When we told people we were going to Germany, there were many remarks about the fact our trip will be meat-less in the land famous for meat. We thought we’d rise to the challenge anyway and see if there was anything else the country has to show for itself – as we very much suspected there would be.
Of course, on our exploration of Hamburg we were greeted with many wonderful surprises: from the world’s largest model railway, (omg trains trainsssss TRAINSSS – not like I was excited or anything,) to the photography competition by the docks, to the the masses of amazing green space and the great reading spots (see next blog post for pictures of said “reading spots”). Hamburg appeared to have it all and its beauty blew me away.
We flew to Germany on Sam’s 21st birthday, as an additional gift for my beautiful husband in order to make his day extra special (I can be soppy when I want to be, okay?). Our accommodation was stunning, the bed was extremely comfy and there was a Lidl near by that ensured we didn’t starve despite my new allergen discovery making our list of places we can eat at sort of limited. We walked a lot, we drank coffee a lot and we read a lot of our books; it was a very enjoyable experience if I do say so myself, not to mention the fact Sam was really happy with the trip (which was obviously the most important thing anyway considering it was his birthday).
Every trip has highlights (mentioned above) and lowlights (the fact that for parts Sam and I were pretty sick), but of course even some of the experiences that seem awful at the time can turn into your funniest memories. On our trip for example,we had a few challenges, so to speak. The first of which all started when our plane landed rather late on the first night so – for all those who travel are going to know this struggle all too well – we had to find our accommodation for the first time in the dark. We took the metro to the main station in Hamburg direct form the airport. Buying the ticket was rather simple as the machines are pretty standard in any country you visit, but if you believe in signs of fate, maybe when the machine decided to give us change for 20 euro entirely in 20 cent coins, we perhaps should have known what was to come. Sam and I are true believers of “you create your own luck” and took our changes and our, now very heavy, purse to the platform. We check the station we were meant to be in, ensured we were going on the right train in the right direction and got on it pretty smoothly.
From the station our accommodation was only a short walk, so we were in the right sort of area in no time. For everyone who has never used Airbnb abroad before though, I’d like to inform you that the maps function of the site can get you close enough to your accommodation pretty perfectly, but sending you to the right exact address is definitely not its forte – and that’s putting it nicely. With that in mind, the Airbnb locator took us to a beaten up club with a big black sign and .S.L.U.T. printed in white across it. The doors and windows were blacked out and the logo was… lets say questionable to say the least. In no way do I intend to drag down this establishment on my blog. Sam and I did not enter this place. We have no confirmation of the on-goings that happened inside however, all I am to say was that it was certainly not looking good for our accommodation of over 300 5* Airbnb reviews. We approached the building anyway and looked for the name of the person we were asked to buzz in order to let us inside the apartment. The names were written on strips and stuck onto the buzzers and, although many of the stickers had been worn away by the rain or overuse, we could positively identify the name we were looking for was not there. Part of me then started to panic – if the guy’s name was not on the place was this accommodation actually legit? On the other hand, I have to admit, the other part of me was kind of relieved; surely if the reviews never mentioned the sign on the building nor the names didn’t match up, this could not be the place we were searching for.
To cut a long story short we eventually managed to get a hold of our host and we redirected a couple of streets over to our very very nice apartment and we were very happy there for the rest of our trip, that was until we almost missed the airport stop on the metro and therefore appeared to miss our flight.
I am a linguist in many different senses of the word. I study Linguistics, the study of languages how they are made up, acquired, processed and developed/accepted in society, but I also spend my free time learning languages. Unfortunately, I really do not speak German (and I mean I can say hello/goodbye/thank you/sorry and count as well as other little phrases, but as any person who knows multiple languages will tell you, knowing basic vocab is only the tip of the multilingual iceberg). When I booked this trip I fully intended to pick up the basics before travelling and apply them whilst we were in Hamburg. Unfortunately, life has been pretty hectic lately and alas, I did not find the time. Getting back to the metro story, the reason why my background as a linguist is so important to is that, had I know the basis of German Grammar, I would have been able to understand when the voice over was informing us on our return metro journey that the last 3 carriages of the train were going to detach and not actually stop at the airport, but instead keep on going to the next city. If it wasn’t for our gut feeling something wasn’t right and our common sense telling us to follow 2 random people as they changed carriages seemingly randomly before the airport stop, I can tell you, the S.L.U.T sign story would not have seemed like the worst moment of our trip.
The final bump in our trip hit us at the airport when, surprise surprise, our plane was delayed. I cannot complain though about the experience too much; our Captain of the plane, his name was Adam, was incredible – #captainAdamLegend (I’ll soon explain this, please bear with me). He managed to get prewritten confirmation, before he left the UK, from Hamburg that he could fly after curfew and therefore he saved our flight from being cancelled altogether and us being stranded having not ate for nearly 9 hours and no accommodation to stay in, not to mention there was strike action with the trains services in the UK the following day so we wouldn’t have been able to get back to Leeds even when we’d returned to England if the flight was rescheduled – hence #captainAdamLegend. Also, although I’d planned ahead to catch the train back to Leeds after landing and there were a possible 12 trains we could catch, so even if our flight was delayed we should be able to catch one home, our flight landed 2 hours and 45 minutes late and therefore we missed the last train by literally 10 minutes. Captain Adam came and saved the day once again though, and this is where my story becomes somewhat unbelievable but please stay with me as I promise this is the truth, when he got the cabin crew to keep us on the plane after the flight, invited us into the cockpit to be introduced to him and… offered to drive us back to Leeds – again#captainAdamLegend.
You may be thinking, “So Alice, Adam obviously came from Leeds himself. It’s nice of him to offer, but it’s not like he’s going out of his way. It’s good of him and everything, but it’s not impossible” and this is the part where you reread my last paragraph and tell me you don’t believe it but Captain Adam, the man who had been on shift all day, the man who had been delayed on every one of his flights, the man who had had to apply for a curfew extension and who was returning home hours late at early hours of the morning, lived just beyond Wakefield and, considering the motorways running in and out of Manchester are currently being shut off in the evenings due to SmartRoad improvements, Captain Adam took a detour of over an hour just to check we got home safe – give the man a raise #captainAdamLegend.
So at the bottom of this blog I just wanted to post some pictures of Hamburg for you all to see. I wanted to thank you, if you’re still reading this, for taking an interest in mine and Sam’s life and therefore for your love and support of our little progresses we are making each year to work towards the best life we can have. I hope you enjoyed this blog and don’t forget to keep scrolling for the images if you’re interested.
Love you all!
-Alice xxxx
