Hamburg - Day 2

The government of Hamburg, officially the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg, provides tourists with a free public transport card for three days. So on our second day, we took advantage of the free public transport and set out on a pick-your-own adventure.

We started out by exploring Speicherstadt, the largest warehouse district in the world. Built between 1883 and 1927, the buildings stand on oak log piles in the port of Hamburg within the HafenCity quarter.

From the warehouse district, we needed to make a brief stop. Both of us weren’t feeling the best. Hopefully it wasn’t the mushrooms from breakfast; I mean, Erin Patterson was nowhere to be seen, so surely we couldn't have been poisoned.

After recharging, we set back out on our pick-your-own adventure, jumping off the bus when the scenery tickled our fancy. One stop was near some gardens on the outskirts of St. Pauli.

After a few happy snaps, we jumped back on the bus and got off in the centre of St. Pauli. This seemed to be the entertainment district, with pubs and clubs scattered all of the place. We walked down one street and found a sign that said “men under 18 and women prohibited from entry”. Well, that doesn’t exclude us. But we were fairly certain it would be the red light area. And sure enough, it was a street of shop windows and mostly vacant chairs. There were a few sex workers on duty, but it was clearly too early for most.

As we turned the corner into the next street, we could hear a guy shouting and seemingly cursing. A few others stopped in their tracks. We had to walk past him to get to our next destination, so we kept a wide berth. Jason reassured me that it might not have been as bad as it sounded: “it is German, it always sounds harsher than it is” 😂.

We took a few more steps and a woman walking towards us appeared to be under the influence of some drug. I commented to Jason on how sad it was that the drug ice has taken over the world, destroying so many lives. Jason replied with “how do you know it’s ice?”. Well, unless she decided to wake up with half her makeup smudged, a tea cosy on her head, a blank stare and could barely walk upright, I’d say she was under the influence. It was also sad to see so many homeless in such a wealthy country.

We headed back to our safe haven near the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, but not before securing another cinnamon roll. As we pondered over which flavour to choose, a local started speaking in German. We’d learnt the phrase “ich sprecke kein Deutsch (I don’t speak German)”, but we couldn’t quite get it out quick enough. Oh well, we still have time to practice at our next destination.

Next destination: Berlin.Baca lagi