Hamburg still

October 1st-3rd

Besides Paris, I’ve usually arrived to new cities with only one site/activity as a must-do. For Hamburg it was the fischmarkt. 

Hamburg’s Fischmarkt happens once-a-week Sunday mornings 4:30 to 9:30am. I didn’t realize this when I bought my plane tickets but I’m really glad I was visiting on the weekend. Since we were already going out that Saturday night, Susana suggested we end our evening(….morning) at the Fischmarkt. It made a lot of sense for a couple of reasons 1) metro ride there and back would be 1.5 hours, 2) The fischmarkt is a few blocks away from Reeperbahn and 3) I needed to try going out once like the Europeans do.

We arrived a bit before opening which meant that we were able to walk around without the crowds and observe the changes as it filled up. Susana, her sister and I checked out the fish stalls, wares stalls, and food stalls. If it had only been Susana and I, we’d probably order some food, I’d buy some souvenirs, and we’d walk around for a bit. However, we were there with her sister who is loud, friendly, and maybe a little crazy but I’m super glad she was with us because she made our short time at the markt better/funnier.

I think she just likes haggling because even if I just looked at an item she’d begin trying to get the price down. She would become very animated when dealing with my stuff so imagine her when she was haggling for herself. We passed a stall of fresh fish setting up still when her sis out of curiosity asked how much for the big fish. They argued, they laughed, they haggled and in the end she bought a HUGE 20 Kilo fish plus some extra little baby fish(name unknown for either). She got this for 20 euro. wow. I don’t know how she did it but I’m pretty sure the fish should have been more much more than 1euro/kilo. Its even funnier because she didn’t come to the markt wanting anything but she couldn’t pass up such a steal.

That was the fish, but then we passed a fruit stand. I think she doubted the quality of the product, prompting the clerk to give a free sample, and then the price drops incredibly. They bought 2 very fresh pineapples for 1 euro. (correction: 4 for 2 euro—-my bad :) )

I saw a stand with MASSIVE mangos so I went to check out how fresh and how much they were. Andrea, my old roommate, taught me to smell the end of the mango to determine if ripe. If it smells like sweet mango then its ready. So I picked up a massive mango and proceeded to smell it. Susana’s sister asked if I wanted her to get a good price but I said “No, that’s okay they aren’t ripe yet.” I guess the stall guy heard me because all of a sudden he was disagreeing and grabbing a mango off the rack and peeling slices for us to try. He practically put the slices in our mouth to make us try them. We didn’t buy any but thats okay because we still got to try the mango anyways.

I left the fischmarkt with a coffee mug and a pair of earrings. I love that my mug and my sister’s earrings have a story to go with them. I have been buying mugs from most cities as my personal souvenir but I think Hamburg’s mug may become my favorite. On the sides it says “Moin, Moin” which is how Northern coastal Germans say hello. On the inside near the rim is the word for high tide and at the bottom is the word for low tide. The earrings I bought for Danyel are so cute. I should have bought the other pair for myself. I’m really glad that I’ve held out and bought her earrings at a stall as opposed to a store.

Needless to say, we slept in a lot the next day. As I fell asleep on the metro ride home, I gave up on my idea to find a church to attend mass. I had not given up yet on riding the lake bubble. We passed by it on the way to the metro and I told Susana that we had to do it. 4) The 8 minutes in the bubble were so much fun. We shared a big bubble and tried our hardest to make it to the other side of the pond but we never got there. Lucky for me, I could stand with a slight slouch inside but Susana was not so lucky so she often fell as we tried to run inside the ball. I don’t know how hamsters do it. Walking/running/rolling inside the ball was hard work. We’d get it moving and gain momentum only to fall over on ourselves because it would begin to spin too fast. The easiest method we found to move the ball was to lie down along the length of the cylinder and roll. Rolling allowed us to move without falling down but we’d still roll over backwards when it moved too fast for us. Also, it was so tiring. We spent half the time trying to walk across the pond and the other half laughing and catching our breath. Just thinking about it makes me smile like  a little kid. If you ever see an air bubble on water, do it, but don’t do it by yourself! Riding by yourself would be weird and boring but doing it with another person is so much fun.

5) We walked the 1/4 mile Elbtunnel under the water to the other side of the harbor. It was a very enjoyable walk and then we got to see Hamburg from other side of the harbor.(6)

7) Monday morning we fit in one more spot. We went to the Botanical Gardens which is different from Planten en Blom (sp? idk). It was a slightly cloudy day, probably because I was leaving and taking the good weather with me to Rome. The park was still nice and I have some lavender sprigs in my travel journal to remind me of this place. I found this huge rock and I tried to fit inside it but it didn’t work so well. This laying down picture was staged and not impromptu I must confess. 8) just a cool flower