Despite the street life that can be explored in Hamburg, there was one very simple determining factor that made me like the city from first 5 seconds we had arrived: Smiley Faces. Pulling in to Central Station I couldn't help but notice the graffiti. While in Miami graffiti now takes the place of large commercialized mural works as is the case of Wynwood, and in Pittsburgh it is merely amateur student work. Here, in Hamburg (and European cities overall), graffiti has become an integral part of the urban landscape. These smiley faces were almost a foreshadowing device if this were a book. I saw them, and I couldn't help but smile back as if we were in a joyous dialog. They were everywhere: under bridges, in the back of traffic signs, in the front of traffic signs, inside telephone booths, in the alternating spaces between buttresses and columns. The smiley faces made me feel happy. They would pop-up around corners. They would meet me at the train stations and smile a me wherever I least expected them to be. Then, as I was leaving Hamburg, I looked back from the train window just to meet another happy face as if was saying "see you later, have a nice trip!"
Going to Hamburg last week was truly a great experience. It is Germany's second largest city, but the first to charm my travels away. Much more than anything, Hamburg is a lot like myself. It is a city that is still growing. It won the European Green Capital in 2011 and even before then has been on the radar as an important trading port for goods from all over the world. Green oases permeate city life and make the urban experience wanting you to experience more. That's right, Hamburg a drug. The city is vibrant yet retains a level charming relatability. In some cases, building come at you screaming about the historic stories they can tell and how all of the beautiful crown molding and crenelated decoration of the town square relate to place and urban life. In other cases buildings come up to you out of nowhere, disguised with modernist ideals and put together to surprise you. I was immediately struck by these exciting contrasts. Post-modern glass and steel facades, the patrician mansions of past centuries, entire rows of lovely Jugendstil buildings, baroque churches and historic residential districts. In some parts of the city you walk to breathe in the opulent social interaction taking place in the marble lobbies of hotels, and in the looking out the windows from frivolous spaces. Other parts satisfy human needs with the busy interactions of beer poured on tap, sex clubs and bars buzzing with both the stigma and fascination of the crowd.
Despite the street life that can be explored in Hamburg, there was one very simple determining factor that made me like the city from first 5 seconds we had arrived: Smiley Faces. Pulling in to Central Station I couldn't help but notice the graffiti. While in Miami graffiti now takes the place of large commercialized mural works as is the case of Wynwood, and in Pittsburgh it is merely amateur student work. Here, in Hamburg (and European cities overall), graffiti has become an integral part of the urban landscape. These smiley faces were almost a foreshadowing device if this were a book. I saw them, and I couldn't help but smile back as if we were in a joyous dialog. They were everywhere: under bridges, in the back of traffic signs, in the front of traffic signs, inside telephone booths, in the alternating spaces between buttresses and columns. The smiley faces made me feel happy. They would pop-up around corners. They would meet me at the train stations and smile a me wherever I least expected them to be. Then, as I was leaving Hamburg, I looked back from the train window just to meet another happy face as if was saying "see you later, have a nice trip!"
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You may or may not have noticed but I am proud/happy to say that I have added a brand new place to 'my places' on my map! Things are looking bright for dear old me. Last week at DIS was Core Course week, where we put our brains to the test while setting sail into all parts of Europe. Lucky for me and everyone else who's hear me talk about Germany as of lately, I made it safely from V Copenhagen to Hamburg V Core Course week is all about exploration and a deeper understanding about my program's main objectives. Given that I am studying Sustainability in Europe, last week was full of site visits and events that said to my soul, "Hey Rene, what you are doing feels so right and is so relevant." Considering Copenhagen and Hamburg as case studies, it was so incredibly magnificent using knowledge to get lost in culture. And, using culture to get lost in the city. And, using the city to get lost in knowledge. What a nice full cycle. I was pretty much at the front row seat of an incredible travelling and learning experience. Here is the run down of the highlights:
___________________________________________________________________________________________ Thursday Today was all about Germany! There are so many things to say about Germany that I am going to start by saying that I never thought I would find German to be a language that sounds good but after coming from the slurred and incomprehensible words that are Danish, German sounds so so heavenly. Ich bin in my zone. I was hitting the Danke Schön's right out of the park! Getting to Hamburg was actually quite a nice trip on its own. We boarded the train, headed south, and once we hit the water the train boarded a ferry and off we went like nothing ever happened. Here are the views from the ferry, which had the train which had me. I'm planning on having a different post on my impressions of Hamburg as a city but I can quickly say now that Hamburg feels like a city. Unlike Copenhagen, which is beautifully crafted and people-friendly, Hamburg is different. Not that it is a bad thing, it is just that there are people living in the city making it feel like a city: large crowds of pedestrians dominate stations, the sounds of busy cars, there are unfamilar smells, areas where the market is loud and lively, people from different backgrounds interacting with one another, the high and low rise of buildings... it felt alive! Hamburg is a colorful mix; old and new coexisting in harmony; a rhythmic pattern of streets; emphasized focal points both upward and horizontal; the energy of a thriving trade-port city; a spicy nightlife; and opulent theatrics. Combine all that with the cultural highs of Germany's social energy of beer clinging, meat eating, yodeling, and fetishist nigh-outs and you have a recipe for a good time. However, nothing got me in contact with Hamburg more than the Bike Tour that we did of the city. We wandered down the roads of the old city, learning about its traditions, sites, and landmarks. It was beautiful and it felt like freedom. The wind sweeping through our face as we raced down the hill on our bikes. Historical harbor scenes ran past us. Here are some snaps: Given that my class is called European Sustainable Development, part of this field study was to learn from some of the main projects in Germany regarding sustainable communities. Here are some of the places we studied. Friday ------------------------------------------------------------------
________________________________________Saturday________________________________________ The last day in the city we visited the both controversial and influential project of HafenCity. An area that was once warehouses and part of the free port. with the rise of the EU free trade zone and the large shipping container, the area fell to marginalized development. Now, Close to 750 architectural firms from all over the world have been participating in competitions, workshops and in realizing buildings and public spaces in HafenCity since work began in 1999 to redevelop the area. No speculation in property has been allowed. Investors and developers go through an initial 12-month tendering phase, where plans are scrutinized, before the final deal is signed. It is definitely a different type of development: luxury apartments, star architects and a waterfront promenade; a five-star hotel, a university, plenty of residential and office space and excellent public transportation. This is what I call master-planned urbanization. Everything here is perfectly aligned and thought of, and the expectations for the development are astonishing. I saw various issues, including lack of engaging public space, green washing, block after block of modern architecture that washes away any sense of history and context, proportions that are too big for the human scale, and lack of economic planning.But at the same time the goals of economic and social revitalization are on point. Regardless, since it is the largest development project in Germany, it stands out as significant and relevant. Germany was definitely everything I wanted it to be. A lot of food. A lot of beer. and a lot of happy unfulfilled memories that will only be complete once I come back again! Which, btw, I know for a fact it will be very very soon. Once good part about the study tour too was the fact that I really got a chance to get to know most and/or all of my classmates. If at this point I was ever finding it hard to connect to people from my class, it is now gone. We played Charades in the train ride, shared questions and stories, went out together for beer extravaganzas, made inside jokes, shared smoking breaks, hanged in the Hostel room and bad, and exchanged quirky moments in the city. It was very nice.
Today was my first day getting down and dirty with Copenhagen so naturally I got lost, tried delicious danish pastries, made new friends, and made my first attempt at trying to understand the metro.
Where to even start! On the day time the small town I live in, Måløv, is much cuter than I first thought. It is very close to the metro station, which is such a plus when winds like today where ruling the city in a monarchy where I was no more than a peasant to the elements. The whole bike thing still surprises and excites me. I strongly recommend you don't walk on the bike lane in the sidewalk because you might encounter an angry bike bell and a nice little wake up call at 8 AM as you feel lucky to be alive after a bike just missed running you over. Not that it happened to me or anything.... I hope that, when the weather is warmer, I can get a bike and make good use of it. There is a nice nature reserve, and a couple of parks that I can see from my room on the top floor of an apartment complex. There is already an extensive list of many unplanned places I want to stumble upon during a bike ride. Having a bicycle and taking it to the city seems like the best way to get around in Copenhagen. I mean, it was some sort of negative degree temperature today with the windchill and people (woman, men, kids, the barista, the soccer mom, the suited up employee, a cute little girl with a head-to-toe pink ensemble) still used the bicycle to commute! I met some enjoyable friends at the metro stop who were all going to the DIS orientation, so we hurdled together and headed over. Copenhagen is what my life partner should be: consistent, has a good profile, inviting, a fun touch of creative energy, green, and cozy. The main city is incredible: streets leading into each other, the organic sense of architecture and light. Not like Rome where streets are all over the place, or London where buildings fold into one another. Everything feels drawn in, as if the city too is hugging itself because it is cold and gloomy. Whereas I have been in plenty U.S cities with a main emphasis on the verticality of downtown skyscrapers and the skyline of bridged and over arching structures, Copenhagen has a horizontal quality. Windows align endlessly with each other down the street in a picturesque manner, rather than to the sky. The streets curve, making you want to find out just what is around the corner. If you are into any type of architecture, really any, sticks and stones or windows on a wall, then Europe is definitely the place. Buildings crawl into you and suddenly you are looking at an incredibly elaborate theater or massive classical columns holding the pediment of a Great Hall, or a back alley of windows and overgrown ivy, or an all glass building with interesting patterns. It never stopped. Now, here is the tip of the day: always carry cash with you, and organize all the important document you need in one safe and sound spot. You don't wanna be that person that holds the line because you've been swiping the door lock with your train pass instead of your ID or who can't buy anything to eat because (surprise), they don't accept dollars at the sandwich shop, and who shows the train ticket-checker your passport instead of your train pass so now she knows how unprepared I was when I took my passport photo. Not that any of those happened to me either..... The tip is also useful because today, for example, the whole credit card system was down in the city so every place was only able to process cash for any purchases. Regardless, the currency is kind of cute too, so you may as well use it: coins have fancy medieval etchings on them that make you feel like you are a Renaissance man, and the bills are color-coded and sized into minimal designs. At the end of the day I went back home with my NEW friends. We decided to hang until it was time for dinner so I walked over to my friends house. Danish houses are very cute inside. Essentially just open an IKEA catalogue and that's it: my friend Elsa's house, where she lives with a host family, is in the Danish version of a suburb except the houses are interesting enough that they are charming like no other. Naturally we watched GIRLS. When it was time to head back I was all like "yeah I know how to get back, watch me." Good thing that the neighborhood is a maze full of identical row houses because 2 minutes in and I was lost. I went down one end and there was a set of row houses with big open windows and concrete masonry that I had never seen so I headed back. I took another route and I was suddenly in a bridge over a highway I never remembered crossing. I went back and took another route where I ended up in a pedestrian roundabout. I didn't panic or anything, I was actually kind of involuntarily enjoying it. The houses had nice back and front gardens. Stacked buildings with big windows where ideal for peaking in to all the Danes living their life, cooking dinner, smoking a cigarette, and playing games on the computer. Suddenly it was cold and dark so I stopped some people who were walking past me to ask for directions. It was an older couple and they didn't know much English. I said something like "I come in peace, can you please show me to the Malov statio." You could see they were able to click in some words from their vocabulary. In the US, it is a little weird that a stranger in some small suburb would stop someone on a dark street to ask for directions to a far away station. They would've just brushed it off and point to some general direction. But, the couple seemed to embrace the moment. They told me to follow them, since they were heading that direction, to make it easier for me to find it. I was hesitant because I didn't want to make them feel like I was bothering them but soon enough they were trying to communicate with me and asking a lot of questions. I told them where I was from and what I was doing in Denmark. They just smiled. It was noticeable that we didn't have much in common besides probably the color of our hair. I said "are you guys from here originally? I am from El Salvador" and I was greeted with an odd expression that said "um, yeah we are from here what is even that question." It is definitely different coming from both Miami and Pittsburgh where people are from so many diverse places that the question "where are you from?" holds some ground. But not here, not in a small suburb in Denmark. I would've let that just made me give up but then we started talking about the cold weather and how different it must be from Florida, handball and how Denmark beat Spain, how I am studying sustainability and all of the cool sites I must check out, how we both couldn't buy anything because the credit card system was down in all of the city..... Today I was out of my element but I didn't let that deter me from a meaningful experience. I think finding yourself in unfamiliar situations is very rewarding. Me and this older Danish couple shared laughs and smiles, and soon enough they had directed me to the station and we said good bye. Turns out I am not as socially inept as I thought! A lot of leagues of over the sea voyage later and I finally made it to Copenhagen, Denmark. The fact that I was leaving the U.S kicked in rather quickly when I was boarding a plane with an aggregate 1% of non-blonde passengers (me). I was so nervous and anxious that in the 8 hr plane ride hoping over the Atlantic I slept for maybe 15 minutes and looked out the window for the rest of the ride. I was sitting next to a family; a mom and her son. They were ever so quiet, minding their own business and playing games on their iPad. I started to get a feeling that they didn't want to socialize with a weird kid wearing plaid and corduroys (I know, I'm sorry. It was cold). But, when the son started to watch the movie Rio on the over-the-seat screen I knew that it was a door opening up for me. I grasped to anything familiar and a movie set in Brazil about colorful birds with accents was close enough. I stroke conversation with them and was greeted with such warm smiles and conversation. I was satisfied. I am looking to embrace these moments: feeling out of my element, fitting in, and standing out. In that order. For this study abroad experience I want to think about everything that is familiar to me and challenge it, or a least advance it. That case on the plane was a little taste of that goal and it tasted so so good.
He made me feel welcomed. He showed me my room, went over the nuts and bolts of the house and then poured us a glass of red wine, made pizza and chatted down to eat. I was very refreshed by this. I was very refreshed for it all. We ended up at the table for an hour or two, just talking about all of things that make us interesting. Yes, he is a weird old guy living alone with two guinea pigs and yes I am a weird guy with patterned clothes and an affinity for odd habits. I guess that works, I guess it doesn't. idk... Coming from a place where alcohol is used mainly for things like getting wasted at a club or for frozen margarita mondays, sitting down at the table over wine and pizza very casually was endearing. Coming from a place where public transport is as good as the Miami Marlins, hoping over a train and the metro with beautiful stations and beautiful tall people is exciting. Coming from a place where people and cars are pretty much one, bicycle lanes and the friendly glance of pedestrians passing each other is refreshing.
I can't wait to make a sense of it all soon, once I explore the city, make new friends and make it all work. |