Post by Johawn on Dec 21, 2009 11:50:55 GMT -5
Just thought I'd give a thread to what turned out to be an incredibly interesting little jaunt to Deutschland. The main reason for going was a Rammstein concert we've had booked for a long while now that me and the lass had been looking forward to since they were announced, but my girlfriend has also been to Berlin before and absolutely loves the city and I was looking forward to taking in a little history and culture.
We arrived on thursday night, which turned out to be the least interesting night. We pretty much arrived, went for food at the hostel (The Generator, which I highly reccommend if you're going to Berlin or going to the Velodrom for an event). We had some drinks and went to bed merry. Lovely.
Friday was the day of the concert, which wasn't until 8pm, so we decided to try and fill the day and went on a free walking tour of the city, which was incredible. I'm sure in most hands and with most guides everything is interesting enough, 'cos there's so much to learn and see, but we had this charming Irish guy leading our tour and he fed us a million little tidbits and jokes about everything that he just made it a truly fascinating and memorable experience. Everyone stayed right to the end of the four hour tour, which is a testament to him, because it was minus 10°C throughout.
We got back and ate and had a few drinks ready for the concert, and got ready. I discovered that German people respect toughness, which was shown when I decided to wear shorts to the concert. The only German I can remember understanding were the words 'kleine' and 'kault', which I must've heard a hundred times in reference to my choice of attire. Most people were in line from about 2pm to get good places in the concert, it being the first night of four gigs Rammstein were doing there. The atmosphere was amazing, people were singing and everyone seemed just excited - made it feel like a huge event. We managed to get in quite quick, with my shorts earning the sympathy from some people we passed near the front, who kindly let us in front.
A little while later we were in, a couple rows from the front, listening to the support band, CombiChrist, beers in hand. If you haven't heard CombiChrist, which I hadn't, I'd strongly encourage you to check them out. They were a lot of fun and they're really a band you can both rock out and groove to. Good times.
Rammstein took to the stage, and about thirty seconds later, me and my girlfriend found we'd had our money stolen. Which sucked. But we figured we couldn't do a lot about it right then, so we focussed on the show, and had a decent time in spite of it all. Rammstein put on an incredible show, unlike anything you'll ever see anywhere else. The amount of work and the stunts and the overall performance they put out to entertain people is outstanding. It was a great show.
Afterwards, we looked at the lost and found to see if our stuff had been handed in, but it hadn't. I think between us we had about 10 euros left, so we headed back to the hostel to just crash, try and sleep through the next day and get our plane back the day after that. So we went back, and went up to our room, had some tap water and talked a whiles. After a little of this, someone opened up our door, which was not unusual - we were sharing a four bed dorm with a French couple. And in they came...with German polizier. It turned out they'd had one of their bags stolen from their room, and we were the main suspects.
I can honestly tell you that there is nothing scarier than sitting in a room, oblivious to what the hell is going on, while the police and people accusing you of a crime, none of whom speak your language, are demanding your passports and trying to find a way to pin something you haven't done on you.
Fortunately, after an hour or so, they left, leaving us our passports and our freedom. The French couple changed rooms, which is good, because I'd have used what little French I know to let them know that I was far from happy. We went to bed, not looking forward to the next day, where we had nothing to look forward to, other than a prepaid breakfast.
We slept late in the morning, and after talking, we decided to just go around the shops the next day and just have a look around. As luck would have it, we went into a discount store that sold like, six beers for about four euros. In Germany, they have this system where you put a deposit on bottles at extra cost, and if you bring them back for recycling and you get it back. So we got them in and figured we could at least have a few drinks in the warm. Which we went to do, and were quite enjoying ourselves, until an English couple spotted us. And invited us over to join them. Eventually, this grew to a group of around twenty strong, and these very kind people happily shared their beer with us, and a guy gave me a crapton of cigarettes. So we drank and were merry until they went for their show.
We had a free internet time voucher, so my girlfriend went online to the Rammstein forums, to see what people had thought of the previous night's show. She was quickly messaged by someone who had been due to come for that night's show, but their flight had been cancelled. Would we like tickets?
...so we got to the show, met up with the people from the hostel, and proceeded to enjoy another incredible show, made better by the good luck we'd had that day, writing off the bad luck we'd had before. The two tickets we got free actually cost more than the money we'd lost, so in the end, it all pretty much turned out alright.
I'm not sure how many people will actually be interested in the story, but I really wanted to make it, because...I like to think of myself as a realist, but I'm probably a bit cynical. I tend to think that most people are douches, but the sheer genorisity of strangers overwhelmed me. These people had no reason to help us out, but they did, and that's just plain awesome. People are good, let it be known!
We arrived on thursday night, which turned out to be the least interesting night. We pretty much arrived, went for food at the hostel (The Generator, which I highly reccommend if you're going to Berlin or going to the Velodrom for an event). We had some drinks and went to bed merry. Lovely.
Friday was the day of the concert, which wasn't until 8pm, so we decided to try and fill the day and went on a free walking tour of the city, which was incredible. I'm sure in most hands and with most guides everything is interesting enough, 'cos there's so much to learn and see, but we had this charming Irish guy leading our tour and he fed us a million little tidbits and jokes about everything that he just made it a truly fascinating and memorable experience. Everyone stayed right to the end of the four hour tour, which is a testament to him, because it was minus 10°C throughout.
We got back and ate and had a few drinks ready for the concert, and got ready. I discovered that German people respect toughness, which was shown when I decided to wear shorts to the concert. The only German I can remember understanding were the words 'kleine' and 'kault', which I must've heard a hundred times in reference to my choice of attire. Most people were in line from about 2pm to get good places in the concert, it being the first night of four gigs Rammstein were doing there. The atmosphere was amazing, people were singing and everyone seemed just excited - made it feel like a huge event. We managed to get in quite quick, with my shorts earning the sympathy from some people we passed near the front, who kindly let us in front.
A little while later we were in, a couple rows from the front, listening to the support band, CombiChrist, beers in hand. If you haven't heard CombiChrist, which I hadn't, I'd strongly encourage you to check them out. They were a lot of fun and they're really a band you can both rock out and groove to. Good times.
Rammstein took to the stage, and about thirty seconds later, me and my girlfriend found we'd had our money stolen. Which sucked. But we figured we couldn't do a lot about it right then, so we focussed on the show, and had a decent time in spite of it all. Rammstein put on an incredible show, unlike anything you'll ever see anywhere else. The amount of work and the stunts and the overall performance they put out to entertain people is outstanding. It was a great show.
Afterwards, we looked at the lost and found to see if our stuff had been handed in, but it hadn't. I think between us we had about 10 euros left, so we headed back to the hostel to just crash, try and sleep through the next day and get our plane back the day after that. So we went back, and went up to our room, had some tap water and talked a whiles. After a little of this, someone opened up our door, which was not unusual - we were sharing a four bed dorm with a French couple. And in they came...with German polizier. It turned out they'd had one of their bags stolen from their room, and we were the main suspects.
I can honestly tell you that there is nothing scarier than sitting in a room, oblivious to what the hell is going on, while the police and people accusing you of a crime, none of whom speak your language, are demanding your passports and trying to find a way to pin something you haven't done on you.
Fortunately, after an hour or so, they left, leaving us our passports and our freedom. The French couple changed rooms, which is good, because I'd have used what little French I know to let them know that I was far from happy. We went to bed, not looking forward to the next day, where we had nothing to look forward to, other than a prepaid breakfast.
We slept late in the morning, and after talking, we decided to just go around the shops the next day and just have a look around. As luck would have it, we went into a discount store that sold like, six beers for about four euros. In Germany, they have this system where you put a deposit on bottles at extra cost, and if you bring them back for recycling and you get it back. So we got them in and figured we could at least have a few drinks in the warm. Which we went to do, and were quite enjoying ourselves, until an English couple spotted us. And invited us over to join them. Eventually, this grew to a group of around twenty strong, and these very kind people happily shared their beer with us, and a guy gave me a crapton of cigarettes. So we drank and were merry until they went for their show.
We had a free internet time voucher, so my girlfriend went online to the Rammstein forums, to see what people had thought of the previous night's show. She was quickly messaged by someone who had been due to come for that night's show, but their flight had been cancelled. Would we like tickets?
...so we got to the show, met up with the people from the hostel, and proceeded to enjoy another incredible show, made better by the good luck we'd had that day, writing off the bad luck we'd had before. The two tickets we got free actually cost more than the money we'd lost, so in the end, it all pretty much turned out alright.
I'm not sure how many people will actually be interested in the story, but I really wanted to make it, because...I like to think of myself as a realist, but I'm probably a bit cynical. I tend to think that most people are douches, but the sheer genorisity of strangers overwhelmed me. These people had no reason to help us out, but they did, and that's just plain awesome. People are good, let it be known!
