Reeperbahn Part 2 and Miscellaneous Thoughts

It's Sunday evening, 10 August, and I quickly stopped by the Reeperbahn today to see how the activity compared to last night. As you might expect, it was significantly less, both in terms of the number of prostitutes, potential "Johns," and party-goers in general. I literally would say it is about 10% of what it was last night. So, if you ever want to visit the place and experience it in all of its "glory," I would advise a Saturday, or probably a Friday night, preferably in the warmer months. Also, the Grosse Freiheit, which is the sex shows area, was essentially deserted tonight, far less than the 10% for the neighborhood in general.

I'm surprised at my attitude towards the Reeperbahn and its associated activities. I'm virtually always a libertarian in my thought process, but I have to say that the debauchery was so severe last night that I can only defend it in principle, not in my heart. It's probably something like what an ACLU lawyer must feel when defending a person accused of a hate crime: You defend the principle, not the person per se.

It also seems that Europe has its own version of Sunday Night football, in this case what we as Americans call soccer. Munich is playing Erfurt, a town which appears to be more or less midway on a line between Munich and Hamburg. The men in town are definitely glued to the television sets. Unfortunately, soccer and basketball are very much alike to me, in that I can never really tell what the strategy is. With American football or even baseball, I see the thought process and strategy in each and every move, but with soccer, it seems the strategy is just "kick the ball through the goal," while with basketball the strategy is "throw the ball through the hoop." I prefer a game in which I can understand the subtleties and the strategy versus those which seem to focus on nothing more than serendipity.

On the food front, I tried a new dish tonight, something I still do not know if I enjoyed or not: The Döner, a type of shaved meat (I think lamb in this case) which is roasted all day long on a vertical spit then shaved off as ordered and served with a cole slaw-like sauce in a pita pocket bread. It wasn't bad, but the meat felt tough, almost leathery, so it's not high on the reorder list for me.

I also tried another raging item, the Curry-wurst sausage. Nothing truly exciting about it, other than that personally I prefer the more traditional wurst taste over the "throw some spice on top" taste of the curry-wurst.

I did find a very nice Italian restaurant, and I had a fantastic chat with the male proprietor (while his wife worked her butt off!). I wish I had remembered the name, I'm almost tempted to walk back down the street just to get it. Great food, incredibly cheap prices, nice owners. Even if I never remember the name, I will remember the ambience and the people. It's a bit odd and coincidental, but one of my favorite restaurants in London is also a "Little Italy" type of place. These places just know how to bring on the warmth and ambience, in addition to great food at great prices. It wasn't really terribly German, but heartwarming nonetheless.

I did do the Hamburg hop-on/hop-off bus today, and I am glad I did try it. Normally I feel things such as this are too touristy for me, but in this case, with only a day left in Hamburg, it was a great way to see the city quickly. Actually, Hamburg is far more beautiful and cosmopolitan than I thought or than I remembered from my trip here 15 years ago. I think that staying in a hotel in the Reeperbahn district jaded my perception a bit, as the bulk of the town is very beautiful, with a true class to it. Hindsight is always perfect, but I now wish I had cut my time in Munich by a day or so and instead spent more time in Hamburg. In any case, tomorrow morning it is on to Berlin, then who knows what until I need to be back in Munich for my return flight home on Saturday morning.

I might possibly be getting whiny here, but this ice thing is becoming annoying: It is virtually impossible to get more than a few cubes, certainly nowhere near the copious amounts of frozen comfort I can pull from my freezer's icemaker. I don't mind buying a bottle of vodka (or Wodka) from a local store and drinking it on the rocks, but without the rocks it is pretty nasty. I guess in this case I do, indeed, have to say the score is Europe---0, Motel 6---1.

Other tidbits: The song 99 Red Balloons ("99 Luftballons") by Nena back in the 1980's is still a pretty big hit over here. Interesting song, though since I am tyring to focus on my balance in US vs. European propreity, I should point out that we are in the 21st century. Move on folks.

Drinks in Europe, whether alcoholic or otherwise, are actually sold by indicated numerical volume, and glasses in bars have a mark on them indicating the minimum dispensable level. This is great, much more objective than the vague US strategy of selling drinks with arbitrary names, e.g., never a small, but only mediums, megas, and mammoths. Accuracy never hurts.

I knew there was something odd about the hotel I am staying in (Zleep or Zzzleep, depending on how they choose to market it): There are no phones in the rooms! I went to place a wakeup call, and much to my surprise, you can't do that! Actually, as odd as it may seem, this is probably a good omen, the wave of the future, as nobody in his right mind would really be using a hotel phone in this day, but nonetheless it is a bit disquieting, somewhat like buying that first PC without a floppy disk. It went just fine, even though you had your doubts.