The start of our third day was around 9:00am. We all had breakfast, which is a rather nice breakfast compared to American standards. The usual breakfast in a European hotel is meats and cheeses, as well as a variety of breads, cereals, yogurts, and (my favorite) muesli! It's very similar to dry oatmeal, with grains, sometimes nuts, dried berries, etc. I usually mix it with plain or blueberry yogurt and it's simply devine!
After breakfast, we made a nice trip down towards the Innercity of Hamburg. Interesting thing about Hamburg is it's size and how it's developed. The Innercity accounts for a large majority of the city's population, though it's growth in population is being severely restricted by lack of space for residents. Therefore, the city is currently in the middle of developing HafenCity. The overall goal of this project is to increase the Innercity by approximately 40%. This is huge, as it allows a larger number of people to both live and work in Hamburg, which should have an overall positive effect on the city's economy.
This is a model of the Innercity, which shows the projects as well as current stages.
I was still using my iPhone as a camera at this point, so please excuse the poor/grainy quality.
We then went on a walking tour of the entire Hafencity which is a lot larger than you may originally perceive it to be. It was rather cold out, being right on the harbor, despite having my peacoat and scarf.
This is a map of Hafencity Hamburg taken from the HafenCity News website (source).
If I remember correctly, we primarily toured the Western half, or the left-hand side of the screen; starting from the colored triangular shape to the green strip which bisects the HafenCity (which is just past the new University). As you can probably tell from the map, the western-half is well into the development stages, while the Eastern portions are not as far along. It was an incredible structure.
This section here, taken from the map above, was the most interesting part of the HafenCity. The rounded area in the center of the map (just below "Dalmannkai") is designed specifically for the flooding of the harbor. The docks and piers, which accomodate public events and are just generic public space, are actually flotation devises that rise and fall with the water levels of the harbor. The buildings surrounding the harbor are also prepared and the bottom levels can be sealed off and become water-tight should the levels rise that high.
It was a really interesting point to consider and fascination to see how a community adapts to nature around them.
Another reason is fascinates me is because, and this may come from the literature courses I've been taking this semester, but there is always this preconceived notion that nature is the untamable, and man spends copious amounts of time trying to tame it. There are countless stories of man trying to tame nature only to be destroyed himself in the end. Rather than try and battle the elements and the forces around them, Hamburg has chosen to adapt to the area around them, and increase their use of the space.
After the tour we had a brief one hour break for lunch. I went to a nearby restaurant with my professor and some friends and had a curry wurst and fries. For those of you that have never been to Germany or had a curry wurst and fries... let me just... oh, you are missing out.
Curry wurst is fairly simple. It's basically a hotdog or bratwurst covered in curry. Like a chili dog, actually, but curry instead of chili. It's served with fries and is one of the most delicious things on earth (with the exception of tacos, American peanut butter, Sprite, and kebabs!)
But enough about food...
After we finished lunch and our tour of HafenCity, we headed back towards the Emigration museum from Day 2 (click to view this post) only this time we went to the IBA station, which was also, like much of HafenCity, floating in the middle of a large river!
We had another brief background on what IBA is and what their mission is, and saw yet another model of Hamburg.
IBA is an organization that was started to sort of reinvent the spaces in Hamburg that have fallen into disrepair. For example, they take abandoned schools and use them for architecture students to practice and study different techniques.
They also are remodeling a former bunker used from WWI in such a way that it will serve as a location for purifying water via solar energy and other sustainable methods for local housing areas.
One of the most interesting parts of the IBA tour was this WWI bunker. Throughout all the years of my education, any mention of World War II was biased in terms of the Allied Powers, namely the US. But I was in Germany. This bunker was used by the Germans of Hamburg to hide from the US when they bombed the city. After the Allies had won the war, the British loaded this bunker up with dynamite and other explosives. Interestingly enough, when they detonated it, the entire inside was blown out, but the external stone shell was saved, hence the heavy remodeling they are currently doing inside the structure.
It was just strange to see something from WWII, an event that has fascinated me for years, and has always been taught to me from a specific point of view, from a completely different angle. I developed a kind of respect for the Germans here, not in their cause and what Hitler and the Nazi Party was doing under the Third Reich or anything like that, but it sort of reinstated the fact that these were people too.
The Second World War was, if I'm not mistaken, one of the first (if not the first) major war that had a large number of civilian casualties. These structures could have been to save the innocent civillians of Hamburg that had no idea when or why they would be bombed.
It was during this tour that we went to Wilhelmsburg, Hamburg, which is outside of the Innercity. This part of Hamburg has been rundown and not used for a long time. you might go as far as to say it's like the Harlem of New York, though I fear that analogy may be a tad politically incorrect.
Both the WWII bunker and the school converted to architect-location were located here.
(The vacated-school converted to a place of study for architects)
Wilhelmsburg is a place that many people in Hamburg do not view favorably. They are trying to recreate the area and market it towards the up-and-coming youth; college students, for example.
Just to show how neglected the area is, almost as if planned, we were given a taste of reality for the people in Wilhelmsburg. While waiting for the train to take us back to the Innercity, an announcement came over the loudspeaker at the station, which my professor translated to say that the tracks were shut down and it would be a while because the police were involved. In other words, according to our tour guide, someone had jumped in front of a train and the tracks were stopped. He went on to tell us that this was typical of the life in this part of Hamburg. Normally if there is a delay on the trains, the city sends out buses and taxis to transport people free-of-charge, to prevent delays. However, this is not the case in Wilhelmsburg because it is so far out of the way or not as important as the Innercity.
The train finally came and we were given free time. Most of us were exhausted at this point, because we had been walking all day from 9:00am until around 4:30pm.
During the free time I traveled the city with Coral and Amanda. This was possibly the best part of the trip for one reason. I had managed to find a multi-purpose store which had a universal adapter as well as the right converter for my camera! I wanted to make sure it would work because I couldn't return anything, and I even brought my camera battery with me! The nice German salesman was extremely accommodating and explained how the charger worked; how I needed to buy the charger itself, and then find the right match for my battery type to fit it. He even let me check my battery to the type listed to make sure they were the same; opening up the battery boxes and going out of his way for me. It was an overall great experience, and I know I would not have gotten half as nice of treatment in Lugano!
Overall it cost me about 28 euro, which was a STEAL because anywhere in Lugano that sold the chargers, if I pre-ordered them 3 weeks in advance, were about 45-50+ francs, and the charger back in the US was around $35-50 so I made out well c:
After buying that, we tried to find our way to my professor's house. He lives in Hamburg and Lugano, and commutes back and forth every other week. Since we were in Hamburg, he decided to throw us a pizza party at his home. Coral, Amanda, and I navigated the entire city based off a single image map of the entire city that he gave us, and drew a line on; no words, nothing. We actually found our way and made it there 15 minutes early, which ended up being a half hour before everyone else!
It was a great evening and the pizza was great! After we ate our professor even played from German, Austrian, and French tunes on his guitar!
He said he knew some of The Beatles, but he wouldn't play any!
Overall it was a great day, and after we left Professor Prisner's house, Will and I took a different route to try and beat the rest of the group back to the hotel, but turns out we got on the same train, just a few stops before them. (We ran and beat them back to the hotel in the end, so it counts!)
