We got to our hostel which was only a few minutes walk from the St. Pauli Landungsbrücken area, the harbour and only one U-Bahn stop from the Reeperbahn. AND it was closed, lucky us, and we were hungry for lunch since it was already midday. We decided to scrounge up some food at the harbour (no, we weren't digging through garbage or anything like that, just looking for wurst stands and stuff) and found two fish sandwich shops side by side. We found out later that we got ripped off because we were only looking on the surface of the harbour boardwalk, and there was much cheaper, more varied food underneath. So we had to eat really small backfisch baguettes, which were basically lots of breadcrumbs, lots of onions and very little fish. Oh well. After walking around the bottom level of the boardwalk and checking out the souvenirs and harbour cruises and food places, we went back to the hostel, checked in and dumped our stuff. Then since it was already getting late, we went downtown straight to the Rathaus, for some exploring. The Rathaus was pretty big and fancy, and it was hard to get a shot of it with my camera, even if I was pretty far away, across the street. There was a fair or something in the front with lots of food, craft, beer and wine tents and a bagpipe band playing some Scottish songs. We went inside, looked at the exhibit and the nice fountain in the courtyard and then left through the other side. We weren't really following a map, just walking around aimlessly, and we wandered into the shopping area, by the Operahaus, by some museums, and near one of the Alster lakes (I think it was the Binnenalster because we were walking along Balindamm). The Hamburger Kunsthalle had a Picasso exhibit but entrance was DM 15 - yikes! - and our Hamburg Card discount didn't apply there. We talked about it and decided that there was a lot more things we had to see, so we ditched the Kunsthalle. And because we were so eager to make full use of our Hamburg Card, we almost went into the Museum of Arts and Crafts but ditched that too since it didn't look terribly interesting (the posters outside had tables and stuff on them). So we went to visit Grosse Michaelskirche, or 'Der Michael', the huge huge church with the domes that are used in Hamburg's crest. On the way, we saw some other churches and Kitty and I decided to split off from the group the next morning and go to church. 'Der Michael' was nice and quite crowded with tourists being dropped off by the busload. If I remember correctly, there was a wedding going on so all the tourists were held towards the back of the church, and no photos or filming were allowed. Going to the top of the belltower was pretty expensive so we skipped that. The crypts were cheaper but since it was late afternoon, those were closed. I wouldn't have minded going to those. From there, we walked down a few blocks to the Nikolaikirche which was a broken down church. Hamburg has lots and lots of churches, apparently. It was nice too but there really wasn't much to see except the shell of the church, and it was off-limits because of construction. 

Guess where we were off to next? Three girls and one guy, and the shops and stuff were still open, so we went shopping! On Sunday, everything is closed in Germany, so we absolutely had to go look around. It was a close vote though. We went by the Rathaus again, where we saw the shops from before, and we did some serious window shopping. They had these awesome vintage posters lying on the street and they were super cheap (DM 2 each). The only problem was that I would have a hard time taking them home, so sadly that was a no. But in the future, if I ever go back to Hamburg, I'm grabbing a few of those posters. Such a good deal!! Kitty bought a pair of sandals that look a bit like Tevas, and Karen and Plato split off from us. We just made it out before the shops closed. When we all met up at the front of the Rathaus, we were hungry for dinner so we went back to the harbour, bought dinner at Nordsee (the first of many times I eat at Nordsee), and walked around the souvenir shops and bought postcards. Then we debated whether or not to visit the Reeperbahn but we were feeling cautious so we just decided to go back to the hostel and plan for the next day. We hung out for a while and had a good laugh when Plato tried to fish a Tupperware container from underneath the bunk bed with his arms first, and then with his feet. Hehe. At first it looked very awkward, and then it looked like he was doing push-ups. It still makes me smile :) 

The next day we woke up early and had breakfast. It was pretty crowded and the line-up was long! I liked the food though, especially the jam which you spooned into these little cups made out of ice-cream cone material so you could eat that too. Our first stop was church. We all split up, Kitty went to the church across the road from the one I went to, and Plato and Karen went back to 'Der Michael', where we were all supposed to meet later. At the church I went to, there were lots of kids having their first communion. Excellent timing by me! I was glad that I went. After that, I met up with Plato and Karen at 'Der Michael' and we all set off to meet up with Kitty who still hadn't come. After a while she came out and we left for Hamburg-Altona, the rich neighbourhood. It was really nice, lots of flowers, old Patrician houses and parks and gardens and we saw a couple biking together. How romantic. We went to Altona's Rathaus, very blindingly white and surrounded by flowers, then walked to this park that overlooked the harbour and port. I think that might have been the Altonär Balkon. We sat there for a while and ate our lunch and people-watched. It was very very flowery and very relaxing. After that we set off for Neuengamme, a concencentration camp where people were sent for slave labour. Unfortunately we JUST missed the bus so we hung out in Bergedorf for about an hour. Nothing to do since everything was closed so we just sat on a park bench by a small lake and watched this little girl do amazingly dangerous tricks on a spinning wheel while her dad DID NOT WATCH. When the bus finally came, we hopped on and got off at Jean-Doldier Weg but there was a long walk down that road to get to Neuengamme. We got there and saw an empty field with a crumpled iron man beside a tall memorial. Most of the buildings were demolished, but the ones that were still there were extremely sad. The Haus des Gedenkens had all the old record books, and the banners with the names of all who died in Neuengamme hanging inside. We walked around the grounds and took pictures, until it started to rain. It was a really sad but amazing experience. Then we went home. At the Hauptbahnhof, this guy asked to join our Wochenende ticket until he got off in Bremen. It saved us some more money, so we really lucked out in train tickets this weekend. The train station was SUPER crowded, I thought for sure someone was going to get pushed off the platform onto the tracks. Shows you how paranoid and imaginative I am. :) It wasn't such a bad weekend after all.