Mince and cheese pies in Deutschland

After ten amazing days in Holland we pointed Edwards nose towards Germany. The north of Holland was much the same: dikes, small dense towns and loads of wind farms. All very enjoyable to drive through. Shame about the big ol' fat rain and low visability. Cruising along the enourmous sea barrier called Afsluitdijk, I marvelled at the Dutch and their never ending fight with the ocean. Civil engineering pornography everywhere. Just before the Dutch/German border we stopped in Leeuwarden, a university town, and spent a night playing board games with Amanda's cousins, Lieke and Annemieke. 


I was pretty excited when we got to Germany and the infamous autobahn. Edward actually did pretty well. In a brain explosion moment I threw caution to the wind and went hunting for Edward's top speed. At 135kph I decided that it was time to back down (I'll never know how much faster he could have gone). I'm sure the engine still had plenty to give but it felt like I was driving through custard with the massive air resistance and floaty suspension. Just as I pulled back into the right hand lane a Maserati screamed past us at more than 200kph. Captain Carbon Emissions shows no mercy.


We didn't expect a lot from Hamburg. I didn't know much about it apart from that the Beatles cut their teeth at some basement bar in the Reperbahn and there was a massive port that the allies took exception to in the 1940's. Basically, we were just keen to see our old mate Hugh for a few days. Hugh is a Dunedin lad, but has spent most of the last 5 years in Germany. His adopted home town really took us by surprise. There is so much going on there. Everyone we met was really cool, and easy to get on with. There is this organised messiness about Hamburg which is hard to explain. Lots of street art and graffiti, and loads of homeless people, but it's still tidy and welcoming. And the homeless crowd are a nice bunch. I'd say Hamburg has a higher percentage of attractive people than any part of the world I've been to. Amanda agrees. Hugh had offered us a place to crash at his place, but at the last minute couldn't take us in due to an unexpected romantic development. So we parked our van under a bridge next to his flat in Sternschanze and camped there during our stay. It actually worked out fine (aside from the hassle of midnight nature calls), and we had no trouble with the law for illegal camping.


Hugh works at a little bar called Aurel and made sure we were well supplied with booze for our few nights in town. The night we arrived we went drinking at Aurel and somehow ended up at some Peruvian guys flat. He's a tattoo artist and is basically the man. Hugh (in a state of severe inebriation) wrote something on his mate Gorca's arm with biro. Five minutes later it was permanent and the Peruvian tattooist  was looking for another victim. We decided to leg it. We were tired from a lot of driving, but I was also worried that I would take the offer of a dirt cheap tat and regret it.

Before

After

We basically spent the week drinking, relaxing on the beach with a club mate (sounds like martay said in a New Zealand accent), a south american style fizzy tea with heaps of pep, and sussing out some sweet flea markets. One night we saw a French band (a pretty awesome two piece with tight jeans, tight grooves and a name I can't remember) playing in a bar on the Reeperbahn, and afterwards I tried my hand at busking back in Sternschanze. It was a bit grotty and lots of drunk girls were requesting really bad songs and paying me a few cents for the trouble. They were German girls but all spoke this weird heavily american accented english. They sounded like actors in 1950's Hollywood war films. I wish I spoke Deutsch because it wasn't nice to listen to. One particularly smashed girl wanted me to play Jack Johnson. I refused and she got right up in my grill, fell over my guitar case spraying coins everywhere and breaking a strap. I gave up busking and we headed for bed. When we got back to the van it was about 1am and there were still loads of punters out so I said goodnight to Amanda and decided to change tactic. I told her I'd just walk around the block and see if anyone was interesting in listening to me play, so I'd probably be back really soon. I found a dark alley next to a kebab shop and decided to play a song and if nothing happened go back to bed. So I sat down on some sticky concrete by myself and started playing something by Paul Cathro. Eventually some guy heard the racket and came in to see what was going on. Once we'd established that I can't speak German he said "wow your guitar is cool, have two euros, I'm gonna get some friends from the kebab shop. Can we eat and listen?". Before long the alley was filled with Germans suprised that a drunken New Zealander was playing guitar in a random Hamburg alley. Most were soaking up beer and vodka with the clever use of rotisserie grilled meat (some things remain universal), and were generous with their left over coins. I also drew a small crowd of homeless people. It was such a blast. One homeless guy brought me a chair from his sleeping area, and proceeded to dance like Michael Jackson while I busked. It was a pretty spirited performance and everyone was amazed at how good he was so they dished out some change for him too. I made about €20, 2 beers and a bag of ham and cheese snacks. I tried giving the homeless guy a handful of my coins but he refused to take the money. He gladly accepted the beer. Meanwhile Amanda was sound asleep just around the corner, missing out on all the fun. It's times like these when you wish you both had phones. Dang.

Stocking up on cheap German beer before crossing in Denmark.
Note the one litre can of Tuborg!

After about 5 days we said farewell to a bunch of friends by making some amazing mince and cheese pies. Making meat pies is easy and they are so delicious and naughty. We drove north to a place called Haddeby, just south of the Danish border, and camped for the night. The next day we stocked up on beer because in Scandinavia the law states that alcohol must contain 3% gold and the price reflects this. After a night couchsurfing and eating an awesome host made curry in Kolding (nothing to see here) and a night camping near Roskilde (where we went to a great Viking ship museum) we were in Copenhagen. We couchsurfed the first night and camped near a sportsground the next. I managed to catch the All Blacks give Japan a good smacking in pool play of the Rugby World Cup. Rugby isn't very popular in Scandinavia so I had to resort to heading to an awful Irish pub. There were a bunch of kiwi jocks being heroes so I sat in a corner and talked to two of the three Danes in the world who are interested in rugby.  Copenhagen is a pretty cool place. We saw a lot of it on foot and a tiny bit on the free city bikes. Using city bikes was like riding the joke bikes in Alexandra so we didn't do that again. 

Our couchsurfing accommodation in Kolding. Our host built
the boat in the corner for a dress up party! Madness. He works for lego.

Viking museum

The gate into Christiania

Of course, we visited Cristiania. They have a no photos rule there. We weren't sure why until we passed the first street and saw about 20 venders selling marijuana in all it's various forms. It is illegal in Demark but for some reason it's no problem in Christiania. There were a few dodgy looking groups of people there but general the vibe was pretty free love on the free love freeway. When we woke the next morning a nice German couple came to greet us. They had camped in their pimping VW transporter on the same street as us. They told us to grab a shower in the sports complex right next to us that appeared to have been left unlocked. Great advice. When I came out of the open shower room the place was full of young boys getting ready for football. It was a close call. If I had have showered ten minutes later I could be on a list of known paedophiles in Europe. Ideal.