Image by Barbarabar

You wanna see the real Kiez-party scene and the touristy stuff isn’t your style? Try the Hamburger Berg, a sidestreet from Reeperbahn. Barhopping here is one of my favourite things to do on weekends. The street is lined with little bars, where every small dance floor provides a different kind of music. So just go around and find your style. Of course on weekends you shouldn’t be a claustrophobic person who needs a lot of space to develop a personal way of dancing.

Sooner or later, the barbarabar is the one, where I always end on my Bergtour. I like the music, that is always fun and the bar is crowded with good looking, dancing people that are forced to have body contact because of the limited space. Therefore it is also an insiders´ tip for singles to meet some nice candidates from the other sex.

For the non-dancers they provide a kicker (table football). But be aware, that the boys and girls playing here are quite good. On Wednesdays you can show off your talent and participate in a table football-tournament. On Tuesdays they are playing Hörspiele (audio plays), that seems to be fun as the photo shows and on sundays they have “Einquadratmeterlivemusic (one square-meter live music) for newcomer bands.

So barbarabar is a “must” on a weekend St Pauli tour, but also during the rest of the week it’s worth a visit for sure.

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Barbarabar | Bars, Music
Hamburger Berg 11 | Sankt Pauli | +4916090361519
Tue – Sun from 20:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg

Image by CarstenTergast

This is the kind of book shop where you only have a chance to come out of the door after some minutes, when you know exactly what book title you wanna carry home. But even then, it’s more likely that the atmosphere inside will take you in. Hours later you will stumble out, still dizzy with all the beautiful things you have seen.

The book shelves in the long stretched corridor reach far under the ceiling and are filled with all kind of art, design, photography and architecture books. This is heaven on earth for bookworms and art lovers. Don’t worry when you can’t read German, there are definitely enough pictures to look at! The staff are experts and will help you out when you are overwhelmed by the possibilities.

Once in a while they also have interesting book presentations. So if you can understand some German, give them a go.

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Sautter+Lackmann | Art & culture, Shopping
Admiralitätstraße 71/72 | City center | +49040373196
Mon – Fri 10:00 – 19:00, Sat 11:00 – 17:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg

Image by Bonscheladen

This candyshop in Ottensen is as bright and colourful as you always imagined them in children books. It is one of these shops where kids press their noses against the window pane to get a closer look.

When you open the door, the beautiful smell of candy, fudges and roasted nuts is welcoming you. Most of all you see, smell and taste in the glasses is of organic quality and made lovingly by hand. And every day you can discover your inner child and watch at around 16:15 (Saturdays at 14:30) how out of one huge bonbon they make hundreds of little ones and funny looking lollies or how the fudge is made and the nuts are roasted.

The shop is called Bonscheladen, because “Bonsche” is the word for bonbons in Hamburg. But it also means a “treat”. So reward yourself with a visit to this shop and don’t be surprised when you find Mary Poppins next to you getting her favourite strawberry candy.

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Bonscheladen | Shopping, Snacks
Friedensallee 12 | Altona & Ottensen | +494041547567
Tue – Fri 11:00 – 18:30, Sat 11:00 – 16:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg

Image by Valeska Bolze

You want to try good old German “Hausmannskost” (home cooking) without being forced to go into some touristy restaurant? Then the alternative schanze-szene hang-out “Hatari” is the right place for you: It has a slightly trashy atmosphere that makes fun of German clichés with deer antlers all over the walls. The staff is really friendly. It feels more like being a friend dropping in than being a customer.

And the food is how German food should be: no fancy stuff, big portions and moderate prices.

You get huge Schnitzels with fries and brown sauce, a wide variety of burgers and tarte flambées and not to forget the famous “Pfälzer Saumagen”, stuffed pig´s stomach from the Palatinate.

To be honest, I wasn´t yet brave enough to try it and stuck with the yummy Schnitzel. But hey, if the foreign guests of the former chancellor Helmut Kohl liked it? Be adventurous and find out how diplomats in Germany felt for 16 years, when they were confronted with the favourite meal of the chancellor.

Happy news: There is now also another Hatari in Ottensen, in the Eulenstraße 77! I am sure the whole great concept will be the same, therefore you will find me there soon to have some good schnitzel!

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Hatari | Bars, Restaurants (German) | Main course from € 7.00
Schanzenstr. 2-3 | Schanze | +494043208866
Mon – Sat from 12:00, Sun from 16:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg

Image by Valeska Bolze

Café Knuth located in a little side street close to the station Altona, is a good spot to watch the Ottensen crowd following their daily routine or maybe taking a break of it. I love to watch people while drinking a bowl of creamy milk coffee and maybe treat myself with a nice piece of cake.

In the morning the popular café is a meeting point for hip mothers and fathers with their kids to enjoy one of the tasty breakfast variations.(Therefore at the weekends, it is not easy to conquer a free table).

At lunchtime the creative people from nearby design offices come here to spoon a pumpkin-ginger soup or to munch on a tomato rucola panini. In the evening people call it a day with a cocktail, have a nice chat and relax after work.

All day long, this is accompanied by a service that seems to take just a short break to their usual occupation such as studying art or theatre. So choose whatever time suits you and get an idea of the flow of little Ottensen.

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Café Knuth | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Panini from € 3.80
Kleine Rainstraße 21 | Altona & Ottensen | +494046008708
Mon – Fri 09:00 – open end, Sat – Sun 10:00 – open end

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg

Image by Valeska Bolze

This coffee and tea shop still represents the old Hamburg hanseatic style. To this day, time has a quality in here: I love the elderly ladies behind their old fashioned counter that seem to have hours of time for every customer. And I love the small shop where you could spend an eternity: looking at all these different bars of chocolate in the wooden racks or getting advice for special tea sorts or watching the ladies grain fresh coffee in their old grinder.

Of course you also get all kind of little presents of the world of tea and coffee: lovely cups, pots and candies here. Not to forget Hamburg specialities like “Schanzensekt” (schanze sparkling wine) or “Hamburger Rote Grütze” (Hamburg red berry compote).

I just realized that I never heard the ladies speaking English. Maybe they are fluent, I don’t know. But if not, they for sure will take their time to explain you every single tea sort with hands and feet. Of course I hope you know the basics in tea sign language!

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Stüdemanns Teashop | Shopping
Schulterblatt 59 | Schanze | +49404300630
Mon – Fri 09:00 – 18:00, Sat 09:00 – 15:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg

Image by Andreas Linzner

This shop is first and foremost one thing: made out of colourful vintage terry towels! The designer Andreas Linzner uses the patterned 50s-80s fabric for one-of-a-kind cuddly pets. In the bright, fluffy shop you find yourself surrounded by donkeys, monkeys, giraffes, bunnies, pigs, cats, dogs, mice and not to forget the classical cuddle bears.

And if you want to see your favourite towel being reincarnated as your personal terry pet, just ask for this service. There is nothing Andreas Linzner can´t make out of a towel!

Children will love them. But if you get one for yourself to cuddle with, noone can laugh about it, because these toy animals most certainly are a piece of art!

Look at this cute video to have a first impression: www.altonatv.de

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Andreas Linzner | Shopping | From € 40.00
Marktstr. 6 | Karoviertel | +4940433435
Mon – Fri 13:00 – 19:00, Sat 11:00 – 17:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg

Image by Rehbar

The Rehbar (doebar) is one of the successful examples for “szene bar meets a sarcastic view on German clichés” that is quite popular in Hamburg.

Although its also a good place to have a latte macchiato after an Ottensen shopping trip in the afternoon, I love to go to the happy hour between 6-9 pm. Drinking a cheap, tasty caipirinha, mojito or mai tai and nibbling pretzel sticks while sitting under a golden ceiling is my idea of a good start in the evening.

Or maybe you try the Rehbier (doebeer), while looking at the special details to find everywhere around: a cuckoo clock and a fake fire place behind the bar, a gallery of deer pictures on the wall and a doe in a show case. Not to forget the backroom table football under the eyes of a boar head and forest sounds on the toilet. And still it really looks stylish, a miracle you have to see yourself!

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Rehbar | Bars, Coffee & tea | Drinks € 4.00
Ottensener Hauptstr. 52 | Altona & Ottensen | +494039906363
Mon – Fri 11:00 – open end, Sat – Sun 10:00 – open end, Happy hour 18:00 – 21:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg

Image by Dialog

Dialogue in the dark/Dialog im Dunkeln: For sure an experience you will never forget: get a real feeling of how it is to be blind. You are lead by blind guides in small groups through specially constructed darkened rooms, in which scents, sounds, wind, temperatures and textures simulate daily environments.

It is fascinating how soon another kind of “seeing” starts: How “seeing” the people next to you just happens when they speak. And when they are quiet they just disappear. How you can experience your environment only by touching it, smelling it.

Of course what is different to reality, everybody is blind in the darkened rooms. Therefore my spontaneous thought: “oh my god, hopefully no one just saw how stupidly I stumbled into this room!” was quite unnecessary.

Because of that, my personal advice: you don’t need to care about what colour you are wearing when visiting this very special exhibition, but maybe you want to make sure that you smell good!

Only guided tours that are booked out a lot, so make a reservation at the telephone hotline in advance and tell them when you need an English speaking guide!

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Dialogue in the Dark | Art & culture | 60 min tour € 15.00
Alter Wandrahm 4 | Harbour | +4970044332000
Tue – Fri 09:00 – 17:00, Sat 10:00 – 20:00, Sun 11:00 – 19:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg

Image by Ina Kurz

If you wanna have an original souvenir from Hamburg, you need to visit Maegde und Knechte. Ina Kurz founded the shop on the idea to put poetry not into books but on textiles or other materials. On all kind of daily accessories she prints funny, witty German proverbs that give things a special meaning:

wash bags with “BLEIB SAUBER” (stay clean), pillowcases with “HIER IST MANCHMAL ZU HAUSE SEIN” (here there is home once in a while) or glasses with ICH WILL AB JETZT DIE GLÜCKLICHSTE ZEIT MEINES LEBENS HABEN (from now on I wanna have the happiest time of my life)

Certainly you will get a kind of translation in the shop; although the double meaning is not easily transferred into other languages. But maybe as a non-native speaker, these German pearls of wisdom seem to you like fortune cookies: not catching the exact meaning adds even to the charm of it.

And for sure you will have a unique memory of Germany and can show off with your language skills every time your friends ask for the translation!

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Maegde und Knechte | Shopping
Feldstrasse 44 | Karoviertel | +49404302114
Mon – Fri 12:00 – 18:00, Sat 12:00 – 15:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg