The ultimate experience...

Hej everbody :)
I'll excuse in advance for a very Rufus-related entry. I'm sure I'll write something like "it was so great" for about 30 times in this entry.
However, for all the people who are not interested in reading a loooong breakdown of my weekend in Stockholm (which had more to offer than just Rufus [though Rufus was the main thing ;) ]) here are the hard facts:
it was great; I met a lot of nice people; I had fun (in every sense); Rufus was amazing-both times!;

So, let's start..with thursday, because that was when my weekend started. You could call it the "Pre-weekend-Party". We had a very tasty Schnitzel-dinner in our corridor (Dominik, an exchange student from last term was here to visit us..and he made the Schnitzel) and afterwards Martin, Lukas, Maria and I went downtown to see a concert. The Swedish band "Johnossi" played at a local club and since I really enjoy their first CD I didn't want to miss them. However, the concert was nice but not too special. Actually, it was quite "loud", but I enjoyed it anyway. The small picture shows the band.

On Friday I finally drove to STOCKHOLM, something I had been looking forward to for more than 2 months... I arrived there around 4 o'clock, went to the Hostel, grabbed something to eat, strolled around the city and looked at expensive, but perfectly fitting jeans - but I didn't buy them (now I wish I did...). Then I went back to the hostel, had a shower and went to a Party I was invited to.
The Party was on Södermalm (an island that's part of Stockholm) and started around 7 p.m. I was quite nervous, because I just (kind of) knew the host (Niklas) and nobody else. But it turned out to be really good, because I met a lot of really nice people (Swedes only ;) ). Since it was a swedish Party it (obviously) was a "Pre-Party" and around half past 11 we went to a Nightclub nearby. And well, what can I say? It was great, I had a real blast there - dancing, talking,...and so on ;) (this is the wrong place for more details)

The next day I met some people from the night before. We had brunch at a nice cafe (String) and afterwars we strolled around Södermalm and Djurgården. At 4 o'clock I met Linda - I know her from the last Rufus concert and she bought my ticket for this Rufus concert. We walked around (you see, I walked a lot in Stockholm) and waited for the concert to begin. We were really nervous and looking forward to it...The concert was at "Dramaten", the Royal Theater, a really beautiful place with a very nice flair.
It's hard to describe the concert itself, because it's something that you have to experience yourself to believe it. It was amazing and really special - and we had tickets for the second row! Rufus came without his band, so he sang and played the piano or the guitar himself and although his music is quite opera-like with a lot of orchestration and instruments, his songs worked really well "stripped down" like that. And once again, he proofed that he is a great entertainer. He really rocked the place with his witty comments about Sweden/Stockholm, Sylvester Stallone and other things. He's just so authentic when he is on stage. He makes mistakes and laughs about it - and the audience laughs with him and he means every single word he says. He doesn't have a script with jokes he tells every night, because he tells something different every single time.
After the concert Linda and I went to the backentrance to wait for Rufus to come out. We met some other Rufus fans (mostly people from the off. Rufus Messageboard) and together we waited for him. He came out and was really nice - he tried to talk to everybody and signed CDs, tickets, pictures... Since there were so many people we couldn't take a picture WITH him but I took plenty of pictures OF him. It was really nice meeting him - finally. Though I was quite nervous and I didn't know what to say...but he told me that he loves Austria and that it's so beautiful there :D *faint* Obviously I needed some time to calm down afterwards..I was really tired and just went Downtown to meet a friend at a bar but I left quite quickly because I was so sleepy...

The second concert on Sunday was even better, although the first concert was really hard to top. Rufus played different songs, talked a lot and told many funny stories - and he recognized some people in the audience who were there on the night before. It was really special and amazing...I had goosebumps on both evenings, especially during "Ready to Love", "The art teacher" and "This love affair"...AMAZING!

On Sunday (before the concert) I met Niklas again, for a trip through Stockholm. We went to the TV tower (but the weather wasn't that nice, so the view wasn't as impressive as it should be ;) ) and afterwards we went shopping. His boyfriend came back from work and we went to have lunch at a wok restaurant and shopped some more...But I didn't buy anything, because I really should save some money. It was hard, but I resisted buying some really good looking and perfectly fitting clothes - I didn't even buy a CD! Nothing! I spend my money on food (and the entrance to the nightclub) and nothing else. I'm surprised of myself, though I wish I had bought some clothes...hopefully next time.

It was a perfect weekend in Stockholm...and I really want to go there at least one more time before I leave Sweden...
More pictures of Stockholm
More pictures of RUFUS
Anyway, here's a Video of Rufus - not from Stockholm though. Listen to the song - or at least the awesome piano part around minute 2.45...

Födelsedag

Hi everybody!
First of all - thanks for all the congratulations via phone, facebook, studiVZ, mail,... I really appreciate it and it made me really happy :)
I had a great birthday here in Sweden and in fact, the whole birthday celebrations started on thursday, when I went to my first Hockeymatch. Färjestad (wearing black) played against Mora and it was quite good. The first 40 minutes were a bit boring, but in the final 20 minutes it got really exciting.
We had standing tickets, so we were standing in the centrum of the die-hard Färjestad fans (Färjestad is Karlstad's team) and the crowed was really into it and never stopped singing and cheering - although Färjestad lost - which was quite surprising, since Mora is second last in the League and Färjestad is a really good team which has won the championship several time.
However, after the match I went to Arena, which was really cool. There were quite a lot of people, the music was...OK (Arena music, so what do you expect? ;) ) but I had a good time there.
On Friday afternoon I bought some stuff for the Party in the evening. As I wrote in my last entry, Jonathan decided to make a small Party at his place. It was my "official" Birthday-Party to celebrate into my 22nd year on this planet. The party was really cool, everybody seemed to have a good time. It wasn't a huge party, just a small get-together with some friends. Talking, playing SingStar, eating the delicious snacks Jonathan had prepared,...and at 12 o'clock we celebrated my birthday. Shortly before 12 o'clock the police showed up - it was the real police, no strippers or so ;) - apparently we had been to loud (while playing SingStar ;) ), so that someone called them. But gladly it wasn't a big deal, they just told us to keep it a bit quiet and went away. Afterwards everybody sang/whispered "Happy Birthday" ;)
I had fun at the party - thanks everyone for coming :)

Yesterday afternoon I went to a football match with some friends (it seems this week has been my "Sports week" - first hockey, than football...) and afterwards some people came over for some birthday-apple-pie. In the evening I went to see the kent-concert, which was really cool. I must admit - I was a bit surprised that their concerts are that good. I enjoy their CDs, but they are even better live. The crowed was wild and jumping, screaming, singing...that's how it should be on a concert ;) The stage, the visuals and the lights were great..I was really impressed and I'll definitely go to another kent concert if they play somewhere near again.

So, that was a short summary of the past few days/my birthday...I kept it short, because I don't want to bore anyone ;)
Last but not least - some pictures of the past few days:
Hockey and football - if you want to see some Swedes doing sports ;)
Birthdayparty & Arena - if you want to see some embarrassing pictures of people (incl. me) singing.
KENT - if you want to see some nice concert pictures.
CU & thanks for reading :) I'll write again next weekend, hopefully.

PS - one of my favourite Kent songs which they played yesterday:

forget all your troubles, come on GET HAPPY :)

Hejhej :)

I'm speechless. In awe. Unbelievable.
The past weekend was absolutely amazing - mainly because of the Rufus Wainwright concert, but also because of Stockholm. This time I had the chance to see some not-so-touristic parts of Stockholm and it was amazing. All the tourists go to the (boring) palace and shopping in the Gamla Stan where you find one tourist shop after another but the swedish people are somewhere else. I discovered some really nice cafés and a really cool independent bookstore that sells all kind of books - in english ("New York Stories" - Odengatan 100). The shop owner is a really nice woman who comes from NY but has been living in Stockholm for 25 years now... and the shop is really small and cosy, I almost forgot that bookstores like this exist (nowadays you mostly see these huge bookstores without personal contact and so-sophisticated-and-cool-looking reading cornes everywhere...that sell paperbacks and sheepworld-stuff).
However, I spend the whole saturday afternoon shopping for christmas presents and discovering some parts of Stockholm. In the evening I went to a small and really cool looking coffee house ("Chokladkoppen", Stor Torget 18, Gamla Stan) and had the best hot chocolate...
Afterwards I went to a bar and back to the hostel.
On Sunday morning I went to the Museum of Modern Art which was...OK. Nothing too special, in my opinion. There were some really good pictures (some Picassos ;) ) but nothing too extraordinary. They showed some movies of Gunvor Nelson, a swedish film maker/artist who made some interesting art-movies - mostly in the 70s and 80s up to today.
In the afternoon I met Linda, a swedish girl I know from a Rufus Wainwright Message Board. Together we went to the concert arena and waited for the concert to begin...and that was the Highlight of the whole weekend! The concert was amazing and the audience was in the perfect mood. Believe it or not, but Rufus is a much better entertainer than Robbie Williams. He's sincere, honest and really charming.
At half past 7 Rufus and his 7 bandmembers entered the stage and started the show which ended up being an amazing night full of surprises and greatness. He wore a green suit which glowed in the dark (*lol*) and after a 10 minutes break he changed to his fabulous Lederhosen from Austria ;). The encore was amazing...for the last 2 songs Rufus got dressed on stage - he was wearing a bath robe sat down and started putting on lipstick, high heels,... I know, this sounds freaky, but the crowed went wild. Then it got dark, the music started and his band members came on stage, wearing black suits and dancing a funny choreography...Rufus sang Judy Garland's "Get Happy" (original Judy Version... RUFUS VERSION). He ended the show singing "Gay Messiah"...
It was an amazing show (oh, I think I already mentioned that several times*lol*).
However, I could go on forever about the show... but I think I won't waste your time any longer ;)
Tonight we have a big christmas-dinner in my corridor, since this will be one of the last evenings where everybody is here... :(
On Friday we'll fly to Kiruna (that's in the far north) and I'm really looking forward to that. Although it will be really cold (today it has -12 degrees) but we will get warm clothes up there...

bye
manuel
PS: As always - you can watch some pictures HERE (I didn't take many pictures on the concert since they always end up looking blurry...)