Weihnachtsmarkt

Got up at 4am to catch my 8am flight to Hamburg with Jess. There are SO many photos I could have chosen from because this was just one of the best days in forever.

I was dreading the early start but actually it's the kind of childhood excitement of getting up so early that you feel sick but know there's a holiday at the other end. When we arrived at Hamburg we met up with Becky who'd also just flown in, and Michael who met us all at the airport. We went back to Michael's flat and he'd cooked us a delicious Chinese lunch, homemade wonton soup and curry - incred. Dunno where he was hiding his secret cooking skills given he lived off chicken nuggets at uni.

We headed out to explore the town centre, seeing a lot of Christmas markets being built (like the one in this pic) but which wouldn't be open until next week... fail. But we found a few stalls open including a nice wooden hut pub, and sat and had some Gluhwein. Luckily for us there was one market already fully up and running: the 'erotic winter market'... cue lots of phallic souvenirs and inflatable goods. Only thing I bought was a Currywurst which alongside most of the other items on sale felt a bit wrong, but was just as delicious as I'd been dreaming about since the school trip to Germany 2007(ish).

We went to the 'Dom' - huge carnival, like the original Winter Wonderland - and wandered round, had some more Gluhwein, and waited to watch the fireworks display that evening. None of us had come prepared for how FREEZING it was, we had to take shelter in a nearby shop (which given we were in the Red Light district, we had to choose carefully).

We then all headed home EXHAUSTED.