I have finally gotten up the courage to see if all my photos were deleted from my camera since it started having its little rest, and they seem to be ok. So here is a brief gallery of the Christopher Street Day parade. All of the photos are the ones taken before the aforementioned little rest, so luckily for everyone we are saved from photos of extremely drunk people in summer clothes determinedly marching down the street, in torrential rain and hurricane winds. CSD is the annual gay/lesbian parade in Berlin, it refers to street in which Stonewall Inn sits, the site of gay rights riots in New York in '69. Anyway, in the last few years it has been particularly big, particularly since the Love Parade was cancelled, and this year there were about half a million people there. It wasn't as flashy as what I have seen of the Sydney Mardi Gras, and less of the choreographed dancing etc. but we had an awesome time. When we first got there we all bought a bottle of champagne to get us in the mood. Then after we had watched a bit all my Spanish and Italian friends started making fun of the German attitude to parades of merely standing and watching, and demanded we all follow a float. I think both Marty and myself were a bit shy about this idea, but not wanting to admit Australians are as boring as the Germans had been deemed we jumped in as well. About half way along the storm hit, the wind barreling along the streets, and torrential rain. As the weather had been in the mid-thirties earlier that day everyone was dressed for the heat, and this is aside from those who had chosen naked as their costume. Anyway I think the weather only served to make everyone feel an even greater sense of solidarity. I have to say after this the day is a blur, I vaguely remember eating wurst, buying beer off the back of a float, grabbing heaps of male beauty products from the Nivea boys and, while taking a piss in Tiergarten, getting stung by nettles. We staggered home for a power nap before attending our planned afterparty, however we never quite made it. We almost did, standing outside the front door of the club, but somehow paying 10 EUR to sit in a corner feeling sorry for ourselves didn't cut it so we turned and went home. The highlight of the day has to be my photographer friend Damaris, who came up giggling to say she saw two naked guys "making each other like this" (wanking movement) "and I didn't know what to do, so I took a photo."