All the goths of Berlin and Esther go out to play

Hello all,

I am loving being here in Berlin - it's such an amazing city, not sure how the rest of Europe will live up to it. And I've only been here for, what, 4 days ... heh heh !

I'm kinda tired now, so will not write much. Have just been to dinner with Michelle and Charlie at a thing called Black Girls Coalition which is basically a crazy kind of squat house, really alternative and grungy, and on Mondays it serves full vegan meals for only €2. Bargain! It had heaps of stuff/pictures pasted on the walls and music playing - including one White Stripes song which made me feel right at home. It was nice and relaxed - which really is how I've found Berlin as a whole so far. Very relaxed feeling throughout most of the city at the same time as all this crazy, artistic stuff is going on. It's ... well, great.

Have done heaps these last 4 days (including getting sunburnt today. bugger.) that i don`t think i'll be able to tell you about it all, at least not right now, so I'll tell you about the highlight so far which I am still excited about and can't quite believe it happened. So unexpected! Made me so happy! All just a matter of being in the right place (Berlin) at the right time (now)! Can you guess?! No? ... I saw The Cure! Only, like, my favouritest band in the whole world, whose music makes me the most happy and suits any mood I could be in! And you know, I never actually thought I`d see them play live. Because they NEVER come to Australia. Ok, they have done, long ago in the past. Probably when I was in Primary School or something. And it never occurred to me to see them play elsewhere - I guess I'`m not used to this whole travel thing yet. So I jumped at the chance! And they were *so* great. It was at this big outdoor music venue, totally packed with people - all of whome were very interesting to watch, lots of goths and odd looki' folks and much dyed black hair (surprise surprise) and a couple of Robert Smith look-alikes. But none were as cuddly as the real thing! (not that I cuddled him, mind). They played for ages and were utterly fantastic. Just when I thought well maybe they won't play one of my favouritest Cure songs (*one* of...), Boys Don't Cry, they played it. And then I was even more happy than I was before! They did 4 really long encores, ok, well, 3 really long encores, then one final song with Robert Smith saying "we just don't know when to stop!" ... what else can I say? I never expected to be able to do this and in Berlin of all places. This city rocks!

The way home (home for this week being Marnie's friend Anne´s father`s flat in the former East Berlin - a tiny place full of musical instruments as he`s a music teacher), where was i? oh yes, the way home on the train was interesting. I was busy walking among all the other Cure fans, trying to hear if anyone was speaking English and also for a brief moment trying to stalk a couple of cute looking girls in drag (me being all Marlene Dietrich inspired after the excellent Film Museum the day before), then at the station the train came and the whole platform load of us got on, packed in like cliches in a Mills and Boon novel. And what's a little frotting between complete strangers? Nothing, I say. All in the name of adventure! Or maybe it's a cultural tradition here, like pretzels (of which I've had lots) and bratwurst (which I´ve had one which hit the spot at the time). Except not food-related and on a train. Hm?

Ok, here I sign off for now. Had best go tend to my sunburn. Take care, my amigos.
xxx

Münster, Tinguely and Depp.

Now at Michelle and Charlie's lovely flat in Berlin... but have only been here since midday so don't have much Berlin/German news to tell. So, last days in Basel...

Michelle is giving me German lessons: "Das ist geil!" Meaning "that is cool" but literally meaning horny or randy!

Ok, sorry, got distracted. That wasn't about Basel. But this is: On Thursday me and Nadia went to the Münster (cathedral?) which had some beautiful stained glass windows... including one we thought depicted Satan - only i always imagine him/her in a spiffy straight-leg red suit or looking more like a rock god Mick Jagger style ... but I guess that image wasn't around when this church was being built! So anyway, the chap in the long flowing red robes and kind of horn-type things sticking out of his head, grumpy and surly lookin' turned out to be Moses, not Satan. How disappointment.

I was able to talk the hight-phobic Nadia into climbing up one of the two tall towers that stick out the top of the Münster. Quite unnerving in some places: narrow old spiral stone stair cases, only lit by the small windows so some bits were kind of dark and nothing but a robe to hold onto by way of support. But the views from the top were amazing, could see the whole town laid out, full of churches and its lego-like window shutters on every second building.

Then we went to the Tinguely Museum, which was the art work of this (i think French) bloke who made a whole lot of mechanical type sculptures which do stuff, move around, make sounds, some playing musical instruments (mainly purcussion), quite a few with skulls and bits of dead animal (including one with a hippo skull), lots with cogs and wheels and once you could climb all over. And my favourite one was one where you press a button and then slowly, slowly, then all of a sudden a fluffy toy is hit on the head with a hammer! Ha! ... Then we went home exhausted, a little bit rained on, and didn't get to the main supermarket in time and had to restock my chocolate stash from the late-night shops at the station. Ah well, swiss chocolate is swiss chocolate, is it not?

Das ist geil! Geil, mate, geil. ... oh yeah, we also done went and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - which i LOVED - then extended that into a Festival Of Johnny Depp (is there any other kind?!) by watching Pirates of the BoySeaSluts on Nadia's upstairs neighbour's laptop - everyone cheering when Captain Jack first appeared! BUT if any of my Berlin or UK buddies want to see Charlie and the pedophile that is Johnny Depp dipped in Chocolate (is there any other kind!) again, then I`d be up for it!!

Ok, well, I shall stop being rude to Mich and Charlie and go and talk rather then type! Tschüss!

Basel - home of the basilisk

Hello everyone,

firstly, eruopean keyboards are really confusing me, so i will not be using capital letters as that will give me a headache. secondly, brie. thirdly, swiss chocolate. Mmmmmm.... (*that* warrants a capital letter!)

I am now in Basel, Switzerland, hanging out with my sister at her very cute cosy flat which has the shared bathroom in the basement. also, we leave the flat to go out. we went to the zoo yesterday, which was most excellent but exhausting walking around all day and there were lots of noisy yelling sprogs which was not so fun. the novelty of cute little swiss children has worn off.

on my first day in europe (first proper day, as my "technical" day was half spent in frankfurt airport reading douglas adams and sleeping badly on the airport seats and wishing i was back on the lovely singapore airlines plane watching hitch hikers guide - hold on, there`s a theme here - and doctor who - what more could i want? oh yes, british film Millions (nice, feelgood but not too slushy), and an ep. of the show Coupling.) so anyway where was i? oh yes, first full none-exhausted day in europe, i went with nadia (my sis) to watch her do Kyudo (japanese archery) in a place called Bülach, then we went to Zürich and were given a guided tour by N`s friend Brigitte. i like Zürich muchly... one afternoon is not enough. All the little cobblestoned lanes .... Brigitte treated us to coffee (i have yet to have a decent swiss coffee) and cake at a place that is almost exactly how i imagine the coffee shop that Harry takes Cho Chang in Hogsmede in, is it the 4th Harry Potter book? for Valentines day. except that this one is in Zürich and the other one is in Scotland and fictional. it was covered in multicoloured fake flowers, pretty much, everywhere, lots of small tables packed in together, not so many couples kissing (as in HP) but a nice (er, yeah) swiss man serenading a couple of other Aussie sheilas (not us) with a version of Skippy the bush kangaroo. Not what i expected of switzerland, but amusing nonetheless. Cakes were very rich and very yummy.

Summer is touch and go here at the moment. Here today, but we have had a bit of rain and it`s not really all that warm. ah well, can^t have everzthing. let alone keyboards that make sense to me (rachel and dan, what is the secret magic trick to turning the keyboards into aussie ones??!) What else? I have been eating chocolate - so that i can make an informed decision about what chocolate i should bring with me to Berlin (next stop!) and, if there`s any left by then, Scotland and the UK. To share with you lovely folks I will be meeting up with at those places.

Nadia took me to her favourite bookshop, like a Basel-version of Book Affair for you Carltonites. They had an english section - luckily not too large or else i would have spent all day in there. And i bought "Fingersmith" for 1 swiss franc! (julia, are you proud of me?)

And Basel is home to many fountains with basilisks on them - i have drunk out of a number of them (the one^s youre meant to drink out of) but i have yet to meet a real basilisk so i can^t confirm if JK Rowling has got them right. But hopefully i will not be turned to stone.

I feel like i am writing in broken english (i wonder if that means my german is improving?) ... this keyboard ... anyway, sorry about that! I will try and be more witty and sparkling next time. Hope everyone is well. Take care.
xxx

Almost gone!

I leave tomorrow - all very exciting. Melbourne is putting on a fabulous display of its most charming weather. I think it's trying to guilt trip me. But I won't have it! I'm sure the weather must be better in Basel, Switzerland, which is my first stop. Warmer at least. More Swiss. Perhaps chocolate is raining from the skies. Swiss chocolate of course. I'll let you know once I get there.

Have just finished reading 'Middlesex' by Jeffrey Eugenides, which I recommend to everyone if you haven't already read it. I found a little bit in there that I want to quote, it seems relevant to this whole blog thing:

"...real life doesn't live up to writing about it."

The neighbour's dog Valley is having some sort of fit outside the window. Luckily the cats are inside, so it's nothing cat-related. Or at least, not *our*-cat-related. Should go and extract some purrs out of them while I still can...

welcome

Hello and welcome to my brand new blog. It's so far rather random really, as I'm somewhat computer illiterate so I'm just typing in stuff and pressing buttons and hoping it all works out for the best!

The main purpose of this weird "writing into nothing" (I feel like I'm writing to myself, sealing it in a pretty coloured capsule and sending it off into space) is that I hate hate HATE the genre of emails which is known as "group travel emails", sometimes called "travel group emails". Can't stand 'em. And now that I will be a traveller myself (could there be a more pretentious term?), I thought I'd give people the option of reading what I was up to, rather than just invading your in-boxes with stories of far-flung places, miscommunication and how I'm missing watching Doctor Who.

So, hi! I'll try and keep my posts not too long. Have a wander round. Enjoy. Leave a message.

(By the way, I have just discovered the wonderful: postsecret.blogspot.com - you should check it out. Reminds me of another favourite site of mine: www.foundmagazine.com - a magazine all too rare here in Melbourne)