St. Paulopoli

Left for Hamburg early on Saturday morning, having replaced my bb with james' salvaged from his cyclocross bike (thanks man).

Went by train, read "after the party" about the ANC - really good, but had me tearing up, especially the bits of Mbeki's 'I am an African' speech. Got to Hamburg, removed my bike from bike bag (thanks B and Tom) and built it up and then walked about half the way to St. Pauli because the snow was super icey. Got found by Daniel, with a fantastic moustache, who gave me directions to reaperbahn. Eventually met a very hungover haterer. Had a hot chocolate and then met up with James and the rest of the Amsterdamage. Went to a friends house, drank a beer and then left for the start of the alley cat, stopping for a huge plate of veggie burger and chip goodness.

Met up with Siep and more of the boys and girls on the way to the start, and registered and asked various people what I was supposed to do. Started the alley cat which basically involved cycling from check point to checkpoint - at each checkpoint you got checked in, and then threw dice to see where you'd go to next - if you threw the same number as where you were, you had to go to jail and get a shot of corn (?) and then come back. Oh, you also got money at check points, but I never worked out what the point of the monopoly money was. So the night involved riding around, criss crossing (will make you jump jump) with loads of messengers and people generally trying to cycle as fast as possible and not fall off their bikes. For the record I only fell once (during the race).

The best memory was cycling like mad past the docks area as this grossly big cruise ship was being launched. Heard some old white guy in a suit talking about how some of the money was going to help kids - almost fell off my bike at this point. The revenge was had though - read on.

The after part was held at Hafenklang, and started with soup and bread and this was preceeded and anticeeded by beers. Partied on well into the middle of sunday morning, went and snatched a couple of hours of sleep, met everyone at a cafe for a goodbye beer and burrito. Went to say goodbye to everyone at the local squat, and as we were there the new cruise ship from last night sailed past. We took the opportunity to abuse it and all on board with a megaphone we had handy. I'll skip the choicest bits, but basically saying how silly they looked, that their money would never save them and that we wished the somali pirates the best of luck. We eventually tumbled into Vis' bus (complete with beds and lounge area) for the trip back. James slept, and me and Jan Willem drank a beer and ate an assortment of junk food while watching some rather mad films.

Got back to Amsterdam at about 9 this morning, and spent the whole of today recovering :-)

Good times.

Items gained:
1 x red and white cycling hat from hat swapping game at the party
4 x udis
1 x stiff body
lots x good memories