Where's My Silver Lining Dammit?

So, despite my best efforts to attend arguably one of Germany's most revered and tourist-frequented social events, namely Oktoberfest, I have been thwarted. For the third time in as many weekends my social calendar has been destroyed by poor planning, destitution, and Fate. Sigh.

But in answer to the question posed in the title of this blog, all is not lost for our fearless hero. Friday night I went out on the town, fully enjoying the sensation of going to bed as the sun comes up (read: 7 am). Saturday took me to the amazing and historic Olympiastadion to watch the local team and a small gathering of 42,000 fans play some football. Entering the stadium and hearing the roar of the faithful, with the cheering, the chants, the banners, and of course the football made me in an instant one of the converted. Just thinking about the game makes my hair stand on end. Unfortunately, the home side didn't win, but there's always next weekend. It was crazy to notice on the approach to the stadium the 25-30 police riot vans, with the concourse ringed by hundreds of police in full riot gear, as well as the Ubahn stocked to the gills with people going to and from. For all you Bay Area kids reading the blog, imagine the BART and Muni in SF for a Giants game then triple those numbers. And of course, the night simply wasn’t complete without some Ubahn hijinks. (details on request)

And then, as if the weekend couldn't get any better, it did. I just got back from an amazing show featuring the opener, Anais Michell and a personal favorite, Bon Iver. The girl, Anais was pretty awesome, but she played like a 30 minute set! She had some amazing guitar tunings, and did some really awesome songs. Definitely worth checking out. After a short wait, Bon Iver came on, and played pretty much their whole new album, plus two new tracks! Utterly awesome. It was a little awkward, in that Germany seems to suffer from completely awkward, graphic, and blatant PDA’s. Not just handholding, but full-on makeouts. At a concert, in the U-bahn, wherever. All the random couples aside, it was awesome and I can't wait to see more shows here in Berlin!

I’m sure Adam had an awesome time at Oktoberfest, clearly it was a ton of fun. So where was my silver lining? Right here in Berlin where I left it. Life is good.