First stop---> Halloween Parties
Being as Halloween is mostly an American holiday, one would think that Germans don't partake in the yearly festivities. WRONG. Trick or treating? No way. Partying 'til the wee hours of the morning in crazy/ridiculous get-ups? YES. And they take it very, very seriously. This Halloween, I was invited to a pre-game with some German friends and was told that we would be going to a party hosted by the University in our town a bit later. After a few solid hours of pre-gaming, we made our way to the Halloween party. On the way there, I found out that we all needed a "ticket" to this party -- kind of like a cover charge (they cost 4Euros) -- but my friends assured me that I could buy one at the door, no problem. After a crazy tram ride packed to the gills with fellow party goers singing German drinking songs and passing around bottles of mysterious colored liquor, we got to the party. Whew. Aaaaand then we saw the line. The crowd of people waiting outside of the building almost reached the tram stop station which was 50 yards or so away. Yikes! We made our way through the crowd and overheard annoyed voices saying that the party was already at capacity… umm wut?! It was true. SO many students had bought tickets to this party that it had actually sold out a day beforehand and there were no more tickets to be had -- if you wanted to go inside, you had to wait for someone to leave -- "one out, one in" if you will. Realizing my chances of getting into this party before it was over were dwindling, my friends grabbed me and told me to just get into the middle of them (there was a group of about 10 of us) and keep walking through the security check-point…. And thus began attempt #1 of getting into this Halloween party:
1. "Force your way in"
Spoiler alert: it didn't work. First of all, this party was inside a huge building which is actually used by the university. There was a chain-link fence set-up around the building with an opening on the side for people leaving the party manned by 2-4 rotating security guards. The main entrance was manned by 8. As soon as my friends huddled around me and tried to push me through, we realized we would all have to walk in between the gauntlet of security guards armed with flashlights, checking our purses and our tickets. The guards pulled me out immediately and asked for my ticket. Ugh.
2. "But I bought one, seriously!"
At this point, I figured pretending I had bought a ticket and just misplaced it was my best option. I kept repeating that I had it somewhere, I just knew it! One of the security guards was nice enough to help me look in my purse with his flash light but the entire time my mind was racing because this "lost ticket" we were searching for didn't exist. Ahhhh! Suddenly, my friend bumps me, walks in front of me, shows the security guards her ticket, then quickly does a pass-back and voila! I suddenly found my ticket! It was in my pocket the entire time! Gee! (WHEW)
3. "Someone already took it."
Our celebrations of sneaking me into the party were short-lived: there was a SECOND security check-point. This time manned with 3 students, 2 of which were ripping tickets/stamping wrists, 1 who was handing out shots to those wearing costumes, and additionally 1 security guard checking for those precious stamps. I could feel all of the color draining from my face. What did I get myself into? My friends pushed me to the front of the line and once again, said to just KEEP WALKING. And I did, until I was almost clothes-lined by the security guard checking for stamps. I turned around immediately and stuck my wrist out, hoping that the girls taking tickets and stamping wrists were just blindly doing so: they weren't. They snapped their heads to me and asked me where my ticket was? Uhhh what do you mean where's my ticket? I made it through the first check-point didn't I? I HAD one… Oh… that's right…. one of the security guards at the front entrance already took it! Yeah!…. They didn't buy it. The student (who was male) who was pouring shots took me outside to the first check-point and asked me to point out WHO exactly had taken my ticket. Gulp. At this point, I was in too deep. I had to keep going with my story.
4. "I lost it on the path!"
Now- the distance from the first check-point to the second one was about 50 yards give or take. It was also outside, among a few trees and as soon as you got inside to the ticket-taking/stamping station, it was packed with people. So definitely an opportunity for someone to lose their ticket, right? WRONG. No one believed me. The nice security guard who helped me look for my ticket earlier assured the guy who took me outside that I did indeed have a ticket, he had helped me find it and I should be allowed to go inside. ENTER mean neck-tattoo security guard. He walked up and told the guy from inside that he remembered me and that he didn't believe my story for a second, that it was my friends who probably passed back a ticket to me and that I should be thrown out of the party. Uhhh, excuse me Mr. Neck-tattoo Guy but what? The one and only female security guard piped in, saying that I was a foreigner (I was corresponding with them the entire time auf Deutsch and have an accent) and should be allowed to go in and party with my friends. YES! Thank you! Girl power! Women need to stick together! Neck-tat wasn't having it. His response? "Foreigner or not, she's not getting into that party." Hmpf.
5. The "great" disguise
After officially begin banished to the sea of people waiting for a chance to get into the party, two of my friends came out and came up with yet ANOTHER plan to get me in. This time we tried to recreate the stamp they had gotten on their wrists. By the time we finished, my wrist was wet from saliva and raw from scribbling what didn't initially transfer with a very dull ballpoint pen. I then took my hair down, switched coats and scarves with my friend and made my way to the side-entrance BUT Neck-tat was there. NOOOOOO. To the front-entrance it was. My friends told me, once again, JUST KEEP WALKING. Don't make eye-contact. Hold your wrist up. Go. It didn't work. I walked through the first security guard and then Neck-tat miraculously appeared, grabbed me and personally made sure that I was thrown out of the party once and for all.
Moral of the story: don't mess with German party security (especially when said security is decked out in neck tattoos) and always buy a party ticket. Oh and my German friends are the sweetest for trying all of those crazy different ways to get me into the Halloween party. Haha!
Knock, knock. Who's there? DIE POLIZEI.
A few weeks ago, one of my American friends was visiting me for the weekend and I wanted to show her a bit of Kassel night-life. We met up with some of my german friends to pre-game before we headed out to the party. There were about 10-12 people at the pre-game and we were at my friend's apartment. She lives on the 4th floor of her complex and most of her neighbors are NOT college kids… anyway, so we're having a great time. Singing and dancing and enjoying the evening when all of a sudden we hear a knock… At first we think we're just imagining it but there it is again and this time a bit louder. Oh dear. Last time I was at her apartment we got a similar knock but it was from her middle-aged neighbor in his boxers (only) telling us to quiet down because he had to work in the morning. We expected it to be the same person…. it wasn't. I go to the door with her, we open it and are face-to-face with two very tall police officers: one male, one female. (Sheiße!) The officers tell us that they are responding to a noise complaint from one of the neighbors. My friend immediately says that she told all of her neighbors she was having people over and they all said that would be fine -- the officers say that we must have forgotten about one of the neighbors. Ha! The officers peak their heads into the apartment and ask what we are doing anyway? We say that we are just celebrating the weekend and will be leaving soon to go to another party. The female officer says, "See? They even have their windows open! Partying and getting some fresh air at the same time! Looks harmless to me!" Germans (by the way) LOVE fresh air. One of my friends invites the officers to join us for a drink, which they think is hysterical -- the female one says the male officer will gladly accept the invitation but has to work until 7am. HA! They ended up taking down my friend's information but were generally amused by the whole situation and told us that as long as they didn't get called back we wouldn't get fined. They wished us a good evening and left a few minutes later. Whaaaaaaaat!
I'm on a TRAM
Two weeks ago I was invited to party on a tram -- those little mini trains that drive through town, similar to streetcars in San Fran. Yeah, so anyway- the way this party worked was tons of students bought tickets (learned my lesson), boarded the tram and drove around the city for a few hours ending in front of a club. Sounds pretty tame, right? WRONG. Since there was no way to construct a make-shift bar on the tram and Germany has no open-container laws, it was pretty much BYOB. My friends and I stocked up for the evening and waited for the festivities to begin. As soon as we hopped onto the tram and reserved a few seats we realized how cramped this was going to be. It was wall-to-wall packed with students, streamers and balloons flying all over the place, and party organizers trying to sell mini-schnapps bottles. We ended the evening in a typical Euro-Discothek with so many high-powered fog machines you could barely see your hand when you put it in front of your face. Good times!
So to answer the questions at the beginning of the blog: is it like in the movies? Better. Do they drink out of Das Boot? Unfortunately, not as often as one would think. Lederhosen? Dirndls? Only at Oktoberfest/Volksfests :'( Is every day like Oktoberfest? Meaning awesome? YES. With all of the binge-drinking? Thankfully, no.
Prossit, my friends!
