I avoided doing anything yesterday. Just wasn't feeling it, which is understandable given how stimulating this whole trip usually is. The hostel kicked me out after catching me sleeping on the common room couch, but that was ok since it was only a few minutes before I was planning to leave to catch my train anyway. Now to experience the much lauded Dutch train system... About 15 mintutes before departure, I got a notification that one of the connections of my trip was cancelled outright. The info desk guy told me I could course correct and get to Groningen all the same via a different route, but this train was delayed as well. I don't think he was correct anyway. To try to salvage something of my itinerary I decided to just go there and play things by ear. When I eventually got there, I had missed my connection, but found a bus to Hamburg leaving about an hour later. I took this option and got on board around 10 PM. When I crossed the border into Germany, I discovered that the promise of Schengen being border free isn't really true. We got stopped by the German police and pulled off the highway into a lot with tents full of cops. They came on board and demanded our papers before letting us pass. It was a totally dark and foggy stretch of nothing along the border, and I of course couldn't understand anything that was being said, so it was rather eerie even though I had a pretty good idea what was happening. After finally getting to Hamburg around 3 AM, I took a bus across the city and walked a considerable distance with my bags to the hostel. I was fully expecting to not be let in and have to sit on the sidewalk until morning, but someone came after a few minutes and checked me in. I got to bed around 4 AM.

If you're interested in hearing my experience in Hamburg, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. I'm currently sitting in a right hand drive Dacia (a strange experience on left hand drive roads) and, on a whim, am hitching a ride to Poland with a Lithuanian guy from the hostel. He's driving to Gdansk and I figure Szczecin isn't too far from Berlin. I'll probably try to be in Berlin from Thursday night to maybe Tuesday or Wednesday.