Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution

The trip was a bit spontaneous, my plans changed a few times and I had no idea how to get from Frankfurt Hahn to Stuttgart until my last day before flying. Germany greeted me with rain. Now, c'mon, I'm not that bad, Germany, no need to cry that I came back. Unless it's tears of joy. Then by all means, continue. I took a bus to Frankfurt and from there to Karlsruhe and there my sweet and missed friend picked me up with her best friend and drove me to Stuttgart (well, Steten, to be exact). The first thing I learned was the magical catchphrase "Nice" *hand gesture*. And I had to use my all rusty German. Six years of learning it and I still suck, ugh. Well at least I understand what are people saying to me. Mostly. Sometimes it was just white noise.

But anyway, the first night we had some champagne at my friend's place and decided to go to sleep, cause oh, tomorrow we have oh so many things to do before the Rockabilly party. Ha. Haha. Hahaha. Goooooood plan. Wake up around 11, get out of bed around 13 (as to rephrase Guns'n'Roses) and had breakfast until 15. So we just went out, had a few laughs that I brought the winter to Germany cause it snowed at night, and did a bit of shopping before coming back and getting ready. Her mom made us...ugh, I don't remember German food names, I'm so sorry! But it's like mac'n'cheese, but better, cause it has meat and onions in it. Sooooooo gooood. We went out, met up with her another friend, had a cocktail and then we were picked up and driven to the party. Now I have never before gone to a Rockabilly party, but damn, this was awesome. The music, the people, the outfits!!! Oh my dear... And everybody had tattoos, and me being the visual person who enjoys looking at well done tattoos, well, that was heaven for my eyes. And everybody was so free, so friendly, singing along and dancing. It also felt a little like a Sons of Anarchy gathering, don't know why. The jackets? But it was super fun and I'd love to do that again.

Saturdaaaaay. We went to Stuttgart to have a walk there. Beautiful city in a valley. We also went to a merch shop, cause c'mon, you can never have too much merchandise stuff. And it's just enjoyable to look at them. We went to the biggest bookstore where I nearly had a mental breakdown, cause let's face it, I just go a little crazy in bookstores (pretty much the same in music and movie stores), because I'd like to buy soo soooo much but I don't have a. enough money b. enough space in my luggage. And it's really when you visit these stores you realize how small Lithuania is, because you see all this stuff that you can only get if you buy in other countries (plus it's cheaper to buy books/DVDs/CDs in other countries). We came back home, to get ready before another evening out. We went out to eat were I had another Swabian dish, and again, I do not remember what it's called but it had meat and spinach wrapped in dough and with potato salad as a side dish. Yum!

After eating we went to Stuttgart. Whaaat a night! We started at an Irish pub where one of her friends worked. I had a Green Monster and it made my tongue blue. We met up with some more people and then we went to Club Zentral to see people jam. Oh maaaaan... That place is so cool. People whoever wants can come up on stage and play, they can bring their own instruments, there are amps and drums, guitars. There was a guy who brought a sax. My God, the whole concept is brilliant, I could spend hoooours in there just listening. And the people who play...Damn, they're just so good at it. You know that feeling when people play and your skin just shivers because it just hit that spot in your soul? My oh my... These are the places that keep the soul of music alive. We need more places like this. Then we headed out to other bars cause saaaadly the jam bar closed. We tried the Latino bar, but c'mon, that was basically a grind fest, so we went to some other bar which makes their own beer. We thought of going to one club, but plans changed and we went to two bars instead. Both underground, both had no windows, both had great music. We danced and we drank and we laughed and we sang, and life was just beautiful and I've lost an earring and my scrunchy, but that didn't even matter, that's how great the night was. Morning came out of a sudden and we had to head home.

I slept a few hours and I had to pack again because I had to head to Heidelberg. The guy who drove us to Rockabilly was also conveniently going to Heidelberg that day, so he agreed to give me a lift. We had a nice two hour drive where we talked most time or just listened to music and enjoyed the view. He dropped me off at the Haupbahnhof where I met another friend. We checked in to a nearby hostel and went out for a few beers. The old town was a half an hour walk from the hostel, but c'mon, that is not that much when you think about it. We went to one cafe, a Mexican bar, and this bar which was on top of one building's roof, where we had some cocktails. We were both quite tired, so soon we came back to the hostel.

My friend left the next day and since it's no problem for me to explore the town myself, I went to the old town and wandered through the little streets. I thought I will have to spend the evening alone, and was a bit sad, cause I don't like to go to bars alone, but I was saaaaved! I got a visitor in the evening and we went to Hard Rock Cafe (I mean, how can you not like that place?). Talks, even more talks about pretty much everything and coincidences, and drinks, and songs, and walks through the town at night, while searching for another bar. After looong wandering we found one bar I wanted to check out but it was packed and the music was not that good, so we left again. And we found such an awesome bar! I think it was called Eckstein (Eckstein, Eckstein - alles muss versteckt sein (I just know this because of Oomph)) and the music was awesome and we were the only two people there, so we chatted with the bartender as well. He actually kicked out a few people because they came in completely drunk and asked to change the music. Um hello, when good rock or metal is playing you have no right to even THINK of changing the music. We stayed until the bar was closing and we went back to the hostel. On our way back we saw a fox just wandering around one square. I'm not joking, it really was there. The fox didn't say anything like in the song, it just ran away every time we got close to it (I just wanted to pet it, damn!). We decided it was a lost cause to chase it and continued on our way.

It was hard to leave in the morning (as the saying goes "I'm excellent in bed, I can sleep for days"), but I had to check out and catch my bus to Frankfurt Hahn, so it was time to get up. And pack. Again. My lovely visitor made sure I got on the right bus and it was time to go. Saaaaad face. Not nice at all. I couldn't fall asleep on the bus, and I couldn't fall asleep in the plane, so I came home feeling a bit weird because it was sad to leave but also so...so awesome to experience this trip...

The days... the nights!

Loved it, loved it, loved it.

Rock on, Germany, rock on. *Light My Fire by Doors plays in the distance*

New Year's Eve in FeelGood

I told them I'll come back and I didn't lie.

I took the night bus there in hope of sleeping before three days I stayed there. Of course, when I say the night bus, I imagined I could sit and peacefully sleep there. I did not realize I would get a companion who blasted Metallica through headphones on what seems 100% volume and played games on iPhone while shining the light into my face which seemed to be brighter than sunlight. But I did get a few hours of sleep and as I was entering Tallinn once again that year I started to wonder. How many of these people are going to see their family, friends and how many set out for an adventure alone, like I once did?

In early morning I left the bus station and since I knew the city pretty well, I walked to the hostel on foot, while trying to spot little changes which happened while I was away. As I later explored the city, it seemed not so much changed: only the Christmas decorations were added. Full of tourists, people taking pictures and scurrying around. I also went to see the sea on the last day of the year. It was a beauty as it always was. Waves crashing on the rocks, always seems quite calm but able to kill you in a heartbeat.

Even my hostel (Ah... FeelGood, if your walls could speak.... they would tell amaaaazing stories....), which I once spent sooo much time, seemed unchanged, even if I did get lost in the corridors of the second floor (cause they did some renovations). But when I say unchanged, I mean the little things. That feeling that the world is small (I met a girl who used to live a street away from me in Budapest and we didn't even know it then). New guests coming in and ready to explore. Or party. Or both. Staff greeting me sleepily but with a little smile even if it's seven in the morning and I just woken the person on shift up. Of course, immediately the memories filled my mind when I wouldn't let myself sleep in fear of not hearing the doorbell and being a little jealous of people who could sleep lightly.

Whole Tallinn was full of memories. And not only because I met some people I was working with in the summer. I could see little events, even little pillars of my life on some streets, in the parks, in the overview places and bars. But I decided not to linger on the past too much and enjoyed some hot wine from the Christmas fair (which oddly was still working after Christmas...but I guess it's because Orthodox Christmas is after New Year. And to be true, it did attract a lot of tourists). The evening was a usual Funday Monday: Red Emperor karaoke and Shooters.

New Year's Eve! So of coooourse, we celebrated it in FeelGood. We started our little gathering (21 person and 10 nationalities: whoop whoop!) at 9 pm with guests, staff, snacks and drinks. It was really cozy: everybody presented themselves, we had some jokes and laughs, some people told about how they see Tallinn, some about New Years and resolutions, everybody had smiles on their faces. The hostel even stopped working for half an hour, allowing everybody to go and see the fireworks in the main square. We all counted down to zero and everybody started greeting each other with the start of 2014. Hugs, kisses and champagne! Those few seconds full of joy and laughter, hopes, dreams and wide eyes, staring at fireworks. We had a little agenda for that night: to visit the most popular bars and a club. We went to Shooters and I ran to the back bar to greet another friend with the new year. We stayed there for a drink and went for Noorus. We had some more drinks, took more photos, smiled even wider and went to Studio. All places were packed with people. I haven't stayed there for long and returned to the hostel. To be true, I felt quite tired, but happy. So after having a little chat with some people, I fell to bed and fell asleep in seconds. And I know, what you're thinking: I should have had an awful morning after a night like that, right? Wrong! Actually, I was lucky enough to have a morning worth smiling widely.

When I finally decided to go out of bed, I thought, well, today probably will be quiet and I can relax before my ride home. Haha. Yeaaaaah, riiiiiiight. Ok, it was a bit quiet before afternoon, but my friends came in (and they thought they will stay for just a few minutes, ha!) and we ended up chatting, laughing, remembering, making up new jokes and laughing from old ones, talking about memorable guests and events. It was so hard to leave again, but I had to. I wasn't too sad, though. How can I be? Spending the New Year's Eve in this hostel gave me an incredible start and boost for 2014.

There's a saying that how you will spend the start of New Year, is the way you will spend the whole year. Well... if this saying is true, I am in for a magnificent year.

Thank you again, FeelGood.