Weekend in Hamburg or how I tried couchsurfing

This post is not only about how to spend a weekend in Hamburg, but also about how Couchsurfing was great. Therefore, this post is rather lyrical.

If you want to order a comprehensive planning of your trip to Germany or, conversely, learn how to organize your own trips, then you are here

But first, some very revealing backstory.

In Thailand, I fell in love (I hope, obviously, I’m exaggerating) with a man from Germany, namely from Hamburg. Therefore, when the boss said that we were going to Berlin, I immediately understood where I would spend the weekend after Berlin. I hastened to please my “love” with this news. Love rejoiced. Since for a visa I needed confirmation of residence, and indeed, whether this was “love” or “not love”, it was impossible to unambiguously determine, I booked a hostel.

A week before my flight to Berlin, “love” sent me a message that she had found herself another “love” and therefore had to cancel our time together. To put it mildly, I was upset. Fortunately, I was upset for only one day. When I got tired of getting upset, I decided to act and organize a super weekend in Hamburg no matter what. Couchsurfing came to my rescue.

What have I done? I went to couchsurfing, which I registered for several years, but which I never used because there was no need. And then the need arose. Firstly, I didn’t want to pay for a hostel, and secondly, I didn’t have any acquaintances in Hamburg with whom I could hang out. And if I had been alone all weekend, and even on March 8, and even considering why I was going to go to this Hamburg in the first place, then these 2 days would have turned into a complete frustration.

How did it really work out

I arrived in Hamburg at 12 noon and went straight from the station to the hostel. When I went there, I immediately wanted to get out of there – it was filled with noisy and beer-drinking football fans, whom, to be honest, I’m afraid of.

One way or another, I had to leave almost immediately – the girl at the reception said that they would check in only after 2 hours, but for now she offered to leave things in the storage room. The storage room was a small room with a bunch of shelves filled with bags. That is, it was easy to climb into any of them or take the one you liked with you. I was so upset that I scored on my laptop and left it with my bag in this unfortunate storage room, paid 30 euros (!!!) for 1 night stay and went for a walk.

The weather was beautiful, everything around is very beautiful, and the mood was at zero. Therefore, I decided to write to a guy named Philip, who answered my request for couchsurfing that from Saturday to Sunday all the sleeping places in his apartment were occupied, because for the weekend my brother and colleagues arrived from Amsterdam, and on the night from Sunday to Monday he welcome me with joy. Philip answered almost immediately and promised to come to the hostel by 16:00. My mood immediately improved, and I decided to spend the remaining 2 hours before meeting with Philip visiting the miniature museum, which my boss praised a lot.

Museum of Miniatures

The museum is housed in an old warehouse building. Run on sessions every half an hour. The entrance ticket costs 14 euros. There are discounts for evening sessions, but there are fewer display objects. The museum is amazing. I was in a similar museum in St. Petersburg, but in Hamburg it is much larger. At first it may seem that it is for children, but in fact, adults are probably even more interested there. It took me an hour to see the entire exhibition, after which I went back to the hostel, where I met with Philip.

city ​​tour

As it turned out, my new Hamburg acquaintance travels a lot, kites and has even been on Boracay. In general, we immediately found a common language 🙂

Philip took me for a ride around the city, and then took me to St. Pauli, where his brother was waiting for him with his Dutch colleagues. San Pauli is a party and at the same time resort area of ​​Hamburg. There is a whole street of bars, clubs and places that legally provide services of an erotic nature (“We have only known each other for half an hour, and we are already discussing sex for money,” Philip told me, talking about St. Pauli).

Having passed all this fun street, we went down to the beach, which also has many bars and eateries with sun loungers and blankets. Philip introduced me to the guys, bought me a beer and soda (in one glass), potato salad and sausage. So the six of us stood on the beach, drinking our drinks and watching the boats go back and forth and the sun go down.

When it started to get colder, we drove back. As it turned out, Philip lives in the very center, also near the station, and the guys rented a 2-storey penthouse for the weekend in the house opposite. In this penthouse we hung out, playing FIFA on the console (the guys played, I watched), drinking beer and eating chips and gummies.

Then we went to dinner at Vapiano, after which we went with the whole company to Philip’s house. He ended up with an awesome top-floor apartment with a kicker, a Hawaiian bar with matching lighting, huge potted flowers, and tons of travel photos. Around 2 o’clock in the morning we decided to wrap up, and Philip accompanied me to the hostel.

Worst hostel in the world

Well, now about the hostel. This is the first time I’m writing a terrible review about anything. V Hostel Generator I already stayed in Copenhagen 3 years ago. Then it seemed to us somehow major – everything seems to be new, clean, tidy, but it is not cheap and at the same time they charge money for everything. Breakfast is not included and even towels are not provided.

Since I was too lazy to plan my trip to Hamburg in detail, when I saw that there was also a Generator there, I decided not to look for anything else and booked it. At least she knew what to expect.

I was wrong. When I returned at 2 am to my 8-bed room, all 7 people were asleep. I quietly took a showerhaving previously bought a towel at the reception for 6.5 euros!) and went to bed. By the way, the shower and toilet are right in the room.

Somewhere at 9 am I woke up from the French speech. Opening my eyes, I found that out of 7 people, five were from the same company of some French bikers. They spent the morning exercise at the same time, so it made no sense for me to get out of bed. I kept waiting for them to leave so that I could also start packing.

And exactly at 10:00 the door opens, and the maids come in – a girl and a guy. The bikers immediately took their things and left, and I stayed in the room to go nuts from such a “service”. I decided to skip the cleaning and go to the toilet, brush my teeth, wash and get dressed, but as I went there, I left. The toilet was clogged, and I didn’t want to look at it at all. I had to dress under the covers in front of the maids. I did this trick, collected my belongings and went to look for some kind of toilet in the common area. Found. There I changed clothes, did everything that I could not do in the room, put on makeup and went to Philip.

To his question about how the night went, I answered very detailed and in colors. He sympathized with me and … took me to the roof 🙂 We stood there for some time chatting, basking in the sun and admiring the views, until our guys came out onto the neighboring roof.

March 8

We agreed to go together to have breakfast on the lake – it was the first warm day in Hamburg. Thus, on March 8, I started with breakfast in a great place and in great company.

We did not want to leave the lake at all, but it was time for the guys to leave for Amsterdam. We said goodbye, after which we went for a walk with Philip, and then took a ride on one of the boats.

We spent the evening at home and went to bed around 9 pm, because we were very exhausted during the day. The next morning, Philip accompanied me to the station. There we had breakfast. Then I thanked my wonderful host (by the way, I told him everything), got on the train and left for the airport.

Morality: if something didn’t work out, you can be a little upset, but then you need to pull yourself together and do everything better than originally planned.

PS I did not have time, but in Hamburg you definitely need to go to fish market. It is open only on Sundays from early morning until 9-10:00. That is, we hung out at San Pauli and went for breakfast with fresh seafood;)