I started on the Reeperbahn, the street where many of the clubs, casinos, and shops are located. I wanted to go to the Beatlemania museum that was there, but found it closed. I walked down and back up the street all the way, then was tired of all the neon so walked past the commercial part and found cute little paths, benches, and a huge stone statute that I had not previously known was there. Pictures from that:
The Beatles sculpture in Beatles-Platz
Cool building nearby
Huge stone dude
View from the top of the stairs near the huge stone dude
Close up of one of smaller but still lifesize dudes surrounding the huge stone dude
More scenes from my walk
I was going to explore the Hamburg museum and St. Michelis, which are both nearby (Michelis is the lantern-shaped church you can see in the scenery above). However, the last English-speaking tour of city hall was at 15:00 and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make that another day. I barely made it on time, too, since I walked in the first thing that looked old enough to be city hall after I got off the subway, which turned out to not be city hall, but instead a church. So of course I had to look around that, too.
Not city hall
I did eventually find the right old building, just in time for the tour. This was the first time I had conversed in English in quite some time (or at all, since I can't converse in German), so this was a welcome relief from not understanding anything at all. Both the city government and the parliament meet in this building, rebuilt in the early 1900s, and almost all of the spaces are used for formal events if not meetings.
Parliament meeting room
For mom: this was one of the less-ornate chandeliers. The ones in the great hall weighed a car each
Phoenix imagery was all over one room since they had to rebuild the city hall after a huge fire burned it down
City government meeting space
They really like their ornate doors!
The staircase where the mayor receives his guests - they come to him instead of him coming down because they consider him to be on the same level (literally and figuratively) as presidents, prime ministers, etc.
The Great Hall
From the outside
My last solo expedition was to Ballinstradt, the emigration museum. People back in the day from all over the region would come to Hamburg in order to emigrate to America. Certain events, like extreme periods of economic hardship or religious persecution led to huge influxes of people trying to leave. This made a few shipping companies very profitable. I only had an hour to explore so I went through fairly quickly. Also many of the exhibits were not translated into English so I didn't miss too much. However, it was a very well done museum. I did nearly die of a heart attack twice though: once when I noticed an unexpectedly placed manikin, and another time when I didn't realize a horse's head was mechanically moving up and down until I was right in front of the horse.
Here you could listen to the stories of why various people emigrated and a fictionalized version of their trip and time in America
Lots of videos in German
They built a boat inside the building that housed a few of the exhibits, with water and a gangplank and everything
Heart attack #1 is on the left, I was coming around the corner from that side and was caught off guard by his existence
They had exhibits of famous German emigrants, like Heinz and Kissinger (not pictured)
Recreation of the barracks that used to be at that location, for emigrants waiting for health inspections or an available ship.
I was excited for the family research center that was advertised at the end of the museum, to see the lists of passengers that left from Hamburg. It was a bit disappointing though, just computers linked to ancestry.com, without an obvious link to the Hamburg departures. I was more expecting this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_zDeHhJox8 - skip to 1:50. But alas, it was not to be.
After that, I met up with my "buddy family" and some other Bucerius international students for dinner and drinks. It seems like a great group of people and we found some cute places around Sternchanze. There were people there from France, Norway, Germany, Mexico, and Columbia - at one point I think three different languages were being spoken in various conversations. I even ordered food at a restaurant! Big step, I know. I figured a kebab box from a Turkish place would be safe. Not german food yet, but I'm getting there.
Today was orientation, day 1, at the school. I am now very proficient at writing down my name, birth date, and address in Hamburg. But I met even more people, including some Americans (there are 20 of us in the program, more than any other country!). I am looking forward to getting the rest of orientation out of the way (two more days) and starting classes on Monday. I will probably stay in town this weekend to get a little more settled, but have already begun vague talks with fellow students about traveling. Will keep this updated!
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