From Africa To Russia

Go out for a walk in the morning around eleven, hit up the sausages and taters again, then stroll through some parks and gardens. See some more giant German ducks, some swans and a few Canadian geese (! long commute, ya?). Hamburg has a nice secluded little pond with a dirt trail around it, that feels isolated from the city, very rural and placid. I take a wrong turn and wind up on the Reeperbahn again, then on a street called Louise-Schroder Strasse, which is my mother’s middle and maiden names together. My ancestors call to me. Stop in at a bar and have a beer and watch the passersby. A black fellow on crutches from England is hitting on a homely German woman shamelessly, he gives her a back massage, tells her she is wonderful, bats his eyes etc. After a while it gets nauseating and I head out. I have walked as much as I am going to walk for today, my legs are giving out so I head back. Drink a warm beer and watch some Wimbledon (no soccer for a change). Bells!! More fucking bells, coming from a nearby tower. They are trying to chase me out of Germany with these things. Then later, a little bird is chirping madly outside my window. She is agitated, panicked, flitting this way and that, and keeps coming back to hover near another window, where a cat stares out at her intently. She keeps at it for hours, even after the sun goes down. Did the cat get one of her young? The chirps are mournful and distraught. I long to help her, but I am helpless as usual. And the globe spins on.

Get up and walk around Hamburg, nice town. Supposedly this is the city where my German ancestors were from. I see the Rathaus, the docks, the warehouse district. A German woman sits down with me at lunch at the Rathaus (I have currywurst and taters, fine meal for a boy), she is a hausfrau out to take pictures of the proceedings. You see, the students in Hamburg are demonstrating over some university money issues and the police are out in force to secure the peace, they have uniforms and trucks and water cannons and wotnot, to ensure that everyone plays nice. I tell her that in the US it is thirty grand a year or more, it is the same everywhere. She takes some pictures, then when the fuzz moves on, she continues the chase. I walk along the Elbe river, then up to the Bismarck monument, rest a bit then head out on the Reeperbahn, the red light district and obligatory seedy side of town. I immediately feel more at home. There is a pool hall, I walk in, a man with a gigantic growth on his face says they are not open. I find a dive bar, go in, a few locals and a manic blond German bartender are sitting around the place, drinking. There are two guys in the corner playing cards, one looks like a drunk walrus and the other is a smaller fellow, there is a chick that is basically white trash but is just hot enough to have an angry boyfriend who comes in every so often to yell at her and kiss her. She has her dog with her, the dog rules. He rolls around and chews on his toy. Next to the chick is a very old woman, who sits peacefully with her beer and stares out into space. Every so often the bartender has a shot of Jagermeister. He is feisty, he jumps around the place, gesticulating and telling stories. I drink beers like a machine and work the jukebox, playing all the English songs I can find. The others seem glad to have me there, and I am glad to be there. I sit and drink and listen to the sound of the German language, the sound of humanity around me. A guy walks in looking long-faced, with wet eyes – the chick tells me that he has had to help put a cat down that afternoon and is shaken up. I drink one for the cat. Well, I drink my fill and move on, reluctant to leave my newfound friends. I stumble along the highways and byways, through the acceptable parts of town, feeling anti-social and mean. What a bunch of fucks they all are, hiding in their ritzy apartments and fancy cars. I am embarrassed to be a member of the human race. I stop in at the turkish food stand again, grab another beer for the road, and go back to the hotel.