We line the streets. Hamburg is ours. We walk down Wohlwillstraße. It’s a cold and chilly morning. Looks like the ashen sky wants to shower us. The cobbled streets are humid and slippery for the unwary pedestrian. After deepening into St. Pauli’s heart, after crossing the Reeperbahn district, the noise disappears. The traffic around this area is very light. It’s Saturday after all.
The city tour is headed by Nana and Andreas. Nana has planned and organized for us the whole weekend in detail. I’ve been around last year and walked in between these same buildings, breathed the same Elbe breeze. The grocery stores with their fine selection of beer, the Fritz Cola signs, the döner joints, they are all still there.
By breakfast time they have all arrived: Rémi, Delphine, Ian, Christos and Matthew. After some rolls, chorizo, juice and coffee, we are all ready to walk around the free and Hanseatic city. Click, click, click. The cameras start shooting photos as soon as we are out of Nana’s place. Rémi runs towards the swing that is 10 steps away. Back and forth he goes. Delphine joins giving him a push. Everyone laugh and laugh. The whole weekend will be the same. Nonstop laughs.
Matthew is awed by the city, by the architecture, by the statues. Christos and me talk gossip, indiepop gossip. Rémi talks to me in Spanish, I talk to him in French. Nana and Andreas walk over clouds in front of us. Ian, and his Newcastle accent, joins the gossip session. We do carnage.
We end up at a street market. Vintage clothes, antiques, old dusty records for a couple of euros. We walk around. It’s packed. The smell of currywurst in the air captivates us. We walk past many people, we walk as a pack. Kids are running around and everyone is carrying an umbrella, reminding us that we could get soaked anytime soon.
Wohlwillstraße has the artiest shops and boutiques around. On the right side of the street is Eldorado, where last year I had the chance to dj. On the left side there are lots of thrift stores that we start visiting in order. Many of these shops are not at street level, I wonder why. They are at the basement level. I get the best postcard picture in one these stores: Christos wearing a huge pink woven hat next to a mannequin. Best of memories. Rémi, Ian and Matthew start trying jackets and blazers. I’m not the shopping kind of person, I can’t stand being inside for too long. I go out to the sidewalk and join Nana who is smoking a cigarette. It’s almost 1pm and we are all hungry by now. More walking to do. Now to an Indian restaurant where we will all have to settle for vegetarian food. I get a vegetarian gyros and a Franziskaner. I should have ordered the same as Christos, that tomato soup looked great.
A phone call: “We are here!”. The Berlin crowd has now arrived. The indiepop contingent keeps growing in exponential numbers every hour and we secretly dream of taking over Hamburg tonight. What await us is brilliant. The Sunny Street will play. Matthew, Jörg and me will DJ. And everyone will dance till exhaustion on what will be an epic night. Never to be forgotten.
to be continued
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One Response to “:: We Will Line the Streets”
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