Last week, I learned that there was a big conference in Mannheim that was super relevant to my internship. Students were allowed into the conference free and I also am able to travel to Mannheim for free on the semester ticket my program bought me. Since medical conferences = free swag, interesting presentations, and more free swag, I went. After the presentation I attended on Friday, one of my coworkers asked me what I would be up to this weekend. The following conversation ensued:
Me: Well I have a backpack in a locker at the Hbf and I'm thinking I'm going to go to Hamburg
Him: You're randomly going to Hamburg with the train??? That's expensive!!!
Me: Uh, well I have a Bahncard 50, so it's only half-expensive!
He is right, of course. It is expensive to go anywhere on the train if you don't buy in advance, but really I had no choice. I could've pre-planned a Mitfahr, but I am plagued by a small bladder and terrible motion sickness and I'm not sure how well a 5 hour car ride with a stranger would go. When I drove to Dresden, I was lucky enough to be traveling with my friend and her mom, so at least I could chat with them to keep my mind off the motion sickness. Regardless, I wound up sucking it up and going to Hamburg.
Despite traveling on Friday the 13th, I am happy to report I arrived at the train station near my Schatz's house only 40 min late! The next day we went to Habmurg (she lives in a small town about 20 min outside of Hamburg) to wander around. There's a ferry that is public transport (free!) that we road around. I am Midwestern and barely ever saw the ocean when I lived in Boston. Additionally, Köln and Heidelberg are nowhere near the sea. Even though the ferry really only traveled around the mouth of the river, it was still a huge change to see all sorts of ships built to travel on the ocean.
I also saw buildings. For example, they are currently building a philharmonic in Hamburg, but it has been taking much more time and money than anticipated and has now become a sore subject. The building looks pretty weird and not at all how I would expect it to look like.
If you look at the bottom right hand corner of this picture, you'll see an ad for the Lion King. This is a permanent fixture in Hamburg and you can take a little ferry over to the arena where it is performed. How do they still get customers? Your guess is as good as mine.
There is also a building that demos what the inside of the philharmonic is going to look like. Outside of the building are little horns where you can hear music that is coming to Hamburg. Inside is the world's creepiest replica. You climb up a set of stairs (which are appropriately labeled with "Enter at your own risk") and stick your head in a hole to reveal this:
What is with their little hats? Why do they all have no faces? Why has someone left an offering of seeds for this replica-people? I am terrified of the answers.
Since I am a magnet for weird things, we also saw Easter bunnies wandering around.
Hamburg is also home to some pretty cool-named boats. This one is for all you Lord of the Rings fans out there.
After our walk around the harbor-area, we headed towards some church ruins. They were destroyed in the carpet bombing of Hamburg, but the tower still remained. They were restored and an elevator was built and you can now ride up to the top and get a nice view of Hamburg.
Afterwards, we went to Planten un Blomen and stopped by Schatzi's old Uni. On our way back to the train station, she pointed out that there is a giant spider statue nearby.
Scary right? She even has a egg sack in her belly.
My last day in Hamburg we saw the St. Michel's Cathedral, which has a pretty scary angel in front.
He will stab you with his twisty cross, so don't even blink. Since this blog post is already filled with enough weird pictures, I will end it with a statue in Altona
Yes, that is two centaurs wrestling a fish. No, I do not know why.
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