Leipzig Hotels
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Wave Gotik Treffen or Bust....
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The festival I attended is called the Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig, Germany (a little outside Dresden)... It is a five day long festival celebrating gothic culture with music and over 30,000 goths from all over the world taking over the little sleepy town of Leipzig. This is the second WGT I have attended, the first year I was very injured and unable to fully experience it. This year it was unbelievable... All you see is black clothing everywhere and it is a overload to all the senses. You smell the bratwursts cooking from the cooker outside the clubs at 5am, you hear the music from the concert areas and clubs, you see multiudes of people from every culture expressing their indivisual interperetation of what being goth is to them, you see brightly colored clothing is glowing under the blacklights and you taste the beer that comes in two flavors dark or light... of course we all go for dark. It is almost a surrealistic world for five days, the first day everyone is dressed to the max on the last day if you can wake up from the visit from the absinthe bar the night before you'll see the mohawks starting to droop and makeup smudged under eyes, of course by now we are all wearing jeans and hope we don't see another goth for days.
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Returning home was one of the most painful things I have ever done, other than the hellish return trip we had returning. I truly left my heart back in those clubs with those people, those five days of not being stared at, not being harassed for looking a little out of the ordinary. What made me realize this was standing in line at Heathrow Airport in London, in front of us was an American couple. They asked us where we were from and where we had just been. We told them at a gothic music festival, as soon the words gothic could be uttered. The woman interrupted us very disgusted "Oh, just as long as you aren't one of those "Neogoths". We looked puzzled since I have never heard the term, so she clarifies by saying "those people with black clothing and bad makeup". Wow.... We being somewhat shocked said "Yes, that's us... except you might want to do your research before speaking next time since we don't even know what a "neogoth" is. She replies "Oh but you look so normal". Most Goths don't dress like that all the time of course and are quite friendly people. That was the moment I realized that there is a severe lack of understanding of what Gothic culture is in the United States.
I also realized in Leipzig that something was drastically different than the year before, I don't know if it was the lack of a knee injury or lack of painkillers. But I realized sitting on the window ledge of my almost futuristic hotel overlooking the main square after a nights rain that this is the same world I live in, yet so different. Visiting such places as Dachau made me realize that here in a country that had the worst case of intolerance happen in the past are so welcoming to the thought of indivisuality now that it made me wonder how I could promote such tolerence back home. Upon returning this trip had inspired me to start a website or a blog where I could post information about what being "gothic" really is and give examples, post videos, and get feedback from Johnny Q Public and answer any questions they may have. I finally got that chance this semester and have started a blog called "What is Goth?", it contains some of my writing about Leipzig and is very informational for anyone that may want to learn more about our misunderstood culture.
If there was one thing that I learned from this whole trip is that to live is to experience the world outside your world, to go to the dark alleys and go outside your comfort zone. Since they may be scary or weird to you but they are someone else's world, a world where there is love and life. Just remember...It may be dark and full of cobwebs but it's still home to someone. More thumbnails ...
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