Pfingstferien Part II: London and Hamburg

We decided to go to London almost on accident, since it was one of the cheapest places for me to fly from Croatia, and also for Gus to fly from Michigan. I was literally only there about 48 hours, but we managed to fit quite a lot in, and it was honestly just fun to be together again after being apart for so long.

In front of the London Eye

The coolest pelican ever in the Royal Gardens

One of the first things we did when I flew in (Gus arrived the day before), after checking in at the hostel and dropping off my bags, was to go find fish and chips at a little pub near our hostel. I've become a sucker for the traditional/typical cuisine, so this was a must for me! It was served with peas, which I usually don't like, but ate for the sake of being English. Afterwards we headed to a concert that Gus really wanted to see at a hip club called Cargo, which ended up being a super fun and non-traditional way to spend our first night. The next day we hit up as many sites as possible including Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey (although we didn't go inside because it cost 18 pounds!), Harrods (the coolest store I've ever seen), Platform 9 3/4 (a must-see for me), and the Victoria and Albert museum, where there is a lot of random but awesome collections, including a cool fashion exhibit which I liked a lot. We took a quick nap since we were exhausted from all of the sightseeing, then went out for Lebanese food, and did our
own little pub crawl in Camden Town.

The touristy picture I made Gus take

The next day was a classic, rainy day in London, but we made the most out of it by having an "English breakfast", going to Buckingham Palace for the "changing of the guards" and then over to Oxford street for a little shopping before we had to head to the bus station to get to the airport. The bus was at least 45 minutes later than it should have, which gave us only 45 minutes to catch our flight, but thankfully we made it in time (after a bit of running) and then had to wait a half hour anyways for the plane to get fuel. We made it to Dortmund almost on time and caught our bus just fine, but of course this bus was also late, causing us to miss our train to the Hauptbahnhof. We took a quick taxi ride and luckily made our 2-hour train from the Hauptbahnhof to Hamburg, with enough time to buy snacks. By the time we got to Hamburg, it was past midnight, so we just found the hostel and went to bed.

The "best currywurst" and a lot of mayo

Our full day in Hamburg was super rainy and cold, and I was unfortunately very unprepared for the weather. We tried to go to the famous Fischmarkt there, only to find that it was only on Sundays, then had a warm lunch before heading to the Jazz concert that we had day passes for. The concert, called Elbjazz, took place on the docks, and we got to ride a boat over to get there. Since we were so cold and it was nice to be out of the rain, we rode the boat back and forth a few times before actually getting off and checking out the concert. We only stayed for a while because the weather was so depressing and the concerts were outdoors, then headed back for a nap. Luckily by the time we woke up, the weather had cleared up slightly and the rain had pretty much stopped! We went to supposedly the best currywurst
restaurant in Germany, then headed to the docks for the concert. They had a TV monitor set up where we got to watch the Champions League final, where Dortmund lost to Bayern, 2-1. Everyone was freaking out in Germany, since it was a huge deal that they beat out all the other Spanish and European teams. Right afterwards, the first concert we wanted to see started, called Caravan Palace. They are a french "electro-swing" band and really put on a great show. Right afterwards, we headed to the main stage to see Aloe Blacc, who also put on an amazing show. He seemed like the coolest guy ever, and even got a soul train going on in the middle of the crowd! Overall, the concert was definitely a cool experience and we thankfully had a little luck that the rain mostly stopped for the performances.

Aloe Blacc (we were so close, I didn't even zoom here!)

The next day, we headed back to the Fischmarkt, then met up with our driver back to Stuttgart. It was the first time I had used Mitfahrgelegenheit (basically a website for carpooling across Germany), but it worked out super well and was much cheaper than the train tickets back to Tübingen! It was a really fun and fast five days and we managed to see a lot, but were both happy to get back to Tübingen where we could relax and just hang out together again, which we've gotten quite good at during the last three years we've been together. :)