Hamburg Review

[tassojunior]

Been in "HH" for a week and ready to report.

Hamburg is Germany's 2nd largest city and while closer to Berlin, is more like Amsterdam and Copenhagen. St.Pauli has the largest Red Light district in Europe but only 3 gay bars, all drag bars. The gay area of Hamburg is St. George, to the east of the main train station and most gay bars are just off Hansa Platz. Tom's Saloon and the SLUT are leather bars with sex in various rooms. SLUT and the Contact bar are mandatory nude on many nights. SLUT gives out not only condoms and lube with each admission but also latex gloves! (yes they're used a lot).

There are four bars close to each other listed as rentboy bars, but only two, La Strada and Pick-Up Bar really are. Entratour is still open but I never saw any rent there. Pick-Up has rent but is about the size of a dozen telephone booths. La Strada is large with very friendly and helpful bartenders and possibly the best free WiFi in Hamburg. That's very important as most German rent is in on all the internet sites, Planet Romeo escort section of course, but even Grindr, Gaydar, and Hornet. 100 E is the standard advertised rate but very negotible. In the bar 50 to 70 is the more normal price.

As with most European cities now, Romanian gypsies and arabs are 95% of the boys available in the rentboy bars. If you're a bottom they may work out, maybe, but none of them ever bottom. Ever. I lucked on one rare blond blue eyed Romanian (not gypsy) for 60 E who kissed well but would only suck with a condom but never would bottom. His name is Vlad and he hangs out at La Strada a lot.

There's a well-known German blond named David who frequents La Strada and while a midnight beauty and quite out-going and popular with everyone, is actually 35 and rather skinny. I dated HH Martin off RentMen for 100 and he was a very eager bottom gay swimmer of about 30 and very sweet.

On weekends La Strada gets very crowded with maybe 50 hustlers at once but as they are almost all gypsies it's best to hide most of your money in your sock and put a wallet and cellphone in zippered pockets. There are several fairly nice sex hotels close to the bars. I went with a drug addict German (50 E) to one on Steindamm called Blue Engel which was $10 for 30 minutes, condoms provided, and it was surprisingly a nice large very clean room.

Again, all these bars and sex hotels are within 3 blocks of each other around Hansa Platz.

Even though thee's still a rentboy bar scene in Hamburg, I can't recommend enough using the internet to find nice German guys at very reasonable prices. If you search Hamburg on Planet Romeo for all users you'll be amazed at how many hot guys (several pages) are available with many of them very willing to escort. (the regular escorts aren't bad either).

HHMartin from RentMen. 100E asking rate, power bottom.

David from La Strada

[boiworship]

I had a harrowing experience with "Romanians" in Budapest in 2001. Never again.

[AdamSmith]

I had a harrowing experience with "Romanians" in Budapest in 2001. Never again.

Word seems to be that "Romanians" have also swarmed Berlin and made a lot of its gay venues somewhat unsafe. I think somebody reported (here or on the other forum, can't recall) being robbed by two guys right out in public, on the street directly in front of some bar or club. No help forthcoming from the establishment bouncer or others who looked on indifferently.

[tassojunior]

Word seems to be that "Romanians" have also swarmed Berlin and made a lot of its gay venues somewhat unsafe. I think somebody reported (here or on the other forum, can't recall) being robbed by two guys right out in public, on the street directly in front of some bar or club. No help forthcoming from the establishment bouncer or others who looked on indifferently.

That was actually me. Two guys, one a Bulgarian and one a Romanian gypsy held me and pickpocketed 300E out of my wallet in the middle of Tabasco with the bartender laughing. 50E bills are too large for American wallets and must be folded. Since then I also put most of my money in my sock when going around these places.

There are plenty of "white" Romanians in Romania and some come to northern Europe, but most of the immigrants into most European countries are Romanian gypsies (Roma). This combination with rather rough arabs means the street scene in gay areas has become very dangerous for pick-pocketing. Especially in Berlin there's a tendency to put hands on you and for hands to find their ways into pockets. So long as you put most cash into your sock or insole and have no valuables in your pockets you should be fine. It's the pick-pocketing that's driving northern Europeans crazy.

In Hamburg I met an attractive blond blue-eyed Romanian but all Romanians are never versatile. It's almost impossible to find one. They also demand high prices and usually up the price afterward a lot.

OTOH the internet cruise sites are chock full of beautiful German guys who are inexpensive and very easy to meet. Not just Planet Romeo Escorts and RentMen but regular PR too as well as Grindr, Gaydar, Hornet and Jack'd. 100E usually does the trick with 50-70E for repeats.

[AdamSmith]

Thanks!

In 2004 visiting Berlin for just 24 hours I went to a couple of bars and did not see anything like this. If I ever get back there, all this is great to know.

[tassojunior]

Update: My last night in Hamburg was great (why does it always work that way?)

At the Pick Up bar there are a couple decent looking German young guys who blow customers, in the open, for tips. I never realized what was going on before. There are also several couches and a daybed so now those make sense.

I linked up with another 30ish blond German like David above, who's been on the scene for a while. Named Steffen and he's well known , like David, at Pick Up and La Strada. Also great company and great sex, as all German boys seem to be.

70-80 E for everything is the standard union scale all over northern europe.

[boiworship]

Usually the real Romanians are fine, although, like Serbs and Kosovars, there are a fair number of "mafiya" types one needs to be wary of.