Wait, what? Culture? Where

Hamburg was the next part of the plan. My friend Hubertus' mother found another connection for me there with family friends called the von Knebel Doeberitz (I think we'll survive without me trying to explain the pronunciation). I got in at about 7 and, through the advice of friendly strangers on the street and on the bus, found the house I was supposed to be staying in. One of their four kids let me in. The parents were eating at a friends house. The girls watched a girl movie, the men (me and an 11 year old) watched soccer. The parents got in at eleven. It was honestly kind of weird, but I think for everybody. For kids to let a stranger into their house is an odd event, and to come home to a stranger in your house has got to be an oddity as well.They were a friendly family, and made me feel welcome despite the short time and awkward situation.

The next day I met with my friend Anais in the city. She studies at the same university as me in Eichstaett. She showed me the better parts of the town over a full day despite her three hours of sleep the previous night. I had poorly planned my trip in the respect that Anais was not only a good friend of mine, but she lived in a much more strategic part of the city than the German family I had stayed with the night before. I sheepishly asked if I could stay at her place that night, and she answered yes without hesitation.

Hamburg is really famous. I don't know if you knew. I know I heard the name of the city from an early age, but I never knew why. As I traveled around Europe I heard numerous times that Berlin was the coolest city in Europe. Since being in Germany I've heard often that the coolest city in Germany is Hamburg. Not knowing why people were so hyped about Hamburg I went there with relatively large expectations. As such situations often play out, it didn't meet the expectations that the hype had inflated. There's a lot of reasons for that, one being that the people telling me these things have always been my age. What are people normally doing when they're in Berlin or Hamburg at my age? Visiting, sightseeing, touring, whatever. They're staying in hostels, going out late, staying out late, and mingling with people their age. Berlin is stocked full of every imaginable genre, caste, and type of person. It's bleeding out the ears with blunt and colorful culture. It's freshly scarred by the tragedies of the Cold War and Germany's still healing wound from being ripped in half for 38 years. You walk the streets and it's unapologetic and often daring culture strolls, struts, and stalks with a stylized limp to an ever changing and ever ranging beat right before you. I saw the daylight postured version of Berlin when I was there, but I never got a glimpse of, what I imagine would be, the bare-boned variety that is Berlin youth and life at night.

When I heard about Hamburg I always heard of how pretty it was. In comparison to Berlin, pretty it was. Berlin is cold walls and mixed colors compared to the pampered harbor city that is Hamburg. Don't get me wrong, Hamburg got hollowed out by the Allies much worse than many other German cities. I only say pampered because I felt pampered, but that probably has more to do with sunshine and a good friend than anything else. I think many people prefer Hamburg because it carries a lot of the diverse culture that Berlin enjoys, but it manages a much more dignified and less raw posture than Berlin. In either city you can find the niche you want, and the niche finds you in it's best apparel. You want hipster, you want hippie, you want punk, you want rocker, talker, pop-and-locker, there's just about any stereotype you want and it feels cool.

I came to Hamburg with a respectable enough basis of historical knowledge to feel ready. In Bremen I was told "Hamburg ist die Tür zur Welt, aber Bremen hat den Schlüssel dazu." (Hamburg is the door to the world, but Bremen has the key). Both members of the Hanseatic league, a powerful and influential trading alliance between many cities in the middle ages, both Bremen and Hamburg pride themselves on being "Hansa" cities. Ever heard of "Lufthansa," the most famous German airline? "Luft" means air, and "Hansa" calls upon that powerful alliance that connected all centers of the world for hundreds of years. These cities remained independent throughout the Holy Roman Empire and every other dominating force that tried to shackle them over the better part of a millennium. Hamburg today is still very much a harbor city with cranes and seagulls and all the trinkets thereto. Just about every church has a weather vane like object perched upon it's steeple with a ship right underneath the cross. 

Anais and I sat on the docks and ate, we wandered around the old harbor part of town, we strolled next to the pond in the middle of the city, we gaped through the literally hollowed out and roofless ruins of an ancient church called St. Nikolai,

 and we had a great dinner in the charming dungeon of a restaurant in the cooler part of town. After being too relaxed at dinner I realized I had an hour to take a subway, run to Anais' apartment, grab my bag, run back to the metro station, take another subway, and try to make it to the main train station in time to take by bus to Heidelberg. I left Anais at the metro station with my jackets, jogged a good distance in about 7 minutes, picked up the much heavier bag than I'd previously noted, ran back to breathlessly and far from charming in stench to hug Anais goodbye, took my jackets, and ran on. I got to the bus about 5 minutes before it left and nodded off as Hamburg joined the background. It was a good city. I enjoyed good company more than the city, but the city was still a wonder.