More from Hamburg

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Guten Abend!
Just relaxing after a fun weekend in Hamburg. We are leaving for Berlin tomorrow and staying through Thursday. I'm super excited! But first what we did this weekend:

Saturday we went to the "Long Night at the Museum" in Hamburg. There were over 40 Museums participating! We went to the Hamburg history Museum. In addition to the normal exhibits, there was a fashion show planned for 11 pm. We were there early, so we didn't see the show, but we did get to watch the dress rehearsal. Then we went to the Rathaus (city hall) and the Rathaus art gallery. I got to see some famous photographs which I remembered from my Art History course my freshman year, including some stuff by Man Ray.

We then went to the art museum, which was really large so we stuck to viewing the contemporary and modern galleries. Some really interesting and strange stuff. There was an exhibit with a bunch of stuff from Sigmar Polke. One included a time lapse video of a small house by the highway which all of the sudden blows up. My favorite was an exhibit that looked like plaster teletubbies with glowing eyes. Interesting. When we walked outside of the museum there was a colorful slideshow playing on the side of the building.

Next we went to the International Art Exhibit which I think I like the most of all. There were a lot of large, colorful, abstract paintings. Across from that building was another photography exhibit which we visited.

Finally, we took a super long bus ride to Astronomy Park to an observatory but when we got there it was too cloudy to see any stars. Bummer. So we hopped on the bus to come home and our bus driver was lost and had to ask a passenger for directions. We eventually made it back.

We then headed home, but stopped to walk through the Red Light District. There was a ton of sloppy, loud, drunk people and I think it is best characterized by the McDonalds located between two topless bars. I thought it was cool to see but I think my mom was horrified.

We stopped at a bar on the way home, close to the train stop for Arjang's apartment and got a beer and some fries. It was kind of funny to be out drinking with my mom at 3:00 am!

Today- Monday, we took a tour of the Hamburg harbor with Arjang and his roommate Tim, and it is absolutely huge!! We even took a short ferry ride. Then we took the train to the area where I was with Arjang and his friends on Friday night, along the Elbe, called Blankenese. The weather was gorgeous! We walked along the river and stopped and had a snack and a beer at a small restaurant on the beach- the tables were literally in the sand!

Then we made our way home on what was one of the more interesting train rides. First, a very drunk man got on and was at least coherent enough to pick up that we were speaking English and tried to hit on my mom saying, "oh beautiful English lady!" Then he got off and a group of punks came on, wearing lots of black leather, with 2 small black dogs and a portable radio which they proceeded to play for the duration of their trip. At the same stop, a woman got on the train and sat down next to us. It took me a minute to notice, but she was holding a rat. Apparently she is homeless and keeps the rat as a pet. He was actually kind of cute. Arjang talked to her and she even talked to us a little in English and wished us a happy visit. We switched trains and at one stop two young men got on (one with a guitar) and started singing Brown Eyed Girl and got off at the next stop. Then finally we were home.

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