Sun in Berlin was good this time

Over the past week, I have traveled every single day, and now I am done, for a while at least. Yesterday I had the opportunity to travel to Berlin. Over the weekend, I found out that two of my teammates were going to concert and they kinda invited me/invited myself, and they were both really into me coming. The band we went to see is called The New Pornographers, as Joe says, "pure rock heaven." During the car ride back to Frankfurt, I listened to a bit of what they have to offer, and it was pretty remarkable.

I took the train into Berlin, and Russ was a bit late picking me up, and then there was some confusion on when Joe's train was getting in. In the end, we were in a cab and both of the guys tasted some of the pastries I had purchased in Greifswald (it was so good that I wanted to share). After dropping off our stuff we went to the gig. The concert was in a basement bar, low ceilings, smoky, no food offered, but a really cool place. The opening act was pretty good, just one guy with a guitar. He is the kind of guy who is average attractive, and then once he starts singing, he becomes extremely attractive, and then we found out he was British! The place filled up pretty quickly and the band came on stage.

At first, we were squished in the middle and I couldn't really see anything. Since I don't know the band, I don't know the songs. The best way for me to enjoy the show was then to push my way forward and take pictures on Joe's camera. I spent most of the show right in front dancing and making photos, it was great! I brought Joe up to the front, since he is the actual fan, I think between that, getting a whole bunch of photos, and then also getting one of the set lists signed by the band, I became pretty cool.

We weren't able to get food before the show, so we took a useless cab ride to a pizza place. We sat and ate and drank and ended up talking about religion. Then we went to a bar and met up with another Mother Tongue player, Rob, which was also great. Four Frisbee players hanging out in Berlin? Awesome.

We got to bed pretty late and then woke somewhat early because Joe was leaving at 11am, after tea, cereal and toast, we headed out to Alexanderplatz to have a look around. We decided it would be good fun to go up the TV tower and see the whole of Berlin. The day was beautiful, and it was so interesting seeing the huge city, still going through major construction. Joe then had to leave us, which was sad since we don't know when we will see him again. Hopefully at the latest, next July for Sandblast.

Russ and I then walked down the Brandenburg gate to see what was going on for Tag der Deutschen Einheit (German unity day, when the east and west became one country again). After some confusion as to where the free concert was, we walked over to the Reichstag and sat out on the lawn because it was sunny and warm. We spent the next two hours talking about things that are actually important to us. Even though the conversation was pretty heavy, we also laughed, a lot. We learned we have a lot more in common than I originally thought.

The rest of the afternoon was spent eating a wonderful meal from the Turkish place down the street from Russ and somewhat napping and just relaxing. Lunch was on the balcony. Finally, it was time for me to come back to Greifswald. We said good-bye, but I do have an open invitation to visit again, like when friends come visit, he is more than happy to house us (hint, hint), and of course there will be more ultimate tournaments.