Finally, finally, FINALLY we arrived in Dortmund, at Marja's apartment. Somehow I made it up to the stairs to the 5th (?) floor where she lives and crashed on a couch while the others started to pack more stuff into the car. Sleepily I played with one of Marja's cats, who decided to get frisky and scratched the palm of my hand not once but twice (a wound that has just healed, after 10 days). The scratch woke me up a bit more, which was good because then we were ready to leave: Marja, Elly, Sven and I.

So again we were on the road, this time going east into the middle of nowhere that is Olpe. The region it's in is the Sauerland, which is this sort of hilly area east of the Rhineland which to me is kind of depressing, since the towns are old mining towns or else some ugly sprawl. Many of the towns, however, are like Olpe and have a castle overlooking them. (I visited a really nice one in the area a couple of years ago.) But not like I got any kind of look at the area this time though, since it was still a total white-out. We couldn't see anything but what was right ahead of us!

By the time we arrived it was getting dark, still snowing, and to make things really suck, when we turned to go up the driveway to the castle (which, mind you, is on a mountain), we couldn't make it. With all our heavy gear, the snow, the steep angle and the fact it hadn't been plowed, we just kept sliding backward. Luckily Elly managed to back out of the driveway without any loss of life and at just that moment, the plow truck showed up. We waited across the streen for five minutes until the job was done, then Elly gunned us and all our gear up the hill, 'til we finally reached Burg Bilstein.

When we made it to the top, this is what we found.

Even in my total exhaustion, I was pretty wowed by the surroundings. The car passed through a stone gate fitted with a large iron gate. Inside, a beige and brown castle stood on the right, covered in snow, with a big cobblestone moat and courtyard leading up to it. On the left was the Fachwekhaus (like a Tudor cottage), a platform with seven mirrors representing the Seven Sins, and a Fachwerk-style hall whose function I didn't learn 'til later. Opposite the gate was a stone promontory offering a spectacular view of the little village of Olpe below us. The fact it was all covered in snow and very quiet made it seem kind of like we had, in fact, arrived at an old European castle. (Fancy that!)

Looks pretty Medieval, huh? (Ignore the ping-pong table at right.)

The first thing we did after getting out of the car was say hi to Mercedes (Mima in Marja's picture series), one of the direcdtors of the LARP event. Then it was unpacking time. There was a ton of stuff brought to either Fachwerkhaus, where Marja, Elly, and I (and later Caleb) would be staying, and up to Burg Bilstein (the castle) itself.

Going into Fachwerkhaus, I was both amused and disturbed by the weird animal taxidermy display under glass in the stairwell, but moved on to our room, a rather typical European youth hostel get-up with wooden bunk-beds, one blanket and pillow each, and a big radiator. There were some rudimentary bathroom facilities, although I refused to accept the showers as even rudimentary. (I wound up using the shower by Stom & Jim's room, which was completely civilized.)

Don't you wish you had THIS at home?

As to Burg Bilstein, that was a lot more impressive. Managing to get up the slippery, snow-covered cobblestones was a trick, as were the big stairs to the entrance, but once I made it into the hall I was greeted by a large, warm hall filled with yet more dead animals! Boars, deer, owls, foxes, and several dozen other dead things were mounted on the walls and beams, giving it a kind of rustic hunting lodge type feel. It was a nice space though, and going up the big stairs at right, we found another nice space, a corner with a table and L-shaped bench we decided to make the "Wraeththu camp" (later called "Die Ecke" / "The Corner") for the duration of the event. This is where we would sit, meet and be available for other LARP participants to come meet, negotiate with, get drunk with, etc. Most other groups seemed to be using their youth hostel rooms as their meeting places so ours was a lot cooler.

Main Hall of Castle Bilstein

Once the supplies had all been delivered to camp, I went back to Fachwerkhaus for a nap. When I awoke it was 5:30 and dark. Went back to camp, which had been all done up like a Kakkahaar tent or something, and found several players had arrived, thanks to Elly who kept having to make further trips through the snow to ferry people out there. Meanwhile Storm and Jim were arriving around 10 at the Cologne/Bonn airport so I basically stayed in the corner waiting until they showed up. There wasn't any dinner that night and we never bothered to order food, so I surivived by eating a bunch of candy & sweets somehar had brought because he had too many leftover Christmas goodies. I kept eating the candied almonds. There was also a 6-bottle box of sweet Portuguese blush wine so I had some of that too.

Somewhere in the middle of this, I must add, we got a call to help some people unload a car or something, at the bottom of the hill. Marja and I set out on this treacherous journey, but somewhere along the line she disappeared and was at the bottom wearing crummy treadless sneakers in the dark, nobody else in sight. It was one of those "Why am I here?" type moments.

View going back UP the snowy hill

Anyway, I should mention the hara, right?! He he, yeah, I should! The hara I remember from that first night, not all of whom could stay the whole time were: Cobweb (Elly), Snake (Marja), Pellaz (Sven), Terez (Ronny), Moon (David), Caeru-->Rarn (Vinai), Swift (Till), and Cal (Gerrit). That first night the game wasn't really one and so we didn't have to be in costumes, but I helped a couple of the players prepare by telling them about their characters some more. Some were pretty easy (Cal) and some were harder (Moon), but eventually we all kind of shrugged and said "It'll be OK."

The final bit of the night was after 11 when Storm and Jim arrived. It's all a bit blurry for me as I was woozy-tired and had some Koelsh (Cologne beer) and wine, but we managed to get them settled into a room, then sat up in the harem-corner talking. I think I finally left around 1:30, managing to arrive at my bed without killing myself on the extremely slippery, sloping way down from the castle. Turned up the heat in the room and conked out at long last.

Day 3 - Dec. 29
Waiting for the LARP & The Game Begins
(Pictures Here)

The first full day at Bilstein can be divided into two distinct parts: the really boring part and the exciting, fun part, once the LARP actually started.

In the morning we all enjoyed a nice big German breakfast buffet in the castle, complete with rolls, meats, cheese, muesli, coffee, tea, etc. and then it was time for costumes. Play wasn't to start until evening but Marja had arranged for a TV crew to come do some taping and interviewing so she wanted everybody in their get-ups in time for noon. I wore black velvet, with black stockings, a tangled red wig and some jewelry. I decided that even though the hair was wrong, I'd be Edrei from Breeding Discontent. Meanwhile Storm and Jim became hara as well, as did of course all the actual hara. We felt a bit like the weird stepchildren or something since we didn't really have true "roles" we'd prepared for, but more like just costumes, plus we were left out of all/some of the German conversation, but we at least had minimal costumes. The "boys" looked fabulous though!

Storm and Sven (Pellaz) and the massive hair extension!
He was on the way to a costume change.

Much of the daylight hours were spent battling ennui, honestly, as there wasn't much at all going on. We more or less either stayed in the little harem-camp talking or drinking. The TV shoot was the one exception, with a WDR crew coming by. They did footage and interviews at the camp, on the main steps, the main hall (where Cobweb did battle) and in the game room. With the lighting they set up, everybody looked great. There were no TVs there so I don't have any idea how the segment turned out when it aired, but anyway hopefully it made both the LARP and Storm look good.

Storm in the tent, being interviewed

Another more exciting bit of the day was Storm and Jim and I escaping into town. Storm actually had to get some more cigarettes and cash, and all three of us were stir-crazy, so we ventured down the massively treacherous "back stairs" down the mountain to town. What we found was one of those unbearably provincial small towns I'd read about but not really wandered about it. You know, the kind of place where everybody stares at you with a sour expression of "Oh, God, you're one of those people..." Also "very Catholic," according to David. We found an ATM as well as a little Schlecker convenience store where the shopkeeper had blond/green hair and was following us around, having marked us as highly suspicious characters.

Meanwhile Storm and I got to talking to this guy David who's playing Moon. Turns out he's actually pagan and quite interesting, and so we all had something to talk about. During the trip David, Storm, Jim and I wound up forming a bit of a pack, as he had only recently joined the LARP group, had never done one before, so he felt about as bewildered by things as we did! We talked a lot with Vinai, who kept being introduced as "Sandro Kopp's brother" but was quite delightful to talk with in his own right.

But anyway, the day seemed to go by really slowly, but finally we had a nice dinner in the hall, with hearty meat and/or vegetable soup, bread, etc. I also got a hot shower, which revived me greatly. I had just about got dressed when Jim came into his and Storm's dorm room and announced that the opening ceremony was starting and Marja said we had to be down there right away!

Well, we didn't know what we were getting into. Not at all. Storm and I thought it would a short announcement in the main hall., but actually it was everybody (everybody!) outside in the dark, freezing winter to wait in the courtyard. We hadn't even brought coats, so we were all chattering with cold and quite impatient. Vinai, David, Storm and Sabine (the jewelry-maker) huddled under Vinai & Sabine's large cloaks, while Jim and I stuck it out. All around us were bands of other groups, including knights, mages, and other warriors.

Finally at 8 p.m. Mercedes and the LARP team came out on the landing and launched the games. There were a lot of rule announcements, which I tried to translate, and then somehow everybody was marching down the hill into the main areas and then into the woods! We didn't really know what was going on, so we followed along in the dark, through the snow and ice, into the woods, not even knowing why. Mass psychology at work! Finally after like 1/2 a mile, somebody lit a light and said something like "Let the games begin!" We were then in the dark with a lot of strange characters with weapons! Eeeek! We had Cal there to "protect" us, but even he didn't have a weapon, so we kind of slunk bank to the castle trying not to get attacked.

Huddling in the cold: Vinai, David, Storm, Sabin, plus Jim off to the left

Back into the main area outside, we and everybody else were greeted by the "host family," a French aristocrat family who (according to the game) had invited us all to the castle for a party lasting several days. They announced a costume ball and a big New Year Eve bash. Of course a little side motivation for the party was that they wanted somebody to protect the castle from the Seven Sins and/or other harms.

After that, it really became a lot of fun! Upstairs in the "camp," all the hara were suddenly... hara! Everybody was "in character," so Cobweb was mixing up mysterious herbal drinks, Calanthe was being rather insulting, and Pellaz had his nose in the air. Moon was treated like a servant, rather to his (David's) distress, and Terez got protective of Pellaz. Cobweb and Malakess (Storm) and Edrei (me) went down to the game room to try out some games of chance, and while we were gone Cal and Moon managed to committ Sins, receiving token mirrors and punishments. Naturally, the "sin" was flirting (Lust)! Later on Cal managed to get TWO wounds, which was bad since after three you're dead. He couldn't help but get himself into trouble!

For a happy finale, Storm, Jim, David and I belatedly discovered the purpose of the large hall next to the Fachwerkhaus: It's a tavern! The whole thing had been set up with huge tables with candles and lanterns, a big fireplace was at the end, a bar had been set up serving various kinds of cheap alcohol (beer, mead, etc.) and it was generally great. We (excepting David) all loaded up and spent the rest of the night there since it was a lot warmer and merrier there than in the camp (although we did go back there again next day). We had some great conversations there, including talking about Reiki and Storm starting some basic Reiki with David.

At the tavern, Storm giving Reiki to David, with Vinai looking on.