At the entrance to another bar, there was a man with ginger hair - actually, the one who was asked to leave the premises of the H.A. Klause - and was telling him about his evil laugh. He showed it to him several times, which actually sounded quite funny...
I had a stroll to the bus stop and had a look around there:
And when after a few minutes, it was around 7.30pm now, the rain solidly kicked in, everybody tried to find shelter under whatever roof they could find. I found a beer bench that was covered from the rain by a big sun umbrella. I definitely wanted to stay until 8 o'clock! I already knew that this was usually the time all the prostitutes started to work here, but I wanted to know for sure, if they also came out in this heavy rain. An amazing image that I saw whilst waiting there was when a seagull came flying in through an alley and kept circulating the tree for a while until it flew off into the direction of the harbour. It was just an image that reflected lots of Hamburg's character for me.
For a while, I also focused on listening and focusing on the tiny stuff, since almost every person there was standing under some roof. There are a lot of broken glasses and bottles scattered all over the place, small empty liquor bottles lying around in between the cobblestones. Reminded me of a dirty set of false teeth somehow! Apart from the cars driving through the rain down at the Reeperbahn, the sound of rain running down the gutter was very predominant.
There was also a family of father, mother, daughter and son sitting on one of the other benches. They must ahve had an argument or so, because their faces didn't look quite happy and the daughter, maybe 17 years old, left by herself and disappeared around the corner. The others soon followed her.
At 7.58pm sharp, it was really funny to see her how everybody - including me - was looking at their watches when a bunch of about 30 prostitutes started to gather around Hans Albers Platz. A couple of tourists took a final photo of the Hans Albers statue and then left under the cover of their umbrellas. I stayed until the first one had talked to somebody - it was a man she picked, maybe in his late 50s and they appeared to have a nice conversation, but the man didn't go with her. Instead, he left towards the subway and I followed him down the same direction. I felt exhausted now; the first day took a lot out of me to be honest. But when you've been observing for four hours straight, it is kind of difficult to stop. For example, just before I went down to the subway I heard an unfamiliar noise and I suddenly caught myself looking around to see where it came from. It actually came from down the stairs of the subway where a drunk slipped and fell adn when I came down there he just stood there and started talking to himself while trying to tie his shoelace.
At the platform waiting for the sub, I also noticed the yellow signs for the first time telling you that weapons and glass bottles and all other stuff that can be turned into a weapon are forbidden her. This sounds quite interesting, especially when there are two or three gun shops just down the street.
On the subway, I tried to finish my observation for the day, but one final thing struck me. The train was packed with people - not like it can be in London, but still. On one side there was this happy young couple, kissing all the time, while on the other I could see a young father with his two kids in a buggy struggling to get one of the babies quite while fastening its 'seat belt' and at the same time arguing with his wife, who then left for a free seat she saw. He looked pretty annoyed! It was just total opposites: The loving couple in a fresh relationship and the other couple I imagined to be the same one - just a few years down the road! Loved the idea of it, even though I really felt with the poor guy struggling with the kid AND his wife!
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