My Very Own Self
"Sugar and spice and everything nice, My Dearly Beloved and then Some
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|  || Saturday, December 02, 2006 || Fri, 3rd Nov – Sun, 5th NovDays 59 – 61: Hamburg Lay Boon and Derek left for Nice, William was going to Geneva and Jonathan and Qiuwei had left for Vienna the day before. Thus left all alone, I made my way to Hamburg. My Dawn-ie met me at the station. There was a certain surrealism to it. There was I smiling at the sight of Dawn-ie from the top of double-decker bus I took and then walking towards her, as though it had only been yesterday that we had had dinner together with the rest and parted our ways; this was just a normal re-meeting of friends, only with a much more picturesque backdrop and half the world away from home. Anyhow, Dawn Chan lives in a lovely little neighbourhood!! And has an amazingly stylish apartment!! That girl certainly can decorate!    Too freezing cold for much adventure so we had dinner at an Italian restaurant just outside Dawn’s place. Goodness the food was delicious!! Then, being wild and deplorable, we met Nick at the Reeperbahn, which is the red-light district of Hamburg he often frequents. (Well ok fine. He goes to the pure-drinking and clubbing clubs nearby, but that sentence had just so much more ooommph to it). Drank the first bottle of beer I ever had in my life. Don’t get what the fuss is about.    [Random scenes. The middle picture is a men-only lane. Ah! To peek beyond the gates!]  Day 2: Hamburg’s lovely city square and a museum. Watched swans, ducks and geese at the lake, kept thinking foie gras every time I saw a goose! I really need to have some soon. Bought a nice tin of spice biscuits in a pretty cookies-and-chocolate shop, had an excellent Chinese lunch in a foodcourt (yes a foodcourt!). Visited an antique centre (lovely!) then got brought around the city and lake by Nick while Dawn continued with the museums (we had bought a special offer ticket to all the museums you see and to do me justice the first museum was rather boring and so I just had to run away from the others and Dawn was always there more cultured of us two). Kept dropping my gloves while going round the city. In the end had to be taught a very clever way of keeping them safe by Nick: “Keep them in your coat pocket!!”, he said when I had dropped them for the umpteenth time. Simple and nifty idea. Worked whenever I remembered.  [Various places in Hamburg whose names I cannot remember. But, Essen and Trinken is Hamburg's only food court; while the right bottom-most photo is Raffles Hotel. As a good Singaporean and half-blood Rafflesian, I thought I should mention it]Ended the day going to another museum to look for Dawn but couldn’t find her (this museum now was really lovely but alas we spent more time looking for Dawn than at the paintings!). Went back to the same Italian restaurant, just this time with Nick. Once again it is a testament to globalisation that I should be in Germany, having come from France eating dinner at an Italian restaurant with my fellow Singaporean friend. This time my pasta was a bit on the salty side, but still satisfyingly good. Day 3: Dawn had to go to church, so poor Nick was left with the tragic task of bringing me to the Fischmarket. Anyone who’s travelled with me will know that I take an inordinate amount of pictures and spend the longest time looking at various things. Put me in a place with food and pretty little darling things and well… good luck to you! May I add that the day was again biting cold and rainy!  The Fischmarket was adorable.    Had RAW marinated meat on bread. Wasn’t bad at all. A certain person I shared it with thought it tasted raw. Oh and that certain someone later caught a cold from the cold. Boys nowadays… such wusses! (but... sweet, kind and sick wusses).  Then the rest of the afternoon with my Dawn-ie, idly walking around, talking, no aim in particular… then soon… it was home.  Epilogue Hamburg is a pretty little city. It is not beautiful, it is not great, just pretty. But what is mere prettiness in the whole of Europe? Hamburg is also a quaint little city. But how can ‘quaintness’ hope to compete with the sparkling splendour of History? Yet my days in Hamburg are days to remember, for the most fundamental and simple of all reasons to remember any place by, that single yet precious word: companionship. Dear Dawn-ie and Nick, thank you for being such wonderful hosts.  Bleargh I am terrible at sentimental stuff. Anyway, just so none of you will slip and fall of shock upon meeting me in London:  |