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| Hamburg, Germany |
It’s been almost six weeks since my last blog update – six weeks
of great adventure, great fun… and judging by the Incredible-Hulk-like
appearance of my shirt today, six weeks of way too much food! With the events
of Awful-August now well and truly
behind me, and Sensational-September living
up to its name, I am now ready to catch up on my blog entries, and update you
all on the events of the past six weeks.
My last entry (if you can remember back that far!) finished up in
Bremen, on my way to Hamburg. Since then I have had a jam-packed adventure
seeing the very best of Denmark, the UK, Iceland, Greece and Hungary – and
meeting or catching up with a great assortment of amazing people along the way.
To all those who let me into their homes (only once through an open window,
thanks to the conveniently-skinny Eliza) families and lives over the last six
weeks, I am incredibly grateful, and thank you for helping make this adventure
the great success it has been. Also a big thanks to CSI Aaron, Adrienne,
Dillon, Nick and Ali, Rachel, Eliza, Ros and Paul, and of course super-mum
Amanda for helping me through the dramas of Awful-August
– a month I am certain not to forget!
However, more importantly, this entry also signifies the
inauguration of my brand new MacBook Air into
the world of blogging! Replacing my MacBook
Pro, the Air is a welcome
addition to my carry-on luggage, and hopefully the slimming down of the
computer may be contagious, and my five-months-in-Europe body may just follow
suit!
I think that’s it for introductions – it’s time to get down to
business!
Today I write from an Embraer 170 Egypt Airlines plane,
miraculously suspended in the air somewhere between Hungary and Egypt. While
the physics of flight continue to baffle me, this flight seems even more
miraculous than most – the plane appears to be competing with the Giza Pyramids
to be Egypt’s most ancient relic!!! It’s a small plane – with only four seats
to a row – and it would appear the usual airline safety regulations are more of
a guideline than a requirement… the flight attendants didn’t even sit down for
take-off! The cabin interior complements the age of the plane well, with blue,
brown and apricot leather seats and trim, and the overhead lockers are
obviously recycled from another plane – the front of the plane starts with row
22, and the labelling of following rows continues to increase in number
(skipping a few rows along the way), and alternating between seats labelled
ABCD, ABFG, and my interesting row of four, which is labelled ACKH. To top the
experience off, someone on-board is quite clearly smoking – and with all
passengers within sight from where I sit, I can only assume the cigarette smoke
is wafting from within the cockpit. Ah, the joys of travel!
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| Hamburg, Germany |
Leaving Arne and family behind in Bremen, I caught a train to
Hamburg, the last stop of my three-week adventure through Germany. Hamburg is
Germany’s second largest city, with a metropolitan population of over five
million, and with its convenient location on the River Elbe, it also claims the
title of Europe’s second largest port. Understandably, Hamburg’s history as a
major European port has led to it being one of the most affluent cities in
Europe, however the city is also in an excellent location – just south of the Danish
border – which as Eliza and I soon discovered, gives Hamburg the title of Scandinavia’s Biggest Bottle Shop.
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| Beatles-Platz |
In what may now be seen as a pre-Awful-August hurdle, I arrived in Hamburg quite unwell, and spent
my first few days lazing and moping around a youth hostel, trying to stay out
of Germany’s unseasonal wet weather, and attempting to recover from weeks of Deutsch-Parties, Deutsch-Food, and too much
Deutsch-Drink! The miserable weather did little to entice me out the door,
however I did managed to venture out for a soggy half-day city tour, and made
it to see the cookie-cutter outlines of John, Paul, George, Stuart and a Ringo/Pete
mix at Beatles-Platz – after which I
promptly returned to the comfort of my waiting sleeping bag!
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| Nikki & Conny |
With my couple of nights of recovery out of the way, it was time
to get back into the swing of things, and meet some locals. I was lucky enough
to get an invite to stay on the couch of Nikki, (a Hamburger who it
turns out coincidentally lived in Sweden with one of my friends from Adelaide –
small world!), who warmly welcomed me into her home on one condition – I was
ready to party! Nikki lives in a small apartment in a nice area of Hamburg, and
coinciding with my stay on her massive couch, was a massive party she was
preparing to throw for friends!!! Bring it on!
We spent the next few days seeing the city, exploring the famous Reeperbahn and the beautiful
‘alternative’ St. Pauli district, and
spending every other available minute planning the party to out-do all parties.
Recently arrived back from the US, Nikki decided to theme the party
‘Independence Day’, and we spent way too long, and way too much money in
various party stores across the city, building a collection of supplies to do
the Star Spangled Banner proud. I was nominated to be in charge of decorations
(however Nikki’s friends Conny and Sophie couldn’t resist joining in the fun,
once they saw I purchased metallic denim-look tights!), and with the help of a
rather stern and un-friendly guy at the local print shop, we were set for a
great night!
The party was a great American success, and with a 3-litre bottle
of vodka, jelly-shots, and a constant supply of German beer, we raged well into
the night. I would like to say my German language skills improved as the night
went on, however I think this was only in comparison to my English language
skills, which appeared to deteriorate rapidly! I would like to claim the
decorations were the talk of the party (I wouldn’t know what was actually
said!), and as anyone who ever worked with me at Woolworths will know, I am the
self-confessed Australian King of
Balloons, and I must admit my effort really did our country proud.
5:00am marked the start of the epic clean up, however while I am
sure it would have been great fun, I had “conveniently” booked an early morning
train! What a pity!!! Saying goodbye to Nikki, I stepped over the last few
partygoers who hadn’t quite made it home, and a little worse for wear, was on
my way to Copenhagen!
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