I ended up going to sleep last night around 4am because I briefly fell asleep around midnight. It’s so interesting here because at 3:48am I took a picture outside my window showing how light it was outside (I’m just not used to that). Literally now as I’m typing at 10:46pm it looks like the same picture I took at 3:48am (though it is late, it is still light outside). I slept ok though, the bed is comfy but a little on the firmer side (my hotel bed was more plush and my bed at home would be a nice middle of the two). I made it a point to sleep in as long as I wanted because for once I didn’t have to be anywhere at any given time since I was doing the Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour of Hamburg and you pretty much have all day to use it.

     I woke up a few times because with the Airbnb I’m in (there’s a guest in another room here-I’m staying in a 2 bed 1 bath) everytime someone opens a door it is loud, whether it’s the room door, kitchen, bathroom or front door it’s loud and because the apartment is so small (there is no living room) it sounds like they’re opening your door (so I’m always guarded because of it. So the woman in the other room got up before me (I fell asleep after her though) and everytime she opened a door I’d wake up, check my door and go back to sleep. I officially woke up though around noon and told myself I’d try to leave at 2pm after looking at the weather and seeing it would be sunny out from 2pm-6pm (it was in the high 60’s cloudy now with wind).

     I watched some Netflix and looked up and it was past 2:30pm so I got myself together and headed out. As I was getting ready the host Maria came in to stock some things so I got a chance to meet her (she was nice and left before I did). Thankfully the bus and train station is located at the corner and across the street so that made my walk easy. I tried to figure out my bus ticket situation as the app was different from Berlin’s (No one ever checked my bus or train tickets in Berlin (except on the DB which is considered like Amrak but for local transportation no one ever asked to see my ticket so after the first couple of days I stopped paying). What I realized is if you get in on the front of the bus in Hamburg you have to pay because there’s a little gate blocking you but if you get in on the side or in the back (because the buses here are about a 4th longer than the large metro buses in DC) you don’t have to pay (no one will ask you anything about a ticket-in fact you may even look like a local).

     I only had to ride about 3 stops which basically put me at the train station I came in at yesterday (so I will definitely be using public transportation tomorrow bags and all) which is the main train station. Getting off the bus I saw a mix of different people from Arab, Muslim, African, Eritrean and more (I expected to see this more in Berlin). It was a busy day out and people were out and about at Hamburg’s busy central station. The wind was shipping and I was happy I wore my hoodie and jacket. I spotted the Hop On Hop Off Bus through Hamburger Stadtrundfahrt waiting at the station so I showed my ticket and went upstairs. It wasn’t too crowded which was good and I sat on the right side as the front was taken.

     I enjoyed sitting down and being driven around the city while hearing about the different sites the audio recording pointed out as well as just browsing. Here’s what I learned:
• Hamburg Central Station opened in 1906 and around 720 local and national trains visit this station daily
• Hamburg’s Central Station (aka Hamburg Hauptbanhof) is the largest train station in Germany
• Hamburg Central Station gets about a half million visitors daily
• There are 8 mainline railway lines, 4 urban railways and 6 underground platforms for local traffic that intersect there
• All the shops combined (75) in Hamburg Central Station profit about 2 billion euros yearly
• The Kuntshalle (Art Hall) is the oldest museum in the city (est. 1869)
• Hotel Atlantic is a 5 star hotel that VIP and celebrities like to stay at
• Hamburg is the 2nd largest city in Germany
• About 1.9 million people live in Hamburg
• Hamburg has a total of 7 districts and 104 neighborhoods
• Altona Station is 1 of 4 main stations in Hamburg and is the oldest and considered the most beautiful
• Hamburg University is considered the main university and has roughly 44,000 student and 170 different degree programs
• The largest ethnic group is the Turkish community
• Many people sail and row in the Alster Lake and there’s a saying, ” If you’re drowning in Alster you’re just too stupid to stand up”
• The Heinrich Hertz Tower (aka the Tele-Michel) is the tallest building in Hamburg (the television tower)
• A good portion of Hamburg (52%) doesn’t affiliate with a religion and 30% are Protestant, 10% Catholic and 8% Muslim
• The Nachtmichel is like Hamburg’s Eiffel Tower to Paris
• The Reeperbahn is Hamburg’s red light district aka the sinful mile
• The Reeperbahn is lined up with sex shops, brothels, strip clubs, night clubs, restaurants and bars
• The Portuguese Quarter in Hamburg is very popular among residents and tourists for excellent food and prices
• The Speicherstadt is the largest warehouse district in the world where buildings stand on timber pile foundation and oak logs and it’s located in the port of Hamburg.

     There were a couple of things I missed and I had planned on doing 2 rides to get missed information and photos but because I ended up getting on at a later time when the bus circled back around to the central station the driver said that was it for today (it was around 7pm). That was alright because I was hungry and I had already scouted a place near my Airbnb that I wanted to eat at so I headed that way. The bus dropped my off right across the street from Jazz Restaurant Bar Cafe. It was a nice stylish place on the inside but subtle, and I found a nice small table to myself.

     The waiter I found out has family in Virginia and said some of them were in town for an event. I ended up ordering a salmon fettuccine pasta and got a drink called the Hammock which consisted of gin, mint, lime, lime juice, soda water, eldeeflower syrup and cranberry. First off the drink came out looking like a masterpiece and the taste (taste just like a sweet cranberry drink with carbonation-I could taste the gin and this confirms gin based drinks are my favorite). My meal came out shortly afterward and it looked and tasted lovely as well. I had a good time sitting down and enjoying dinner out. The waitress was nice and brought a free drink but I didn’t drink it (you have to be careful out here and wise-I don’t think anything was wrong with it but don’t chance it, especially when solo).

     I took a small portion of my food to go and when asked if they had plastic silverware the waiter gave me the other silverware set on the table to take (I had to laugh). My Airbnb was just a quick walk up the street and around the corner. I was grateful it was so close because I just wanted to lay down and rest for a minute. I wore my cushioned sandals today with my compression sleeves so my ankles didn’t give me the blues too bad. Tomorrow I’m heading to Cologne as I’m just supposed to be passing through and doing a bus tour then heading to Frankfurt but I’ll have my luggage/bags with me and they are heavy so we will see if I end up going through with that or skipping Cologne (I think I’m going to do it though and just suffer a little bit).