Hamburg

Hamburg, the second largest city of Germany, names itself a Gate to the World - usually this is only mentioned in an economic view, but otherwise this is exactly what CouchSurfing is about...

It's full of nice places to go out! St.Pauli is the quarter with all the nice bars, clubs, table dance and concerts!

CS Meetings

There are now (October 2008) over 1300 registered Couchsurfers in Hamburg (+25km). A growing group Hamburg exists at CS. Meetings, Partys and events will for sure posted there.

• Future regular meetings:
  • Check out the group description and the announcements in the group! - usually every last Thursday of a Month, place and time will be announced in the group
  • Sometimes additional meetings at changing places
  • Very often meetups for events like "Long night of the museums", concerts, demonstrations, aspargus cooking, ...

• Future special meetings:
  • 19-20 December 2008: Hamburg SuperGuest. Fasten your seatbelt for the Xtreme Guest Xperience.

• Past (special) meetings:
  • Mary & Julien's house warming party January 31st, 2008
  • 1st meeting anniversary had to be moved to the Bar Roosen because of some Christmas party -- it was fun anyway
  • Summer meeting of the Free and Open Couchcity Hamburg 2007 at August 3-5th
  • 6th regional meeting at May 31th (20+ people), discussion about Free and Open Couchcity Hamburg
  • 3rd regional meeting took place at March 9th, 2007 19:00 Ruderclub Harmonia (report/results at Hamburggroup - 16 people)
  • A lot of couchsurfers at Katrins "fette party" December 16th, 2006
  • regional meeting took place at November 16th, 2006 (more than 25 people)

CS Emergency Couches

Most hosts in Hamburg like proper couch requests in advance. But we all know shit happens, so for there is a group feature for short term requests. Just post there with your contact details and sit tight. Help is coming. If you want to stay in Hamburg more than two days, you HAVE TO contact people directly. When all fails, check this out.

For hosts in Hamburg who like to support the idea, copy-paste the following code to your couch description:

<div style="background-color:orange;font-weight:bold;border-style:solid;border-width:2px;border-color:black;padding:5px"> In case of emergency, the first thing to do is to post on the <a href="http://www.couchsurfing.com/group.html?gid=12458">Hamburg Couchsearch Group</a>.</div>

(Feel free to change text and colors!)

CS Tips

Because of the very good public transport system, even in the night hours (see below), it's not necessary to look for a host right in the central parts of town. If you have trouble finding a free couch, check the couches more outside.

In case you can't find any hosts:

Youth Hostels:

[1]

General Tips

Check Wikitravel for more infos and more places to see.

• An official map of Hamburg in several languages is available.
• General and kind of "official" cityinfos can be found in several other languages at international.hamburg.de
• A list of museums and exhibitions can be found at www.hamburg-tourism.de
• A list of local tips : Hamburg by locals

CS Guides - special hosts for special places ...

• Ask your local Host for a non-tourist tour through the harbour. You can even ask two different hosts: You'll probably get two very different tours...
• A good way to discover the city is by bike if your host can lend you one.(alos possibility to rent one at the main railway station)

Activities

• Alternative Events

Alternative Concerts and other cultural and political Events in Hamburg

• Cinemas

Movies programm also in Orginal Version

• Partys/Concerts

Hamburg Partys and Concerts

• Bars

Bars in Hamburg

Public Transport

The Hamburger Verkehrs Verbund (HVV) is an alliance between a few train and bus lines and offers service mostly every 5 to 10 minutes during daytime (from 8 to 20 o'clock) and between 20 to 30 minutes in early morning/late night hours. The U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines run from Friday to Saturday night every 30 minutes all night long. In addition there are special Nachtbusse (nightbusses). This means you do not have to look for hosts at the heart of the city because public transport is comfortable from most areas around.

The fare zone plan looks a bit tricky first but is actually quite simple. Normally you can ignore all those small numbered patches and just note the five rings A to E. Actually, normally you stick within the rings A and B, called "Großbereich". Rough rules to buy a ticket:

• If you travel a single day after nine o'clock in the morning (valid until 6 o'clock the next morning), buy a "9-Uhr-Tageskarte". It's cheaper than buying two single tickets.

• If you have to travel before 9 o'clock, buy a "Ganztageskarte".

• If you as a group travel after 9 o'clock, a "Gruppenkarte" is cheaper than two or more day tickets.

• If you travel more, there are other special tickets.

• Only if you stick within one or two zones (the numbered patches), single tickets make sense. A special case is the city centre which is zone 000.

Tickets are valid for all kind of transportation including the ferries on river Elbe. They have to be bought at ticket machines at the train stations (before entering the platform) or bus drivers.

Hitchhiking from Hamburg to other Destinations

To travel from Hamburg to other locations hitchhiking is a cheap solution. There are two good starting points to reach the Autobahn (highway):

• Horner Kreisel is the right point if you want to go to Lübeck, Rostock or Berlin. You can walk to Horner Kreisel from U3 Horner Rennbahn.
• BAT HH-Stillhorn (BAT means interstate service area) is the right point if you choose the direction Hannover or Bremen. You reach it via Bus Nr. 13 from S3 Wilhelmsburg (leave at busstop Kirchdorf (Süd)).

Working

For jobs and employment in Hamburg, check out JobsinHamburg

Trivia

wikitravel:Hamburg hitch:Hamburg