behexed

It is 3:10 a.m.

I just got home from salsa dancing with my host from two years ago (just turned 50 in December), her daughter (who is my age), and Lex (who is a bit younger). My hostess Käthe is practically a professional salsa and tango dancer, and Lex and I sort of held up the wall until the last hour, when we basically got free dancing lessons. Kind of like social dance in college. It was an impromptu outing, but ended up lots of fun, and the latest I've been out since, oh, Thanksgiving.

It is also Walpurgisnacht. I am fascinated by this.* The only pagan signs I've seen are the sexy witches in the Walpurgisnacht dance party posters in my neighborhood. Gotta love paganism as an excuse for techno - though dancing does help you purge the bad vibes of a long winter, truly.

In its modern, rabble-rousing incarnation, tonight is open season for rowdiness in the streets of Berlin, with more people milling about than I've seen since the World Cup, lots of yelling, drinking, belligerence. And being May Day eve, it's also preparation for those of anti-fascist, anarcho, über-lefty and other such stripes to fight with the police tomorrow. Tomorrow is the worker's holiday. There are lots of streets fairs, everything is closed, and certain parks are off-limits unless you want a close-up with riot gear. Salut and vive la revolution, comrades and punks alike. I'll be sleeping in...and then having a look around.


* Sis and I happened upon a circuit of Sankt-Hans festivals in Denmark in 2001, whereupon there were many bonfires and some with witch effigies in them, and lots of picnicking on the seashore as the pyres were lit out in the water. Verrrry weird, these northern European pagan things.