Highfield Festival

Franzi and I went with some friends to the Highfield festival close to Leipzig. On Thursday (14.08.) late afternoon we brought all our equipment (tents, luggage, drinks, food) from our cars to the festival area and built our camp rather close to the stages. While most of us started drinking, Franzi went home to work the next day and join with more people on Friday late afternoon.
It was quite a lot of fun with everyone, although the weather was slightly rainy. Some of us went to the Thursday's party tent, while I was too drunk.
On Friday (15.08.) Franzi and some more people joined us for the festival. We walked around the festival area and watched people playing a lot of drinking games. When the sun set we went to the stages to listen to the music and dance :)
On Saturday we went to the beach, while Franzi and some more took part in a lottery. Shortly after we came back from the beach we were notified to have won to join a free grill session this afternoon... we rescheduled that for the next day^^ And it was a good decision as a rainstrom approached. After all the rain we went for the stages again... our blue dwarf hats became famous and were quite handy to find each other within the masses of people. We liked the band "Fettes Brot" the most... but others were great too.
On Sunday we enjoyed plenty of grilled meat at the free grill event on the lake before we danced in the sunset until "Macklemore" was the final act in the night. The festival finished with some fireworks... looking forward to come again :)

Beer bong!! Getting started for the festival (stage is seen in the back)

kissing during the first sunset

blue dwarf gang!

good mood at the festival :P
back: Stefan, Lea, Cons
front: Carina, Thomas, Franzi, I

dancing all together...

beach time
Stefan, Carina, Thorsten, Jakob, I, Lea, Franzi, Thomas, Cons

the sponsered grill event we won

sweet sunset during last evening :)

Visiting Thomas and the 16th p53 workshop in Stockholm

After Doreen's wedding party (15.06.), I drove to Frankfurt airport in the morning. From their, Franzi went to Hamburg with my car and I flew to Stockholm for the 16th p53 workshop and to visit Thomas. On my arrival I was quickly reminded that almost everything in Sweden is payed by credit card, such as the bus :) Thomas picked me up from the bus stop and showed me his comfy flat in Bergshamra including a guest room dedicated to me only :P
I started early morning for the conference which took place at the Waterfront Congress Center. A very nice location... maybe a bit too big for our conference of ~400 scientists. During the days I visited the conference, while Thomas and Nadine were working... at evening Thomas and I went out for some beers with his friends from university and watched games of the football world cup :D Although it was about midsummer in Stockholm, it was cold after my arrival. While in Germany they proclaimed the hottest weekend since ages, Swede's press was pronouncing the coldest midsummer ever... lucky me... always when I visit Sweden it is cold such as in November 2011 and March 2010. If at all, July until September might be the nice months in Sweden^^ One of the highlights of the conference was a dinner in the city hall of Stockholm, where usually the Nobel Laureates dine every year.
Franzi joined us for midsummer (20.06.). We visited a traditional Swedish midsummer event... though, it is rather a holiday for families instead of partying as I hoped it would be :P On the way back we walked past Ulriksdal Palaca. At the evening we had BBQ dinner with some friends of Thomas. The next day (21.06.) we went sightseeing, as it was Franzi's first time to Stockholm. Starting with a visit of the city hall. Then a walk to the palace, where we watched a guard exchange, and through the old center of Gamla Stan. Further walking past the beautiful museums until Skansen. There we entered the ABBA museum, which turned out to be a lot of fun! Mexican dinner in Södermalm and an evening walk across Slussterassen. A creat tourist day in Stockholm... solely missed warm weather :P The next morning (22.06.) we just had a walk at Brunnsviken lake in Bergshamra before Franzi and I caught our flight back to Germany.

Exploring Swedish midsummer...

traditional Swedish clothing at midsummer fest

Group picture at Stockholms landmark :)

Group picture at the top of Slussterassen