer storm. Here we did a bit of catching up, and I reacquainted myself with a little of the Austrian dialect. Werner also explained that there wasn’t actually a great deal to do in the area, as it’s quite small, but as I said, this suited me fine in the end, and it couldn’t have turned out much of a better break. We had a casual evening playing cards over a few beers with some of Werner’s friends and listening to music, which was rather pleasant.

The next day we rose at leisurely pace, and breakfasted likewise on fresh bread, cheese and assorted hams. I was beginning to remember why I like Austria. This memory was jogged further as we strolled ten minutes down the hill to the local lake…the scenery in Tirol really is stunning, and I was quite frankly in awe of the lake and mountains in the summer sun. We ate lunch back with Werner’s parents, as it was his Dad’s birthday, and it was delicious :) Saturday afternoon we first visited the local football tournament, held annually at this time of year, before heading on down to another local lake/beach area. He we found not only more of Werner’s friends, but also some of mine, Vic and Barbara, who I also know from Sweden. It was good to see them again, and we spent the afternoon generally lazing around and occasionally nipping in the water for a quick swim, which was much-needed, being as the weather was so ridiculously warm.

After a quick refresher, we headed on out again to the centre of Salzburg. We stopped first by two friends of Werner, Stefan and Helena, who were having a little pre-party. Here much fun was had, and we later moved on to a (the?) local rock bar for the remainder of the night, where further fun, laughs, and Manowar were had. Very good night :)

Sunday should always be a leisurely day, and it was with this in mind that we spent a good deal of time lazing before we finally got back out onto the road to head into the Salzkammergut, Austria’s rather impressive answer to the Lake District. Here we visited Mondsee and Wolfgangsee, just two of the beautiful lakes the area has to offer. Naturally considering the weather and the bank holiday weekend, there were quite a few tourists around, but it was nowhere near as bad as it can get in England, and if you ask me, it was also much nicer.

Later on in the evening we travelled back into Salzburg to get something to eat and a couple of Apfelschorlers (or “Apfelsaft gespritzt”, as the Austrians like to say :P ) with Vic. It was a balmy evening, and the conversation and company was good. It was, however, another early one, not least due to the scheduling of the next morning.

After getting up, breakfasting, packing and saying my farewells to Werner’s parents, we headed into the Old Town of Salzburg for a whistle-stop sightseeing tour before my train home. Now, I realise this could have been done earlier in the weekend at a more leisurely pace, but Salzburg is quite small, and as I tend to sightsee everywhere, I much preferred to spend the majority of my time in the other ways available to me. Within a couple of hours we took in all the main sights, including the Mirabelgarten, Mozart’s Birthplace and the Cathedral. Salzburg’s a lovely little place, and I had a great weekend. Vielen Dank nochmal sowohl zu Werner als auch zu seiner Eltern und Freunden, die mich so wilkommen und wie zu Hause gemacht haben. Und Grüße auch zu Vic und Barbara, hoffe wir sehen uns bald wieder! :) :)

Sweden Reunion Part 2 – 18-20 May 2007

And so it was, that the weekend after my parents had been here, Jane and Danielle popped over to see me and Berlin. Sadly, Emily did not make the trip, as she slept in and missed her flight, which everyone thinks was a bit silly of her, but Dani and Jane arrived in one piece and with relatively little confusion on Friday evening, despite the fact Dani was driving. We took a moment or several to catch/freshen up before heading out for the evening. We wanted to keep it fairly low-key, as we had a big day ahead of us on the morrow, so we started off by inducting Dani into German culture in the only place possible – the Biergarten. Here she enjoyed, in addition to our company, a large bratwurst, a pretzel and a Berliner Kindl with a strange-coloured shot in it – all very traditional and German. She was most impressed, and we happily soaked up the ambience for a while before moving on to another couple of bars in meiner Nähe then calling it an early night.

The next day I had been hoping to show Jane and Dani my wonderful U-Bahn line (I feel it is here for me personally, as it usually stops practically outside my house), but alas, it is currently undergoing work, so we caught the tram and an S-Bahn to the Brandenburger Tor, where our adventure for the day was to begin. A friend of Jane’s had recommended the New Berlin Free Walking Tour, which, being students, we couldn’t resist as a sightseeing option, so we met up with some people in red shirts and a large number of tourists to be allocated our group. Our guide for the day was a tall Arizonan chap by the name of Charlie, who was very interesting, if a little overenthusiastic at times. The tour began with a brief history lesson around the Brandenburger Tor and Reichstag, which in itself was good for me for filling in the gaps in my knowledge. We then moved on to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the former site of Hitler’s bunker, where he finally died. Everything was colourfully recounted, and I really got a feeling of how much went on in the city and country in which I currently live, which was amazing. We then moved on to take in the largest remaining section of the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie, and afterfter a short lunch break along Friedrichstraße to the Gendarmee Markt, where the Deutscher & Französischer Doms are situated. Eventually we finished up around the Berliner Dom and Museeninsel, where we were treated to a lively account of the fall of the wall. All in al it was an excellent tour, and I feel much better equipped for living here having learned all that I did along the way. I think Jane and Dani were also amazed by the amount of history which happened in the very places I live my everyday life at the moment. It was, however, a somewhat tiring experience, especially in the heat of the early summer, so we went back to mine and chilled out for a while before beginning the evening’s festivities.

When they did begin, it was at Rice Queen, a Chinese eatery around the corner from me. Cheap and splendid, was what it was, and it fuelled us nicely on to the free open-air Opera taking place near my university. We spent a while here pretending to be cultural on a budget before moving on to the night’s main event – the New Berlin Pub Crawl. Run by the same company as the tour, it took in 5 bars before we hit the Matrix club. All in all, it was a good night, though it was a little strange for me to be out with so many English speakers! Fun was had by all however, and that’s all that matters.

Due to the returning of the hire car to Bonn, Jane and Dani had to leave Sunday evening, so we spent the day thereof in a relaxing manner, wandering down to Potsdamer Platz and the Topography of Terror exhibition at the wall before a bit more chilling, packing and farewells. It was a good weekend overall, if a little short, and it was great to see Dani and Jane again. We all agreed to have a reunion in Las Vegas in a few years too, so there’s another excuse for some more travelling!