Germany Hamburg – As we were waiting to see if our friend would be allowed into Germany from the other side of the immigration window, I found myself stuck at the Hamburg airport with a person who I have never met before. Little did I know that I would move into the same house with these guys after spending three months in Peru during the COVID 19 lockdowns.
I booked an instantaneous two-day return flight to Hamburg, Germany in February 2020, as one of my Indian friends, living in Ireland enticed me with supreme lower airfares. There was going to be an Irish friend of his on the trip, with whom I would be exploring Hamburg later. I did not look up any details or places on the internet as I was thinking of enjoying the luxury of tagging along and explore a new European city with an open mind. In my recent travels in the European Union, I was finding a lot of similarities and monotony in most of the cities.
The Indian friend of mine introduced me to his Irish friend as we boarded the flight from Dublin, Ireland to Hamburg, Germany. That flight promised us eventful days ahead as we talked about how everything fell into place for this trip. About an hour later, we would see that an Indian friend of mine was anxiously waiting on the wrong side of the immigration as he failed to check his Schengen visas, which stated that he did not have multiple entries in the Schengen region. Being an Indian passport holder, I was wary of the complications that could arise every time I would go through immigration. However, I have been fortunate this time and would wonder what to do next with my new-found Irish mate as we tried to catch a little nap at the airport. Regardless, I decided to continue the journey as we booked a low-price shared dormitory in the city center at Generator Hostel, Hamburg.
As we looked for our options to get to the city center, the metro train would turn out to be the best possible commute. I found it amusing that we encountered no entry barriers or machines where one would tap their tickets. It made me remember one of the travelers I met on my previous trips mentioning no barriers as he said that people in Germany respect the laws and believe that the money they pay for the public transport is going to be later used for them. During these two days, we got on to a few more trains but never saw these barriers and never saw someone not purchasing a ticket before getting on the commute.
Unlike me, my Irish friend has done his research and recommended an Indian place for lunch as we checked into the hostel. I would usually go for the local food, but I could not deny him as he was already looking forward to it. To my surprise, I saw a lot of Indian as well as Asian grocery shops and restaurants in the city. Â And, the food at Badshah Restaurant was effortlessly delicious as well as super cheap as I compared the rates in Dublin. We would go on to visit the place again the next day.
We were looking forward to getting drunk that night and try a few German beers as well. On our walk to Reeperbahn, a famous entertainment street in Hamburg, we decided to visit Speicherstadt, as it was the first tourist attraction that came up in the search. Here, we also got our customary pictures taken at the same spot where every photo in the search would suggest. It was a rainy day and I did not find anything amusing about the place, to be honest. When I inquired about the place later after finishing the trip, I would find that Speicherstadt has been protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is the largest warehouse district in the world. The buildings didn’t represent the modern German architecture but were built on oak piles and with Gothic architecture.
Reeperbahn shines at night with restaurants, nightclubs, and local bars. Also, sex shops, erotic museums, and brothels. My mate turned down my curiosity to see how the largest brothel in Europe in the sixties looked like; in spite, we went bar hopping. Our club-hopping adventure made us meet a lot of local people with whom we got indulged in knowing the history of the place as we sipped franziskaner – a traditional beer, one after the other. We were surprised that most of the bars allowed smoking inside. Almost every place, we met some locals who after getting drunk, have conversed with us in German. In one bar, I have been offered a free shot the bar lady as I was one of the only few tourists in the town. Also, the legendary rock band ‘The Beatles’ played in a lot of bars here before they hit stardom. We finished the night at an early hour of the day as my Irish friend would guide me towards our way to the hostel.
Not that we wanted to, but the next day, we slept almost until afternoon. We decided to go to the Hamburg Rathaus, which was within walking distance from our place. Commonly known as a city hall, Hamburg Rathaus exhibited an impressive architecture and had a vast open space in front which was used for occasional events, exhibitions, and festivals. We also paid a visit to the church of Saint Peter on the way. However, local sightseeing did not fascinate us more as we both were looking for another night in the town before we go back to Dublin.
Again, we were there in Reeperbahn, starting with the same bar, Zum Silbersack. This time, the barman recommended another pub where his friend worked and passed on a note for her. Once there at Rosi’s Bar, both of us did not utter a word about switching to another place as we engaged in conversations with a lot of interesting personalities, and a lot of drinking. We would also see one of the guys getting kicked out of the pub the security personnel. The bar lady spoke very nice English and we shared conversations ranging from horoscopes to ‘not-much-spoken-Nazi’. She would, later, convince my friend to have a look at one of the brothels near. When we visited the brothel, we saw a maze-like building with colorful lightings, that portrayed the middle eastern architecture.
Almost all the building was empty as it was very late, and very few workers were occupying their spaces. We felt as if a few eyes were following us everywhere. We decided to go to the same pub again as we got out of the building very fast, only to find out that they were closing. But the bar lady generously waited for us to have one last beer and of course, to hear about our little rendezvous. If I am to go back to Hamburg again, Rosi’s Bar would be my first place to go.
The next day, we flew back to Dublin in the morning, wondering about the misfortune of our mutual friend and how we did not remember him during our stay. Four months later, when we would share a house together; we would talk about visiting Prague, Czech Republic when traveling resumes. New adventures await.
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