Heidelberg & Bastian Bob

During my stay at Gaffenberg I met a lovely fellow by the name of Bastian Bob Boger. We share a love of Amanda Palmer, which is a pretty good basis for friendship. Anyway, Bob was kind enough to invite Vivien and I to visit him in Heidelberg.

A few train tickets later, Viv and I were on our way. We were greeted at the Heidelberg haptbahnhof (main train station) by Bastian Bob and his buddy Martin from Gaffenberg. (German pronunciation: Mah-tin so I'm going to spell it that way from here on out.)

We dropped our bags off at Mahtin's place and walked across a bridge to a park along the river.

 

Mahtin's friends were there hanging out in the park. Bastian Bob bought some beer and brought it back for all of us. Fun Fact: In Germany you can drink in public!  So we spent the afternoon hanging out, talking, drinking beer, and tossing the disc. Viv took out her uke and we played some tunes.

Around 6, Bastian Bob had to bike to class, so he left. Viv and I decided to do some exploring and at the suggestion of Mahtin, we walked up a road called Philosopher's Way. It got its name for being the walking path of many German philosophers and poets.

At the top of the Way is a beautiful view of the entire city. Fun Fact: Heidelberg is one of the few German cities that wasn't bombed by the US in WWII. This is because an American general had visited Heidelberg and deemed it too beautiful to bomb. Good choice.  Look at it:

 

Viv and I walked down a path called Snake's Way, which wound itself down to the bridge into the city.

There were many locks on the bridge. I guess people who get married engrave their names on locks and attach them to things. I don't know that I'd ever want my love eternally linked to Heidelberg but Viv got a cool picture of it.

 Vivien and I then had the choice of whether to get food or see a castle. Despite my generally monstrous appetite, I really wanted to see a castle. So, we hiked up a hill to Heidelberg's castle that overlooks the city.  Glad we did:

By that time we were starving, so Viv and I picked a Thai food place back near Mahtin's to eat. The food was pretty underwhelming, (I guess Germany isn't known for its Thai food), but it was nice to get a meal with tofu. After abendessen, we grabbed our bags and took a bus to Bastian Bob's. Bastian Bob met us at the bus stop on his bike and took us back to his place. 

Inside we were introduced to a marvelous melange of new faces. Bob's roommate (I forget her name, so for alliteration's sake, let's call her "Betty").  Betty was hanging out with some of her French friends. Then Betty's boyfriend, Ahmed and his friend Bashir arrived. Ahmed and Bashir were from the Ivory Coast of Africa and they made me feel like an ignorant American when I didn't know exactly where in Africa that is. (Tell me where Iowa is! I know Californians who can't do that. Cough! Shenzi!) I felt even more like an ignorant American when I discovered that I was the only one there who didn't speak multiple languages. Ahmed and Bashir speak French, English, and German. The French girls speak French, German, and some English. Bastian Bob and Vic speak English and German. And I.... well, I speak English and took some French like 10 years ago, where I spent most of class drawing. 

The good news is that despite the mixture of languages flying about, we found we all had one in common...

Bastian Bob is a bassist in a band, so he has a ton of musical instruments. He brought out his bass guitar, an acoustic guitar, a melodica, and some kazoos. Viv got out her uke. Betty brought out an African drum. Ahmed grabbed the drum, Viv grabbed a guitar, I picked up the bass, and one of the French girls grabbed the melodica. And yes, it was a noisy cacophony to start. But soon, we settled into some simple Bob Marely and the jam session was on. The folks who weren't playing instruments just sang along and it was magical. We really hit our groove with "Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men. And let me take this moment to say that the girl on the melodica was incredible. Apparently, she is a pianist and she could play almost anything by ear. She was awesome. My claim to fame is knowing the entire bass part to "Otherside" while Viv played the chords. Give Viv the chords to any song and she can play it. Then Bastian Bob jumped in on the bassline to "Billie Jean" while I attempted to sing it. Our night culminated with "Hey Ho" by the Lumineers, with everyone shouting out the "heys" and "hos." Our finale was "Hey Ya" by Outkast with Bashir contributing his wonderful "whoop whoop!" in the chorus. 

We played late into the night until the jam session ended at 3:30am.  It was one of the most fun nights I ever had and we didn't even leave the apartment! It's particularly special to see how music can bring together so many different languages and cultures.   I'm so glad I got to experience that.