Hamburg, Germany

¨That fishy town¨as they say, so at least in the chicks on speed song. I spent almost a week there, staying with my friend Eleni, who I met at Queeruption in Barcelona. It took me about two days to finally get to her house from my house in Seattle, but it was great once I landed. Germany is an interesting country and for the most part I really like it here. Hamburg was more sleepy that I had expected and my main memory of it is the wall of vine leaves on the building across the way from the kitchen window at Eleni´s house, turning a deep red as the air was growing colder. I stayed in their guest room, on the 1st floor (in the US it would be the second floor) and then the kitchen, living room (home of the guine pigs) the bathroom and the two boys room were on the 3rd floor, and lastly, Eleni, Joy and Andrea lived on the 4th (next was the attick where you went to hang your closes to dry). The bathroom was divided with the sink and shower/bath and then a room on the other side of the hall with the toilette. We ate lots of bread with a wide array of spreads for the morning and I have found that the most popular meal in Germany is Falafel as it is only 2 euros for a quick dinner.

Eleni introduced me to her friend Christina and we went to the womens art/video archive in Hamburg. They had an amazing space next to the central station with a huge room full of books and zines on all sorts of subject matter, a room full of 5,000 films by women starting from the 1970´s, an office, a kitchen/filing room, and a viewing room with a huge tv and large rolling boxes with pads on them for sitting on. I went the next day with Christina to watch some films and get some ideas for things I might be able to screen in the US later... my favorites so far are the one from the this woman in London who goes for a walk with a huge purse and a pink coat, goes into a office in a building and then takes out half a pizza from her purse and eats it, of course saving some for later after she is done. The other was called ¨Women in Black¨- a play on men in black, about two butch femme couples who basically kill gross guys who try to fuck with them.

I will finish my update soon, and then I can tell about Berlin, where I am now!

xo, elliat