For whatever reason I stumbled upon a post I wrote in one of these previous "Remember Coburg" occasion..... and I see no reason to not share it with you on this special day
Here's what I had to say last time someone asked for Coburg memories:
Well, Coburg.... where to start? this has been one of the major adventures of my life, and one that I have the fondest memories of. Coburg has been a landmark, a starting point, the beginning of a new era for me... and a key event, one of those that mark forever the growing of a person. Ya know the trip of the Fellowship of the Ring, where the bond between the Nine was so strong and heartfelt that, even later in time, meeting each other was for them a special event and nothing that came after that could ever compare to that big adventure? with due proportions, Coburg for me was something like that, a marvellous adventure to remember to have been part of forever and ever. And even if I love you all little darn spamboys and spamgirls, it's always a tiny % bit nicer to meet one of the Coburgers... not that I dislike or like less those met only at Wacken or somewhere else, but when I'm with a Coburger, a bit more of emotions pop up
And about actual memories, I have thousands... I could recount everything, from the starting trip 'til the last moment on the train that was leading me away from Coburg... I still have saved somewhere the diary I made day by day back in 2003 but I won't post it again
Apart from the Maarten's blowjob incident that Ferdi recounted, I have so many vivid memories of just about anything... let's start with the trip, which was an hellish and endless bus tour from Milan to Stuttgart, made with Sguaina!... in the hottest summer that I ever remember, we start and within minutes the air conditioner gets broken...
then the driver was a complete psycho, driving like if he was in a competition, and vey often keeping the hands off the steering wheel and the eyes off the road... sometimes both
Another funny thing about this driver is that usually, during breaks at autogrills, it's always the driver that finishes first while some traveller is always late and has to be waited for... this time around we ALL were ready to go, while he was still calmly eating at this autogrill in Bellinzona! the rest of the trip had some other funny things such a clandestine being took onboard in the middle of the night (and she was continously talking while we all wanted to sleep) meaning that me and Sguaina! could no longer dispose of two seats to sleep, but just one... and how to forget the moment where, for unknown reasons we found ourselves on the border with Austria (and we weren't supposed) and me and Sguaina! sent a message to Gimli (which organized the trip for us) saying something like "Here we are, stranded somewhere on the austrian border, with a crazy driver and clandestines on board: wherever you are, SCREW YA!"
But the most terrible moment of the trip was when I woke up after having somehow felt asleep... I felt like I had dreamt that I was on the bus, and I was so happy that it was just a dream... then I heard the noise of the wheels under my butt.... and despaired... "Oh no I am actually on this fucking bus!!!!!"
Eventually we arrived in Stuttgart (merely 10/15 minutes away from the starting of our train for Nurenberg, on the time table we had 65 minutes of free time -___-) and we rushed to make the ticket... I go to the ticket dude, tell him what we want... he says something, I say that I only speak english... and he says "I am ALREADY speaking english"... D'OH! I was so numb from the trip that I couldn't even recognize the language
The rest of the trip was luckily unevenftul, I remember setting foot at the Coburg station and feeling like Ulisse reaching Itaca again, or Earendil landing in Valinor... that's the nice thing of traveling by train, that when you arrive, you actually feel the conclusion of the adventure, like if you earned with the long trip and patience the right to be there... not like all those plane sissies that in 50 minutes arrive where they want and they look like just out of the hairdresser
About the first day, I am one of the "real survivors"... one of those who faced the storm and came out alive of it
Arrived in Coburg the wheater was very fresh and enjoyable, a cool breeze was so soothing after the dry heat of Italy... then once in the camp zone suddenly some clouds appeared, and in a blink of an eye started a violent storm with hail... I remember me and Yeti trying desperately to keep the Following flag from flying away while the hail was heavily beating on my back!!! Yeti that was dancing and singing under the rain (grabbing the occasion for a free shower) while I was there desperated and freezing because of the cold rain... dhehehe unforgettable moment
I still remember later in the tent (after the storm finally the dutch gang arrived) grumbling and ranting against my bad luck... "grrrr stupid rain... grrr stupid wheater... grrrr stupid cold, the first time in a camping and it goes all so wrong... fuck it, tomorrow it's the first day of the gig, then comes the second day and then I'm off back home grrrr"... then the morning after came and with the, uhm, sun I suddenly regained my enthusiasm to be there
It was also fun to see people looking and me and their strange looks and I not knowing if it was because I had the italian flag at the neck, because they saw me on the BG forum galleries or just because I looked weird
some people stopped me by while I was walking (I remember Beren calling me, Vithril was with him), other jumped howling on me calling me spammer... that was corrupted old gnom, I met him the first time under the stage and I was wondering who was this squirrell that was calling me spammer even if I had never ever met him
Some other random cool moments, I'd have an infinity to share...
- Reaching totally undisturbed the stage, the first day, and showing off my italian flag to the bards (Hansi clearly saw me and smiled at me);
- Being able to spell to Barry Daante's nick, he had his doubts about it :p
- All the huge group pics in the stage area the day we met Annie, Martin, Dajin and all the rest;
- The first night after the gig spent 'til late hours with Ferdi, Barry with the injured eyebrow, Susan and Luise (I remember there was a sausage somewhere and also that weird guy naked at a point but for the rest I don't remember what the hell we talked about, I just remember that sausage being tossed everywhere
)
- Touring Coburg (the town) in search of beer (Gimli and Sguaina! were the leaders of the quest) and having to carry it all the way 'til the camp in a not-so-unforgettable walk
- The Blind Guardian gigs of course, but hey, that was just a minor detail of Coburg, Coburg was really about all of us, right?
- The second day around the fire first (at the dutchies camp) and at the Following place then, with guitars, Bard's song sang over and over, and of course us being filmed, with we all ending up on the DVD (Someone more visible than others... off-key Valhalla in front of the camera waving the italian flag anyone?
)
- Of course... the neverending Valhalla chants, that were even replacing the greetings (Instead of saying hello I was just saying Valhalla) and that lasted that entire night, the morning after, even while leaving on the train and forever and ever in our hearts
(Those who wasn't there can't really understand... but it's not this Valhalla thing in itself, it's that it was something unexpected and not planned that marked that second night and that could have happened only there, and we who lived it know how funny and unique it was... it was another further thing that tied us, something that has more meaning than just singing Valhalla's chorus 500 times or so
)
- More generally, sharing this adventure with friends either already known, and others finally met after seeing their nicknames online for so long, in a time where this place was my cyberhouse... and also finding out about nicknames whose existance I was unaware of
Coburg also rocks, for me, for the legacy that it left... that was the beginning of my fascination with trips, with my desire to see new places (expecially Germany... that would have eventually blossomed a couple of years later in a total fascination, bordering fanatism, with the land of wurstels and beer
), and also in a sense the starting point for many other adventures... it was meeting all you crazy peeps in Coburg that made me feel that I just had to go to Wacken next year (and Wacken is something that a metalhead should attend at least once in his life, just like the muslims and the trip to the Mecca
), it was going to Coburg that set the first stone for my following visits of Germany (On my way back from Coburg I stopped a while in Nurenberg... and when there I decided that one day I should have been back there, something I managed to do 2 years later), and more generally the whole atmosphere was so great and nice that is to this day, for me, totally not surpassed.
And I ended the message the same why I opened up the first one: Valhalla Deliverance why you've ever forgotten me ad infinitum
