Bilious Blog…Around Europe in 80 days#51

I wasn’t sure what the area of Hamburg I was staying in would be like.It’s called Hammerbrook,which to my mind conjectured up images of Heavy Metal Norse Gods or at least some spotty kid in their bedroom playing a game called Hammerbrook…what I hadn’t envisioned was a large area of office blocks with maybe only one bakery,one bus stop and an S Bahn station to facilitate the daily commute…oh and roadworks.Lots and lots and lots of roadworks…

Anyway.The hostel is on the top floor of one of the office blocks with a lift that can maybe take one person and a small trolly of laundry at a push,it also makes alarming noises when it moves.It’s ok though,clean and seems secure with access through at least three doors via card…but sadly there’s no local bar as,well,there’s no local bars…I can use the place I was in last night and is fine as I mentioned but even though getting there is fine( it’s about a 5 minute walk) getting back is a pain as they close the steep steps(yea I’m doing steep steps now) after dark due to it being dark I suppose…it took about an hour to get back,although I think I can half that as I know what the score is now…

To be totally honest I’m not that bothered about the centre of Hamburg ( sorry Rikky) It’s ok of course,big city etc,good bits,bad bits…but I love the docks,St Pauli and Altona.I like the juxtaposition of alternative,so called “woke” lifestyle and sleaze.It appeals to me on a very basic level…Reeperbahn is much like I imagine certain parts of Soho were like back in the day.Exciting in a grubby kind of way with every walk of life attracted to the area from the naive curious tourist all the way to the embittered cynical street hustler…but these areas also had  the artistic ,Bohemian types too.The mixture can be ruinous & intoxicating in equal measure.I have always been drawn in by this and even at my advanced age I find it hard to resist…walk away from the strip that is Reeperbahn and go down the side streets there are plenty of great little bars among the dodgy sex clubs….no pretence.It is what it is and has been for many decades..,

At the moment I’m in a bar down by the docks in the Portuguese quarter.Ports have always fascinated me also.The transient mixed with the firmly established…probably in this area a Portuguese sailor one went “ fuck it I’m staying here” got his family over,maybe opened a small cafe,got friends & family jobs and so on and so forth and over time a Portuguese quarter( or maybe a small enclave) was born and is now thriving with shops & restaurants both sides of one Straße…it’s a story common in all ports just with different nationalities in different ports.I love it…

No doubt will do some more navel gazing later…ciao for now.

Ps Things just got weird.As I said earlier I’m in the Portuguese quarter and just saw a load of Porto fans…really couldn’t work it out but turns out they’re playing Shakhtar Donetsk at the HSV ground tonight…Just spoke to one but he wasn’t one he was a Brazilian lad but I mentioned Gomes & Chuna and we shook hands and left it at that!

Pps Later on i chatted to a young Portuguese lad who had lived in Hamburg for five years cos’ he fell in love with a local girl whilst on a work trip here and stayed.Life can sometimes change totally on one random decision…Andre ( the fella) said he had to stay a day longer as the work he was assigned to wasn’t quite finished and that’s the day he met his future wife…life is beautiful sometimes.