8th August 2018 - Of Mythodea - Day 1

Thought for the day: "Two blood cells met and fell in love , alas it was all in vein."

It seems that most of my get up and go has got up and gone in the post event malaise that comes of very long driving and long sleepless days and nights.. Well - I have a reputation to maintain - "Die Ganze Woche Da! (Here all Week) has been translated many times into "UP all Night!"

It wasn't completely true - I was in bed by 4am on a couple of nights - which with the European time being an hour forward was not really bad - it only being 3am in reality!

However - we were up before 10.30am each day - time for a shower and shave before the Bards Frühstück - a general bring and take of food with the notices for the day - most of which went over my head! the first couple of days, of course I had a full English breakfast cooked in the Bothy - much to the chagrin of many of my German and Dutch companions... Later I succumbed to water melon and apples and ham and cheese....  In Rome be a Roman Candle...

And so - what can I say about the German LARP - Organised is the answer. It is very big and the facilities are very good. The Warm showers are immense not only the cubicles are large enough for fat Germans but they are set up with 40 cubicles at each location - and they are spread out over the site. The water is consistently warm - rather than hot which was a blessing for me !!but also reflected the heat of the event. The toilets were wonderful and cleaned very regularly. Portaloos were around the site and cleaned regularly also and normally replaced with paper - but at the main sites were 40 or so electrically powered toilets - with lighting and a traffic light system on the doors which were surrounded with led lights - red for engaged and green for vacant.  Sadly on occasion - because my kit contains so much in the way of belt and pouches and tankards that need sorting when I enter a cubicle - on occasion I forgot to lock immediately and scared a couple of players - though I was still struggling with my belt !!

At the start there were a couple of barrels full of toilet paper - but that disappeared after a few days. Apparently, last year someone stole most of the toilet rolls to use on siege engines in the battles and the Orga (game team) this year decided that they would provide less accordingly. Seems fair. Most of us expect to carry paper around with us at festivals and even at CP in the UK I find that it is better to be safe than sorry....

As I arrived I did not want to set up too early as in the past years I have got the tent up so early that it seems someone always wants me to be somewhere else and it is too difficult to move once up.
But as I arrived on the site I was hailed by friend Jens, who would later be Brüder Johannes of the Abtei der geschwollen Leber - The Monastery of the Swollen Liver - who had his pitch sorted but only had two chairs and a wooden box that turned out to be his mobile fridge full of German beer. So 6 beers later (bearing in mind that German beer is generally about 5.5% alcohol) in the heat I finally parted from him - for a while and looked for my pitch..

Surprisingly the Guild Entrance tent was already up - though it would have to be turned around later as the door was int he wrong place !  So I set up early with Bertha the Barden Heim ....... as it was clearly shown ion the map to be right next to the Guild Tent....

 Of course my faithful travelling companions soon found their proper seat on the viking seat .. Father Ted and the Abbot Costello with DMBI and Woody

With the greenery set out and the flags flying I was ready for the start...

No power was supplied until Wednesday which meant that I had to eat much of my disposable food quickly. I had stopped in Folkestone TESCO to get my food - and of course with the heatwave they had sold out of ice. The fridge had been on n the Bothy for a day before leaving - but was only just holding its cool temperature. On a stroke of genius I went to the fish counter and explained that I was heading over the channel and was provided with a bag of the ice used to keep the fish fresh.. Well - Ice is Ice!!  It kept the cool box chilled for a while... but my milk did not survive more than a day - I went without tea for two days!! Terrible when you have to drink wine instead!! or German Beer!

The camp about me was taking shape though some would not arrive until Wednesday - and the effort being put into the tents was awesome - this was Terpsichore the dancers - but more of them later...

And so I went out to survey the "Tross". It was important not to call it the town or Stadt - as it was the train of the battle armies and not a town at all... complete with the Stadt Wacht - the town police - the militia and the street gangs - I made friends with the Kettles - more of them later.

When I returned to the Barden Heim I was delighted to be joined by Ramonje Windlille - the first girl about whom I wrote a song of Mythodea  .....  and found that she was playing as an artist with a band called Caniad but also was looking for another singing partner so she could try out her German Songs... I was delighted to assist and we worked out a playlist that we could manage together ..

But that was nearly the first day done ......

Cheers