Actually the Italian fans were cause for that meeting. But No, actually it were the Scandinavian ones because they invited to their first Fanclubmeeting in Gothenborg. The Italians took the chance to take part. And we (Uwe und Ilwa) also thought about a trip to Gothenborg. But then we couldn’t manage that with our jobs. What a pity! But the Italians( the two Alessandras, Alex B.s cousin Susanna and Silvia from Bari) decided for a real big trip: Hamburg, Oslo, Gothenborg, Kopenhagen. Our Italian friends in Hamburg! Well, naturally we couldn’t stay without meeting them there. We overcame all difficulties and get finally one free day. So we had the chance to see Silvia face to face the first time after changing letters for more than 10 years. Italians in Hamburg- naturally Tobi must be there, too. Probably only much later he was aware that he would it be who must lead the gang through the town. A quite difficult task. Burkhard and Michael are living near to Hamburg. Both are our friends and also friends of the Italians. So they maked their way to Hamburg, too. Thomas- a good friend of Alex B. came by train from Bonn only for that event to Hamburg although he had to work the day after. Last but not least Monika won’t miss to join this noise. She had the most chaotic start, we think. Tuesday 19.08.1997 6.40 a.m. In Drößlers flat the telephone rings. It’s Monikas call. She’s coming! In about 20 minutes she would arrive in Walsleben. So we picked her up and travelled together to Hamburg. Carefully we planned some more time for the trip ‘cause the highway to this direction is really a disaster. And it was okay so, the last 60 km we had only stop and go. We were the last ones who reached the place we chose for our meeting. But still punctually half past 10 a.m. If you would know that Michael needed for only 40km distance also 2 hours we were good in time. The cosiest way had certainly Thomas. His train reached Hamburg after only 3 hours punctually on minute. All together. The most difficult part started: what shall we do? At first we organized something to drink because the sun shined again with more than 30 degrees. We went to the Alster (water in the middle of the town). There it was very good-natured. But soon we couldn’t stay any longer without a shadowed place. We decided to have a harbour-round-trip. The blowing wind there was very pleasant. It was also interesting, but not so for the Italian because they couldn’t understand what the guidance told. But we bridged over that with speaking about Alphaville. It was time for having lunch. You can find pleasant and reasonably priced restaurants in Hamburg. We even found a table for 11 persons and could continue our discussions while the lunch. Satisfied we decided to look for a place in the green nature and in the shadow. Tobi knew a nice park and there was also water. Sometimes we walked on the bank. Ilwa won’t sing so Monika tried to persuade for a game. It was a game we played as we were very young. You need an empty bottle and all are sitting in a circle. Someone turns the bottle and before give a task. If the bottle stops turning the neck of the bottle points to someone, who must fulfil this task. Monika suggested the first task would be to go over to the half naked man beside and to say "sorry, but I’m an Alphaville fan!". We laughed and prefer not to play this game. Now it was time for little presents. To have a coffee actually we wanted go by boat to a idyllic Cafe. But we had to wait more than one hour to the next boat. So we went back to the town. On our way we found a little pub, where we could sit outside. Only some bees disturbed us. It came to pass that Tobi got a nickname: bee-buster. But Silvia is very social for animals so she paid attention that nothing happened to the bees. Back in the centre we rushed to the music shop (world of music). The Italians wanted to buy some stuff they cannot find in Italy, for example the brandnew album of the Blind Passengers. And they hoped to find the vinyl maxi of "Wishful thinking" because on that are some remixes you cannot find on the CD single. But also in the hometown of WEA you must order this maxi and you cannot buy it immediately. So it remained an illusion. We went one more to the Alster after that. Now it was find because the nightair was mild. For Tobi time to say Good-bye came near. That’s always a sad moment. And short after also Burkhard and Michael left. The rest of the gang looked again for a place to have dinner. It was more difficult as thought: the Italians won’t to have Italian pizza and some others were against fast food like Mc Donalds or Burger King. Finally we agreed on American pizza. Just in the finest moment the clock told us it’s time to go home now. Bye- bye... hope to see each other soon on another Fans and Friends party this year. Well the Italians could look forward to the Scandinavian Fanclub meeting. There they will have again a lot of Fans and talking about Alphaville. And for us it was a taste for our own fanclub meeting...
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