Liz's European Adventures: Hamburg, Germany

My good friend (and coworker) Susanne and I went to Hamburg, Germany last Saturday and Sunday, really for no other reason than to get away from Aarhus and to give me the chance to see Germany for the first time! Hamburg is fairly close to the border of Denmark, and is a city that is predominately surrounded by water.

Susanne and her boyfriend Kasper picked me up Saturday morning - they had just leased a new car (a Honda Accord, which is a BIG car over here) and wanted to take it for a long drive. We drove a few hours just over the border of Denmark and Germany to Flensburg, Germany, and stopped there to walk around and have lunch. It was a small, quaint town - but we only had a few hours before Susanne and I had to jump on the train to Hamburg.

We said goodbye to Kasper and went on our way. The train ride from Flensburg to Hamburg took around 2 hours. We had an area to ourselves for a long portion of the trip and just talked and talked. Susanne is so fun to talk with - she listens, she advises, she gets my jokes, and I do the same for her. We have joked that we are the same person, just a couple years apart. It is so cool to think that you can find someone you click with so well on the other side of the world...that this person has existed and has had a life so different than mine and that by chance we crossed paths. There is no doubt in my mind she will be a friend forever, and I can not wait for my friends and family to meet her. And to add even more to that, the woman can speak fairly fluent German as well - so she was communicating often with people to get information for us. I was so impressed!

We arrived in Hamburg, settled into our hotel, then got up and headed out to dinner. We tried to get reservations at a restaraunt that is a 'blind' restaraunt - one where everyone who works there is either blind or visually impaired. As a customer, you are either blindfolded or sitting in a pitch black room, eating and drinking whatever you are served. You have to focus on your senses of hearing and taste. Sadly, we couldn't get in, so we went down the street to a Vietnamese Noodle Bar - which was fantastic. We had great conversation, figured out our life plans (kind of funny!) and then went to the night area that Hamburg is famous for...Reeperbahn. Although I have not been (yet!), think of the Red Light District in Amsterdam, and that is very similar to Reeperbahn. A street full of bright lights, sex shops, bars, women...unlike anything you would ever really find in America.

We walked up and down the street, then settled down at a bar that looked pretty decent and calm. We made a good choice because they played great music all night. Susanne and I just sat down and talked for a couple of hours. Later on, there were a group of Germans who were celebrating one of their buddies' 30th birthdays that sat down by us, and we ended up talking to them and becoming friends. Susanne was making fun of me at one point - she knows how analytical and reflective I can be (which she is also!) and asked if I was going to blog about that exact moment. She knew I would, because she knew that I was amazed and impressed that three different cultures - American, German and Danish - could all be sitting down together, speaking English, communicating well and having fun. I think that is super cool. Even though America is the 'melting pot,' I definitely don't think we come across many opportunities like this.

The next day, we woke up after a leisurely morning. We had lunch at a vegetarian restaraunt (huge for me - but wanted to do it for her because she is a vegetarian). They were serving brunch, so it wasn't so bad - I was able to eat eggs and potatoes! After that, we walked around Hamburg. The two main things I wanted to see were the Rothaus (their city hall, which is huge, and actually has 6 more rooms than Buckingham palace!) as well as Saint Michael's church. Both were very cool, although I was a little disappointed by St. Michael's church because the whole darn thing was basically under construction. We were able to visit one small side of the church, but the whole center was covered with construction and scaffoldings from top to bottom - you could not even make out a single thing.

We just spent a leisure afternoon. I was happy because we saw a Starbucks!!!!! and stopped there so I could grab a drink. We headed back to the train station and grabbed some food before we got on the train. I was able to get...Subway for dinner! It's the little things in life that you miss. It made me pretty happy to be able to have both Subway and Starbucks in one day.

And yet another nerdy but funny story. Susanne was reading aloud some of the tourist info we had printed off and said "....Hamburgers...." and I couldn't stop laughing. I don't know why I think that is so funny, but I do. The fact that people from Hamburg call themselves Hamburgers....who knew?!

We were exhausted and had to switch trains twice on the way home. We got back into Aarhus around midnight. It was a long couple days, but a fun couple of days. And I couldn't have asked for a better person to travel with!

A bridge in the middle of the city

This was the once part of St. Michael's church we were able to see. The whole church is the simplistic white and gold...the pictures we saw were so pretty, anyway!