Nyan-shaimase ~!
I just got this crazy idea and I had to write it down. (;^_^A)
Four Days in June
"It's been 27 years now." Ludwig mused as he drove along the Rhine-river in his brother's white 1series BMW.
For 27 years he had had this agreement with every Kanzler that had been his boss. Every year in spring or summer, Ludwig would get four days of vacation from work. What was special about that, was that no-one was allowed to deny him these four days – if he informed his boss one month in advance. Furthermore no-one was allowed to call him back to work, even if the world was falling to pieces. Back in 1985 it had supposed to have been 2 days, but in a severe case of goodwill towards his nation Kanzler Kohl had given Ludwig four days off, instead of two. Since then these four days had been untouchable.
This year – in 2012 – these four day were in June. 6th to 9th June to be exact.
This was the reason why Ludwig was driving along the Rhine-river between the cities of Koblenz and St. Goarshausen.
It was the 6th of June. And he needed some time off.
Early this morning Ludwig had loaded his brother's car with camping stuff, a charcoal grill, food and countless liters of canned beer and was now going to a beautiful place called Lorelei. The Lorelei was a rock on the eastern bank of the Rhine near St. Goarshausen, which soared some 120 metres above the waterline. It was infamous for it's mermaid folklore. But that was not the reason why Ludwig was going there. The Lorelei had a open-air stage and on that stage the Metalfest (West) Germany 2012 was held.
Yes. That was right. Germany listened to metal music. And every year he would go to one festival. Four days, doing nothing but listening to good music, drinking beer and lazing around. And he even was looking like a metalhead: Black leather pants, a Blind Guardian t-shirt, combat boots with steel caps and the mandatory waistcoat/vest thing with the band name patches. Hard to imagine, but true.
And Germany would be damned, if any other nation would ever find out.
"Not because it is such a horrible hobby, no, quite the opposite, really. But the other nations would not let me live that down, because they cannot imagine me as a metalhead."
When he had gone to see Joe Cocker at the first 'Rock am Ring' festival in 1985, he hadn't known that he eventually would end up as a metalhead. But since than he had gone to a different festival every year and over the years he took a liking to metal music. He had been to 'Rock am Ring' a few times and to the Metal-Mecca 'Wacken Open Air', as well as to various smaller metal festivals all over his country. He made sure that the festivals would never be at the same date and that there was no world conference he could miss, so no-one would become suspicious of what he may be doing.
This year he had chosen the Metalfest West. The line-up was quite nice (Alestorm, Behemoth, Blind Guardian, Edguy, Ensiferum, In Extremo, Kreator and Megadeth, to name just a few) and the location promised a homely kind of festival. He was definitely looking forward to this.
Ludwig laughed and thought about the faces the other nations would make, if they could see him now.
Driving around a corner Germany stopped thinking about the other nations, his problems and work altogether, switched on his stereo and began to sing the 'Bard's Song', speeding up a little more and enjoying his free time.