Day 82 - An Old Post

So I wrote this post almost two weeks ago in Hamburg. I couldn't get any internet access to upload it but finally here it is. Enjoy! I'll try and write another, more up to date, post in the next few days.

Day 71 – Deutschland ist good!

Scene opens. Day seventy one. Vance is sitting in a beautiful garden at his CS hosts' home on the outskirts of Hamburg. A light breeze brushes against his bare feet as he types on his netbook. The birds are chirping, their soft song is pleasant background music to this neighborhood known as Volksdorf. Vance is listening to music as he relaxes in a lounge chair. A bumble bee the width of an adult's thumb buzzes by.

“Life is good,” Vance declares.

There was a short time when I didn't feel this way. This time was the few days after Ezra had left me in Freiberg. With his departure thoughts of home occupied my mind nonstop. The people, the ease of life, the stability, the burritos. I couldn't get it out of my head. I longed for home. I was in a bad spot, mentally. I stayed in Freiberg for a few extra days to relax. Maybe I was just tired of moving around, I thought. Ezra and I did have a breakneck pace when we were traveling together. The few extra days in Freiberg helped but I still didn't feel quite right. I still could not stop thinking of home.

My next destination was Heidelberg, a beautiful town a few hours north. I had searched for a hostel in Heidelberg ahead of time but found that although I planned to spend two nights in the town there was only a spare bed for one night. There are only two hostels in Heidelberg, one independent and another that requires one to be a member of Hosteling International, which I am not. The independent hostel was completely booked for Friday night so I just got a bed for Thursday. My plan was to wait until Saturday morning when I would catch a cheap train ticket to Hamburg (there are special tickets on the weekend that allow one to travel all of Germany for a day for only 37 Euros, a steal really). So if I was to stay until Saturday morning I would have to sleep in the train station for the second night. This prospect made me wish to be home even more. I don't know if any of you have attempted the act but I would hardly call it “sleeping” in a train station. There isn't much sleep involved. Just a lot of shivering from being cold. But I couldn't afford the 100+ Euro ticket to leave a day earlier so what was I to do?

After seeing some sights in Heidelberg, of which the castle and Philosopher's Way are highly recommended, I took advantage of my hostel's free wifi to do some searching for tickets to Morocco. I scored an awesome deal on a ticket from Frankfurt to Marrakech for a fortnight hence. At the same time I got a tip from a fellow CSer about a ride share program in Germany. I checked it out and found that I could get a ride to Hamburg for only twenty Euros. Fantastic! I used my newly acquired mobile phone to call the people that had ads listed but everyone told me that their cars were full. I finally talked to a man named Jorn that said he had space for me. We made arrangements to meet the next day at the Hauptbahnhof, the main train station. I was also told by my CS host in Hamburg, Sophie, that it would be okay for me to arrive a day early, Friday instead of Saturday. The triple threat of a cheap ticket to Morocco, a cheap way to get to Hamburg, and not having to sleep in a train station greatly lifted my spirits. It was exactly what I needed at that moment. My thoughts of homesickness vanished immediately. How could I be sad about home when I was going to Morocco? It is one of my most desired destinations of my trip! I left my hostel with a rejuvenated love of travel. Suddenly everything in Heidelberg was that much more amazing. Everything was amazing. Life is good, I thought to myself.

So that brings me to where I am today, a garden in Hamburg. Yesterday on a bike tour of Hamburg I went to an awesome part of the city that reminded me a lot of the Mission District in San Francisco. There was a small park that Sophie and I hung out in for a while talking to her friends that were there. We grabbed some beers to enjoy in the park (it is legal to drink in public in Germany, yay!) while we hung out. I met a friend of Sophie's, a man named Juan whom was from Columbia. Sophie had met him a few weeks earlier and told me many positive things about him. Juan's friends shared their Turkish bread and salad with us immediately after we sat down while Sophie offered her beer to share. The salad was delicious. Juan and I conversed about a cacophony of topics, most of them related to philosophy of living. We discussed what is important in life, a topic in which we had many of the same views. It was really great getting to know Juan and learning about Colombia.

After the sun had gone down Juan, Sophie, and I decided we wanted to go out and do something. All day Sophie had talked about her itch to dance to reggae so we went in search of a good place to do just that. We found a club that was empty even though it was 11:30 at night. Juan said if we wait a bit people should start to show and fill up the place. We went down to the port of Hamburg and killed time for a while, finishing off our beers. Sophie busted out the hammock that she was carrying in her backpack and set it up right on the stairs. I thought that was a great idea. A little after midnight we checked out the club again to see if anything was going on and it was still empty save for a few people sitting on the sides. Damn, now we need to find something else to do for a while. That activity turned out to be urban climbing. We strolled around the area for a minute and then saw some scaffolding on the face of a building that looked ripe for climbing. As we were climbing I noticed a girl on her bike stop and pull out her camera to take a picture of us. Unfortunately we didn't get too high before we came to a locked trap door on the next level up. Down we went and on to the next adventure.

Around the block a little we ended up near the Red Light District of Hamburg and went to a couple bars there. Sophie and I decided to go home a bit before 3:00 AM but Juan wanted to stay for a while and dance some more. This guy was an animal. He had so much energy that never stopped. We bid him farewell, myself telling him I hope to see him again before I leave the city. Because of the distance we needed to cover it took us an hour and a half to get home. I was immediately in a deep sleep once I laid down.

In the coming days before I leave Hamburg I hope to see some more of the inner city, possibly go to a museum that I read about that sounded interesting. I don't leave until Thursday so I've got a good amount of time. Then it is off to Berlin!