It was strange to come back to mundane rainy England after all the near tropical fanfare of Florida, USA. I was soon off to Berlin where I wanted to see some friends from last year and this was something special. I enjoy the openness of the Germans where people strive to speak English to you even when they are not so fluent and where women are as independent as men in the pursuance of their life goals. I missed the anti-fa and alternative scene here, where students see it as their responsibility to protest for their rights and march in favour of the environment and stand up against the terrible spectre of a rising Neo-nazi faction especially in the eastern regions. I hearkened back to our fun times with Robert and Henry and we had more adventures with these guys. After a few days chilling with my straight-talking friend Kati in Friedrichshain, including a stay in a feminist lesbian woman-only squat known as the XB Liebig where I met some fabulously open people and others who were incredibly insular, I was able to venture north, hitching to Hamburg where there were holding the clima camp. .... I wrote this report for a newspaper so I think you may have already seen it and it best describes the feelings I felt there.
I was a time of learning and of interesting conversations and also set me up to meet other people in the south of Berlin, especially in a small community a few kms south of the capital where I stayed in a chilled community house in a small village where I could feel at home picking up potatoes from the backgarden plot of land or wild herbs to sweeten our salad by the river with this acquantance and her young child. It was strange to feel the calm of the countryside with its leisurely pace and its sound of silence, loveable dogs coming to greet you and old buildings covered in ivy. Sitting there pondering I could see this kind of life becoming my future as a more thriving community model would be an interesting way in which to gratify some hopes and desires.
The next step was a hitch to Leipzig, which went really smoothly and I was able to stay with some friends in the city for a while I also met in the clima camp. Hanging with this couple in their house was fun, despite a few mishaps like a stolen bicycle and the fact they were moving away. Meeting up with some other people from the hamburg camp I was able to find this party in the forest, by a lake under a road-bridge after cycling through dark tracks alone with very little sense of where I was going. The party was well-worked as I can expect from the Germans showing they do not only talk a lot, they also act a lot and put a lot of effort into their activity. It all ended prematurely when the police arrived to shut it down but I was so impressed that everyone seemed so eager to help clear up at the end, despite their alcohol and drug-induced stupor, everyone running around with plastic bags to collect the rubbish, probably leaving the invisible under part of the bridge cleaner than when we first arrived. Within an hour we were off, cycling and walking around town as we got followed by drunken hormone-driven men as we tried to head to the park for the after-party. It was a long road but we finally made it and after some minimal techno we were able to watch the sun rise even staying once the police had arrived to see one of the sunniest days of my German sojourn, while I hung out with a cool possible future travel partner draped in the hot afternoon sun while the grass crept around our feet.
More days of indulgence followed in another park with a jungle party and with some new found friends in different places. I finally concluded that Leipzig was one of the coolest places in Germany, with open people and interesting vibes, perhaps more inclined towards students and leisure than the creativity and activism of Berlin but still a comfortable place to live and grow more in touch with those around you on a more regular basis. It was cool to see these people though many times I yearned to get closer to them by being able to speak their mother tongue, so much so that I vowed to return one day and learn to speak so I could participate in their logical conversation and contribute to their ideological exchange.
Now I find myself in Munich after one unsuccessful day of hitching in the rain from Leipzig. I returned to my couchsurfer in Leipzig with my tail between my legs almost ready to use some other form of paying transport for the 400km trip south to the much-maligned Munchen, but I persevered through more rain the next day and after 2 hours of frustration decided to get the next lift onto the A9 even it was towards Berlin. A cool guy hesitatingly picked me up, before going out of his way to drop me at the petrol station heading south. From there it was plain sailing. A VW T3 campervan with some young guys picked me up and drove me 250km south to Nuremberg taking me a bit further than they were going to leave me at the next petrol station and after that the coolest, warmest and most open guy I met for a while who actually worked for the IBM multinational as he tried to escape the mainstream social system drove me all the way to my destination. I stayed with a girl I met by coincidence in south spain in a lovely wooden house near the centre of Munich and partied last night beside a sculpture of a naked guy. The party was innovative because everyone had to bring their own stereo with the DJ plugging his disks into an ipod radio transmitter which was then augmented by using an aerial and sent to other nearby stereos on a hijacked frequency. It was such a cool idea and though people were more snobbish and closed-minded than the other 3 cities I'd visited it was still fun, with some interesting meetings and then a crazy cycle to a wagenplatz (improvised caravan park) to go to sleep at the invitation of some more clima camp companions I found spontaneously onsite.
I need to go now as I will stay there the night again and meet up with some cool guys I met at the clima camp and have arranged to meet with.
This time was enjoyable and I felt right at home among all the caravaners. Their little camp at the end of this parking was colourfully and intricately decorated, no doubt with remnants of parties and passers-by. It was quaint with Mercedes campers as well as larger trailers with a nice sense of community full of travellers and more permanent people. We hung out and played a game for a while and soon went to sleep in a van they offered me for the night. The next day, a slow breakfast helped me get on my way after which I eventually managed to leave for Austria. I knew it was late tho and I would probably not make it...
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