yahoo ! we are finally a degree warmer than sydney

is been rather crap weather here... lots of rain. i keep checking the weather back home and today we finally got above the sydney temp. gott sie dank!

so there hasnt been too much mischief and mayhem at this end.. god trying to remember all i have done over the past few days.
went to a surprise birthday for a friend of Andreas'. its so funny to be in a room ful of germans and being able to join the converstion, although, i do find after 30 mins, my brain starts to weary and it becomes a lot harder... a lot of the time i tune out until i have to speak or someone is speaking to me. but usually i can follow the topic of conversation without really foccusing on the words.

yesterday bert took me to the east sea and i at least got to see the seaside... despite it being rainy and cold.. lach.

been planning the next leg of the trip and on friday i head down to Zurich for 9 nights and then to milan, venice and rome. how excitement. im looking forward to Zurich... thankfully ill be able to speak german there too... although all is in english.. and thank god...XMEN3 is showing there in english, so its one of the first things i want to do there is go see it.

last week, we (ANDI and i ) went to his home town, called Oldenburg...although i kept thinking it was Osnabruck. anyway.. went to meet his mum.. and his sister.. man, his sister talks so fast i think she is saying one big long word. his mum doesnt speak any english (ok she can say umbrella and knight rider...what is it with the germans and david hasselhof.....GO THE HOF!)
was cool to see where Andreas came from.... but of course we were there on a public holiday so all was closed, and it was raining so couldnt really do much. the drive around the city took about 30 mins.. theres only 150K people living in this tiny town.. very cute though.

anyway, thats all i can think of at the moment.. its been pretty crap weather so havent really gone anywhere other than oldenburg. did stop off in breme to visit friends of andreas' for 2 hours. so i guess i am seeing lots more than i think i am.

anyway.. will have more to report for sure as the week progresses.

More on Sims2

Its funny to see Bert getting into the Sims too.. he is madly building and designing a house. amusing to see how European his design is, compared to mine.

heres some pics.

forgot to tell you about Eurovision Night

Well what a night that turns out to be. there were 11 people at andreas' house.. and funnily enough, i actually knew all of them.. weird how i can know so many people away from home. ended up drinking beaucoup beers and even a tequilla.. yes i know.. the devils drink.

i still think that Germany's song was the best, but Finland won.. ok the song wasnt my beer, but the costumes and special effects were great, so due to the effort the deserved to win i guess.

was so strange to see how serious they take it here... well serious but also in a joking way. when back home its so far removed from us and we make fun of it on SBS..

But was a great night and to get swept up in all the excitement was fun.. Probably becuase i wa in Germany and rooting for them and getting disappointed when they lost.

was the first night i really felt i could join the conversation when i wanted and that people were actually interested in what i had to say, becuase i was speaking nearly only german. it was like i was my own person rather than this guy who is visiting andreas. so was a nice time. we ate like pigs, drank and drank and a good night was had by all.

Have uploaded a couple of pics from the night in my online photos.

I have always said the germans have a word for all !!

just a quickie..... to say.. it has now been proven, they do have a word for all. yesterday i was called a lichtanlasse which means a person who leaves the lights on when he leaves a room.

had fun with a new word yesterday. chatzchen. i heard it on 'The Nanny" and was embarrassing my friend Bert by calling the dog he is minding, by this in public (ok not so public as its really really gay to say this. and i dont need the advertising)

Chatz is kind of like darling, or sweetie.. and when you wan to make it cute or suck uppy you can say Chatzie. the suffix of 'chen" means a little one or little of whatever you put before it.. so chatzchen means little darling but you could possibly say it to a little girl and get away with it, but to a dog is totally Tunte (Gay) hahaha. there goes my butch image.

you can imagine the fun i have teasing Bert with this.. walking in the park with the dog.. shaved head, alpha bomber jacket and cammos on.... looking butch as i can..and yelling out Kom Chatchen to the dog in a gay voice. of course i only do this when no one is around. dont want to embarrass myself now do i.

cant wait to use it on Andreas. he is taller than me and the look on his face when i call him this will be priceless, especially since he doesnt know i know this word.

i think my german sentances are becoming more complex which is good, although i am usually totally stuffed when there are 3 verbs in a sentance. although remembering the 2nd verb goes to the end, is usually the tricky part and you must plan th sentance in yur head first before you say. usually when i forget or make a mistake, i know it the second i say it.. and then its a case of am i bothered to say it again but correctly or just let it stad and use the "outsider" card and they know i dont speak correct german so dont need to repeat it when they understand what i meant anyway.

Sometimes, i find, the german grammar comes when in english writing. This becomes confusing making. ARRRRRRGLE !!!

Its been raining for a few days so have been inside a lot.. so i think im becoming stir-crazy... (nah-ha-ha) can you tell??
but after some showers today, i can see blue sky again...and they sun is peaking out.. so hoping it will get better. checked the weather today for here and sydney and its colder here, and sydney is going into winter...sigh..

anyway... best i get back to doing nothing.. well playing sims2 and i had 2 people die on me yesteray.. so sad... now the 20 somethings brother and sister must learn to fend for themselves.. its like my own soap opera.. ok i cant undertsand what they say but same goes for the tv here so at least i can interact with it and tell them what to do.... tee hee. Bert has also become a fan of the game and is busy building a house.... funny to see how European his design is.. picture shown above

speaking of which.. checked out the big brother australia site as it started just after i left.. cant believe in just 31 days they have lost 1/2 the prize money in house fines. i dont even know any of the housemates but seems already there is controversy.. about a swearing housemate says the australian news page. god i must be bored.. lach.

Uber-Kitsch

Well world, i am back in Hamburg for the weekend.


The Photo on the left is taken in lubeck.. outside the big famous church.. the story is when they were building the church... the devil thought it woudl be a bar and so was very happy and helped them build it. but when he found out it was a church.. he got very angry and picked up the stone we are sitting on, and was going to knock down the church.. but the locals said to the devil that they woudl build a bar next it it, and so he dropped the stone and they made a statue of the Devil. (can you pick which is the real devil in this picture? )



Last night was Japanisches Kirschbluetenfest (Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival) and there was a huge fireworks display over the Alster (the central lake) which was a gift for the Japanese to Hamburg for the good trade relations.. was so fantastic. the fireworks here are really special.


Tonight is the Eurovision Song Contest... .so we are having a big arty with lots of food and drink and we are all to watch it on the TV. cant believe that im actually in europe for this.. and it will be live..... not the replay with funny presenters on SBS ... but its real live TV.

ok its also very kitsch here.. but we make a party of it just for fun (for the tourist) !!


oh i have forgotten to mention my 2 big fauxpas since i arrived.

the night that Andreas and i went to the cruising bar called Toms... i swear i heard someone same the forbidden words (Heil H.....R) anyway.. i asked Andreas hast du es Gehoert? (did you hear that) he said... Nein, was hast du gehoert? (what have your heard) so i say Heil Hit**r) but of course someone hears me say it and gives me the filthiest look as he goes past... but it was so funny... not at the time though.


and the other... when i went to have coffee with Bert and we were taking and i cant remember what it was i said... and he had said something very correct in english.. so i tell him.. very good.. you get a gold star! (like we get in school.. hmm.. but i totally forgot that here in Germany... a gold star means somehting completely different .... from the war) oops.. but luckily he knew what i meant... phew.


anyway.... must dash.. have to prepare for the Eurovision party.. hahahaha

Unexpected fork in the road

well.... never let it be said that daniel doesnt have adventures, and doesnt come across the most unexpected turn of events.


Tuesday afternoon, i had coffee with a friend of Ollie's (enjoying making a few new friends on this triip.. and makes me feel i am not so far from home)

we hit it off rather well...and was invited to spend the night at his apartment in Lubeck (i seem to be drawn back to lubeck again) anyway... you can imagine my jaw dropping when we walk into his apartment, to find its a beautifully decorated penthouse apartment, overlooking the lake, in the centre of Lubeck city.

he and i have hit it off and are getting along famously. he has asked me to stay a couple of nights so i am taking him up on the offer.... when would i ever have a chance like this? he has given me a mini tour of one half of Lubeck city, and later today between his meetings at work, he is giving me the tour of the other half.

So to be fair i cleaned his apartment a bit this morning... vaccummed, and dusted... yeah i know.. daniel dusting.. who would have ever thought.... but hey, fair is fair.. he has been kind enough to let me stay so i should only do what is right. his english s very good and we switch back and forth from English to German. Gosh i think one more month here and i will be ready for 100% german.

anyway.. the adventure continues and i really have to start planning the next stage of the travels...although i intend to come back to Hamburg after the travels and send some more time before heading off to the states.

having all kinds of problems with my german mobile, in that it ran out of credit and has taken some time to top it back up again. i think its ok now.

added some new pics to my online photos.

Fetish Dan

Hey World,


1st chance i have had to recount the tales of the weekend...

went to meet merlin at the sex shop, to get ready to go to the fetish party. ended up wearing a ruber top, and my bondage/punk black shorts, and boots from Merlin. Looked great, i must say...even if the ruber top wasnt the most comfortable of clothes to wear... but after a while i kind of forgot about it. (except for the sweat) took a photo of it on my moble, but cant figue out hw to gt it to my pc since its my german mobile and MMS doesnt seem to work.. may have to wait until i get home to retrieve it..

Had to wait for Merlin to finish work at 2am, before going to the party.... so i think we missed the peak of it but still had a great time. it reminded me a lot of Phoenix back home, except was more straight than gay. was not as extreme as i thought, although i think there mayhave been more earlier, or in corners i didnt see.. but did spot a straight couple getting into it, in a dark corner. and 2 guys and 2 girls getting into a grope fest in the other corner.. hahahha.

was kind of shy on the night, and found it hard to talk to Merlins boyfriend and another friend of his, but i think this was mainly due to my being too shy to talk german to people i dont know..and i didnt know how much english they spoke.. but merlin looked after me well enough.. and i was too busy being a kid in a candy store.. looking at all the new sights.. must admit was a bit nervous but enjoyed regardless.

after the party, we went to S.L.U.T and Andreas turned up there, with a date. suddenly i started speaking german to andreas.. i think i am comfortable doing that because i knwo he knows my german, and if i make a mistake it doesnt matter.. after a bit, he says to me.. my god you are speaking totally correct german.. so i take that as a high compliment.. especially in the state i was in... considering it was 4.30am.

spent most of sunday sleeping...and recovering from the party..

ended up having a quick dinner with Andreas' ex flaymate the other day..... saw a dvd with him called 'Fat Actress' starring kirsty Alley, as herself...playing an actress trying to get work, but she is fat and cant find a job.. its hysterical.

Lubley Lubeck and Rubber Dan

Well.. lets play catch up..

"ubergestern' the day before yesterday.. and yes i know its vorgestern but i like making up new german words.. lol

anyway...egal ! the other day.. i went to lubeck.. war so schoene da.. really pretty.. it was a wonderful warm day and i even got a little tan on my face. and hey, i managed to buy my own ticket, get on the right train.. walk all around the city... get back to the sation all on my own. plus buying the ticket home, getting on the right train again and getting back to hamburg.. all on my own..

sat at this really nice cafe beside a river.. lapping up the ambience.. nice and relaxing.. even if i did walk my feet off. added some pics of the park in Lubeck to my online photos

today.. i went to the sex shop where Merlin works and tried on some outfits for sat nights party.. hmm i just found out this is a dance and play party..eeek ! ive been told to prepare for being cracked onto by women.. as its mainly a straight fetish party..

anyway.. tried on ome outfits.. hmm, i think rubber really isnt my thing.. tried on some shorts.. hmm.. painful memories of the early 90's came flooding back. those lycra shorts... what were we thinking... .. thankfully i have been told i can get way with my cammo cargos...boots.. and a rubber top. im really not going to be very comfortable in it but hey.. its not like i know anyone.. and if i really hate it.. i can just leave. but im assured that im going to love it.. and that im going to meet heaps of merlins friends.. so it never hurts to be brave.

i didnt take photos of the outfits because they really were not that flattering.. but hmm, did have some fun trying them on, in the changerooms with merlin.. a rubber shirt isnt the easiest thing to get on and off on your own when you have never worn one before. and knowing how much i sweat its going to be really strange i think.

then waked around the city waiting for andreas to finish work beofre going to the gay street to drink beers and rate the passers by. lecker broeten for dinner and then back home.

oh wie ist das schoen

WOW !!!!

What a beautiful night. we set sail at about 7pm. we had to go through a Lock (loch??) as where the boat is moored is lower than the harbour. (first time in a lock)

you can imagine whats going through my head as we are genlty sailing into the sunset.. beer in hand.. laying onthe foredeck... and over the loud speakers they are playing..Rod Stewart "i am sailing" hilarious!!

anyway took about an hour to slowly chug down the river to get to the harbour... where we sailed up to the entrance and met the queen mary 2. we followed her back to port where we had to wait nearly 2 hours for the fireworks as they were an hour late due ot the arrival of QM2 (the bitch was late!!)

then andreas and i were due to get off the boat in the harbour but thre were no places free where we could moor for a moment.. so we stayed on the boat and sailed back to the marina.. getting there at about 2.30 am....

pictures of the whole event can be seen in dans photos online....follow the link on the right

so we thought it was a bit late and we were so tired we would skip the cap san diego as we were not sure what was happeneing on it.. and went for 1 beer at Toms.. it was gay bar that was kind of like a sauna...all dark and dingy and totally a cruise area.. was totally not my beer (my cup of tea) and didnt find anything sexy about it.. so was happy to leave after 1 beer.

staggered back home, to watch a dvd and fell asleep about 30 mins after we got home.

oh well theres still today to fill.

how strange can my dreams become ?

oh im having such weird dreams lately.... last night.... i dreamt i was the companion of David Hasselhof.. i mean really does it get any weirder.

having fun trying to talk english now... which is a good sign that my german ears are turning on. was sending a message to a friend in australia and you knw i couldnt think of the word in english.. i think because some things dont translate.. and here they have a word for all...

mind you i make up german words all the time.. and my german friends find it so funny.

actually the other night i had my first dream in german.. and amazingly i could say "matchbox' in the dream, which is one of the words i just cant say in real life.. (too many sounds we dont use in english) the word in german is streichholzschachtel ahhh!


tonight...harbour birthday..... we go on the ship and watch the fireworks overhead.. (see pic below)








then we go on a large large ship called the cap san diego and have an all night dance party and dance on the decks of the ship and watch the sun come up.









then a quick nap to recover then back to the harbour for the 'sun dance" which is an afternoon dance party.. aparently one section is on the sand.. and from far away you cant see the party just a cloud of sand.. amazing.

schiff fahrt plan

met Andreas and Jens for lunch yesterday.. wa the first time i had seen jens this trip.. hes a real sweetie.... i like him a lot (as a friend)
waked from there to central (who wud have thought i would/could do so much walking) to buy a microphone for my laptop so i can call mum on skype.

went to merlins place for a coffee and to get some new music... he had this wicked sick remix of an abba song voulex vous) but it was totally tribal and techno and i can imagine them playing it at phoenix. sat talking to him for a few hours about the party next weekend.

also.... this saturday is the hamburg harbour birthday party.... is kind of like sydney habour on australia day. we have arranged to be on a boat in the harbour and going to be seeing all the fireworks.

after this we are going on a museum boat called Cap San Diego which is this hue old ship whh i think used to bring immigrants to germany... anyway.. there is a huge dance party on it.. and aparently dancing onthe decks as the sun rises is a wonderful experience.. so thank god i came at the right time because there is usully only 2 main parties on this ship.. the other is the huge leather party but really that is just a bit of a sex orgy so at least this will be a normal dance party. although....this is germany...

not sure what today is going to unfold..... merlin has suggested we go do something.. its kinda handy to have some one who works nights so that im not spending every day on my own wandering around the city..

the little matchstick girl

well.. ..the day seemed to be going so well....


spent most of the afternoon chatting online to one of the guys i met in the bar on sunday night, who is a friend of Ollies.

then spent a couple of hours sitting by the alster drinking beer and watching the sunset. (see pic above) ollies mum came down for a beer with us.. she speaks nly german, so it was a good test. shes so sweet.. and talks slower to me as she knows my german isnt so good... i think it usually takes 2 weeks before my german ears click in. then we were joined by 2 of ollies friends.. Tom and Marcos.. man, does ollie know anyone that isnt drop dead hot ??

from there.. tom gave me a lift to the S-Bahn so i could catch a train to the reeperbahn to go meet merlin (the guy i had chatted to online) who was working in a big sex shop (well it is the kings x of hamburg)

had trubles with the ticket machine.. and so this guy comes up and tells me he has a ticket that covers a few people and if i sit near him i can travel on his ticket... so got a free ride.
got to the shop and spent 4.5 hours there just chatting to him and looking at all the toys.. my mates back in australia would have had a field day there... there was something for everyone. merlin even got me to try on a few outfits.. of which i really wanted to buy.. but for 550 euros i dont think i can afford it when i want to travel so much... but thats another story.

ended up waiting for merlin to finish at 2am and then we walked home..chatting endlessly as we went.

merlin is an american but has lived in germany for many many years so it was good to be abl eot speak total english again.

got hoe at 3am.. only to find andreas had accidently left the key in the door on the inside which means you cant unlock it form the outside. i tried to sms and call him but his mobile died just as i was ringing... bugger..

so like the poor little matchstick girl... i had to sit on the steps in the freezing cold... at 4.3 am i had to run down the road to the bushes to pee.. (how german) and at 6am .. i was so cold that despite it being freezing utside i had to get up and walk so that i could get warmer.. i got 10 mins down the road when andreas rang..he just woke up and charged his phone..

finally got inside and andreas was so sorry.. i think i can laugh now but at the time was s tired and cold.. then he tells me the bad news that the maid is coming at 9am so i cant sleep... but as it turns out.. we left a note on the bedroom door not to clean the bedroom.. and ends up she didnt have a key anyway so didnt come.. phew.
today... despite being tired, meeting merlin at 3 so he can help me buy a bomber jacket... so im not so cold outside..(like closing the gate after the bull has run really)

no wonder i get drunk so quickly here

look at the size of the beck bottles.

they are like long necks !!!

survived my first night out in Hamburg.

got taken out last nght by Ollie.. a friend of mine. we started at a nice , but crowded bar called Bellini's. where i got snogged by this beautiful, huge, muscular guy. he really was a total hunk.. anyway the we moved on to a bar called (appropriately) S.L.U.T.

i was a leather bar i guess you could say. and they have these ledges along the wall, and can you imagine my face, as i realise there is a guy, totally naked not 1 meter away from me... being ...well since thisis supposed ot be a G rated blog ill just let you use your imagination...but lets saythere was also a tub of grease involved. and no one is batting an eyelid.

met a really nice group of guys.. got offered a job even... working in a sex shop on the reeperbahn.. Hamburgs Kings X. hahaha actualy i reckon that would be a whole lot of fun. have even been offered a room to rent too. so basically i have the chance to move here.. if i want to take it up. amazing.

anyway.. have woken up this morning with the hangover from hell.... so going to go and lay own on the sofa and die quietly.

catch up

ok lets lay cath up.. since i have been resting a bit after a wek of full on running around.. i didnt have all that much to type.

the night with andreas' friends went well.. they had to meet t discuss and plan their holiday to denmark in july.. so wasnt so much a social visit.. when you have 6 germans together hey talk so fast it was very hard t keep up. after a full hour of it your brain just packs it in and tunes out.. but i followed as much as i could.

the next day we went shopping at walmart.. oh i love german supermarkets.. andreas laughs at all the things i want to try...because the food items and lollies and chocolate is al different.

have then spent the next days eating a lot.. lol and drinking too much coffee.

today went to lange reihe for coffe and lunch with andreas and my other friend ollie. was the 1st time i can see ollie this trip. a crazy (and i mean crazy) german wman came up.. aparently sprouting about how she was related to some duke and that her people must nt go to siberia and then she yelled at some woman on the street about having new lipstick.. ollie and andreas found this hysterical...

then we went to ollies to watch some german western that was a comedy.. was very funny even if i only go about a 1/3 of what was going on.

tonight the boys plan to take me to all the clubs.... the bad ones.. looks like im in for a tour of the leather bars here..... oh my i think i should be scared.