Pearl Harbour

Hamburg. I'm told this is where the old German money is. It's interesting to be in a city that seems so familiar but that i still know nothing about. Like a parallell universe... I get a decent pastel de nata in the portugese part of town (Portugisenviertel, just south of Michaeliskirche) before meeting my friend Hannes and his boss Robert at This Gun Is For Hire. We talk about the merkantile Hamburg (in opposite to the arty Berlin) and the seemingly incurable, risk-averse German society, where being a good team player means to keep your mouth shut and not talk about any difficult truths. There is a general consent that Germany still looks a bit, er, fucked right now - but if they just win the World Cup, I'm sure everything will be OK. (Duh.)