Okay, it's getting a bit hard to rank the coolness of German cities - Hamburg / Hannover

After the Bucerius law school party of the last post we had the obligatory 4am stop at McDonalds. However when we arrived four rather drunk men tried to beat up two goths. They were using McDonalds chairs and their fists to try beat them up. When the McDonalds staff closed the door to stop them from coming back inside they smashed the glass of the McDonalds. Very soon there were TV cameras and some rather chubby polizei running after them but were unable to catch them. It was quite a lot of excitement for our first night in Hamburg.

We may transfer

We then retired to bed. We were staying with the lovely Barbara Richter in her room in a Catholic girls hostel. Boys were not allowed and there were no boys bathrooms which made bathroom trips and showers quite awkward for Nigel. The next day we had some really great pleadings against Bucerius in the beautiful law school and apparently displayed the 'Wellington' approach to mooting.

We then had German Indian food (om nom nom) and then it was time to begin Saturday night in Hamburg. First we went to '20 Up' an exclusive bar in Hamburg that has views of the entire city. We then went to some other bars and Max took a reluctant Nigel down the Herbertstrasse - a very famous 50m stretch of road in Hamburg where women are in shop fronts offering their services (wearing clothes for the record). Women are not allowed in the street and the prostitutes throw buckets of water at them if they attempt to enter. Nigel commented after walking down was that the street was surprisingly clean.

We retired to bed quite early so we could see as much of Hamburg the next day before our 2pm train to Hannover. We are slowly picking up some German. Nigel was taught how to say 'I hate your face' but mispronounced the phrase on his first attempt and instead told me that he hated my cat! I got some shopping in this morning finally and Zara was as amazing as I had been told it was. We also got to walk around the lake and see some of Hamburg's sights. Hamburg is truly the most beautiful city, every building there is a landmark in it's own right! We were very sorry to leave Hamburg and the Bucerius people today. They could not have been a nicer group and it was even harder to say goodbye as they are only competing in Hong Kong and not Vienna. We a now chilling out in Hannover and have a host who loves New Zealand! We will update you after our stay in Hannover and then we are off to Berlin.

What a place

See photos of Hamburg here

Alex Sinclair