by Sandra "steingirl" Svensson
Photos by Jonny Zetterström

Photo supplement

Chapter one: Formation of the Pack

Friday, July 7th

I have to get up early in order to have time to read my last listmails before the trip at the library -- James (the computer) is sick again -- before I meet one Jonny Zetterström at the Halmstad train station. Jonny is almost immediately overwhelmed by the size of the town (which is about the size of an ordinary living room), and has to point that out practically every other minute. Just to prove to him that he's in a civilized part of the country, we go out to eat, and this must be the start of our extremely culinary trip -- I had pizza and he had kebab. :)

(Jonny'd like to add that like most smaller towns, Halmstad has one pizza restaurant for every person :-)

We also got back to the library since Jonny couldn't get access to the reservation number for the TANZ-tickets, so we had to mail it back and forth between ourselves and cell phones. On those extremely fast computers, it only took us fourty-five minutes. Not to mention that Comviq had problems with some server, so every mail finally arrived... the next morning!!!

Later that evening we went to see "Gone In 60 Seconds" at one of the two movie theaters in town (amazing, isn't it? TWO!!!), so now we're probably experts at breaking into cars as well. Might be useful one day... :)

Saturday, July 8th, around 6 pm

Mama mia!!!

Woodie is supposed to arrive by train. Jonny and I were kind of anxious to get there in time, due to the fact that Woodie has an uncanny ability to get lost everywhere. So, when we see the train arriving, we place ourselves so that we can't miss him when he gets off. We wait. We wait. And we wait. Finally, the last people (who were two girls that Jonny mistook for Woodie through the window) had left the train and it started rolling again! Panic. At first we thought that he had missed the train or gotten off at the wrong station, and of course he didn't have his cell phone on so we could reach him.

But then Jonny suggests that we go to the other side of the station, and there he is! Turns out he had managed NOT seeing us (are there any more people in the world that only look in one direction when they're looking for somebody???) and got round to the other side.

Well, so far, so good. We got him home without losing him again and went out to eat at a cosy local restaurant called Fridolf's. The people next to our table took pictures constantly, and of course they asked Woodie (the most technical of us all) if he could take one. I'm just glad he's not from here so he won't have to face them again. :)

The thing is that Woodie managed to press the right button (we were all amazed), but nothing happened. Then he lowered the camera so it pointed almost towards the floor, and *then* the flash came. It was a historical moment. :)

Who's that
growling in my flat???

When we finally got into bed at around 2 am, I decided to put the boys in the living room, and that would have been okay if they had actually been capable of being quiet! All of a sudden, when I had nearly fallen asleep, I hear this growling coming from the livingroom and wake up thinking that I have Marilyn Manson in my flat (no, I didn't, so don't hold your breath). Eventually, they fell silent and I was able to get some peace of mind (even though I slept with one eye open. I had two howling mad boys in my house!!!).

Sunday, July 9th

Wanna go for a walk?

It's time for us to leave for Copenhagen, where we are supposed to live at Steen's place for two days before heading off to Germany. We got on the train alright, but when we got to Malmoe Central where we had to change trains to get over the bridge, we lost Woodie (turned out he had gone directly to the train instead of into the waiting hall to see what track it was on)!!! After some panic, when Jonny ran around trying to find him, we finally got on the train all three of us. The train was running over the new bridge between Malmoe and Copenhagen, and after all the publicity it's had, I expected something really big Instead it took like 2 minutes to go over it and we hardly had the time to see any of it since the railway goes beneath the road (though I think Steen would like me to point out that he was one of the people who were allowed to drive over it before it had officially opened!). Pretty dissapointing.

View of Copenhagen, you can see the bridge too. Click on thumbnail for full size image

So, we got to Copenhagen and Jonny sent an SMS to Steen telling him where we were. Two seconds after Jonny got a reply Steen showed up behind us and helped us carry our bags (and Woodie's suit) to the car. Due to the size of the bags we nearly had to squeeze them into the trunk, but it worked. We were just curious to see how Steen was going to get his luggage in there as well in two days. :) After making it the way to Steen's house a bit outside Copenhagen (which was extremely cosy), we also had the honour to meet his cute but somewhat shy cat Gizmo (who ran as soon as he say us, basically, but then, who can blame him???).

So, we sat in the couch talking for a while, and it soon became obvious that both of the poor Swedish boys where suffering from some communication problems since none of them understand Danish, but since Steen speaks Swedish very well I didn't think they'd have a problem with that. At least until Steen turned to Woodie saying something about Tanz der Vampire, to which Woodie replies "Tanz...?", because it was the only part he understood... :) So, from that day, when we don't understand what someone is saying, we'll just reply "Tanz?" and look innocent.

Gizmo, the shy cat. Click on thumbnail for full size image

That evening we also had one of the greatest musical experiences in our lives so far as we headed off for an amusement park where Doctor Bombay was "performing"!! I mean, what's Tanz compared to some guy who lip synches every single word with the microphone down by his knees (I'm even having my doubts whether that was the "real" Doctor or just some cheap(er) fake)??? We all wore our Jim-shirts at that time, and some people looked a little funny at us when we were strolling around. What, have they never seen a Steinfamily before???

It was also somewhere around this time that Steen seriously started doubting I was a real Swede since I don't drink beer! What can I say? I'm Danish, German and Norweigian as well, so... :)

We went into what was supposed to be some sort of "horror palace", but to our disappointment the most horrifying thing was the sound, which was a bit hard on our ears... the rest was, like Steen says, very lame. Maybe it would have scared a two-year-old, but otherwise... no!

Steen, who had no film in the camera Click on thumbnail for full size image

The fireworks (which was la Grande Finale and said to be Denmark's greatest) were amazing, though. It was really cool since I was leaning back a bit (on Jonny), so it looked as if the sparks were washing over you, and it looked wonderful. Once back home, when I was powdering my nose, I heard Woodie give away what would be just one of many classics: Steen asked the boys if they wanted a Screwdriver, and Woodie, who apparently doesn't understand Swedish etiher, thougth about it for a while before asking "do you want to go for a walk?". I can't possibly imagine how those two sentences can be mixed up, but hey, it's Woodie we're talking about...

After a few "walks", the boys started acting a bit weird -- all of a sudden they where rolling around on the floor to the sound of Steinmusic and looked as if though they enjoyed each other's embraces a lot. I even have picture-proof of this, and I wish you could see it. They look hilarious! Steen also took pictures of this (as well as of us in our Jim-shirts), but all of a sudden he (and keep in mind that if anyone of us can boast with having an IQ over 40 it's him) realises he has no film in the camera ("I though it sounded strange...")! Neat...

It was also here that Jonny got his nickname "the Voice". You'd understand why if you'd heard him bell out some of Jim's compositions that night. You all know that there are white keys and black keys on a piano, right? Did you know that there are people who can actually hit the notes that are *in between* these keys? In the cracks? Imagine what that sounds like and you know what Jonny sings like. He's the only one who can sing three different vocals at the same time, methinks! I was cuddled up beneath one speaker with the Bad for Good LP, and I thought Jim looked a bit horrified when he heard what was going on. I tried to hug him real hard so he wouldn't hear it, but I'm not sure it worked... I think they heard Jonny in Uruguay (and yes, Steen, I watch "the Nanny". How could I not??? :)

Sandra with "Bad for Good". Click on thumbnail for full size image

Monday, July 10th

We headed in to Copenhagen to possibly visit the big amusement park Tivoli, but due to the surprising weather (rain, who could have thought?) we chose not to.

Instead Woodie managed to exchange money at a bank (though I stayed close in case he would have trouble understanding), and we had to buy a couple of umbrellas in order not to get drowned. I then discovered that wearing old, blue sandals in rainy weather can have its disadvantages. Like blue feet. I tried to be optimistic and imagine how gorgeous that would look when I was about to put on my pink, high-heeled shoes for the show, but it didn't work, for some reason.

Before we did anything else, the boys had to eat (I didn't really feel hungy during the whole trip; I never do that when I'm away. I can ignore eating and sleeping for days!), so we went to... McDonald's! Very exotic, especially in Denmark... it's a whole different thing!!! :)

So, instead of Tivoli we headed for Madame Tussaud's Wax Cabinet, which was such a cool experience! I mean, some of the wax dolls looked so real you almost thought they'd start talking to you any second!

Sandra doing a Lewinski. Click on thumbnail for full size image

I even mistook some of the visitors for dolls or the other way around! Oh, and, I did a Lewinsky again! They had made a doll out of Bill Clinton, and of course the boys had to have a picture of me next to him... We also found Pandora's Box in the horror chambers (it made a terrible noice when you tried to open it), so I guess we let at least some sins out!

Woodie next to Pandoras Box. Click on thumbnail for full size image

Sandra with "Bat Out of Hell". Click on thumbnail for full size image

We also went to a cd store, and everyone but me (I'm picky) shopped. I was busy trying to put every Jim-related cd as close to the ceiling as possible. Another interesting place we went to was the Museum Erotica (which is exactly what it sounds like although quite tasteful), where I made an entry in the guestbook that they had forgotten to mention Jim again and, upon reading our erotic horoscopes, one of us turned out to be the world's greatest lover!

Then we headed for the Round Tower (built by the f***ing king who lost parts of Sweden that belonged to Denmark once, according to Steen), which is like a huge outlook tower where you can see all of Copenhagen and beyond; it's really beautiful. I kept looking west and feeling a bit lyrical. :) On our way down we decied to visit the bathrooms, and Woodie got there first, carrying his bag containing the cd's he'd bought earlier. After that Jonny went in, and suddenly Steen got a message on his phone and started to laugh. "Where are your cd's, Woodie?" I'll say no more...

Woodie, Steen and Sandra in outlook tower. Click on thumbnail for full size image

Tuesday, July 11th

Start your engines!

The knights who say TANZ! and their little Steinmobile embarked upon a long and winding trip to Germany. The trunk was packed with bags and it was -- surprise -- raining. We took the road over the Great Belt Link, which Steen boasted was the world's second largest suspension ("the Tanz of bridges"), and it WAS pretty cool. At least you had time to notice that you were actually *on* the bridge!

Once at the German border, nobody cared to check our passports (phew! :), and so we were in Germany. I was quite astonished to find that it looked exactly like Denmark, for some reason. :)

We had our very unusual lunch at McDonald's (!!!), where Woodie not only managed to ask for salt and pepper -- in English -- but also to steal ketchup and was hunted down by an annoyed waitress, to whom he continued speaking in English to!

The boys where looking out the window on this go-cart track, and I thought it was time we started moving when I saw the dreaming look in their eyes. So, we headed on. Despite everything horrible I've heard about the Autobahn, it wasn't that bad. The nature surroundings are beautiful (maybe a bit boring after five to six hours), and we only encountered one major accident; some guy on a motorcycle had obviously got hurt, and it caused a traffic jam. But that cleared up fairly quickly again. Hope he was okay.

Bad Nauheim was a nice little town Click on thumbnail for full size image

We arrived in Bad Nauheim (where we were to meet with Wolfgang Liebert, ex listmember, and get some sleep), and stopped at some car dealer to phone Wolf and tell him where we were. We tried to explain it to him, but he didn't even know there *was* a car dealer! :) Anyway, there was a school nearby that he could find, and so after waiting a couple of minutes, Wolf and his son arrived. Wolf turned out to be a *very* warm and affable guy, and his son is adorable, with the cutest (although someone thought it sounded vicious) laughter I've ever heard. We went to his place and listened to him playing and singing a couple of Jimsongs, and let's put it this way: I turned green. He certainly doesn't lack any talent, if you get the drift...

We were really supposed to spend the night at Wolf's, but due to various reasons -- and to make it easier for all of us -- we decided to stay at a charming hotel called Hotel Rex. And so, the circus began...

Lost Boys and Dizzy Girls

We had visited the hotel earlier to check out the prizes since Wolf himself said it might be a bit messy with the sleeping-part but then we thought it was too expensive. Wolf then very kindly offered us the solution that two of us should stay at his wife's place and two at the hotel (I didn't get to speak that much to his wife but she seemed like a nice lady!), and so we thought about it for a while. We decided that it would be easier for all of us in the end if we stayed at the hotel anyway, since Wolf had to get up very early the next morning and we thought it'd be nice to spend the "last night before Tanz" at the same place. So, we drove around for a while to try and find a parking space, and we did. Very well. But where was the hotel?

The Hotel, once we all found it. Click on thumbnail for full size image

After some looking around (it turned out to be pretty much around the corner), me and Jonny checked in and Steen and Woodie went to get the car and luggage. The hotel rooms were cosy and a bit old-fashioned, I thought, with a beautiful view over the charming houses across the street. So, me and Jonny waited. And waited. And... well, you know. Finally Jonny called Steen up, asking what the hell they were doing, and guess what the reply was??? "We can't find the car!"

Alright, the town was incredibly big. It took 10 minutes to walk through it. :) Finally, the car was found -- and they even managed to find a parking space right outside! -- but then came the next problem: Woodie couldn't open the front door! He had gotten the keys from the manager, but do you think he could put it in the right way? Lucky for him that Steen came to the rescue, or they would have had to sleep outside (Steen later blamed their getting lost on the "Jimmy-effect", a.k.a Woodie-is-lost-again).

All dressed up as a steinfamily Click on thumbnail for full size image

After this we went out to eat with Wolf (all of us wearing Jim-shirts; Wolf had to go home and change first but we've got great pics of that!); he obviously knew the people at the restaurant, who were very nice. Three of us tried to keep the conversation in English or German, but when Woodie got his food he replied "tack!", which is SWEDISH for thank you!!! We teased him a bit about it, but guess what he said when getting his beer...? I did my best to once again stuff some food down, still not being hungry even though it was delicious, and we then went to a club nearby, where we continued our Jim-discussions a bit. It's really lovely to meet with other Steinfans, specially since almost everyone has their own view of every song and get so amazed when hearing that other people never though of it that way!

Before we called it a night, Wolf escorted us back to the hotel and checked the rooms out. Then he hugged all of us and disappeared. That's probably the only bad thing about this trip; all the "hello-goodbyes" we had to go through. It would have been nice to talk to people for more than a couple of hours!

For some reason I felt very dizzy when we had gone to bed (me and Jonny shared one room and the other two shared one), even when I was lying down. For a while I feared I was getting sick, but it went away with falling asleep.

Wednesday, July 12th

It doesn't matter where we're going baby
As long as it is Stuttgart fast

The next morning (after the great breakfast when Steen almost walked into the kitchen instead of out of the dining room -- the Jimmy-effect, I guess), Woodie delievered another classic. Turns out he had left the charger for his shaving machine at home. He had, however, brought the same for his cell phone -- which was back in Stockholm. That's what you get for having mummy packing your bags (She did! I swear to you!!). :)

We left the hotel and once again headed out on the Autobahn. Finding Stuttgart went pretty smoothly, but the there was the big horror: finding the hotel. We had a city map, but it wasn't that good since not all of the streets were marked. We did however managed got find the more central parts of town (and left a message to my friend Sandra, who was to meet us in town and see the show with us), telling her we were lost. Once we managed to find the right street, it turned out we were heading the wrong way and had to drive for ages before we could "turn around..." On top of this; whenever Steen's car has to go slowly for a while, the temperature rises *very* quickly (or at least it does according to the instruments), so for a while I feared that both he and the car would collapse from stress. :)

We did, however, see these huge posters on house walls with the Tanz-logo and the words "Blass ist in" ("pale is in"). Hey Jim, was that your idea? :)

Finally, we located our hotel, Müchner Hof and once again found a good place to park. Next to the hotel was a house with a big sign saying "Steinmann" in big letters. I think it was a paper shop, or something. I took a picture of it.

We checked in (this time no one was lost), and when we got into our rooms I nearly cracked when I saw the pillows! They had been puffed up in some weird way so that they almost looked like bunnies with ears on, and on top of that, all the bed quilts were pink! Pink!!! I could barely stand when I saw them!!! They just looked hilarious! Otherwise the hotel was very nice, with what must have been the smallest bathtub in the universe. :)

After that minor adventure, we wanted to leave for Hauptbanhof (which is like the main station where all the trains and buses stop) to see if we could find Steven Nitsch (who has an even cuter smile IRL than in any mail), who was supposed to be waiting for us there.

When Jonny and I were up in our room we got a SMS from Steen, saying "we're waiting outside". So, we went down, and after walking a couple of yards we asked Woodie if he'd brought the reservation number (which he had printed out earlier), but guess what? He hadn't. So, he started walking back to the hotel as I shouted after him: "Wait" Have you got the key to the room?" Of course he hadn't. So, he and Steen had to go back and get it ("We're waiting outside, guys!")

A fontain in the beautiful Schloss park. Click on thumbnail for full size image

I was quite anxious to get there since Steven had been there for an hour already. On the way there we passed through a beautiful park, talked to Sandra on the phone and saw a Tanz-poster (I took a pic, but it didn't turn out well since it was behind glass). Upon entering Hauptbanhof I started to panic. The place was huge and there was no way we would find Steven among thousands of people! To make it even worse they had this Tanz-poster on the wall (THAT turned out well!), so I had literally ants in my pants when me and Jonny walked up to an information stand and asked (in both English and German) if they could call for Steven in the speakers and ask him to come there. The lady behind the counter then proceeded to ask "in German or in English?"

"He's German", I said -- in German.

"In German or English?" she asked. *sigh*

She did however manage to get someone to call for Steven. It took a while, and nothing happened. I paniced and had to sit down in order to not lose my balance -- which I did anyway. And then, all of a sudden, my life did the "ketchup bottle" on me again; which means that first there's nothing, then there's nothing, nothing, nothing and all of a sudden you get it all in our lap.

Sandra called, asking if we could meet her at a place called Schlossplatz (we had no idea where it was but then, she had lived there for a week and didn't know where Hauptbahnhof was, so...), and at the same time Steven showed up carrying six hundred pounds of luggage. I tried to get rid of Sandra (sorry, darling, but I was SO stressed out!), who didn't seem to be able to stop talking -- or so it felt. I went like "oh my god, he's here now, he's here!" to try and make her get the point, but no...

When she finally gave in I could say hi to Steven and his 2000 bags (okay, maybe that's exaggerating, but I think he must have felt that way :) - and we were off to fetch Sandra at Schlossplatz (Castle Place). She'd said she wouldn't be hard to find, but that proved to be wrong. Thank God both she and Jonny had phones so we could call her (and thank God we had an expert in German with us so we didn't have to make ourselves look like fools by trying to ask someone in German)! Turned out she had been talking to some religious nuts who had redeemed her. Once again the boys (apart from Steven, whom I figured was too terrified with the sight of us to eat) wanted food. We went to... McDONALD'S (you'd never have been able to guess if I didn't tell you, right? :)

Steven and Sandra. Click on thumbnail for full size image

So, we ate and Jonny went to buy a map over Stuttgart since we wanted to know where the show was later that evening. And this was pretty hilarious (apart from me being hilarious in the terms of wanting to speak both German, English, Swedish and Danish all at once); Sandra was absolutely positive it was in one part of town (top left on map), whereas Steven KNEW it was another part (middle of map). Confusion.

Sandra found time to stop to kiss a poster on her way back to the hotel. Click on thumbnail for full size image

After discussing for a while (and no, we didn't look like tourists at all with a huge map covering two of the tables and three or four people standing around it trying to locate something...), we decided that we should go back to the hotel, get ourselves ready and then go early to the theater to fetch the tickets. Jonny was a bit concerned that something had gone wrong when booking them and couldn't really relax before he'd gotten them. Woodie and Steen took off (partly because we were walking very slowly with all the luggage and partly because Woodie wanted to exchange some money -- the day before we were going home again...), and me, Steven and Jonny dragged ourselves back to the hotel. Jonny had to tie his shoe lace every other minute (it had been like that during the entire trip). Two feet away from the hotel, the Lost Boys showed up behind us, and we were astonished to hear that Woodie had managed to exchange his money AND not get lost inside the bank!

The getting-ready part took me about ten minutes (new world record for me), since I had forgotten much of what I was supposed to wear -- makeup, I mean, nothing else -- and we went back to Steen and Woodie's room (Steven still insisted on standing up, probably not realizing that we only bite people *after* midnight), and now my stomach began to notice that something was going on. Just like me, it talked constantly for two hours or so after that. We left pretty early, and thanks to Steven we had managed to buy a ticket so we could all go by train at least a short bit. The only bad thing about this was that when we were to change train we had to say goodbye to Steven (I *really* don't like things like that!), who for some reason didn't want to borrow my high-heeled "Fran Fine-shoes" when we had left the hotel. Weird guy. :)

Steven, Woodie, Steen and Sandra in the hotel room. Click on thumbnail for full size image

Heute Nacht ist Tanz

So, getting to SI-center, as the place is called, didn't take us long at all. We were pretty early and weren't supposed to meet Sandra for a while, so we went inside after Jonny took a pic of me trying to kiss a Tanz ad sign. The part of the building where the box offices where was busting with people, and they had this huge, woderful painting on the wall of Krolock, Sarah and the wolves! It was awesome and we took pictures of it; it was really beautiful. The design of the rest of the place was *so* cool as well; they had "torches" (which were really just lamps) with red flames, vampires selling programmes, fangs hanging from the ceiling... you name it (BTW, one of the "vampires" was called Herr Kunze. Wonder if there's any relation?)

And -- trumpet fanfare here -- they had a TANZ shop!!!!

Of course we went in there, and it was now I felt very happy I hadn't eaten or bought anything expensive during the rest of the trip; I shopped!!!! Like mad!!! If I hadn't been concerned with my next Steintrip I would have bought the entire shop! :)

Then we calmed down (all but my stomach, my heart and some other not-so-important parts, of course) and sat down outside waiting for Sandra, who had also been out shopping but for something to wear. When she had arrived, we slowly advanced towards the stairs which were to lead us up to the Midnight Ball... the lobby was almost even more great with smoke, vampire costumes and more fangs! Of course, Woodie managed to get lost in the crowd and we couldn't see him even though I walked around to look. He did however turn up when we had reached our seats -- and our seats were SO great! It just couldn't have gotten any better! We were in the fifth row, counting from the stage, a little to the left of it. Perfect! I almost felt like a VIP sitting that close... :)

Forever's gonna start tonight!

Oh, God, so now I'm supposed to describe the show... let me first start by saying that I wasn't the LEAST diappointed in the sound -- and neither was Jonny. I don't know what kind of cotton the other boys had stuffed their ears full of, but we got completely blown away! And for the rest... first, I though all of the actors were superb.

Kevin Tarte is one impressively big fella, I'm telling you... I felt like a little bug every time he turned towards me, and he has a voice to match his presence... I was actually sceptical to anyone replacing Steve Barton, but Kevin really does it with credit! Actually, I was sceptical of anyone being able to be half as good as the cast Vienna recording, but oh my... I should have know better than to doubt Jim... it won't happen again!

I have to agree with what Jonny said to me; that it's funny how you can know a show so well (we lip synched all of the lyrics and I even mimed all of the lines), and know so precisely what to expect -- and then it's even better! The new scenes are SO amazing they brought tears to my eyes, and neither me nor Jonny could shut our mouths -- we looked like birdhouses for three hours!

What they have done is basically this -- instead of Sarah actually performing the dance with the vampires (as it used to work during "Die Roten Stiefel"), she now sits at the front of the stage dreaming, and there's a stand-in dressed in white (so you'll know it's a dream) dancing. They also had "one girl for each vamipre", so to speak, so that every vamipre dances with one different girl. It was like watching hard-rock walz!!!! Sarah than breaks down and cries as the dream fades, and instead you can see the house, were her family and Alfred sits, holding candles and praying for protection from the evil powers arising, as Sarah begins to sing "Draussen ist Freiheit" again.

It was simlpy so beautiful! Another thing that I just loved was the scene were Herbert has just tried to bite Alfred and professor Abronsius saves him by giving Herbert a whack with his umbrella... if you had seen the way Thomas Mülner (who plays Herbert) leave the stage in that highly insulted, feminine way you would have laughed for hours!

So, all in all, the show was bigger, better, wilder, more epic than anything I have ever imagined. I even thought that Barbara Köhler was excellent, although some thought she was a bit too enthusiastic in her acting, but that didn't bother me, and she had a really big voice, aspecially in the higher octaves. The rest of the audience seemed to have loved it as well, considering the never ending, standing ovations.

The only downside to it all was that three hours were magically reduced to ten minutes, somehow, and it was almost scary to find out how quickly the time had passed by! I couldn't have been more surprised if I had woken up two years later and though I had only slept for an hour or two (of course, Sandra lived another downside since she got scared by the vamipres twice, once when they had spread out in the audience and one of them put his hand on her shoulder, and once when they paraded by during "Ewigkeit".

The guy in front of me and Jonny also got terrified when they hissed at him, and he looked as he would have fallen backwards if he hadn't been in a chair)!

End of show -- it's over

So... after trying to get a da capo -- with no luck -- and, of course, looking out for Jim -- with even less luck -- we took the train back to town. I was probably acting very weird but I was SO in love (with Jim and Herbert, cute combination, huh?) and probably said a lot of dull things... I remember Sandra giving me one or two suspicious glares, but she was kind enough *not* to call the local mental hospital.

I had calmed down somewhat when we went to eat (no, I won't even say that name one more time, you *know* where!), and for once I was hungry.

We sat in there for a while (partly because it was raining cats and dogs), and as we were about to leave, guess if Steen and Woodie remembered to take their Tanz-bags with them? Oh, no... if we hadn't been stupid enough to remind them (says the girl who reminded Woodie of the Whistle-t-shirt he left under her bed), they could very well have gone home without them.

We said goodbye to Sandra, and started walking back to the hotel. I don't really know what we were talking about since I was pretty lost, but I remember that Woodie and Steen took off again because we were walking too slowly. When we had gotten into bed, I started mumbling something about my little stuffed horse (his name is Jim and I can't sleep without him), saying that "Jim has got all the stuffing in his bum" (he does!!!!), which I think Jonny found very amusing, for some weird reason... :) Don't ask me why. Then I rambled some more before falling asleep.

Thursday, July 13th

We take off pretty early after a nice breakfast (I don't want to go!!! I don't want to go!!!), before which Jonny's phone mysteriously died, and after a little while we find that we're actually lost on the highway (!!) and are on our way to Munic, which is not good. I think it was here me and Jonny started thinking of a song [dedicated to Woodie] that went like this:

Once we had actually found the right direction again, there was this nine kilometer line of cars ahead of us, so we stopped at a pull-up to see if things got better, and they did. We stopped for lunch, and just as Woodie had shut the door he remembered that his wallet was still in the car (this happened a number of times, always followed by the line "Wait! I forgot my..." Add name of the current forgotten item.) We took some pictures of us sitting there, all wearing our Tanz-shirts and looking very cute (erm).

As we were actually back in Denmark (I was feeling lyrical because of the sunset), I had a terrible ache in my stomach, but I didn't really care since I was still a bit occupied with what I'd seen.

When we got home to Steen, Woodie discovered the potato chips at once and held court in the couch with them (me and Jonny were graciously offered two each :).

I got annoyed, and went to bed. Dreamed of vampires and Jim.

Friday, July 14th

De-formation of the Pack

Steen take us to the train station in Copenhagen, and we say goodbye to him. Jonny goes to buy the two-hundred postcards he's promised everyone to send (from Germany), and I get to buy a ticket. Woodie's ticket isn't really for the train that me and Jonny are taking, but we didn't care, and nobody said a word. Upon arriving at the station in Malmö, we say goodbye to Jonny (who had to pay for my ticket since I didn't have any Swedish money), and me and Woodie wait for the train to Hamlstad (Woodie's train to Värnamo didn't leave until the following morning, so he stayed the night). When we had gotten to my place, guess what we found in the bathroom?

Woodie's schampoo! It had been there all the time! I nearly killed myself laughing!

Saturday, July 15th

There's a tank full of time

Woodie goes home. I feel a little depressed, since this once again is the ending of something truly wonderful. Luckily I (and maybe Jonny) will go back there again, and then we have Broadway to look forward to. And then we have...

The End

A huge thanks to Wolf, Steven, Sandra, my wonderful travel companions, the cast amd crew of Tanz der Vampire, and of course Jim, for making this what it was -- a wonderful time that will live with me for a long time. You're all wonderful and I love you lots!