Hamburg I: The City

While Elena had Saturday through Monday off of work, I was in Hamburg beginning my new job at an exhibition. I arrived back home from Hamburg late last evening with a lot of experiences packed into three days, and a few photos to boot. I thought it would be convenient to write three seperate entries over the next few days, and this is the first one: my impressions of the city.
Hamburg is a port city in the north of Germany, and I found it to be very different from southern Germany in a number of ways. For one, the architecture is closer to that Denmark, their neighbour not far to the north. Although there is what I would call a general style, there is not uniformity among the buildings, with many of them managing to stand out from the crowd as far as colour, facade, or general design.







This is true of the culture as well: it is an edgy university town with a strong artistic flare and a huge music scene. Everywhere I looked there were ads for musicals or concerts.
It also has an abundance of great restaurants featuring international and new cuisine. We travelling across town with some business associates to eat at a very authentic Argentinian steakhouse with a large charcoal grill.
This is where the difference between northern and southern Germans became pronounced. While the artsy, well-dressed locals were trying to enjoy a quiet evening in Latin style, the Swabians and Bavarians in our party were howling with laughter at jokes being told in turn, and ordering more beer. Southern Germans are known for a number of things, but subtlety is not one of them.