DAY 1 After an delightful three days in Copenhagen, mum and I caught the ferry from Denmark to Germany to go and explore Hamburg. During the ferry ride I attempted to set foot outside and take in the view from the deck but the blustery winds were unbearable so we bought some duty free drinks and kept warm inside for the 45 minute journey instead. When we arrived in Hamburg the sun had already set so we went straight to the hotel to check in and decide on a plan for the rest of the evening. We had arranged to meet up later with an old friend at a shopping centre called Europa Passage so we decided to head there a little earlier and have a look around.
DAY 2 The disappointing lack of Gluhwein was rectified by breakfast the following morning where we stopped in at 'Uni Café' around the corner from our hotel and I had possibly the most festive drink ever - Gingerbread Hot Chocolate! It was criminally good and gave me a great boost of energy for our upcoming grand tour of Hamburg, starting at the Rathaus (town hall), where we marvelled at the gorgeous 19th century architecture before meeting Marie at Europa Passage again. We headed straight to the food court for the most scrumptious Vietnamese meal (because we still had another month of endless German food to come and needed a bit of a break from meat and carbs). After we'd finished, Marie's boyfriend Julian arrived and we set off on the second half of the tour. Out first stop was the Elbphilharmonie, the brand new, billion-euro opera house (more like opera skyscraper), which provided the most amazing view from the top floor despite the rain. As we left the opera house and walked along the river Elbe the rain turned to hail, then quickly to snow. We were freezing so we quickly made our way back to the underground where we stumbled upon an orchestral flash-mob, a very large orchestra just playing randomly in the underground station. We stayed and watched for a while, and even sang along to the cheerful Christmas tunes being played before we made our way over to the Sternschanze district. Sternschanze seemed like a really fascinating part of Hamburg and I would have liked to explore more of the street art lanes but it was still in the midst of reparations being made after the G20 protests last year. Shops with closed signs and boarded up windows sat in between quaint boutiques and hipster coffee shops, it was quite a peculiar atmosphere. That evening we visited one of the most interesting Christmas markets that Germany has to offer, Santa Pauli. Santa Pauli is the market in the St Pauli district of Hamburg right next to Reeperbahn. For those not familiar, Reeperbahn is Hamburg's very own Red Light District, so I think you could imagine what kind of vibe this market had. It was crass but so much fun and completely different to the more traditional markets. Since a simple Gluhwein didn't seem too fitting here, we tried Feuerzangenbowle which is essentially just Gluhwein but with a shot of rum. Yeah, it was that kind of place… After finishing our drinks we decided to move along to a Christmas market that had a few less naked Santa depictions and went to once again search for this infamous cheap Gluhwein. We knew we had found it when we approached a tiny stall, in the middle of an equally tiny market square, that was absolutely swarmed with crowds. To me the drink tasted no different to any other we had tried already and I wasn't sure it was really worth squeezing through hundreds of people to save 50 cents on an already cheap drink but it was an experience and the sheer amount of people milling around kept us warm as night set in and the temperatures dropped further. For dinner we walked around the corner to a little restaurant and I had a meal that had way too many mushrooms for my liking. The rhubarb Aperol Spritz was pretty delicious though. Since it already seems as though we spent our time in Hamburg doing not much other than testing various alcoholic Christmas beverages, I'm happy to report that the end of our last night did not differ. At the magical little Christmas market down near the Kleine Alster I found my new favourite drink, spiced apple liquor! I think my hunt for the most festive drinks is now complete!
Our time in Hamburg was short but sweet. We had the best time visiting Marie and Julian and potentially having seen every Christmas market that this city had to offer. Hamburg is ginormous and we only managed to scratch the surface of what there is to see and do there in our limited time so I don't doubt I'll be back again soon to carry on exploring.
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