A Rocky Road with a Smooth Finish

So I departed Berlin on the 30th of May ... making my way to Hannover before eventually reaching Hamburg for the next stop on my Eurotrip.

The reason for going to Hannover was to get their and then turn a course north and head to the small town of Celle. From this tiny town in the middle of Germany, I would make my way to the remains of the Concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen, roughly 15 minutes outside the town of Bergen. I wanted to go to this camp for a couple specific reasons: 1)It was liberated by a combined Canadian-British force of the 21st Allied Army Group. 2) It was the final rsting place of Anne Frank and her sister. After reading the diary of this young girl, one forms a connection, and based on the nature of several of my locations, I wanted to go here simply out of condolence and respect, not taking anything away from anyone else who perished in the wat either. Sadly, there are so few buses leading to Bergen (only 2 per day and they are 4 hours apart), that if you miss the first one, which I did, it is nearly impossible to get there without dropping nearly €75 for a round-trip cab fare, something not in my budget.

After returning to Hannover to board my train for HAmburg, I arrived in the city in the early afternoon. Near my hostel, there was large crowds massing ouytside the train station, and riot police in full gear were swarming the streets. I was in the middle of a mass protest against the countries of the G8. There were many punk/anarchist culture people in all the streets. Hamburg was filled with these people who would do nothing else but simply beg for money.

I arrived to my hostel to find out that they had simply recorded my reservation down wrong and the 3 nights I needed were now only 2 nights ... and the entire city was reserved fully. Iwas mighty pissed as I had the reservation and replies from the hostel in my email account, it was straight out of Seinfeld, they took the reservation, but failed to hold and keep my reservation, which really was the crucial feature of the whole reservation process. The only reply the hippy girl behind the counter had for me as I was clearly getting pissed off, and those who know me, alot of dry sarcasm being thrown her way, was "I can see your 3 night reservation, but there is little I can do now, you don't have to get unfriendly about it all". It eventually worked out in the end and I got a bed to stay in a 25-bed warehouse of sorts, definitely a new experience up to this point in my trip.

The first night in Hamburg was spent with me and some Scottish guys going to the Reeperbahn-St. Pauli area and experiencing the ngihtlife. It was certainly a lively place, perople everywhere window shopping for whatever they so choose. It was a different experience all in all, I am glad I only dropped a few Euros in the process. The first full day in Hamburg was spent lazily sleeping in, as I soon found out that the city is more or less an entirely nightlife town which is pretty quiet and tame during the day, not a whole lot to do. I went out to simply roam around the town and take in a lot of the old, lavish architecture that covers each and every building. This city truly is one filled with old and new. I started my morning by going down to the harbour area where I found an old Russian Submarine on display as a museum. It was really interesting to see the living conditions on board U-Boats in this pre-nuclear era. By no means could I have ever been aboard these in any situation. The cramped conditionscaused me to be hunched over for the vast majority of my time within the ship. The narrow passageways were too slender for my shoulders to fit through walking regularly forward. Never the less, it was very cool. I next went to the church of St. Nikolai which was charred in the firestorm of Hamburg and the Allied bombings. It was really interesting seeing a memorial and monument from the World War II era dedicated to the suffering of Germans. The city and population of Hamburg were decimated during the Allied firebombings. Thousands of people were burned alive as the incendiary bombs fell nighgt after night in July of 1943, during Operation Gomorrah. The firebombing of Hamburg was at the time, the largest aerial assault in history and referred to as the Hiroshima of Germany by British air officials after the war. The entire memorial and museum were sadly only in German, so I could only make out sparse information, but from prior knowledge got a fair chunk of it all. Really a very powerful memorial site.

I returned to my hostel with the idea of having a nap, seemed like a good idea at the time. This second night in Germany was spent with a couple Spanish girls I met who decided to take me to some beachclub bar they had heard of, coincidentally on the Reeperbahn. It was a different bar experience to the others I have been to in Europe, definitely enjoyed myself this night.

The next and final day in Hamburg was spent again by heading down to the dock facilities where I found that the British Aircraft Carrier was in port after returning from somewhere in the Baltic regions. The HMS Ark Royal IV was a very impressive ship, designed to deploy a wide array of armaments and ferry Royal Marine Commandoss around for special ops. I originally thought the ship was on display for tourists because it seemed out of place amongst all the frieghters in port. I went down the gangplank to be met by 4 Marines armed to the teeth, who promptly informed me that the ship was off limits. I left that area speedily and took some pictures from the outside and beside the dock. I later walked around town again and found the Hamburg Conservatory of Music which had originally been a German AA silo during the war. The building was very impressive and possibly the most fortified and armed music conservatory in the world. All the original defenses of the building still exist on the roof! I spent the rest of the day eating dinner and returning to the hostel to play cards and talk with a Norwegian and Australian girl. I wanted to be prepared for my early morning departure to Holland.