Spain - Barcelona, San Sebastian, Madrid June 23-27

Tuesday June 23
Barcelona was expensive so we decided not to stay. We checked out at 10 and went to the train station and put all our luggage in storage for the day an went out exploring. We were all really tired from more than a week of partying, so we kinda of dragged our feet around and got bored a lot before our bus. Rosie left us and headed to Paris to meet up with another Melbourne girl – Grace. We’d booked a night bus, but I think we were all wishing we had just booked the day bus anyway. We got on the bus at 11.30pm to head to San Sebastian on the opposite coast of Spain.

Wednesday June 24
The bus trip was very uncomfortable. We arrived in San Sebastian rather worn out still. We got a bus then a taxi to the hostel which we arrived at way too early but they hadn’t filled the beds so we were able to check in and sleep. The place was Ernie’s Place and it was really a 3 bedroom apartment that had the 3 bedrooms turn into dorms. We booked a 4 bed dorm which was the master bedroom so we got an ensuite to ourselves. It was all quite new and the kitchen was good too so we had a nice meal in that night.
During the day after we slept we headed down to the beach. It was a very busy beach and there were lots of topless people, something we had noticed all over Spain. Everyone from teenagers to old fat ladies had them out, it seemed to be the norm. Shelley and I didn’t however :P

Thursday June 25
My 29th Birthday! I don’t have it listed on facebook so I was expecting to be forgotten but plenty of people remembered anyway. The only person who didn’t that I was upset about was Buzz... It’s usual for my family not to wish each other a happy birthday but I expected him to remember. Byron wins however, as I haven’t seen him in a while and he remembered out of the blue...
We headed out to climb a big hill and see a castle with a big Jesus statue on it which looked out over the whole of San Sebastian. After that we went for another swim but it was quite cold so we didn’t stay long. We went back to the hostel and changed to head out. We went for a tapas/pinxtos dinner and drinks for my bday. We went to several different places and sampled a few different types of food and drink on the way. We didn’t stay out too late as we had a bus to Madrid the following day and we were intending to party for my bday then.

Friday June 26
One the bus to Madrid I messaged Buzz to see how he is doing and if he has net access yet cos he hasn’t replied to any emails since we have been away (and he forgot my bday :P). He still didn’t remember my birthday ah well. He hasn’t had net access so he won’t have even read the blog to know what we’ve been up to... Hurry up ya bastard!

We arrived in Madrid in the biggest bus station I have ever seen. We booked an apartment hotel as it was cheaper than 4 dorm rooms. We booked one between the main city area and the club I had picked to go out to that night. We were going to see Deadmau5. I had really wanted to go out to techno but the club I wanted to go to was hosting Stacey Pullen and I thought that would be boring. I missed some of my favourite artists over the last month at that venue so that was a bit of a bummer.

We had a cooked dinner and drinks at the room as we knew they would be expensive out.
When we got there, there were hundreds of people drinking outside. We asked on the way in if once we were in we would come out again and they said yes. We went in at around 12 and they had only just opened and it was empty. We went to go out and they said we couldn’t! So we just had to wait... Over the course of 2 hours the club went from empty to full – a couple of thousand people. The club was a pretty cool club... The opening DJ was good, building up well with fat minimal. The 2nd DJ just flat lined it and was pretty boring. Deadmau5 started and he was playing with a big mouse head with big ears, his opening track was awesome and the crowd really got going. It seemed promising, but from there, it was only downhill. He took his mask off. He got more boring as the night wore on and when he sensed he was losing the interest of the crowd he just put his mask back on so everyone cheered again. But he didn’t play more upbeat tunes to match. We called it a night at about 4.

Saturday June 27
Lazy day! We slept in until 3 and all we had to do today is book a train to Valencia and go our for a feed.

HTID Lloret De Mar - Spain - June 15-22

Sunday June 14

Steve’s uncle drove us to Birmingham Airport where we flew to Barcelona. Our week of partying had arrived. We booked a hostel for that night but we didn’t get in until 11.30pm and there were no showers or kitchen/common room/net after 11pm which was a bit of a bummer. After a thrown together meal of tinned tuna, corn and olives we crashed out.

Monday June 15

Shelley, Luke, Rosie, Shane and Pia met us at the main bus station where we got the bus out to Lorrett De Mar. Last year we had bought tickets to Hardcore Til I Die in the Sun which is a week long party with hotel and 2 meals a day included in the ticket. We got to stay in a 4 star hotel as we’d paid for an upgrade from dorms for 12 pounds a night. We checked into the hotel and dumped all our gear before heading out in search of food. Later we had dinner at the hotel before heading out to the first night of the party. Hixxy and Brisk were playing who we were all excited about seeing. We didn’t have too much of a big night as we had to pace ourselves to last all week.

Tuesday June 16

Out and about during the way we found a club that offered free drinks all night when you paid 8 Euros for girls and 10 for boys entry. We bought tickets to that as a beer at the HTID venue (in a small post mix cup, think maccas style) was 4.50 Euro ($9 Au).

At 5pm Steve, Shelley, Luke, Rosie and I headed to the first of the foam parties. The first hour they didn’t turn the foam on but at the start of the 2^nd hour they pumped heaps of foam from a massive foam cannon into the crowd. All of the lighting gear etc was bagged up. It was so much fun, we were up the back where we had room to move and the foam was thicker. Cally Gage and Hixxy played the 2 sets that made up the foam party.

Then we headed to the club with the free drinks that we’d bought tickets to. After drinks I decided not to go out and went back to the hotel and crashed. Steve stayed on with Shane and Pia (who didn’t make it to the foam party but met us out later) until close though and saw Squad-E, Al Storm, Ramos, Seduction and Dougal.

Wednesday June 17

Everyone got up and went to the water park – I didn’t feel like going so I stayed back. We had been made to think the party was running there that day but it wasn’t – it was just discounted entry that day for party goers (a measly 2 Euros cheaper).

When they got back we went to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. The water goes from shallow to deep quickly and the sand is more like little pebbles and quite rough. The surf was a little rough and so good fun.

We went to a cocktail bar right on the beach that served massive cocktails. Every bar in Llorett De Mar was cranking hardcore due to the massive numbers of tourists there for HTID. The cocktails were about ½ a litre to a litre, but for an extra 5 Euros you could upgrade to 2 litres. I had an Alexandra (Brandy, Tia Maria and cream) and it was really strong. Suffice to say we got off to an early that that day :P

DJs we saw that night that were good were Gammer and Darren Styles. Steve and I left half way through Darren Styles.

Thursday June 18

We went to another bar for drinks before HTID then headed in to see Joey Riot (awesome set) then Robbie Long and Sy closing. Steve, Shelley, Luke and Rosie went home early and Shane Pia and I stayed specifically to see Sy. He was the set of the event for me so I was glad we stayed. I stayed up with Shane and Pia for a little while back at the hotel before heading to bed for the afternoon.

Friday June 19

I got up for dinner and went back to bed again. I met back up with everyone out at about 1am. Shane and Pia hadn’t surfaced yet but we ran into them later. I wanted to see Supreme and Force but the boys didn’t so I only watched them for about 20 minutes before going up to see Hixxy’s dnb set and then Kevin Energy in the side rooms. We went outside after that and at about 3.30-4 Steve went inside and left me outside, and they stopped letting people back in to the venue, so I sat outside by myself for 2 hours until it closed and they came looking for me. They came out and left without me also, they assumed I had gone home. Apparently Dougal and Breeze closing were awesome. So my night was pretty shitty all in all but everyone else had a good time.

Saturday June 20

Went to the beach again today. Water was calm and no so fun and also lots of floating rubbish. So we didn’t swim for long. Rosie, Shelley and I went back to the cocktail bar for 2 litre cocktails before heading back to the hotel. Someone reminded us about the other foam party which we’d forgotten about, so we headed down there about 6.15 and the foam was already going by then. It was just the 3 of us still as everyone else was asleep. Rosie left early so it was just Shelley and I but we had a ball.

We then went back and had dinner and got Steve and Luke and headed in to the free drinks deal again. We headed in to HTID to watch Gammers old skool set, then went back to the free drinks again. We went back to HTID main room for Joey Riot, Druid (95 anthems – and I re-lived my early rave days) and Sy closing again. Steve, Luke, Shelley, Rosie and I were all there until close, Shane and Pia never made it out.

Sunday June 21

Our final night of party had arrived. The lineup for the last night was huge. Shane and Pia had an early flight so they didn’t come out again and everyone else was too stuffed from the Saturday night to last very long. There was no way I was missing Tommy Knocker though, so I stayed by myself for him, Gammer, Slipmatt (old skool) and the start of Hixxy’s close. Slipmatt was awesome and was Tommy Knocker. My favourite sets for the party were Gammer on the Wednesday, Druid (95 anthems), Slipmatt (old skool), Sy on the Thursday closing and Tommy Knocker.

Monday June 22

We all left the hotel and headed back to Barcelona. We had booked beds at the Sants Jordi and Luke and Shelley came too to see if they had room for them also. They did... Steve cooked white wine and mushroom pasta again and we stayed up having a few drinks with some of the people in the hostel. I got to speak to Cate on Skype too, the line was really bad but I found out her friend Luke Mitchell had been stabbed to death in Melbourne around a month ago for breaking up a fight at a club – the guys that stabbed him got on a plane to Thailand the next day. I had met him a few times, but not for a long time. She wished me a happy birthday for later in the week.

England Overview June 10-14

England overview:

Back to driving on the left side of the road, unlike the rest of Europe.

Taxi’s are a different type of car, with lots of space in the back.

You can tell where people are from by their accent – I can tell Liverpool and Birmingham apart :P

People in England don’t feel the cold. Their idea of a warm day is not mine. One of the little girls at the wedding said “I’m so hot poor a bucket of water on me!” I’d guess that it had hit about 25 degrees.

Pretty much every girl we saw had a small tattoo.

Ruth favourite things:

Seeing and meeting Steve’s family

Ruth disappointments:

The weather

Steve favourite things:

Seeing family

Steve disappointments:

Steve says he is never disappointed :P

England June 10-14

Wednesday June 10 – Thursday June 11

After Steve getting searched and also getting my Swiss army knife on as carry on, we flew to Liverpool. We were only going to the UK for Steve’s Cousin’s wedding. It was cheaper going to Liverpool and getting the train to Birmingham than to fly straight to Birmingham. We stayed in a hostel in Liverpool for 2 nights – the Everton Road Hostel which was well serviced and very cheap. The beds were by far the most comfortable hostel beds we’ve been in so we got 2 nights of good sleep. After our stuff up with the fares we were careful not to spend any money which we were in the UK, other than some clothes for David & Rebecca’s wedding.

Friday June 12

We got the train to Birmingham then on to Redditch where we met David & Rebecca – the couple to get married and Marcus and Jill – Jill being Steve’s Cousin who lives in Germany. They were just tying up the last few lose ends for the wedding. That night we all went out to the local pub to enjoy the carvery and a few beers. Steve’s aunty and uncle came to as well as the groomsmen.

Saturday June 13

We were staying with David at his place, Beccy had gone to stay with her mum but the groomsmen got ready at David’s place so we got to see the pre wedding stress kick in. Leigh (best man) and David were both very stressed. We had some breakfast before heading to the pub for a beer then on to the wedding.
The wedding was out a nice old church, the scenery was very green and pretty. It was a traditional wedding and lasted about half an hour. The girls were late as one of the cars had gotten lost so we were waiting in the chapel for a while, David and Leigh of course looked even more stressed. After the ceremony was over we headed to the local golf club for the reception. The staff went out of their way to make sure none of the food would make me sick, which was nice. After the reception we headed back to David’s place which we had to ourselves which was nice after living dorm style for so long.
PS Happy Birthday Jess!

Germany Overview - June 4-10

Germany overview:
No pictures this time as they seem to mess up the font types and sizes in the blog!

People speak lots of English very well.
The people are very alternative: There are lots of punks, metal heads, Goths etc who dress extreme every day.
There is a weird sense of fashion in Berlin. It’s very eclectic.
There a ways for homeless people to make money legally.
The hostels, in general are big and impersonal – the worst we’ve staying in in Europe.
The first dog we saw in Germany was a German Shepherd. I found that extremely amusing for some reason :P
The bike path network is extensive and lots of people ride places.
Internet cafes are cheap.

Ruth favourite things:
The whole of Berlin!
Steve favourite things:
Street art, Tresor
Ruth disappointments:
Leaving! Not getting to practice speaking more German.
Steve disappointments:
The hostels

Germany - Berlin June 4-10

Thursday June 4

It was time to get our first flight since arriving in Europe. It just simply isn’t practical to get trains in Western Europe when flights are so cheap. We had a fairly uneventful flight, the usual lack of border control at airports in Europe (which REALLY surprises me). I could have packed 10 kilos of cocaine and no one would have batted an eyelid.

We flew into Berlin and I was finally in Germany. I was looking forward to practising my German and seeing Germany so much, so I was very happy. We got the train in to the city for only 2.80Euros/$5ish Au and checked into a hostel called the Sunflower. It looked good on the flyers we had found at the Back Pack in Budapest. The wall art was very funky but we discovered very quickly it was very big and impersonal. The staff were really slow and pretty unhelpful and we were told we couldn’t use the kitchens as the rooms with kitchens were fully booked. I asked when we could and he said they get too busy when they are fully booked so we really couldn’t, which was a massive pain as I’ve been carting around me friendly food and not getting sick! We left our food in the staff fridge where we couldn’t access it. So we headed out for food and after walking for 15 minutes trying to find somewhere cheap we gave up and got a mid priced meal (6-10 Euros for mains). The menu was in English and the staff spoke English so I was pretty disappointed. I ordered no onion and my meal came with onion and I tried to pick it out but I must not have succeeded as I got sick again the next day. We ran into Melissa, the chick we got the ferry back from Santorini with, at our hostel. We chatted to her for a while before we decided to head out. We went to about 3 or 4 bars, all of which were cool, but dead. This was a contrast to the party Berlin I was expecting. Despite this we got quite drunk and had an awesome time with Melissa. We stumbled back to the hostel around 2.30 but were up at the hostel drinking in the 24 hour bar until 4 after which we crashed out.

Friday June 5

Our alarm went off at 10am as we’d agreed to go to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp with Melissa to save her from a creepy local who’d started ‘stalking’ her. He was taking her to the touristy places and he was getting a bit weird and creepy so we became her wingmen for the day. We paid for breakfast at the hostel because I couldn’t get in to the kitchen for a bowl for my cereal – the rooms with kitchens were protected by codes (we still paid the same amount as the rooms with kitchens – 12 Euros). The breakfast was 3 Euros and so not worth it. I got a bowl of cornflakes and a bit of cheese for my 3 Euros. After breakfast we headed out to the concentration camp. It took us over 3 hours to get there due to infrequent buses and it was a fair way out of Berlin. Despite the sun, it was a freezing day. The camp was fairly isolated and I think the quiet and the cold added to the feeling of the camp. We wandered around there for 3 hours, reading the walls, looking at all the items on display. We pretty much didn’t speak to each other the whole time. It was so deeply disturbing. It highlighted all of the other minorities that were killed by the Nazi’s. It wasn’t all Jews. The camp we were at was more Soviet POWs, most of the ethic people they wanted to kill were exported to Auschwitz. But this was a work/concentration camp rather than extermination camp and so we read the stories about how they were slowly tortured, how they were made to stand for roll call for 20+ hours in the snow without warm clothing until they all just dropped one by one. And then those that didn’t die standing were forced to work all the next day. Most of them died from starvation, disease and exposure. The rest were shot or hung. Some were hung from their arms backwards so their shoulders dislocated. Some were put in tiny cells too small to sit in and left to stand all night, then made to work the next day. Some were put in cells with no air until they suffocated, some in there with no food until they starved to death. It was horrible, and no amount of me telling this story can convey it – it is something you really have to see for yourself. That the camp was in operation for 9 years is staggering. That’s a third of my life time.

We left in the end because we were chilled to the bone, deeply disturbed. We needed to go back somewhere busy and happy and noisy to break the chain of thoughts churning around our heads.

We got the bus back, then got on the train. An inspector got on and asked for tickets. We had tickets but hadn’t validated them and we actually didn’t realise we were in zone C and we had AB tickets. He asked for our passports which we said we didn’t have. Then he said 40 Euros each and we said we didn’t have it and he just left. I reckon he was dodgey, trying to scam the tourists coming from the camp. We’d met a guy in Budapest who’d lived in Berlin years and he said he’d never even seen an inspector so don’t bother buying tickets. So we shrugged our shoulders and went back to our train ride.

We felt so relieved when we got back to our hostel and the chatter of people was a reassuring hum around us. We didn’t do much that night though I was keen to as we were in Berlin! The city that parties every night of the week but Steve was too tired to so I piked too, I wasn’t that energetic that I wanted to fly solo. The day was kind of emotionally draining so we called it a night.

Saturday June 6

Today Cameron that we met in Budapest met up with us in Berlin. First we went to the Ramones museum. On the way there we found a cool shop selling artwork that was really unusal, my kind on art. Being on a poor back packers budget we bought some post cards rather than proper canvas art, I got a business card though as I intend to go back when I have money :P The Ramones Museum was small but pretty cool, lots of the usual type of memorabilia such as tour posters, guitars, tickets, vinyl, t-shirts and other clothing as well as more unusal ones such as the original hand written lyrics and receipts for Johnny’s first guitar. We watched the DVD they had there but it was an hour and a half long so we only watched 50 minutes before we left.

We headed to the Brandenburg Gate to check out something touristy – and it was really touristy. But it was pretty cool.

After that we went grocery shopping for dinner and between beer and dinner we spent 30 Euros ($60 Au) as food in supermarkets in Germany is quite expensive. The beer only made up 8 Euros and we bought a fair bit! Chicken breast was 12 Euros $24 AU) per kilo. Steve cooked a nice white wine and mushroom pasta and Cam came to our hostel to eat with us too.

Cam was in Berlin to see a band that he liked called the Vivian Girls, an all girl band from the states. Apparently they had a really good engineer as their recorded stuff was awesome but he’d heard they really couldn’t sing live and the main guitarist had some work to do too. We went to see them at an odd little venue, we had directions or we would never have found it. The front door looked like a door into an underground car park and the stairs inside looked similar but we continued up a few floors and there really was a club up there. It’s been running illegally for 2 years. You could see where the walls had been knocked down and the stage and DJ box were made from beer crates. It created a crazy underground feel. We were there early as usual and so we left for a few cheap beers across the road and came back. The place had completely filled up when we got back. The Vivian Girls singer still cannot sing. Their guitar work must have improved though as they were not too bad. Cam was loving it anyway.

After we left that venue – which I have no idea what it was called as there is no signage what so ever – we headed out to find Tresor. It was to be our first Berlin techno experience. Techno is of course one of the things Berlin is famous for. Tresor is located inside a disused power station. We didn’t have any trouble finding it as they projected the Tresor logo onto the outside of the building.
I got asked for ID but Steve didn’t which made me feel good since my 29^th birthday was fast approaching :P We went inside and were met by lots of concrete, stencil art and minimal techno.

The main bar was pretty cool, they had a strobe light running on low repetition most of the night in both of the rooms we went in, and it was really dark without it, so when the strobe flashed it was the only time you could tell there was anyone else there and that you were in a club. We met some crazy Dutch guys who had come to Berlin just to go to Tresor, We also ran into Sarah and Emily from Melbourne – some girls we know from the scene back home. They were looking for German hard trance and were disappointed to find techno. They hung out with us for a few hours before leaving as they had stuff to do in the morning. So Steve, Cam, the Dutch guys and I hung out between the dance floor and the outside smoking area until around 7am before we headed back to our hostel.

Yes it is light in this picture!

Sunday June 7

Cam had left his gear out our hostel so he came back and picked up his gear. We were due to check out and didn’t want to stay another day as we really didn’t like the place, so we stayed up and found a new hostel. Cam said his goodbyes and headed off to Amsterdam. After a drunken morning skype call to Brian and Julie we moved hostels. The hostel we booked was called the All In and it was the worst hostel we’ve stayed in yet. They had no kitchen, not even a fridge, the rooms were tiny and the lockers were metal (noisy) and too narrow to actually put anything more than our wallets in. We were told we couldn’t check in until 2pm as they were cleaning so we headed out and met Melissa and her friend for lunch/dinner before being able to go there to sleep.

When they finally let us in we couldn’t work out what they had cleaned as there were back packs all over the floor so you could barely walk – they guys in our room had been there the night before too. We passed out and slept until just before check out the next day. After one look at the showers (no curtains, no cubicles just shower heads sticking out of the wall communally) we decided to shower and our next hostel – definitely weren’t going to stay there one more day. Monday June 8

We checked into the BaxPax Kreuzburg Hostel which was heaps better that the previous two. It had a kitchen, nice staff, spacious rooms and a nice common area. Extras like internet and washing were really expensive though, but we found a cheap net cafe 50m away so we spent a bit of time catching up on emails and booking flights etc while we were there. It was then that we had our first major setback. Well two major setbacks. We realised that our flight to the UK was actually from Munich not Berlin. And Citibank had emptied by bank account of cash and not taken money from my credit line due to a massive error on their behalf (which as of the 27^th of June I am still fighting – with only $7 in my account). The flights were an easy if expensive fix. It was going to cost 225 Euros ($450 Au) to get the train to Munich from Berlin. WFT? We couldn’t find it cheaper anywhere else online, perhaps if my German was better we could but as it was we couldn’t. We looked at flights and it was cheaper to just lose the flight and rebook. So we booked from Berlin to Liverpool to the tune of around 160 pounds ($330 Au). I suppose we couldn’t go our whole trip without anything going wrong.

We didn’t get up to much on the Monday night, just had a nice meal in the hostel and crashed out.

Tuesday June 9

We headed out to take the free alternative cities tour which kicked off at 11.30am. It was a tour showing the arty side of Berlin rather than the touristy stuff. I hadn’t formed much of an opinion of Berlin on the first day or so – it was just another city to me. By the weekend I was really warming up to it, but it was this tour that was the icing on the cake for me – it sealed the deal – I officially LOVE Berlin. I could easily live there. We went and saw lots of legal art on buildings and got the history behind it, we got told about some of the more well know street artists and their backgrounds. We went to an outdoor Jamaican bar complete with sand and Jamaicans :P We went to Raw Temple – which used to be the main train station that was used for transporting munitions during the second world war so it had been heavily bombed. There were entire sections they deliberately left as they were after the war. The rest of the area had become and arts precinct. There were cafes, student bars, performing space and a large indoor skate park.

We went to a place that sold second hand clothing by the kilo, which was cool, and a place that brewed it’s own ‘proper’ absinthe.

My favourite part however was Tacheles. It was a building that the SS took over during the war and post war had been abandoned as the basement had been flooded by the SS to cover their tracks, it is still flooded to this day. Today, it is filled by art galleries of the craziest abstract art. There were some many things that you look at and go WTF? (Brian and Julie: what the fuck?). We bought some post cards here too, but it was too hard deciding what to get. Outside they had places where they were making stuff out of metal, there was someone welding the whole time we were there.

That night we went on the anti-pub crawl. It’s was 12 Euros and went to bars that were a little bit different. We went to a horror rock themed bar set up by one of the guys from Rammstein, a few smaller bars (one where we had to pay a deposit for our glasses) and then back to Raw Temple. We’d been there with Melissa on the Thursday and it was dead so we didn’t stay but this night it was absolutely ram packed. We stayed there for a few hours before calling it a night.

Wednesday June 10

We left Berlin *sobs*

Ruth