Hamburg!!!

Yesterday we arrived in Hamburg to a scary central station and a lady bathroom attendant that watched me pee... then I got us lost on the way to the hotel which turned out to be in the middle of nowhere... after checking in on the way to our room we realized it was in the basement... needless to say my first impression of Hamburg wasn't great... but that all changed when we discovered the St. Pauli district... I've always heard about the amazing graffiti in Berlin... and it is... but I soon realized that Hamburg would compete for that title... check out this fire station we saw on the way to dinner...

We went for dinner and effectively left reeking of garlic goodness...

Being the music geek that I am... I always have a show planned when I travel... Damien Jurado was playing at this cafe/bar called Haus 73... half coffee house and half Sneaky Dee's... they have this strange rule in Germany about smoking inside... the room has to be small... maybe it should be the other way around? Anyway... Damien played a really small room in the basement where everyone smoked like little chimneys... which reminded me of the days in Lee's Palace where coming home with a cigarette burn in your shirt was par for the course... enough of the flash backs... Damien was amazing and played a really long set... definitely one of my favourite shows of the year so far... which was helped by the fact I had a beautiful lady to slow dance with... here are some pictures...

After the show I decided I needed another entire pizza to myself... so we stopped on the way home... they even let me finish my beer inside... which makes me sad to return to Canada in a few days to once again face our idiotic liquor laws... here's me drunk as a skunk waiting for what I was told... the best pizza in Germany... and they could be right... that was some tasty pizza...

Every city you enter in Germany they have a different local beer... and so far they've all been amazing... but the Hamburg local is the odds on favourite for in my opinion... the best German hops... not only am I a sucker for the brew... being a graphic designer I appreciate a good logo when I see one... and Astra... Hamburgs local has both of those things...