If you only have one night in Hamburg...

...and it just so happens we did only have one night in Hamburg, you should be sure to hit up the Reeperbahn.

I'd heard about the Reeperbahn before, but we didn't manage to make it out last time we were in Hamburg. Basically, the street (or area, really) - which is lined with restaurants, bars, and clubs - is famous for going out. So when we drove up to Hamburg for one night in April, going out to the Reeperbahn seemed like the perfect way to feier rein two birthdays...

Oh right, back story. Katharina had her birthday in April, and it just so happens to be the same day as her sister's boyfriend. So quite spontaneously we decided to head up to Hamburg for a 24 hour birthday celebration. We would leave Saturday afternoon and come back Sunday night. Just enough time to go out Saturday night and then do the family thing (you know, plus me) for the actual day on Sunday. 

By the way, to feier rein literally means "celebrate into" and is one of my favorite German concepts. See, over here, it's bad luck to celebrate/congratulate a birthday before the actual day. As one of my students told me last week: "I'd rather celebrate 2 weeks after my birthday than 2 days before." This also explains why there is a way to say "happy belated birthday" in German, but really no way to say "happy early birthday." If you do that, you might as well just say "I spit on the day you were born and curse your family" (ok, maybe not that extreme, but just don't do it!). But, with the ability to feier rein, you can get away with celebrating one night early and waiting till midnight to literally celebrate into the birthday! Just make sure you only wish a happy birthday on your way out the door, and not when you arrive. Genius.

But I digress...

The Reeperbahn makes for a great night out and a wonderful way to feier a birthday or two rein. For someone that generally does not like to bar hop or go dancing (or so I say in the daylight), I had a fabulous time trying out as many new places as possible and rocking out to the Backstreet Boys (yes, that really happened) till the wee hours of the morning. 

One pretty picture and one pun

Aside from being completely frozen while we were there, Hamburg is a beautiful city. It was great to be surrounded by water (or ice as our case was), and the sunsets over the port didn't hurt the image at all. 

 

but one thing that I enjoyed ever more about the city, was Hamburg's sense of humor. I don't know if you've caught this yet, but I love puns. Like in a completely ridiculously, how do I still have friends kind of way. And I do not discriminate based on language. So when we ran across some Hamburg trash cans with little pithy catch phrases, I knew it was love (with the city, not the trash). 

 

For those non-German speakers out there - a little explanation: Trash in German is Müll and millionaire is Millionär. The sentence "Ich wär so gerne Millionär" means "I'd like to be a millionaire." Except this trash can changed "millionär" to "Müllionär." Get it, Müll - Müllionär. It's a trash can and wants to be a trash-ionaire! Ok... if I have to keep explaining it's probably never going to make sense. 

My kind of souvenir

I'm not big on souvenirs. They always just end up being things I'll never use and eventually just feel guilty about when I throw out or pack away (I could make a pretty intense hoarder, if I wanted). So my solution to avoiding this dilemma is to just not buy souveniry-souvenirs.

I prefer to buy things that I can use that may not actually say "I <3 NY" or "Mind the gap." Things I can use and always think about where they came from. Some of my favorite souvenirs are things like my Freitag bag from Zurich, my scarf from my Paris, or any of the mugs I've stolen from Oktoberfest (hey, those are TOTALLY practical items to keep handy!). 

My latest of these "practical souvenirs" was from my recent trip to Hamburg with my roommate. We went to this great little make-it-yourself jewelry shop called Nuenas. All the parts were provided for you, and you had to do all the assembly yourself. You could make any piece of jewelry you wanted, so I naturally opted for earrings.   There were sooooooooo many beads and options available, though, and it was all quite overwhelming at first (ok, actually it was overwhelming the whole time.)

about 2 hours and 3 different attempts later, I had finally settled on the beads that I wanted to use. It was insane to realize just how difficult it was to put it all together. Usually, you see a pair of earrings in the store and think "oh that's cute, I bet I could make that." But, suffice it to say I now have a much greater respect for people who make jewelry. All the mixing and matching and even the teeny tiny details like what sort of divider piece should go here, or should there even be one there!

But eventually I found my pieces, and took them to the craft table where I strung them on the wire, clipped everything to the right length and bent it, twisted it, and hooked it so that it was actually an earring (I told you had to do EVERYTHING yourself!). And I have to say, I'm pretty proud of my finished result! 

Now I have a great new souvenir that will always remind me of my trip to Hamburg as well as be totally unique!