Hamburg

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It began as any other morning I awoke in a drunken haze and proceeded to gather my things and prepare to check out of the hostel. Now Lucky Lake Hostel as mentioned has an awesome breakfast and when I checked in they gave a recipe for poffertjes that I still have not tried to make but I have it for when I will someday. Anywho I just wanted to mention again how totally great this hostel was before continuing this thing.

I began my ride to Hamburg and decided to take the main road because if I took the side roads it would take me about 11 hours and that was just unacceptable to me. The motorway was nice riding, to my surprise so I continued along all happily and enjoying the views. Now when I got to some random point along the way there was construction and all traffic was diverted off the motorway. This small detour took forever and I was even riding on the wrong side of the road for most of it. I had a GPS tracker and in the pictures I circled the part I am talking about. I mean it literally took 2 hours to go that short distance, I don’t even want to think about how long the people in the cars were waiting in that traffic.

Eventually I found Hamburg and my hostel, it was called the Generator Hostel, and it was pretty sweet. The one thing I didn’t like was that they had no parking so I had to pay €45 for 3 days. But the hostel was really cool otherwise.

Now Hamburg, I didn’t really choose Hamburg it was just a good stopping point along my way to Berlin, nonetheless I was glad I did stop there. As I had found to be a good idea I asked the people at the reception desk what cool things I should do or see while I was in town. They directed me to see miniature wonderland as I was already planning on doing. I was also told that the harbor was pretty cool as it was the biggest. And lastly I was told to check out the red light district. I said I came from Amsterdam and they said it was 10 times better than the one in Amsterdam, who am I to argue with a local? So I wander around check out the Harley shop and find a nice pin and continue my wandering around. I hit up a few pubs and have a few pints and eventually find myself in the red light district of Hamburg. Now I was expecting something better than Amsterdam like I was told but nope this place sucked. The actual part with women in windows was only ½ block long and the women were old and nasty looking like I didn’t even want to window shop in this city. I decided it was pretty late and I had better take the train back to the hostel. Now the trains in Germany are odd, you buy a ticket and then validate it and get on the train it is like an honor system. In the 7 total days I spent in Germany I only saw tickets being checked twice. Naturally I only bought a ticket the one time and didn’t have a single problem but I found out that is a bad idea and they can kick you out of the country for that. So I started buying tickets again.

The next day I was going to check out this miniature wonderland place, and

it just happens to be near the harbor so I can check it out when I finish there. Now miniature wonderland was on my list because of one thing: TRAINS! I love trains they are so cool and all the intricate details that goes into making them perfect is awesome. Now this place has hundreds of miles of track for the trains, and they have different areas set up for different countries and stuff. The first area I came to was the Swiss; it was amazing like I was totally unprepared for this. It was so intricate and so exacting, I mean freaking wow! Then I came to the area labeled Amerika, apparently that is how they spell it, (like we call it Germany instead of Deutschland). And again it was exact in every way, they had Mt Rushmore, Vegas, Florida, and the Grand Canyon all perfected. As I had been to all the places there I was amazed at how real they actually looked. It was like I was back at these places only miniaturized forms of them. Then they had the newest edition to the whole place and that was the airport. Now this was no normal model airport, it had planes taking off and landing, fuel trucks and fire engines driving all over the place, FREAKING AMAZING!! The attention to detail that was put into this whole place was a work of art I tell you. I literally spent about 6 hours in the whole place just marveling at the whole thing, but finally I had to leave and go on to see other things that weren’t miniaturized.

I walked out to the harbor and people were correct it was the biggest harbor that I had ever seen. Like this thing was massive there was room enough for like 6 oil tankers to fit side by side and still have room to spare. It was pretty cool so I walked along there for a while with a beer and did some people watching. There is one thing I have noticed in all my time spent people watching, no matter the country people do the same things. But seeing the reactions and hearing the foreign languages makes it a lot more fun because you get to make up what they are saying. On my walk back to the hostel I didn’t get lost I just temporarily misplace my current location and found myself at a restaurant the specialized in food from Afghanistan. Now having been to Afghanistan two times people would ask why I would go to a restaurant that serves that food. But I say that the best food I have ever had was in Afghanistan I seriously love Afghan food. Naturally I had just gotten back from there mid-march and this was mid-April I was craving some good food. I went inside and of course I was the only white guy in there and I didn’t care because I knew I was going to enjoy the food. About halfway through my meal the waiter strikes up a conversation with me asking why I am eating here, (in a casual nice way that I was in no way offended by, seriously it was cool) and I explain what’s up and how I love the food the Afghan’s made for me while I was over there. I mention the providence I was in the first time and he is from near there and knows of the area, (so he claimed, ). Anywho I end up with a free meal and am told I am welcome to eat there if I ever return to Hamburg. After I go to the hostel and they have a bar inside and a TV with a football match on so I sit down have a few pints and enjoy the game and bring a solid close to my night.

My next day I decide is going to be a rest day so I just lie in bed till like noon and wander out for some lunch. I find a Chinese place like right outside the hostel and I love Chinese food. This place has an English menu so I am kinda weary of how spicy it will be but I tell them when I order how much I love the spicy food like really spicy, I don’t know if that mattered but better safe than sorry. This was some of the best Chinese food I had ever eaten, and to add that little bit of their own flair it had cilantro on it and I was a little concerned about it when I saw it but it really was amazing I love this place. I ended eating there for dinner also because it was so good. During the rest of the day I just walked around the city and did some window shopping because I didn’t really need anything and nothing really jumped out as something I needed to have but I did see some cool items and interesting places. That pretty much wraps up Hamburg it was cool but small and the hostel was freaking sweet.

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Photos

Swiss
This was a huge exhibit and everything was perfect.

Vegas
The attention to detail is awesome

Airport
Seriously it looks so real

Map to Hamburg
That small 2hr detour