Hamburg, and Why Waffle House Sucks.

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been so busy with class and getting settled, and somehow, no matter how much time I seem to have, it just evaporates in this unairconditioned heat and leaves me sleeping. Anyway, at the urging of several friends, I will now recount my tales regarding Hamburg

We headed to Hamburg a day early because of the intense heat and lack of things to do in Goettingen. After we checked into the hotel, we went to the Rathaus. It is so, so gorgeous. I felt like I was walking through a palace. Or a Vegas hotel. Whichever. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant in the pedestrian zone in front of our hotel, and I was given a rose by the waiter at the end of our meal. We walked around for a while after that, around the lake nearby and through the streets lined with gorgeous buildings. Hamburg is so, so beautiful. I almost didn't want to go back. I wanted to keep walking and to see everything in the city.

The next day we went down to the harbor. It was a really lazy day, just walking up and down, and stopping for fish and chips for lunch. We headed back to the hotel early, though, because that night we had tickets for Der Koenig der Loewen, or the German version of The Lion King on stage. It was phenomenal. The theatre is on the opposite side of the harbor, so you have to take a boat to this massive metal theater. We got there really early, so we sat outside and watched the ships come and go. The play didn't disappoint, either. The music is overall the same, although in German. And the costumes! Ahhh. It was such a good show.

We met up with Jake the next day, and just kind of wandering throughout Hamburg and caught up on all things America and FIFA related. After lunch, we headed to the Reeperbahn, which is the big party street in Hamburg. It was tame when we were there--after all, it was only the early afternoon. Anyway, it has this vibe to it that reminded me of Bourbon Street, but if it was in New York. Our adventures there were uneventful. We discovered that Jim Bean sells mixed drinks in a can--the perfect whiskey and coke, available at your local doener shop/ grocery store. They also sell champagne in a can, a discovery which is right on up there with the Kinder Surprise for me. We managed to stumble upon one of the places The Beatles used to play/ live, which was a nice surprise.

Our last day in Hamburg was spent wandering through the warehouse city on one of the hottest days in my memory. I loved walking through that area, but ended up with a migraine from the heat, and headed back to the hotel to nap and pack. We had dinner that night in the pedestrian zone again, although this time we opted for a typical German restaurant.

There were quite a few recurring topics of discussion throughout our stay in Hamburg, one of which was waffles. We were three weeks into the trip and would have done some horrible things for an American breakfast. It got to the point that I searched waffles in Hamburg, to no avail. However, it occured to me that Waffle House has one of the best (aka most likely to clog your arteries) breakfast spreads in the world. We figured that there had to be a Waffle House in Germany. Wrong. I was so disappointed.

I have since then had a waffle, thanks to my sweet travel companion, who bought waffles and syrup upon our arrival in Osnabrueck. I'll tell you of my more recent adventures soon, although they are admittedly a bit boring, as we've not been doing too much due to the heat.

Peace,
Eli