Well if you tried to get onto the site in the last couple of days what you probably saw was a string of meaningless symbols…. er… sorry… twas a little updating, um, problem.
It’s fixed now. I hope.
Journal
I have been here one week and what an amazing city this is! The architecture is truely amazing. The blend of old buildings with new creates a stunning picture, all with the Elbe or Alster rivers in the background. There is so much to see in this city alone, that I do not think 3 weeks will be enough to truly enjoy what it has to offer.
Most of my touring is being done by bicycle. Everyone rides bikes here and it seems that bikes have the right of way in any situation. Pedestrians and cars both give way to you. What is un nerving is riding on the wrong side of the road, and with no helmet… they are not compusory here. Thursday afternoon (14/06/07) I went for a 5 hour bike ride around the Alster river. This is where I started to appreciate the architecture of Hamburg. Because it is such a large port, with people from all over the world, the culture has been blended into the streets. There are no single story houses and the buildings tower into the sky creating an interesting backdrop. All the buildings have balcony gardens to add colour to their exterior… the buildings are so large that it is difficult to take photos of them.
Thursday was the last day of sunshine so far… It has rained every day, and, whilst that is slowing my plans for sight seeing down, it has not been bad. Friday I took short bike rides between the showers and explored the stadium where the soccer world cup was held last year. It is not far from home. Joined to that is Volks Park. Another park of beautiful gardens and winding bike trails that was beautiful to ride through. Friday evening we had a BBQ in the garden block with my cousins Nils and Steffan. Both speak english very well. In true Aussie fashion, as soon as the BBQ was lit, it poured with rain. Fortunately we were under cover, and drank copious amounts of beer to ward off the wet weather. It was a great night with thunder, lightning, rain and the BBQ. It was about a 1km walk home, and the rain was not going to be friendly… we got wet… more beer fixed that problem. Here, Beer and Wine is cheaper than water. I bought a litre of water at the train station for 6 Euro. A good bottle of wine from the shop will set me back 2 or 3 Euro… beer is bought in a 6 pack for about 2 euro… I think I have found my dream country. I am surprised everyone is not an alcoholic! Nils and Steffan will take me to the Reeperbahn on Thursday night. Ina and Gerd think it is too dangerous for me to go alone and so the boys will be my bodyguards…
Saturday… and it was still raining… It was not cold, just wet. In the end I could not be cooped up inside any more and ventured out to walk the streets in the rain. Yes it was wet, but I think that added to the appeal of the day. I went to the local markets first which only operate on Wednesdays and Saturdays, then after lunch caught the S-Bahn train to Altona where they were having street stalls. This is a flea market that extends for about 4 blocks in all directions. The rain wasn’t keeping anyone away and the streets were filled with a carnival atmosphere with people selling beer and sausage, and bands of live music… I stayed there until about 7pm, watching all the people… and yes… it still rained, great big fat drops of rain that could soak you with ten drops… but was great. Once you were wet, it did not matter any more. I found a nice summer dress to wear on Thursday night for 2 Euro, and shoes to match for 5 Euro… not bad for an evening outfit!
Sunday… you guessed it… It is still raining. When I go inside, it stops… when I go outside, it starts… We caught the S-Bahn to Landungsbruken, which is near the Harbour, then walked through the Elbe Tunnel, under the river. From the other side of the river, there was a fantastic view of the buildings lining the shores of the Elbe, with the ships cruising into the harbour. I could watch the ships for hours! We followed the canals of the Speicherstadt, the warehouses for the port. These are tall red brick buildings with water canals between them. A bit of Venice in Hamburg! Every few minutes we were darting in and out of the rain, but still… it added to the atmosphere. We eventually decided on a Portugese restaurant for dinner… Portos. The meal was fantastic, as was the beer. After dinner, another walk along the Elbe, looking at St Michael Cathederal and statues of Bismark… the man, not the ship!
Monday…. yep… still raining. Today I went to Davidstasse (David Street) on the Reeperbahn (In the daytime… with my uncle). On the corner of Davidstrasse is Davidwatch, the police station that controls the Reeperbahn. It is said to be the busiest station in Hamburg. I went in and introduced myself, and then an officer, Benjamin REUTER was introduced to me… he speaks English. Benjamin gave me a tour of the police complex and explained their work in the Reeperbahn. There is an assault on every corner, every 10 minutes on Friday and Saturday nights, their busiest nights. Benjamin has applied to the WA Police and has been accepted. He is waiting for his visa and is expecting to be in Australia by September. We exchanged details for when he arrives in Australia. Further, he has invited me to accompany him on patrol on Friday evening in the Reeperbahn. Apparently this is a rare privelege. I will call him Friday evening to ensure he still has authorisation. Everyone in the police station was very keen to talk to me and I spent a couple of hours exchanging job details with them!
It rained heavilly for the rest of the day with no opportunity to go outside. We spent the afternoon at home… You would not believe it, but the sun decided to come out at 8:00pm at night…It was still raining, but there was sunshine. The sun was still shining until it set, just after 10:30pm.
Today… Tuesday… Guess what… NO RAIN!!!! The sun is shining and it is warm again. I have walked down the street, enjoying no rain. This afternoon, I am going to Altona (I think) for a spot of retail therapy… Tomorrow we are going to the town where my father grew up. I cant remember the name right now, but it is about 35 kilometres from here. A nice drive…
Until then
Cass 
I made it… I am sitting in an internet cafe in Hamburg, near the suburb of Altona… I think I have the keybord sussed out now, and if this is the second entry fom here, you have my apologies, but I think I wiped out the first entry somehow, so here is trying again!
The plane trip was long… that is about all I will say. I don´t like flying at the best of times, and 20 hours in the air was… well… I am sure you have all been there at some stage.
I had no trouble at Frankfurt airport and managed to get through customs and onto the shuttle bus from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 without any problems. Buying a train ticket to Hamburg-Altona was easy and cost 102 Euro. I called my Uncle from Frankfurt and told him what time to expect me in Hamburg… This proved to be an interesting conversation as I don´t speak German well and he does not speak English well. Still we worked it out and my Aunt and Uncle met me at the train station. They do not live too far from the train station so it was a quick drive to home. It took four hours by train from Frankfurt to Hamburg.
The afternoon was spent in the Garden block, lazing in the sun. The weather here is fantastic! The evening was dinner with a group of friends in one of the gardens. Everyone has wonderful gardens. All the apartments have balcony gardens and there are flowers everywhere. We ordered take away for dinner. Everyone at dinner spoke a little bit of english so I was not left out of conversations. People here are very friendly and very polite.
The sun sets at about 10:00pm so it was quite a long day for me. I had very little sleep on the plane. By the time I went to bed, I crashed and had a good sleep.
Day 2
The morning started at about 8:00am with breakfast. My Aunt and I then went for a walk down the street to the markets and the shops. We were gone for a couple of hours before I felt the first signs of jet lag and needed to return to the house. After a short recovery, we then ventured down to the harbour and walked along the Elbe river for the afternoon, finishing the walk with Italian ice cream… yum. Upon returning home, my Cousin, Steffan joined us for dinner and the rest of the evening… It is taking a while to get used to it still being daylight at 10:00pm…
Day 3… today.
I have been left to my own devices for the morning so have come down town again and found the internet cafe… a good bit of luck as there are not that many here and we do not have a computer at home. It is easy to find your way around here. Where we are is not the city, but a ´small´suburb. Everyone speaks at least a little bit of english, so it is not hard to be understood. Cass
Well, the bags are packed (I hope!) the house is clean, and I just have to round up the four cats and put them in cages to transport them. The family are ringing me constantly to make sure I have everything…
This is my last entry before I leave the country. What a week it has been. Work suddenly became really intense and I was still trying to finish my files yesterday, as well as organise a send off party for my boss… This has been good, because it has kept my mind off travelling. Today I got everything organised and now am really excited… Tomorrow I will be on a plane flying out of the country and starting my holiday! I am pretty nervous about meeting my relatives, and keep wondering if I have learnt enough German to get by, but there is only one way to find out!
I forgot to mention that I absolutely hate flying… minor problem that will be solved with copious amounts of alcohol and the subsequent passing out… heh heh heh…
Well, that is it for now, until I find an internet cafe overseas… stay posted. The best is yet to come!
Cheers
CJS
I can’t believe there is only one week to go… time has flown. Work has been keeping my mind occupied with plenty of overtime and trips away… Not exactly what you want when you are trying to organise a trip away. The thing is, that if I need anything for the trip, like re-newing my passport, buying travel stuff etc, that I have to travel at least 200km to get to a town that has these facilities. I found that out the hard way when I decided to renew my passport before I went on holiday. I travelled 200km to Esperance, to have them tell me that they can’t do passport applications on that day as their camera was broken… they suggested I go to Kalgoorlie… which from Esperance is 400km… Great… Fortunately I still have 8 months left on my passport and that was enough for the Germany trip. I will, however, have to renew it before I go to Thailand… I will cross that headache when I come to it.
Then there was the language thing… I had 12 weeks to learn German. No worries, I thought as I dragged out the dusty cassettes (yes, back when I bought them there were no CD’s! I could almost sell them as antiques now!). Well… I am up to cassette 3 out of 16. That work thing got in the way again and every-time I started to make head way on the language, I got sent bush for a couple of days. It got to the point where I was walking around the office trying to learn, but the guys didn’t appreciate the noise.
Then I tried my new language out on my father… who is German of course. He burst out laughing. Enough said. Last week I got a grudging… “I think they might understand you a bit now, but you better stick to English…”
Then there was that budget thing I was meant to do… Yeah… right. As you can see from the blank entries… no budget. Is this a good thing, I wonder? Perhaps if I really worked out the cost of this trip I would balk and not go!
And did I mention the changing time tables for my flights…. Got to love it when you are trying to juggle everything on the same day. My domestic flight changed, which meant I had to change my international flight as there was no longer enough time between them to get on the plane… that cost another $300 and instead of spending 6 hours in Singapore, I now get two… not to worry. I still land in Germany at the same time and from there nothing has changed. These are all part of the experience of travelling over seas….
I am sure there was other stuff I was meant to do too… like work out how to post photos in the Journal, but time is slipping through my fingers rapidly. I have not thought about packing yet and have only a vague idea of what I will be taking. Fortunately it is summer in Germany. We are four days into winter here and I have had enough of being cold!!
My cats (all four of them!) have been booked into their holiday accommodation and will travel with me on Sunday for the first 200km. The horse has enough feed to last the month and has an excellent carer… The guys at work are looking after the house (they really are sweet!)... All that is left is to organise me…
The relatives are very excited that I am finally visiting them, and have taken holidays so that they can show me around. Fortunately they speak english and will interperet for me 
I arrive in Frankfurt at 6:00am (German time). I will then take the ICE train to Hamburg - Altona station, which is the closest one to the family. After a quick phone call, they will pick me up and the tour begins. The scary part is that apparently the train is just as fast as the plane…
I am expecting to have plenty of opportunities to sample the amber ale in true Aussie fashion… Ahhh… I can almost taste it now….
Until the next entry… Tschuss (Bye!)
