The Love Empire

Well the holidays are here, and I think we've been more busy than when we were at uni! It's got a lot to do with the weather, with one beautiful 35 degree day followed by another! Rain? Snow? Cold? These words have fallen out of my vocabulary.

So on Saturday last week, the famous Love Parade was held again, after a two-or-so year absence, in Berlin. It was just surreal; imagine the mardi gras in Sydney, and then multiply it by 50! Thousands and thousands of people were gathered along Strasse des 17. Juni, the main road in Berlin Mitte that links the Zoo train station, the Siegerseule and Brandenburger Tor, with the Siegessaeule being the main attraction; around the monument stood about 6 stages, with huge speakers blasting out (crap) dance music. On top of every traffic light and lamp post stood ravers, sucking lollipops and dancing wildly! It really was something to behold!

The biggest thing that happened this week though, for me anyway, was that I just by accident found out that the Cat Empire was playing in Berlin! I found out on Sunday that they were playing on Monday! So on Monday we gathered a few people together and headed into Berlin for some Cat Empire action! Tickets were hard to come by, but the extra effort paid off in the end; the concert was just amazing. It was sold out in the end, with hundreds of people waiting hopefully outside the venue for tickets, but to no avail.

Because the place was so full, and it had been another 35 degree day, the three fans in the whole building had a lot of trouble keeping us cool. I think it's the hottest I've ever been; by the end we were completely drenched in sweat and I was able to squeeze liquid out of my skirt as if I'd just jumped into a swimming pool. The band themselves said it was the hottest gig they'd ever played! It certainly didn't affect their performance though... it really blew me away!

The Cat Empire has a cool tour blog; they describe the Berlin gig there, and there are a couple of photos, the sort where Luke and I went, oh yeah! We walked past that huge mural of Ronaldino! and yeah, that Berlin hip-hop crew busking outside the venue was really cool! Also, see if you can see Katherine and Mark in the photo of the crowd. Unfortunately the rest of us are just off to the left hand side of the photo =P

Luke and I spent Tuesday and Wednesday both recovering, and planning our next adventure; a day kayaking, picnicing and swimming with Claudi, her friend Christian, and my new Spanish flatmate Patricia and her boyfriend Ishmael. We left at 9am on Thursday morning, biking to the peninsula in the middle of Potsdam called Hermanswerda, where we hired out three 2 man kayaks and set off paddling around the city. About an hour later, we found a nice quite little beach, where we stopped off, had a swim and had a gormet picnic, baking in the 38 degree sun! Then we paddled back to Hermanswerda, put the boats back, then ran back down the wharf and jumped off the end, kodak moment style! It was so much fun; we felt like carefree kids again!

We rode to Christian's place to watch the Tour de France and have a little rest, before heading off again, this time to another lake in Potsdam, Heiligen See, where we had another swim at 9pm! We had a beer there, then headed home, tired but well and truely happy. I think it was the best day I've had here so far. A whole day of adventure and laughs with good friends... it was exhilarating, I really felt alive!

So to last night, and we had our last international student 'grill'. All the international students we met at the initial German course almost five months ago are preparing to go home...the time has gone so fast. It's strange to think that we've been here five months already; it feels so much shorter than that. Things are changing; the summer's arrived in full swing, our friends are going home, Katherine and her boyfriend Mark are galavanting around the Greek Islands, and Luke and I are leaving in less than a week on our mammoth trip around Europe.

We've done so much already, and still have so much to look forward too... what a life! I hope this blog finds you all (whoever you are!) well back at home, and that you're enjoying the Australian winter.

Photos of our latest adventures can be found here.

Bis naechstes Mal,

Ciao

Die Ferien sind fast da!

Yeah, so I was bitterly disappointed that Italy won the world cup. France played better the whole game, and the Italians just played defensive, boring football. I was very impressed by Zidane's headbutt, but it's a shame that that could have cost France the game.

In happier news, we three Potsdamers have finished our big UTS assignments for this semester, and can almost taste the summer holidays! Katherine, Mark, Luke and I had a picnic yesterday evening in Park Sans Souci, with champagne, camembert, smoked salmon, strawberries and cream, and every good thing, to celebrate the completion of the said assignments! It was lovely and relaxed, and it was great to be able to enjoy ourselves without a cloud of guilt hanging over our heads.

Today we're going on a little bike trip to a lake on the other side of Potsdam to go swimming, to make the most of this glorious, cloudless, 30 degree day! (just trying to make you people suffering the Australian 'winter' jealous) What fun!

Ooh, and this weekend brings the Love Parade in Berlin... so much to look forward to! Look out for another post soon,

Tchussi.

P.S. Never read Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. That was three wasted hours of my life I will never get back.

Ohne Brasilien, fahren wir nach Berlin

That was a tops game last night between France and Brasil! Even better that France won. Now they can go and kill the "unsympathetisch" Portugal, and Germany can torture and then kill Italy, and it'll be a Germany v France final!

Ok, so we've been watching a lot of football lately... but other things have been happening as well, like people coming to stay with us, going to see the Stroke, and going to a ball...

First thing's first, a few weeks ago, Luke's friends from Sydney, Dave, Teagan and Glenn came to visit during their rather large trip through Europe. Much beer and wine was drunk, and they saw the sights of Potsdam and Berlin including, among other things, the Strandbar (a cool makeshift beach on the side of the river here in Potsdam), Kreuzberg in Berlin, the Berlin wall at Ostbahnhof, and the biggest camping store in Berlin (Glenn was so excited he saw it twice!). It was good to meet them, and hopefully we'll catch up with them again sometime this year.

Also around that time, our old friend from UTS, now living it up big in London, Mendel, came over to Berlin to see a few World Cup games, and to also catch up with us. It was good to actually follow through on a promise made in Paris a few months ago! We had a good time at the Fan Mile in Berlin, which is a 1km stretch of huge screens showing football, the main screen being at the Brandenburg Gate.

In some non-football news, we went to see the Strokes in Berlin last Tuesday night, in an old loading dock on the Spree. The location was very cool, and the music was even cooler! The band was slow to warm up, but when they did, they really got rocking, and we all had a great time.

Also, my flatmate Claudi invited us to the uni's Sport Science Ball held last Thursday night, which gave us a chance to borrow nice clothes, and get all dressed up. I borrowed a dress from Claudi, and Luke borrowed a suit from Claudi's friend Christian's brother. We had fun at the pre-Ball drinks at a classmate of Claudi's place, but didn't stay at the ball very long, cos it was rather boring... but it was still fun to get all dressed up for once!

Instead of spending hours posting photos up here, we've decided to get a photo hosting site. So to see photos from the last month or so, go here.

Anyway, I'd better get back to the assignment =P

Ciao