Sonntag, 15. Dezember 2013

Depeche Mode in Oslo or I feel you!

" What a strange idea ", I thought on Friday morning as I looked to the weather forecast : 
snow and freezing rain in Oslo.
What in August seemed a romantic idea to me as I booked the concert turned now in an idiotic idea.
I hate coldness!
But I started my trip with the train to Frankfurt and flew with yellow-blue airline to Oslo.
The Oslo airport is a small well organized airport, I needed a few minutes for changing money and buying a ticket for the train to Oslo city.
The train guided me through a snowy mountained landscape, beautiful.
Arrived in Oslo city I hurried up to check into my hotel because only a few hours left until the sun goes down.
My hotel Citybox was located in a redlight district, but it was in a wonderful old building with stylish clean rooms. There was no reception, you had to check in with a machine and got your keycard. A little bit anonymous, but it worked.

I went by tram to the Vigeland park with 212 stone and bronze sculptures of the norwegian sculptor
Gustav Vigeland.
On a heightening stand a so called monolith which reflect the circuit of life from embryo to death.
The monolith is surrounded of many sculptures which show the human being in many different interactions with other human beings.
It was very impressive and the snowy ambiance supported the effect of the artwork.
I have no other words to describe it, it is one of the places in the world you must see, believe me!!!
As I came out of the park, it was three o'clock in the afternoon and the sun went down.
That's cruel. And the explanation for the character of Norwegians. They are not unfriendly but really reserved and not outgoing.

I went back to my hotel with a view stops at Aker Brygge,  pleasure-mile at the Oslo fjord, at the red cityhall and  in Gronland, a quarter of mostly Pakistani immigrants.
I drank two beers in my hotel room. Oslo is the most expensive town I ever was, to expensive to drink outside.

Than concert time, I went by bus to the Telenor Arena out of town.
But how surprise, the Telenor Arena is a football stadium with a mobile roof, which was closed this evening!
The heating system of this arena worked very well ( many greetings to Lille ) !
The beer cost converted 10 Euros. And the facilities was outside the arena.
I came to the conclusion to drink less and it was one of a few concerts I saw it from the start to the end.
I enjoined this concert more than many others because I was alone, I was totally concentrated to the band.
The band was in a relaxed mood, you could notice that it's going to the end for this year.
The crowd , maybe 20000 or more, sang from the beginning, it was a high spirits concert. A bright spot in the darkness of the norwegian winter.
I danced from the first minute, sometimes with tears in my eyes, it's a goodbye for me.
It is only a break of four weeks until the tour will go on, but two-thirds of my concerts are gone now!

Enjoy the silence was the absolutely highlight, Martin made a very crazy dance at his solopart and at the end, as Dave was on the catwalk, he came on the catwalk, too and they ended the song together on the catwalk. Great!!!
And I allowed myself to sing to " But not tonight", sang by Martin Gore.
I'm not the biggest Mr. Gore fan and it's a running gag between my friends and me when I go out when Martin sings.
But I was alone and enjoined the singing with Mr. Gore in Oslo.

The concert was wild the longer it took, because the people drank lots of beer, wow.
The security of Depeche Mode, usually only in the background, went through the crowd and pulled many rampaging fans off the mass. Sometimes with many discussions and yelling.
Didn't know what these people had done, but they all had to leave the arena.
Then after " Halo" Dave turned away from the audience, he put his earplugs off and cleaned his ears with a handkerchief ( he did this very often since he's wearing the earplugs) and was very absent for a moment.
Just in this moment a huge guy climbed the catwalk and started to run onto stage.
Depeche Mode freezed and the audience, too. All except Dave which was busy with his earplugs.
Michael, chief of security, reacted directly and sprinted to the guy and he threw himself on him.
Two other securities came to help him and put the guy of the stage, wow!
Then Dave turned back to the audience and smiled.
Many people laughed including the rest of the band and he was astonished by that because he didn't notice the activity before. Funny, maybe he was the only one of 20000 people which didn't see the guy.

With the last song " Never let me down" ended a wonderful concert tour for me this year.
What a year, unbelievable.

I ran out the arena to pick up one of the first shuttle busses to the city and was only 20 minutes later in my hotel, where I drank a last beer and thought about the evening and the tour.
I loved this tour, great songs, great show, great band....
Mr. Gahan is the best entertainer of the world for me. I love it when he enter the stage and work so hard until the whole audience is dancing and singing.
It is a special ability he has to inspire so many people. And if you ever talked with him you would be amazed how friendly and reserved this man is.

I'm full with admiration for him. I feel you.

Slept very well until 8 o'clock in the morning and was very surprised about the darkness as I looked through the window. And it snowed unremittingly.
The sun rose at nine o'clock (a.m.). Unbelievable. Only six hours daylight, depressive.

I didn't have lot of time until I had to go to the airport, so I visited only the new opera house of Oslo, which is a wonderful new building at the Oslo fjord. It looks like a swimming iceberg and you can ascend the roof. Wonderful view over the fjord, the mountains and the Barcode project, a new block of buildings near the station.
It was so typical for me to go on the roof when snow lay on it.
It was easy to climb on the roof but to scale down wasn't easy because it was slippery  and slick and I fell two times into the snow with my travelbag. Nobody saw me because I was the only maniac on the roof in this snowy morning.

Wet all over, even inside my boots, I might drive to the airport.
But it lasted one hour longer until our plane started. All planes had to get deiced. 
I missed my connecting train in Frankfurt and after a short conflict with some ladies from the yellow-blue airline I got a voucher for every train and not for a special train two hours later.

Back home today my christmas time began. With candles and baking cookies.

This is my last blog entry of 2013.
Hope  I may welcome you back in January, when the tour will start again.
In the moment I'm disconnected with facebook, so leave a message here if you like.

I thank you all for reading this blog, it was real fun to write it.

Merry christmas and a happy new year!!



The monolith in the vigeland park



Some of the sculptures surround the monolith



The Oslo fjord




The red city hall



The Nobel prize Center








Together on the catwalk






The opera house



On the roof of the opera house



View from the rooftop



The Barcode project




" my own Personal Jesus"



























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