Dalai Lama in Berlin

Here's a cool link to the video of the entrance of the Dalai Lama, with the letting go of thousands of balloons in the crowd and the first 5 minutes of his speech.




You can see the Brandenburg Gate in back of the stage. (This is also where LoveParade used to take place.)




Freedom: Germany for Tibet; Tibet for the world.





When we got there, you could barely move through the crowd (and for a while we ended up standing next to a really dirty old man wearing birkenstocks whose toenails looked like they hadn't been cut in 3+ months... Not to be an asshole or anything, but maybe I got sick from him.)
The unofficial count of the crowd is about 25,000. Not bad, eh? There was also a Tibetan nun who sang Amazing Grace in Tibetan and then in English as well as a traditional Tibetan chant. (I have that on video but youtube is not cooperating with me at the moment.) I was pretty proud of myself for having understood about 80% of what the German announcer was saying and the speeches from various prominent German figures.

It was pretty cool seeing and hearing him live. I realize he's become a sort of celebrity over the past few years, but he just seems like a really cool mofo. I'd hang out with him. I mean, the man's smile is contagious and so is his cute giggle-like laugh. Every time he chuckled, the entire crowd would crack up, I swear. He had a translator next time translating into German as he spoke, and a few times, his microphone still on full volume, he would spot a few kids in the front row, wave and giggle at them and even gave them candy from his satchel. Candy from the Dalai Lama? I'd frame it in a glass box!

On the way home we encountered some Chinese protesters with signs saying "Go home Dalai Lama" and passing out anti-Tibetan literature. I showed off my Free Tibet tote bag while passing them.

Anyway, I'm feeling better after having spent the majority of the day in bed. I was force-fed some honey-lemon cough drops for my sore throat today. Ok, not exactly force-fed (as if I were hungry strike or something) but Michi was nice enough to pick me up some medicine without me having asked him, so I said alright. They made my tongue numb and not much else. (Honey is one of the things vegans do not eat.) :/ Here's the vegan substitute for honey, agave syrup/nectar, which is damn good! In German it's called Agaver Dicksaft, (Agave thickjuice) so you can imagine all the jokes Michi and I came up with. Hardy-har-har.

In other news, Michi came home today around 3pm and said there was a huge fire somewhere in Berlin, having seen the smoke clouds so high up. Ends up there was (is, actually, because I think they're still in the process of putting it out) a massive fire in the Berliner Philharmonie today, the seat of the world-renown Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. (Michi and I went to see their New Year's Eve performance there on December 30th, which was broadcasted on national television... and guess who was on TV? Me!) Apparently it began just under the roof of the building but I haven't read reports about the full damage or how it began. Musicians were allowed to go in and get their instruments out (obviously not the big ones, like pianos-- but some instruments costs up to 400,000 Euros, which doesn't surprise me since a Stradivarius violin goes for a million!) Each concert they cannot play is an approximate 750,000 euro loss. Hopefully they will be able to repair everything after the damage assessment.