best weekend everrr

Yeah so I'm back at work on a Monday and it's a bit of a let-down after the following:

FRIDAY
I had the day off work to go to Berlin. I took the train there and met Josephine Blümel, a girl who spent the first half of 2007 at Friends' School so that's how we know each other. After getting to her place, she took me for a bit of a drive on the Autobahn just near her house, and when we had a clear way ahead we went as fast as 230km/h - that's 50 more than my previous fastest speed of 180 back in Uelzen in June 2007! Didn't feel scary at all, cause of the sheer size of the highway. 160 on this thing feels like a normal 100 in Tasmania.

In the evening we went to a bar to see Eskimo Joe perform - that's why I came to Berlin on this particular day. The concert was wicked! They played 5 songs from the upcoming album, quite a few favourites from Black Fingernails, Red Wine and also a few from the older albums, a good mix. Josy and I were way close, only a few people standing between us and the stage. I got some cool photos and videos and sang along with all the songs I knew, which I think they noticed, cause they're not big in Europe at all it would have been surprising to see someone who knew their stuff.

After the gig, Josy and I each bought a T-shirt then we were randomly asked by a couple of people to do an interview for some kind of indie rock magazine based in the USA. We answered a few questions in front of their camera and are not sure what to expect from it! Anyway, we rejoined the crowd to queue for autographs. Stu McLeod came past while Kav Temperley was at the desk, and because I had a permanent marker already I asked him for a signature which he was fine with. He signed both Josy's and my copy of Black Fingernails, Red Wine as well as my setlist I took from the stage after they finished playing. Then Joel Quartermain came past on his way to the bar and was more than happy to sign our stuff too! I left him with my marker cause he had a few more fans gathering around him, and Josy and I got to the desk and had Kav sign our stuff, completing the set of three, we left very hapy indeed!

SATURDAY
Josy and I spent the morning going around Berlin's Alexanderplatz area - we went to Media Markt and Saturn (both are like JB Hi-Fi but bigger) and bought CDs, we looked in the Marienkirche, we browsed the local markets, we ate lunch and were going to go up the TV Tower but decided against it due to the queues and the amount of time we had left. Eventually, the time came for me to say goodbye and I took the S-Bahn to the main station then got the train home.

Not even an hour later, it was time to go again - Camilla and I went to the Neustadt to go to a barbecue. It was organised by the Dresden CouchSurfing community, that website where people offer travellers a bed for a night instead of having to pay for accomodation. We got there at like 6 and ended up leaving after midnight. It was cool, there were about 40 people there and a whole ton of food and drink that everyone brought to share. I talked to people from Spain, USA, Chile, England, and some locals as well. It was a really fun night.

SUNDAY
After getting an hour less sleep due to the beginning of daylight savings, Camilla and I joined a group of people who were at the barbecue who'd organised a bit of a hiking trip for the day. We took the train south-east to "Saxon Switzerland" - an area of Saxony (nowhere near the country Switzerland) that has a lot of wilderness, walking tracks and small touristy towns. There were 10 of us in total, during the day I talked to most of the others so I've made quite a few friends through CouchSurfing now.

We walked along the river Elbe for a while and then headed up through some awesome cliff paths then some rainforesty type scenery that reminded me a bit of Tasmania. After like 3 or 4 hours of walking and stopping periodically for drinks and stuff, we arrived back in the town we started and went to Ria's house - she's one of the CouchSurfers and happens to live in this town. We had some awesome cake and played cards and sometime around 5 the rest of us caught the train back to Dresden.

So yeah, unlike a lot of my recent weekends, I feel like I really made something of this one and should get out and do things more often - there's a whole lot more of Dresden and Saxony I haven't seen yet.

This week I'm only working three days because from Thursday to Sunday there's a big Lattitude meeting - all the Aus/NZ volunteers who are doing placements in Germany are meeting up in Erfurt, a city in the middle of the country, and so my next post will probably be in a week, talking about just that.

Tschüs ya'll.