Southside Festival

SOUTHSIDE FESTIVAL. 19th - 21st June 2015. Neuhausen, southern Germany.

We arrived with German-style efficiency on Thursday and set up our 'bargain' tent from Argos. Did you hear the rain? Before long our tent was letting in quite a lot of water. We closed the small zip window in order to keep the inside of the tent drier (a futile attempt) before trying to get to sleep. Friday's line up was incredible and we wanted to get some sleep beforehand.



My boots before and after I cleaned them

At about four in the morning we were all still awake, wet and (believe it or not) having difficulty breathing. Why was this happening? It turned out that when we closed the window to stop getting drenched, we cut out some of the air supply to the tent. There was a lack of oxygen in the tent so we begrudgingly left the window open, favouring oxygen over keeping dry (good decision, I think).



On Friday morning we woke up after a few hours sleep, now breathing at normal rates. There seemed to be beer drinking games going on around us, everywhere. 9am and people were downing can after can. I know it's Germany, but come on? I don't suspect many of them lasted to see Florence + The Machine 14 hours later. After finding some elusive and expensive coffee we headed to the arena with high hopes. Apart from Ben Howard pulling out due to illness, it was a brilliant day. The Vaccines, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Of Monsters and Men, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (he performed Don't Look Back in Anger. If that's the closest I come to seeing Oasis, then so be it!) and of course Florence + The Machine. That girl can sing.



Alt-J

Although Friday was the main event for us, we also saw some other great stuff. Amidst the mud, madness and Beck's, two newish bands that were really great were Sunset Sons and Nothing But Thieves, if you wanna check them out. We also saw Alt-J, George Ezra, The Tallest Man on Earth, Placebo, Kodaline and some others. Overall it was a brilliant weekend and another great memory for my year abroad. What a life!

Cologne/Germany v US, Brussels and the European Parliament

"Who are you going to support?" is what my friend Sophie asks me as we head to the friendly match between Germany and the USA in Cologne. "Neither - I'm neutral," I reply. Would I rather support England's rivals, the World Cup winners and our 1966 victims Germany, or a nation that calls our beloved sport 'soccer' and will probably before long be better than England, the US?

Germany vs USA - 10.06.15

Despite my inability to support either team (I love the countries, don't get me wrong. But football's a different ball game - or not) the match was pretty exciting and ended 2-1 to the US, much to the shock of Die Weltmeister and the joy of the visiting fans. You could hear "U-S-A" being shouted for at least an hour after the final whistle. I would feel pretty disappointed if I were German - they played well below par in the second half and the US deserved to win it.

As for Cologne itself, it's worth the visit for a day or two, I'd say. The cathedral is impressive and there are couple of very good museums. We enjoyed the Kölsch beer and had a kebab (not as good as the ones you get in Freiburg!) while sitting on the Rhine river. The rail journey between Freiburg and Cologne is also a treat. Large parts of it run along the Rhine and there was one part of the journey where we passed a castle every few minutes.

Cologne Cathedral

I took a coach to Brussels the next day. On arriving (only three hours from Cologne), I followed my map to get to the city centre because I'd booked a free walking tour of the city. This is the fourth time I've done one, the others being in Rome, Munich and Ljubljana. This one was just as good. Our guide was a guy called Charlie from England who was enthusiastic about Brussels and beer in equal measures (we stopped for a beer half way through). His stories were interesting and funny (you don't get that from museums!) and we went to all the main attractions. The square is beautiful and there's also an impressive palace. We saw the statue of the baby weeing (why this is exists is beyond me, but it's become a symbol of the city).

Grote Markt/Grand Place, Brussels

The next day I went to the European Parliament. Anyone who knows me well knows I love (and also sometimes hate) politics, and I loved visiting the Parliament! Beforehand I grabbed a coffee and a pain au chocolat in a cafe nearby. I felt a little out of place wearing my stripy white T-shirt and red shorts while everyone around me wore fancy suits and nodded seriously while making notes on leather encased notepads. The tour itself was good and the Parliamentarium is brilliant. It takes your through the events in Europe that led us to having the EU. History shows that cooperation aids peace and the breaking down of cooperative institutions leads to states acting in their own interests rather than the common good which can lead to war (and by god, do Europeans know the consequences of that).

 

Me at the European Parliament