The birthday hype of turning 25 was kind of replaced by the
travel hype, but this birthday in particular seemed like a milestone. A few years ago Mai and I made a promise that
we’d start a big world trip in 2012 and here
we are finally there living the dream!
In the morning I went through lots of lovey messages from my
family and friends and got to Skype with Dad back in Perth. His microphone wasn’t
working so it was entertaining trying to lip read, I managed to figure out ‘Happy
Birthday!’ at least. Later on, we wandered down to the port of Hamburg and had
waffles for brunch.
Unfortunately, it was freezing and I was feeling a bit
under the weather so we had a fairly short day outside and settled for beers at
the hostel before heading out to the Reeperbahn. The owner of the hostel gave
us free shots after discovering it was my birthday and after two in 15 minutes,
Mai as pretty pissed, which wasn’t too surprising since she’s a
one-drink-wonder and we hadn’t eaten. I was looking forward to heading out to
the Reeperbahn in St Pauli, as it’s where the Beatles first started playing
before they made it big. I was actually a little disappointed by the lack of
live music for which it is famous for. I guess it was a Tuesday night. Now that
I think about it, the area is also famous for being the city’s red-light district
which could be why it seemed a little… uh trashy and ‘Northbridgey’ (the Perth
people will know what I’m talking about).
Mai seemed to be getting more drunk by the minute so I was
on the hunt for dinner. We found ourselves at another Christmas market gobbling
another German sausage. Damn they are
good (just look at the photo!!). Despite having the shivers and stumbles (the worst kind of combination), Mai
insisted we stay out for my birthday… but I kept my eye on her. We hung out at
a market stall and I tried some Gluhwein (German mulled wine) and met a bunch
of English blokes that were working on the passenger ferries. These dudes were pretty interesting to talk to so we went to some little English pubs in the nearby area. One older guy asked me, “what was the colour of your first bicycle?”,
to which I replied “uhhhhh dark green I think”. He told me that I looked to the
left when I answered and said that I store long term memories in this part of
my brain. I have no idea whether it’s true or not, but like a true Englishman,
his story was entertaining anyway.
Unfortunately, it was freezing and I was feeling a bit
under the weather so we had a fairly short day outside and settled for beers at
the hostel before heading out to the Reeperbahn. The owner of the hostel gave
us free shots after discovering it was my birthday and after two in 15 minutes,
Mai as pretty pissed, which wasn’t too surprising since she’s a
one-drink-wonder and we hadn’t eaten. I was looking forward to heading out to
the Reeperbahn in St Pauli, as it’s where the Beatles first started playing
before they made it big. I was actually a little disappointed by the lack of
live music for which it is famous for. I guess it was a Tuesday night. Now that
I think about it, the area is also famous for being the city’s red-light district
which could be why it seemed a little… uh trashy and ‘Northbridgey’ (the Perth
people will know what I’m talking about).
I was still on the hunt for some music so moved over to an
Irish pub where there was a guitarist who played (what I thought would be
impossible), quite a good rootsy cover of Wonderwall. We didn’t really find
anywhere else close by that had music, and by this stage Mai was falling asleep
at the table so I thought it was best to get her to bed!
It's Mai’s birthday soon, so watch this space for when Elise gets to get drunk.
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