Labour Day Demonstration in Berlin

West station was even worse, piles of people in the corners, out of their minds. Punk hairdos everywhere and suspicious looking little men is grey raincoats just watching people. We went into the tourist info office and had a very helpful lady arm us with a map marked with the ex-wall and the main streets of West Berlin. We also got a map of the subway. Just then the sound of a waterfall or strong wind eased itself down the street growing louder as it became clearer that they were human voices. "What's that?" we asked knowing full well what the answer would be. "Oh don't worry it's just a police thing or a demonstration because tomorrow is Labour Day." Great, it seams where ever we go disaster follows in our wake. We left the tourist office and bought a 24 hour train and underground ticket and set off for on the long journey to find the camp ground. Accommodation in Berlin is very expensive and officially fully booked. While waiting for our tube the sound we had heard came inside the station in the form of young hooligans "demonstrating" there was no where we could really go so we just stood tight. The sound they were making was that shrill rolling of the tongue that Blacks do in South Africa and Moroccans do in Israel. When they were in view - on the other side of the platform thank God, they appeared to be somewhere between school and varsity age. There were several made up with clown or horror make-up and several mohawk hairstyles. The noise died down as the group spotted a girl they obviously knew on our side of the tracks. She wore black stockings, short black skirt, black polo neck and a red floppy hat. She had thick glasses on and shoulder length hair. As she recognized members of the demonstrating group she started to wave the hat at them and they greeted her back by singing opera to her. She responded with an aria of her own. It struck me that this was just like a drama department full of activists. That calmed me down.