I predict a riot.

This was Kreuzberg at 'mid-busyiness'. Sadly you can't see as many of the Ray-ban riot mob as I'd hoped.

The Venn diagram of Kreuzburg {Ray-bans, Travellers, Piercings}. But I wonder how many would have been in that little middle section who fit in all three categories?

Isn't that a lovely baldy head? Nice and shiny.

Eh...burger or um... (is that Ray-Bans on her head?)

We went to Kreuzberg today to see the May Day celebrations. We'd been invited to a friends apartment where we could watch quite safely from the windows. I say 'safely' not because the rioting had started, but because there are so many smokers in Berlin and unfortunately Orla & Hamish are just at the right height to get lit cigarettes in their faces.

We got there shortly after 2pm and it was busy but not really busy. But by the time we left the streets were mobbed. There were loads of food stalls lining the street, and while I didn't recognise a lot of it, it certainly smelled amazing. There were barbeques too, and for the first time in my life I smelled a vegan sausage (well about 20 actually) grilling away, and thought 'mmm...that smells nice'.

There was music blasting out from everywhere. Everything from reggae to oh, I don't know what to call it, but you know when it's just like some guy screeching into a microphone and people are doing a lot of head banging, but really it just sounds total crap? Orla put her hands over her ears at that one so I take it she was of the same opinion as me. Anyway, it was really good to go and experience the atmosphere.

I had a moment though as we were walking through the crowd where I suddenly felt like one of the older people there. I turned to Stevie and commented that between the 4 of us we didn't even have as many piercings as any one individual in about a 20 ft radius of us. Quite correctly he pointed out that between us, we don't have any piercings, but well, you get my point.

I also noticed that this appears to be the year of the Ray-ban. They were everywhere. In fact if you had put a turnstile on Kottbusser Tor U-Bahn station and stopped anyone going on to the street who had piercings, Ray-Bans, or was dressed in a manner that suggested they had just got back from 2 years of travelling around Thailand & Vietnam, then we would have pretty much been on our own. I don't have anything against these looks, it just alarms me that I am now looking at groups of well, marginally younger people, and thinking 'you think you all look so individual and yet you all look the same!'. I don't like thinking that. I want to take that thought and lob a riotous beer bottle at it because it makes me feel old and as though tutting at the length of my daughter's skirt is only moments away. I assume I have maybe, 10 years if I am lucky before I hear myself uttering the words "You're not going out in that!". It's probably more like 8, but that seems hellishly close...so we'll make it 10.

Anyway, hopefully tomorrow I will be regaining my youth, for I am off on a special trip. And no, I'm not getting botox...