This was our little enclave. It was tough to escape because it was so lovely and comfortable - we even had coat hooks towards the end off bungee chords dangling from the bus lol. I've also rammed my brolly in the gap because I broke it so I taped it better only then it wouldn't shut :|.
I went over to 4:30 and D, I believe, and found Club Verboten where Tarmo was camped, and it was cool meeting him! Luckily he was in - apparently he'd been by my camp a few times looking for Nancy or Pale British Girl (much more recognizable than my name) but every time I wasn't there or NO ONE had any idea who I was. Doesn't surprise me really, I didn't mingle nearly as well as some others. We had a tasty, tasty Strongbow and rambled on about the various amazing things that we'd been up to while his campmate took a vinegar-footbath and talked in a French accent about being keen to attend critical tits - a naked topless bike ride which takes place every Friday at Burning Man.
At this point I realised I hadn't even looked in the fat little pocketbook guide they give you at the gate, which you're supposed to use to find out whats on, when, and where. I didn't need it! I think I'll probably start trying to do that in future. In any case, Tarmo was lamenting his choice about not bringing any beer, or something, and just liquor, which is also what a couple *cough* of my friends did so I was more than happy to share the 40 or so cans of PBR i bought. I also wanted to invite him to try some of our camp mimosas, so we brought Tarmo back to camp and introduced him to everyone. In the end he became a great buddy of ours out there and spent tonnes of time with us which was awesome, rode back in the car with Dave, hung out in Reno, etc ;)
This is the only day I got fully, properly, "Oh jesus Nancy" drunk. I stand by the fact it was a long-ass festival and I was more or less EXTREMELY well behaved the rest of the time! But I went for it that day. I had a lot of gin and a lot of beer, and some cider, and I think some shots at one point. Fuck it. It was a good laugh! I was sitting in the sun, swinging my legs off the meditation deck, merrily enjoying some alcoholic refreshment, getting my arm painted, hanging out with Tarmo, Dave, when some dude comes over to us.
"Do you guys know a pale british girl?"
"THAT'S ME!"
Another person from the internet that I'd chatted with prior to getting out there which was super cool, who was Nico. He was also camped just round the corner at the Black Rock Centre for Unlearning (amazing that - seriously) so we went down to his camp, and he introduced us to his friends and his wife which was incredibly fun. I think I got him to put a fake temporary tattoo on me, and I got given a really awesome necklace I spent the rest of the week wearing!
Plus, of course, a fully loaded bar, with like, crisps on the counter in bowls to eat and I spent a long time sitting on the floor on some cushions talking with people I didn't know. And I had a gin and tonic. WITH ICE! (i think. I may not remember this 100% clearly.) Some lovely lady showed up who needed to find a girl to drink a cocktail from the same cup as her to 'earn her badge' - there were literal badges - so I did that with her and got it all down me and I didn't even give the smallest fuck,I was just having the most ridiculously fun time. After a certain point, both Tarmo and Nico spun out a bit (bad brownies possibly) and disappeared and I went off to dance on my own to some excellent dubstep music in the back because I was more or less at that point where it didn't matter.
Lucas and I went on a little adventure across the road to the Bunny Suicides camp, where you have to go in through a low tunnel door and a big hanging blanket, so you don't know what you're going to find, but inside was this really hot hot hot blue-tarp bar where we picked up yet another beer and got some stickers and chatted with the barman who was in character the whole time. Mostly just saying 'OH YEAH' in a high-pitched raspy voice that I still do at Lucas to make him laugh.
Time was getting on by this point, so we headed back to camp where I was, in my outgoing friendly and enlivened state, requisitioned to stop people to insist they come and drink our alcohol in the Happy Camp bar. It was actually quite a bloody good laugh.
Standing in the road, with your arms out, roaring stop! it's the law! you have to have a drink with us! and so on, in varying stages of creativity. At one point I went and got dressed up in my corset as I realised I'd not even bloody worn it yet, but I got actually quite uncomfortable with the attention I was getting from the passers-by and in my inebriated state, it didn't feel too radical so I took it off quite shortly after.
Me and Lucas decided to spend the night apart that night, so I went off with Espen and he went off with Dave on the bikes. I kind of wish I'd thought to ask for the bikes ;/ In any case, the main thing I remember, apart from having a loooong talk in this 100% empty dome right off the esplanade with the most insane lightshow inside that drove me more or less nuts, and going on a booze hunt and filling my water bottle with warm white wine (blegh) was this amazing fireworks.
Holy fuck - you think you've seen fireworks. At Burning Man, fireworks feel how they did when you were a child. Like, when you were a 4-year-old watching New Years Eve and it's the most insane thing ever. I was coming out the loo, and it was all, oh hey, fireworks, shall we go a bit closer? Spectacular.
And we walk over slowly, and the entire time it's just going MENTAL above us, and as we get to the perimeter, we we realise it hasn't even gotten properly started yet! And . It. Just. Got. So. Insane. Fucking hell! The crescendo of the whole performance was a huge shooting streaming giant jets of fireballs right up into the sky while the most ridiculous roman candles detonated above us. I was just screaming OH MY GOD and jumping up and down and putting my hands in the air and Espen doing the same who was also screaming HOLY SHIT. It was actually more amazing than the man burn fireworks the following night! Ahhhhhhh god.
Anyway, this was apparently the pre-cursor to the Trojan Horse burn, which I missed which was rather gutting - they lined up hundreds of archers in roman costumes with fire arrows who then fired into the horse, and it burned to the ground. Instead, we went on some adventures, got on an art car that was playing a track from New Vegas which I completely failed to sing along to given my voice now sounded like gravel.
We came across this great art installation, which was a load of white umbrellas glued inside a structure that played rain and thunder storm noises. I lay down in the dirt and looked up at the brollies, and it was all so incredibly cool. Then we had to spend 5 minutes beating the shit out of my coat to get all the dust out. I regret nothing.
We also found the **spinny LED lights thing** (not the official name but that was what everyone was calling it).
It's basically a hanging cylinder which is wide enough for one person to stand up in, so you go down on your knees, then stand up inside. Once you're in, you can only see the LEDS. Neon, pulsing, shifting lights. And then your friends _spin_ the thing. And the world just turns to rainbows and lights. It was fucking insane. The best part was seeing people's faces inside while you spun it! Me and Espen stayed there for a while spinning it for strangers and encouraging them to have a go, lol. It was amazing. The entire time I was in there I had my hands over my face peeping out through my eyes going AAAAA. Remembering that gives me a pretty lovely feeling :)
God I was dying that night though again, I kept saying, let's sit down here for a second, then falling asleep. We revisited the temple, which was always as it is even more beautiful at night, and the view and lights were amazing. Plus there was someone playing the Harp - the strings, attached to the temple and its struts. Pretty glad I got to see someone do that finally.
Our final stop was that old biker bar where Lucas had done the shots with the Belgian guy, the biker-themed one. I conquered my fear, probably stupidly, of climbing this really rickety thng, and went up this insanely dangerous ladder that was attached to a crows nest that had a sofa on it. And it was 2 people at a time limit. And once you're up there, on this sofa, looking out over the Playa, the entire fucking thing SWAYS. And climbing down was probably the most scary stupid thing I've ever done lol. The girl who was up there when I got up there - she climbed down, she had to swing herself around the outside of this ladder off the platform and looked me with these huge wide eyes and just said 'holy shitballs O_O'. in the most American accent ever.
That was Friday. Saturday was to be the best day ever ever. I'm really looking forward to writing that up
Photos from me and Dave, but also Scott London and Trey Ratcliff.
Day 6
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