Roskilde

I got a ticket to Roskilde from a friend...I had to pay though, so I went there last night, then I came home after 2 hours. There was mud everywhere, the rain never stopped, and it wasn't even light drizzle, this was hardcore fire hose type stuff, pelting down constantly, massive pools of water, some of them knee deep. I was drenched before I'd even made it to the festival gates. So much for my trusty raincoat, which once withstood the shower of death, I guess all my snowboard crashes have torn the seams open, coz when I got home I was a fish. Now I'm beginning to understand how it must've been for the soldiers in WWI. Except those guys couldn't go home, and instead of bands playing to them while they were surrounded by drunken folks, there were people shooting at them while they sat amongst their dead friends trying to shoot back. I dunno if this rain is due to global warming or what, but I seem to remember being here in 1998 when it rained similarly for a month, though I'm sure all those fuckers in their cars aren't helping at all. This would've been my tenth festival if I'd attended every single one from the first, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go or not, so it was a last minute decision. But it seems they get progressively wetter each year, the first was relatively warm, only a little bit of rain on one day, that's what started this whole thing for me, it was probably one of the best things I've ever done, cool bands, cool vibe, sunny weather, and I was stoked to be around so many Scandinavian girls. But i guess you can't relive things, coz it's never quite been the same since. My original plan was to go hardcore, I have no tent, so I planned to just carry on, with my blanket, and sleep on the ground or where ever, but like I said after 2 hours I was over that. I remember when I was 15 or so we went camping, and it rained the whole time, we didn't take tents, coz it was summer and we were tough, the rain was lighter, but it made the camping kind of shit. Also it was new years eve, so there were no trains home from Paterson, so we had to stay there regardless, we found an old boat and made a kind of thing to sleep under with it. But then we got in trouble for walking on the train bridge, and we got scared the police would come get us. So we moved the camp a big 20m up the river, and slept under some trees, that night was heavier rain, and it didn't stop. The only thing we had were 2 ponchos, so we tied them to the tree and managed to fit all 5 of us under there. Best night's sleep ever...I was on the corner, so every time the poncho filled up with water it would pour off the side, and onto my head, but I survived. I think the tree was the cows' dry place for rain, because they stood around staring at us enviously all night. My point is, I handled that with no trouble, guess I'm softer now, coz I couldn't handle that yesterday. The rain has subsided now, so I'm gonna try again in a few hours, but I think it's cheating not sleeping there.
On another note, Berlin was cool, even though it had this annoying switch weather, one minute hot and sunny, the next raining and cold. I even got to see Dinosaur Jr. play, which was a kind of bonus, coz I didn't even know they were playing. I like Berlin, it's got everything, except beaches and mountains, but there are huge parks that are almost forests, and the Spree river. It has the right mix of old pretty buildings, and ugly new ones, as well as some communist grey boxes, and some old decrepid squats. The history is rich, everywhere you go you can feel something happened there, and not just dumb shit, important stuff, which affected the entire world. There are bars and cafes and good places to eat everywhere, and it's not too expensive. All of this is covered with a thin layer of filth, not to thick as to be annoying, but just enough to keep it from being like a museum. Filth being graffiti, garbage, dog shit, kebab shops, and mutants, among others. Also they have an awesome public transport system, unlike Sydney of similar size, U-bahn, S-bahn, buses, and trams, with good service and time based fares. Now I'm stuck here trying to figure out how I can move there.... Sorry for the tangent rant, what did we do there then? Just cruised around, checked stuff out, went out a little bit, the usual. I also got to try to speak German, I have so much confidence when I start talking, but after 3 sentences I got tangled up...still I understood when the woman in the park told me that the little black ram with satan eyes was strong enough to knock her over, all I could reply was "ja". "Er hatt mich auf dem boden gesetzt" or something like that. Now it's back to the battlefield.