the Emigrants, the church, the... beer?

March 12, 2012. Day two. 

Today we went to the Immigrant museum in Hamburg. It was an interesting place and I thought it was really cool to learn about how people traveled from Europe to the Americas and elsewhere. Apparently Brazil was a large destination for a lot of Europeans or other Migrants leaving through Hamburg. We were given these tickets that allowed you to play a kind of game and experience what it was like to be an immigrant. I got one of the tickets, and the first part was to take your picture in this barrack-looking thing. I wasn’t sure what it was for, but later found out that they used it to make me into an immigrant! I took pictures throughout my journey, and it was very hysterical. 

It was difficult, though, because you had to make a lot of choices about your life, but it was all in German, so I just hit Ja and Nein randomly. However, they showed me on board a ship, and I even got an immigrant passport document!

I make a pretty spiffy looking emigrant, no?
I'd let that guy into the States if he just showed up on a random boat... 

home!

At the end of the exhibition, you go into a room with a bunch of computers. This was probably the coolest part because the computers are all registered with Ancestry.com and we were able to look up our relatives. I didn’t have a lot of success with some of my family members, namely with my dad’s side, but I was able to find information on my mom’s father, which was a really surreal feeling. I found his information from when he enlisted in the Second World War, as well as his father, my great-grandfather’s, information from the 1930 Census, as well as the travel documents from when he came over from Poland. Apparently (and I haven’t heard back from my mom yet, so I don’t even know if this is accurate information) my great-grandfather came over on a ship from Antwerp, Belgium to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, on the Lapland in 1887. I really hope the information ends up being accurate.. It would make me feel so great to have found some information on my grandfather.*

*NOTE: Unfortunately, the information that I had found about my grandfather's family coming over from Europe was inaccurate.. but I did find his information from when he was in the war, as well as his address when he lived in Connecticut.

The fact that I have to opportunity to explore Germany (and maybe even Poland later this semester) is something that I think he would have wanted me to do - to explore my roots and learn more about where I come from. I would love to come back and explore more specifically where my family is from. I’d love to find out more about my lineage and trace it back as far as possible. 

After the Immigration museum, we headed down to a boardwalk on the harbor and walked for a bit. 

Hamburg is so dependent on the harbor and rivers, it’s rather interesting to hear about how significant the water is there. 

We made our way to the St. Michael cathedral, which was absolutely beautiful. I was so upset that I had to use my iPhone as a camera, because it wasn’t doing justice for all the places that we were visiting.  We climbed to the top of the steeple, some 400+ stairs, and look out over Hamburg. 

(Cece and I atop the St. Michael's Church)

The city is similar to Paris in the sense of how they maintain their skyline. None of the buildings are able to be taller than the five churches in the area, which makes it very pretty. The view was incredible.

After the cathedral, we had a presentation on Hamburg as the European Green Capitol in 2011. The city of Hamburg has been focused on being sustainable and eco-friendly for some time, and has done so much already, and hopes to be the Green Capital 3 times by the year 2031. Some of the ideas that were used to obtain this title were: A Train of Ideas, which toured a number of European cities to spread the idea of being sustainable, and how those cities can do the same. Since this, Oslo, Norway has begun communicating with Hamburg to become more sustainable. Hamburg also has shifted the from individual transportation and unsustainable energy to buses that produce zero emissions, and a shift to bicycles. You can usually find a corner with tons of red bicycles to rent within several meters from any given location. Overall, Hamburg has done so much to contribute to a growing community of sustainability and one can only hope that this picks up in the United States soon! 

They also had there really cool elevators that were like, moving boxes and you could just get in one side and ride all the way up, then it would switch and bring you right back down the other side. It is continuously moving and incredible!

Next, we headed down to the University quarter. Here we got to see the University of Hamburg, where Professor Prisner went for 6 years to get his PhD. It was neat to see where he came from, and how he’s progressed since then. It’s nice being here knowing that he knows all the places to show us since he lives in Hamburg and commutes every other week to Lugano to teach. It was starting to get dark, so we made our way to dinner; Pakistani food.

Might I just start out by saying that curry is one of the best foods I have every had. Ever. We ordered drinks (I had ginger ale, of course. The bottle even said American Ginger Ale. It was great) and then Prisner had ordered the different types of food. A plate of salad was brought out and we all started with that and some pita bread. Then came the large trays of rice and the five different kinds of curry. There were two vegetarian dishes: Vegetable and Lentil I didn’t try either because I was too occupied with the Lamb and Spinach, Chicken, and Beef in a red coconut curry. The last was easily my favorite, it was incredible with the rice that tasted like cinnamon to me. There were so many flavors, and mixing them all together with the rice and pita was just... there are no words, really. It was incredible and if you haven’t had curry before I highly recommend it. In fact, let’s go find some Pakistani restaurant and hit that up, ja? c:

After dinner, Tavia, Natalya, Will, Amanda, Samantha, Coral, and I left to find our way back to the hotel. The S-Baün and U-Baün are the two train systems in Hamburg. We have passes that let us ride all the transportation for free so it’s great. We picked up the U-1 and rode it to Hautpahnhoff, when we transferred to the U-2 to Billstadt, which is the stop for our hotel. 

(Coral is from California and was obsessed with this restaurant that was apparently
similar to Chipotle.. I've never been, so I have no idea what she's talking about.)

After making it back, we dropped off our things at the hotel. Then Tavia, Jorden, Coral, and I went back to Einstein. Coral and I tried banana beer which was.... interesting to say the least. 

It was carbonated banana juice/soda mixed with beer.
Odd combo, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it.

NOTE: The above description of said beer is all code for:
"IT WAS TERRIBLE. NEVER TRY BANANA BEER. EVER." 

Tavia and Jorden went back to the hotel, but Coral and I decided to have another (normal) beer to justify our going out to the restaurant. I wasn’t fond of the beer, but it was quite grainy (or that’s what Coral said, anyway.) I got back to my room around 12 (We were at Einstein from about 9:30-11:30) and headed off to bed since we had a lot planned for the next day!