26.7.2008 by Traveler.

So, two weeks ago my wife, my good friend Timo and me went to see the Tollwood. The weather was bad but the people were nice and the food was not too shabby either.

All of a sudden, through the heavy clouds, pregnant with rain there descendet a familiar sight. A boon to the eye of every steampunk. From the heavens descendet a Zeppelin, but not just any Zeppelin, it was the LZ-X1 Württemberg on another of its steampunk expeditions. Apparently it had drifted through a temporal vortex within the Æther in true steampunk fashion and ended up in Munich. The Württemberg headed for the pylon on top of the Olympiaturm and docked there, as can bee seen in this image:

Ahhhh… what a happy sight…

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22.7.2008 by Traveler.

What a great animated Steampunk short (I wish I had one of those Steampunk Battle Mechs):

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13.7.2008 by Traveler.

On the 28th of June we set out from Munich.

We went on an expedition to the borders of civilisation: Lower Franconia. We would set our base-camp in Würzburg and from there penetrate deeper into the blasphemic regions where the gene-pool is shallow and the minds are narrow. I grew up there, I should know, luckily, my family hails from other parts.

But, I was carrying my trusted goggles (the one true badge of the steampunk) and was wearing brass cuff-links, so no ill would befall us.

Arriving in Würzburg we found to our delight that the Great Airkraken had blessed us, which was a sure sign the goggles and cuff-links had worked their magic. Due to a shortage of the type of automobile I booked via the æthernet we were upgraded free of charge to the next bigger model.

After taking a trial cruise to get a feel for the automobile (a Nissan from the realm of Meiji Tenno) we set up our base-camp in the rooms above the Paperla Pub in Würzburg, where we found to our delight that they stocked over 150 different beers from all over the world, but I shall come back to this.

So, after taking our necessary gear and offering sacrifices to the Great Airkraken we set out to visit Wertheim. The trip deeper into Lower Franconia was luckily quite uneventful. Those parts of the family which hadn’t managed to leave this place of blasphemic abnormal life nested between the dark and forbidding hills of the Spessart and Odenwald were happy to see us and we were happy to see them having survived in such adverse conditions for so long.

But it wasn’t before long that a certain part of my family managed to go on a racist rant yet again and so we left this hamlet where creatures of dubious genetic heritage howl at a drooping moon at night and returned to Würzburg for an unforeseen but fortunate encounter with unexpected aspects of the Dark Continent.

While browsing the Paperla Pubs menu we found a stunning range of beverages of the beery occupation including many out of Africa.

So, in the end we tried two beers by Mongozo (which by the way means “Cheers”), another African beer and, to my surprise, a Palestinian Pils. All very good, especially the coconut and banana beers from the Mongozo brewery.

And here a picture taken that evening:

Mongozo Coconut is the Lord of the Jungle of all beers!

A true blessing to come out of Africa!

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13.7.2008 by Traveler.

Now that was a day to remember: My dear we, our good friend Andrea and me went to meet a few new æthernet acquaintances face-to-face at the Victorian House in Munich.

Oh happy day! What a perfect place for a steampunk to hang out. The interior takes me back to the days when I visited a family friend in London, back in the glorious days of Queen Victoria, when steam-powered cars roamed the street and… I digress…

Now here you can see a lovely cup of tea and a plate just before the arrival of the scones:

And here’s a painting of an unknown dignitary:

And another shot of our fully set table:

The lady on the left is our good friend Andrea, the gentleman on the right is Louis, it was, as I said, our first meeting with him and we were most delighted to have met him.

We talked a lot about the olden days, however, this was more a spiritual discussion an not one involving technology, so, very little steam in there.

But a very pleasant and memorable day none the less. The acquaintances we made have proven most profitable and have turned into friends. We are well pleased.

Long live Kaiser Friedrich!

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9.7.2008 by Traveler.

Just a few words to sum up the other things. My wife and me met with friends of ours at the Riquet, which looks like this:

And is an excellent place to have a really good and enjoyable cup of coffee, the whole setting is quite steampunk, which in this case is incidental, target time-frame is Wilhelminian.

We also went to an excellent tea-place, the Teehaus Kandler near the Thomaskirche. Since tea is the beverage which brings steam back into steampunk it was most enjoyable and the tea was excellent. The varieties they offer are impressive.

Not to forget: Coffee Culture, Brühl 54. Best coffee-to-go in many varieties we had in years.

And of course: The Vivaldi Hotel Leipzig.

We stayed there for the duration and enjoyed it very much. From the delicious breakfast buffet, which was served here:

to the very friendly staff (You were really helpful, thank you!) to our comfortable room with a nice view. We can recommend the Vivaldi Hotel to everyone.

This concludes the traveling steampunk’s tale of th WGT 2008.

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6.7.2008 by Traveler.

To continue about the Heidnisches Dorf:

Most of the merchadise ther was either not what I like or simply too expensive. I really would have liked to add some steampunk or at least steampunkish spectacles from Shades Nosferatu to my eyewear collection but I had promised myself not to overstretch my budget like last time..

So instead I purchased some recreational beverages and took some more photographs of my suroundings:

Self-portait, amidst a medieval setting (a steampunk lost in time):

Some of the vendors:

And here’s a shot of one of the elusive natives (he jumped into the picture, so I consider myself lucky). The traveling trader to the far left sells most excellent spirits:

After this little episode we went back to the Agra Halle and met a trio of most charming young ladies:

So far, I thought (being a steampunk with only western hemisphere travel experience), the gothic lolita subculture was still firmly planted in the empire of Mutushito Tenno, oh, I’m getting displaced in time again, *cough*. It seems I was wrong. The style has left Japan (where Akihito is the present Tenno) and there is a German community on the æthernet Dunkelsüß.

But now let’s turn to the two cultural highlights:

Emilie Autumn:

She’s such a lovely crazy little thing. She also describes her style of music as “violindustrial” and since she plays a lot with Victorian aesthetics and has a upcomming book (novel?) titled: “The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls” I think you should not miss her, there are so many steampunk elements in her works and personality. Granted, she does not call herself steampunk as far as I am aware but everything she does fits in.

The last big concert my wife and me attended was S.P.O.C.K.:

20 active years now, this was their anniversary concert. When they anounced this at the beginning of their concert I thought “By Jove!”, (ah, what a steampunk expression) “Those guys are old!” Then I remembered when it was that I bought my first S.P.O.C.K. CD, back in the days when they were still allowed to call themselves Spock, and then it struck me: I am old! And a lot of time has passed. Those were the days, back in the 90’s, even the early 90’s when I had only recently joined the goth scene and slowly crept towards electro and industrial. Now I am steampunking and I like the style, it fits my age-induced preferences, too.

Steampunk: For elderly industrial goths.

This concludes the penultimate episode about the Wave Gotik Treffen 2008, narrated by the traveling steampunk.

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5.7.2008 by Traveler.

Obviously, there was a lot more to disover in the Heidnisches Dorf. There were two stages and we had the peasure to listen to The Moon and the Nightspirit from the eastern reaches of Austria-Hungary, namely Hungary.

Here’s an image taken from their æthernet site:

Not steampunk but pagan-medieval with strong leanings towards pagan, which is fine by me.

Somone else we met in the Heidnisches Dorf was the guy from Shades Nosferatu (By Jove! I think he’s a pirate):

He offers a huge variety of glasses, spectacles, shades and cutom made designs some of which is really quite steampunk:

But that’s still not all… There’s more to come. The Traveling Steampunks’ tale of the Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2008 is not over yet.

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3.7.2008 by Traveler.

Being dressed up as a steampunk at the WGT (Wave-Gotik-Treffen) in Leipzig means you don’t really stand out off the crowd. My dear wife and me had quite a few encounters with people who could easily be used as decoys for a number of actions.

For example there were those two specimen:

and her boyfriend (he was the one who caught our attention, but, as a Steampunk Gentleman I have to first mention the lady, obviously):

Later on the same day my wife and me decided to use the temporal portal close by and pay a visit to the Middle Ages, a “Heidnisches Dorf” [Heathen Village (Hail Wotan!)] happenes to be attached to the WGT in recent years and we took the chance to stock up on mead and various other unnecessary but enjoyable things from the days of yore.

What I did not expect, nor could I have hoped for, was an encounter with fellow Victorian time travelers. My path crossed with fellow steampunks:

Oh, how delighted I was. Please note the most excellent Brassgoggles on the gentleman’s top hat. Unfortunately, upon inquiery, they denied to have any knowledge of the Brassgoggles Forum. Ah well… The Æthernet is such a vast place for steampunks to hang out, so it is only natural that not all steampunks gather at the same sites I frequent.

Well… So far for tonight, there is more, of course.

Good night…

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1.7.2008 by Traveler.

Yet another Steampunk Blog. As if there aren’t enough already, but not to worry, it shall not stop me. This is going to be a very much “in-character” blog, so everything in here will be viewed from a Steampunk perspective.

For the greater part, I am going to put my adventures while traveling in here. I’m quite fond of traveling, and when I do, my goggles go with me.

As in:

Thus I travel as a steampunk and my experiences will be related from a Steampunk point of view, but I’m repeating myself.

More to follow soon (including the story behind the foto above)

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