After getting such a great reception to my previous post, I'm afraid this one is going to be a let-down. That's just the way things go sometimes. I know this isn't a city and doesn't belong in a "city to city tour", but there are going to be a lot of non-cities in this series. My goal with this series is to get a @pinmapple pin for each of the places that I slept on my trip.
In Berlin, I had been posting photos and thoughts about the city on Facebook. One of my friends, Bernie, sent me a message saying that he was in the area. He was going to an electronic music fest and had an extra ticket. He asked if I'd like to go. I obviously said yes.
I cut my visit to Berlin short and checked out of my hotel early. Bernie picked me up and we made our way to the event. It took a few hours because we had to stop to pick up some of his friends and gear for camping out for a few days.
The location was a just a big field cut out of the forest. There was a little pond at one corner.
Source: Google Maps
We arrived late in the afternoon and set up our tents and got our area set up. I didn't have camping gear or a sleeping bag. Luckily Bernie had some gear that I could borrow.
The camping area slowly filled up. People would leave and arrive throughout the 4-day event. Some people would end up stuck because they chose an area that got surrounded by other attendees.
After getting settled in, we went to check out the party. Bernie and his friends went dancing and I went wandering. Unfortunately, my poor old Samsung Galaxy S4 couldn't do much with the low light conditions. Most of my night photos look pretty terrible.
The next day it was HOT! Since all of the trees had been cut down to make the field, there was no shade except for tents and awnings that people brought with them. Occasionally they would come by and spray water on everyone to cool them off.
The pond looked refreshing, but there was no way I was going to go in it.
The people that threw this party did an excellent job with the production. The décor was awesome, the facilities were good, the sound system was top notch. They did provide porta-potties. There must have been about 20-40 of them throughout the area. Even so, there were about 2,000 people at this event. Most people would just pee in the woods, especially at night.
The reason why I wasn't going to swim in the pond is because during the night before, I went into the woods to pee. Lots of people were back there peeing. I looked down and there was a literal river of urine flowing directly into the pond. So many people were peeing in the woods that it made a small river! Gross! So yeah, no swimming for me.
As I mentioned, it was hot out there! People were dancing all day long, but I spent most of the day time under a tarp in our camping area. There were showers set up and I took multiple showers throughout the day to cool off.
The picture above is of me with some of the people I met at the party. The woman was a friend of Bernie and I'll talk about her a little later. She really helped me out!
We spent another night at the party. I wasn't really feeling the music so I didn't do much dancing. I mostly wandered around and explored, wishing I had a camera that could take low light photos.
By the third day I was ready to go. The hot dry grass was messing with my allergies. The heat was brutal. And 3 days of the same Minimal-House bassline was just a little too much for me. From a distance it sounded like they had played the same record for 3 days straight. I would have gladly paid 100 Euro for one Drum and Bass track, or some breakbeat. The constant, monotonous house beat was getting to me.
Bernie said he was going to to stay at the party for another night. Luckily the woman that I mentioned a few photos above was leaving early. I talked with her and she said I could go with her and sleep on her couch in Berlin before catching a train east. I was super grateful to get out of there, and also for the accommodation. Getting a hotel in Berlin would have cost me about 75-100 Euro.
We took public transport back to Berlin. The bus was PACKED! But we made it. I can't remember her name, but Bernie's friend had a really cool apartment.
She was interested in old printing presses and had all this old type-setting equipment that was super cool. I got cleaned up and crashed out on the couch. The next day we got some food and she gave me instructions for getting to the train station. I said my goodbyes and went to the train station.
At the train station I bought my ticket to my next destination. I was leaving Germany and heading to the beautiful country of Poland for the first time in my life. Stay tuned for the next post about Gdansk, Poland.
Something Unique about partying in the woods in Germany
I've already mentioned it. I think swimming in a pond that was probably about 50% urine is pretty unique.