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12/5/10
My plan was if I happened to wake up early was to go for a walk and see some of the city. Well I woke up to down pour rain and that plan went down the drain. I instead went down and wrote some in my journal and did some reading for a couple of hours until the rest of the gang was up. We had some time to kill and Jeppe and I decided to shoot some hoops. Then around 10:30 Richard and Caroline came and checked into our room so now we had a full room. We also found out that while we were out to dinner last night the hostel came in and checked our room for alcohol. Since they have a bar on site they do not allow any alcohol brought in from anywhere else. They checked our fridge and took Staceys UDL which was a 6 pack of cans premixed fruit and vodka. For some reason they left the beer alone that we had in the fridge, maybe they thought we had purchased that from the bar or something. We did not like finding out that someone had been in our room and we had felt safe until then to leave out or electronics and such since everyone in our room were friends. The plan was then for the guys to go to the store and get some food to make for lunch. So Richard, Jeppe, and myself went on foot in search of the grocery store. At the store we got some chicken, fresh veggies, onions, pasta, and lettuce. We got back and had to get going on the cooking and this is where Richard once again showed his magic in the kitchen. He was in charge of everything and doing it all with ease. He but up all the onions and threw them on a couple of different pans and then started cutting up the chicken. The kitchen on site did not have any large pans so we had to use a bunch of small ones. We had six burners going for our meal and the kitchen only had 8 burners in total. We had three going with onions and chicken, two with veggies, and one with a big pot of boiling water for the pasta. Jeppe and I helped as much as we could and we took directions when needed but we did not turn out to be much help. The meal turned out very well and it was going to be nice to have a big meal before a long day at the festival. I set the table and then did the dishes since I know that I can handle both of those duties. Then we had to get ready to go to the festival since the plan was to meet the girls (Judith & Inge) at 2 pm at the city centre and we could catch a train from that spot and get us close to the festival grounds. Everyone had bought rain ponchos either that day or the previous night since it had been raining on and off for the past couple of days and it looked like it could start again at any moment. We caught the shuttle and Sally, and Jenny had arrived at our hostel with Tim (The guy we met at Irish Murphies Pub in Noosa) and two of his friends. He had one extra ticket for the festival and so he bought 2 more tickets and Sally, Jenny, and Lena were all going to split the cost of two tickets between the 3 of them but all the tickets were in Tims name so you had to enter the gate with Tim. This seemed to be a bit confusing and I was glad I did not have to deal with this but everything on that front turned out fine. So the crew of us (Wearing our Laffe Haas shirts) took the shuttle bus and then met the girls who were wearing some type of little Dutch hat on their heads on top of a hair band since it was December 5th and in Holland that is when Santa Claus comes. I think we do something similar with St. Nicks and leaving your shoes out the night before and get candy. I guess in Holland this is a big day and Santa Claus comes on a boat riding a white horse or something.......hard to say if the girls were just messing with me to see what I would believe or if this actually happens...reminder to self google this later to see if the story checks out. We took some goofy pictures as we got the train we needed and then we were off to the music festival. I still did not know what to expect from this day I was just hoping it would not rain the whole time. The first thing I got to experience was a large line to get into the venue. Then once we were inside it was set up with a main stage and like 5 other smaller stages in different areas nearby. I was people watching like crazy from the start seeing crazy outfits, bright neon color clothes, and people that seemed to be "on something". We went to the main area and watched and listened to the DJ do his thing and Richard, Jeppe, and the girls decided to go and get a drink so I gave them some money for me and they took off. I was hanging with Stacey, Caroline, and Lena having fun and listening to the DJ but it seemed like the rest of the crew had been gone a surprisingly long time. I was starting to wonder if they had gotten lost or maybe thrown out since it had been a hour since I had seen them. When Richard left he gave Caroline his backpack and I said it was no big deal that I could wear it. I did not notice it too much and he had carried things in the past for me so I was glad to be able to carry something for him. They did return and it turns out they needed to buy tickets and then get in line to buy beer but they had one person buy tickets and Judith got in line to buy beer but the problem with that is that they only let each person buy 4 beers so the guys had to get back into the beer line once they found that out. Judith wanted to go see an up an coming DJ who was going to be on soon on one of the smaller stages so we all decided to go and check that out with her. It was wet and muddy over in this area and I was careful to get onto the slightly elevated dance area which was dry or at least mostly dry. This DJ was pretty good and we had a fun time dancing and drinking. At one point I stopped and told someone that it really smells like marijuana....then I was told to look behind me.....that makes sense a lady was smoking a joint directly behind me....mystery solved. Over near this stage in the rear a area was fenced off and said smoking area... it was about 30 feet by 30 feet and most of the people sitting or standing inside this area were not smoking. I am still unsure why they had this little area set up for smoking at an outdoor festival where loads of people were smoking everywhere. The festival was a lot of fun and the headliner was Tiesto who I am told is a big deal and one of the top DJ's in the world. He had a lot of special effects with his show, green lasers, occasional fireworks shooting in the air. It seems to be a big show and not really knowing any of the music I enjoyed the show and everyone was into his music. I still do not understand the concept of this entire DJ show but that maybe has more to do with not knowing much about the music.
Observations on the day
Things that are like every other festival I have ever been too
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Over priced food, drinks, merchandise
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Many people using "other substances"
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Crowed toilets
Other things to note: I think I went to the toilet 2 times during the concert and then once as soon as it was over at 10 pm. I was drinking the entire time so it is not that crazy that I went 3 times total but what is crazy is that I think Richard and Jeppe went to the toilet like 8 to 10 times. Every time I turned around they were gone to the toilet again. It was pretty funny and I joined then once like on their trip number 5 for my first trip, I do not know how they have to go so often since we were all drinking the same. It was a bit odd in the toilet for a couple of reasons....first the main area mens toilets in the venue had a big long urinal on one wall with the stalls on the opposite wall. Many women were lined up in the male toilet area waiting for stalls. It was awkward at first to be going to the bathroom with a women standing 2 feet behind you waiting for a stall to use. I did not mind too much but when I went to leave I had to ask if I could use the sink and wash my hands since 4 women were currently doing their makeup....that is a first for me in a mens bathroom women doing makeup. We got extremely lucky that it never rained......it did a very light drizzle when we arrived but nothing to get very wet and then we lucked out since it seemed later on in the evening that it was going to come and down poor but it never did. It was a long day and much fun and now that the festival was over at 10 pm I was not sure what we were going to do. I was in a bit of a do something mood but not knowing what to do. My group was slowly moving along out and maybe I was just bored or had too little to drink (the alcohol % of most of the beers was 2.5-4%) so at least I was staying hydrated. I was kind of quiet for the rest of the night we walked to a little pizza place and got some pizza then some of the crew went to get ice cream as well. I was just taking it easy and watching everyone else but not saying much or being active on any of the conversations. This alarmed some of my friends since a lot of the time I do not seem to shut up but I just did not have anything to say. I maybe was a bit tired or just wore out but I was not unhappy or mad......I do not know how else to describe the way I was at the end of that night. We then got a Maxi Taxi and took it home on the way we dropped of Inge and Judith and they both gave me a nice good bye hug and I was sad to see them go. It was a fun and full day and I enjoyed the fact that I got to spend it with my new friends. I had a little conversation with Richard, Jeppe, and myself that I found to be great and it shows me that even though we all come from different countries and do different jobs we are all pretty similar. Richard told us a story about a trip he took when he was like 17 with some friends and they had used up all their money for the trip with still 5 days left because they were spending it on drugs. He told them that he would borrow them money for food and stuff but not for drugs and ever since that trip he is not really friends with those guys. I try not to judge other people and what they do and how they decide to live their lives but I do not want drugs anywhere near my life and I have made that clear to most people who know me. The three of us like to have some drinks and a good time but none of us have any time for drugs. Which brings me to Tim and he asked me about Drugs at the festival at least 3 times and I told him, nope no drugs just some beer....I do not know if he didn't believe me or what but it got a bit annoying.
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