hamburg

So… Hamburg. Eh. I thought it was an ok city. I kind of feel like its one of those cities, though, where you have to maybe live there or stay there a long time or something to really fall in love with the city. Kind of like Cork in that there really isn’t that much to do there but its a nice city. I was glad to be with Denis because had I been by myself I would have been pretty bored. But, we had a good time just hanging out.

One of the first things we did was hang out outside by the river, and watched various street performers and then sat on the pier for a while (below). Finally it was sunny in one of the cities we visited, which was a nice change. Except, then it got cold the next day, but oh well.



One important highlight about Hamburg, Germany is that it just so happened that while we were there, there was a massive Harley Davidson convention going on. I thought that it was just an American thing, but I over heard some of them talking in German. So whether or not they were all German, Idk. But, it is important to note that they were exactly the same as I would have expected, no matter what origin. They filled almost the entire city: tattoos, leathery girlfriends with too much makeup and hair gel, mullets (I counted 7), and of course entirely pimped out Harleys. We weren’t sure exactly what they were doing there, because they kept doing these parades and rallies and stuff, but on the last day we were there there was a massive Harley ride/parade, and they all drove past, living up their mid life crisis dream. Please take a look at the viking helmet worn by homeboy…


We went to see the Rathaus (above), but didn’t go in (other than to the courtyard, see left) because we missed the deadline and then I didn’t really feel motivated to go in the next day, since i was lazy. That was the only cultural thing we did in Hamburg, actually. But we spent the rest of our time there just hanging out, shopping, eating sushi and german pretzels, and wandering around.
The hostel we stayed at was kind of lame (A&O Hostel- avoid the lame chain if you can). It was so manufactured there and I kind of just felt like a number and the staff there were either wayy understaffed or just didn’t bother attending the massive line always at the front desk. But I didn’t really care too much because I had Denis to hang out with, but it, just like Hamburg, was not really a place I would go again if I were by myself.
We did watch the Italy vs. Spain game downstairs in the hostel’s bar though because the entire city seemed to shut down at dinner time, despite the massive soccer game on tv. Good game though-go Spain!