H8 & H9 - Two weddings and a Euro!

Our second Saturday started with Lan's lead to have a walking tour around the harbour and around the newly developing area Hafencity. We took the U-bahn to Landungsbrücken. We headed, first, to the old part of the harbour, where the old port buildings are still standing strong and firm. Millions of red bricks, one after another, holding those buildings together, which are changing from the used-to-be ports to cafes, restaurants, storage houses and, even, carpet shops! The wind was a little chill that day, but we kept walking...

The old's are soon outnumbered by the new modern and fascinating buildings, which are promised to be all finished by 2010 as the new face of Hamburg; new flats and office spaces, which looks so futuristic! I have to say, Germans are very hard and diligent people! They are up early and finished later than any other western worlds. I have seen those public workers already in the middle of their jobs renovating the road before 09.00 a.m. and not even showing signs of going home at 06.00 p.m. They really do their job quick and precise! Unlike the people in UK; rain comes they stop, before 05.00 p.m. they have gone home! I remember it took more than a year just to pave a small pathway! Oh dear...

After seeing enough of Hafencity, we went to Katherine Church, where we spotted a wedding ceremony just finished! They looked as the happiest ones in the world! From there, we spotted a dark tall roof, which we guessed as a very old church. As we came closer, it was surrounded by a garden of roses, but somehow gave us spooky feeling. It is a building, which was built to commemorate people, who died during a war, but then was firebombed, leaving it ruined.
We could have gone up by the lift built inside to see Hamburg from above.... Oh my, nothing comes free these days! So, we gave it a miss! Instead, we just took several photos of it. Still... spooky!

Enough of the city center, we took U-bahn to Sankt Pauli this time! Sankt Pauli is famous as the red-light-district of Hamburg. Mmmm... Interesting? Hehehe...
Time hit the middle of the day, so before we continued our journey, it was time to fill in our hungry stomachs! A small kebab take away was our choice, except, we did not really eat kebab! I somehow managed to find that 'currywurst' is German's traditional food; One long sausage, served with fries and some curry ketchup! It turned out quite tasty, we must say!
Then, continuing our journey, we tried going in and out some of the 'shops' around the streets of St. Pauli and I ended feeling sick and disgusted! Really... not my cup of tea!

However, that was not the only interest we were in St. Pauli. There is St. Michel, the famous beautiful Catholic church of Hamburg that we wanted to visit. Following Lan's guide, after nearly 1 KM (spotting a pizza hut, a burger king and a KFC all in the same main road of St. Pauli!), we found out we were in the WRONG direction! We went, simply, the opposite...
After turning back and walking quite far, we saw the tip of the building! Blackish tower with a golden clock on it, standing so magnificently! And guess what?! There was another wedding ceremony! Oh my... It reminded me of our wedding, made me want to do it all over again; the happiness, the nerves, the walking-down-the aisles!
Unfortunately, it is not allowed to take pictures inside the building... Although, I must say, really, beautiful! The classical curves painted white and gold, really breath-taking!

After so much awe inside the church (and, somehow, waiting for the wedding ceremony to finish), we walked our way back to the U-bahn, intending to go home, only to find another interesting event: Hamburg DOM! It is like... a temporary theme park, with a lot of wild rides, scary games, shooting games, plenty of food stalls, drink stalls (non and alcoholic drinks!) and many-many-many people in a big piece of land! All in all, I think we spent at least two hours going around all places.
We did not go on any rides (thinking mostly about our budgets, here!), but we did try some of the snacks they sold there; Schmalzkuchen, €2.00 per 100 gram, it is like donuts cut into squares and clothed with sugar. Really nice and smooth! With the day being hot and bright, people are really taking their time enjoying the rides, food and drinks there!

There is this ONE stall that caught our attention, though... A stall where we did not even mind waiting for 30 minutes for the stall owner to come back with his tools! It was for him to make a picture of both of us... Not with a camera, but with a black paper, a pair of scissors and a white A4 paper! We were so pleased with the result, that we thought €20.00 was really worth it for the 2 pictures he made. What a talent he had, it did not take him long, either, only about 20 minutes and it was done! Look at the picture on the right! Do you think, it really looks like us?

Sunday: We had rest the whole day before heading out to Colonnade street to have some dinner. We must say, there are SO many Italian restaurants there!! What's with the German's restaurant?
Anyway, we decided to eat in an Italian restaurant named Tiffany's. And we got a small incident happened when we paid the bill! It came down to €21.00. And I gave €22.00, when Lan said there is a Euro coin in my wallet. But I said "It's OK" (meaning... it's OK giving them 2 Euros coin, they will give me the change anyway!) The waitress took the money and never came back with the receipt nor the change! We waited a good 10 minutes at least!
So Lan went and asked for it from the waitress (We were not being stingy, it is our University policy that we cannot give any tips! Unless we pay the tips from our own pocket off course!). The waitress said, "The lady said 22 Euros is OK!" WHAT?! I have to say she was RUDE!
First, to butt-in and listened to our conversation. Second, for making assumption from her eaves-dropping! Although I have never been a waitress before, usually we assume it is a tips if, after given back the change, the guest leave the money on the table! At the end, we did get our one Euro back. Phew...
What is it with the Italian restaurants? We had 2 unexpected experiences BOTH in Italian restaurant! (Read this one, if you don't get me!) So, after that, we agreed not to enter any Italian restaurants in Hamburg until we go home hahahaha...

Ps. All photos can be seen in HERE.