The Tribe Tour 2002 – Bringing the Dream to the World – German fan report

Meryl, Caleb, Tori and Michael have now returned from their Tribe Tour 2002 to Germany and the UK. This week we have a special diary from Ines in Germany who won a competition to meet the cast while they were in Germany.

MY DAY WITH THE TRIBE-STARS:

Hello to all Tribe-Fans all over the world! I’m Ines from Baden-Württemberg, Germany. I’m 16 years old and I’m a great fan of “The Tribe” since the first episode was on TV over here. For I always wanted to meet the actors themselves I took part in a competition of a German magazine (“HÖRZU”) last year. The first prize was an action day with the Tribe-Stars! WOW!

When I got the letter I almost went mad. That was crazy! I jumped around like a fool and shouted through the whole house. I just couldn’t believe it! I WON!

On 22nd January 2002 I got up early. The night had been very short and I hadn’t slept long hours because I was so nervous. The meeting would take place in Munich and I had to get there by train. In Stuttgart I had to change trains and on the platform I met the second winner, Jana, an eleven-year-old girl who had won the KIKA-style-contest. Together we entered the ICE to Munich. You can’t imagine how nervous we were. My body shook extremely and I was feeling sick.

In Munich we almost ran out of the train, leaving our parents behind. Two women from KIKA and several camera men were standing at the platform to collect us.

They were very friendly but they made us even more nervous by saying things like: “In a few seconds you’ll meet The Tribe!” AAAAAAAH! I couldn’t help taking Jana’s hand and together we went outside the station. There was a bus standing. The door opened sooooo slowly, that was horrible. We were so excited!!! And then we saw them: VICTORIA SPENCE, MERYL CASSIE, CALEB ROSS and MICHAEL WESLEY-SMITH got out of the bus!

They looked just like in The Tribe – only without make-up. And they all said hello and hugged us. They were so nice and friendly and started a conversation with us at once. They asked how our journey had been, where we were from… At first I had some problems with understanding but soon I got used to their little accent. But Jana who had been learning English for only half a year couldn’t understand much. So I got the job of the translator! 😉

Together with the stars we entered the tour-bus. At the back there was a really cool black couch where we could sit together. Now Jana and I could ask everything we wanted. The Tribe-stars tried some German on us which was very funny. They told us that they liked Germany very much, especially the lanscape and the snow.

We soon reached the go-cart track where we would race agains the stars. But first we had a little snack in the go-cart restaurant. The the rules were explained to us and we could start! The first group contained Meryl, Tori, Jana and me. The race was hard but fair. We all had very good lap times and in the end Meryl won, I got second, Tori came in third place and Jana was fourth. Then it was the boys’ turn. They raced against some camera men from KIKA. And as we all had expected – Caleb won!

After that we got into the bus again. We talked about The Tribe and the actors wanted to know which episode was on in Germany right now. They also told us something about the filming of season four and Meryl let out that Ebony would never change! She’ll alway be the baddie. The stars even told us about THEIR favourite stars: They said they liked Eminem, Robbie Williams, Janet Jackson…

Mike was a little put out because he had lost against Caleb at cart racing. He lay down on the couch. Tori grabbed the silver edding that was lying around and painted his ear! It took him a little till he realized what she was doing.

Meryl talked a lot to Jana and me. She even gave us her lip gloss and her perfume to try it. Really cool!

Our next action was curling. Something funny happened there: We all had several tries and did quite well, but nobody managed to throw the stick all till the far end of the alley. The camera team positioned themselves right there to film us. We joked about this and agreed on some new rules: The one who would hit the camera team would get 10 extra points! 😉 Then we all shot as far as it was possible… and what happened? – Caleb’s curling stick flew all over the alley and hit the camera team!

After that we went on to have a horse sleigh. We drove through the snowy landscape and we all took lots of photos. Meryl filmed Jana and me, too and said in her video that I spoke excellent English. (I’m so proud of that!) Always when the way went down a little we almost fell off and started laughing. Once the sleigh stopped and we jumped off. Mike lay down in the snow and made a “snow-angel”! (>>photo)

At the end of our trip we patted the horses. Even Tori did although she’s allergic to horses and her eyes watered after that.

Now they day was nearly over. We went to an little mountain hut called “Waldherrn-Alm”. There we had supper. We ate Schnitzel with chips and salad. The boys ordered German beer and pretended to be drunken afterwards.Meryl didn’t manage to open her ketchup packet and the ketchup splashed all over the table!

After the meal the stars had to fulfil all our autograph wishes – and there were many! But they did and put a lot of effort into the autographs. The wrote a personal dedication and a few lines for each of our friends. Then it was time to go. The stars had to leave for Berlin and we had get back to the station again.

The farewell was endless and very very sad. We all really enjoyed the day and stars said they really would like to meet us again. Then they all hugged us tightly again and again. Meryl even gave me a kiss on my cheek! Then the stars went back into their bus and the door closed. My eyes were full of tears. The best time of my life had ended!

But I’m sure I’ll never ever forget my day with the stars of The Tribe who I adore more than any other stars!

STAY TRIBAL AND KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE!

Ines