Germany. Easily the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The moment the train passed over the border from France the landscape almost immediately changed. Not meaning to use a cliche but, the grass was greener and the air was crisper... on the other side.
During my time in Germany I visited Freiburg, Berlin, Cottabus and Hamburg and I tell you want, spending the summer solstice in Berlin is an experience you HAVE to endure. The festivals, ambience and amazing activities within the streets were something else. Wandering down a randon laneway lead to some sort of excitment and the people couldn't have been friendlier!
So after painting such a positive picture of Germany, I will shed light on a particularly scary experience in Hamburg. Now don't get me wrong, Hamburg itself is an amazing city and I have every intention of returning one day. The warf in Hamburg is underwater for almost three months of the year! You need to see it to believe it, BUT there are flood proof doors (almost 8m high) along the warf and the buildings are connected via a series of elevated ramps! It was an amazing experience to walk through the streets below the ramps imagining what it would be like whilst flooded! The businesses operating from the warf just shut up shop for a few months each year.... amazing.
I'll be honest, I felt like I was in a video game - Lara Croft specifically, wandering around looking for the lever to unleash the flood waters and need to sprint to the safety of the ramps before being pulled out to sea....
That clearly didn't happen.
So, how could a place so spectacular be so scary?
Let me take you to Friday night, arriving in Hamburg. After a sneaky upgrade to first class on the train (can tell you about that another day :P) I was feeling pretty amazing. Much to my dismay, the majority of the train line destinations looked the same and I unknowingly had caught the wrong train! After realising my error I returned to the main station and proceeded on my journey once again. Nothing major happening there. The key notation only being that it was now almost 11pm and I was tired. Really tired.
Conveniently, my hostel was directly accross the road from the station in the 'red light district' and was only 10 Euro a night.... Here I was thinking BARGIN! I had booked a '6 bed mixed dorm' on hostelworld.com and was promptly directed to a dorm with 10 bunks and a few randoms in it. My bed was at the end of this long wide hallway type room, adjacent to a door with a chair placed firmly under the handle. Since there were no lockers available I had to sttore my bag on the floor of the dorm and quite sensibly, thought moving the chair to use that space would be the right thing to do. So, having moved this chair away from the door, to my dismay, the door fell open and lead to a dark, deserted, smelly alleyway. Oh Jesus. Here I was thinking, I'm in the red light district, alone, and my bed is next to a door that doesnt actually lock. Why bother closing the front door or having swipe cards to enter the dorm room? A random could just as easily enter from this door right next to my bed.
That night, I slept with the pack on my bunk with me, with my arms through the straps. I was thinking to myself, well at least this way if someone tries to rob me, I'll wake up and know its happening. I may not be able to do anything about it, but at least I'll be able to save my passport and maybe my phone and cash.
I wasn't robbed. And the chap on the bunk next to me said anybody coming in would have thought there was someone in the bunk with me anyway!
I didn't stay there the following night. Thankfully I found a much nicer hostel, still in the red light district, near enough to check out the Harley Davidson Convention that just happened to be on that weekend! I've never seen so many large bearded men in my life.
God I miss Hamburg. It was difficult to leave (that's another story you'll need to wait for... I may have been remanded at the airport! The friend I made from California helped me through the experience though. Solidarity Sister)!
