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It is worth noting that this city, with one foot in the sea and
the other in the river, has strange pigeons. At first, you
mistake them for northern sea gulls, but they are actually
pigeons, they have a white or dark gray ring around the
neck. A sign of something familiar, native, like back home.
Here’s the other thing that made an impression on me: As I
was wandering around at night, next to the manicured
green lawns on either side of the navigation canal, I saw
light shadows jumping on the grass. Because of their size, I
first thought they were rabbits. But then I saw that they
were rats, nonchalantly passing by on some path of their
own. Hamburg – a river town, a sea town, northern and
very rich. Rats, prostitutes and the Reeperbahn: they didn’t
give the impression of seediness, but quite the opposite, the
feeling of stable Saxon comfort, which made it almost
fitting to pay for pleasure with his money.
Of course, when I think about that money, the pleasure can
only fade, nothing more.
I couldn't give in that easily, however. I tried to find
somebody to blame: the mechanized environment, the
change machine, the video player that projected the films