Hamburg Adventure

So I am terrible at remembering to do things, this blog included. I have been really busy trying to get everything situated with all of my classes that started last week. My classes have all been good so far, I am struggling in my Deutsch class because my American accent hinders me from being able to pronunciate words properly, so basically the teacher has to correct me all the time. My other classes are just your typical business classes so not too much excitement in those yet. I am not used to the class structure here though. There is no homework or tests throughout the semester, only a presentation and/or an exam at the end. And they don't ever take attendance. So basically if you fail the exam or presentation at the end you fail the class. So weird! Also some of them have class on Saturday and Sunday. You best believe I did not sign up for any classes like that. I like all of my teachers as well. They are pretty normal college professors except they all have accents so sometimes it is hard to understand. The most difficult being my Supply Chain Management teacher. She is from Ukraine and she lives in Germany now and she studied in the US. So she has Ukranian (sounds similar to Russian) and German accents when she teaches in English.

 

Despite all of the stress and everything getting ready for classes, I found some time last Saturday and went exploring in Hamburg with some other International students. It was about an hour and a half train ride from Bremen to Hamburg, so it wasn't too bad of a trip! Here are all of the pictures from the trip!

 

  

 

 The next two pictures are of the Bremen Haptbahnhof aka the central station for the trains and trams.

 

This was the cutest little old guy that was sitting outside of the Haptbahnhof with one of those wooden music box things with a crank that plays music (I tried to look up the actual name and couldn't find it, so don't hate). Also pictured, Madison, the other girl from MSSU.

The next two pictures are of the cathedral, St. Petri

The next five pictures are of the Hamburg Rathous aka the city hall/courthouse



Here's me!

We passed this guy that had a stick with string on the end that was making bubbles. It was awesome.



The next few pictures are of the cathedral, St. Micheal. It was really pretty and a lot more ornate than St. Petri



Gigantic organ

You could pay 4 euro and get to ride a horrific elevator up 20 floors to the top of the tower and look out over the city. Totally worth it, although it was FREEZING.

Another picture of the front of St. Micheal. (It was hard to get a shot of the whole building because it was in the city so it was surrounded by other buildings, I did my best. I actually think it looks kind of artsy, you're welcome.)

Okay, this next picture makes my blood boil. This is a picture of the bathroom in McDonald's where I had to pay 50 cent euro to use the bathroom. That's right you read it correctly, I had TO PAY TO USE THE BATHROOM. I was in shock. The old guy standing there in the white lab coat was like bodyguard that stood by the doors to make sure you paid before entering. I am still in shock that I had to pay to do something that your body HAS to do. Sadly, it was like this all over Hamburg. At Starbucks, your receipt gave you a code for the bathroom door that was locked with a keypad. I guess Germans just really want to get all they can out of tourist. You best believe I held it for the rest of the day because there was no way I was paying to pee again. Just ridiculous. 

As some of you may know, Hamburg is a major port city, so of course we had to go along the water to check out waterside shops and such, it was really cool, except it smelled like fish. Gross.



This was probably my favorite thing of the day. It is a tunnel that goes underwater and connects to an island on the other side. It was first built in the early 1900 and was used for horse drawn carriages, so the road is really narrow, no car would be able to drive in it.

 

 

"Hello from the other sideeeee" of the tunnel.

(My first attempt at taking a panorama, not too bad if I do say so myself)



Here's me again, freezing my butt off.

Here's the sketchy, ancient elevator we had to take to get up to land from the tunnel.



The next two pictures are from a random battle ship that was along the waterside. (The only reason we went on it was because it was free)

 



The next few are pictures looking across this water canal that ran along between buildings. Kind of reminded me of pictures of Italy, although there were no gondola rides :(



This is different view of the Rathous, another artsy shot. You're welcome. 

 

 

Hope you guys enjoyed all the pictures, it took me forever to load them all. I am going to try to be better about updating my blog, but no promises.