Life is a mystery. But the Germans have taken some of the mystery out of cruising for sex. Sex is certainly as exciting and intoxicating here as anywhere, but I feel the primary difference for them when compared to Americans is that sex isn't treated here as if it were some dirty little secret. The sex trades in Hamburg are not lurking in some dark corner, but are simply here or there. Sure, they are often positioned, though not entirely, in specific areas, but this is no different than how clothing shops generally tend to be near to one another or how, for that matter, many types of businesses tend to cluster. I suspect it is as much about convenience for the consumer as it is anything else.

The view in Hamburg is hardly universal amongst the Germans just as Americans vary their handling of sex based in no small part on local attitudes. Further south in other parts of Germany it appears that bureaucrats are as busy as town councils in Texas trying to make life difficult for cruisers (removing doors from arcade booths is one thing I've heard about in some German cities). But up here in Hamburg I can't imagine such a discussion would ever reach any level of seriousness. In a word, the sex trades are treated like legitimate businesses -- as they should be anywhere.

My first stop on the sex tour of Hamburg was into one such place of business, Mystery Hall (Talstraße 3-5), located right in the heart of the Red Light district and just a few blocks from my apartment. It was a Sunday afternoon; I'd been in town 24 hours and was antsy to play. Mystery Hall is what the Germans call a 'kino' but what we'd classify as an adult bookstore/video arcade. You enter a retail store with all the usual merchandise available (popper's, dildo's, video's, etc). For DM12 ($5.30) you can access the arcade area that is actually more like a sexclub than a typical American arcade. By the way, for your investment you can come and go for up to 16 hours.

The arcade is a series of long and short corridors with small booths that run a large selection of non-stop porn at no additional fee. Most booths have one connecting gloryhole in the form of squares, triangles or circles, but all safely provided by management. Each booth has a chair. Some booths are actually larger-sized rooms and one contains a sling, while another contains one of those medical exam chairs that are common in gynecological exam rooms. In addition to the booths, you'll find small theatre areas and a dark room with yet another sling. There are lockers for your valuables and clothing if you prefer (at most, I saw a couple of men without shirts), plus a clean toilet that includes shower and douche.

So what goes on here and who comes around to play? When I arrived at about 4 pm, I'd say there were maybe 6 men in the club area. That number increased as the hours passed and eventually when I left, around 8 pm, there were something like 20 men. Most of these men were definitely doable and varied only a bit in body type and age. When I first ventured into a booth, I looked through the gloryhole to see an astonishing beautiful young man on his knees servicing a cock. He had the punker look and while I don't really know what age one must be to play here, he was somewhere in his late teens or early twenties. Great inspiration so I pulled out my cock, stuck it through the hole and in no time his hand was stroking my meat as he continued, no doubt, working on the other cock. Eventually that hand became a nice warm mouth and while I can't say he was the best cocksucker, it is rare for this old man to get serviced by such a young boy and I'll give him an 'E' for effort.

There were a few bodybuilder types. German men seem to be disproportionately tall and bulky. A handful of men were fairly ancient, but the average age was 30 and the average body type was normal. Bodybuilding isn't a big draw over here and neither is being fat. Most German men seem to be naturally fit though not firm.

Soon enough I had pressed my ass up against a gloryhole and had somebody sticking his cock inside. You're given a condom when you enter the play area, though lube and condoms don't appear to be widely available. Fortunately this dick was both covered and well-lubed cause it wasn't exactly a small sausage. My just purchased bottle of Rush did the trick and off we went.

Later on it was my turn to plow a blonde through a hole. Judging from the ease of entry, this guy had been busy! Many men waited to get into a booth with a partner, but I preferred to work the gloryholes.

Mystery Hall is to be highly recommended. The place is clean, staff are nice and do speak English (at least enough to explain what you'll need to do here), and the crowd is frisky enough to satisfy. Rather doubtful that trade will stumble into this place since it is a kino that promotes itself as very gay, but there are surely enough kino's around that I'll find a good one for trade at some point. When this trip is finished, I'll draw up a comparison of similar places in Hamburg (there are seemingly dozens of kino's), but this one will be hard to beat.

[ June 27, 2001: Message edited by: Keith ]