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lupestripeOur trip to Germany ended on Monday, which happened to be Wolfie's birthday too. This meant that I didn't want to do all the travelling on the same day and so we decided to stop over in Hamburg the night and see what the city had to offer. I'm very glad we did.
The rest is under a cut but I can't guarantee it has worked as LJ is being tempremental for some reason. Speaking of which, am I the only one who has had Google Ads just appear for no reason on my LJ?
Earlier in the day, we had travelled part of the way home with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
washu_chan_uk where we had a lively debate on the nature of the "typical" fur. Changing on to the Regional Express to Goettingen, by chance we bumped into Mhisani Fox, who was travelling back to Hannover but had forgotten his art. This meant that he was running extremely tight on time (as he had to go back to the Ringberg to collect it) but his misfortune was our gain as we met a really cool fur who spent the next hour and a half chatting to us.
Expecting a raucous night, my rock and roll friend Steve had got me in touch with his friend Nicole, who was a native Hamburger (no laughing please). He had met her on Iron Maiden's Bruce Air trip from London to Lisbon back in June and knowing what my friend is like, I was expecting a riot. I wasn't disappointed.
Nicole is an extremely nice young woman and she showed us around a lot of the sights of Hamburg. Initially, she took us to the banks of the Norderelbe where we saw some famous local ships from the sixteenth century. We also saw the "Danke Hamburg" sign on the opposite bank and I must admit it couldn't hold a candle to the Hollywood sign. We also saw a giant lion statue advertising the opera house's production of the Lion King.
She then took us into the Portuguese area where I had my second steak in 24 hours (and 3 and a half years). The meal was delicious (the peppercorns were particularly lovely) before she took us into the area of St Pauli and along the infamous Reeperbahn.
Granted, a Monday night was not the best night to visit one of Europe's most famous erotic areas but there was still a lot of life to be had. We went to a heavy metal bar where she insisted we tried "the worst beer ever" (it wasn't too bad) before we did a vast tour of the majority of sex shops in the area. Being a girl, we thought that it wouldn't be fair to take her to a live sex show (despite her being open to everything), so we just peered in at the talent on display. I admit it was eye-opening.
I had been told that the Reeperbahn made Amsterdam look like Scarborough. I don't know whether that is true but as she waited for us outside one of the biggest prostitution streets in Europe (women and under 18s are not allowed down this street and it is fenced off with red metal to prevent the access of these undesireables), I descended into a strange and unfamiliar world.
I had heard about what Amsterdam was like but here was my first experience of legalised whoring. The ladies kept banging on their windows and looking at us suggestively. Every time we looked back, they opened the window, wanting to speak to us in desperately quick German. I pretended to be the johnny foreigner who didn't understand but I didn't need to understand. I knew exactly what they wanted. It was in my wallet.
I almost got snared a few times because of my inate desire to speak to people but thankfully Wolfie pulled me away. We got out unscathed before heading over to the Star Club on the "more hardcore" Grosse Freiheit. This was where the Beatles made it big in 1963 and there presence is still proclaimed today. We disappeared into another bar, grabbed a drink and soaked up the raucous and saucy atmosphere.
What with it being a Monday, by 1am everything started to close down. This was a shame and further increased my desire to come back on a weekend. We walked past a big stage with lit up red squares on it that could be split into two stages to house two gigs. This was in the main square of the Reeperbahn and the stages moved on rails.
We also saw a Hesburger for all my Finnish friends out there and I was delirious when I discovered it. Hesburgers are so fantastic...
After this we disappeared into the suburbs of St. Pauli and to the football stadium. I wanted to visit here as St Pauli is one of the few football clubs with a serious tradition. You could say they were a heavy metal football club but their slogan of St Pauli gegen Fascismus (St Pauli against fascism) is unique in the sense of a sports side adopting an overtly political stance. On the billboard outside, there was a picture of a footballer tying up the laces on his football boot whilst wearing fishnet stockings. It is truly one tolerant football club and against everything that most people believe football and football supporters to stand for.
Finding that the U-Bahn was closed, we got a taxi into the centre of Hamburg where we looked at the impressive Rathaus (Town Hall). Sightseeing at two o'clock in the morning brought back memories of me wandering pissed through Koeln in the early hours a few years ago. The Rathaus is a massive building and orinate like I have never seen. It was a magnificent edifice and to find that they have a Santa that traverses two 20ft large polls situated at either end of the market place sold the whole thing to me.
Another thing to point out is the vast array of churches that we saw there. I have visited a lot of European cities now and one church tends to mould into another now. But not here. The architecture was different and even the roofs - with a copper coated paint which means they were green when it's dry and red when it's wet - added a fantastic touch. Even the churches they don't keep (the Catholic Church donated a beautiful cathedral to Hamburg but the Hamburgers feared they would never do so again so they tore it down. That place "The Dom" is now parkland although Dom means cathedral in German.
We also found out that Hamburg has more bridges than Amsterdam and as we stood next to the Binnenalster in the cold September air, with the yellow street lights glistening on the tranquil water, we knew it was a good end to our trip to Germany. On the way home we saw the most impressive Burger King you will ever see and also some Sea Merchants quarters which were done with a Victorian interior and a Gothic/Roman exterior.
After this, we had to say goodbye to Nicole, our excellent host. It was great meeting her and I hope Wolfie had an excellent birthday. I know I did :D
P.S. A few more things from EF:
1) Before Stage Fever, I was sat minding my own business when upon the big screen there was a shot of me dancing in fursuit. It was taken from the BBF Confuzzled vid and it was up there for what seemed like ages. Thanks tospargue , everyone also identified it was me too. I've never been able to dance...
2) I thought there were fewer fursuiters than last year, at least there were fewer milling around. unclekage has stated that there were about 250 suits (a ratio of 1 in 3) at the Fursuit Parade (which I missed) but I didn't see that many milling around the lobby area.
3) There was an interesting amount of BDSM/Fetish stuff on show, which I thought was against the Con Rules. Not that I have much of an issue with it, I thought it was all rather fun :-)
4)tungro has reminded me of the fantastically named Top Ass cards they were selling at Suhl Tierpark. Top Ass Wolf was the best, albeit for personal reasons ;-)
5) If anyone has a picture of the Jaegermeister car (is it NightFox's) then it would be greatly appreciated as I know the biggest Jaeger fan in the world (I tried to get him some stuff from the Jaeger bar on the Reeperbahn but it was shut before we got there. I also wish I had stolen a Jaeger tablecloth for him...).
The rest is under a cut but I can't guarantee it has worked as LJ is being tempremental for some reason. Speaking of which, am I the only one who has had Google Ads just appear for no reason on my LJ?
Earlier in the day, we had travelled part of the way home with
washu_chan_uk where we had a lively debate on the nature of the "typical" fur. Changing on to the Regional Express to Goettingen, by chance we bumped into Mhisani Fox, who was travelling back to Hannover but had forgotten his art. This meant that he was running extremely tight on time (as he had to go back to the Ringberg to collect it) but his misfortune was our gain as we met a really cool fur who spent the next hour and a half chatting to us.Expecting a raucous night, my rock and roll friend Steve had got me in touch with his friend Nicole, who was a native Hamburger (no laughing please). He had met her on Iron Maiden's Bruce Air trip from London to Lisbon back in June and knowing what my friend is like, I was expecting a riot. I wasn't disappointed.
Nicole is an extremely nice young woman and she showed us around a lot of the sights of Hamburg. Initially, she took us to the banks of the Norderelbe where we saw some famous local ships from the sixteenth century. We also saw the "Danke Hamburg" sign on the opposite bank and I must admit it couldn't hold a candle to the Hollywood sign. We also saw a giant lion statue advertising the opera house's production of the Lion King.
She then took us into the Portuguese area where I had my second steak in 24 hours (and 3 and a half years). The meal was delicious (the peppercorns were particularly lovely) before she took us into the area of St Pauli and along the infamous Reeperbahn.
Granted, a Monday night was not the best night to visit one of Europe's most famous erotic areas but there was still a lot of life to be had. We went to a heavy metal bar where she insisted we tried "the worst beer ever" (it wasn't too bad) before we did a vast tour of the majority of sex shops in the area. Being a girl, we thought that it wouldn't be fair to take her to a live sex show (despite her being open to everything), so we just peered in at the talent on display. I admit it was eye-opening.
I had been told that the Reeperbahn made Amsterdam look like Scarborough. I don't know whether that is true but as she waited for us outside one of the biggest prostitution streets in Europe (women and under 18s are not allowed down this street and it is fenced off with red metal to prevent the access of these undesireables), I descended into a strange and unfamiliar world.
I had heard about what Amsterdam was like but here was my first experience of legalised whoring. The ladies kept banging on their windows and looking at us suggestively. Every time we looked back, they opened the window, wanting to speak to us in desperately quick German. I pretended to be the johnny foreigner who didn't understand but I didn't need to understand. I knew exactly what they wanted. It was in my wallet.
I almost got snared a few times because of my inate desire to speak to people but thankfully Wolfie pulled me away. We got out unscathed before heading over to the Star Club on the "more hardcore" Grosse Freiheit. This was where the Beatles made it big in 1963 and there presence is still proclaimed today. We disappeared into another bar, grabbed a drink and soaked up the raucous and saucy atmosphere.
What with it being a Monday, by 1am everything started to close down. This was a shame and further increased my desire to come back on a weekend. We walked past a big stage with lit up red squares on it that could be split into two stages to house two gigs. This was in the main square of the Reeperbahn and the stages moved on rails.
We also saw a Hesburger for all my Finnish friends out there and I was delirious when I discovered it. Hesburgers are so fantastic...
After this we disappeared into the suburbs of St. Pauli and to the football stadium. I wanted to visit here as St Pauli is one of the few football clubs with a serious tradition. You could say they were a heavy metal football club but their slogan of St Pauli gegen Fascismus (St Pauli against fascism) is unique in the sense of a sports side adopting an overtly political stance. On the billboard outside, there was a picture of a footballer tying up the laces on his football boot whilst wearing fishnet stockings. It is truly one tolerant football club and against everything that most people believe football and football supporters to stand for.
Finding that the U-Bahn was closed, we got a taxi into the centre of Hamburg where we looked at the impressive Rathaus (Town Hall). Sightseeing at two o'clock in the morning brought back memories of me wandering pissed through Koeln in the early hours a few years ago. The Rathaus is a massive building and orinate like I have never seen. It was a magnificent edifice and to find that they have a Santa that traverses two 20ft large polls situated at either end of the market place sold the whole thing to me.
Another thing to point out is the vast array of churches that we saw there. I have visited a lot of European cities now and one church tends to mould into another now. But not here. The architecture was different and even the roofs - with a copper coated paint which means they were green when it's dry and red when it's wet - added a fantastic touch. Even the churches they don't keep (the Catholic Church donated a beautiful cathedral to Hamburg but the Hamburgers feared they would never do so again so they tore it down. That place "The Dom" is now parkland although Dom means cathedral in German.
We also found out that Hamburg has more bridges than Amsterdam and as we stood next to the Binnenalster in the cold September air, with the yellow street lights glistening on the tranquil water, we knew it was a good end to our trip to Germany. On the way home we saw the most impressive Burger King you will ever see and also some Sea Merchants quarters which were done with a Victorian interior and a Gothic/Roman exterior.
After this, we had to say goodbye to Nicole, our excellent host. It was great meeting her and I hope Wolfie had an excellent birthday. I know I did :D
P.S. A few more things from EF:
1) Before Stage Fever, I was sat minding my own business when upon the big screen there was a shot of me dancing in fursuit. It was taken from the BBF Confuzzled vid and it was up there for what seemed like ages. Thanks to
spargue , everyone also identified it was me too. I've never been able to dance...2) I thought there were fewer fursuiters than last year, at least there were fewer milling around. unclekage has stated that there were about 250 suits (a ratio of 1 in 3) at the Fursuit Parade (which I missed) but I didn't see that many milling around the lobby area.
3) There was an interesting amount of BDSM/Fetish stuff on show, which I thought was against the Con Rules. Not that I have much of an issue with it, I thought it was all rather fun :-)
4)
tungro has reminded me of the fantastically named Top Ass cards they were selling at Suhl Tierpark. Top Ass Wolf was the best, albeit for personal reasons ;-)5) If anyone has a picture of the Jaegermeister car (is it NightFox's) then it would be greatly appreciated as I know the biggest Jaeger fan in the world (I tried to get him some stuff from the Jaeger bar on the Reeperbahn but it was shut before we got there. I also wish I had stolen a Jaeger tablecloth for him...).
