Yesterday was 'Anstich'. For everyone from my homewtown Erlangen that - the opening of the first beer barrel at 17:00 o'clock - marks the start of one and a half weeks of total excess. Drinking, singing, dancing, partying, meeting old friends - the Bergkirchweih is all that. It's the one time of the year where every Erlanger comes home for a couple of days, no matter how far away they work or study.

If you've ever been to the Oktoberfest: it's like that just much nicer :) Instead of in big tents the whole party takes place outside under huge old trees, basically like one big beergarden. Also, there aren't nearly as much people dressed up in traditional clothing (which in my opinion always gives the event in Munich something of an old fashioned flair) and the music is less folklore-ish.

The partying during these 12 days usually starts somewhere in the afternoon and lasts 'til 11, then the music has to shut down because of noise regulations. But who cares. After 11 the pack moves from the 'Berg' (German for mountain, and giving the festival it's name), which is more of a hill on the outskirts of the town, to the inner city to continue celebrating in and around the local bars and clubs til early morning. It's totally berzerk. You have to experience it to understand why this event so important to 'us' Erlangen people ;)

Here's a short video I shot that pretty much sums up the happenings of one such days. Though the first part - the three hour pilgrimage with old highschool buddies to the festival from a local supermarket - only takes place on the first day. And no footage of the afterparty, as it didn't happen for me... too wasted and too tired.

All I wanted to do was to take a quick trip to the beach to watch the sunset. I left my apartment around 8 and somewhere on my way (pretty much where the pink and blue lines split) must've completely lost my sense of direction – instead of going north-west like I thought I was, I headed north-east. After about an hour of restless cycling I came to realize my mistake and took a turn (on N44) – the sun long gone. I made it maybe 500m when the fucking bolt of my left pedal loosened and after another 500 came off. Not having any tools with me and not being able to screw it back in – it was slightly damaged and therefore constantly jamming – I had to walk.

I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF FUCKING NOWHERE!!! ALL AROUND ME WAS FOREST, BIG MANSIONS AND NO STREET LIGHTING!!! I HAD NO GODDAMN CLUE OF WHERE I WAS, IT WAS GETTING DARK AND NOT A SINGLE PERSON AROUND I COULD'VE ASKED FOR DIRECTIONS!!! I HAD MISSED THE SUNSET!!! MY BIKE WAS BROKEN AND I HAD TO FRIGGIN' WALK MYSELF OUT OF THAT BIG STEAMING PILE OF SHIT!!! MY HANDS WERE COMPLETELY BLACK WITH FUCKING BIKE OIL AND I HAD RUINED MY FAVORITE PAIR OF SHORTS!!! MOST FUCKING FRUSTRATING HALF HOUR OF MY LIFE!!!!!

After about a half hour walk of cursing and deliberately trying to cycle without a second pedal – totally fucking ridiculous of course – I found a bus station, giving me at least a slight idea of where I was. There were no stations shown on the map but from the bus lines I could guess my position: way off. To make a long story short, I arrived home at about 11. Instead of 7km, I made a 29km round trip of which I walked half. Instead of biking for about 50 minutes there and back, I was on the road for three whole hours. I didn't even see a glimpse of the beach nor the sunset. And all that after having the maybe best party here in Den Haag two days before.

Damn karma.

1 a.m. Jazz at De Pater. 4 a.m. Club Nul at Silly's. 9 a.m. breakfast at Scheveningen beach.

Yesterday was Koninginnenach or Queen's Night, the night before the traditional and very Dutch Koninginnedag or Queen's Day on the 30th of April. What originally started out as the celebration of the queen's birthday, today is only an excuse to totally freak out and party all night (and day) long.

You could already see huge concert stages being build on the major plazas of Den Haag over the past few days as well as posters announcing all sorts of activities and events. We, the exchangies, were told it's best to spend the night in Den Haag and take look at the spectacle in Amsterdam the next day. Well, in the early evening it became clear what kind of event this would be: thousands and thousands of Dutch people wearing at least one piece of orange clothing crawling the streets, getting drunk and listening to 2nd class bands blasting from the stages. Everything ranging from families to students to elderly people was there, literally the whole city seemed to be up on their feet.

Well, upon seeing what awaited us, Cécile, Naïma, Daniel and I decided we were not cut out for this kind of 'national holiday' and instead would just have a couple of drinks at Naïma's place and later sneak past the crowds into the Paard van Troje to see DJane Missile in action. And that's what we did. After a couple of beers and some wine we headed out into the night eager to party. Only to discover that Missile wasn't as good as she sounded in her online sets, the crowd was extremely... um... drunk and village-fairish and we still weren't ready for the full frontal patriotism that was apparent everywhere – there were so many Holland flags hung up behind the DJ it almost looked like some fascist propaganda speeches were about to be held. Very strange.

After one and a half hours we called it quits and headed back to Naïma's place for a relaxed chill out session. Upon looking at some pictures of what Queen's Day in Amsterdam would be like, the four of us had also decided that it would probably be fun to look at for 15 minutes and after that we'd just be annoyed by the 'spectacle'. So instead of doing that trip today was spent recovering from last night and bundling strength for tomorrows big party.

By the way, Naïma lives in the coolest place I've seen here so far – it's an old squatted school building, where each 'apartment' is basically one of the old 60qm classrooms, with one big shared kitchen and showers in the basement. The whole thing is just crazy and looks like a mixture of run down artist's atelier (e.g. there's a small screen printing room on the first floor), junkie den and fraternity house. Gotta go back there some time and take more pictures. Those two below are almost exactly three hours apart by the way.