Ruhr in Love Weekend

Between juggling trying to get work done and sorting out the apartment ready for the arrival of Little L, why does it feel like there isn't enough hours in the day? J's daughter arrives from Ireland tomorrow and we need to reorganise my Work room so it looks more like a Child's room.

We're going into the cellar later and pulling out the boxes marked with her name. It's her first time here since we just moved here last year, so we're rearranging her things so she feels a little more comfortable. It's amazing how much crap can accumulate over the months.

Wow. Has it nearly been 9 months already since we moved here?

Anyway, a quick post about my weekend since i'm a bit slacking in the blog entries and i have a long list of THINGS TO DO today.


On Saturday, J and i drove to Ruhr in Love in Oberhausen. I had to order the tickets online and they had them delivered a few days later.

It started at noon and went on to 10pm. It's a huge electronic dance festival which says to attract over 40,000 people each year. There are different areas and each showcases local DJs from various clubs around Germany. Playing different genres ranging from Minimal to Schranz.

So anyway the drive took us about an hour and half, which normally wouldn't feel so long but when you don't have air-con in your car and it's nearing the 30˚C mark, it can get a bit uncomfortable.

By the time we got there it was around 4:30PM. The sun was out in full glory and so were peoples' sun burns.

Some ran around in bikini tops and short shorts...

and a handful even came matching from head to toe.

I think this was the main stage area. It was mainly commercial House - one that i didn't like at all. There were too many people and the music was... well... not to my taste.

But they did have pretty decor.

One guy came fully prepared with a Sombrero. I'm sure his mates made fun of him before he got there but going by how hot it was, i'm sure he was the envied by many.

There were enough toilets plotted around the area and the one that i went into even had toilet paper! And it wasn't even the recycled rough-as-sand-paper kind either. I was impressed.

There was a huge crane that brought you up and you could even bungee jump. We didn't but some did.

There was also this drain that snaked through the park, that looked and probably was really dirty. But people were standing and dancing in there. It was really gross.

I thought drinks were a bit expensive. 90 cents per coupon and if you return the can or plastic cup you get one coupon back. A really small beer would cost 4 coupons. The wait was so long that by the time you got your drink, you'd be done with it in no time. They also ran out of water.

How can they run out of drinking water at a festival?

It's no wonder people were drinking the water near the loos. It clearly states "Kein Trinkwasser" which means Not for Drinking but i don't think they cared so much. I wondered if they fell sick the next day?

Then J and i got our photo taken by one of the many photographers there, this one is by Sonic Warrior and was taken just outside the Abstract Area which played Hard Trance and that's where i spent most of my time.

And directly behind me was the Rhein-Piraten area which played more Minimal Techno and that's where J hung out.

click to view larger

Overall, i had a good time and it worked our really good that the areas were right next to each other. We could listen and dance to what we liked without worrying that the other wasn't having fun and we were only a few metres away from one another.


When the event finished we ended up checking out the after-party at Turbinehalle. The place wasn't full but it did feel like a Sauna - i must have represented Sweat Ville to the Maximus, i was SO sweaty! The music was alright, although i'm not sure whether we'd drive the distance just to go to that club. That far, we might as well drive to Duesseldorf which is just another 30 minutes further.

Anyway, starting from tomorrow, July is fully booked with activities.

Not only do i have another deadline coming up next week but Little L comes to stay for 2 weeks which means we're going to do lots of outdoor things. Then on the 15th J and i are driving down to Wiesbaden to see my parents who are flying in on the 16th and we're staying for 10 days.

Yup, Summer 2010 is looking good.