hamburg so far

The Wien-Hamburg train ride was smooth but horrible. The first part was sharing my compartment with a young mother and her 2 year old child. Neither spoke any English or German, and the child was SO hyper and SO loud until about 1 AM. My frustration with him was probably doubled by the mother, who actually cried a little bit at one point. Then around 11 PM another mother with her 3 young children got in. She at least spoke German and the kids were much better behaved, but then there were somehow 7 people in a 6 person compartment, which would have already been difficult enough to sleep in.

In the morning I managed to exit at the right stop and find my hostel. I wandered around and sat in a café for a few hours until I was able to check into my room. Hamburg is not nearly as pretty as Wien and has much more modern/boxy buildings, but I feel less intimidated in Germany for some reason. After exploring for a while, I went back to cook myself dinner with my few groceries. In the kitchen, I gave a piece of my Gouda cheese to a guy who was waiting for his laundry, which led to a nice chain of events. He invited me to eat the pasta he and his friends were making, which was awesome (they are Italian). We sat around in the kitchen for a while and met two German guys, Andy and Markus, and an Irish guy (whose name I forgot) who is biking across Europe with his brother.

The Italians (Stephan, Lorenzo, and Steve), Markus, Andy and I went out exploring with Andy as our guide, since for some reason he knew Hamburg really well. I talked to Markus a lot about German and what English/German words we find funny (e.g. "nevertheless"). Andy took us to a "cool" neighborhood, where on one particular street the sidewalks were covered by young people sitting at tables, in windows, etc. Then we went to the Reeperbahn, the famous neighborhood known for its prostitution! I was very glad I went to this with a knowledgeable person as a guide, because he told us some interesting things: you can identify the prostitutes because they all wear fanny packs (to hold the moneys); in the Old Times, sailors would disembark around the Reeperbahn after being on ships for months; if a girl walks down the main prostitute street, they will shoot her with water guns until she leaves. We went by this particular street, which is blocked off by doors so you can't see in without going inside yourself. I definitely would not go around the Reeperbahn alone at night, but since I was with five guys it was okay. We also walked by the famous police station, a famous gas station which sells more beer than petrol, and the club where the Beatles got started.

I woke up at 3:30 PM the next day, and only then because a group of people were checking into my room. I didn't do much, but since I'm in Hamburg for 9 days I figure it's okay to have a lazy one for once. I walked down to the Große Bergstraße, a wide shopping/eating street and made a drawing for my independent study, then went back and ate more pasta from the Italians. My Monday-Tuesday roommates stole ALL OF MY FOOD, which I had left in its bag in the cubby wall. I am pretty sad about that, but of all things they could have stolen I guess that was one of the better ones. Most of the food was a gift anyway, but it still sucks. I really wanted to eat that Nutella.