HAMBURG

What a city!  From the famed St. Pauli football team with skull and cross bones pirate-like logo, a red-light district that’s really quite nice, busking guidelines, and the site of the Beatles’ first gig, there is so much awesomeness here, its hard to put it all in a post, but I’ll give it a shot.  Disclaimer: we spent several days here, so I can’t promise its a chronological account.

Thanks to our kind hosts from the STAMP Festival, we stayed in a hospital scheduled for remodel, so plenty of room, but few amenities.  Frankly, I was so happy to be in Germany, I didn’t mind camping out on a linoleum floor as a home base for a few days.  The STAMP Festival was really a busker showcase with bands from around the world, with a parade thrown in for good measure.  That was the moment I didn’t miss Burning Man, because there was plenty of mayhem, flashing lights, costumes, and stilt walkers to satisfy.

The late night festivities were pretty fun as well, as one of our nights included a jam session with several musicians, horns and drums only.  Everyone danced, drank fresh, pure German beer, and players only stopped from sheer exhaustion.  This is when we met and heard Bandaradan, from Torino, which turned out to be fortunate, as several people had flights out of Italy. (Thanks for taking us in, Gabo!)

There were several nights of busking, which were marked with hilarity – from playing on a stage late night with LED lights behind us (Saloon Ensemble style), Daniel, Taylor, and myself playing in front of the police station, to the full complement of March Fourth rocking the red light district.