Sam's Sleep Chronicles: Hamburg Edition

Would you believe me if I told you that we really had a plan for Hamburg? And it was like a super good plan, too. The best plan. But plans change, as they are meant to do.


So we arrived in Hamburg around 3pm and because I have two built in German natives to do my navigating for me, getting where we want to go takes about a fraction of the time it usually does. We arrived at our AirBnb to find that the woman who owns the place (I say woman bc everything was bedazzled, including the toilet seat, but honestly you never know) hated doors. There were no doors to separate the bedroom from the living room or to close the shower, and the bathroom door was on a rolling hinge thing for which I am sure there is a name for but I certainly am not aware of it. Luckily we're all pretty comfortable around each other by now, so it was a nonissue. We took a moment to recuperate and then headed off into the city. We saw the main attractions: the harbor, the philharmonic, the alternative neighborhoods where Sami feels most at home, etc. We had Italian food for dinner bc I had a craving and we are the most easygoing group in existence so everyone is pretty much down for whatever. Eventually we bought our bierchens (beer you walk around with bc you're allowed to do things like that in this awesome country) and headed home to get ready to go out. Our apartment was overlooking the Reeperbahn, which is like the Hamburg version of the Red Light District, so we were pretty well placed for some shenanigans.


This is where the aforementioned plan change was initiated. You see there's this bar.... Where everything costs 99 cents. Yup. It was a good night. If I recall correctly, what started out as beers turned rapidly into shots and I don't know how many experienced drinkers are reading this buy let me tell you, mixing liquor with beer is ALWAYS a good idea.... If you hate yourself. At some stage Jonas ordered 12 shots at once which meant four for himself, four for me, and four for Sami - Marius doesn't drink hard liquor ever since he lost an Odds about it last year. Some time around 2, our new favorite bar was closing down, but that didn't affect us because we'd befriended the bartender and kept drinking while we helped him clean and close up shop for the night. It was around 3 by the time we left our bar and took poor Jonas home so he could get some sleep (some of us are *ahem* casual alcoholics so it takes us longer to hit our figurative glass ceiling) and went back out, this time to a bar with a dance floor and our new bartender friend in tow. I'm not exactly sure when, but Sam and I were brought roses, which while ineffective for the nice men who bought them for us, gave us pretty cool roses to wear in our hair. Or it did, until Marius stole mine to put behind his ear and I couldn't bring myself to take it back bc he just looked so much cuter than I had. After lots of dancing and several alcohols, we headed for food as the sun came up (around 6am) and enjoyed my fav European street food, döner. By 7am we rolled into the apartment incredibly confused as to how it had gotten so late (or early?) and I think we were asleep before our heads hit our pillows.


*hours later*
*Sam crawls into my bed*
"What time is it?"
"1.30"
"In the afternoon?!?"


Like I said, it was a good night. Miraculously, and potentially bc we were still intoxicated when we woke up, none of us had hangovers. That didn't stop us, however, from not getting out of the apartment until 4pm. It was raining by this point bc that's what it does in Hamburg (or so I'm told) so we grabbed our jackets and headed to a beautiful park in the city to wander through (and take a lot of pictures of Sam bc that's pretty much all I do). The boys had beer and gelato while we wandered and eventually we all headed for dinner to meet Marius' old college roommate, Tim. Oh I almost forgot - I asked a lady to take a picture of the four of us and she literally said no and it was such an incredibly uncomfortable experience and I just felt like I should share it with you. Anyway, Tim was a really cool dude and naturally his English was fantastic so Sam didn't miss out on any conversations - Germans are better at English than we are btw. After dinner we headed to this very dangerous bar where everyone sits on vintage couches which is great if you're a normal person but not if you're Sam and I who can fall asleep at the drop of a hat, but we made it through. The plan was to go get a few beers after our super cool sofa bar, but we all got punched in the mouth with exhaustion so we stopped by our fav bar to say bye to our bartender friend and then headed home for a movie night and some R&R. Mind you "movie night" meant "everyone fall sleep on the couch after 20 minutes of movie" but what are you gonna do. This morning we woke up early to repack and head to the train station where we said goodbye to Jonas - who unfortunately has to go back to reality a little earlier than the rest of us - and hop on our train to Amsterdam! So now I sit with Sami asleep on the two chairs across from me and Marius passed out on my shoulder thinking about how lucky we are to be here, and it's a pretty cool feeling let me tell you.


By the way, this will be by far my most well-documented trip of all time between my constant photos, this blog, and the fact that Marius puts together these awesome videos of all his big trips, and he's been recording almost nonstop since we started traveling. To be honest, I'm a little concerned with his perpetual videotaping considering how many unfortunate sounds I evoke and faces I make on a daily basis, but I guess that's the trade off for some kick ass video footage of our trip. I'm just hoping Marius doesn't throw in like a highlight reel of my own personal bloopers.. Wish me luck.


Anyway, our train is barreling down the tracks and I have some serious sleep to catch up on if I'm gonna try to keep up in Amsterdam, so until next time lovelies, xoxox.