Frankfurt

I love Frankfurt! Maybe just because of company that i had there (do you remember my friend Alejandro?), but i love this city. It is beautiful, spacious, bright and it has a lot of churches (which i don't like a lot cause they rings every hour and it makes you crazy) and gardens. And also weather was amazing (+10 and sun). But i came there not at the best time - almost everything is closed there at winter, but it doesn't matter because i had an amazing time.

winter? really?

To go to Frankfurt from hamburg i decided to take a train. Do you remember that transport is very expensive here? Good, because trains are not an exception. But at least my train there was comfortable and quite fast. There are two types of trains IC and ICE. IC makes more stops, is not so fast and not so expensive (i took that one). ICE is much more faster, it stops only at the biggest cities but the price is higher. What i really liked in train is view from the window - even at winter Germany is very beautiful.

When i arrived to Frankfurt it was 7 at evening already, but because weather was good and my friend wanted to show me everything we went for a little excursion around the city (at night it look gorgeous, especially embankment). Than we went to some traditional German bar where got drunk)))

trees!!!

The next day we walked around city a lot and i saw all Frankfurt's landmarks. All the main streets there are only for people, but interesting that at the middle of this streets they have very unusual trees (they look like they are from the other planet). Also i saw a place where electronic parties started - at winter it is just a park)) Than we went to another bar (Salalitos) that looked like Papa's Place at Moscow (i miss this place))).

ICE train

The nest morning we had to go to the Heidelberg, but suddenly my friend got a call that door at his apartment at London was  hacked, of course he had to go to London. So we just bought a ticket for me to Hamburg and i left at 12 at morning.
Now i'm at Hamburg again without any idea what else i can do here =)

Bye bye Hamburg

Very spicy thai food 

I can say that yesterday was my best day in Hamburg. Do you remember that i wrote about one guy from CS who helped me with tour around Hamburg? Yesterday i finally met with him: he took me to the center, made city tour to some other parts of the city, showed me the biggest cemetery in the world, took me to the thai, indian and hamburg restaurant and told me a lot about this city. And he took me to the theater to see operetta with traditional hamburger songs  - it was really funny eve if i didn't understand a word))) Oh and also he showed local street where a lot of people who are connected with art live, and in summer they make concerts there, but at winter it didn't look so gorgeous)

here i tried traditional
hamburger sausage 

All this places (except cemetery) were situated in the Schanzenviertel district, what is like St. Pauli (red light district) but this one is quiet and there are no prostitutes))

cemetery

And the cemetery (Ohlsdorfer Friedhof) looked really great, it was big and beautiful, but also there is one funny thing about it - around this cemetery there are a lot of stores that somehow are connected with death, so i saw a discount store there)))

And today I'll just do some shopping and buy souvenirs, but tomorrow i'm going to Frankfurt where i will see my good friend Alejandro. Lebe wohl Hamburg!
And now i want to share with you some interesting facts about Hamburg that  found out)

art street

• Here is the biggest cemetery in the world 
• Here is the only one patrol station n the world that sells more liters of alcohol than of patrol (guess where it is situated)))
• Here is the one way street to the both directions (can't understand it? I'll explain - it works to the one direction from 12 p.m till 4 a.m. and to than to another)
• World famous company Nivea started here (after i found out it i bought a lot of its production)))
• Hamburg is the richest city in Germany

Welcome to Berlin

I spent almost three days in berlin and i must say that this city is just amazing! oh god, i already miss it.

To go to berlin i took a bus from Hamburg (45 euro only there and back) - never do it. German people don't know that it must be warm in the car that's why the temperature in the bus was around +4. Than i arrived to the main bus station in berlin - it was quite confusing because i immediately got lost. Thanks god my host was very passioned and kind and told how to get to the subway.  I must say that public transport system is awful here, even worst than in hamburg.

When i finally met my host we went to see some main landmarks of the city. I liked berlin much more than hamburg. Berlin is very bright, there is a lot of space there and weather is better) We saw Reichstags, berlin wall, Brandenburg gates, tv tower, and many other places (you can find all of them in the city tour))
Than we went to my host's place. I didn't expect that it will be a campus))

Next day i spent walking through the city alone - i saw the biggest part of the berlin wall, museum island and museum of modern art which is called Hamburg railway station (weather became worth when i came to this museum))). Everything there was strange but the good thing that i saw original works of Andy Warhol. It is worth of spending some time there. And don't forget to take any prove that you are student - with it you'll have 50% discount in all museums.
When i get home at evening my host told that we are going to CS party or even two)) It was crazy. I met a lot of people from all over the world, we talked about so stuff and drank a lot. I don't remember how but somewhere the the middle of night they asked me to give them a russian lesson (actually a lot of people there spoke russian more or less). Then we went to another party where everyone was drunk already) Some guy from Luxembourg decided to propose me, and german people asked me to teach them rules of drinking vodka))) But when all of them went sleep, me, my host (who lived in russia for more than year) and his friend turned on russian rock music and sang some songs)))
Next day i slept till  2 (for the first time in my life i put on alarm so late)), and went to the main bus station)
Oh, i miss berlin so much...

Hamburg again

Today i continued to explore this dark and unfriendly city =) As the weather (fog and really strong wind) was really bad i decided to go to some museums. I chose two museums that are really famous and unique.  The first one was the museum of spices (my friend know how much i like different spices). Maybe museum is unique but it is boring, the only interesting thing about it stand what tell about spices that are aphrodisiacs, but it was in german =(

But the second museum was really cool  - it was the museum of miniature countries and cities. There were several countries (Switzerland, Austria, USA) and of course little copy of Hamburg. It is useless to tell about it, you have just go and see it - it is like Alice's wonderland =)

And today i also decided to visit the tower of St.Michael's church - it wasn't the cleverest decision)) The top of this church is really very high, and usually you can have amazing view from there, but not today. Do you remember what i wrote about wind? Right, and on the top of tower it was much more stronger (i was a little bit hard to stand there). But at least it was fun because i was there alone. Do you remember that in Iceland we climbed volcano on the hardest side? I did almost the same today - i didn't notice elevator)) And when i finally climbed there bell started to ring - it scared me because was very laud) But i saw Hamburg under the fog and it was nice))

Tomorrow i'll go Berlin for three days, so i think my next post will be here in three days)

Real first day in Hamburg

Today i spent all day in Hamburg, and i have to say it was a nice day. As you remember yesterday i was a little bit disappointed in everything, that's why i decided to use my favorite site couchsurfing and it was very wise decision, because one nice german man (not all of them are so rude) offered me help: he wrote me some interesting places that i can visit. So i wrote down all information that he gave to me and went to the city. I saw several old churches (even one of them was destroyed during the second world war), the oldest bridge in hamburg, local red light district, huge monument of Otto von Bismark, port, famous fish market, took ferry round Elbe and did something else, but i don't remember =)
Thing that disappoints me is weather here - at morning it was cold, than it became so windy that i didn't feel my hands and than began to rain, after what all roads was covered with ice. But i don't want to complain) So, if you go to Hamburg don't forget to take a lot of worm and waterproof closer.
I really like public transport here, it is very comfortable,  safe, warm and goes everywhere. The bad thing is it's price - day ticket for the all transport costs 5,50 euros, but it is much more cheaper than buying a ticket every time you need to go somewhere.

And i really like Starbucks here - it is cheaper than in Moscow, has free WiFi, and they ad really a lot of cream into your coffee. But unfortunetly i've found only two and both of them are in the very center, which btw i already know very well, because it is really easy)

Oh i remembered what else i did! I found tunnel under the Elbe river (20m down). This river divides city into two parts: beautiful and old and new one, where there are only factories. But from this new ugly side you have an amazing view on the old one)
I can say that Hamburg is quite interesting city, but you have nothing to do here at winter.