Martin - CS #19

Travel days for us are usually not about waking up at the crack of dawn to get somewhere as soon as possible. They are more about not stressing out, making sure that we're ready to leave a place, and accepting the fact that we'll get to our next destination eventually. I really love the pace of our trip.

The point of tell you that was that there were a few things we still wanted to do in Berlin, so we weren't in a particular hurry to leave. Also, yesterday we quasi-randomly decided to go to Hamburg for a couple of days! Hamburg is less than 2 hours away from Berlin, which added to us not being rushed.

When we finally got up, we went to Mauer Park. Our tour guide Stephanie had told us this was a great park to go to on Sundays because it turns into a huge flea market and has karaoke starting at 2! How random is that? Nicole had also recommended it to us so we met here there. Turns out most flea markets really are kind of the same. I'm always surprised by how much old, random, mostly useless stuff there is at these markets! After walking through the flea market booths we arrived at where the karaoke usually happens. But it wasn't happening today! Major bummer! We weren't sure why, but my guess is it's either due to the culture carnival going on or the fact that this weekend and Monday are some random religious holiday here in Germany.

Anyway, since there was nothing else happening at the park, we went to the culture carnival for the third time! Nicole said she knew where they sold what is supposedly the best curryworst in Berlin. I'd been avoiding this, but I figured since it was my last day I should try it, especially if she knew the best place. Curryworst is an incredibly popular street food item in northern Germany. It is a type of sausage that looks a little bit deep fried, though I don't think it is, and it gets smothered with curry ketchup, which is exactly what it sounds like. It also typically gets served with frites (fries) covered in paprika powder and/or mayonnaise. We opted for no mayonnaise. I tried the curryworst, and it wasn't bad, but I don't think I would ever order it again. Let's just leave it at that.

To take advantage of the fantastic freedom to drink in public and on public transportation, we each got a beer and then tried to peer over peoples' heads to watch the nearby parade. The parade supposedly takes 9 hours because there are so many floats and dancers, so it's an all day event. There were thousands of people in the streets though - which was cool, except I really couldn't see anything. Finally we decided to call it a day and with our beers got on the metro to go back to Steph's flat to pick up our bags and head out. I'm so excited to be able to say that I drank a beer on the metro!

After we got our bags and said our goodbyes to Steph, we got one last gyro and took a picture with our kebap man! We were such good business for him :)

The train to Hamburg was surprisingly fast considering it usually takes us way longr that 2 hours to get to where we're going. There we met our next host, Martin. Martin is 29 and works for an IT consulting company. He's originally from Liepzieg which is in East Germany. Our our way back to Martin's flat, we talked to him about the difference in life before and after the wall game down. He was only 9 when the wall came down but it was so interesting and amazing to be able to speak to somebody about their experiences. Annnnnd....THIS is why I love CouchSurfing.

I should mention that in Martin's hallway on the bookcase I saw a vaguely familiar red box that said "Die Seidlers Der Catan" on it and I freaked out with joy and excitement. Martin won MAJOR points for that!! Now I really want to play Settler though...

At Martin's place, he kept trying to feed us! We weren't that hungry but couldn't say no to fresh slices of sweet orange and yellow bell peppers and some bread. He also kept insisting that we taste his prized Spanish sherry along with samples of his dry and sweet white wines. Martin has a thing for quality olive oil. I absolutely love it when people have a special affection for quality ingredients, especially if I happen to also love those ingredients. We got to try three different types of olive oil that he orders especially from certain people that make it - he refuses to buy the cheaper, lesser quality batches of olive oil that most people buy in super markets. He had a 'normal' olive oil, a spicy olive oil, and an olive oil infused with orange. Needless to say, they were all really good over peppers or with bread and wine, and it was an extremely pleasant welcome to the cute city of Hamburg.

After our light dinner, Martin took us into Hamburg to see the city by night. We walked under this crazy long tunnel that runs 21 meters under water! On the other side of the tunnel you can see some good views of Hamburg and the port. Then we went through Hamburg's red light district trying to find a bar. All of Hamburg's working girls were wearing completely normal, conservative clothes and some were talking in little groups of two or three. The only way you could recognize them was by their signature black fanny packs. Every single one of them was wearing a fanny pack! I thought this was so funny because basically nobody wears fanny packs anymore and they're not seen as attractive or seductive in the least. Really bizarre. Also I find it highly amusing that I'm able to compare and contrast red light districts from all over Europe. What a well traveled young adult I am...

Finally we found a small ish bar that didn't have unbearably loud music (and rather good music, at that). There is no way to escape the smoke, and my throat already didn't feel fantastic but there was nothing I could have done. Martin got us a small Hamburg micro-brewed beer that was much better than most of the beer we've tried lately (which has been extremely disappointing). This bar also had a foosball table and Martin and I played against a couple of other guys for a little while. I scored the last goal from one of my defender-foosball-men which was really fun! I also had a revelation - "fuB" (pronounced "foos" in German) means "foot" in German. So foosball is kind of a variation of football, in loose German. I think that's pretty clever.

Martin was ready to take us to another bar but we opted to go home since I wasn't feeling fantastic and since we wanted to have energy for our one and only full day in the city tomorrow. We got back to Martin's place and realized that he was letting us sleep on his giant, real bed and he was taking the couch/futon! Another real bed!!! How lucky are we?! Serioulsy, beds are so exciting to me at this point :)