WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?
Oh wait, WHERE HAVE I BEEN?
Okay, so after I got my immigration appointment out of the way, and accomplished getting another 2 years in Germany, I proceeded to the usual which is.... I can't remember actually.
There is something to be said about Berlin and how easily time disappears here.
I got my visa, celebrated Christopher Street Day in Schöneberg, finally had a visit with my friend Erica after realizing she wasn't at the Dunkin' Donuts at the Hauptbahnhof train station but the Dunkin' Donuts at the Gesundbrunnen station - all done without smartphones, modeled for a video shoot for a tv series here in Berlin, then went to Prague for 5 days.
Prague is what I am calling my second home in Europe. I have been there 3 times now, which is my most visited city in Europe, aside from living in Berlin.
My trip to Prague was wonderfully inspired by my Flickr friend Stephanie.
She saw this picture I posted on Facebook of myself with hula hooper, and also a Vancouver Island girl, Rebecca Halls - who I had met over a month ago while doing a shoot for Heineken.
It turned out that Rebecca is the creator of the Hoopurbia Festival, which this year was being held in Prague and Stephanie was attending. I have known Stephanie through Flickr for about 5 years I'm guessing, and only recently on Facebook.
For those who have been on Flickr and know and love it, probably know what kind of quality contacts you find through it and online friendships you can grow. What better reason to visit the gorgeous city of Prague, hang out with many fabulous hula hooping babes and one Jaxon, and get to meet my beautiful online friend for the first time? :)
I had a dream to busk in Prague. I don't normally EVER busk, and do not enjoy doing it at all. I have done in the past, sure, I think most musicians have at one time or another. For some reason I had a strong desire to do so in Prague. I wanted to play to the beauty of the architecture, romance the city with a song. I find Prague so gorgeous, I wanted to be outside playing there.
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| Photo by Petr Meduna |
And so I did.
My first day's location wasn't the best choice, but I wasn't sure where I could really go and play without any grief from the city. My second day of busking was perfect. It was in the center of the Old Town Square, and I had a good 200 people and paparazzi surrounding me while I played.
My friend Milos Gavrilovic, over at Bric-A-Brac (GO THERE!!) was a big help with letting me store a few things in his shop while I went and busked. He also showed me a few new accordions he had acquired since I last visited with him, as well as a vintage wooden hula hoop he had in his shop.
I had the pleasure of being asked to perform at Hoopurbia's performance showcase, by Jacqui Becker, one of the hoop instructors, and we arranged to go over our performance while I busked in the Old Town Square. She then met Milos and the wooden hoop, and fell in love with the hoop's nostalgic charm and used it for our performance.
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| Photo by Stephanie Walsh |
I'm so glad Jacqui asked me to perform, it was a great show and everyone involved was great to work with. Being surrounded by so many of these lovely women was very empowering for me.
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| Hoopurbia 2013 Performance Showcase performers |
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I then returned to Berlin, attended Berlin Fashion Week, did another video shoot, found out just how awesome Italian house parties are, got free drinks while learning Spanish, modeled for an art class, got my accordion's gig bag repaired (how many years does it take before someone busts one of the straps? 6 years, apparently), then my Scorpio-birthday twin Victor visited and Berlin and I blew his mind - because that's what living here does the best.
THE END
