Trains and Anniversaries

What a day we've had! We got up at 7 so we'd have enough time to get ready and eat breakfast before heading to the train station. The train ride to Hamburg was going to be about a 6 hour journey, so we wanted to get a decent start on the traveling time.

We got on our first train around 9 and had to make our first transfer 15 minutes later. We got off and went to find our next train. We failed to notice in our timetable book that we only had 4 minutes to catch it. (They are pretty much always on time here). We went to the screens in the main part of the station, and we figured out where the train was...on the other side of platform where we had exited! So we ran back to the platform and made it just as the train was pulling out...bummer. The next one was two hours later. So we went outside and sat on a bench for a while. I got a chance to journal some and Doug played his DS. We got some food at the station and at 11:20 we got on our train.

I read most of the time and Doug played DS. We were in a car that was split with the food car, and there were some guys in there drinking lots of beer. They'd randomly burst into song and then they'd all join in. It went from funny to obnoxious pretty quick.

Our next transfer was 3 hours later. We had 20 minutes to find the right train and we had no problem. We saw the drunk guys get on the same train, but they were in a different car this time.

We finally reached Hamburg and got off. Then we realized we'd gotten off too early, we were supposed to get off at Hamburg hbf, and we got a stop early. Luckily there was another train going there 3 minutes after we got directions from an information lady as to our error. So we jumped on that one and made it to the right station.

Our hotel was across town from where the central station was, but luckily, with our eurail passes, we're able to ride the subway for free! Every other country was a different system completely so we were unable to. So we made our way to the subway and got on to go across town.

We got off at the stop that we had been instructed to, and walked about a block and a half to our hotel. We really like it here! It's like a youth hostel (from what I've read, I don't really know), and has free wi-fi in the lobby. They aso have little beach cabanas that you can sit in in the lobby, so that's where we are right now :)

When we got to our room we were again pleasantly surprised. It has twin beds, but they're right next to each other, so it's like having a King size bed. And we're on the top floor so we have a really good view of the city, although we don't know what we're seeing yet. And we have our own bathroom and shower.








We cleaned up (it's amazing how much better you feel after a shower) and went out to find some food. We were hoping to find some bratwurst, but couldn't find anything! There was only cafes that served really expensive plates, or places that sold baguette sandwiches, which we've been eating since France. We walked around the streets though and decided that we like it here. We walked through one of their malls and the bottom floor was like a market in LA, but inside. Most of the stands had either falafel or sushi though. Not really what we were looking for.


We found this store though. Haha, its' a book store



Since we're in the home of the hamburger, we finally settled for getting those. They were from Burger King though. But they were good! Plus, according to our guidebook, people don't really eat them here, even though they were invented here. Supposedly. We'll see tomorrow I guess!

Since it was already 7:30 after we had eaten, we came back to our hotel. We didn't get a chance to really dive into the city, so we'll really take the city in tomorrow. We already have an itinerary set (but it's a surprise). We're both pretty tired so we'll probably end up going to bed early, which is good for us. We've been taking vitamins to stay healthy, but sleep is important too!

And today is our anniversary! We can't believe it's been 2 years. Two years ago we were getting ready to get married (since the time change, it's not even noon yet in California). So I had already gotten my hair done and would have been doing my make up I think. I remember that day went fast and it was already time to go to the wedding site! It's been fun talking out our wedding though all throughout the day today, and stuff that sticks out for us.

Here's to many more years of loving each other!