more things

Yesterday--no, the day before--was the infamous Baumenblumen Fest near Potsdam. The biggest, drunkest, craziest German festival I've ever been to. I got there late as I'd spent most of that day recovering and was greeted immediately by my new Santa Cruz friend and a bottle of wine. The festival is supposed to be about the apples and things being ripe and ready to pick, I think, and wine. It's really about Germans getting as sloshed as possible and it was a pretty good time, minus the gropage and vomit I stepped in trying to get back onto the train to Potsdam. The festival was a madhouse; the train was a madhouse. We left at a popular time--crowds and crowds of drunkies tried flooding, rushing into the train car like the wine had down their throats. That description sounded a bit patronizing but intention was only to highlight what a shit show it was.
When we were waiting to get onto the train, a little boy with fake vampire teeth heard Patrick (SC) and I speaking English. "Kanst du Deutsch sprechen?" this litte tyke asked, no English. A little bit. Does my friend? A little bit. Good, let's talk!
That's like the second cute kid reference I've made. When did I start thinking kids are so cute, anyway? Scary, kindof. I've been creeping on other peoples children this whole trip, trying to talk to them, cooing at them when appropriate. I hpoe their parents like it. For sure, the little vampire's mom didn't care. Pierced, tatted, scantily clad, she was hunched over drunk on a bench. Were you wondering what kind of person would bring their kid along?

I'm having so much fun on this trip I want to travel always! And live in Berlin for a little while. I love Berlin so much, my friends, I couldn't suppress the urge to tell this old woman who sat next to me on the train TO the shitshow wine fest. "Ich liebe Berlin!" It's a good thing I didn't suppress it, too, cause I ended up talking to this elderly woman the whole train ride, auf Deutsch. This made me happy because I'm trying to get better, but I was even happier that she asked for my address and suggested we write together, by hand (archaic, huh?). She doesn't have a computer or a cell phone, being of another generation. She is from East side of Berlin, so she doesn't care about technology--she didn't even have a land line in the GDR. I've met quite a few old East Berliners, some of whom were traveling for the first time since the wall went down. She showed me pictures of her children told me to come stay with her for a little while when I get back to Germany in the fall. On my way to the drunkest, craziest festival I've ever been to I found myself my own German grandma, the sweetest woman that ever was. Fancy that. I think people should always say what they are thinking and that people communicate way less than they should.

In recent news, I was gonna stay in last night for the first time this whole trip, just chill in my hostel and read Rilke with a glass of wine. But drinking that glass of wine at the hostel bar, who comes in but the Irish! woo! They were all on a kick about "vibes." Always asking, "whats the vibe here?" "how are the vibes" "whats your vibe." It was a running joke all night/early morning, which is to say I did end up going out again in Friedrichshain. One of their roomates, I forgot his name, works at a hardware store in Sweden so he can take off a couple months a year to travel. I'm sure he has crazy stories but I couldn't get much out of him besides a reassurance Thailand needs to happen very soon.

It's rad traveling, especially by yourself, cause you meet so many people and can tack on to any group you want to. I've already said this but it helps to be a girl, too, I think 'cause you can tack on to a group of other girls and its not creepy the way it would be if a guy tried it. The people in hostels, especially people like the guy I just mentioned, are wanderers-- maybe the coolest kinds of people to me at this time. Traveling. It's a break from "real life," it seems sometimes like a transitory period (cause it is), and everyone knows what happens in transitory periods/ places (think airports): people are less inhibited, more essentially themselves even. So maybe traveling is as real as it gets, and I want more.

Traveling: is it a sickness or a cure?

And I love yall and I'm off xoxo