Volume 2, Day 22
In the morning, since I didn’t have the luxury of available hot water or unlimited coffee, I got my pick up the old fashioned way with a jog around the lakes. It was surprisingly chilly in the gray, windy morning, but I had tons of company on the water-peripheral paths. There must have been at least 100 other joggers out there on the Thursday morning. My running tracking app failed again mid-run, and despite being more vigilant to catch it when it crashes, I must have lost at least a kilometer from the record keeping. For a person who somewhat obsessively lives by numbers and measurements, this is getting very frustrating. I’m not so much a “Luddite”, but I think the reason I am pessimistic about so much technology is the inexorable march towards suckiness. I so often get hooked into some legacy software tool that is svelte and streamlined, but with each iteration (and good lord some of the apps update literally every f*cking day [I’m looking at you Firefox]), they become worse and worse.
Anyways, I took a quick shower back in the hostel after my roughly hour long jog and mostly packed up so I would be ready to checkout at 10am. Since I had ample time, I headed down to the lounge and ordered a double espresso while internetting and surreptitiously munching on leftover bread dipped in butter (taken with me from Magdeburg). At the appropriate hour, I grabbed my luggage, checked out, put my luggage in a storage room, and returned to the lounge to continue internetting. I had plans to meet R, whom I had met in Berlin and arranged to crash two nights with, at noon.
When it was time to leave, I crossed the street to the Hauptbahnhof to take the S-Bahn over to Reeperbahn, which happens to be Hamburgs red light district. I had trouble purchasing a ticket, but with patience and trying several machines, eventually figured out the secret navigation through the menu to find the option for a day pass. I had a feeling I might be doing a bit of running around, so it seemed like a good precaution.
R was waiting for me on the platform and we walked to his apartment together. He is quite a collector and a frequent treasure hunter of flea markets, and his apartment looks like a curiosity shop. Today was the first day of the summer vacation (R is a teacher), so he was free to show me around town. After a quick coffee, we headed over to a “alternative” pizza place. On the way, R pointed out old buildings which had been saved from destruction in the 1980s through clashes with the police. Though Reeperbahn is a bit seedy, the debauchery is basically limited to a narrow zone, while the rest of St. Pauli is quiet and residential. The area was originally working class, though like everywhere else is slowly gentrifying after that initial wave of students, artists, and immigrants.
The pizza was excellent, if pricey, and I followed R’s lead in ordering a beer–a local craft beer–which was quite tasty. After the lunch, we headed over to a water bus at the old fish market and took it some distance up the Elbe River. It was unfortunate that the weather had taken such a strange turn. The weather everywhere has been mostly warm (hot) and sunny, but even after hitting more than 30 yesterday, today’s high was barely 21. I wore jeans and might have even been better served with a jacket. The sky was completely clouded over and gray as well. After passing the stop where the cruise ships berth, we alighted and walked up to where there was a sandy beach along the river and well-known bar.
After one round, in which I tried Astra–the local beer, we headed back to take the water bus down to the philharmonic building, which took the city 15 years and 80 million euros over budget to build. The building is open to the public and it was interesting to go up, both for the views of the harbor and for its interior architecture. The way up is an incredible long escalator that follows an elliptical curve. We had to queue for tickets to enter the building, but the tickets were free. So, instead of recuperating the building costs by charging a little admission, the city pays an employee to hand out pieces of paper with a bar code that unlocks the high tech entry gates. Germany can’t be bothered to put turnstiles on its public transportation, but does for the concert hall.
A fairly short walk through the Altstadt brought us to a Chinese supermarket, where I did some shopping. I offered to cook dinner and had a menu of dishes in my mind, while there was also a regular Friday night gathering in a community garden. The Asian supermarket was pretty cool, with a good selection of recognizable brands from Chinese, Korean, and Japanese supermarkets. The prices, on the other hand, were enough to cause a heart attack. As R had been picking up the check so far, I made sure to buy the groceries.
I think we caught the S-bahn over to the Landungsbruken and took a minute to explore the architectural wonder from the 1910s–an art deco tunnel under the river with car elevators. We dropped off the groceries and I grabbed a jacket, then we went to a local craft brewery and sat outside. It was quite crowded despite the weather, and reminded me of Beijing or Shanghai. It’s funny how much I associate craft beer with the handful of brands in China, but either there aren’t so many options in the cities I travel or in my travel mindset, I balk at the fairly universal pricing of craft beer (from Beijing to Seoul to Hamburg, a glass of craft beer costs roughly the same). Of course, whereas it is a mark of “expat-ness” to get a craft beer in Asia, its just another street cafe in Europe.
R had an errand to run, so after another swing by the apartment, he pushed a DIY wagon-bicycle with some supplies over to the community garden he works at and ultimately a fab-lab where he stores a lot of stuff for tinkering. It was past nine at this point (he had barely slipped into an Edeka supermarket before closing to return a bunch of bottles for the Pfand), and we had a supper of lentil soup at a Turkish restaurant. It’s notable that though I see Turkish eateries everywhere, I have so far only gone in them with locals.
I was getting pretty tired so I turned down the offer to “corner.” Cornering is a pastime in Hamburg where people buy beer from a shop and sit on a street curb. It’s so weird, but I can attest it really is a thing and there are a couple parts of St Pauli where people travel to for the privilege of sitting on the dirty ground. I guess St. Pauli doesn’t really have much green space, so sitting in a park is out of the question.
Back in the apartment, R put a record on and poured out a nightcap (a Scotch-style whisky from India) and I looked over his library. We talked about books, TV, and movies, so I also got to show off my digital library.
| Espresso | 2.5 |
| 9-hour Metro pass | 6.5 |
| Asian Groceries | 28.3 |
| Craft beer | 11 |
| Total: | 48.3 EUR (376.7 RMB) (USD 54.86) |
Running Total: 8666.6 RMB (USD 1262.1)
Daily Average: 393.9 RMB (USD 57.37)