Tubingen

The next day, what should have been a fairly average drive is turned into a rather long one thanks to the first of many crazy ass storms that we would witness on this tour. A quick supermarket lunch stop off introduces us to a new concept: bread from a vending machine:

(Here Josh is also sporting a €3 bottle of champagne)

The other thing that turned it into a longer drive than it should have been, was the fact that I was tested for drugs at a gas station by the German police. Possibly irrationally, I get nervous around police at the best of times, and our friends' bands have told us a couple of horror stories about the German police force in particular when they've toured through here before. So I was pretty scared when a cop approached me and said something in German. Once he realised I couldn't speak German, he asked me in English whether I'd been drinking. I told him, truthfully, that I hadn't had a drink since 4 days ago.

"But you smoke hashish, right?" A weird way of asking that question, I thought.

"Uh, no." I do smoke sometimes but hadn't done so in a couple of weeks. He offered me a drugs test so I accepted. "But first you have to pay" he said.

"Uh, pay for what?"

"Your gas"

Well of course we're gonna pay for the gas, we're not crooks!

So I wander off to the public bathroom with this policeman. On the bright side, if you're being drugs tested you don't have to pay to pee at a German service station, so we are let in free of charge (bonus!). Now, I have trouble peeing in front of people I don't know at the best of times, let alone when it's a cop who's drugs testing me and I don't even need to pee in the first place! It takes me about 5 minutes, but I manage to fill the cup he's given me. I'm unsure what's going to happen, as I've been told that THC stays in your system for about 6 months if you smoke it. Can they do anything to me if that's the case though? The truth is I have no idea, which is what's making me nervous. I go to hand the cup back to him and... I spill it. I'm thinking "fuck me, he's gonna think I'm trying to get out of this test and arrest me anyway!" Luckily, I didn't spill it on him but in the sink and he assures me there's enough left in the cup to do the test. A misunderstanding due to the language barrier leads me to momentarily believe that he's telling me I have cocaine in my system, something I am unpleasantly surprised by, seeing as I have never taken cocaine. This is cleared up though and the test shows negative for all drugs and alcohol. He lets me go. Phew.

Meanwhile, outside, some more cops are investigating our van. I come out of the toilet and this differently dressed policeman in a green uniform makes me say something that sounds like "vibor." He then makes me say "helga" and says "my girlfriend" to me. I am confused and the 4 or 5 officers that have gathered around the van are laughing at me. We ask some German friends what this means later on and it turns out he was making me call his girlfriend a bitch, or something to that effect. Bizarre incident over, we carry on to Tubingen.

We arrive at this venue:

And are greeted by this man:

 

That's Basti. Very lovely man. He gives us this food (ps. I have a weird neck in this photo...):

Accompanied by salad and followed by this food:

That's a vanilla and chocolate cake and the photo above it is spatzle (I believe), which is a traditional German pasta from the region, with a lentil, carrot and veggie sausage sauce. There was a bottle of vinegar next to the plates that Basti told us we had to top the pasta with (only a very small amount was required). It was AWESOME. Later, Basti tells me that there are various ways of making this pasta, and that different regions of Germany boast about whose technique is the best. I found quite a good explanation of this here: http://www.germanfoods.org/consumer/facts/guidetopasta.cfm.

We talk about the history of the region, and how Basti feels he is lucky to live in a fairly liberal part of Germany, where venues like the Epplehaus are partly funded by the city council. The venue also runs as a youth centre with activities and free internet access for young people. The shows are cheap and there's a bar, a kitchen and a sleeping area with clean sheets and many beds. The venue has been operating like this for decades and I hope it carries on strong.

Outside, a slogan I quite like:

And another one, that I can get behind possibly even more than that last one: