Hello all,
Hamburg was an interesting getaway. One of the DAAD interns that I met in Heidelberg needed to check out of her dormitory on Friday, and her flight left on Monday, so she was forced to stay in a hotel for a couple nights. She invited me over to keep her company for those couple of days, so I got a free place to stay for a couple nights.
I took BlaBlaCar from Frankfurt to Hamburg, and that was an exhausting ride. It was somewhere around 7 hours of nonstop driving. The car was very small, and my knees did not take very kindly to being stuffed into the seat in front of me. However, I did get to Hamburg for only 21 Euros on Friday night. I met up with my friend at the hotel, and pretty much went straight to bed.
The following day (Saturday), we went on a bus tour, which showed us the highlights of the city. We were able to buy the Hamburg Card which is a tourist bulk discount card which allowed us to eat fairly cheaply. We checked out all the tourist attractions, including the warehouse district and the town hall. We were also able to watch the LGBT parade through the center of town. That day must have been some kind of holiday, because lots of buildings were flying rainbow flags.
At this point, I had the opportunity to try on some Lederhosen, which was, well, an interesting feeling. Turns out that leather doesn’t breathe very well, and those were the days that Germany had record high temperatures. I wasn’t a fan.
Later on Saturday, we were able to meet up with some other friends that my Heidelberg friend worked with in Lubeck. We went to a little summer fair, and were able to ride some miniature roller coasters. It was really nice. Then we decided to check out the night life in Hamburg. That morning (Sunday), we looked through the fish market (they actually sell more than just fish), and later that day we went to the International Ship Museum. Tons of ships, and lots of cool maritime information. I actually took BlaBlaCar back to Darmstadt, with the same driver. His name was Olaf.
Overall, a brief, relaxing weekend.
Bis bald,
Tom Ziebro