"married a music man..."

from antwerp, we traversed the belgium and german countryside to hamburg for das reeperbahn festival. it was loads of fun....juliette lewis's band played it, as did the raveonettes (though i didn't get to hear 'em). i also really liked the shout out louds (from sweden) even though i may have been hatin' on them for sounding sooo much like the cure...but what's so wrong with that? and aren't they cute?



my brightest diamond had an amazing response.



plus, we got to stay in the most incredible hotel ever. the moevenpick hotel in hamburg is in a renovated water tower, but is quite politically controversial, as the watertower (now hotel) sits atop of a park which is a hang for leftists, artists, etc. apparenly, they have been protesting the hotel for over a year. there was high security around the grounds, which was weird.





leftist spy:


anyhoo, it was free and fun and luxurious. bdub and i even got free room service since they didn't give us our wakeup call and we missed the hotel's breffuss (which included champagne). to the leftists we say, "don't knock it til you try it!" i would also like to note that in hamburg i witnessed a man dining with his dog indoors at a restaurant, AND on the drive from belgium to germany there were bowls of dog biscuits and clean water at the rest stops. that rules.

on to berlin, which was sooooo cooool. we saw an itty bitty corner of what used to be the berlin wall, and were staying relatively closeby in east germany. photos to come. berlin reminded me the most of new york...it was the grittiest of all, and much less homogenous than hamburg. plus, we went out for a drink with some really nice friends of shara's and had white russians, which is always fun.



...and how kick ass was our hotel room in berlin?


from berlin, we drove to schorndorf, which was more of the german countryside. so pretty, and in the tiny town was a really cool club called manufaktur.



this venue had the most TLC for the bands that played there as well as for its patrons, who were young and old alike. it was lovely, plus it had a washer and dryer, a shower, and delicious food (the most pillowiest, fluffiest rolls that tasted like pretzels, tofu which i topped with a creamy mushroom sauce, homemade spaetzle/egg noodles, and dilled cucumbers).



the club regularly hosts movie nights as well as music workshops for kids. many amazing bands have played there and are on the roster for future shows: vic chestnutt, godspeed you! black emperor, daniel johnston, de la soul.. it reminded me a bit of the old underground railroad.

from there we drove...and drove....to paris.