I may be in Freiburg for my graduation (woot woot!), yet I am sharing with you something Hamburg-ish. I video-recorded one of my routes on the way to work. With my proximity to different public transportation nodes, I know of at least four ways to get to work. This is just one of them, probaby not the quickest, but the most enjoyable I would say. This one though involves a bus which allows me to see the street scene as opposed to the S-Bahn (Stadtbahn or city train) and U-Bahn (Untergrundbahn or undeground train/tube. A not-to-be-missed exemption though is the U-Bahn that goes over the street along Landungsbrücken and gives you a sweeping, if not fleeting, view of the harbour and the Speicherstadt).
I filmed this a few weeks ago before the switch to daylight saving time. And if I were to film this now at about the same time I usually go to work, it would either still be dark or gloomy and raining, or a combination of the three. Enjoy the video!
I was at the Klimahaus in Bremerhaven last Monday. With my other co-intern, I was asked to man our booth to introduce to visitors our organization, and hopefully make converts out of them.
In addition to our stand where we displayed and handed out flyers and booklets, there was a touchscreen table four floors up the building wherein (on which?) a published (?) electronic booklet could be browsed. Being the technophile that I am, I tapped and played with it to my heart’s content. It basically functions like a digital book, however, you can see my hand’s frustration in turning the page of the brochure on the electronic thingamajig. It’s annoying that no instruction whatsoever explains how to use the touchscreen table. A physical paper flyer still works better than a virtual one. It should have at least worked with a flick of a finger or basic handstrokes akin to turning the pages of a book. Does it need a lot more improvement? Don’t pull the plug just yet. Simply go back to the drawing board.
Seeing snow for the first time was a magical experience, and the other night I experienced another meteorological novelty, but probably not as exciting. Hamburg was covered in mist as I arrived from a day trip in Bremerhaven. It is not your usual fog. It made everything on its path damp. The pavement shimmered as the street lights shone on it and diffused its glow. It is not similar to an after-rain feel because there is no puddle of water or dripping wet leaves. It is simply wet, which is better than a rainy day.
We have been getting straight days of gray weather with the sun just passing by, maybe to say hello and wants to be acknowledged of its existence. I am learning to discern degrees of coldness: yesterday it was not-so-cold and this morning it is cold. The weather forecast is not showing any sign of yellow-shaped circle for the next few days, so maybe I need to really start liking a wet, cold, and gray weather. As they say, there is no such thing as getting cold, it just simply means you’re inappropriately dressed.
As in the rest of the Christian world, today is all Saint’s Day. I joined a photo-walk of fotocommunity within the Ohlsdorf Friedhof (Ohlsdorf cemetery). Wikipedia knowledge tells us that it is the largest non-military cemetery in the world. We met at 10 in the morning and walked in its premises, which was like a borough on its own, for almost five hours. When we sat down for coffee in the afternoon, my mobile phones told me it was already 3:05 p.m.
All Saint’s Day here is so different from what I got used to in the Philippines. The cemetery here is practically deserted, save for a few smattering of visitors here and there. All roads practically lead to the cemetery if you were in the Philippines. There is also a general mood of festivity, from alcohol drinking to camping overnight, and which sadly also leave behind mountains of rubbish the following day. Rows of graveyard and a few huge mauseoleums here and there mark the cemetery. The cemetery here emobodies the term ‘memorial park’ because it is what it is, a park. Statues, sculptures, and graveyard markers are randomly scattered all over the area. Most of them are integrated within a ‘park’ theme.
The cold weather did not prevent our group of 28 from roaming around for five hours straight. The color of fall highlighted our day, and so did our photos.
I was supposed to attend a Stammtisch of photo enthusiasts based in Hamburg. Last night I joined the fotocommunity and thought of rounding up with photographers in the city. I’ve been looking online for photography clubs and remembered this German website, which I think have expanded to include other countries and languages. The meeting place was in Bruecke 10, which as I understood is bridge number 10. And so I waited and waited out in the cold and windy harbor, staring at people who have cameras and I hope would acknowledge their membership to the fotocommunity. In the end, no one turned up in my Bruecke 10. It seems Bruecke 10 is actually a restaurant near Bruecke 10. That’s a misunderstanding that could happen when German nouns are written in capital letters: is it Bridge 10 or bridge 10?
Seeing snow for the first time
