A Day at Bochum

We decided to visit a good friend of mine who lives in Bochum, located in the North Rhine-Westphalia area. It's an industrial city with about 400,000 inhabitants, and was just a 2 1/2-hour drive from P's town.. It is well-known for its universities and theaters. One particular theater is Starlighthalle, where the long-running Starlight Express is playing. A rock-opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the show is performed entirely on roller skates. A song ("Starlight Express", natch) from the show was a huge hit during the 80's. It was most unfortunate that due to our schedule, we were not able to stay overnight to see it.



What greeted us was a lovely home, garden teeming with flowers, and a pond surrounded by frogs and dwarfs. The fishes weren't in the mood to say "Hi", though.

P gladly took the role of "Grill Master" while my friend and I decided to catch up on news. We hardly noticed that S already took first dibs at the delicious Cassava Cake and Ube Hopia (purple yam-filled bread) that she had baked.
Alongside lean Steaks, Bratwursts, Potato Salad, and Cucumber/Tomato Salad, was fatty Pork Belly and Garlic Rice. Excuse me while I drool. When we were kids, I remember me and my siblings fighting over the last piece of sapay (pork fat) at lunch - like the oily glob was some prize. Time flew - it was spent eating, discussing recipes, laughing at how "domesticated" we've become, catching glimpses of the soccer game, reminiscing about the good and bad (mostly good) times we shared, and just chilling out.

A shout out to our wonderful friends: Spreekitik (who refused to have her photo taken until she changed her shirt, he he) , Micha (who allowed us to play with the controls of his awesome miniature train city) and Oy-Gen (who's growing up to be a heartbreaker). Many many thanks for your hospitality! Danke schoen!


LINKS:
http://www.starlight-express-musical.de/

http://www.bochum.de/english/