50 + 25 points
Journey to the End of the Year: Berlin 2009 by Julian
January 3rd, 2010 5:57 AM
I didn't know what to do on New Year's Eve and ended up running around snowy Berlin...
It started all with me going to the 26C3 (Chaos Communication Congress) After-Party at C-Base, not knowing what to do the next night (New Year's Eve) and having to pee. Somebody was obviously putting flyers all over C-Base (incl. the toilets), so I came across one and decided to stay another night in Berlin and take part in the "Journey".
Next morning was kind of bad: 1h of sleep, having to leave to hostel at 10am, but at least made it in time to the included breakfast, first time since the 26th... found another place to crash until 6pm.
At about 7pm I arrived at Alexanderplatz (as the flyer advised), but couldn't find a crowd or anything suspicious looking. Called a friend, to check the Website written on the flyer, there it said: "Funkturm, Alexanderplatz". So I went over and found 60 to 70 people listening to a megaphone, barking instructions. I got my red and yellow ribbon and a piece of paper telling me where to go and by which rules.
7:40 pm Running to Bahnhof Alexanderplatz, boarding a S-Train to Friedrichstraße, transfering to a Subway to Potzdammerplatz. Did not see any red chasers, so far.
From Potzdammerplatz I waked to the Holocaust Memorial, seeing one chaser at the edge of the Memorial, but he didn't notice me, as I was hiding behind cars. There were a lot of people waking towards the Brandenburger Tor.
I stressed myself a lot while finding the "Agents" at the Memorial site, because I didn't realize, that the whole site was safe. So I was running around, hiding behind pillars (there are a lot), asking strangers if they are agents... and running away again if they wouldn't answer.
Finally I found the agents and had to queue up for getting my paper signed.
by y3rdua
Leaving the place place wasn't hard, but there was a chaser on a bike riding up and down the crowded street. I ran into some other yellow runners, some of them started to run at the sight of the chaser and he went after them. We just kept walking with all the other people to the next Subway-station (Brandenburger Tor).
The next checkpoint wasn't as eventful, as the first, the subway ended within a safe-zone. Which I, till then, hadn't realized. I just saw two chasers, but they didn't see me. I got my signature and went on to the Volkspark, by Tram.
I met 4 or 5 more runners on the Tram, as Trams are safe.
The two chasers I saw before then boarded the Tram, which wasn't to good, as stops are not safe. So then we reached the stop near the checkpoint, I had to get of without the chasers following, or at least catching, me. After some time of getting on and off the tram, with one chaser doing the same, I managed to get off, while the doors were closing, with the chaser still on the tram.
At the park I got some russian cosmonaut training for the "Hackerspace Exploration Program". They gave me their signature although they didn't like my "clear liquid" being water.
I reached the next checkpoint by foot, without any disturbances, by any chaser. By now I had realized how the safe-zones around the checkpoints work. There I found out that the robots killed the unicorns, because they are have emotions.
by y3rdua
From there I wanted to take a detour to the next checkpoint, because I had seen a lot of chasers. I stood at a traffic light, waiting to cross the street. A woman walks toward me, I look for a ribbon, see non, she touches me, I'm a chaser. She wore a cloak and the ribbon was under a wrinkle. I should have just run. Anyway, now I was hunting.
It wasn't as exiting anymore. I caught 5 people, most of them I just noticed because the were running. And one was running away from me, but didn't take part in the game and had no idea why I was tapping him, but kept on running anyway.
It started all with me going to the 26C3 (Chaos Communication Congress) After-Party at C-Base, not knowing what to do the next night (New Year's Eve) and having to pee. Somebody was obviously putting flyers all over C-Base (incl. the toilets), so I came across one and decided to stay another night in Berlin and take part in the "Journey".
Next morning was kind of bad: 1h of sleep, having to leave to hostel at 10am, but at least made it in time to the included breakfast, first time since the 26th... found another place to crash until 6pm.
At about 7pm I arrived at Alexanderplatz (as the flyer advised), but couldn't find a crowd or anything suspicious looking. Called a friend, to check the Website written on the flyer, there it said: "Funkturm, Alexanderplatz". So I went over and found 60 to 70 people listening to a megaphone, barking instructions. I got my red and yellow ribbon and a piece of paper telling me where to go and by which rules.
7:40 pm Running to Bahnhof Alexanderplatz, boarding a S-Train to Friedrichstraße, transfering to a Subway to Potzdammerplatz. Did not see any red chasers, so far.
From Potzdammerplatz I waked to the Holocaust Memorial, seeing one chaser at the edge of the Memorial, but he didn't notice me, as I was hiding behind cars. There were a lot of people waking towards the Brandenburger Tor.
I stressed myself a lot while finding the "Agents" at the Memorial site, because I didn't realize, that the whole site was safe. So I was running around, hiding behind pillars (there are a lot), asking strangers if they are agents... and running away again if they wouldn't answer.
Finally I found the agents and had to queue up for getting my paper signed.
by y3rdua
Leaving the place place wasn't hard, but there was a chaser on a bike riding up and down the crowded street. I ran into some other yellow runners, some of them started to run at the sight of the chaser and he went after them. We just kept walking with all the other people to the next Subway-station (Brandenburger Tor).
The next checkpoint wasn't as eventful, as the first, the subway ended within a safe-zone. Which I, till then, hadn't realized. I just saw two chasers, but they didn't see me. I got my signature and went on to the Volkspark, by Tram.
I met 4 or 5 more runners on the Tram, as Trams are safe.
The two chasers I saw before then boarded the Tram, which wasn't to good, as stops are not safe. So then we reached the stop near the checkpoint, I had to get of without the chasers following, or at least catching, me. After some time of getting on and off the tram, with one chaser doing the same, I managed to get off, while the doors were closing, with the chaser still on the tram.
At the park I got some russian cosmonaut training for the "Hackerspace Exploration Program". They gave me their signature although they didn't like my "clear liquid" being water.
I reached the next checkpoint by foot, without any disturbances, by any chaser. By now I had realized how the safe-zones around the checkpoints work. There I found out that the robots killed the unicorns, because they are have emotions.
by y3rdua
From there I wanted to take a detour to the next checkpoint, because I had seen a lot of chasers. I stood at a traffic light, waiting to cross the street. A woman walks toward me, I look for a ribbon, see non, she touches me, I'm a chaser. She wore a cloak and the ribbon was under a wrinkle. I should have just run. Anyway, now I was hunting.
It wasn't as exiting anymore. I caught 5 people, most of them I just noticed because the were running. And one was running away from me, but didn't take part in the game and had no idea why I was tapping him, but kept on running anyway.
I'm not that good of a writer, but just felt like telling people about the experience and contributing a bit. Hopefully it's understandable.