A little taste of Germany

The next weekend, I traveled to Hamburg, Germany with Flo (German) and Sjoerd (Dutch) to see the opening game of the world cup on a giant outdoor screen. On the way there, we got stranded in a teeny town (can't remember the name of the place!) at the Dutch-German border because it was so friggin' hot that the rails on the bridge were expanded out of shape. While stranded, the passengers had to sit outside and wait for alternative transportation. That is when we met an old couple from Alberta whom I recognized as Canadians from the flags sewn on their luggage and fanny packs. I asked them so seriously, "Are you from Canada?" and they said, "How did you know?". Gees!

After we transferred to an intercity train in Germany, we ran into some friends of Flo's on the train! Because we were so late, we hadn't gotten a chance to get a ticket before boarding and were planning on buying on on the train. But as we wandered around looking for a place to sit (and getting gently led out of the bar car in first class), we ended up missing ticket check. We finally found a private booth that was empty, probably because the air conditioning was not working. So as we sweated and sweated, the train attendant finally offered us free drinks to cool us down and he became our best buddy on the train. He had no clue we were hitching a free ride!

Of course, we arrived in Hamburg late because of the earlier delay, but no matter. We quickly found one of the closest tvs, which was balancing on crates outside of a turkish fruit store in the middle of the streets. They were having a real outdoor event, cooking up German sausages on the BBQ and all. We had beers with the locals (we had Dutch beer in a can and they had German beer in a bottle) while sitting on more crates, and cheered for Germany as a merry old group.

At halftime intermission, we rushed to the main park with the giant outdoor screen to catch the second half of the game. Outside drinks were not allowed in the park so the front entrance was littered with thousands and thousands of half empty beer bottles that one woman was going to make a goldmine out of. Inside, it was so crowded that we could barely see what was going on the game despite the size of the screen. In the end, however, Germany won.

Excited about their victory, the Germans and tourists posing as Germans flowed out into the main strip of Hamburg and the party just started to pick up. The sun went down and the city came to life. We ate Italian food and sang Kareoke, and finished off the day with a fantastic bar hop in attempt to absorb everything the nightlife had to offer. The bars in Hamburg are so funky and unique, and the neon light signs shone in excess. My favourite bars we went to were the retro ones, one with groovy brown flowered wallpaper and comfy couches, another with old playboy pics on the wall and a 50's sci fi movie playing on a film screen.

Tired and exhausted, we caught the first train out of the city back to Holland at about 5 am in the morning. Flo and I slept and slept while Sjoerd bravely stayed awake the whole morning, making sure that we didn't miss our transfers. Funny enough, we got stranded in the same little town at the border once again when we missed the connection while buying tickets at the booth. Next time we'll just hop on the train with no tickets again.



Whew. A good run and and a little taste of Germany.