Enjoying Hamburg...

Ok, I'd like to add Hamburg as the second entry in my list of "Cities in Germany where I think I'd quite like to live." Berlin is the first, of course, and Cologne is the third. Notice something? Oh yeah, big cities, descending in terms of size. I think I'm making my preferences clear here. But there's lot of punk kids on the streets, which makes me feel safe. If I see a group of kids listening to hip-hop or dance music or something, and being loud and arrogant, then I'm immediately on guard. From experience, I know that they're likely to be the ones to pick a fight... especially against my friends, who generally seem to be (sometimes-ex) punk/hardcore kids. But if I see a group of crusty kids doing the same thing, it doesn't phase me. Strange, how these things work. So seeing kids like that in a city makes me feel immediately at home: something I can probably refer to as the "Prague-effect" - because that's definitely what made me love Prague within hours of being there. Sometimes places just feel more relaxed. Here is like that.

So, I've got 15 minutes before I go to catch the train into the city. It's a longer walk than the bus, but so much faster. So I'll have a quick recount of yesterday: I got up about 7am ish, and didn't bother eating breakfast. I think that had something to do with the massive Thai dinner. I went into the city, sussing out the train line for the first time (it gets an 'A+') and heading straight to the Kunsthalle (Art Museum). It was pretty big and definitely interesting, so I spent two hours there. I like wandering around in art museums, I just find it relaxing. Plus it had some awesome post-impressionist stuff, and a room with Monet and Degas and a Van Gogh that I'd never seen before, so that made me like it all the more. I went to Season for lunch, which is a vegetarian buffet place. It's light and airy and has cute decor, and all the vegan dishes are clearly labelled. Slim pickings for dessert, but there were a few warm dishes and heaps of salads. I stuffed myself on the all-you-can-eat option, simply because then I could get soup too. I did go back for seconds, you'll be pleased to know. And I had a coffee with soymilk! Oh, the joys. Pretty sure they used vanilla soymilk. It was tasty, but really sweet. And the little chocolate (also vegan) that came with it was to die for... I brought home today's wrapper (I'll get to that later) so I can track them down. Tartufo, you will be mine.

After lunch I went on a tour of the Rathaus, which only cost me 2 Euro and was actually really interesting. The building was really interesting and some of the design features were pretty cool. The guide repeated things a bit much, but he was entertaining, and was clearly trying to keep us all involved, so he gets points for that. A few mis-interpretations (he once called paintings "buildings" by accident - the German word for picture is "bild") made things a bit amusing at times, but no one said anything, and I was quietly entertained. Definitely more than worth my 2 Euro. I've seen bathrooms that cost that much! (Certainly never used one, though.)

I went to the St Nikolai Kirche (church) as well, to see the view from the tower and the remnants of the building. The church was destroyed in WW2 and the tower is now accessed by a lift for a phenomenal view of the city. It was a bit hazy and foggy while I was up there, and I was glad that I had my coat. I also went to the underground exhibition, which had a lot of photos of the destroyed city, plus photos of London and Warsaw after bombing raids. Also worth my 2 Euro 70 cents. Afterwards I went to the Harbour, had a look around, and walked through the very old (and cute) tunnel under the Elbe. There were elevators with wooden doors for the cars, and a passage under the river wide enough for a single lane, and two pedestrian paths. Very slow for anyone waiting to cross, I'd imagine, but incredibly quaint. The air smelled musty and damp, and it was cold and crisp. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Finally, I went to the Deicherhallen - actually no, I only went to one. The other was closed. I saw a photography exhibition, which was good, but really it was just great to see the interior of the building. It had a really phenomenal inner shape, courtesy of an interesting roof design. I could have bought a squillion books from the shop there, but decided I didn't want to lug them all back to Paderborn via Bremen. Fair enough, really. Also I'd then have to post them back to Australia, which will already be the death of my budget for an entire month. Too many books that I want to keep! Heh. Anyway, afterwards I went for a walk around the shopping district, bought Breakfast at Tiffany's (yeah, been meaning to read that forever, and it was small and light!) and sat down to have a cup of tea and read. Very relaxing. I'm definitely being a better tourist here than I've been in any other city (ok, Melbourne and Brisbane might be exceptions to the rule there). It's good to have long enough to not cram everything in, and to just chill out. I'm liking it.

I came back here via Rewe, where I bought some stuff for dinner - salady items, actually. Plus a half-load of pumpkin seed bread, and some bruschetta-spread. Yum, good dinner. I ate leftovers (tomatoes, kidney beans and the spread, which was made of capsicum) mixed together for breakfast this morning. It was like baked beans, but tastier, and more salad-ish. But I have to get going now, so hopefully I'll remember to recount today's activities when I get home. I'm also hoping that the Dillinger Escape Plan are good...