Hamburg, Pt. 1

Friday

Megan's apartment building

Lake right by Megan's apartment

Train station

It was a beautiful day in the morning. Megan, her sister Sarah, and I went to the Hamburg zoo, which according to the tour book is world-renowned. It was a really great zoo. You were able to feed some of the animals, most especially the elephants! Sarah managed to find two peanuts on the ground, so we were able to feed them too.

The zoo was also really nice in it felt like the animals were happy and not cramped. And they had several free-roaming animals, including an animal that we at first thought were dogs, really huge rabbits, kangaroos, or a mix between the three. They liked basking in the sun and never were really close enough to get a good look at them, but they were some really funny creatures.







Summer!

And they had dinosaurs??

Sunbathing

Chickens lined up to watch the cheetah

The dog-bunny-kangaroos

Yay!

Tapirs are hilarious creatures



Grocery shopping for dinner was amazing – my eyes were wide at all the prices. Megan took us to a discount store, so everything was even cheaper, and I just kept thinking “Man, why didn’t I study abroad here??” And we finally got home and had an amazing chicken parmesan dinner. We were all really happy to finally have food:



Saturday

The traveling King Tut exhibit was in Hamburg, which was a fun surprise. We checked it out, though it was really complicated to get there. You had to buy your tickets at a different location, and then to get to the actual exhibit you had to wind around several corners.

It was a nice exhibit, but I think I had higher expectations in my mind from when the first one came around however many years ago, and I saw it in Phoenix. They actually had King Tut’s mummy at that first one, and in this one it was really difficult for me to figure out what was original and what were copies. I ended up just assuming everything in a case was real and everything outside wasn’t, but the labels all said “Original in gold/wood/glass/etc.” whether it was in a case or not, so I could not figure out what it was trying to say. But I’m assuming they wouldn’t put replicas in a case…and they wouldn’t put originals out where they could be touched (and I did see people touching some off the coffins and things). The audio guide didn’t teach me anything I didn’t know, but I have an unfair advantage of having heard the story many many times. It was still fun!









Containers for King Tut's organs

Servants for the afterlife

King Tut's sandals?



And then because Megan and I both have a Starbucks addiction, we stopped at one nearby and hung out. It’s perfect frappuccino weather, finally! And the sad thing is, I paid less for my drink than I would have for a hot chocolate in Copenhagen..almost half the price, in fact.



Sunday

We were up very early Sunday morning to go to the fish market, although we didn’t end up leaving for a while after we were supposed to. We did catch the end, though, and I’m glad we did. It was fun – it’s part street market, part almost country-fair. There were tons of stands outside with fruit and chicken and bunnies and fish and touristy things, but then indoor there were food and beer places and lots of benches and live music, in which older German men sang fairly terrible covers of American oldies. I got fish and chips because I figured at a fish market I should eat fish, and Sarah ordered us all this traditional fish market drink that’s beer and sprite. It was disgusting…so I had to keep alternating – eat some fish, wash it down with beer, then get rid of the taste with more fish…:-D Nah, the fish was okay and fairly flavorless for me (Megan told me it was really good fish). The funniest part was when he asked if I wanted tartar sauce, but in German, so Megan had to translate. I said no, and he said, “Nein?!?” He couldn’t believe that anyone wouldn’t want tartar sauce. So he asked if I wanted ketchup…which ended up not actually being ketchup but a weird tomato-curry sauce. Germans are strange!















A huge carton of grapes - the standard unit of purchase at the fish market

Hamburg food

Sarah bought two baskets of fruit

We ended up missing the free walking tour, but it worked out, because we then went on a harbor boat. One of the boats is basically a bus, and so we could use our bus pass to get on for free, and we took it its entire circuit. Hamburg’s harbor is absolutely gorgeous. The whole city is really beautiful. It’s a nice mix of old and new and there’s lots of green trees! And it’s by the water…It’s maybe not the typical European-tourist city, but it’s a wonderful city as a city. The weather was beautiful again, so the boat ride was fantastic. I am also convinced that after all these days of sun, I am now more freckly.

I liked all of Hamburg's trees!







On a boat!

My camera decided to not focus for most of the boat ride :(





Sunbathing!







Hamburg's quite a lovely city (considering I don't usually like cities...)