The sun rises in the east...aka Hamburg

We woke up just a little before 10AM, around the time when Sandra was about to go back home from work; she went to work early at 7AM till 10AM today. She called and asked if we’d like croissants, cream breads and other pastries for breakfast. We said that that would be fine. When she got home, surprisingly she arrived with four bags full of these pastries and more. And just when we thought that was enough for breakfast, she insisted on making eggs, making orange juice from freshly-squeezed oranges, and fruit jams to top it off. And of course, there was her German coffee, which I might add was one of the best I’ve drank. Probably it was much better than Starbucks. I’d rather drink her German coffee than Starbucks on any given day. So, I concluded that our breakfast was completely great, and I wish that every breakfast would be just as great.



After talking over breakfast and afterwards, mostly about Sheilla and me, we left the apartment to head out to the city center. From the apartment, we took a couple of left turns, and we were on a relatively medium-size street that had lots of shops. This was the Ottenser Haupstraße. At the end of street was the beginning of more shops, shopping malls and places to eat. A little farther, we were at the Altona train station which had a subway beneath it, which we would take to go to the city center. It was a little confusing at first to figure out where and how to purchase the pass. Then figuring out the map of the subway and how to read the direction. But with a German local by our side, things were unraveled quickly. Soon we were on our way.



We arrived at Jungfernstieg stop, which happens to be where a nice lake, Binnenalster, be. And around this nice lake were a bunch of old buildings used for shops, restaurants, and what Sandra claimed to be, the best interior-decorated Starbucks. I kid you not, she was quite right. We ordered our usuals to go.



Then we walked towards Mönckebergstraße, where it was littered with many fancy shops. It was much like this one area in Amsterdam. But that one had small shops due to small streets. In Mönckebergstraße, the street was much larger, enough to accommodate cars and buses, that decent amount of space was affordable, spatially-speaking. But we were with Sandra, and she needed to be at her studio. We made sure to be back here afterwards for some shopping.


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We took a bus to a stop at Zimmerstraße where Sandra’s studio was at. Her studio was a Pilates studio, because she is the owner and instructor for the Pilates Holistic Center Hamburg. It will be almost a year since she started her own business. The studio itself was very nice, as it had a very warm feeling like a sense of warmth, creating a sense of down-to-earth practice on this type of body strengthening with a personal care by its owner. She had several clients already and bound to get more in the near future, although hopefully it won’t take too much out of her personal life. But given what she had so far, how far she had come along, I’d say she had done quite well. I was very impressed. Sandra gave us a tour of her studio, from the main area, to the massage room, her office, even a kitchen complete with a working stove and a laundry machine. I guess one might say this could have been or be an apartment. But at the moment, it was Sandra’s very own place of business, where she can practice her dream career. Perhaps she’d fancy a branch in LA?



After talking a bit more her client arrived, which queued us that it was time for us to begin our shopping back in Mönckebergstraße. We took the same bus line in the opposite direction, although we arrived at one end of the shopping area so that we might sweep through the entire shopping vicinity. Honestly, this was Sheilla’s idea, but I had none to complain about. It was our vacation after all.



We stopped by a number of stores, particularly H&M where we bought some pairs of socks, Clarks where I bought my new pair of smashingly-awesome shoes, and some jewelry store which name I have forgotten where Sheilla bought, well, jewelry. We strolled around in and out of buildings, sightseeing the newer pastime of modern society, shopping at chic shops. We tried out some ice cream, despite having just recovery from being sick a day or two before. Well, a number of people were walking around eating ice cream. We thought, let’s do what the locals do. All these were enough to kill time before having to go back to Sandra’s studio to pick her up, then to go to a sushi fusion restaurant located in Reeperbahn area.

The sushi fusion restaurant was located on the first floor of a hotel with the same name, East. How original. The restaurant, however, looked quite chic. The lights were dimmed quite low, but enough to give a warm ambiance of city-life and metro-sexuality, where modern men and women can dine, drink, and mingle. Sensuality was the smell of the architecture in this place, and the food was to be the proof of its aphrodisiac.



Upon observation of the menu, I concluded that this is not quite what a sushi restaurant would be, not even as sushi fusion. Not in the slightest experience to the comparison of those in the US and Indonesia. Yes, I have visited a few there. Instead of being able to pick out sushi of different types in a checklist-type menu, all they had was the standard menu, listing no more than 10 types of sushi that were mostly agreed upon as ‘western-safe’. That’s not to say that westerners in general are not keen to sushi, but rather as a safe bet to accommodate as many people, sushi and non-sushi eaters alike. In other words, there were more than just sushi and sashimi on the menu. The one that caught my eye was the Rainbow Roll, which had what I would normally get elsewhere, if I could remember correctly. We didn’t order this until we realized our main dish hadn’t enough sushi. So the Rainbow Roll was our second main dish. For our first, we had the sushi variety, which had no description of what sorts of varieties we would be getting, but we decided to get it anyway. And for appetizers, we fancied on soups. Sandra and I got the one that allowed us to taste all 3 soups they offered, just in smaller bowls, while Sheilla got one of them in a larger bowl. With our tropical-looking drinks, we were already giving this place one thumb up, another one pending the food.



The sushi variety, once placed on our table, only had 4 individual rolls of California roll, 3 rolls of veggie roll, 3 rolls of Tandoori chicken roll, and 4 slices each of tuna, salmon, and white fish sashimi. Interestingly, after dinner we found some rice underneath the plate upon where the sashimis were placed. The California and veggie rolls were pretty standard. The Tandoori chicken rolls, however, tasted exactly like how Tandoori chicken would be as in anything other than sushi. The chicken was warm, and instead of rice it seemed like they used tortilla wrap. Weird and rather disappointed, from a sushi point of view. But they did dare upon uncharted territory of new food style. So here we were, eating Tandoori chicken sushi, in Hamburg, Germany no less. It wouldn’t be surprised to stumble upon Chicken marsala Shawarma in, let’s say, Bangkok, Thailand. Life can be full of surprises.



Nonetheless, the food filled our stomachs satisfyingly. Sheilla and I paid for the dinner since Sandra had been so kind so far with her hospitality. We just want to repay her back for her kindness. I’ve realized that I’m blessed with good friends.

We made our way out of the restaurant and into the cold winds. We walked through Reeperbahn, eyeing on interesting sights, until we felt rather tired and sleepy. Moreover, the cold was starting to be a little unbearable, and we longed for the warm apartment. So we went to the nearest subway stop and ended our fun-filled day. Tomorrow, if the weather would be nicer, we would take a sightseeing bus tour in and all over Hamburg.