Jul 2005

Subject: Europe & Beyond

Russia to England via Glastonbury Festival
17th June – 22nd July (37 days since last email)

Hi there everyone!

Well I’ve finally decided to write another travel journal thing, so welcome aboard and grab a comfy seat as this will be a long one, I apologize in advance for the longnesses, but I can’t help it :p

Well I last left you all at the end of my Russia leg and the airport shenanigans that endured. Well it was off to the castle capital of Prague. I kind of had a brain fart on the plane and decided that I will probably take it easy in Prague and just check out the city as I really had to stretch out my money for Berlin, Amsterdam and the UK. So that I did, as strange as it was not being under a haze of intoxication I checked out the city for 4 days and just bummed around the park trying to spend nothing. It’s true what they say, that Prague has a magical feel to it, with all the coble stone streets and what not. Was a bit strange coming from somewhere where English is hardly spoken and written and nobody understands you, to a place where EVERYTHING is in English, a spose a bit too touristy and so many Americans (sheesh, thought I was actually there), but the absinth made up for all of that. I was a bit bummed out that I wasn’t in Russia, as I absolutely loved that place but time to move on as that’s the backpacker way and hey Prague has the Sex Toys Museum, very ummm insightful, some things in there I didn’t really needed brought to my attention LOL

Then it was up to Berlin for 4 days by bus from Prague, no passport control here, good on Mr EU . Now I have to say this first off the bat that I have NEVER being interested in any type of history before I arrived here, but a strange thing happened in Germany…I spent 5 HOURS!!! In a bloody museum about the Berlin Wall and German history, I couldn’t believe it, but that wall has got me so interested that I was buying souvenirs and all ekk! I think that because it’s so is so recent and that that kind of inhumanity was happening only 20 years ago make it all the more real.
But Berlin was a absolutely fantastic city (I think I say that about them all LOL), the culture and vibe in the place is awesome, graffiti and old posters everywhere, bombed out and deserted buildings and the club/bar scene is unreal.
Ok so imagine this, its midnight on a Tuesday night, tis a bit chilly and you go out looking for a good night out and you hear this distant thump from BENIGTH you, so drawn to the beat you go and check it out and next thing you know your walking up a small stair well and looking out of the top floor of a bombed out building, whoa! It feels very surreal, it might have being a house club but it did the trick LOL
But they do love there hard trance and have you ever seen a club with a LCD roof that keeps flashing pictures…was very trippy, those Germans where probably pumping propaganda into our brains LOL, ooooo and those crazy Germans love there kebabs, even more than Melbourne.

Next it was on an overnight bus up to that little old town called Amsterdam!!!!!!!
I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t have any accommodation as apparently it was peak season (no one told me that now did they!) but low and behold I found a hostel on a boat (anything is possible in this trippy town) so in the space of 12 hours I’ve gone from hostel to train to subway to bus to ferry to SHIP!
Was a bit out of town and was kinda bummed out about that when I first arrived, thought why the fuck am I staying on a boat in the harbour all the way away from the action (besides that old soviet submarine parked next door), but how wrong I was.
Staying in a hull of a ship, getting rocked to sleep every morning and staying with a crazy bunch of really cool people, didn’t really have to leave the ship, but had to check out this “fascinating” city and all it had to offer. So long story short…sex shows, sex museums, lots of tourists, relaxed laws, and pumping pumping Dutch hardcore music :D…you know the rest, then go retire back to my ship to recover for the next night LOL

It was time to leave Amsterdam and make my way to my new home…The United Kingdom. Was a bit worried about going through the airport from some of the stories I had heard on my travels on having troubles getting in. So I chose my airport carefully, Bristol it was, nice and close to Glastonbury, cheap as chips flight and relaxed immigration officials. Expecting a strip search and cross examination as being a 20yo male coming from Amsterdam to start a working holiday, I was prepared for the worse. All I got was a welcome to the UK and a stern warning that drugs are not as tolerated as Amsterdam and sent on my merry way.
So it was into Bristol, which by the way is a really cool city, Ill come back to Bristol, as Glastonbury Festival 2005 was starting to run through my veins.
Well I arrived at 4pm in Bristol on the Tuesday, one day before Glastonbury started and thought, fuck, I’m not really prepared for Glasto little lone camping for 5 days! So it was off to the local store to get some booze, water, food and maybe some camping gear. So 2 cases of beer, 20 litres of water, noodles, sleeping bag and a canvas garden wheelbarrow I thought I was hell ready for this wicked festival.

So here I am wheeling a wheelbarrow through the middle of Bristol at peak hour filled with beer and other assorted goodies and something ain't feeling right, what do you know the wheel is about to fall off and I’m just over half way back to the hostel, fuck me, that would be my luck now wouldn’t it. So I push me borrow into a bar and ask them to mind it while I go back and forth taking my assorted goodies to the hostel.
So its 10pm at night the night before Glastonbury and I’m stressing like a mofo, I’ve got to get a trolley before 9:30am the next morning when my train comes, managed to find a DIY store in the Yellow Pages and think its all sorted. I get up nice and early and get a trolley at the hardware store and think, you beauty, it’s sorted! and its 9:20am, nice one mate, nice one.
So backpack on with newly attached sleeping bag and trolley in tow with assorted goodies, im set, bring on the madness. Half way there something ain't feeling too right, wheel wise and all, and fuck me both wheels are about to fall off my newly acquired (but cheap) trolley. Now its decision time, its 9:40am, train rolls in at 10am, I haven’t even made it to Glasto and my trolley has shit itself and it’s unseasonably hot. Do I drag the fucker all the way to Glasto and the campsite?, do I call a cab and ditch the trolley and keep the goods? or try to fix it?.
Well the decision was made to ditch the trolley AND the assorted goodies, that’s right, 2 cases of beer were left in the park, don’t worry a tear and a tinnie was shed before we said goodbye, might have being the heat that gave me this delusional idea but think it was the right choice for all involved. Some hobo would have thought he had struck gold when he found that lot. Needless to say I was spewing and stressing and sweating and missed the train.
But my handy little rule of everything happens for a reason came to rescue me and I thought, mate its all good, it all happened for a reason and fuck me it sure did (funny that). So fast-forward to the Glasto gate (all very exciting, I’ve made it to the gates of heaven).

Now my plan was to never take a tent and just sleep in someone else’s, hell there’s 150’000 people someone has to have a spare space in there tent, right?.
I’m at the gate and waiting to get in and I meet this lovely group of people who just live up the road and have brought in a tepee type tent, one thing led to another and next thing I know I’ve got me a tent and another new set of festi mates LOL
Now one thing that I learnt rather quickly is that Brits act a lot older than they are, especially the teenage ones.
Thinking that they were maybe 19 or 20 and were talking about Uni, I found out about day two that they were actually staying in a tent full of 15 and16 year old school girls, was a absolute riot, was like being back at school, so innocent and just a riot to be around.
Well that was just the first 5 hours of Glasto and that’s about a page, better keep it short, I actually remember quite a bit, which is fantastic all be it surprising.
Well I could rattle on for hours about how good Glastonbury Festival was, but the music, the cider, the girls, the mud, the rain, the new friends, the trench foot and the smell were absolutely amazingly fantastic.
I could break down every amazingly good act that played but that’s too much typing and I’m tired. But Fatboy Slim had to be the best ever LIVE DJ set that I have ever seen, was more like a stage show with everyone getting 3D glasses (that’s about 10’000 of us), beach balls, dancers, massive screen, awesome lighting, the whole box and dice was out of this world. Some of the other acts where Basement Jaxx, Plump DJs, LCD Soundsystem, Hybrid, Garbage, Chemical Brothers, BT, Freestylers, 2 Many DJs and the list goes on and on, there were just so many stages and not all music, there was a circus tent, a cabaret tent, fire stage, so sooooooo much to do and so many places to get lost and loose track of time itself (or that could be that strong cider kicking in LOL).
We didn’t get washed out thank god, but there were a few mud slides and tents were buried and washed away and absolutely covered in water that mixed with those tipped over loos at the top of the hill (oh no!). I wasn’t prepared for camping at all little lone wet weather, so I donned my board shorts and rash shirt (yes it was a unique look LOL) and taped up my legs with garbage bags to slow down the onset off trench foot and off we go to do some partying.

Well as some of you may know, I ended up stretching my 5 day Glasto experience to 2 ½ weeks by picking up job after the festival had finished by litter picking for 8 hours a day 7 days a week. It turned out that I earned more money litter picking for 2 ½ weeks than I did back home and with less of the shit attached, plus I got fed for free three times a day and you can keep whatever you find and find some weird shit we did. Was a absolutely trip, we had the ultimate camp site going as people just literally leave all there stuff behind when they went home, so I got me some wellies, two tents, a chair, dooner (or duvet as the English say, la de dar), pillow, air mattress, food, beer, kitchen stuff, the whole lot, I only ended up taking on off the tents out with me when I left as it was know aptly as the “festiTENT – fun times for all™” and had way too many memories attached to leave behind.

Well I think it’s about time for my afternoon kip, I’m all exhausted now but buzzing with all the stuff that I’ve forgotten already.
Well next week is the God’s Kitchen Global Gathering Festival which I have postponed my 21st for then the weekend after that is Prodigy and then Creamfields, its fucken full on alright.
Well I’m missing you all but having a ball.
Not sure if my emails will be as frequent (not that they have being LOL) but will try and keep you guys updated with all my ramblings.

Take care in this crazy world
Jase :D
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Check out the pics here >>>

Prague - http://www.redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/684489#29358018

Berlin- http://www.redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/684527#29358067

Amsterdam- http://www.redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/684629#29364478

Glastonbury - http://www.redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/702821#29715274

Bristol - http://www.redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/702849#29716060