Hafengeburtstag Hamburg

As luck would have it, our one day in Hamburg happened to be the weekend of Hafengeburtstag – the biggest party of the city!

The St. Pauli port was filled with people. A sense of festivity and happiness was in the air, as the streets were closed to traffic and instead became a fairground – roller coasters, carnival games, shops, food trucks, you name it! We watched a demonstration of ship rescue with helicopters and speedboats. The “ship” (which is actually just a barge) is on fire, and first responders rushed to save everyone on the ship.

There seems to be a shortage of washrooms for a huge event like this… especially if you have to pay for the washroom, you expect them to be easy to access and clean. Sadly that is far from the truth. North America definitely leads in the toilet department for big public events.

The fireworks were also quite nice.

Amsterdam’s night scene was bit of a disappointment, but Hamburg really lives it up. At night, Reeperban lights up with tons of litness. Too bad I don’t speak German, so it was a bit hard to socialize in the bars. But people were friendly and patient enough with me – managed to sustain a half hour conversation with some guys while having 1 Euro beer!

Oh and for 17 Euros, my “Farmer’s breakfast” can feed an entire family. Absolutely lovely.

Thanks Hamburg! Too bad only had one day … will return for sure.