Thursday, 4th October 2001.
The Hamburgers

The UberTeenager below me snored like a beast last night. He and his UberTeenager mates still haven't worked out how to open the door to our room. All those hormones raging out of control can interfere with your capability to reason, I s'pose.

At the risk of sounding like a world-weary twit, I didn't really get into Hamburg. I went on a guided tour of the Rathaus. One of the girls in the group had a face like a fish, which was sorta interesting.

Did have one magic moment this afternoon, when I managed to leave my Lonely Planet guide on a pew at the St Jakobi church. It was a while before I realised it was missing, and I charged back to the church. I walked in, and there was a bloke and his mate idly flicking through the guidebook. I thanked them, and they replied that they had just been having a look through the book waiting for me to return. Neither of them spoke english, but that didn't stop them browsing. We had a long conversation about churches, then they disappeared.

Later in the afternoon I wandered over to the Museum fur Hamburgische Geschichte. All the exhibits are in English and German, except for the interesting-looking ones.

Back at the hostel, the Uberteenagers are going wild. One more night after this, then I shall flee again!