BBQ's, Beaches, Markets, and of course, More Football!

A brief rundown of the events of the past few days:

My weekend began and ended in rather the same fashion… me having issues w/ the train system Normally, the trains run rather smoothly and there’s a fork at one point and you either stay on the train your on or head over to the other side of the platform to grab the opposite train… now for whatever reason, the trains weren’t lined up time wise… so I just jumped on my transfer only to figure out I was somewhere way, way, way off from where I needed to be.

Saturday/BBQ and Beach

So the original plan for Saturday was to head out to Lubeck for the day, since it isn’t all that far away. But as I was leaving on Friday Imen (Tunisian, guest event coordinator) was like “oh, we’re having a BBQ tomorrow, you should come.” At first I went to say no, but then Cuba (yes if I don’t know names I am referring to countries) jumps in and tells me all about how I need to go. And so, I did, and I had a great time, meeting large handfuls of new people, trying to rationalize American politics and learning about how the Pittsburgh Penguins are actually known in Germany. I’ve also found my first drinking buddy, Johanas (aka German I, English translation= John)… who, of course, is sadly leaving the institute next weekend.

The BBQ ended up rather early... actually it was rather a weird ending, I was talking w/ Johanas on the deck, and we went inside and everyone was gone. So I ended up heading back to the apartment, but instead of going straight there, I opted to turn right off the train station and wander around Othmarschen. Its an incredibly beautiful neighborhood (also one of the richest in Hamburg). After about a mile you hit the waterfront, which is lined with trees and bike paths. Unfortunately the view of the Elbe river isn't all that exciting since its mostly docks and rigs, but the area around it is nice, and there is a little beach, where people hang out and swim, but only w/ wet suits, as it is freezing. In the middle of all this is a giant rock; of course the explanation for this rock is only in German, so I ended up having to ask for a translation. Turns out the rock was found in the Elbe when they were dredging, but its actually from Sweden and has been her for like 900 years. When you look at the pictures below, you too will question how a rock that size gets down to Germany from Sweden.

Sunday/Market

Sunday I did something rather unheard of from me… I rolled out of bed at the ass crack of dawn (6am)… when I didn’t actually need to… The reason for this is that on Sunday mornings down at the docks in St. Pauli, there is a fish market. Yes, the fish market has more than fish, or clearly a) I wouldn’t have gone due to my dislike of fish, and b)even if I did like fish, I don’t see me wandering down there at 7am for it. The decision to get out of bed was truly one of my better ones.

As you wander down the street from the banhof (train station) your first instinct is to hope you know where you are going… and then you start to see one or two people hauling around mounds of fresh produce… then there are flocks of them. As you get closer you start to smell the distinct odor of market fish, and well, market in general (This isn’t something I can really describe, I can just tell you every market in the world as similar base sent, that’s then accented by whatever it specializes) As you finally round the corner as far as you can see from side to side are tents ands stalls full of fresh produce and fish. There were candy stalls set up that reminded me of Fasching in Munich. Lots of hat stalls and offensive t-shirt stands… but they were in German so I wasn’t really sure what exactly they said. In one section (this was easily a mile strip of stalls) there were live animals… the first thing I saw were the bunnies, then chickens and doves… these were the fattest chickens I have ever seen, and then there were hares… I don’t think we ever give any consideration to hares… they’re huge. They were selling tons of flowers and trees… lots of bonsai that you could see college students running around with. And then in the center of it all was a giant warehouse… In this warehouse was live bands, waffles, and beer. The bands only played classic rock and 80’s music… in English. Needless to say, by 9:30 I had my waffles and beer in hand and had been completely sucked into the atmosphere. As I was leaving I bought like a 10 lb. basket of fruit for 10 euro… awesome… until I had to carry it home… not so awesome.

My entire morning was not spent just at the market, but rather, at some point in the middle of marketing I took an adventurous detour. Perhaps I should start over. Upon leaving my apartment all that was going threw my head was, “don’t forget to pick up cash”… due to a series of distractions, I ended up at the market with all of 15 euro. So, once I realized I needed more cash I started walking…

St. Pauli is an infamous neighborhood… the pleasant family oriented fish market of today, at one point years ago was the docking post of sailors and the gateway into Hamburg’s red light district… the largest red light district in all of Europe. Now a days, it still has all of its red light charm with the addition of being the central hub of European punk rock, parties, bars and discos. Its where the Beatles made their début… Wandering the street on a Sunday morning, you see “drinking parks” littered with Saturday night’s leftovers, including a few passed out bodies here and there. The overwhelming amounts of graffiti that mark Hamburg turns into some incredible wall art, and there are more bars on every block than I have ever seen in my life. But no ATMs… that is until you get to Reeperbahn. There are a lot of famously scandalous roads in the world, and well, I tend to find them… but nothing compares to the Reeperbahn. Even at around 8-9 in the morning on a Sunday, Reeperbahn has the ability to make even me blush and feel awkward. It’s a huge street, with nothing but strip joints, casinos, and sex shops, along with all of the largest night clubs and party centers. There is no wonder why its actually called the Miles of Sin. And lucky for me there were some ATMs around, so I got my cash and headed back down to the market.

Monday/Football

MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL… Woot Woot!... I mean, Olay, olay, olay, olay…. So Monday night was the big match between Austria and Germany. As per usual, I rolled back over to the MPI to watch the game, and at half-time me and Johanas were like, lets blow this joint (not a lot of people were there… too big of a game) and headed to the nearest bar… an aussie bar of all places, that handed out free shots when Germany scored a goal, and of course again when we won the game. It was good times, and I’m looking forward to the quarterfinals on Thursday as we’re playing Portugal, which is probably the best team in the league right now, but any which way it should be pretty exciting.

I learned an important lesson on the way home that night… I learned that just because you know the time for the last train you need to grab, and you make it there on time, this doesn’t actually mean you’ll make it all the way home… especially if you need to make a connection, and it turns out the connection stopped running about 10 minutes before hand. But that’s why there’s cabs… And so it ends as it began…