Today was a day of risk. I decided to do some shopping and to eat something other than french fries for lunch. I went to the Gäsemarkt and into the food court attached to a very small interior mall. I found some wurst there, a couple of different kinds, but I decided to save that for later.
Instead I headed to the Chinese food counter. I meant to order a noodle dish, but ended up with fried rice. Of course after I ordered I saw that the menu was divided into Reis and Nudel. Oops. I wasn't sure what to order so I picked one at random. It came down between two, one I couldn't decipher but had an appealing name, and one that said "mild" in the description. I picked the first. As I was watching the chef make it, I saw him toss in a big old ladle full of chili sauce. Oops again. I'm not big on spicy.
Anyway my meal turned out to be your basic fried rice with a limited amount of chicken. It didn't list chicken on the menu, not that I was upset about it, but some of the other orders specifically listed chicken so I assumed it was coming without. It was spicy, but doable. It came with a little peanut sauce (non-spicy) on the side which was excellent. I also ordered water and ended up with sparkling water, which was okay. I don't mind sparkling water. I'm just wondering how you get ahold of still water around here.
After the Chinese food I headed through the little mall area there and through a couple of streets, just meandering. I found the Marriott and the Hamburg Renaissance hotels. Both looked nice. My parents might be interested in those when they come to visit.
I followed a little side street and actually came out where I expected to! I went into the stationery store to see if I could find some ink for the pen I'd wanted the other day, but no luck there. I checked out other pens but couldn't find anything I liked.
Right before I left for shopping I was putting on my nice shoes and wouldn't you know it, my lace broke. I undid the other one and stuck it in my pocket so I could find a replacement. They're brown Bass shoes and in the US it's hard to find laces for them, so I was a little worried.
So after the stationery store I decided to head to the Alsterhaus, a department store. First I stopped in the pen section and found a Lamy I really liked. I love the way Lamy pens write, but I'm not too hot on their styles and colors. Kevin had gotten a Lamy last time that was clear and kind of cool. I used it to write a letter and liked it. Well I found the same style but in a light green metallic color. I also found a fine tip, which I think I prefer. Kevin's is a medium so I can compare. I also bought some ink in a bluish-tourquoise color to be different. I was happy with that. Actually I just realized they have a picture of my new pen on their website here. It's the fifth pen down, the Lamy AL-star metallic green. I got the fountain pen of the set. If you scroll down some more to the Lamy Vista, that's Kevin's pen.
I then headed for the escalators and stumbled on the shoe section. Literally. One of the escalators was broken and you had to walk up like stairs. At the top there was one stair that wasn't quite straight and I didn't lift my foot high enough to clear it. Luckily I caught myself, so no problems. I found the shoelace section pretty quickly and much to my delight, almost all of their laces were for brown shoes. I had the old lace with me, but wasn't sure about the size (you can see where this is going). I was debating between the 45 cm and the 60 cm with no real clue as to the actual length. Well I went with the 45 cm and of course, once I got home they are too short. *sigh* I nearly bought both--they were 1 Euro for the smaller ones and 1.25 for the larger ones, so I should have just sprung for it, but I felt confident that the small would be okay. Oh well. I'll have to go back tomorrow or sometime when I want to wear these shoes again.
I also saw the most German of the German dogs. No, not a German Shepherd, a dachshund! He was very cute. That's the first dachshund I've seen here. No beagles yet. Except for Scouter, of course. And that was today's big adventure.
Posted by Shelby at February 17, 2004 07:46 AM