Weekend Round-Up

So with one weekend left, I had a bunch of loose ends to tie up…these loose ends involving 3 cities which I had already visited: Berlin, Hamburg and Heidelberg. For two of the cities—Berlin and Heidelberg—the mission was easy: mail post cards. As these were the first two cities I visited while out in Germany, I had neglected to elevate mailing post cards to their proper priority level (i.e. people, after reading my blog, sent me their mailing addresses to send them post cards as a traversed Europe). The reason I needed to go back to Hamburg was a bit different.

In Spring 2009, I believe I will be traveling to Japan—Tokyo in particular. Now, I’ve been twice before and both times I have forgone checking out their world famous fish market. This is not a mistake I plan on making a third time—after multiple accounts from several people about how amazing the place is. Now, Hamburg also has a fish market and it is open only on Sunday morning from like 4am to 9am. If you can guess, my whole purpose to going to Hamburg was to check theirs out and compare it to Tokyo’s next year.

So here was the plan…leave for Berlin in the morning, get there sometime in the afternoon. Buy post cards (and postage), write and send them off, and spend a couple hours in the city (most likely the main retail strip that’s listed in our annual “Main Streets Across the World” publication). Head out to Hamburg sometime in the evening and get there just as the nightlife begins. Store my bag in one of those lockers in the train station and head out to the Reeperbahn (the main nightlife drag in Hamburg which is home to its clubs, bars and red light district). Party hearty on my last Saturday night in Germany til ‘round 4am, then walk over to the fish market (as it is close by). After getting my fill of the fish market, head back to the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof and catch the first thang smoking to Heidelberg and pick up, write and mail some post cards. Get right back on the train (as everything is closed on Sunday) and head back to Frankfurt.

And guess what…everything pretty much went according to the plan, except for a few minor deviations, namely:

• I went back to Frankfurt after leaving Hamburg…but left back out to go to Heidelberg after taking a shower at the crib.
• It started raining I’d say about 1 or 2am, and it was one of those irritating rains where it was heavier than a drizzle but not enough to classify as a shower or downpour. As such, by the time I got to the fish market, my socks were pretty soaked. And I almost didn’t find the fish market and was ready to give up (everyone I asked where the actual fish market was either didn’t know or pointed me in the opposite direction). Luckily, just when I was ready to give up on finding the place—I had found a little storefront area that sold fish stuff, but it was closed—I asked someone cleaning up one of the storefronts who finally told me where to go. Turned out, I caught the fish market just as it was opening so it wasn’t exactly at full tilt when I arrived…and it didn’t seem as if it was going to get at full tilt at any point given the rain. It was more a fresh fish market than a place to get meals or sandwiches having freshly caught fish in them. Oh yeah…I called this a deviation because it caused me to take the second thang smoking out of Hamburg to Frankfurt (like 7:15am).
  

And that’s about it. I mean, I took some photos in Berlin…

No your eyes are not deceiving you, I believe this is a Chevy Impala out in Berlin

And in Hamburg…





















Oh yeah, as an FYI, I recorded that “End of the Road” preview at a Kareoke bar in Hamburg (sort of like an homage to the Kareoke bar in Lisbon and because it really was the end of the "Germany road" for me). Also, yes I was pretty toasted that night so while I remember taking many of the above pictures, I pretty much remember very little of the night except for the fact that I went in and out of like probably 5 bars/parties and socialized the whole way through.

Cheers.