moin! moin! hamburg
I beginn to feel that i'm north. The landscape is getting flatter, the winds a bit more prominent and theres more and more water - it feels great.
Looking at the weather I was abolutely lucky so far - the days are sunny, not to warm and some nice clouds deliver shade when you need it.
Hamburg is ~120 km away from Bremen. The idea was to make it in two days but the flow we talked in the last post said: "hello i'm here to accompany you". Could just drive and drive at a nice pace and the first big pause was after 50km. There I sat down at a bench and table set, had some nuts, cuecumber and a cheese bun (spicy mountain cheese this time) and on we ride.
I just rode along, the sun slowly set and suddenly the fist signs of hamburg appear. The Elbe dam, then the first drawbridge, locks and then cargo trains. Rode about half an hour along industrial areas outside the port, then it gradually changed to settlements, appartments and soon im in the middle of it. It is quite late ppl sitting outside having drinks - so much life. The same felt I - a intense happiness mixed with beeing a bit proud what i acomplished today - 115 km in around 7h of driving.
The first night i've stayed at hotel Altan in St. Pauli. The receptionist was allready waiting fir me. Nice guy, we did the checkin and found out WLAN is not working - So no card payment. Had to go into town and get some cash first. Challenge was to find a place with a working EC machine, so it took a bit. The first walk around the hood.
Took me a bit longer to get to the hotel. Komoot sent me on the direct route - by ferry. So had my private harbour tour. At night with all the lights the three or four stops it was just amazing. Beeing on water on a boat alone made me happy - very happy. Not sure what triggers this in me. Ships, ferries, water - that just clicks with me 🌊, might run in the family - Ahoi! Opa.
Lets come back to hotel Altan for a bit. From the outside you will just miss the entrance at evening. An unmarked door and a small hallway. Not sure about its history but they adopted to daily rates now 😝. Nah, just kidding - it was OK with a very simple room and a nice and clean shower.
...and a locked door connecting to the other rooms shower. Always a source of interresting sounds and conversations - when in the room, neighbors who I’ve met during checkin had to take a break at the next house entrance after getting their "loot" at the next kiosk 🙂.
The story should end here, so should the trip.
Found a small coffee roastery: St.Pauli - deathspresso. The owner a former coffee trader went small scale and taking the knowledge on where to get nice beans and together with his love for coffee turned it into: damn fine roasted beans - an exquisitly brewed coffee. Mix that with the perfect location (for me). Close to my hotel and hostel with a nice atmosphere and friendly people and you go everything you need.
Burry me here one might say...
Let's look behind the stage 🙃
I have spent four days in Hamburg, wanted to get a feel for the city.
Fixed up with coffee and with perfect weather outside I wanted to explore the area around St. Pauli first.
Busy, hip, artsy - felt a bit like berlin, just with a bit of the salty sailor spirit and a slight smell of fish added on top.
As it was warm and summer everybody wants to be out. People sitting in the streets, standing in front of their houses, having drinks and food till late in the night. Open windows tell tales of student parties - music floats through the air.
When you let your eye wander you see midst of the textures made of tags on the walls, entrances an doors loads of art - streetart, graffity, stencil, knitting, colorful and painted tiles or just nice murrals drawn in chalk - to be washed or pissed away...
Art is futile and Hamburg is rough.
As canvas you got old storage builds, kontors, housings. Old buildings with stone craft, modern architecture and the usual ugly buildings to fill the void and fullfil their function.
After the first night at the hotel I have stayed in a a small hostel in St. Paulis Talstraße. Thats litteraly 20 meters away from the famous train station Reeperbahn.
If you want to feel the pulse of hamburg and check its blood pressure, we got our fingers on the right spot.
Walking around theres a large space for events near the Stadium St. Pauli. A huge concrete building sticks out like a pyramid in midst the city. It's an old FLAK (Anti- Aircraft) bunker from war times repurposed in an amazing and modern way. The roof planted with trees, inside a center for media production, a roof garden, hotels and a huge bouldering gym in there.
Standing next to is the sheer size is breathtaking and in comparison you feel so small. Ok im not large but imagine me jumping on the spot for a second with my hands over my head to make me as large as i can be – Still a little ant standing on front of a street curb made of concrete.
The first night at the hostel, imagine a room that could have been an office with about 20 bunk beds in it. Each one with a curtain for some privacy and a small locker in front. The first advice from the owner was to keep your important stuff close to yourself. The bed itself was okay. The cleaning lady an older woman with the dress code and attitude of a well seasoned sex worker was acting as mommy for all the drunks and desprate ones from all over the world. The first time seeing her she was having a discussion with her little dog that did not want to go near the floor scrubber and was slowly sliding by it on the slightly wet floor wile she pulled him towards the scrubber on the leash.
Had to convince her that im not in the need for her intense care - I am a sober one - a situation she clearly never encountered before and had to get familiar with it at first.
The bathroom been as clean as can be expected from the location had the sheek of a prison shower. Simple durable and no chance for the "inmates" to rip anything usefull of the walls.
Went to explore the city fuether and wanted to go to the hamburg history museum - was closed unfurtunately except a special exhibition about hamburg grafitty art scene. Was awesome, from artbooks and concept art to occupied houses on the local music scene and pop culture.
Next to Hafenstadt area with the Hamburg Philharmonic house which has a unique achitecture that resembles something in between a ship and a wave - Said to have amazing acoustic.
Went for a break back to the hostel, passed it anyway and went for some food later. A vietnamese Pho place run by nerds. Amazing taste a nice atmosphere between a Street fighter 2 arcade machine and a wall full of manga and anime pictures out of gibly movies and animated series like Akira.
Full and happy - it is early in the evening, so i went towards Sternschanze to check out the famous Rote Flora, a self organized antifachistic center run in a former occupied house. Nowadays part of Hamburgs agreement about occupied houses. They been hosting the system change congress that weekend - talks and workshops about climate change and exchange of ideas for sustainable societies.
The perfect weekend for a visit at the Reeperbahn - a long holiday weekend, this is when the drunks and crazies hatchet, flock together to perform various mating rituals.
A new group just arrived, a bachelor party. After setteling in - the prominate way is best, let the other animals know a new flock is around - they tried a nation sport we call "umziehen" in german, which is the procedure best described as changing clothes - let the games beginn:
Stage 1: Wheres my bunk...and and stuff.
Stage 2: My key does not fit, somehow in connection with stage 1.
Stage 3: Wheres my wallet, "they" took it, including a walz to the reception continued by the calmest owner explaining the concept of keys and numbers again.
Stage 4: Where are my pants with an special act on the floor going into embrionical posture and evolving into a beetle that landed on its back. This act took aeound 20 minutes of the stage play brah-voh 😁👏
Stage 5: No need for new pants and boom there it is - wallet in a pocket.
Did not see them the next day, maybe they are lost or did not not find the way back to the hostel.
Lets go out where human beeings are - back to Rote Flora for a reading and discussion of Eva von Redecker. Der Spiegel called her one of the most interresting thinkers of our time. On the system change conference she read from her to latest books: "Revolution für das Leben" and "Bleibefreiheit".
In her works she draws out the destructive forces implied by capitalismn - how it is connected to racism, patriachy and the climate crisis.
While beeing in hamburg I wanted to take the chance to meet a friend from Stuttgart who moved there, as he was confronted with the kind of narrow mindedness that can lead to destruction over time.
In hamburg with their roots in beeing traders and sailors it formed connections to the whole world. People from all over the world came, visited, stayed and exchanged culture, ideas, values and dreams. Nobody asks in a harmful way where he is from, his orientation and sexuality is never questioned - so he can live in peace now. One that he could not find with all little racist needles he got stabbed with every single day - you made a great decision my friend, can see that you are doing well 🤗🏳️🌈
We wanted to meet at a party on the docks a few kilometers outside of hamburg city. While preparing in the hostel and withdrawing some cash at the ATM machine next to the entrance a very "Reeperbanish" thing happened.
Theres a kiosk in the next building, as the customership is usually quite drunk theres security in front of it. Three sitting on a beer bench while a group of bachelors went by taking up most of the space on the walkway as if they were fighting heavy waves. One of them looked at the bench and from his perspectve sitting there must have looked like the best thing that could happen to him...
The security gave him the first verbal varning and pushed him a bit to the side. The second warning as he tried to side and did push his body next the the three securities. Bench was allready full so wouldn’t work anyway - he did not notice that detail. Third warning with action: One of the securites who had his pepperspray ready and hidden the whole time pushed him away gave him a heavy dose and was not happy with him on the floor an chased after him - his buddies trying to calm hin down, telling him to stop it - the drunk had enough all ready. The security cought up and smacked him in the face, the drunk went down on the floor again. Only then the other securities slowly managwd to get his friend away from him.
All this happend about two meters away. The ATM slowly doing its thing and sputting out money for me while the other one was spitting out blood. Just then I noticed fluid on me, not much...seems the pepper spray got me. My glasses took most of the hit another bit on my hand.
Talked to the securites with a foot in the lockable door of the hostel - thought it was worth the risk to tell them that they involved bystanders with their excessive actions. All of which were illegal or assault. Maybe they heard clearly that i was sober maybe not - at least they knew or realized that it was illegal and there had been witnesses on their actions. Well they are "professionals" in that hostile environment so they knew I think...
Two minutes later the securites were gone, the bench was gone as if it never happened.
Went to clean my glasses as good as possible and wash out my eye. Pepperspray is quite sticky and water usually distributes it rather the get rid of it.
Maybe all that chilli eating and grinding was worth something - felt like touching your eye with habanero hands 🙄 - so all fine and lucky I just got a bit sprayed – welcome to Reeperbahn, wanted the full experience and got it 😁
Ready to ride to the docks. Leaving St. Pauli towards Hafencity and then fuether into the industrial bowls of the city. Just a 30 minutes drive which was awesome by itself. Love big cities at night. Challenge for now is how to hide the bike somewhere safe.
Ready for a game of where is "bikeo"(waldo) - Can you find it?
The docks is a place for electronic music run by two hamburg art collectives. The entrances a narrow corridor through a few rows of cargo container stacked five or six stories high and your in the midst of an atrium surrounded by walls of cargo containers.
The music of the evening - rough industrial techno.
Not the music I enjoy the most but was worth to see the place and meet a friend. The place has loads of potential. Though it lacks a bit of organic decoration and the it would be absolutly rad.
No chance to leave hamburg without a cup of that delicious coffee by deathpresso.com - This time a french press full of Peruvian beans.
Usually im all for the stronger darker roasted beans, thought i'll give it a try... and it was worth it.
Round, a slight taste of fruit - a soft slide into the day 😊
Thats it! A last MOIN! to you Hamburg, nice to meet you. Next time - off center living - still want to enjoy a concert in the philharmonic. Some epic classic with a lot of drive should be fun - Another time 🎩😉.
On to Denmark 🇩🇰