Part One: Hamburg
friday morning alex woke gilherme and i up so that she could take us to the metro station before work. we agreed to meet her at around 3 pm after she got off work. Gilherme and i rode the metro into town to the rathaus (town hall) though closed to tourists the building is beautiful. after a coffee we walked over to the ruins of a church that got heavily bombed during world war two. one of the churches bell towers is still standing so we went up to the top of it for the great views of the city. after that we went back to the city center where we walked around the shops and old buildings. because of the world cup, hamburg was in full fair mode and everywhere there were sidewalk food carts, bands, and international tourists. Gilherme and i slowly made our way towards hamburg park while exploring downtown. when we arrived at the city park i was more than amazed, hamburg has to have the most beautiful and elaborate city park in the world. miles of small bubbling brooks and gushing streams, that flow too and from ponds and lakes. there are japanese pagodas, childrens playgrounds, and waterparks! after walking through the park for 30 minutes we found a nice spot and took a nap. after an hour nap we got a call from alex that she was ready to meet us so we rode the metro back to the rathaus where her and david were waiting. it was early in the evening but we were hungery so we drove over to the warehouse district. the warehouse district is a really cool area next to the port. the beautiful old brick buildings have their backs to man made canals where small ships used to float up till they came to the warehouse. at the top of the pitch of every roof is a beam supporting a steel chain and hook that would lower down and lift the goods directly out of the boat. then they would lift the goods up one to five stories to large open doors and swing the goods inside, where they were stored. when the goods were ready to be shipped out they would lower the goods directly into rail cars that rolled up and down the street in front of the warehouses. this was a fast easy process that meant never having to stack or unstack anything. anyways, history aside, we walked down to the warehouse district to the port where we got the best seafood dinner i have ever had and it was only 6 euros! (mmm butterfisch) after dinner we rode up and down the port/harbor on a waterboat, i love public transport in sea towns! after our little cruise we went home for a nap before going out that night.
Part Two: Sin and the Reeperbahn
desperatly in need of sleep we (all) slept till 11:00pm. finally we got up and about and on the train to the St. Pauli district. Hamburgs st. pauli district is world famous for its nightlife of bars, clubs, restaurants, prostitutes, live sex shows, sex shops, whore houses, and public mischief; the heart of which is a street about a mile long called the Reeperbahn. Also known as the mile of sin, the reeperbahn is everything it promises and more. though the whorehouses and sex shops/shows are slowly dwindling down due to all the bars and clubs moving in, there are still two areas holding on to their traditional ways. The first is the infamous herberstraße, a street that is walled off at either end to keep out all women, and boys under 18 years of age. alex and david took gilherme and i there first, they told us just to take a stroll through it, down one side of the street and up the other. the buildings on either side of the street were lined with windows that opened so that when you walk by the girls in the windows could proposition you. surprisingly, well, to my disbelief, the girls (with the exception of a few) were actually really really good looking. these were no american crack ****** or frontier women, these were young beautiful german girls! as we walked down and back up the street gilherme told me about how amazed he was that the girls were so good looking, polite, and professional. he said that back at home in Sao Paulo Brazil the prostitutes were nothing like this. i laughed at gilhermes working girl comparison! i found the whole situation quite strange but funny. as we were about to exit through the gate gilherme said that he wanted to go back down one more time as he was curious about their services. at the window of a tall skinny cute blonde in white lingerie that ballsy little brazillian actually asked her, he later told me as we met david and alex out front that it was 50 euro for 30 minutes and anything but ****! i couldnt help but laugh, who couldnt! as we walked past the clubs on the reeperbahn i noticed something very peculiar, everywhere i looked there were cute girls wearing fanny packs. even though some were dressed nice and others dressed in normal clothes, these definitly werent tourists standing around on a friday night. i asked david about it and he said that they too were prostitutes just without a window, i could belive it (still) some of the girls were too good or normal looking, they just didnt fit my mental picture of a working girl! (germany kinda destroyed that preconcieved mental image i always got of these gals from movies and stories) sure enough though, several times during the evening (like 45 times) i, gilherme, and our whole group got approached by girls, even alex! (*section ommited by author*) after that we went to an irish pub to watch a really good live music act. around 3 am or so we continued down the reeperbahn to the other sex holdout, the appropriatly named street: große farenheit (pronounced gross). it also has a few whorehouses but mostly strip clubs and live sex shows. (*section ommited by author*) after a 4am snack we made our way back to the metro station as the sun started to come up. by the time we flopped into bed at 5am the sky was bright and we were exhausted.
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