Today I earned a free cup of coffee by doing the Roger Rabbit.

I'm not sure whether to be ashamed or proud.

Today was apparently "guess Cliff's nationality" day. Over the course of the day, I was mistaken as a native of France, Germany, Russian and Czechoslovakia. No one guessed American, weirdly enough. Early in the morning, someone came up to me with a camera, speaking in very very bad French, and I think they were trying to say that their French was terrible, so I just interrupted and said "How about English?" The couple, who looked very thankful, then asked me to take their picture. This was repeated twice more throughout the day, once in German and once in Czech. The waiter at lunch, however, was so certain that I was Russian that he asked me if I was dining alone in Russian. When I sort of blinked and stared at him for a second, he apologized then asked again in English. So today, I am a foreigner, from places unknown.

I decided mostly just to go walkabout today, starting at the Blackfriars station. I got some nice photographs of Saint Paul's Cathedral, even though I didn't get too close to it. From there I walked south, across the Millennium Birdge, getting a handful of good snaps there. I proceded over to the Tate Modern, which made for some interesting viewing. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, but definitely enjoyed looking around, seeing some of the more modern works. There was a section dedicated to "Urban Modern Photography" but there was an admission fee, and the photo they were using to try and draw people in didn't impress me very much. Maybe I'm strange, but I find photography isn't always art, and a lot of photography that people consider "art" I simply consider drab. I guess I'm hard to impress with such things.

I also walked over to The Globe Theater, and it was around this point that my camera did die. It's a wonderful restoration, but the shows that were playing weren't of any particular interest to me (I've seen Midsummer Night's Dream far too many times) so I carried on to The Clink Museum and then past Southwark Cathedral (which is pronounced "SUTH-erk," which isn't half as strange as "Leicester" being pronounced "LES-ter;" also "fillet" is pronounced with the T here... strange bloody language) and then found myself over by London Bridge again.

I hopped back on the Tube and headed back to the hotel, swapping out my battery before going walkabout in the Notting Hill area. I really hadn't wandered around the area all that much, so I spent an hour or two just walking around the area, taking pictures and seeing what the area was like. It's very much in the process of gentrification -- many of the places seem to be getting rebuilt and the bars and pubs were always full of posh gents and ladies, all of whom looked like they spent more on their shirt than I did on my car back home. Seems a pretty nice area of town, but then again, I don't recall really seeing London slums. I'm sure they're out there - I just never saw them. The particular part of neighborhood I'm in is apparently fairly populated with tiny hotels and either Russian or Ukranian people, although I also heard conversations in German, Spanish, French, Italian and at least a couple of languages I couldn't recognize.

I ended up grabbing dinner at a curry place not far from the hotel. It turned into a rather weird expat dinner, as guy from Munich (Jakob) and a guy from Italy (Franco) invited me to come sit with them. So I had dinner with these two guys, who apparently had never met one another before dinner, and spent an hour or two chatting away with them about their trips and mine. Dinner had all sorts of odd topics. Jakob is in London to work out some deal regarding reprinting/translation rights for some book I'd never heard, and Franco, well, Franco just sort of laughed and said that he didn't want to talk about business because it was boing. Franco also spent about twenty minutes trying to convince me to get an escort for my last night here. Apparently he's something of a world traveller, and particularly enjoys the escorts of London. As entertaining (and graphic) as his descriptions were, I decided to pass. I wish I hadn't dropped off my camera before dinner, as I would've liked to get a picture of me, Franco and Jakob, but alas, not meant to be.

Anyhow, I realize it's Friday nigtht and I should be out partying away on the London nightlife scene, but I have a plane for Frankfurt to catch at 9:30 tomorrow morning, so it's early to bed for me here. I'll be asleep by 11 or so and up by 6-6:30 to catch the Tube over to Heathrow. All in all, London's an interesting place, and while I had a bunch of fun, next time I think I'll need to bring someone with me. I don't know that I'd mind putting in a year or two living out here, although I don't think I could ever permanently call it home.

So far I have somewhere around 650 pictures uploaded to the laptop. Dunno if I'm going to bring my camera with me to the Fury show tomorrow, but I might. Going to at least get a few shots of me and Nils as we bum about Hannover for the afternoon. (Also, humorously enough, it can be spelled Hannover or Hanover, and it's the same city... how weird is that?) Fury's on stage at 8, show starts around 6 or so, and I imagine the band'll be on until at least midnight, if not longer. I got some money changed over to Euro so I can be sure to get a USB drive recording of this show (and find out if they recorded the 22nd, and how to get it) as well as a shirt or two. Thorsten said he may have a goodie bag for me at this show, which will also certainly be awesome. And I need to remember to get Christian's autograph on my CD jacket tomorrow. Once I get up tomorrow, it's about 37 hours of consciousness for me and then hopefully I pass out on the plane out of Heathrow. There may be a post from either Hannover airport, Frankfurt airport or Heathrow, but I doubt it, since they all seem to want to charge for internet access, so I may simply scribble down some thoughts in a word file and then post them after I'm back in the States again.

Good night London.

Spent much of yesterday engaged in "that most British of activities" -- queueing. I lost about three hours of the day waiting for The London Dungeon, but it was certainly fun enough. Part history lesson, part low-budget Disneyland, part haunted house, the London Dungeon is worth taking in, but I certainly wish I'd have known about the Fast Track tickets before I spent three hours in line. Didn't take pictures on the inside, although I certainly could've, mostly because flashes destroy that kind of atmosphere, and there were enough people around me doing so already. The "tour" walked through the the plague, Jack the Ripper, Sweeny Todd and other bits of ghoulish London history. There were a couple of "ride" bits, but nothing too exotic or impressive. Still, it was an experience worth having. Across the street while we queued, the guys in front of "The London Bridge Experience" were trying to draw people in, but it seemed they weren't getting many bites. I wasn't particularly interested, since it seemed they were going even more funhouse than the Dungeon was. They did, however, do a fun version of "Thriller" at one point, at the end of which, the guy with the microphone said "Can you believe they pay us for this rubbish?" I snapped a couple of photos of them as I passed. Also of humor, about two hours into the queue, I made some comment to the couple standing behind me, who must've barely been in their college years. They practically jumped when i did. "I thought you were German!" the girl told me. So in Germany, I got mistaken for a Norweigan, in Britain I got mistaken for a German... apparently I'm hard to pick as an American until I speak, and then it's obvious from there.

After the Dungeon, I hopped back on the Tube then headed over to Waterloo station, but of course, I got off at Waterloo East, where there is, apparently, absolutely nothing of interest. So I ended up walking over to the main Waterloo station and then to more points of interest. I ended up walking around the London Eye, but decided to pass on going up on it -- somehow the idea of spending the equivalent of $30 to go up in the air for 30 minutes didn't seem all that enthralling when I'd seen London via air when I flew in. (And the fact that I'll be flying out tomorrow and back in and out the day after that.) Over by the eye, though, at County Hall, I found both the Movarium (which is a museum of movie history) and the Dali Experience, both of which I took in. The Dali Experience, while entertaining, was another "no pictures" zone, so all I have is my memories for it, but the Movarium allowed pictures all over the place, so I got a bunch of shots from there. There were tons of props from all sorts of things, and it was entertaining enough. I grabbed buffet style Chinese food there, and regretted it a few minutes later -- the food was terrible, and I ended up eating again just a short while later, since I couldn't stand the "food" that I'd paid for there.

I headed back to the hotel and decided to put in an early night, as I'm going to do again tonight. Tomorrow morning, I need to head down to London Heathrow, catch my flight over to Hannover and meet up with Nils to see Fury In The Slaughterhouse's last (sort of) concert. Day after that, I'm headed back stateside. I've got loads upon loads of photos to sort through, and hopefully my voicemail is full of people calling, throwing money, job offers and beautiful women at me. I suspect it'll take a day or two for me to get back onto my normal schedule again, but we'll see how it works out in the end. Monday is Labor Day, so no one's much working anyway, and that helps a bit. Not exactly sure what I'm doing with my last day here in London. Might take in the Tate Modern. Might visit The Clink. Might even swing by the Tower of London (not to see the jewels, but just to get a walkthrough). Might even stop at Picadilly again, see if there's any interesting shows to take in, although I expect it'll be insanely crowded, since it's a Friday.

Anyhow, enough of my prattling on. May make a post tonight right when I get in (been doing the last few in the morning before I go out) since I'll be heading out so early tomorrow. We're in the homestretch from here, lads.

So yesterday was a bit of a crash course in hearing British spoken regularly, as a member of my old community and her daughter came out to give me the tour of the city. A lot of what was said took me a couple of times to hear, as the accent definitely takes some getting used to. Part of the day was simply spent talking about the large differences between the U.S. and England, despite the common language. Bou's daughter found it funny that I was talking about money in phrases like "one and a half pounds" instead of "one pound fifty." Apparently a clear sign that I'm a foreigner.

I've also gotten an Oyster card, which is apparently for regular tube travel. It's going to cut down on the amount I pay to sport about for the next two days, which is good. Bou and her daughter suggested it, so I picked one up. Tube travel later in the evening can be a bit hectic, but I'll get to that in good time...

We started out the morning at Westminster Abbey. I got a handful of photos outside, but mostly I wasn't allowed to take pictures there, which was a bit of a bummer, as there was some absolutely lovely things to see. Wonderfully dark architecture and tombs of all sorts of famous people. (While the tombs of kings and queens were nice, I was more taken in by Poet's Corner, where people like Charles Dickens and Lewis Carrol were buried. Quite an honor to be buried so close to royalty, I'd guess.) Took a while to meander through, and Bou's daughter got herself a chocolate coin from doing a sort of "were you paying attention" thing as we went.

From there it was off to the National Gallery. There were a handful of things I was quite impressed with here, and lots of things that were nice to see, although not as striking to me. I appreciated looking at actual Van Gough's. There were some of Da Vinci's paintings as well, but I think i burned through much of my interest for his work while I was in Rome/Florence many years ago. Again, the National Gallery didn't allow me to take pictures inside, so I have to content myself with my memories, which I'm sure regular readers of this blog know is pretty spotty from time to time. I did get a handful of wonderful photos from the outside, all of which I'll post when I'm back in the states. I haven't tried to figure out if I could manage the photo archive from the laptop, so I'm basically just using it as a storage place for photos so that I don't overload the camera, but no actual posting will occur until I'm back in San Jose.

Next, we grabbed lunch in a "greasy spoon" which is really just a cafe, basically. I ordered ham and turkey on "brown bread" as wheat is called, and, sure enough, that's exactly what I got. I apparently should've specified that I would've also liked lettuce, mayo, cucumber, onion, etc... But, being as I didn't ask, I ate my meat and bread contently.

From there, we strolled up Book Row and stopped in a Murder One, a bookstore almost entirely dedicated to murder mysteries. I ended up picking up the second of Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" books, and have determined that British book covers are almost inevitably cooler than ours. Regardless, I have more things to read now, should I go wanting.

We also stopped in Picadilly Cirus, and I ended up picking up a ticket for Spamalot, since I'd never actually seen the show. Cheap show tickets seemed a fun idea, and I paid about half of what I would've otherwise. Might try and see another show tonight, haven't quite decided yet. It was quite a bit of fun, but I'm not sure if there are other shows I have a big interest in. The seat for the show was quite good (although not "the seat" as fans of the show will know what I'm talking about). I had parted ways with Bou and her daughter a little bit earlier in the day, and didn't mill around Picadilly Circus long after the show let out. Despite the fact that it was a Wednesday night, it was pretty crowded on the streets, but I guess that's the effect of all the shows basically letting out near the same time.

The tube ride home was pretty zany as well. I took the northern line just a few stops and then changed over to the central line, which helped some. The Northern Line was packed to the gills, mostly with tourist I could tell. (There was an entire class worth of french high school students crowding around me.) I heard a multitude of languages over the day: English, German, Spanish, Russian, French, a few eastern European languages I couldn't identify on first listen, what sounded like Turkish, a bit of Hebrew, and at least one Scandanavian language (Swedish, I think, but I only heard it in passing).

After I got back to the hotel, I probably spent about an hour or so just watching out my window. I have a sneaking suspicion that this could become an addicting habit, just glancing out my fourth story window onto the street below, or the windows across the road. It's entertaining to watch people coming and going, see what they're milling about with, knowing they may be wondering the same things about me. There are a couple of other small hotels near my hotel, but mostly I think it's just flats around me, so I see people in their normal lives, whatever that happens to be. It's fun enough to watch.

Anyhow, not sure what I'm going to do today. Think I'm going to make a stab at the London Dungeon and just wait out the lines. Probably have to pick up cash again, as well, as London has eaten through my funds much faster than Berlin did. S'aright though, I'm enjoying myself and that's all that matters, innit?

Well, I’ve gotten my feet down. I got an email today from the person I was supposed to stay with. Her mom died just a few days ago (while I was in Germany) and so things are a bit of a mess for her, and she’s having a tough time coping, and just got distracted. Things aren’t well with her, so I’m probably mostly on my own while I’m here in London. I did, however, touch base with another member of the community I used to manage, and she may be hopping up to hang out with me Thursday and or Friday. There’s also a chance my friend whom I was originally supposed to be staying with might come down for a night or something. Still not sure. I find myself wishing my cellphone worked here, but oh well, I can manage on my own.

I stayed up last night watching “Invader Zim” episodes as the end of Carnival raged outside. Didn’t get up today until a little after noon – think I needed the rest after having to suddenly put everything together yesterday. Certainly didn’t expect to have to do it this way, but I’ll make the most of it. Thanks to the people who emailed suggestions on what to do and how to manage. I started getting things together today and did some exploring.

So, as a point of reference, I’m in the Notting Hill area, about ten minutes from the Notting Hill underground station, which means I can get to most places relatively easy. My hotel room, while ridiculously tiny, isn’t costly, which is the most important thing. I’ve sort of been piecing things together one step at a time. There’s a bookstore up near the underground station (or “the tube” as they call it) so I picked up a London guide and started figuring out what I wanted to see. The first thing that kind of appealed to me was the “London Dungeon” and that meant hopping on the tube.

There’s a good reason they call this thing the tube – it really is. I took a handful of photos while I was working my way through it, but there’s honestly no way to convey the surrealism of moving into the hamster-like labyrinth of tunnels that maneuver beneath London. I think tomorrow I bring my iPod with me to give me something of a soundtrack. In some cases, I was going down on escalators for what seemed like ten minutes. We took subways a bunch in Berlin, but there it felt like we were just a little bit beneath the surface of the city. Here, I felt like I was going down somewhere between three and six stories before I got to some of the subways I took. I had to transfer a few times before I got to the station, which was the London Bridge stop.

Shortly after getting off the Tube, I knew there was no way in hell I was doing the London Dungeon today – the lines were absolutely insane, lining the street in either direction for at least a block. So that idea was out. Thankfully, the Britain At War Experience was just a few blocks down, and it was basically empty. Now those of you who know me well enough are probably snickering – I’ve been complaining about World War II videogames for several years now, so a WWII museum certainly seems an odd choice for me, but I find the idea that this massive city could undergo siege during the last hundred years. The Experience wasn’t really much more than a film and a small museum (and ran me about $20) but it was nice way to start things off without getting overly swarmed.

I have a feeling much of my time here will be me sort of following an outline I develop in the morning and improvising a lot on the fly. After the experience, I just sort of went walking, saw the HMS Belfast from a distance and took a few snaps of the Thames. (Seriously, someone asked me if I was taking “snappies” for myself or for “a rag.”) I strolled along and found myself at the Tower bridge, so I wandered across, getting some interesting photos. By this time, it was almost 4:30 local time, so rushing through The Tower of London seemed a poor idea. Figure I’ll do that another day, but I walked around the outside of it, taking pictures here and there.

After a bit more of wandering, I hopped back on “the tube” and navigated my way back to my hotel. It’s about 7:30 local time as I write this (offline, as I’m having to conserve my internet time – I’ll post it up to The Touched when I hop online to do my email sweep) and I figure I’m going to watch one of my movies tonight and get an early night’s rest so I can start my travels into the city a bit earlier tomorrow. Figure I’ll take in Westminster Abbey first thing and then migrate around via tube past that, probably taking in the Tower of London sometime tomorrow. I think the hope is that I’ll go and try and see some show tomorrow night and stay out a bit, but we’ll see. The tube apparently closes down at 11:30 p.m., and I’m sure as hell not paying for a cab again, although I would imagine it’s a lot more reasonable (in looking at it, I apparently paid the cabbie to drive me all the way across London…) since it won’t be anywhere near as far.

Also in odd and funny things, losing pocket change in Europe would be no small thing. I’m starting to get to the point where I can recognize my change here in London, and the coins are no small things – I had a handful of one pound and two pound coins by midday today, and I hadn’t realized that my pocket change was worth about twenty bucks U.S. until I stopped to consider it. But I’m definitely keeping a closer eye on my change now. In Germany, I was aware that Euro coins were in one and two Euro denominations as well, but the pound certainly outweighs the dollar in value by a bunch right now (certainly by a good amount more than the Euro does) so that means keeping an eye on my pocket change.

Another thing I’ve noticed thusfar – I think I heard more English in Berlin than I did here in London today. I tend to have an ear tuned to conversations around me, and I heard a lot of Russian, with a good amount of German, French and even a bit of Japanese. I’m getting better at hearing my way around the London accent, but it can still take half a second. And let me tell you, the tube is CROWDED during rush hour, so I think if stay out later tomorrow, it can only be a good thing in getting my way back to the hotel. I was damn near afraid I’d get crushed at one point between changes.

Busking is also something that apparently people have permits for, and there are designated spots for it. I haven’t decided if I find this strange or cool. Quite possibly both, I suppose. There are also CCTV cameras just about everywhere I look. It’s odd, but after a little bit I found myself just tuning them out. I stand by the assertion I made to Avri back in Berlin – there are far too many cameras in far too many places for someone to actually be watching all of them. Sure, the information’s being recorded, but that only lasts for a while, and then I’m willing to bet they’re recorded over. And even with the recordings, there’s a giant need for humint (human intelligence) and so the cameras are more for intimidation purposes than anything else. I’m certainly not going out of my way to cause any trouble, but I suspect that the CCTV cameras really don’t serve any purpose much of the time…

So yeah, ignore the “god this sucks” post of last night. I’m getting it together again. I think a good part of it was just the shock of “hey look, I was relying on someone else and now I’m up shit creek” but then I remember “hey Cliff, you’re Cliff, you can handle yourself in almost anything, remember?” “Oh yeah,” I told myself, “thank god I slept that whiny bitch mood off.” I got some pretty good photographs and I’m starting to figure out the things I want to do while I’m here, and the rest? Well, I’ll just wing it. I still think it would be more fun with another person here, but hey, I’ll manage.

Today was the day everything came off the rails, and right now I'm in a tiny hotel room, banging my head against a wall, trying to figure out what to do, because I honestly don't know...

Avri and I parted ways this morning, with him heading back to the states and me heading over to England, to meet up with a friend of mine... who never showed. So there I was, sitting in Heathrow airport for several hours, no hotel reservations, no place to stay, nothing figured out, no idea what to do. After a few hours, I finally just decided fuck it, found a hotel room (which is insanely tiny) and have no host to help me navigate the city. The cab fare probably cost as much as two nights hotel stay in the US, so if I end up staying here all five nights (which I'm not sure I can do) then I'll just catch a shuttle back to the airport and save myself, y'know, 50 pounds. Oy. Having to pick up hotel while being here is a big hurt, but more than anything, I feel a little bit rudderless. I was feeling better about having a native guide to help me manuever around and see the sights, but now it's just me, and I have to figure out what to do on my own. I suppose it grants me a bit more freedom, but I also feel like I don't even know where to start looking, how to get around, etc. Lots of crazy shit just sort of overwhelming me. I damn near through my laptop against a wall figuring out how to get this stupid pay internet hotspot working, and it's already pissing the hell out of me.

I'm sure I'll pull through it fine, but I'm reminded how much I hate travelling alone right now and I feel so frustrated I just want to hit something. There's apparently some sort of carnival going on in west London right now (which is where I think I am... Bayswatter area? something like that...) and so all the streets are ridiculously crowded and it's impossible to get anywhere. I want to do a bit of research on the internet, but y'know, it's going to cost me internet time to do that... oy.

Seriously, I'm at the point where I want to just declare London a wash and fast forward to Saturday morning so I can get back to Hannover and then back to the US. At least I know someone's meeting me in Hannover. I won't give up, though... I'm just having a dark, frustrated fit, which isn't helped by the absolutely insanely tiny room I'm in and the complete sense of total isolation I've got going on right now... Eyyuck. I think I'm probably just going to watch a movie (thank god for my laptop and its DVD player) and then go to bed, and maybe tomorrow morning it won't all seem so aggreviating and I can put something together, assuming it doesn't bankrupt me. Feels like everything here is so ridiculously expensive. Ugh.

Our last day in Germany was something of an odd day, mostly with us wandering around trying to find things that weren't open. Our hosts, Mary and Carlos, were with us, and to be honest, I think Avri and I had better luck wandering around on our own. We tried to find an open club, since Mary was quite insistent that we check out the club scene, and since Avri and I decided not to go clubbing last night after Mary started feeling sick and went to bed. Avri and I weren't that tired, however, but nor did we want to go out clubbing, so we wandered outside, got pizza from a place that was open past midnight, came back to the house and watched episodes of "Burn Notice." Yeah, I know, we're mildly lame, but somehow getting lost in Berlin on a Saturday night by ourselves didn't seem the best of idea. Sean's camera is acting funny, so I'm relying on Avri for our pictures today.

Most of today felt like we were trying to get things to work and they simply would not. We had breakfast/lunch at some place I did not catch the name of, but we couldn't get a table so we had lunch at the bar. We went to a club, but it was members only and they wouldn't let us in. We tried to find the Jewish history museum but to no avail. So we ended up getting drinks at a pirate bar. There was a very odd man who was drunk and/or crazy who came up to us to tell us about how Sting played a concert in OVERALLS. Yes, he said it that loud. There was also some bad cover band playing a tiny festival (I think the band's parents were the only ones there) with terrible songs and a drummer who was playing a bunch of beats that weren't there. (now that I think about it.... maybe the drummer was fighting a bee. They seemed to be attacking us everywhere else.) In the end, we didn't really do a whole lot today, although we did sort of wander around the city a bunch, so I guess that was cool.

Tomorrow morning, Avri and I part ways. He heads back to the states and I head off to England, where I'll hopefully be staying with a friend for 5 days or so, flying back into Hannover Saturday morning for the last Fury In the Slaughterhouse concert (and meeting up with Nils, the guy who sent me Fury CDs from Germany before there was amazon.de) and then flying back to the states on Sunday. If I make a post at all on Sunday, I'm pretty sure it'll be from London-Heathrow and will be me saying "Oh my god, I'm SO tired, but it was AWESOME!" So more later, when I'm in England.

So yesterday was Avri and I's "wander around the city" day. We ended up going and seeing an outdoor museum that is a section of the Wall still up, covered in graphitti. I got tons of great photos, but I don't know if I can upload the photos from my laptop. I'll put up all the photos when I get back to the States on the first, though. We wandered along the wall for a while, but we also went by the Reichtstag. There was a phenomenally long line, so we didn't try and go in, but I took wonderfully dark photos as we went around it. There were very ominous clouds in the sky, and the imagery was particularly effective. Avri and I took a bunch of photos as we meandered around, including some odds and ends that made us laugh, including a hotdog stand that was named "Wurst :-)" That's right, an emoticon in a stand name. Avri damn near got himself killed running across the street to get a photo on his iPhone. We wandered around on the UBahn and the SBahn for a bit, which was entertaining. There were three people having a conversation across from us that wandered through German, Castillian Spanish and what sounded like maybe Turkish? And they would change languages in the middle of the sentence, which was kind of cool, in a very odd way. There was also an asian couple that sat across from Avri and I on one of our SBahn trips, speaking in flawless German, and I think that threw me off more than anything. Our hosts were feeling sick last night, so they crashed early. Avri and I weren't feeling up to going out into the city on our own to go clubbing (especially since we don't speak almost any German between the two of us) so we went downstairs and to a corner pizza shop. I got prosciutto on a pizza, which was awesome. We wandered back to the apartment and then just killed an hour or two watching episodes of "Burn Notice" on my laptop. We slept until about 12:30 or so, and now we're going to go out and get breakfast/lunch/whatever meal we're eating right now. Tomorrow morning, we part ways - Avri heads back to the U.S. and I head off to London, where I'll be until the morning of the 30th, when I fly back to Hannover for the last Fury show. I'm going to be meeting up with Nils for sure, and I think he's probably going to the concert with me - not entirely certain yet, but seems likely. Anyway, looks like we're about to head out for the day, so I'll try and make another post tonight... sometime. P.S. it's 1:15 p.m. here, regardless of the timestamp on this post...

Time to recount our awesome night last night. I woulde've written about it when we returned, but we didn't get back to Berlin until almost 5 a.m. local time, and then I slept until 2 p.m. or so, so now that I'm awake, let me tell you about the day.

It seemed like we had almost every possible complication we could get along the way. We had trouble getting to the car rental place, we had trouble driving there, we had trouble finding the actual venue, and we got there late and Fury had already started their show, which was a bit of a bummer. It was raining a decent amount already and the show was outdoors. But Avri and I also had backstage passes.

The band was great, in fine form, and incredible live. About half way into the show, Thorsten, the lead songwriter, stepped to the microphone and said a bit in German and then said "Is Cliff Hicks here?" I did my best to make myself known and rushed as close to the stage as i could get until I hit a wall of fans who would not move. Thorsten told the audience how far I had come for the show. Then he switched to English to tell me "It doesn't always rain here in Germany. You're invited to last show and hopefully you'll take the rain away and come back to nice sunny Germany for it." Then Thorston played the song I requested in my email to them, "Haunted Head and Heart." At that moment, I felt twelve miles tall. I was so ecstatic, I couldn't even tell you.

After the show, Avri and I got backstage, despite the fact that my backstage pass had slid off in the rain (I flashed my passport and then they let me in without question) and went backstage to chat with the band. There were probably fifty or so people in the hangout after the show room, and I chatted with everyone in the band except Christian, the bassist, whom I couldn't find, and got them to autograph my cover of "Brilliant Thieves." (Thorsten said it was entirely possible Christian simply left early since his girlfriend was pregnant.)

Each of the band members were quite different in person, but I enjoyed my time talking to all of them. Thorsten told me about their plans and where the individual members were going from here. Gero told me a wonderful story about why he suspects he's not allowed back in the U.S. (and I offered to vouch for him as a resident). Rainer was mostly spending time with his kids, but his wife wanted to hear the entire story of my journey, so I told it to her. (At one point she asked me "And you are having regular mental examinations?") Kai was friendly, but mostly pretty quiet, which surprised me a little bit. Christof had three ladies, two beers and a hand-rolled cigarette to keep him busy, so after our hellos and brief introductions, I tried not to bother him too much.

Being backstage is both a great and a strange feeling in the fact that I know that I'm invited, but I know I'm not part of the world in question. The guys from Fury were great, though, so I spent about an hour chatting with them in total and then Avri and I headed out to meet up with Mary and Carlos, the people whom we're staying with in Berlin, and our rides back to Berlin. I did, however, tell Thorsten I would be flying back from England for the last show on the 30th and would do my best to hang around a lot later after that show. He told me the afterparty for that show would be pretty insane, but to make sure I at least said hi. I also go Avri to take a picture with me and Thorsten, and the minute Kai saw that, he had to join in for a second one. I'm sure I'll post those pictures later.

As we started to make our way oujt of Hannover, Avri and I both needed to get something to eat, so we talked our rides into letting us stop at a pizza stand, and on our way back to the car, three guys were walking past us and then said "hey! You! Fury in the Slaughterhouse!" So I sort of turned with this big grin on my face. "how did you like the concert?" they asked me, and I told them it was awesome on so many levels I couldn't describe. It was sort of a weird moment of recognitiion, but aweseome nonetheless.

So I think pretty soon we're going to grab a late lunch and then maybe do a bit of wandering through the city, this time with my real camera and not Sean's tiny one, but we'll see. Mary and Carlos are off returning the car, and I still need to hop through a shower and become fully conscious. I simply wanted to get all of this down while it was still fresh in my mind. I need to make sure to get a t-shirt at the show on the 30th and find out if the show last night was recorded and sold on USB sticks and if so how I can get one... I've never had a song personally dedicated to me by a band on stage before, and I'd kinda like to have that moment on recording forever... Thank you again so much Fury In the Slaughterhouse, for making a fan's year a whole lot brighter. On the morning of the 30th, I fly out of London Heathrow and back to Hannover for the final show, meet up with Nils (my contact for Fury CDs from Germany back before there was Amazon.de), go to the show, go to the afterparty, go directly back to the airport, fly back to London Heathrow, kill a few hours, then fly back to the states the afternoon of the 31st, and promptly pass out on that plane (I hope).

Hope all is well back in the states and that no one's wreaking too much havoc without me.

Slept nearly thirteen hours, but am not jet lagged, so that's good. Woke up at 9:30 a.m. local time or so, and we spent much of the morning walking around, just sort of seeing things, which was good. Had crepes for breakfast/early lunch and we're about to head out shortly to start heading to Hannover. We looked at the trains, but it's much cheaper to just rent a car and drive there, so that's what we're doing. We're off to see our first Fury In the Slaughterhouse concert. When we were coming through customs yesterday, we told the customs guy we were going to go see them in concert, and he said "They're still around? What are they, sixty?" Odd, but funny, I suppose. Farewell tour after twenty years and people think you've been around forever. That's the life, i suppose. Anyhow, really can't chat too much. Took a handful of pictures with Sean's minicamera this morning - thought we were just running out for a bit and turns out we were out for like 4 hours (Avri and I are both a little walked out, I think, but that seems to be the standard for over here - walk everywhere) so thankfully we'll be on a subwayh for 15 minutes and then riding in a car for two hours before we go and enjoy the hell out of the concert. Going to go backstage to meet the band should be awesome as well. Looking forward to it a great deal. Doubt I'll post anything else here today, but we'll see. I suspect my next post will still be Friday US time, but will be on my Saturday. These things are tricky to gauge...

So I have a handful of consciousness before I pass out, so I will endevor to write down what few things I remember while I can still type and have not passed out. (I couldn't sleep on the planes, so I've been up, oh, almost 30 hours straight at this point...)

The flights were semi-complicated, and we had long layovers in both Charlotte and Frankfurt. I wanted to sleep on the Charlotte->Frankfurt flight, and I tried for almost 5 hours, but couldn't manage to get one bit of sleep. My body was just fighting the crap out of it. So here I am, almost 8 p.m. local time, on the last legs of awakedness, struggling to keep myself together for another hour or so before passing out into sleep that will be nigh impossible to awaken me from.

We got off the flight in Berlin and then manuevered our way to a bus, took the bus to the end of the line, got on the subway, took it down a way, and met up with Avri's friend Mary and her boyfriend Carlos, whom we're staying with. We went out for lunch, and were assaulted by bees constantly and had to wait ungodly long for our food, which was tasty, I will confess. Flaamkuken, I believe, it was called. Sort of a weird pizza like thing. After that, we went and hung out in Girlitzer Park, sort of people watching for an hour or so before heading out for a nice long walk, where we saw the three holy men statue/art thing. I'll try and get a picture of it later, but I didn't have my camera with me today. Far too tired.

Tomorrow we head to Hannover, and see Fury In The Slaughterhouse in concert. I'm massively looking forward to it, and am particularly psyched about getting to meet the band. I don't expect we'll be up before 10 a.m. local time, though, as Avri and I attempt to get sleep to recover for the little amount we've been cramming in the last few days. I think we got about 2 1/2 hours Tuesday night, and technically it's Thursday night here now.

i haven't tried to see if I can figure out photos with my laptop yet, but I've barely taken any with my main camera (or the mini Sean gave me). I should take a bunch with the little camera tomorrow and then Saturday and Sunday get a bunch with the big daddy. I am, however, going to get a picture or two from the balcony of the apartment we're staying at before I crash tonight.

I'm sure I'm missing something, but I'm pretty damn tired and am having trouble keeping a thought clear in my head right now. I wouldn't expect a post tomorrow unless I'm so amped after we get back from the concert that I have to make a post right then and there. We'll see how it goes, I suppose.

Here we go...

Okay, so for those of you who are interested and following the madcap adventures of Mr. Hicks, here's one that'll flip your head. Tomorrow morning I'm leaving the country. That's right, in the wee hours of the morning, my friend Avri and I will board a plane in SFO and make our way over the next, oh, 18 hours or so, over to Berlin, Germany. He heads back to the states on the 25th, but I won't be back until late on the 31st, taking some time to go to England for a bit and then back to Germany for the very last Fury In The Slaughterhouse concert in their home town of Hannover. I don't expect to be functioning for much of the 1st, but who knows.

The cellphone will probably be off the entire time, but I'm taking it with me, as Sprint isn't sure if it's going to be able to get signal over there or not. (Whee!) The best way to get ahold of me will probably be email. I'm going to try and make posts to The Touched from time to time, but I expect it'll be text only. Most of my pictures will probably have to wait until I get back to the states, but I'm sure I'll have millions of them.

Anyhow, time to go and then sleep then fly. See y'all later...

More photographic meandering...

All hail Deputy Hicks!

We're back from the road.

One for the road, Jack.

2008 - Still the year of "That is such a bad idea."

Good luck.

A SHIP IN A HARBOR IS SAFE, BUT THAT'S NOT WHY SHIPS ARE BUILT.