FIRST DAY IN BERLIN ACCORDING TO CHARLES
Opening up the eyes through the rumbling sound of the engine, the whispered words of everyone trying to find his way in the tiny corridor… We are in Berlin and Alex has one question this morning… Have we been trapped somewhere? We are in the middle of four walls, there are metal fences, everything is dark and falling apart… ''Don't worry'' says Marjo, we're actually behind the venue and everything is getting restored and renovated…lol… Is it part of all the little insecurities that are popping up when you are tired and living emotionally and physically intense moments everyday? Who knows, it was just funny.
Getting out of the ghetto-looking parking, it's now time to find internet cafés where we will be able to keep in touch with the family and get the feel of the city, the people. Doing this we found a place called Marco Hinze gastronom & bibliothekar. After spending hours working from there, we had the privilege to get to know Carolyn who made this café feel like home.
The day is planned… who's doing what, what videos are going to be done and most of all we're getting prepared to go at the rendez-vous we have with some of our friends from the YFE German community. Learning about the Trams, Carolyn explains to us how to get to the meet and greet. It's tram M4 til Alexanderplatz and from there til Hackescher Markt. By the way the tramways are a very nice way to go around the city. You will get to see the interview we made from there, we even got an Ode to YFE from Agnes and Magdalena who by the way are from Poland, they drove 3hrs to come and meet us in Berlin.
The hours are passing by and it's now 3:30 pm, it's time to go back to the venue where Matt and the crew are waiting for us for the sound check. While waiting for the next tram, Nikol tells us that it's the Berlin's Marathon today… due to this many trams are not running… lol It's then a very quick 20 minutes walk to go back…lol It's raining, YB and Miriam are running around with their cameras while the rest of us are trying to keep an eye on what's going around cause hey… it's Berlin!
Arriving at the Magnet club it's time to meet the staff and I honestly only have good words for who they are and how helpful and supportive they've been to us. "Okay kick drum please" says Matt at the beginning of an awesome night in this well known venue where everything is rocking, from the old stage floor to the walls where everyone left a poster, a name.
It's now time for me to be interviewed by our new good friend, the crazy and lovely Izabelle Desjardins… We had a blast me, her and YB finding our way through Berlin once again…lol By the way you are all going to see this interview pretty soon. It was a bit challenging to know that this was it, the very first interview based on my vision of all this YFE adventure. Thanks to you all, over the last year you helped me realize even more the call that is on our lives and you all made us feel like we were really at our place. Coming back home we came across this old man who we asked to confirm if we were in the right direction to go back to where we came from. I'm relating this because it was one of those moments where you can definitely tell that the eyes can do more than words. He was not speaking English at all but still helped us the best he could, my eyes stopped on this little cross he had on his coat… a second after he was blessing us with the hand while holding bright eyes and a comforting smile towards us.
11:30pm it's time to get prepared for the show. Everyone is talking at the same time about their day being all frantic about what is coming up. Going to the band's dressing room we're having a glimpse at the crowded venue and Rumble in Rhodos performing and warming this amazing crowd that is responding in the rockiest way I have ever seen.
1am… it's only minutes before YFE goes on stage, Ben and Jeff and I are jumping around pretending to fight together a bit, it's our own little way of preparing our bodies and mind for the upcoming show… in the very last five minutes we're all holding each other strongly, the backstage curtain opens and here we are in front of all those eyes… Curious ones, wasted ones, passionate ones, all searching for something… All cranked up, we're hitting the first songs and sincerely we've been carried away by these people, they were into it and by feeling the floor moving, the mosh pit, the body surfing and the ones singing every single words of the songs, the least we can say is that they totally rocked us out. Not too long after the end of the show we were talking with them, which was great.
6am… Going back to the bus, still carried away by this night no one feels asleep except for Ben and Sef who are sick, their first German cold…lol We talked and shared til almost 7am… 5 hrs later the bunk beds's curtains are opening for a second day in Berlin where are Alex, Ben and Jeff… those guys are crazy…
Charles
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