My last week in Hamburg for the year was truncated to just a 4-day week (due to frolics with the Londoners the previous weekend) but nonetheless was hectic in terms of finishing tasks. The last couple of weeks have seen me make working models like a madman and it has been a process of discipline and precision that I have thoroughly enjoyed. This fittingly leaves ample time on the weekends to let loose...work hard, play even harder so the saying goes...
Fri.11.12.09: Last Friday I harboured hopes of going to a club hosting three stonking DJs (Modeselektor, Kode9 & Ben Klock) from different genresof dance music but were dashed with the realisation of how much money I did not have. The night nonetheless started with an invitation to a Christmas celebration at the College of Europe Hamburg with Kasia who has a friend studying there. Despite the evening being very formal with a programme of speeches from the institution's professors, humorous storytelling, music recitals, folk singing and even a little bit of 'Plattdeutsch' it was a nice festive wind down especially with the buffet and mulled wine on hand to make things a little merrier. Nino crashed the party late and felt the urge to play on the grand piano much to the delight of the remaining guests as the party petered out; Nino was traumatised that she couldn't play the second half La Campanella by Liszt, Kasia and I were utterly spellbound by the fact that she play what she could...in many ways it made our night as such we didn't need to go to another venue to party the night away...
Sat.12.12.09: We also had hopes of going out to the same club on Saturday night where Digitalism where performing, but we firstly I met up with the Masters Peace & Security crew at Unscheinbar in the Schanzenviertel for a cocktail party...and once happy hour had ended we became the centre of attention on the dancefloor as old school hip-hop and funk/soul were radiating through the cosy and intimate interior of this basement bar...the grooves were so addictive that all our other plans to go elsewhere were put on hold and even when we did go searching for another venue to end the night the lust weakened and the group dissipated leaving just a few to chat over a final beer in Kulturhaus 73...
Mon.14.12.09: (I just had to have one more Schwarzwälder Bauernwurst before heading to Lübeck Airport)
I flew back to London on the evening of 14th December much to the surprise of my unsuspecting mum on the eve of her birthday...
Guten Nacht and bis bald 2010 Hamburg!
Wednesday 16 December 2009
Thursday 10 December 2009
Not one...not two...but three!
Last weekend I was the victim of a rather cunning plan executed to perfection. I was so gullible in the lead up to last weekend that the perpetrators must be congratulated. Lisa, Alvin, Anne, you deserve a round of applause...for weeks had I thought that only Lisa was coming to visit me in Hamburg...Alvin's hoax cancellation and Anne's evasive tactics meant that their apparition at Hamburg central bus station was a complete surprise. Roll on a weekend of fun...
Fri.04.12.09: The whole weekend was pretty spontaneous, as we friends like to keep it. Shortly after arriving into Hamburg we fortuitously met up with a couple of my friends here, Nino & Kasia, and took a stroll (if one can call it that) along the Reeperbahn (red light district). Seeing as it was my friends' visit, we decided to have a ganders in on of the sex shops - intriguing if a little unsettling...We headed back to Kasia's flat for a few rounds of Polish Wodka, a drink which takes some getting used to, for the next morning we were feeling a little rough...
Sat.05.12.09: We decided to move into a hostel on Saturday, as the house would be overpopulated for the weekend - and it worked out for the better. We were booked into different rooms for the first night and met a variety of characters as is per usual but no sooner did we move in that we were out again ready to scurry into the city. After having some scrumptuous crepes at a Breton Creperie we hit the Hamburger Rathaus Weihnachtsmarkt - the atmosphere was buzzing: traditional German market stalls, everyone huddling and shuffling like penguins, glühwein (mulled wine) and bratwurst aromas in the air, there was a genuine feeling of Christmas festivity about the place. There's nothing like sipping on the mulled wine with a bunch of others at a German Christmas market. So much so that we walked to Gänsemarkt Weihnachtsmarkt, which in my opinion, was even better - the stalls were selling more unique items and was also less crowded.
All this trekking around meant that our tanks were nigh on empty and it was only pretty late on in the night that we somehow (and I repeat, somehow) mustered up the energy to go out to the alternative district of the Schanzenviertel for a drink or two at Kulturhaus 73...we also invited along a roommate from the hostel who was from Singapore, who was travelling on her own throughout Europe for 2 months. Funk & soul grooving through the bar area, old skool hip-hop pounding in the basement club below. A last gasp party proper in the city proved to be worth our while in the end, though the bartenders served us their own versions of a Jägerbomb much to our amusement...Sun.06.12.09: We were determined to have an early day so that we could walk around the city properly and despite our intentions (and our shenanigans the previous night) it was already past noon before we did so. We ended up 100 odd metres high up St Michaeli's Tower with one of the best views of the city (and a view of a topless man in a flat below as spotted by Alvin) which only whetted our appetite for some German cuisine. Käsepfalzer with Sauerkraut, Schnitzel, and Winzersteak all went down a treat at a candlelit dinner Hatari/Pfalzer Restaurant on Schanzenstrasse...and for dessert? A 100km/h, 47m high ride at the Hamburger Dom (fun fair). Then the heavens opened up, we got drenched and headed back to the hostel to play card games...
Mon.07.12.09: We finally did get up early enough to enjoy the morning on my friends' last day in Hamburg. I wanted to bring them to a cafe looking over the River Elbe near where I work in Blankenese, the "Treppenviertel", which ultimately we couldn't find. Nonetheless a stroll along the beach and steep ascents and descents amidst the quaint houses upon the hills of this suburb of Hamburg showed my fellow Londoners an idyllic side to my second home...
It was soon the end of my friends' brief visit but we managed to squeeze in another Weihnachtsmarkt this time at Ottenser Hauptstrasse, with a final Currywurst/Schwarzwälder Schinkenwurst with Glühwein & Amaretto/Heißapfel & Mandeln drink...cheers to those who made it over to German soil and experienced a North European Christmas culture!
Pictures to follow...
Thursday 3 December 2009
Tuesday 1 December 2009
Sunset on the River Elbe part 2
I've just been spoilt to another glorious sunset, photos taken Tuesday 01.12.09 1535hrs-1605hrs:
Moving on up
After the disappointment of not securing the ideal flat last week, things have definitely taken a turn for the better...last Friday I managed to find a new room in a cosy house with two (albeit older) people. I just moved in yesterday and I couldn't help but have a cheesy grin on my face when I finally closed the door on a difficult initial tenancy at the family house...
Everything seemed to fall into place following the acquisition; I went to Berlin for the weekend via a "Mitfahr" (literally meaning "ride share"), in which a driver offers the spare seats in his/her car to those wanting to travel to the same destination - it makes so much sense environmentally, that I don't know why something like this exists in the UK. You definitely meet some interesting people along the way...
I met up with two friends from architecture, one who works in Berlin and one coming from London for a weekend rife with banter and shenanigans...we visited a number of well-known pieces of architecture (a particular highlight was David Chipperfield's Neues Museum, which is quite simply stunning) as well as check out some of the bars which make Berlin so unique (there was a game of table tennis in the middle of a bar called Dr Pong, in which people played a game of elimination, much like musical chairs, until the last two slugged it out for bragging rights). To cap an entire Saturday of sightseeing off we went up the Fernsehturm to have a cocktail gazing over the illuminated city, was quite sublime...
We also hit one of the big clubs in Berlin called Watergate - minimal techno, LED lights wrappnig around the ceiling and walls and a panoramic view of the river, need I say more? On Sunday we went for a stroll along the famous East Side Gallery and did a spot of perusing at a local flea market. Just what I needed after a month of trying to find another place to live...
Lomo pictures to follow...
Everything seemed to fall into place following the acquisition; I went to Berlin for the weekend via a "Mitfahr" (literally meaning "ride share"), in which a driver offers the spare seats in his/her car to those wanting to travel to the same destination - it makes so much sense environmentally, that I don't know why something like this exists in the UK. You definitely meet some interesting people along the way...
I met up with two friends from architecture, one who works in Berlin and one coming from London for a weekend rife with banter and shenanigans...we visited a number of well-known pieces of architecture (a particular highlight was David Chipperfield's Neues Museum, which is quite simply stunning) as well as check out some of the bars which make Berlin so unique (there was a game of table tennis in the middle of a bar called Dr Pong, in which people played a game of elimination, much like musical chairs, until the last two slugged it out for bragging rights). To cap an entire Saturday of sightseeing off we went up the Fernsehturm to have a cocktail gazing over the illuminated city, was quite sublime...
We also hit one of the big clubs in Berlin called Watergate - minimal techno, LED lights wrappnig around the ceiling and walls and a panoramic view of the river, need I say more? On Sunday we went for a stroll along the famous East Side Gallery and did a spot of perusing at a local flea market. Just what I needed after a month of trying to find another place to live...
Lomo pictures to follow...
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