Advertisement
Published: July 16th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Its funny, the people you meet. While waiting with great anticipation and apprehension for the commencement of the Australia vs. Japan match (all those weeks ago), we were approached by a man wearing an official Australian Soccer shirt and carrying a hand-sewn Australian flag. "Are you Australian?" he asked in English with a German accent. "Yes" we answered. "True Blue?" he enquired. "Most definiteley". This guy was Alex, and over the next couple of hours we came to discover that he was half Australian, half German and that his hand sewn flag was stolen during a political protest in Canberra and that altought he was originally from Tübingen he was there at that time to organise a Poltical-Musical festival. 16,000 people he assured me, in the very same parl where the World Cup screen was. I had my doubts, 16,000 thats a lot. It's 2 day festival so that meant 8,000 people per day.
We saw Alex a few more times during the World Cup, but didn't think we would be in Tübingen for his festival, in fact we were due to leave the day before it started. However, Kristian has decided to stay in Canada forever. He has opened
The Park As We Found It
I took this as soon as I arrived on the first day. a shop selling small trinkets found only in the coldest and hottest places in the world, and to subsidise his income has begun teaching Canadians how to speak to Kangaroos. (Of course you cannot actually speak to Kangaroos, but they don't know this and its good money 😉. Just kidding, Kristian has however actually decided to stay in Canada for 3 weeks as an oppurtunity arose for him to travel with Chelsea to the Canadian Yukon Territory, as well as Alaska, both of which would be absolutely fantastic places to visit. First they go to the Yukon for a wedding and then to Alaska. He is driving there (5,000km!, 5,000!) and then flying back, quite an adeventure into a aprt of the world that not many get to see. This means that I get to speand a bit more time in beautiful Deutschland which bothers me not as the weather, the food, the people and the beer are surely almost without equal.
Kristian staying a bit longer did present one small problem in that we only had our apartment for 2 months, so I would be homeless for a few weeks. My brother once told me of an old
The First Night
Taken from the same position as the last one. proverb that says
If you need something, first ask yourself: Who do I know?. Well I applied this way of thinking to this situatin and messaged Alex to see if he knew anyone who had a spare room in town, he rang back almost immeadiately saying that his Mum might be able to help, while talking I said that I would be able to help with his festival now that I would be in town. He told me to rock up to the park at 1pm on Wednesday, and although they couldnt pay me would be able to provide me with food, beer and a T-shirt. Sounded good to me.
So when I arrived not only had nothing really begun but the things from the World Cup arena had even been fully packed up. There was myself, Alex and 6 other people and in exactly 49 hours they expected 8,000 people in the Park! I had less confidence that it would all happen. So over the next few days I helped set up stages, Circus tents, normal tents, carry this and that from here to there, and along with a Brazilian guy who spoke less English than I spoke
German managed to drill together a floor for a B-Boy Battle (I must admit that I didn't even know what that was).
There ended up being more than the original 6 people. The event was organised through the university, and run completely by volunteers. It was a bit of test for my German because when people are organising things and under great stress, usually they speak fast. So people would race up to me and say something in rapid-fire German, which unfortunately I could not understand so quite often I would stare blankly at them while trying to figure out what they said before resorting to "Leider, Ich habe nicht verstanden. Vielleicht auf English?" (Unfortunately I didnt understand that, perhaps in English?).
When the festival started I was still a little unsure about how many people would come, but come they did. By 9pm the placed was absolutely packed, over 10,000 people in the park! After spending some time trying to figure out how to run a cable from here to there, I felt it was time for a beer. Problem was when I got to the bar the lines were 5 people deep all the way around.
I really wanted a beer however inspite of this I decided to offer my assistance to Cristoph, the guy running the bar. I told him I could help but didn't speak much German. His answer "Please help". I have never really worked at a bar, and definitely not in another language so the next few hours were quite interesting. Granted Germans speak very good English but some were a bit confused as to why I couldn't speak to them in fluent German, but thrust a cold beer in to someones hand and really it doesnt matter, who or where it came from, the beer-in-hand thing is the most important part.
So the first day went well finishing around 2am, followed by an after-party at a nearby bar. The next day I arrived without having eaten, making a bee-line for the Vegetarian Paradise tent, for a delightfully tasty Vegieburger. Just as I was almost there a guy rushed up to me and said "Are you busy?" "Umm, no" I replied with great hesistation. "Okay", he continued. "you see those crates of beer?" he said while pointing towards 280 (heavy) crates of beer. "Well they need to go in the coolroom
My Desk
Not really to do with the fesitival but I kinda liked the photo. Notice the minuture Eiffel Tower. I'm not really into souveneirs, but you have to get a miniture Eiffel Tower right? over there." Shit. So in they went, it took a while but it got done. And atleast transporting beer so that it can become cold is a noble task.
That night instead of braving the punters at the bar I decided to volunteer to fill the fridges, so that those who could speak German could serve the customers. So more lugging crates. And these Germans can drink, goddamn they can drink. After a particulary tiring night I made it to the afterparty for about half an hour before crashing into bed. Today we started packing which involved, more lugging of beers crates.
The past few days have been very intense but I enjoyed every bit of it. Along with my fellow bandmates at home, I am a bit of a budding festival organiser so it was a priceless experience to see how a festival of this size was organised. (25,000 people all up!). There was over 40 acts on 5 stages, as well as political workshops, peotry slams, B-Boy Battles (I know what they are now) and dance productions. A great experience.
Next weeks adventure: a 6-day trip to Barcelona, Spain. Unfortunately Anja can't join me for this trip because of something she calls "studying for exams". It is hot here and apparently its really hot in Spain at the moment which will should be excellent. Well thats all from me for now, hope all are well at home.
John
Advertisement
Tot: 0.238s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0599s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
elise
non-member comment
howdy boys!
well the tales of your travels continue to fascinate every time i open my email! congratulations john on your writing success hitting the big time in german newspapers. i noticed your copyright at the bottom of the blog. did they get your expressed written consent to publish your work as the law demands? just a thought - sue em for extra spending money in spain. careful of the bears in alaska puddy!!!! xxx elise