Hello everyone,
After having had to work during New Year Eve I enjoyed even more this first little voyage of the year 2008. More trips are to come but I started the travel-year 2008 with a short 4 day trip, combining a PARTY adventure with a PLACE adventure.
On Thursday I flew from Berlin to Frankfurt, having found a cheaper flight with Lufthansa than a ticket with the German railway company Deutsche Bahn. My friend Carsten, whom I had met only recently, in November 2007 in Buenos Aires, was so kind to pick me up from the airport and staying at his hospitable home I introduced myself by cooking a really yummy dinner.
We had met at a ‘Milonga’ (which stands simply for ‘Tango party’) and of course we started the weekend early by checking out a Milonga in Frankfurt. It was a very small venue and few people in attendance, but the music was very good and I had soooooo much fun dancing Tango. To me that is still surprising because Tango seems to be such a serious stuff and then ‘heyhoho’ I am having fun…! Probably because I am achieving to dance Tango and follow Tangueros leads
without having taken more than 5 classes, so the fun stems actually from the sense of satisfaction about my accomplishment despite the odds. [:-)]
ANYWAY, after having stayed in Wiesbaden for one night I went on to explore the town Wiesbaden itself on Friday afternoon. It is actually the capital of the federal state ‘Hessen’ and I walked around for about 3 hours, getting a good impression of the place. Almost footsore already, I left for an early start at the opening night of the congress in nearby Frankfurt am Main.
The venue last year had been too small, too crowded and totally insufficient. So this years venue was a vast improvement. A nice large ballroom, nice wooden floor and an alright sound system. The air circulation was lacking though and brought on a thick, stuffy air resulting in many people choosing to stand just outside the ballroom to catch their breath and to cool/dry down.
A third of the room had been filled with rows of chairs to accommodate for the 1½ hour show sets. The stage was nicely elevated and the lighting was good too. The bars were manned sufficiently so that mostly the line wasn’t
getting too long. A large coatroom just opposite of the bar provided easy access and was convenient. So all in all I consider this year’s set up as a huge improvement.
The main, and as I have heard by many others too, drawback was the early finish EVERY night. On all nights the music was abruptly stopped even though there were plenty of dancers (30 - 100) still on the dance floor, wanting to dance, whistling and booing out of sheer frustration about being stopped in full swing. I actually used the chance to point this (obvious) fact out to one of the organizers but initially he seemed totally uncaring about it. On Sunday night then he did have the music continuing for at least a little bit longer (30 min or so) than planned but the dance floor was packed by then too and the booing and ‘otra otra’ shouting was quite demanding. Again, to me and many others, the inconsistency about the information displayed online and the actual finish time was a quite source of disappointment. I wonder what will happen at next year’s event…..!
The music too was somewhat improvable, at least for my liking.
During the very early 2 hours (before the show sets) they were playing the best music (classic salsa dura!) and later when everyone had arrived they were playing a somewhat less enjoyable mix.
I found it a shame too that the DJ’s of the last 1 to 2 hours were not tuning their choice of songs to the dancers capabilities. What I mean is that they played lots of slow and groovy salsa dura during the very early night and the highly energetic pieces during the very late night. It should be the other way round: a slow and short warm up first, later more of the energetic and fast stuff, latest mainly of the medium-fast and groovy stuff. I am talking here in general terms of course, not every single song but as a timing frame and trend for the speed of songs over a whole night.
Not sure, did I express myself clearly and understandable ….?!
That DJ-timing issue is of course not restricted to this event only, unfortunately I have experienced it at many events and maybe there is some reason to it or I am getting it wrong….. Maybe you guys wanna send me an email
and give me your feedback about it?!?! (please use my personal email if you have it or stefdancingnomad@yahoo.com)
Well, getting back to the weekend itself, I used Saturday and Sunday afternoon and early evenings to check out the town of MAINZ. Mainz is just opposite Wiesbaden, on the other side of the river Rhein and is the federal capital of another federal state: ‘Rheinland-Pfalz’. It is hailed to be less pompous and ‘rich’ than Wiesbaden but does have a longer history: reaching back well into Roman times. I liked both towns and managed to find a real old fashioned restaurant where I sampled the local specialities ‘Handkaes mit Musik’ and ‘Spundekaes mit Brezel’ alongside some local white wine.
Hmmm, Y U M M Y!
My awesome host in Mainz for the 3 nights was Martin, a fellow salsa dancer whom I had met when he lived in Berlin and recently moved to Mainz. The Monday then I simply relaxed and took it easy and returned straight to night duty at work once back in Berlin.
Salsaludos,
Your dancing nomad!
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