Day 31, Weimar/Erfurt...

Well I wanted to write something yesterday about the fires back home, feeling such a long way away and powerless to help is always difficult but it's good to know we still have each other, and at the end of the day that's the most important thing, in spite of the hardships that we face along the way.... Over here in Germany we're currently enjoying a relaxing few days in Weimar, I guess some way near the mid-point of the tour, although I can't exactly be sure... It's not uncommon for me to be asking what day of the week it is, and I seem to be constantly checking the Facebook event page to see where we're headed next. Still, as an independent musician on the other side of the world, I guess these are good problems to have!

Winding the clock back a little, Wednesday night I played in a massive share house here in Weimar, a pretty incredible place but not the first of it's kind I have seen here in Germany. A combination of students and young professionals, 12 altogether at last count they tell me, but a nice relaxed environment (there may or may not have been some marijuana present, no I didn't...), felt very welcome the whole time. The picture to the right is where I played the gig - just at the bottom of the stairs there... A split-level affair which was pretty cool.

In conjunction with the gig, the guys at the house were also running a community kitchen of sorts, where neighbours/friends etc were invited to join them for dinner, for the cost of a few coins. I haven't seen this type of thing in Sydney much, but then I haven't typically lived in houses with 12 people. I once lived in a big house in London, perhaps 11 at one point, but from memory there was rarely enough food to feed myself and my room mate, let alone the entire neighbourhood. Certainly not in our cupboard anyway. It was much easier to stop at the Kebab shop on your way home at 2am. But I'm sure they do that here too... Anyway thanks to Kathie for arranging the concert and hosting us here in Weimar - a beautiful little town, have enjoyed wandering around and taking in the fresh autumn air. Some famous writers used to live here apparently - Goethe and Schiller - but I know precious little about either of them. Certainly not enough to expand in any way on this photograph....

Last night we took at trip to Erfurt to try our luck with the bars in town, despite not having a booking anywhere. By my Australian logic, I always figure if you show up with your guitar and a PA and offer to play for nothing, you'll eventually find a place that wants to give it a go. I'm not sure if things work the same way in this part of the world, but you might say we found a middle ground - The Dubliner Irish pub. I think it was Lena's initial sales pitch that got us over the line rather than a strange Australian dude in his new snap-back baseball cap (don't judge me, please don't judge me, I'm not trying to be trendy I just saw it in the shop and thought it looked ok....), but in any case the bar manager was a kind fella from Dublin who was more than happy to give it a go (thanks Dennis!). Fortunately in Germany the tipping culture for musicians means you can play for nothing, pass a hat around the bar, and wind up with enough coins to at least pay for dinner and a bit of petrol... just to keep you going to the next place... And maybe that's all you need....?