Sunday 1 May 2022

Day 1 in Hamburg

I have recently returned from a short but sweet trip to Hamburg with my boyfriend; we arrived on Wednesday evening and flew home on the Sunday night. I'm going to share a series of posts detailing what we got up to, where we ate, what we spent and so on - I hope you enjoy!

The holiday actually got off to a terrible start because I was really poorly; I slept for 14 hours on the Wednesday night when we arrived and felt very groggy on Thursday, our 'day 1' of this trip. Still, I was determined to get out and see the city so we started the day with a little trip to the Phoenix Centre, a mall just next door to where we were staying in the Harburg area of Hamburg. As I hadn't eaten for around 24 hours and desperately needed to put some salt back into my body, we had a maccies. This cost me €6.57 and I had a large diet coke, a hamburger and medium fries - I did think this was probably more pricey than it would be at home but well worth it...

We then went for a wander around the Harburg area, getting our bearings and so on - we saw the town hall (Rathaus) too which was pretty! The mall had a supermarket inside it so we headed back that way, stopping to stock up on some basics like beer and crisps; there is joy greater than a foreign supermarket in my opinion! We spent about €10 here which, for what we got, wasn't bad at all.
 
Us at Harburg Rathaus; rhubarb juice; me with my boyfriend's beer for a photo (with my puffy eyes)
 
After dropping the beer back off at our apartment, we headed over to Hamburg-Harburg station to get the train into the city centre. The tourist board really kindly gifted me a Hamburg card for the two of us to use - this included ALL public transport and meant we didn't need to waste time on the platform buying a ticket each, as it was already loaded into the Hamburg card app. The train into the centre was around 15 mins from where we were staying; we of course had our FFP2 masks on, and they were really strict about it in the stations and on the trains etc.
 

When we arrived in the centre of Hamburg we wandered towards a huge building we could see - this turned out to be the central Rathaus, and we stopped there for a drink at a little outdoor bar which had perfect views of this gorgeous building. I had rhubarb juice and my boyfriend had a beer: I think this came to around €8. We then wandered down towards the waterfront, again getting our bearings for the city centre, before walking back up towards the Rathaus; opposite was a small mall with a food court, and my boyfriend was desperate to try a currywurst. I opted for a plain bratwurst, because I still wasn't feeling 100%, and we both got chips - I got a coke & he got a beer. This all came to just over €20 which I do think was expensive for what it was and the fact it was in a mall...
 
Hamburg Rathaus; Currywurst; WWI memorial

We headed back to our apartment and chilled out for a bit, then went out in search of somewhere showing the football. Near our apartment was a bar called B7 which had billiards tables and did shisha - the staff were friendly and it was really quiet, being a Thursday. However, it was €10 for a spirit & mixer! A large beer was around €5, and the raspberry shisha I had was €12. We stayed there for an hour or so, even though they didn't have the football on, as the vibe was really nice.

 Just up the road was a bar literally called 'Sports Bar'. They also did not have any sports on, just a YouTube dance mix, and it was full of men drinking espressos - we didn't want to just turn around and leave, though, so we had two vodka & lemonades. Top tip: don't ask for lemonade as nobody in Hamburg knows what it is. Say Sprite instead! These were €6 each. Our final stop was another bar a few doors down called Lisboa; it was really small and cosy, had great music on and friendly staff. We paid a mere €7.10 for a bottle of beer and a vodka & mixer, making it one of the cheapest places we went to all weekend! 

Did you know: you can smoke inside most bars in Hamburg. If this bothers you it is definitely worth looking specifically for bars which have separate smoking areas.

After that we headed home; we stopped at a kebab shop called As Urfa Harburg. I got a wrap with falafel and salad in it, and my boyfriend got a box of doner & chips. I can't remember how much it was, but it wasn't too expensive and considering it was kebab shop food, it was delicious.

So that was day 1 in Hamburg; I'm so rusty at writing these diary-style travel posts but I hope you enjoyed reading it. Day 2 coming soon!
 


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