Hey, my first weekend night out in The Hague! But to be honest, wasn't really the greatest of all time. First off, it was kinda weird only being here for a month and already having the first farewell party – Sayuri, another exchangie from my class, is returning to Japan next week. So at ten, her and a couple of others met in the city and had some first drinks at the Café Paard van Troje with a live rock band playing, which was quite frankly... horrible. Old 'what-my-parents-would-listen-to-rock' performed by cliché dudes in tribal shirts (Felix, you know what I mean). After exchanging a few glances, we left and wandered around aimlessly for a while. Then Ege, exchangie from Turkey, had the brilliant idea to go to the "best place ever, guys!" – the Havana. Why not, I didn't know any clubs in the city and actually Cynthia, a local, had already suggested the same place a while before. She said that it was a Salsa place while Ege insisted that they played Reggaeton. In the end they were both wrong.

I hate to say this but that place might just well have been one of the worst venues I've ever been to. It had everything: cheesy decoration and interior design, crappy music (Top 40s, bullshit R'n'B, cheap dance house – cutting off the few good songs just before the climax), not my type of crowd (wannabe pimps and hustlers, brainless & skanky bitches, preppy upper class douchebags with too much gel in their hair and first time party nerds – basically everything you find at your local 'Großraumdisse') and oh-so-cool barkeeps who thought they were the hottest shit walking this earth since Frank Sinatra but took 15 minutes for a friggin' Tequila Sunrise and kept dropping their high-flung glasses.
I really tried – alcohol, cigarettes, nothing helped. It was just plain impossible to make this place look good. At about half past one I decided to call it a night and left, I couldn't stand it anymore. For some reason, the others followed (I didn't wanna spoil their night!) and even tried dragging me into yet another place. Not being in the mood for more 'experiments' I said I'd take a look at it next time. But as Vincent – the boyfriend of one of my classmates, Deep House DJ and my only ally that night – already told me: if I want good Electro I have to go to Amsterdam. Damn...

By the way, on the last pic, clockwise from top left: Cynthia (NL), some weirdo, Ege (TUR), Sayuri (J), Cynthia's friend (NL).

I just noticed that it's been over a month since my last good party. Tonight I'd have the chance to go to a really nice sounding event in a local club, but I'm having the fuckin' biggest headache of all time. Screw you, new contact lenses!

Phew. Yet another crazy night at Vega, this time with Philippe, who's still visiting from Görmänie. Trentemøller and Kasper Bjørke were just rippin' it up and seriously tearing the place apart. Amazing. The crowd went bananas and we danced til we were soaking wet. So in the end, the 45 minutes of standing in line definitely paid off ;) But see for yourself.

Just a reminder: I still love Danish girls.

And this is what it sounded like. Well, at least through a shitty digicam mic that can't keep up with the bass. Just pumping noise.

In two ways, actually three ways. First - I'm back in my hometown Erlangen for the Christmas days. Second - I went out to party in my favourite spot, the E-Werk, which I haven't been to in half a year. Third - I went to a Ska concert!!! Finally! It's been ages since my last one. Yesterday it was the oh-so-great Busters, which I hadn't seen so far. And although I have to admit that I've basically stopped listening to Ska entirely when I'm at home, on the go or in the car (it's shifted quite a bit to electro), I still love going to the concerts. 'Cause let's be honest: the best new-rave-electro-ghetto-minimal-tech-house-shit DJs don't stand a single chance against a rippin' live ska combo when it comes to intensity, sweatiness and just dancing your ass off. Seriously, when was the last time you stood in the middle of the crowd, hands on your knees, unable to move, com-plet-ly wet and gasping for air, because you just couldn't take any more? Probably not during some DJ set...

I have to admit I stole this photo from mes amis français, Guilom and Dora's blog. Cheerio :)

That's probably the best way to describe last night. Holy fuck, it was good! But one thing after the other:

It started out by me calling Pete and Hendrik, two of the guys from the hostel which I hadn't seen in ages. In Hendrik's case it's been over two months to be precise. We've been trying to meet for quite some time now, but it never worked out. But yesterday it actually did! Hendrik agreed to come over to my place for some beers and later move on to Vega, where we'd meet Pete. And so it happened. Hendrik came over with a sixpack of juleøl and we had a nice talk, while Felix and I had a glass of red wine. We still had headaches from the night before but the wine got rid of them. Magic! Or just the killing of the few brain cells still working right. I don't know. At about 11 we made a move to the club as we wanted to get in for free (until 1) and we had to walk quite a bit. At 12 we were inside, chilling in the lounge and having our first ice cold Tuborg – later we switched to Corona. Yes, it's both beer. And I drank it. Again.

And then it happened. Suddenly, while the place was getting more and more crowded, all kinds of people started popping up out of nowhere. First Johannes and Schwan, then Leopold, Elena and Andrea, then Dot and Jeppe. Later Paulie, which I hadn't seen for over a month, showed up as well. Even Johanne's friend from the trip to the Josh Cochran exhibition was there! And Hendrik! And Felix! And then at 1:30 Pete! And Lasse! Holy crap, one big ass family. And as I found out, it was Lasse's birthday that day. I swear, had the boys from Darmstadt and the people from Erlangen been there, it would have been THE perfect, not-able-to-top night.

What made it so good, besides having so many friends there and dancing with them, was the music we were dancing to. If I forgot to mention, it was friggin' DJ Feadz AND friggin' Trentemøller in a double feature! Plus support by Fredski! Feadz was just killing it. At 2:30 you couldn't drop a penny on the dancefloor. It was so packed, people started piling up on the stage next to and behind the DJs. The final 10 minutes of his set were maybe the wildest I have ever had on an electro night. There was a goddamn pogo – to electro!!!

While Hendrik and Felix kept on chilling in the lounge and enjoying a nice talk (it's not really their kind of music), I was pouring sweat with the others til 4 o'clock. We left so relatively early because to be honest, Trentemøller had some trouble keeping the crowd going and the party lost quite a bit of it's momentum. Had it been just him that night I think it would have been fine. But his sophisticated minimal just didn't work on a crowd that was still high on bone crushing new rave.

Still, a night to be remembered. Also and especially because all the good friends I was able to share it with. Sorry, no pictures this time. I don't think my camera would have survived it. But I'll see, maybe I can get some cellphone shots from the other guys.

Julefrokost! This traditional Danish event – translated it means Christmas Lunch – which is a very common thing during the Christmas season and on which a group of friends meet at someone's place, have dinner together and get drunk afterwards, took place at my crib (yo!) last night. All in all 16 people and lots of good food, wine and Juleøl – great sushi and green tea ice cream by Yoshi, traditional german red cabbage by Johannes, three different pies from Guilom and Dora, meatballs by Jeppe, tiramisu from the swiss girls, potato gratin by Schwan, tuna sandwiches by Chloé, lomo from Manu, cookies, more cakes, lasagna...the list is endless.

After having stuffed ourselves we had a little post-birthday celebration for Chloés 22nd and continued the night drinking, talking, playing table soccer and darts and putting cool stick-on earring all over our faces. Memorable events included Dora breaking her chair in the middle of the dinner, Yoshi's indignant facial expression upon seeing some of his sushi being handled with forks, Guilom, Manu and me trying to find out how many different kinds of hard liquor shots you can have in one go without throwing up, the naked couple across the backyard which just wouldn't get it on, the dick, superman, and of course Manu's revealing of his feminine side (maricón!).

Altogether a very enjoyable and 'hyggelig' night. Thank you to everyone involved! And a special thanks to Dora, Dot, Johannes, Andrea and Barbara for doing all those dishes – just realized today how long it would have taken me to clean that mess up.

Unfortunately not the names of the two danish girls whom I had a double date with. 'Alice In Wonderland' was the concept of this weeks Friday Bar – very nicely done, with a lot of effort put into decoration and costumes. And Jolene is a very cool bar here in Copenhagen we went to afterwards and which opened for the last time last night before moving to a new, still secret location. I was always too lazy to go there because it's so far from my place, and now that it's closed down I'm kinda pissed that I haven't gotten my ass up earlier. Shucks.