Livin in Hamburg

Coz its the place, where my heart belongs.
(according to the song)

Well.. had an absolute ball at Berlin CSD.. well i was rather subdued but then i wasnt in the mood to full on party party party.. so managed to get myself rather tipsy but pleasantly so. the parade, by the time it got to us in potzdammer platz has been travelling for 3.5 hours so perhaps this is the reason i thought the people on the floats were all just standing around on a float looking at the crowds with either disinterest or smiling and drinking.. but hey.. they were probably well over it by then, and it was mid 30s in temperature. but that doesn tmean i didnt enjoy watching it or that the sights were out of this world. of course, some of the men were just phenominal... ok we have good looking guys in sydney too. but i think some of the guys here have a certain style and look we just dont have in sydney and man oh man.. its enough to make you go ga-ga. i didnt really get any good pics of them, but did manage to get a few cuties in my pics, on the floats... of course most fo the hotties were in the crowd.

i thought sydney Mardi gras was big, but this was amazing.. the parade route itself takes about 4 hours to complete, if not more and the parade was onhe ende... (without end) so we went and grabbed a bite to eat when there was a big break in the convoy... at the australian restaurant in the sony cenre at potzdammer platz.. not that theres anything particularly australian about it. you could think that just because you serve fosters, have a few australian wines on the menu and have a dish made from kangaroo and one made from crocadile, that youre totally australian, but i find it takes more than calling something sydney fish and chips, (which by the way is not specifically prepared in an australian way) not when you have so much fish and chips here in the north and its was pretty much the same as here, and not how we would get it back home. anyway.. its become a bit of a tradition that i eat there every time i go to berlin, so why not.

have made my way to hamburg for my week alone in andreas apartment. have really been looking forward to this.. not that i dont like staying in lubeck or being in zurich, but after 3 months of not having any space to myself, and every night theres someone there or every day there someone there, and coming from a life where i do enjoy spending some time on my own, and living independantly, its hard to go from that to 3 months non stop of not having that. also it gives me a chance to catch up with my friends in hamburg, as having been in lubeck and travelling prior to that i havent really had a chance to see anyone from here.

did my first shop today for food.. my shop.. for me.. its a little pice of home life and gives me the glimpse of what its like if i lived here...normally.. and not staying at a friends house.
ive been so lucky that i have been staying with such nice people that not having my space hasnt really been a problem anyway.... im going to miss spending evenings on the terrace in lubeck, drinking wine, watching the twilight dance on the lake, and when the sun is finally away, the dancing lights of the fire jugglers across the other side of the lake.
every night there seem to be this tribe of friends that gather,and in the early evening you can see 3 of them practising twirling sticks and stuff, and at night they do fire twirling, it looks spectacular. im going to have to go for a walk in the park at night and go see who they are because for months now they have created such a show for me and when i thnk of lubeck thats one of the memorys that will stick the most.

im beginning to worry about how much im drinking.. since at home i drink next to nothing, but must admit.. have been drinking wine or beer nearly every night.. so this week i will try to abstain as much as possible, barring social events and even then, only 1 or 2 at most..but hey, im on holiday and so having 3 glasses of something in a night isnt a killer..

this week have to make plans on what to do frm next week on. i have 35 days left before my flight to USA.. and i am not staying in hamburg for it.. sadly.. however, Andreas isnt really the person i thought he was, and things arent going all together smoothly, so just tryingto decide what the best, cheapest and simplest thing to do.. pay a ticket upgrade and travel earlier.. rent a room or stay in a cheap cheap hotel in hamburg, spend some time in lubeck, spend some time in zurich, go travelling again, or a combination of all. if i go travelling again i do that the hassle of draging all my luggage with me.. well its not bad, a backpack, a laptop bag and a small suitcase on wheels. also seeing if i can chance my ticket to fly to london from zurich instead of from hamburg since i more than likely wont be here. then gotta figure out am i going to london and if so how long for, and that will depend on the flights i can get too. as thats not yet booked.

so lots of thinking but having a ball....im really having the experience of a life time, and something i have dreamed of doing for as long as i can remember, and never actually did it. its a once in a life time opportunity that i have kept turning down and kept making excuses not to do, and this time im not letting it go. im really actually living here.. even though its totally temporary, i can get the feeling of it and can say i have done it,

in the mean time, i have posted some pics from CSD berlin, total cack !