After two wonderful holiday weeks and 6 days in Hamburg, I'm back home in Austria and back home in my normal working life. The transition from being at home to being back at my desk in the office is never easy, but it didn't went as bad as I thought. That could be linked to my newly adapted "everything is positive" attitude towards life. I've been to an exhibition which was based around the heart and living healthy and I learned, that people who think the glass is half full tend to have healthier hearts and fewer heart-related diseases. So away with my slightly dark and negative me. Hello to all full glasses! To be honest - I have this attitude since Monday and I had to remind myself about it about a hundred times so far. But I'm trying. That has to count, hasn't it?
Anyway, I actually want to tell you about my trip to Hamburg in this post, so here we go!
It was my second visit to Hamburg. I visited my friend J, whom I met when we both studied in Vienna, four years ago. She soon quit studying and moved back to Hamburg and we promised, to visit each other every year. 2014 was my turn again. Two years ago I made my first trip to Hamburg and J made sure, that I saw every single tourist attraction that you should see when you stay in Hamburg. This time was different. I saw the Landungsbrücken, I already made a harbour cruise, we climbed the bell tower of the Michel and had a long, long evening at the famous red light district .Reeperbahn So there was no need to do all of this again and so it was possible to see Hamburg from the view of someone who lives there.
The weather in Hamburg is pretty much unpredictable. When I left Austria, I was prepared for days of rain and cold weather. When I stepped out of the plane it was warm and sunny. As we didn't know how long this nice weather would last, we started my holiday with a day trip to the Ostsee, the Baltic Sea. It is just a one and a half hour drive. It was very windy that day, so we felt rather chilly. The sea was rather cool, so we didn't dare to go into the water. But we layd around in the sun all day, drank coffee, talked, read a lot, listened to music, napped...all the things you need to do for having a successful day at the beach - at least in our account. That's the great thing about travelling with J - we are totally alike. I'm a person who's constantly hungry. That often causes difficulties when I'm out - as no one needs to eat as much as I do. Except for J. Definitely one of the reasons we like each other so much.
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| The baltic sea. And my feet. |
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| "Strandkorb", really typical for the North of Germany and surprisingly comfortable! |
Being by the sea reminded me again of how I love to be there. It is my dream to someday live by the sea or at least have some kind of holiday home there. There's something about the crushing of the waves, the smell of the water and the reflections of the sun that never fails to make me incredibly happy and calm.
In the evening we visited Bad Segeberg, which is famous for its Karl May festival. I have never read any Karl May book or saw any of the Winnetou movies, but J goes there every year since her childhood and she really wanted to show me. Horses, fire, intrigues, drama, fights, death...everything you need for a good cowboy story. Well. Let's say it was interesting, but I'll probably never see anything like this again! ;)
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| the horses were pretty, tough! ;) |
We did some shopping the next day, wandered around town, read a book in the park and went to a musical in the evening. No pictures of that, I'm sorry. The musical was called 49 1/2 shades of grey and it's a parody on the book 50 shades of grey. I read the book simply because I know we would go to that musical. I didn't really like the book but the musical was hilarious! They picked out everything I didn't like about the book and the music was lovely too.
On Saturday we did a little tourist-tour. We had a lovely pancake breakfast in the morning and went then to the Elbstrand. It's a beach near the harbour on the Elbe. Again - lying in the sun, reading (I did a lot of reading in those few days. I managed to finish one book and read half of another!) watching the people and the really big containerships which made their way in and out of the harbour right in front of us.
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| The "Elbstrand" |
After that we visited a submarine. It's a former russian spy boat which was turned into a museum in 2002. It's kind of a inside tip, not even a lot of Hamburg people know that it even exists. We had a little tour throught the submarine and were really impressed. I can't imagine that people LIVED down there, under water, no windows, no fresh air, no SPACE, no privacy. Amazing what human beings can endure!
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| The submarine as it's laying in the harbour of Hamburg |
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| the inside. What you can't see in this pictures are the beds that are under the floor. Scary thought, having to sleep buried under the floor while being under water... |
As the weather on sunday was pretty cold and wet, we did nothing all day but hung around in J's appartment. Again, there was some reading. J reads even more books than I do, so we both were perfectly fine with hanging around on the couch and put our noses in our books.
In the evening I had to watch the world championship finale. Mind you - I hate football. It doesn't interest me the least and I of course know nothing about it. But J is a great football fanatic so she dragged me along to watch the game in a very nice bar with a lot of her football-fanatic friends. No pictures here either. I was too busy with making the most of the cocktail happy hour while J and her footbally-friends talked and talked and talked and I had nothing to contribute to the conversation! Interesting, how fast a glass can be empty if you just listen and drink without talking yourself! ;)
Monday was my last day in Hamburg and we were a little tired from the previous night. (If you didn't hear it - Germany won the finale and is no world champion. Needless to say that the whole town (probably the whole country too, but I didn't see that of course) celebrated. It was madness all around. I'm so glad that my man hates football at least as much as I do. A match made in heaven.)
We visited the Körperwelten exhibition which wasn't as creepy and shocking as I expected it. If you haven't seen it - try to do so! It's really interesting to really see how our body looks inside and underneath our skin and how our organs work. Sounds a little dull but I promise - it isn't!
I made my way back to the airport after that. Though I was a little sad to leave already, I was also looking forward to come back home to my man. We had our share at long distance-relationships (5 months, when he was travelling the world and I worked to have some money to follow him. A story I have to tell you sometime!) and I was glad to be back home.
I did some crafting and a lot of reading in my holidays as well - but these will be the topics of two separate posts. For now I'll leave you with this beautiful picture of Hamburgs harbour and the famous Landungsbrücken and a few random pictures I took. You really want to go there yourself now, don't you? Do it. You won't regret! I promise!
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| a park where we spent the afternoon. In Hamburg you find water everywhere. That's why I love the city so much! |
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| The Planetarium. Perfect for a rainy day! |
I always get hungry all the time too! So good you have a friend who shares that :) Hamburg looks lovely, I've only ever travelled through it sadly. The submarine looks interesting, I visited a British one up on the island of Ruegen once, I've no idea how they coped being stuck in those things. You certainly made me want to go to Hamburg :)
AntwortenLöschenoh yes. My man hates it! For him it's okay to just eat once a day. I would never be able to do that! ;)
AntwortenLöschenNext time you're in Berlin add two or three more days and then go to Hamburg! It's not far away and really worth a visit! You won't regret it!