Tue, 11 Nov 2003

author Tim	location Hamburg, Deutschland
posted 17:27 CET 12/11/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Netherlands/Netherlands 3 ( all photos )

Still Waiting... ( No photos )
Just under an hour late, the bus arrived heading to Hamburg. We had been standing for too long in the cold (no bus shelter or even seats), and even I with all my warm clothes was starting to feel it quite badly.
Not unsurprisingly, no apologies were forthcoming from the driver, as he grabbed our bag and ushered us upstairs - apparently the heating wasn't working downstairs. Great - half the bus not usable, which of course meant that upstairs was packed.
So packed infact that Liz and I ended up having to sit about ten seats apart - her towards the front next to a huge rude guy who refused to let her have any more than about half of her own seat, while he spread his legs wide in comfort. I fared a little better back in the middle of the bus, next to a quiet girl from who knows where.
Infact, the variety of people onboard was quite interesting, as we were to discover a little later.
The bus pushed on, but neither of us were able to grab much sleep. Liz couldn't even get her seat to go back, not that she would have wanted to fall asleep incase her head rested on her seating 'companion' anyway.
As we passed various stops and people got on and off we looked around for seats together, but there were so many others hogging two seats for their bags or whatever that never seemed to happen.
While I was dozing off, we crossed the border from The Netherlands into Deutschland.

author Tim	location Hamburg, Deutschland
posted 16:54 CET 12/11/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 4 ( all photos )

Back to Hamburg ( No photos )
(Continued from The Netherlands 3)
At the border crossing into Deutschland for our fourth and final time, we had by far the most thorough border check. At about 3am, we were awoken from half-sleep by an announcement that passport control was coming onboard the bus. Strange, considering that due to the Schengen agreement there isn't supposed to be any between these two countries.
After the one border guard spent ages going through the entire bus, going very thoroughly over the suprisingly huge variety of passports being offered for inspection (Liz and I had no dramas at all for a change), the huge rude guy next to Liz was given a second visit. He spoke little of either English or Deutsch, so another person was brought on, but the big guy wasn't giving them an easy time. Another person towards the back of the bus was taken off, including their luggage - perhaps this was the reason for the unusually thorough border checks.
The remainder of the trip passed uncomfortably, but at least we were able to sit together after Bremen. Not much sleep came though, and by the time we arrived at Hamburg Bahnhof I had totalled about two hours and Liz closer to two minutes. And, despite running close to two hours late due to the late start and the border check, the bus driver actually got us into Hamburg ten minutes early!!! Making good use of the Autobahns, I guess. Pretty scary ride at the front of the bus up top though.
As we got off, we spotted Daniel who we had met in Brugge! We had a few quick words but weren't in the mood for socialising, so we parted ways - he off to find his hostel and us in search of coffee. This took us to a dingy little place where we lack of sleep made my rusty Deutsch even worse, but we obtained what we were after. I'm not sure how the only other customer there was managing beer at 7am, but he was.
By 8am, we moved to McDonalds to waste some more time, and eat some grease to keep us going. We over-stayed our welcome there for a while, with me using the translation dictionary to work at a snail's pace through a magazine, before deciding that it was time to move towards the city.
The rest of the morning was spent at a café which suprisingly had free wireless internet where we read books and purchased just enough drinks to keep the waiters happy, before we went for a walk around part of the Aussenalster, Hamburg's large outer lake. The weather was notably colder than the last time we were in this city, making an interesting contrast.
We ambled back into town about 2pm, grabbing some local 'cuisine' in the form of a wurst or two, before walking the couple of kilometres to Sebastian's house. He was working until 2pm, and aimed to be home by 3pm. We passed a bit of time in a funky café up the road and then walked down and said hello.
It was a little funny returning to the place where we have spent time both with them and on our own. A week or two ago Jessi had a tangle with a car on her bike, she is ok but her knee is pretty sore. No permanent damage and it could have been much worse.
Liz and I were very tired, so we anti-socially crashed asleep while Jessi studied and Seb went to his final band rehersal before their first gig next week. When he came back we sat awake for a while, drinking and chatting about various things, which ended up with just Seb and I discussing quantum mechanics while mostly asleep. With that, we called it quits for the day!

(customised)