Trippin: I have this thing with Hamburg

I love this city and I don’t know why. Even though I’ve only been here two and a half times, I am always excited about coming back. For me it has this unpretentious vibe, even though there are more designer bags per capita than in Berlin, everything seems so natural and I couldn’t smell “fakeness” not even from a far. The only vibes I didn’t like were around the Central Station Area, because it was somehow scary.

We needed to cross this path because of the location of our accommodation. The first time i was there it was in Superbude, and the second one because we were traveling as a group of 6 it was a&o Hostel. Both were OK, for more details check the green boxes bellow.

Luckily we had train tickets by Flixtrain, and this was serendipity especially this weekend there was a massiv strike of the DB trains. We made in in 2hours safe and sound. The first night was more of a walkie talkie and since we didn’t have not even a single wish or plan we behaved as 101 tourists and had a dinner at the Hamburger Stadtkrug, traditional restaurant, and the male part of the crew was especially from portion size. Then having no plan the walking marathon through Karolinenviertel, next to the Fair and ending in ST Pauli started. We could hear techno beats coming from the Messe side, but we did not stop for it. Then looking for a place that will have a place for 6 our night ended in the mood of “inexperience tax” which we paid by not having proper night out, because we didn’t want to accept just any bar. Ah most of them were working till midnight so that is how we missed everything.

Day two started more organized, but not in the hurry way. The early beards went for a coffee in the neighborhood cafe Irma, and then we all rented the city bikes and the day was ours. The weather was more than perfect, especially for this time of the year, and the plan was to go for a breakfast in the Eppendorf area.

Luckily we found a spot in Aendre. This was another point of what I liked about Hamburg, there were no reservations for brunch, and everything was very laid back. This place might be one of my favorite ever, on the streets and inthe whole Eppendorf area there are many brunch spots, so my guess is that you wont miss whichever you choose. Because one coffee was not enough, the second one was in Lowinsky’s bar, and I still regret not trying the grilled cheese there. Ah this neighborhood is so interesting, with many other grocery stores, interesting people, but also the famous Ise market for which i need to come back once again.

Since we had an architect in the group, we had to do something about the sightseeing part of the trip and the next stop was the Elbphilharmonie, via the city center, the Speicherstadt, the oldest street in Hamburg and boo, we were there on a tour through the philharmony for 2 euros.
Our next ride was the public boat taxi, that took as along the Elbe and dropping off on the Elbstrand beach. We enjoyed the view, the beach and the rest in the Zum Alten Lotsenhaus it was time for truffle fries.

Since we didn’t want to pay the same “tax” as on our first day, we started our trip towards the “cool areas” rather sooner than later. Our first stop was Slimjim pizza, recommending it big time, and then we continued our night in one of the bars on Paul Roosen Street, if you don’t find a bar here, I doubt you will find it anywhere else in the city. So many cool spots. We called it a night around one am since we were out of house for more than 14 hours. I guess we are getting old.

Since the area around the hotel, was not very sightseeing worthy, and the only good walking distance place around was cafe Irma, we decided to repeat the visit. Looking for the “yellow” areas on the map we realized we haven’t checked out St. Georg, which had so many brunch places, again no reservations needed, but again always tricky for a group of 6. That is why before we found our spot we took coffee to go from Blanco coffee Roasters, and then the trip was more bearable. We ended up on the Alster Lake and had breakfast with a view. Turned out pretty simple and pretty OK.

Wasting our calories we were on the way to Gange Quarter, the more alternative one in the city center, but at the morning times of the day nothing much happens, luckily the grass was super green on the other side and we had chill time in the Planten and Bloemen park. It was even too hot.
The map also said we haven’t visited the Sternschanze area, so that was our next station. That was the most lively area of the day, and it was very diverse in both people and food offer.

Because the group had beer aficionados the first stop was Braugasthaus Altes Mädchen, personally maybe the least favorite spot that we’ve visited. It had some super touristy vibe, but the beer drinkers liked it. Burgers at Otto’s were amazing, but the star of the day was the ice cream at Luicella’s Ice Cream. Franbrotzchen, Coffee and Pistaccios and all of that as an ice cream flavor. Boom. I actually didn’t ate franzbrotchen for the time being there, so this was perfect substitute.

The last ride included again tourist attraction, this time was the Water Castle in the Speicherstadt, and the next one was Hamburg Main train Station.