Sunday 29 May 2011

Abandoned theme park

This weekend, Friday in particular, was one of the most fun weekends I've had, which is saying something because I've had quite a few bits of fun recently. But Friday was fun for loads of reasons. I was supposed to be djing in Prenzlauer Berg at 10pm but I met up with James in the afternoon and we had a dead cool time having casual ales in a few different bars around Neukoelln. We met some friends who own a cafe and sat with this dead nice guy who I'd never met before but can't remember his name, then we went to a bar around the corner and sat with this ex professional footy player who James and I met a couple of weeks ago in a turkish betting shop and had a few drinks with him. It was 9pm by this point and I remembered I had to go all the way back to mine to get my records before heading off to DJ (Prenzlauer Berg is about 30 mins by bike). We were both a bit boozy by this stage and James decided to come with me to DJ. We grabbed our bikes and my records and started pegging it towards the train station. We got on a train but it booted us off after 2 stops so we legged it from there to the tram and jumped on a tram. Eventually we arrived at the bar, 45 minutes late, only to find out that I'd been told the wrong date and it was actually the next day I was DJing. I couldn't believe it, I was dripping with sweat and totally out of breath and all flustered and what have you. The guy was sound though and apologised and gave us both a pint and me a packet of fags too. It wasn't that bad though because earlier in the day we were talking about this event that was happening at an old abandoned theme park so now, what with me not having to DJ, we could go. We cycled back from Prenzlauer Berg to Treptower Park singing Roy Orbison songs and Beach Boys songs and Beatles songs dead loud. It was about midnight now. Finally we made it to the park and to get the old amusement park we had to bike through the park in total darkness for about 20 minutes. It was kind of fun but I don't mind admitting that there were times when I was frightened. Anyway, we made it, but we only made it at the very end when it was emptying out and locking up for the night but James knew somebody who worked there and she let us in anyway so we decided to just get a bit lost in there. It was magic. All the old shacks and stands where all still there from when it last opened it's doors 20 years ago. Everywhere was a little bit battered and all the plants and grass and bushes where dead overgrown. There was even a couple of massive plastic dinosaurs left lying on the ground. It looked mad. We went past a pond that we thought had some speakers near it playing animal noises and then we realised that the pond was just full of frogs and the frogs were all croaking their mad little heads off!! We went past a really beautiful black horse (not real) and it was on a track so James and I took turns pushing each other around the track on it. It was completely overgrown with thorn bushes though so we got toally shredded whilst doing it, but it was really good fun and we made it all the way around. We carried on walking, avoiding the security guards and all that and eventually we found a group of people sat around a fire and drinking booze so we went over and sat down with them. Turns out they're all lovely french and german people so we sayed there for an hour or so, chatting and drinking and stuff. We decided to leave them to it and we headed back to our bikes.

Something a bit weird happened on the way home. not totally, totally weird, but defo a bit mad, like. We were biking, again through the dark - actually, just remembered that we both nearly absolutely fell off our bikes when we drove at a good bit of pace into a bit of tree that someone had left lying across the path - anyway, yeah, we were biking to Kreuzberg because we were going to meet some friends, by this point it's probably about 2.30am or something, and we came to this massive stretch of road that was closed to cars so we started pegging it dead fast, racing each other and then this guy who was going the same way started to join in the race and the three of us raced down the road until we came to where the road blocks where and then we slowed down and had a bit of a laugh and introduced ourselves to this guy who was gegging in on the race. Lovely fella, he was, Italian dude from Florence. Anyway, James and I split off and when we got to Kotbusser Tor I saw this girl I know called Lisa. She was just standing there smiling at me as if she was waiting for me or something, but she wasn't, like. So we stopped and said hello and a bit of a chat etc. She was waiting for her friend. Then her friend showed up whilst we were chatting. It was the Italian fella who we'd just met 10 minutes before!! How mad is that?!?! Is it mad or is it just me? That's well mad.

But yeah, it was just a dead nice day, spontaneous boozing, biking round, abandoned theme parks...mega.

I DJ'd in Mokum last night, which is a bar I've started playing in once a month. It's absolutely good fun and I really anjoy playing there but everytime I do it I stagger out at like 7am completely off my head on alcohol. Don't really remember getting home or leaving the bar but I'm here in my bedroom now and I managed to not get my records or my guitar robbed off me. I had my guitar on me because I played a gig at this open-air event in Schoneweide earlier in the day. I feel a bit ropey now though so I'm going to go and watch some more of the american version of the office before heading out later to eat delicious vietnamese food, which is my favourite thing to eat in Berlin.

p.s. can not be bothered to re-read that so probably loads of grammar and spelling mistakes. I always try and start off proper but then the faster I type and it all starts spewing out it just goes to pot.