Last Friday I took the train to Hamburg (about 8 1/2 hours), getting in the late afternoon. I was immediately overwhelmed by the humidity and number of people I was surrounded by. Seriously. The train station and streets were just packed. It was a very weird, slightly disconcerting feeling to feel overwhelmed by this aspect of a city. I had not realized until now how accustomed I had become to living in the countryside. I would not venture to say I have never been overwhelmed by a city, just that normally this overwhelmed feeling usually comes from "wow this place is so beautiful" , not "oh my god there are so many people."
Another thing-normally before this I would have looked up directions to where I was going from the train station. But the night before I was tired and said to myself "Sara, that is what a smartphone is for. Just look it up once you are there. Or if you must, on the train." So, I plugged in the address of where I was going (I couch surfed just outside the city) into the tranist app I had downloaded. The directions had me making all sorts of transfers. I remembered that my host said they were a short walk from a subway station, so I looked that up on the map instead, and made the executive decision to trust a human over an app.
I couch surfed with a family (which I realize is uncommon, normally it is hip/hippie/hipster youngins with an extra couch). They invited me to eat dinner with them, which was nice. I had never couch surfed before and hadn't expected they would feed me.
The problem is that I forget I am vegetarian. Or rather, I forget I must tell or remind people. Because at this point most of the people I interact with (at least over food) know.
So, we sat down to eat, and that is when I realized I should have asked what we were eating beforehand. The dad had made a very tasty-smelling casserole, and I couldn't quite tell what was in it. I told myself that since I wrote on my couch surfing profile I'm vegetarian, they must know. I told myself that ignorance is bliss and not to look to closely at the food or ask. I decided I could pick around any meat parts I noticed. I sat there feeling real awkward and not knowing when or even if to mention it. Before I had taken a bite, it came up that there was mince in the casserole.
Well, there went my blissful ignorance.
I was fine picking around the meat bits. But I knew this would look weird without explanation. I thought I could make it look like I just didn't finish all my food-although this would require taking substantially more food so that it wasn't just meat left on the plate. I realized there was now no non-awkward way to mention it. I couldn't decided if it was weirder to say it after I had picked around the meat, hoping they wouldn't notice or say anything, or to mention it before (Meat eaters, please weigh in! I will take note for further awkward situations). I decided to mention it. Lots of awkwardness and apologies ensued, and I insisted I could eat around it (it was quite easy, actually). Whew.
The family had another couch surfer that weekend, and we spent Saturday exploring the city together. It was so nice to spend time with someone my age. I have lately been wishing I had a friend or someone to explore the area with, but I also know that I like walking a lot. And biking a lot. And am not a fan of cabs or running from attraction A to attraction B "because I am in ______ so obviously I have to see ______". This is not to say I don't like touristy things (I like Boudin's, cable cars, and Chinatown as much as the next person). I just want to see them if they are inherently interesting to me, not because that is what I am ":supposed to" or "have to" see when I am in a city.
So when I have found myself wanting a friend, I have reminded myself of this-that even if I had a friend here, it would not be likely that they like to explore places similarly. Well as it turns out, the girl and I were on the same page about all of this, so we spent the day walking around, utilizing the transit system, and going to a few nice places.
First, there was a walking tour I had heard about which, rather than going to five churches and ten monuments and talking about King something and King something the second, walks around a few neighborhoods to talk about street art, gentrification, and political movements in the city.
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| WWII Bunker, now a climbing wall |
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| Churchin' about |
After this, we went to St. Micheal's church, which has a very nice view of the city. After sitting in the pews for a bit, admiring the architecture (and also cooling off), we climbed up the tower.
Wow.
Just wow.
It was so beautiful. You could see everything (including the Sommerdom, which although I had been excited for before, made me even more excited).
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| Japanese Tea Garden |
As in a 3 kilometer (1.86 miles) long carnival.
It was amazing.
There were so many things I wanted to consume. Most of them blue and sugary. My friend did a very good job at helping me pace myself so I did not just eat the first thing in sight. Instead we walked around the whole thing, scoping out the best places to eat. After a "dinner" of french fries (Insert my mom scolding me here "Sara"), I got something called a quarkbällen-it was made with quark cheese, but not in a quark-filling kind of way. It was a doughnut, basically, but very light and fluffy and covered in cinnamon sugar. The Dom had about a million doughnut stalls, but we found the one where you can see them making them on site. So tasty!
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| Quarkbällen |
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| Typical American |
After that we were so beat though, so we headed back to our hosts' home to get ready for an early morning at the Fischmarkt... Which I will continue about später!
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