we cooked an easter meal that surpasses anything i've eaten not in a restaurant since moving to ireland. martha's love interest/boyfriend, philipp, made this rosemary wonderlamb in a white wine marinade... martha made green beans in a lemon and butter sauce.. we had rosemary potatoes and also mashed potatoes with goat cheese... mmmm... shit i'm drooling just thinking of it and it was weeks ago! we had salad, red wine, gin and tonics, and kräuter liquor to digest our food afterwards... and finally, philipp and i finished with ice cream cake. martha had hers in the morning. but it was such a good night over all, with once HAPPY chris belly.
i was kicking myself afterwards because i didn't take a picture when the table was set and ready for eatin'... it looked so good and everything.
morning after, philipp made us homemade pancakes with, i have no idea where he pulled this out of.. but homemade maple syrup! so yummy.. here's my morning after face:
following our divine breakfast, martha and i walked all around the city. i saw the harbor, which was beautiful.
i also was able to see this church, st. nikoli's, which was bombed in wwii and the germans left there as a memorial of everything that had happened. there's all this art within the space of the church.. it was alright. i liked some of what the artist did, but not everything. in the picture you can see a statue of a woman reaching up to heaven with hands and stuff coming out of the base.
there was also this co-opted, squatted house, full of anarchists and covered in graffiti, that apparently throws some serious kind of party. if i spoke german, i'd love to have a conversation with these people. i like seeing acts of resistance within cities, it makes me feel like people are still paying attention to what's going on, and considering alternative methods.
close up..
hamburg has subways like new york city, but it's so much cleaner, and greener. the subways smell the same, though. it has two lakes called the alster-- the outer and the inner. people have their homes, but also, much of the middle class has these little garden-homes where they go to escape the hustle and bustle of the city.. and return to nature and the like. my favorite part of the city was sternchanze-- this student like part with loads of little shops and bars. it's a hippie, hipster, student zone with loads of cafes.
hamburgers (hehe) ride bikes everywhere. any place that can support the parking and locking of a bicycle, does. there are bikes hanging around which have clearly been there for years.. and they stay there as monuments of an age of their prior mobility.
it was so strange to be in a place where i didn't speak any of the language. i was pretty much in awe of martha's ability to communicate at all, the entire time. did i cop out of an experience, coming to a place where english is the norm? probably... but i wouldn't have done it any other way.
martha and i also went to sub, called the sofa bar by the locals, and played cards and drank coffee... i think i secretly fell in love with coffee in germany. or working at a coffee shop. either way... it was wonderful to just relax in the sunshine. we played
on the way walking back, we passed through this carnivale deal, much like the hebron harvest fair with booths set up selling whatever you could wish for... except in german ;)
i loved that in germany, i could spend 10 euro, and get all of my food for two days as well as beer. we're talking-- loads of beer, like 7 bottles, WITH the food. it was glorious. coming back for a pint here in ireland just didn't have the same effect as the good german beer that was so damn cheap.
another problem i kept running into was that i kept saying "cheers" for thanks, as i was leaving the shops, and it sounds like a rough mispronounciation of how they say good bye...
one of the following days martha and i went to the banks of the alster lake, where we sat in the sun drinking beer. it was wonderful. the beer was sooo good. and to drink in public feels kind of funny , but no one looks at you with any sort of stigma. i suppose it would be like drinking a can of coke... no one thinks anything of it.
that night we went to the reeperbahn which is the street upon which the red light district is centered-- it was an experience, for sure... :) but nothing like what was to come in amsterdam
to finalize my time in hamburg, martha arrange this bonfire on the banks of the river there... it was amazing. we made the fire in one go... and then sat around drinking and having the craic with some of the germans and some other smithies.
philipp brought a grill, so meat was had by those who eat it. it was fantastic. i love the way my clothes smell after a good bonfire... with some sort of wonderment attached... summer nights and all that :)
i cooked while the germans stood around and watched. it was fine- i had to do it my way anyway :)
over, i had such a good time... i'm so glad that i went! more for all of ye later...
love, chris
No comments:
Post a Comment