Sin City

I left Berlin to come to Habmurg because I was told that it was really really good. When I got here, I was a little disappointed. It is a business city and most people that live here have a bit of money to throw around.

Parliament house inside

When I arrived I at the hostel I nearly lost it because I went on the youth hostel website and found a hostel that was close to the centre of the city. "Vacancy" was on the website, so I didn´t bother to book and it is winter so there aren´t many travelers about. So I go to Hamburg and I rock up at the train station that I am supposed to get off at. I find that the hostel is on top of a huge bloody hill with a shitload of steps on it. By this time I was very tired as I had a big bender in Berlin the night before. So I walk to the top of the steps wearing my circa 20kg collection of bags to find the sign "sorry, but we are closed until February". No wonder it was vacant on the website...Not Happy Jan! So I had to go on a bit of a trip to find the next hostel which cost a shitload more.

Part of parliament house

On my first night I went to the world famous Reeperbahn. For anyone who doesn´t know what it is, the Reeperbahn is the most "sinful mile" (not my words) in the world - whores, strip clubs, night clubs, adult shops and more arseholes/thugs than the population of Perth. I didn´t take my camera there because I was afraid of getting it stolen, but then again it really wasn´t that interesting. A young Norweigian fellow I was out with got more than he bargained for when he started leading on a whore with no intention of using her. She asked him for a drink and he obviously thought "well why not...". Unfortunately for him, she took him to the bar of the place where she works and so he went to buy one. The drink cost €80.00. This is how they make money of idiots.

River houses

The next day I went for a random walk around the city centre and went to see the ´tourist attractions´. This included the industrial harbour - think Fremantle, only longer. Whoop-di-bloody-doo...cranes and boats. Some tourist attraction. I also went to some museums except they all cost €15 to get in so I gave it a miss.

That night this Greek man came into the dorm and he snored so loud you would have thought it was a joke. He was the only person sleeping in a six-person dorm. In a turn of good fate, he managed to roll off the top bunk and land on the hard floor and hurt himself so he had to go to another room or something. This was met with cheers from the rest of us who could now get some sleep. Woohoo! As they say, one man´s trash is another man´s treasure.

town square

All in all, Hamburg was a disappointment for me. Going to Köln now (Cologne).