the golden days

long gone sunny and colorful autumn days.

In Göttingen, Berlin, Hamburg and Paderborn

Schaufenster

Window shopping around Germany.
Hannover, Hamburg, Paderborn

one hour in Ottbergen

In between our journey from Paderborn back to Göttingen we stopped for one hour in the little village of Ottbergen. We were expecting a little town but what we found was a quaint old village. Typical farmer's houses, made with wood and red brick, and just a small main square with a simple church. Seeing the gorgeous pink sunset over the fields and the river was a beautifully poetic moment, yet I have to admit I was glad to hop on to the train and go back to my city.

November so far

A few shots from the new month, still a lot to come. Missing the beautiful fall colors, but ready to welcome the peacefuly white snow.

a simple meal

 (forget about being fancy, mismatched everything, coffee mugs for the wine instead of normal glasses, and having to borrow extra plates, that's classy student lifestyle)

One of the things I miss the most from back home is the value of food and meals in general. Germans do appreciate good food, they are very concious about what they buy in supermarkets, they adore the farmers market in the city centre and in general love eating out with friends and family. Nonetheless, they just aren't the same values, for many of them (and "northern" europeans in general) getting together to have a long, diverse yet simple meal is not natural. So hosting a dinner at my little room was indeed a treat for me, filled with turkish white bread, a wide variety of cheeses (including spanish manchego), xorizo, olive oil, homemade falafel and red wine. We finished with two comforting sweet classics, carrot cake and brownies, which were simply perfect.

And, although it was not intended to be so, the dinner ended up being an election night party waiting for the first results while commenting on CNN's journalists and commentators.

Schanzenviertel

"Schanze" might not be as iconic as the neighborhooding Sankt Pauli but it boasts the true essence of Hamburg. Portuguese pastalarias share their walls with alternative music records shops, in front of a boho-chic cafe filled with hipsters next to a squatters graffiti and dirt covered old building. This is a relatively small grid of a couple of crowded streets, and if you venture past them you'll find yourself surrounded by industrial warehouses on one side, and by architecturally beautiful residential areas on the other side. Gentrification here is in every corner, yet although the area's popularity is not new, the atmosphere still holds to its past and in general hamburgers of all kind seem to fight back any renovative intrusion.

One can tell Hamburg is no Berlin.

about Hamburg

Yesterday, after a 4 hours train journey, I arrived in Hamburg to spend the day. This was my second time in the city, and I was ready to spend all my time there walking around. Three weeks ago, when I first visited the city, I couldn't help but feel a weird vibe while walking on its streets. It was a positive feeling, yet I seemed not to understand the city. There was a constant rarity and a troubling sense of loss in every corner. 

This enigmatic sensation is what made want to go back as soon as I had time for it. And yesterday, the feeling didn't vanish, but I understood that was the good thing about the city, it's just simply very different from everything I've seen before. 

This is a place unapologetically sincere to the visitor. It doesn't hide the dirt, the graffities, the gentrification and social differences, the radical spirit and the old-century commercial capitalism, the ugliness of the menacing buildings, their sins and their anger. Hamburg is one proud metropolis and accepting it as it is, makes it one of the most inspiring and truly interesting places I've ever visited.