What happened in Germany ?

Tribeworld "Tour Diary"  -  Report 5th - 16th March 2003

(click picture to enlarge)

 

Wednesday 5th March 2003 - Auckland / Singapore

Have you ever sat still in one position for 10 hours? Well that's just what we did from Auckland to Singapore. Luckily the seats were pretty comfy and there was plenty of food to keep us going. We left Auckland in 20 degree weather and stepped off the plane in Singapore at 33!! It was 8.30 at night and very hot but the aiport was lovely and cool. Nine of us dragged our hand luggage through the airport to the Transit Hotel where we all went out like lights and snoozed for 10 hours straight.

 

6th March 2003 - Singapore / Frankfurt

We awoke to the sounds of Singporean chamber maids in the corridors and wondered where we were! Soon everybody was up and we trudged our way back to the Business Class lounge where we feasted on french toast and fresh fruit - tropical yummy!!!

Then we hit the shops!! The MAC store came up favourites with all the girls and even the boys spending up big. Then it was time to catch our next flight to Frankfurt.

After 13 hours of looking out at India, Dubai and the ocean we landed in Frankfurt. We managed to find our way to the baggage area and were amazed to hear the chanting of fans waiting for us. The doors opened and out we walked into a crowd of screaming, hysterical, chanting fans.

What a welcome!! We were lucky enough to be able to spend an hour or so signing autographs and getting lots of hugs and pressies from all of the lovely people who came to meet us. Some of the fans had travelled for 5 hours by car just to say hello to us at the airport and it was great to see some familiar faces from last year.

We stepped out into the cold air of Germany and climbed into our tour bus. It's as cool bus covered in graffiti which is very fitting! And we set off for the half hour trip to our Hotel in the centre of Frankfurt. We feasted on potato wedges and marinated chicken wings before practically falling asleep in the sour cream dip and retired to our bedrooms ready for another big day tomorrow.

It's so good to be here and we can't wait to check out Frankfurt before we head off on our journey around Germany.

   

Friday 7th March 2003 - Frankfurt

The beds here are so comfortable! We all had the best night's sleep ever and woke up to the amazing sight of Frankfurt from our balconies. The church bells were ringing and the sun was shining which put us in the mood for a good day off.

After a yummy breakfast we headed off to a local supermarket to stock up on goodies for the bus - the cast love German chocolate. Then we had a lovely walk into the city passing the river and chasing a few ducks. We came across a gorgeous old town square with cobbled streets and quaint buildings. This was something that really thrilled us because we're not used to seeing such things in New Zealand. Tom tried sauerkraut and frankfurters for lunch but the rest of us stuck to chips and salad.

We had a look at some of the local shops and were pleased to meet several fans in the street. We tried some pretzels and then made our way back to the hotel and had the experience of travelling on a bus. Some of the locals gave us some strange looks when Tom started rapping and singing on the bus!

We found a nice Italian restaurant near the hotel and sat down to a lovely dinner, by this time we were pretty tired as jet-lag had set in and our bodies were finding it hard to eat pizza when it should have been 7.00am in the morning New Zealand time.

Back to the hotel and our comfy beds for another good night's sleep to make sure that we are wide eyed and bushy tailed for tomorrow's book signing tomorrow at 2.30pm at the Buch Habel, Darmstadt, which we are really looking forward to.

 

 

 

   

Saturday 8th March 2003 - Darmstadt

An early start for everyone. We had breakfast and organised ourselves for the day. Everyone was very excited about the first book signing session in Damstadt. Everyone changed into their costumes and we all put on our own makeup which was something we haven't done before but it all worked out great and we were ready for the drive to Damstadt!

We left Frankfurt and the drive took about an hour. We were all a little nervous but also excited.

When we got to the bookshop we could see a long line of fans waiting in the store and we couldn't wait to meet them. There was a stage set up and a large table for us to sit at. The fans were amazing! They were all really nice and brought us lots of goodies and presents. I don't know who was more excited, us or them. Some of them had even brought us a video tape of our arrival at Frankfurt airport!

We sat for almost 2 hours signing autographs on books, posters, and even someone's laptop! We had such a great time!

Unfortunately time ran out and we were unable to meet all of the fans who had lined up for so long. We felt so terrible about this but we know that the bookshop was going to hand out some signed cards from us.

We left the bookshop and gossiped about the day on the bus as we drove to Erfurt. Everyone quietened down for a while and realised how exhausted they were and we all got a couple of hours sleep on the bus.

We arrived in Erfurt to a lovely hotel and sat down for dinner. We were exhausted but in good spirits. We all got an early night ready for another big day tomorrow.

   

Sunday 9th March 2003 - Erfurt

A full day with KIKA today and the cast were split into groups for a portrait photoshoot. Michael was taken toa local gym where he was able to kick around a soccer ball, practice his headers and bicycle kicks. Michael loves football! Antonia was taken to an icecream parlour where she learnt how to make some fantastic icecream sundaes and then made up her own Tribal sundae and Meryl and James were taken to a local Music store where they jammed a special tribal song with James accompanying their vocals on guitar.

Then it was a quick dash to a beautiful local theatre where Meryl, James, Antonia and Tom performed a Haka (a traditional Maori war dance) and then had individual interviews which will be shown on KIKA.

Beth and Danny had the day off and managed to take in some of the sights of Erfurt including the beautiful cathedral.

When the sun went down we all went for an Indian meal and walked back to the hotel enjoying the lovely still night. But boy was it cold brrrrrrrrrrrr!

   

Monday 10th March 2003 - Erfurt

Wow, ore waffles for breakfast. How are we ever going to get use to having plain old cereal again? After breakfast, we all hopped onto our fantastic bus and headed off to Kika studios. The Kika camera team came along for the ride and filmed us as we travelled.

We arrived at the studios in Erfurt and got shown to a wonderful room that was full of drinks and great things to eat, the kika team always make sure that we are well taken care of.

We were shown into the studio itself where we had to rehearse for the live show. Some fans had entered a competition where they had to make things that were Tribal. There was a cool puppet box with little Tribal dolls and another fan made an amazing Ebony puppet.

It was really weird for us in the rehearsals because obviously we do not speak any German and we are here in former East Germany, where the second language is Russian, so we had to have little ear pieces in which the translator would tell us what the questions were in English. We got to watch a bit of the Tribe, series four and heard our character voices in German for the first time and that was really funny. We then had some time to relax in our room and then we headed off for a photo shoot and got to meet some fans, which was awesome. We are always amazed at how much trouble people go into when they make or buy gifts for us and we have a little corner in the bus were we have set out all the pressies, cards and things.

When we are in the bus we have the time to have a good look at everything. Lunchtime and it was lovely, a really nice sunny day, so we were able to get some fresh air and awaken up a bit. Jet lag is a crazy thing, but we are just starting to get over it now. After lunch we had some photos taken by YAM! and then we were interviewed by some local children. After this we went into the studios, where we filmed the live Kikania special and we got to play a crazy game, where we had to jump on tires and grab fish, which was all great fun. The boy's team won, go Danny and James!

When the show was finished we got to meet some of the fans, who had come to see us at the studios, then we went to a local bookshop called Buch Habel were we were greeted by around 400 fans. We managed to meet most of the fans, but unfortunately we ran out of time and had to leave. Some of the fans chased the tour bus through the streets of Erfurt and waited outside the hotel for us chanting the Tribe.

After getting changed we went for dinner, a cup of tea and a calm down. We jumped into the bus and drove to the mountain village of Oberhof. There was snow on the ground and we were glad to get into our snug warm beds, for a cosy sleep.

   

Tuesday 11th March 2003 - Oberhof

Talk about freezing! After breakfast we headed outside and jumped into a horse and carriage and made our way up the hillside to the Biathlon Stadium in Oberhof. The icy wind was blowing at us, luckily we had some warm blankets to snuggle under and we were able to enjoy looking at the cute little town and the people slipping on the ice. We jumped off the carriage and walked up to the indoor shooting range, the only trouble was that we had not thought that there would be any snow on our travels and we were ankle deep in snow and soon found that our socks were and our toes were freezing but it was nice to get in the fresh air after being in the studio all day yesterday and we had a good time throwing snowballs at each other.

When we got into the shooting range we met 8 fans who had entered the KIKA and YAM competitions and proceeded to take part in a shooting competition. We had met these fans yesterday at KIKA studios so it was as if we were having a day out with old pals. They were a really cool group and better at hitting the targets than we were!

A nice warm drink and a walk back to the hotel was followed by a barbecue lunch of local sausages and then it was time to go to the wood jump. This was an amazing construction - we had to put on harnesses and helmets and were divided into two teams - one team got to climb a very large pole. This pole had little metal foot grips to climb up it and we climbed up individually. Once at the top of the pole we had to stand up with our arms outstreched which was really scary because the pole was so high the wind was blowing and we were wobbling all over the place. After standing up we had to jump off the pole into thin air but it wasn't quite bungy jumping because the rest of the team were hanging onto safety ropes which meant that the climber was suspended in mid-air and let down gently.

The other team took part in the giant swing. The team members hoisted up the swinger as high as they were able to stand it and then the swinger was released and swung manically back and forth. There was lots of screaming, lots of fun, lots of snow and laughter all round.

Everybody got on the tour bus and presents were handed out by the fans which meant a great deal to us. It was great to meet such amazing people and nice to spend such a fun day with them.

We all went back to the hotel for some photos before we waved goodbye to them and headed off on our way to Stuttgart. We spent a few hours in the bus all snuggled up under our duvets with Michael being the DJ and playing all his favourite tunes on his laptop (which put us all to sleep hehe).We arrived in Stuttgart to a beautiful hotel and are looking foward to a lie in tomorrow morning before our book signing at 4.30pm at Karstadt in the centre of Stuttgart.

   

 Wednesday 12th March 2003 - Stuttgart

We were all really refreshed this morning. The beds are really comfortable and we were all happy to get a good night's sleep.

We spent the first part of the morning signing the latest German Tribe books. They¹re fantastic books and they are selling fast! After that we had a bit of free time to take in the sights of Stuttgart. We did a bit of shopping which is great ­ we all love shopping and quite a few things are cheaper over here than New Zealand.

We all came back to the hotel for lunch. The portions of food over here are huge and we struggle to eat it all!

After lunch each of the cast had a quick interview with a Christian charity which wanted to know what the cast thought about survival. We really enjoyed this as The Tribe is all about survival.

Then we jumped into our costumes and put on our makeup ready for the book signing in the city. There were 800 fans and they were all really excited and really friendly. We spent 2 hours there meeting everyone and signing autographs - we find it so rewarding to meet fans who love the show. We really love our jobs and it's so satisfying to know how many people love The Tribe.

Back to the hotel where we quickly changed out of our costumes and got ready for dinner. Tonight dinner was fantastic and we had a competition winner join us. She was lovely and her English was really great . The meal was lovely and we had some great laughs. After some photos we headed back to the hotel and we've got another great day planned for tomorrow.

 

Thursday 13th March 2003 - Munich

What a busy day! We had to wake up early and after breakfast we checked out of our Stuttgart hotel and drove to Munich which took us about 3 hours as the traffic was pretty bad. It was nice to see Munich again - Meryl and Michael have both been here before on the tour last year. The hotel was amazing with these huge flat screen televisions that are interactive but there was no time to play with them - we had to get straight into costume and make-up.

We travelled to the YAM! Building and took part in a live web chat with German fans. Why did we have to be in costume and make-up you ask? Because there were webcams watching us! That was a strange experience and there were some really interesting questions and we really enjoyed ourselves. We were also interviewed by some German magazine journalists and we always enjoy being interviewed.

We have met so many fantastic people - they say that New Zealanders are friendly but we're finding that the Germans we have met have all been amazing and so supportive and helpful. We have been so lucky and truly enjoy meeting new people.

After the web chat we said farewell to our friends at YAM! They're a great team of people who are really behind The Tribe and we have a fantastic time whenever we are with them.

Off to a local store for a book signing and we were blown away once again by the amount of people who were willing to come out on a cold winters night to see us and bring us so many presents! We had a brilliant time and it is fair to say that this must be one of the most enjoyable parts of our jobs - to be able to meet fans is just great and we are constantly humbled by the fact that people get so much from the show that we are in. There were 700 people and we managed to get to meet every single one of them which was fantastic.

Back to the hotel and an early night. We ordered room service and snuggled down into our comfy beds to watch German TV and dream of another wonderful day in Germany.

 

Friday 14th March 2003 - Munich / Berlin

Another busy day and guess what? It was snowing today! We were all so excited as we haven't seen too much snow before. We all had breakfast and got ourselves ready in make-up and costume for an interview with the Thomas Cook magazine that is put on all European flights. They will do a special feature on ecology and the environment and wanted to feature The Tribe because it follows some interesting ecological storylines. We were asked questions about such topics as water conservation and animals, life without adults and how to find food.

We then had an interview with Sugar magazine who sell hundreds of thousands of issues in Germany every month. We answered questions about friendship and what we do in our spare time as well as about the upcoming series of Tribe 4 that has just started in Germany. Look out for the issue which should be out in June.

After that we headed out into snowy Munich and arrived at a bus station where we had a photo shoot with Sugar magazine. It was pretty cold but we think that they would have shot some funky pics against the white and blue background.

Then it was back to the hotel for showers to warm up and a hot chocolate or two before we got back on the bus and began our journey to Berlin. It was an 8-hour drive and we stopped a few times for snacks. The rest of the time was spent sleeping on the big mattress at the back while Tom, James and Meryl worked on an R&B track together.

It was nice to be in the bus, which we look at as a home away from home. We all have our own little areas that we stick to and we love just hanging out together, jamming away and looking through all the fantastic letters and presents that we have picked up along the way.

It was great to arrive in Berlin. We're really excited about seeing some more of Germany and checking out some historical places while we're here and the book signing should be a good one.    

 

Saturday 15th March 2003 - Berlin

Up, up and away around Berlin today with the Logo team from ZDF (a broadcaster in Germany). It was really cool because we were able to get to see some of the amazing sights of Berlin including the Government House and the Brandenberg Gate. We cruised around Berlin in our tour bus and we were recognised by lots of people all around the town.

It was incredible to see some of the buildings that remained from the Second World War as well as remnants of the Berlin Wall that separated East and West Berlin.

We stopped for a typical Berlin delicacy, curry sausage and curried fries and we liked them a lot! Danny finished up all the bits that we didn't want to eat and he was still hungry for more!

Time to head back to the hotel where the Logo team filmed us getting ready for the signing in the afternoon and it was strange to be filmed while we tried to do our own make-up.

We jumped back on the bus to head over to the venue which was an hour's drive outside of the central city.

It's always strange to have to walk through a hotel in full costume and make-up and we certainly get stared at by all the business people and tourists!

We arrived at the venue and it was intense, about a thousand screaming fans and we were so pleased to be able to meet so many of you once again.

We were pretty tired afterwards but the adrenalin from the event carried us through in our trip back to the hotel where we all got changed and showered so that we could go out for a lovely dinner with the Tribeworld.de competition winners who were all just gorgeous.

We went to a funky place called Kid Creole's and had a big feed before saying goodbye and going back 'home' to our rooms for a nice long sleep before our final day in Germany tomorrow.

Don't forget to look out for us around Berlin, we'll be with another camera team, this time from Orb and we'll be visiting the Imax cinema and the television tower before we have to get to Tegel airport for our 7pm flight to Helsinki, Finland. 

 

Sunday 16th March 2003 - Berlin

Today was our last day in Germany and we had a great time! We were met at the hotel by the Tribeworld.de fan winner, Brid who came with us for the whole day. We started off by meeting the Relax team from Orb television and drove to a spa centre where Danny and Michael got to go into the relaxation tank. This was basically a small pool which had a very high salt content and that meant that your body could float in it. Under the water there was relaxing music playing and soft lights so that when you put your head under the water you could hear the music and felt totally relaxed. There was a real sense of weightlessness and your body was moved gently through the water by the pulsating music.

After that experience it was on to the TV tower which is huge! We got to go right up to the top and boy, what a view! We got some strange looks from all the people in the queue but we didn¹t mind as it was such an awesome experience and we got to see all of Berlin from up there. We went up one more level to the revolving restaurant where we were interviewed by Relaxx host Mark and got to watch the changing scenery of Berlin as we revolved round gently. We also got to have a drink with another fan winner, Antina who brought a friend along and took heaps of pictures and asked a lot of questions that all the Berlin fans wanted to have answered.

After we came down the tower we drove to the IMAX cinema where we got to watch a fantastic movie all about Wildlife and the environment before we got back into the bus and headed off to the Berlin office to sign some of the DVD boxes and Tribe books.

We got changed out of our costumes and jumped back on the bus for the last time as we headed off to the airport and hopped on a plane bound for Helsinki. It was a good flight and we got to see some of the German countryside as we flew over. Then we got to Finland where we were met by screaming fans who had braved the extremely cold night to come out and say hello to us which was hugely appreciated.

We got to the hotel and checked in, exhausted by the day and sad to have left Germany but really excited to be in Scandinavia. We have a day off tomorrow so we will go shopping for thermals as it is mighty cold here! We will also have a lie in for a change and have some time to look at all the wonderful presents, cards and letters that we got when we were in Germany.