TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

8:18 AM
Posted by jodi rose

finally made it out of the city and into a tent. if there was an award for wonkiest tent, I would have won hands down. have you ever seen a conceptual artist try to put up a tent? yes, crooked and amusing.
kept the rain out though, and provided entertainment for all around.

goldmund festival, on site of previous camp tipsy, which in turn took place in an old east german scout - student camp. very cute old wooden shacks along the shore of kleiner lake wukensee, near Biesenthal. Adventure getting out there, no idea where I was going or exactly how to get there, even with printed instructions from bvg. Realised I am a control traveller - like to know where I am going and how to get there, really freaked me out to be on a train to Straslund not sure if it would actually stop at bernau or keep going. although it said it would on the sign, and thankfully it did. strange abandoned looking station on the edge of berlin, long wait for the bus with a german family also on their way to the festival, not allowed on the bus with their dog, so caught a taxi. I wandered along the lake with another bunch of young berliners heading we knew not quite where, but found it in the end. Wonderful set-up, hammocks, lounge room and bar along the waterfront, beach volleyball, outdoor chess and a teepee, pizza oven, another bar with lounges at the stage, and 500 very good-looking people wandering between them - uber hip with a scruffy edge. Music largely folktronica, with some twisted country in the morning and johnny cash /velvet underground while I was swimming in the lake. Fabulous pontoon with rope to get out to a floating barge with fireplace in the middle, another lounge suite, and coat rack for the obligatory nude swimming. Dancing to world music, lying in hammock watching light patterns on the leaves, admiring the three dimensional trees (they had light projections that created wierd new shapes) and talking nonsense with torben, derek, alex, jasmine, ian and various random people until nearly dawn. Drifted along to the lake-side lounge sunday morning for fresh lemonade served to me by a pirate, and a sleepy fruhstuck, then delivered home to my very door by the lovely theo, who makes loopy electronic dance music, driver bands around in his truck and dj's at the kaffee berger. Monday spent in post-festival haze, returned tent to seamus, realised that I am about to leave the country and started panicking trying to cram all this stuff somehow accumulated back into one piece of luggage. and a laptop bag. hmmmm. times like this I wish for a tardis.