Drove out of Holland and into Germany. We didn't realise we had crossed the border until we stopped at a service station for refreshments and to swap drivers and were confronted by a huge german truck driver wielding a plate with a single giant sausage covered in about 4 types of sauce. My first time driving in Europe (and hence on the right side of the road) and didn't experience any problems at all. Checked in to our hostel, the "Gast Haus" which was this cool little place just north of the center of Bremen and went for a wander and to get some food. Bought ourselves some bread, meat and eggs and discovered that in Germany baked beans and bacon don't seem to exist. Cooked ourselves dinner and had a quiet one while Lewis worked.
Woke up, showered in the fortunately empty communal male showers (and before the jokes start, we took turns showering) and cooked ourselves another meat, egg and bread meal before checking out. Left our bags in the car and then walked in to check out the Bremen city festival, "Bremenale", but it was empty, not starting til 2pm, so we wandered around a bit before heading back to the car and driving to Hamburg. German scenery is very similar to Holland, super flat as far as the eye can see, but where Holland has canals everywhere Germany has far more trees.
Checked into our next hostel, "Meininger", part of a big hostel chain, which had very cheap room prices and was close to the centre of Hamburg but charged for all little extras, had expensive drinks and charged for wifi unless you wanted to just sit in the lobby, plus the now expected large hostel atmosphere. Met some of our roommates, Richie and Ross from Coffs Harbor and Kate from near Melbourne and went with Richie and Ross to find food. Found ourselves an awesome beer garden which sold these thin, pizza like, dishes and Franziskaner beer ($3 for half a litre as opposed to the $12 we pay for the exact same beer in Australia at the Lowenbrau or Bavarian Bier Cafe) then went back to our room where all 6 of us spent the night drinking, playing cards and hanging out. Kate, Richie and Ross went out for another smoke around 3am and the rest of us went to bed, turned out that they met some crazy Canadian guy offering free cocaine in the park across the room and spent til 7am coking themselves up.
Woke up and Lewis, Macky and I went to explore the local area and find lunch. Found a butchers, "Breisse", that sold huge plates of roast potatoes piled over with this goulash-like meat dish. Did all the ordering of that and drinks in German, apparently year 7-10 German wasn't as useless as I had previously suspected. Spent the afternoon in the lobby while Lewis worked and Macky set up his new ipod touch. At about 6ish went up with Ross to our room and met up there with Richie and Kate, who spent the whole time we were there hooking up, and headed out to Reeperbahn (Hamburg's red light district, apparently the largest in Europe). Found a surprisingly tasty steak dinner and more cheap Franziskaner while laughing among ourselves at the various hookers, each of whom seemed to have set positions along the road and would chase after any guys not in large groups, and the two large groups of drunk Germans who seemed to be chanting the German equivalent of "show us your tits".
After dinner went out into Reeperbahn proper to find places to drink. First stop was a place called "99 cent" where everything cost $1 (some very slight false advertising possibly but still super cheap) but the place was packed out with guys and not a single girl so we moved on to a place across the road from a club called "Dollhouse" (which had strippers dancing both on the bar and in the doorway, all visible from the street) which did $2 jager shots (Jagermeister in Europe seems far cheaper and far tastier than in Aus). We then made our way up the street to check out "Club 36" where the Beatles apparently played their first shows but it was dead so we explored a bit and found a place which did 4 beers for $10 and had a stripper pole on the dance floor (not with a stripper attached but for drunken idiots like us) and a crazy old lady in a trench coat who walked in, danced on a table, danced on the pole (briefly but memorably joined by Macky) and then left. We stayed there for a while, as its 3 pronged appeal of cheap drinks, dance pole and good view of the street from the balcony seduced us before moving on to a packed club across the road called "Shooters". Started talking with a German girl on the dance floor who didn't speak english, which was complicated enough, and after 20 minutes or so of talking and making our way to the bar she pointed to her hand, coated in rings, and said "husband". I looked around and almost immediately spotted a huge, bald German guy glaring at me from across the room, turned around to apologise and midway through trying to do that in my bad, drunk, version of German I felt an arm wrap around my shoulders and start squeezing. After both her and I repeated "English! English!" he stopped and she said something to him and I tried to apologise in my fail German ("mein nicht guy" which essentially translates to "my not good", I think). Managed to survive and find Macky and Lewis talking to a bunch of Finnish guys. After another hour or two, which included a couple more encounters with the big, bald husband who kept coming up and shaking my hand or hugging me for reasons I cannot comprehend, we headed back to our room, having lost Ross, Richie and Kate while I was occupied by trying not to be snapped in half by an angry, drunk German. Got back about 4am.
Woke up at 9 in order to check out on time, which we did by 5 minutes, and spent about 3 hours sitting in the lobby occupying ourselves while waiting until we felt it ok to drive.
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