Hamburg

The longest consecutive train ride so far was a 4 and a half hour trip on our way to Hamburg. Some people in our group took it upon themselves to bring a few beers along, and get smashed upon arrival. I decided to wait until later to enjoy the bars.

After stepping off the train, who would of guessed that the air smelled like hamburgers. The people in the town are called Hamburgers, but im talkin giant beef hamburgers. Of course the real meat hamburgers come from the good ol US of A, but it was funny to smell them. The town was hoppin at 8 at night, but we would later find out how deserted the city really was.

A 10 minute walk to the hostel wasnt bad, but once we got to the hostel, there was nothing, no restaurant, no bars, no nothin anywhere within a 30 minute walk from the hostel. We did find the center, square block, with a few restaurants, but all the action is outside of the city.

The first night we arrived, a group of guys and I took a train out to the famous bar and redlight district. Oddly, one cannot carry glass bottles on the street, and after we visited a liquor store, they happily poured our vodka into a used water bottle. A little sketchy? Perhaps. The night was full of clubbing and barring, and quite a bit of walking. 8 o'clock rolls in, and we find our hostel, conveniently we're the first in line for 8 am breakfast. A nice full day sleep and I had the energy to do about anything...not really, the night before took a lot out of me. The second night, a group of us walked around town for a bit, but called it an early night, had dinner at the hostel, and relaxed. The other half of the group took saturday night to do a re-peat of our friday night, so we didnt get to see them until Sunday morning breakfast.

In Hamburg lies a fish market. Its famous, its big, its next to the famous port, and ITS EARLY. Having rested the whole day before, getting up at 5 (or 6? the time change threw us all off) wasnt hard. A quick trip door to door thanks to a city bus, and we were in the heart of a hectic, loud, free-for-all to buy fish. Guys standing on crates, yelling prices, people crowding and pushing for fish. Those Germans gotta have their fish. The rest of the day was pretty lazy, due to a layover between hostel check out and train departure. The ride home was spent sleeping, and not quite as loud and eventful/drunk as the first ride for some people, probably due to the fact that most people had 3 hours of sleep or less the night before.

Overall a very expensive weekend, the sun only come out the last 15 minutes before we left, so quite a depressing weekend in terms of weather. Perhaps Hamburg isnt my favorite place.

Weekends:
Amsterdam Okt 30-Nov 1 ??? Not for sure yet
????? Nov 6-8
Spain Nov 12-16
Stockholm Nov 19-22