12pm: two ropes drop down in front of my bedroom window.
There is an applause and a whoo-hoo.
I'm not positive the ropes had a purpose, but they stayed there until I left.
Not sure what that has to do with May Day.
There is an applause and a whoo-hoo.
I'm not positive the ropes had a purpose, but they stayed there until I left.
Not sure what that has to do with May Day.
3pm: Trying desperately to read Frau Jeny Treibel for a Referat on Tuesday.
Over two hundred pages of German in one week plus readings for other classes. Ha, yeah, ok.
(If you look to the end of my highlighter (black part) and look up in a straight line until you hit green, there is a drunk man in a yellow coat signing old German love songs, it was somewhat distracting)
I heard hoots and hallas from over the hill, but didn't think much of it. Yeah, ok, May 1st. There are some protests. Good. Whatever.
But really it was so much more!
At every festival and on every sunny day I always think, where the hell did you all come from?
Oranienstraße was completely shut down for concerts and food AND fun! Every store was open the whole night selling cheap Becks, sausages, all kinda of Turkish foods and, you guessed it, more. There were concerts on every corner and all the punks were finally in one place. Finally. But not just punks, oh no, also a million tourists and men in business suits. I often saw the business men and the punks forced to cram up against one another in people jams. It was beautiful.
"I need a Vacation"
This is pretty amazing right here. It says, "Berlin May 1st 2008, I was there!" My roommate says that last year there weren't too many problems with riots, but that year before last there were people fighting everywhere, cars burning, the works.
The number of Policemen there was really unbelievable.
And so many different kinds of police. They came in at least three flavors.
This is just a woman doing office work.
And these guys scared the CRAP out of me.
FRIEND OR FOE?!
"I need a Vacation"
This is pretty amazing right here. It says, "Berlin May 1st 2008, I was there!" My roommate says that last year there weren't too many problems with riots, but that year before last there were people fighting everywhere, cars burning, the works.
The number of Policemen there was really unbelievable.
And so many different kinds of police. They came in at least three flavors.
This is just a woman doing office work.
And these guys scared the CRAP out of me.
FRIEND OR FOE?!
I was still happy they were there, though. As Itamar and I were sitting and talking in the dark creepy Görlitzer Park this drunk creepy Turk comes up to us and looks Itamar in the eye from about an inch away...
"Ach, Ich dachte ich kennte dich" (I thought I knew you)
Itamar asks if they speak English.
"Where you come from?"
"Israel"
"I'm from Palestine!" (or did he say it in German...?) (Either way, not true)
And then there is some drunken yelling back to his friends, the only word I can make out is the word Messer. Ah, Messer, ja. Das Messer, glaube ich. Ja. Hey wait...Ah! Messer means knife! Ah! I think the guy then tells Itamar to go back home. One of the drunk guy's friends comes over and tells drunk guy, "Sie sind auch Menschen" (They're also people). So uh, that was nice. And then he told us to have a "nice day". Ok, will do. And we walked away.
But that was the worst of it. The Roommate said that people would bring lawn chairs to Oranienstraßen to watch the fights. So, really, it wasn't that bad.
All in all a good day!
Bier, ice cream, confrontations, concerts, good times.
