Oz Jugger in Europe

...and it starts again

2010-02-11T09:34:00.002+10:00

Closing rapidly in on a year and a half since the last jugger trip, it is all starting over again. Getting together people and prices, places and plans.

The anticipation is starting to build and the keen juggers who came last time are all eagerly awaiting to see what will happen this time. So I though I would start recording this early and see it through the whole process.

Incredibly early days in the planning and yet there is already much to be excited about, the Tournament in Berlin is looking to be held over 3 days this year with the first day potentially being filled with demo games of each of the international variants of the game. Also I've started gathering information on where we are going to go, it seems we are already going to be having a tradition of ending the trip at Oktoberfest in Munich but this year it looks like we will be starting off in Dublin a week before the tournament to get in some training and get used to the climate.

The Closing Days

2008-10-20T02:51:00.002+10:00

Well now the countdown is beginning...

I've spent some great time revisiting places I've been to earlier in the trip and thoroughly enjoying myself, but with the small thought growing in the back of my mind that soon I will be heading back for home and back to work. Saying goodbye or at least see you later to all of the friends that I'[ve made during the trip - and all that makes it just that much harder to head off. At so many places along the path of this trip I've met people that i really get along with, like old friends that I've not seen for a long time.

So after another wander around Berlin seeing places that I missed last time - the Eastside Gallery, The Bundestag and other fascinating places and then Dublin and a Few days wandering around the west of Ireland I can't help but think that in three days I'm on a plane heading back for home and the trip is over .... for now.

an odd couple of days

2008-10-11T06:24:00.002+10:00

The last few days have been rather odd our time in the mountains was great and far too short,
the walks around town and up into the mountains to catch the cable car to the snow were great.
The hostel itself was fantastic to stay in, a traditional style Polish mountain houst built in 1905 with timber everywhere and beautiful carvings in the beams. The staff were incredibly friendly and great fun to hang out with and this was the only hostel I have actually had trouble convincing myself to leave...If I had the time I would have easily stayed an extra week or two there.

But sadly I had to leave and come down to see Kraków, the city is very nice and the hostel is... interesting - the atmosphere is great and it is interesting to stay at a place that is at the back of an alley. The first night here we literally dropped our bags and booked in for a tour of the Wieliczka salt mines. The tour of the mines is fairly basic taking you down to 135 metres below ground through a small portion of the salt mines to see the various chambers carved out of the salt by the miners... the carvings and the history of the mine are both fascinating, the mine itself was only shut down in the last decade for mining but still operates as a tourist destination and since it opened in the 13th Century it has been running for over 700 years.

Then after some of the best times in the trip came the most sombre... the tour from Kraków out to Auschwitz. Words just can't describe the place one monet you are able to fool yourself into thinking you are on just another tour and then you turn a corner and are confronted with somethng that just drops you. I had two moments that really struck me, One was turning from a model of the gas chanbers to be facing a cabinet full of the canisters that held the poison used to kill people in the chambers. The second was a massive display of human hair, a display easily 20 metres by 5 covered in women's hair that was found amongst 7 tonnes (the hair was used to produce textiles after it had been shaved from prisoners). I came away from the tour unsure of exactly what to think and I'm not sure I'll have digested it all for some time yet. Needless to say meeting up with some people on the bus and spending the afternoon and night after the tour partying about Kraków was necessary to maintain some sanity.

Now I'm spending time just wandering about town seeing the sights before I head for Berlin on Saturday night.

What a great time....

2008-10-08T02:53:00.003+10:00

It's now the last night of my stay in Zakopane and the time here has been great -
I spent today loafing about the hostel and hiding from the cold and the rain outside while catching up on some sleep after sitting up all night chatting with people here at the hostel.

I've finally been able to complete a comple of my goals one for this trip and one in general - one thing I wanted to bring back was a set of polish crystal glasses and I lucked into finding two fantastic sets here in Zakopane for an amazingly good price compared to buying crystal at home, now I just have the challenge of getting them home in one piece.

The other, and far more exciting, was my trip up into the snow - the days before we arrived saw rain over Zakopane and up on the mountains so we hiked up to the cable car and took the ride into the mountians to see what we could see. It was fantastic to finally get to seem my first snow - no fall while we were up there but it was great fun to trudge around in the snow and throw a few snowballs. The one disconcerting thing was the path along the top of a steep ski slope was very icy and in places was like walking on a sheet of ice and in others nice soft powder which you sunk into to the knees.

So after the relazing time here wandering about town and the mountains tomorrow we hop a bus back down to Krakow and see what we find there.

The Rushed Update

2008-10-06T16:54:00.002+10:00

So it has been a little while since I could get online and update and now I get a chance...Paris and London gave me litle time to sit in front of a computer but here I am in Zakopane in the mountains of Poland's south and I can just kick back and relax.

So here goes..London was fun as many of the tourist sites as possible crammed into two days starting with a tour of the HMS Belfast a cruiser moored in the Thames now used as a floating museum, I saw this one from a distance last time I was here but did not head in and got a chance this time to wander about the exibits and read up on some war time history of the vessel. Add to this wandering across Tower Bridge, The Tower of London - in which I highly recomend the tour run by the Beefeaters, all ormer military men who now are the Queen's official bodyguard and keepers of the Tower. The men that take groups on tours have a keen and cutting sense of humouor making the time in there highly enjoyable. Top all this off with a trip to the Camden markets an absolute chaos of colour and intruiging sellers just about anything you are after can be bought here a couple of hours just wandering about is both great fun and great danger to the wallet.

Paris again was chaos and filled with as many tourist sights that could be covered in two days and after the first day of wandering about just looking at all of the impressive buildings we did the inside of Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph each with their own fantastic view of the city. The highlight of the time here for me though was the long queue for the tour of Notre Dame, while waiting in line a street performer, wearing a latex Quasimodo mask, was making passes up and down the crowd on the other side of the street sneaking up behind people and then waiting for the look of shock when they discover him standing next to them. his best trick was to come up behind a couple, seperate the guy from the girl and then follow along with his arm on her shoulder waiting for her to notice that the person they had been walking with had been replaced - this one more than any other drew howls of laughter from the queue watching on.

Hello Bruces

2008-10-01T03:56:00.002+10:00

for those who are not familiar with it watch this video

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA

then read on....

Imagine if you will a group of Australians and a mad Irishman wandering about Dublin refering to each other as Bruce in the manner of the Python sketch. This started about midday and continued on till late that night through such fun as six of us walking in file past a young fellow who had been pulloed over by the Garda (Police) and each of us in turn greeting him with a cheery "hello Bruce" and then the last in line hearing his confused explanation to the police that "no I'm really not Bruce". Top off the day of wandering the Irish countryside with great views of Wicklow and Dublin with a night in the local pub after Jugger training with all the Australians being called Bruce (in a loud and badd aussie accent) and all the or Irish referred to as "Not Bruce" the night was full of confudion and chaos including a couple of hours of mystified acceptance from "rule no.1"

Our time in Ireland was great and the last week of my trip is definately now going to be filled with a return to Ireland for some more Jugger and some wandering about the countryside.

The next step

2008-09-29T19:54:00.002+10:00

Well the next stage of the journey was pretty interesting...
after saying goodbye to Glenn 3 times before we left - once in Oktoberfest the night before we left (not expecting to see him before he flew out) then once again at oktoberfest after he materialised at our dorm on the day we flew out and then again running into him at the train station as we left to catch our flight.

oh I forgot....one more time at the airport as we waited over two hours for our delayed flight from Munich to Dublin - apparently there was some major failure of air traffic control in the UK which prevented a large number of flights from going over the UK. After much delay and confusion we finally made it into Dublin with a short scramble for a taxi we made it to Mark's place where we have proceeded to take over and turn the world upside down.

Some great games here against the Irish Juggers and some good touring around the sites like the Book of Kells at Trinity College and the Old Jameson Distillery the time here in Dublin has been fantastic. The one disappointment is the huge change in the city from the memories I have of my last visit the city has grown rapidly and areas are over-run with tourist traps drowning out the atmosphere I remember, but if you know where to go or have a local with you the good places still exist they are just a little outside the tourist areas. With my last week of the trip still unplanned I am giving serious consideration to hooping a flight back here for the last part of my trip just to get some more time here in the Ireland finding out what else has changed and get some more wandering in.

Oktoberfest Final day

2008-09-25T05:20:00.002+10:00

Well after a couple of days here in Munich it has been great time.
A fantastic rest stop for those of us who picked up the flu that has been
going around and a really interesting time to potter about the city.

Our final night was quite relaxed and we could just sit about relaxing.
Krys and Wendy got away safely on the start of their adventure in the Mediteranean.
Glenn is still down at the Oktoberfest enjoying the local brews and the party atmospher while a few of us have said our farewells before he heads for Africa and scarpered out of the rain to go back to the room and crash. An evening of eating, a little drinking and partying with the table of Italians next to us was a great way to finish our stay.

so now we rest up and prepare for our trip to Dublin.

Hannover and Oktoberfest

2008-09-24T17:10:00.003+10:00

Hannover has been a nice laid back visit after our delayed arrival.
During the day our host Alissa took us for a guided tour of the city which was very interesting and had a great impact on us - during the war much of Hannover was bombed flat with very few of the old buildings surviving. As a result many of the historical buildings were rebuilt after the war with a district of the city haveing several old homes moved into the area to preserve some view of what the city had looked like before the bombing.

Of most impact for me was viewing the plans of the city, four scale models of how the city appeared in medieval times, in 1939, in 1945 and today. The model of '45 had several of us just staring at the scale of the destruction at the end of the war and then Alissa pointed out the shell of a church which we were told was left standing just as it had been at the end of the bombing, this was our next stop. The ruins of a church simply stun you, the roof is open to the sky and blood red vines cover the walls. The place strangely still feels like a sanctuary but still with the sadness of what happened in the place.

To balance out the emotion of the tour we had a great game of Jugger with the Paderborn Juggers coming in to town to visit and despite some of us being out with injuries and flu we made a good effort to get on and play.... and next came Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest has been a real experience several blocks of partying and drinking filled with masses of people. Surprisingly the place is incredibly well organised with us seeing very few incidents with drunks and the police - although you would need to be drunk to start something here with the police roving about in groups of 8.
The one fight I did see was ended in moments by the police.

Next stop Dublin

Lüneburg to Hannover and a little chaos

2008-09-22T23:10:00.000+10:00

So today the joy and chaos of moving 10 people about an unfamiliar country became obvious - Garth coming back in from Berlin to catch us up, Simon, Pille and Nick coming down from Hamburg and the rest of us having to decide how to divide the group for the next leg of the trip so some could head back to Hamburg to visit some clubs while others head south for Hannover where the locals had generously been working to arrange an extra night of acomodation due to a change in our plans - needless to say after many calls during the day to work out exactly where people where at and at what times they were going to be moving we finally had something resembling a plan. The plan did involve taking a wrong turn on the Autobahn and also having to find a fuel stop before running out of gas on the way to Hannover but we made it into town an hour and a half later than we had hoped but again the generosity of the locals still continues to amaze us with Alissa coming out to meet us and guide us to here home where we were immediately made welcome...

now to mix things up a little back to our last day in Lüneburg, those of us in Lüneburg in the morning were treated to yet another great experience - a guided tour up the tower of the church of St. Nickolai to a viewing platform 56 metres above the town with a great view and an up close meeting with the church bell just as it was tolling midday. A great place to be before heading for a Jugger game. A short stroll through the lovely town again before Jugger in yet anothe of the fantastic publich parks that every city and town in Germany seems to have dotted about the place.
The game for the afternoon was great but the best experiencewas when we were leaving - all of the local Juggers coming up to say goodbye and inviting us back or asking if we could stay longer...it is getting harder and harder to leave each group as the friendliness and hospitality just continues and we all feel so close to each new group of Juggers that we spend time with.

Words have failed me since Berlin to do justice to the experience that is this trip and yet after a conversation with someone mentioning people close to tears at parting I know that in my own mind this is not a once off trip
Germany and the Juggers here will be in my future there is no question about if I will return it is just a matter of how soon I will be back here in Europe visting friends.

So now another day of adventures and friends to catch up with in Hannover.

Bad Oldesloe and Luneburg

2008-09-22T04:26:00.000+10:00

After a late misadventure in Hamburg involving a missing bag, containing Garth's Passport and a free ride in a police car we made the short journey to Bad Oldesloe minus Garth who reamined in Hamburg awaiting a train ride to Berlin in the morning where he got to visit the Embassy and have a passport reissued.

Bad Oldesloe is a nice little town with yet another great public park for playing Jugger where despite some of us having injuries or still recovering from the colds we seem to have picked up we got out on the field to play some Jugger with the locals. The training session was great fun, again demonstrating Aussie Rules Jugger and then playing with the German rules. We are all rapidly gaining appreciation of the frustration Glenn has felt in recent months from not being able to play at home - where those of us who are struggling with cougs and colds it is frustrating not to be able to play as well or as long as we would like....and yet we still get out there and still have a great time.

After a fantastic BBQ put on by the Juggers in Bad Oldesloe and some much needed sleep we left for our next town Lüneburg where we were met by another group of enthusiastic Juggers who immediately took us for a tour of the town.
Lüneburg is a lovely medieval town, larger than our previous stop, with the city center containing Cobblestone streets and fantastic old homes and churches. I have to recomend this town to anyone coming through Germany - it is not the usual stop for tourists who stick to the large cities like Berlin and Hamburg and it was fantastic just to be led around town soaking up the history from the hill that the towns castle used to stand on keeping watch or the Tower of the Church of St. Nickolai. Ou hosts here have made us feel as welcome as any of our other stops, so much so that we have all started to describe the feeling as if these are not people we have just met but long time friends that we are just now catching up with.

After our tour a little perperation and a wander back into town brought us to Dinner for the night in the most amazing dining area - several restaurants in the centre of town are nestled along the river looking out over the water from cobblestone terraces, a place that I am not sure I could top for an enjoyable meal. Follow the fantastic mel and conversation with a tour of the fantastic local bars and the evening was perfect just as every one that we have had so far.

In Lüneburg we noted the interesting local tactic of drinking in shifts where one group of local would drop in either on the way to or from some other event just to spend some time with us. So after another great night we all stumbled home to sleep....

2008-09-18T15:50:00.007+10:00

To add a little flavour a photo of the back of my head while chaining in Berlin

On the road....

2008-09-18T15:50:00.004+10:00

Monday in preperation for our departure from Berlin on Tueday morning .... we went site seeing. Our wanderings took us through the city to the Angel of Victory, which provides an amazing view over the city parks surrounding the road up to the Brandenburg gate. The Gate itself was an impressive structure leading into a very wealthy district, the tourist shops themselves that cluster around the area are not completely out of place due to the remainder of space being filled with storefronts of a widely varied nature selling everything up to incredibly expensive cars including the Bugatti Veyron. Not being a person terribly interested in cars the experience was lost on me but several of our travellers felt the near religious nature of the experience and stood gazing in awe at the car before bowing to it before leaving the store, much to the confusion of the proprietor.

Monday night saw our last night of partying in Berlin where we went out for dinner to White Trash Fast Food (http://www.whitetrashfastfood.com/) which had a fanastic atmosphere, Ibbo from the Irish team joined us for the celebrations despite being a little the worse for wear....the rest of us wandered on to Join Ruben at The Red Rooster - another bar with a great feel to it, leather couches and good music. Here we spent a couple of ours chatting with Ruben of the Falkons who has been my main contact in Berlin for some time. Late into the night we were chatting about the tournament and Jugger in General until we wandered off to find our way back across the city to the flat.

Our time in Berlin over we loaded up our rental cars and shot off to the Autobarn. The players at the tournament have been incredibly friendly and made us welcome here during the tournament and the number of invitations we had to come and vist the various teams unfortunately exceedes the amount of time we have here...however I am sure now that many of us will return here to play Jugger and visit the teams we did not get to see.

After a pleasant drive on the Autobahn - Yes we did reach speeds of 200km, no I'm not naming the drivers - we rolled into Hamburg to meet up with Pille, who lives here and Pierre who came to show us to our accomodation (generously provided by Tyll) and then to take us of a tour of the Reeperbahn. Historically the Reeperbahn is the section of the old Hamburg where ropes where made for the docks and also oe of the few places that churches were allowed to be built at a time when there was a restriction on religious buildings, now however it is a massive redlight district where you can find all manner of distraction if you Choose to. Pierre led us through the district with stories of the city and brought us to Man Wah a Chinese resteraunt which every local we spoke to agreed was the best in town.Late into the night we were lead about by our guide whose good humour and interesting descriptions of the district made for a great night out - and the amusement even came from two of our own who discovered that establishments alond the Reeperbahn may suddenly adjust their prices when they discover a tourist has entered the bar to buy a drink.

Monday was less touristy for me, something I was partially thankful for due to tiredness and a damnable cough that I seem to have picked up from the cooler weather. However this did not stop me from joining in the fun at the Jugger training that afternoon - a couple of the players from Bad Oldesloe (our next stop) came into town to joing in the training and several of the Hamburg Juggers were already present when we arrived at the field a beautiful patch of grass bordered on either side by forest and looked over by a planetarium (which I was told was built by the Nazis in the 30s - something which you can't hold against the impressive architecture of the building). Walking across the field from the bus stop was a great feeling, Hendrik who had been leading a chant for us in Berlin started the call of Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie when he noticed we had arrived. The feeling of being greeting so entusiastically by people we had only first met days earlier is incredible and just continues to add to the great experience we are all having here.

The training opened with some discussion and sparing before the decision to play games of Australian Rules Jugger before the European rules and despite the changes in play style required for the locals they pick up the rules quickly and njoy the differences of the game...I am not sure it is going to cease to surprise me that there is such interest from local Juggers in seeing and playing our rules at each stop and more than once locals have expressed that are similar to the original game played here and that there is interest to play our version of the game in addition to the European rules to add some flavour to the training.

The whole time we have been here in Hamburg we have been treated less like guests or tourists and more like old friends returning after being away for some time, The Hmaburg Juggers have been incredibly hospitable sitting and chatting about any number of topics at the beer garden and pub we went ot after the training and again I was so impressed to see the way that we were automatically welcomed and accepted into the scene here...it seems to be true that in general Juggers everywhere are great people who want to play the game, have fun and share those time with anyone who is interested. Today we leave Hmaburg for Bad Oldesloe where we already have another game and another party waiting to greet us...more than we could possibly have hoped for.

It was F***ING AWESOME

2008-09-15T08:15:00.003+10:00

I was told several times since friday afternoon when I had my first sparring session in Berlin that maybe, just maybe after Oktoberfest, Dublin and some dynamite that the smile might be able to be removed from my face. The site of 30+ Jugger teams gathered in a park in the middle of Berlin is amazing, the sound of the cheering and games being played is intoxicating and something that is going to be very difficult to describe. We have many photos and videos that will gradually appear on the web as soon as we are able.

The tournament has been amazing, the Juggers here in Germany are just as friendly as the Juggers at home and then there are the Irish of all the teams we encountered we had an instant bond with the Irish, they came and cheered us on in our first game and from then on both the Australians and Irish spent the rest of the weekend egging each other on with friendly Jibes and cheers. All of us that are heading to Dublin are looking forward to it and those that aren't coming have almost, just almost reconsidered travel plans.

We had 3 tournament games over the weekend, none of which resulted in victories however all were hard fought and we acquited ourselves well while still getting used to the German rules. The international game against the Itrish team was a great experience which came down to not only game play but jibes and taunts shouted down the field between the teams - the captain of the Irish team displayed a great rapidity of verbal output as well as great pride in his undergarments which he insisted on displaying down the field (a display which was returned with pride by one of the German qwiks later in the day). The game resulted in a good Itrish victory and a pile up of the whole Irish and Australian teams.

The Australian Rules demonstration which followed our game with the Irish proved just as popular with the crowd of Juggers who gathered around in interest to see the curiosity which was the Australian Jugger rules. 8 randomly picked German teams each were able to select one player to face the Australian teams on our terms and while they played well (having the same difficultiy adjusting to the Australian rules as we did to theirs) a hard fought victory went to the Australian team which was followed by constant interest and questions about our rules for the rest of the tournament.

After all of the competition games were completed Australia placed a respectable 24th place out of 32 teams, which after watching the quality of the teams (especially those ranking in the top 10) is something we can be proud of for our first competition with German rules. The best games of the tournament were played on the Sunday with some amazing skill and sportsmanship being displayed. A tied game in the quarter finals between the Berlin team (GAG), to which our host here belongs, and the Hobbitz resulted in the Hobbits ceding the game to GAG allowing GAG to play in the finals. The game between long time rivals Rigor Mortis and Hamburg was hard faught with some great play by various players resulting in a win to Rigor.

The final however was amazing to watch - Rigor Mortis and GAG played to a full time tied score of 10-10 and was decided on a golden Jugg (tie breaker) giving the game to GAG a result which saw the tournament winning streak of Rigor Mortis broken. It was an amazing experience to watch the game played.

Special mentions need to go out to Ruben of the Falcons without his adive and support we would not have made the trip with such ease. Stefan of GAG who has generously hosted the team at his flat for the period of the tournament, Hendrik of Hamburg who gave us good playing advice and was leading cries of OZZIE OZZIE OZZIE whenever we took the field - the experience of more than 100 Juggers yelling that chant is somthing that will be with all of us for a very long time (I know that at the end of the tournament I am almost losing my voice from yelling it out). The entire Irish team who cheered us on from the first game with friendly jibes and cheers, we very quickly made friends with the whole team and look forwad to hitting the ground in Dublin. Also the many other players who have been so friendly, helpful and supportive during the time her in Berlin.

There is much I am sure I have forgotten so there will be more news as we travel on with out Jugger tour.

It's good to breath....

2008-09-12T04:43:00.002+10:00

Well we've now arrived safe and sound in Frankfurt after our stopover in Seoul which I have to say was an interesting experience.

Seoul is a great city and one I would recommend people see if they are heading through the region, there is however one...small...drawback.

Smog, the haze around the city is bad enough to obscure buildings within 100metres and beyond that it can get difficult to see. After our night out Garth commented that it felt like he had been out drinking and smoking without the cigarettes - after a morning walk to see the city in the day I cameback to the hotel with a kingsize headache....

now having said that the city itself is fantastic..just the little we saw in one night was great. The street markets are a feast for the eyes with every colour of neon brightly shouting out the wares different vendors have to sell you from Pigi Chicken to corner store beers. We spent an hour in a karaoke bar having a blast and an interesting lesson in negotiation, video of this may appear courtesy of the fiend at some point if none of us find a way to bribe him for the footage to be destroyed.

As bright and colourful as the night is I found the morning walk an interesting experience, I felt a little odd walking about in the streets and undergournd shopping centres that had been so busy late the night before to see them almost devoid of people (this at about 9 in the morning whne brisbane would have been all open for business). It does seem a much more civilised way to easy in to the day gradually.

Anyway now after another 10 hour flight we are settled in to our hostel in Frankfurtfor the night before we take the jump to Berlinin the Morning for the tournament on the weekend.

The Chaos is in Full Swing

2008-09-09T11:00:00.002+10:00

well one day left, I fly out tomorrow to see how we fare at Jugger agains the German and other teams in Berlin and things have really become exciting.

After a visit from The Courier Mail and Brisbane Times on Sunday we've had articles up about Jugger and contact from Triple M, ABC Radio and NOVA all wanting to do interviews about Jugger and the team heading off for Berlin.

The Print articles are available at
BRISBANE TIMES
COURIER MAIL

So while I try to get project work madly completed Simon is fielding questions and hopefully having fun with it

One week

2008-09-03T11:38:00.001+10:00

Only one week to go...concentration at an all time low

The official team count for Berlin is no 32 teams (that is at least 160 Juggers)

33 days to go

2008-08-09T20:18:00.000+10:00

and the excitement is already building - just found out that already 24 teams are registered to compete in Berlin

Lüneburg
- Crash Kids
- Cruenta Clava
- Captura

Bad Oldesloe
- Last Man Standing
- ZeLa

Berlim
- Skull
- GAG
- Rigor
- Jugg Daniels? (maybe Falco jugger too)
- BSR

Homburg
- Gladiatoris ab rivo nigro

Paderborn
- Trollfaust

Oldenburg
- Kampfkeiler
- Kleintierrevolte
- Tollwut

Heidelberg
- Hobbiz
- Hobbiz 2

Lippstadt
- J-Team Lippstadt
- Notwehr

Hamburg
- 1 Team

International
- Irland
- Irland 2
- Dänemark
- Australien

... and so it begins

2008-08-08T14:43:00.004+10:00

or more accurately the final stages are happening... after several years of being invited to take a team to Germany to play jugger and planning of the trip for most of this year (I think a long break from booking flights and accomodation and everything else will be good) the Jugger trip is finally happening and in one months time I will be on my way to Berlin to play Jugger.

and then I get to wander Europe playing Jugger and seeking out fun.