i guess it's time to release the gremlins upon you ...
honestly, i didn't really plan to get
any of the following items and what you are about to experience is a combination of sheer stupidity, luck and "being there at the right place at the right time"! more detailed explanations as we "cruise along" the roadtrip!
here's what's coming up
easter school holidays - a time to relax and calm down, but what am i doing? getting up freaking early!
man, i'm still tired - and thinking about what lies ahead of me, i'd rather go back to bed!
but i can't (and won't) help it, i'm on a mission, so just under an hour later i'm sitting in my car
however, i won't be using my own car this time (simply too small), i'm exchanging it for something bigger (i used the same company for my roadtrip to england last year:
The BIG ONE)
as you can see, i had to do some careful planning for this to work out - it's going to be one hell of a ride!
in the back of the van, not much stuff
YET!
upon closer inspection, you can see one of the two gumball machines i picked up on
a previous roadtrip. it's going to someone from a german arcade forum. he can't pick it up in person from the south of germany, so i'm taking it with me to one of my locations today from where he has it collected later!
only four minutes behind schedule ...
i'm heading out towards the first location: germany's capital berlin!
the roadtrip starts out to a pretty nice day with the sun coming out from behind the clouds
but just a little while later fog is rolling in
and we all know what happens
when the fog rolls in ... the terror begins!
i'm trying to seek refuge in a tunnel ...
... but it's even worse on the other side!
full concentration on the road ahead
hey look, a 19 inch cathode ray tube monitor directly ahead of me
as i'm approaching berlin, i realize that i'm getting pretty hungry!
so i exit the autobahn because a sign was pointing me towards a fast food outlet on a nearby parking lot. however, seeing this shabby booth and the owner's caravan right next to it makes me reconsider my decision
i bet it came directly out of that container parked just on the other side of the road
i guess i'll have to do with the leftovers of my pb & j breakfast sandwich for now
having arrived in the capital, i'm experiencing berlin traffic, ...
... berlin shops ...
... and berlin jobs!
after driving through all of berlin (at least it felt like like), i arrive at the seller's location. to be more precise, he's not a seller, he's more like a giver, because he's giving the first gremlin away for free - you'll shortly see why
ok, here's the story behind this gremlin: although this is the first one i'm picking up, it's in fact the last one of this roadtrip i decided to get. the cabinet was listed on ebay germany twice and as far as i know it sold every single time, but the pictures of the auction description were so horrible (dark & blurry) that it was almost impossible to see the condition of the cab, it was more like a guessing game. anyway, after i had secured the other two gremlins (which are yet to be revealed), i wrote the seller an email asking him whether he still had the cab - which he did. obviously, the successful bidders backed out of the deal once they saw the cab "live". he told me he was going to take it to the dumpster if i didn't take it! you guys know me: i can't let this happen! after all, it's an original sega / gremlin cabinet which needs to be saved. almost everything on this cab has been replaced / hacked, but the monitor is there and the structure is solid, so i decided to get it. my plan is to turn it back into a frogger, because i simply
l-o-v-e frogger. i'm pretty sure i have secured all the parts i need to convert it back, it's just a matter of time, patience and dedication.
enough said, here's the cab of horrors
the seller turns out to be extremely friendly, collects arcade stuff as well, but has turned his attention towards pcbs. we have a nice chit-chat about arcade games and i point him towards our fabulous forum (which he didn't know), but since i'm on a mission (with many more kilometers ahead of me), we load up the cab and i'm heading off towards the next location ...
back on the autobahn heading westwards ...
... i suddenly spot an interesting license plate on a bus in front of me - doesn't it spell out FROGGER?
what a coincidence!!!
three more hours on the road later i'm almost there
this is probably the most magical drive-up to a pickup location of all the roadtrips i have done so far!
and here's the seller's location: romantic, isn't it?
remember that the roadtrip map above doesn't show a gremlin for this location, but the mogwai gizmo - which means the next item has to be something sweet
something sweet? would could that be? i'm taking three steps to the right and you can see the gizmos already in the background!
let's move up closer! is that possible ... could that really be ...
yesss - two freaking
popcorn machines!!!
i've been on the lookout for exactly that model for quite a while now, because every single time i'm eating a doener kebap at "my" turkish shop just around the corner, i'm staring at that popcorn machine. it's not being used anymore, sitting alone and covered in plastic in a corner, but the owner wants way too much money for it, so i decided to look somewhere else. as fate would have it, there happened to be one on ebay a couple of days before i left on this roadtrip with the seller's location being directly between gremlins two and three, so there was no doubt in my mind i needed to go for it. no detour at all! Btw, I like that sign in the upper left corner
as you can see, there's not just one, but two popcorn machines sitting under that roof. the seller tells me his girl-friend wants to get rid off the second one as well and asks me if i want to have it, too, but this time i have to decline (in retrospect: i should have taken it, the offer was very generous). so i'm only taking one along with a box full of popcorn bags, some leftover corn, the manual and some additional goodies. all in all, i very nice deal. the popcorn machine (the one on the right) is in great condition (only minor damages).
end of part 1 - two more gremlins coming up ...
