Arrival in Hamburg (Nathan)
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2010
1
54
59
Trip End
Oct 27, 2010
Where I stayed
Hamburg, Germany
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
The rest of the day was spent riding the train. It didn't seem like such a long distance between Amsterdam and Hamburg, but it must have been, because it was very, very dark when we arrived in Hamburg, so dark that we could barely read the street signs. Of course, part of that was the weather... it had gotten rainier and rainier as our train ride progressed, and it was cold and pouring hard when we arrived. We eventually did find our hostel, the Meininger, and checked in. It was much, much different than every other hostel on the trip, so much that I felt compelled to take a video showing its odd design. Whereas all the other hostels were run-down, ancient buildings with rickety railings, narrow staircases and beds that looked decades old, this place looked like it had been built very recently, and seemed almost sterile in comparison, like something from a dystopian sci-fi future. Not the grungy Blade Runner dystopia, the clinical, clean kind. The room had a great shower and bathroom, the former of which actually had a faucet that seemed to control the water temperature, and enough room to get dressed without standing in the actual shower stall. The beds were new and very comfortable, and the bunks even had privacy curtains, which I enjoyed very much... I guess if you're claustrophobic they might not be so great, but I love being sectioned off into a nice warm dark box when I sleep. The wireless connection was pretty reliable and about three times faster than anywhere else during the trip, and the lobby was open 24 hours. The only thing that was kind of weird was the laundry room. It was in the kitchen... like, the machines were right under the counter, next to the dishwasher. It literally looked like they had forgotten to include a laundry room when they built the place, and desperately squeezed in a single washer and dryer where they could.
We got dinner at a fairly decent Indian restaurant that was fairly close by, and then wasted some time by exploring a nearby grocery store... at least, I think it was a grocery store. It had groceries, but also a toy section, clothing section, and cosmetics section, like a combination between a grocery and department store. I guess some of the newer store variants in the United States like Super Target are a little similar, but this one seemed different somehow. It didn't matter all that much, though... we spent most of the time in the grocery section exploring the vast selection of Haribo gummies and the four aisles of chocolate. There was also a huge Christmas section that felt very different from the ones in the United States. All the Christmas stuff we saw in Europe seemed a little more old-fashioned and less gaudy, which I liked.
Sorry again to everyone for taking so long to finish this blog. It will be finished before Christmas, this I promise, so keep checking! The next entry will probably be my biggest before the end of the blog, and possibly the biggest out of all my entries. I'll try to finish it quickly, but there are a lot of pictures to upload. The 21st was a very busy day, as you'll see!
Comments
And? And?!
Don't worry, Rennie! I haven't forgotten, and my plan is to have everything wrapped up by Christmas. :)
(Glenn) - I believe this was the day that our train was canceled and we had to crowd on the one scheduled to leave two hours later, which is why we arrived in Hamburg so late. Overall, the trains were reliable, but it was not 100%.