Köln and Frankfurt

One of the last big hurrah adventures our little group took was to Köln and then onto Frankfurt to meet Blake's cousin there.
First we took a regular, regional train to Osnabrück to get in a sweet ICE train down to Köln. The four of us piled into the train and found a little room with seats free. Once we filed in we all exclaimed that we felt like we were going to Hogwarts. Most of us had never been in a compartment on a train before, so we felt rather awesome.

A few of us started joking about Anne, having had the nickname of Hermione for a while now, and I were Ron and Hermione. (Yes, yes, yes. Go ahead and make the jokes now). We took a picture of the two of us on the train but I couldn't find the Hogwarts outfits for both of us to make this joke a reality (or a photoshop reality at the very least). So instead I went for Slytherin, it's my house anyway.


When we stepped out of the Bahnhof (train station) in Köln, we were greeted with not only the oppressive heat, but also the impressive sight of the cathedral. I know I have yet to see the soaring spires of the cathedrals in Italy, or any other place that has some awe inspiring structures, but this one left me breathless. It was by far the largest church I've seen and the intricacies of the details were mind boggling.
After we checked into our Hostel, we decided to take a peek at the inside of the cathedral. There were impressively detailed murals on the floor, soaring stained glass windows, hanging organs, and stunning paintings all over the walls of this church.

It has to be the tallest church I've ever been inside. Easily. And what do I do with tall things? That's right people, I climb them!
So after taking easily one hundred pictures of just inside the church we paid the few euros it took to climb the tower....and climb we did. Up and up and up and up and....up some more. It was a never ending spiral.
Finally we got to the top of the tower and explored around on the terrace that ringed the top. Just to the east, the Rhine river snaked by like the fattest, laziest serpent I've ever seen. The city stretched out below us like a giant table cloth, unending in every direction we could see.

After we exhausted this building, seeing everything we could see, buying everything we needed to buy, and just maybe depleting the batteries on our cameras, we decided to go into the city to see what else it had in store for us. We walked around as the sun went down, watching the city lights come to life under the darkening sky.
There's a certain feeling that you get when you're in a foreign city that you can't help but gape at, with a group of close friends, as the sun goes down and the music comes out. You feel dirty, tired, hungry, and yet like the most vibrant being in the universe. This is living. This is exploring. This is my life.

You may have wondered why I've talked so much about this city and cathedral and yet haven't really posted a picture. Nothing I took during the day could even compare with the one I snapped that night on the way back to the hostel. So instead of bombarding you with tons of point and shoot moments, I wanted to leave you with one lasting one.

That night we all sprawled on top of out sheets and blankets in as little as our honor could muster and tried to sleep in the oppressive heat. Well most of us did anyway. Ty bailed on us at about 2 in the morning and we didn't see him again until the sun came up. Now that's an adventurer.

Early that morning, after Ty came back, we all piled sleepily into another train car and found out that we had first class tickets! HUZZAH! We all took pictures being super fancy in said first class seats (sadly, Anne had to leave us at this point because she had another adventure waiting for her in Norway).

We're TRYING to act fancy

More classy...

supah fancy....

This part of the traveling has to be the most beautiful. Even though we never quite got into southern

Germany, we were able to pass through the rolling hills that would lead up to the alps. While everyone else napped on the train, I stood and drooled at the window as i watched us slip along side the river, passing gorgeous buildings, vineyards, and cozy little river side towns. I keep telling people that I found my soul down along the river in those little foothills. As the train pulled away from the Rehin, I never wanted leave. I wanted to set down roots and flourish like all the vines along the hills. Sadly, I am human and I don't do the whole "root" thing. so the train pulled away and I looked longingly out the window.

We reached Frankfurt without so much as a hiccup. We did the typical walk to the hostel in the even hotter

Say no more, I'm coming in!!!

city and checked in. We hung out there for a while, sometimes going out to buy some food or anything else we needed/wanted. Finally Blake's cousin and her mom came in and we all took a nice walk down to the Innenstadt to grab a drink.

When you think of Germany what do you think of? Cars? Beer? Oktoberfest? Pretzels? Lederhosen and Dirndls? Well y'all, that's southern Germany for you. Pretty much all of it....
So when I say this city felt GERMAN, it means it felt SOUTHERN German.
It was a dang beautiful place and worth all the pictures here.

That night we went back to the hostel for the free spaghetti social. We all picked a table with a few other people and I started to make friends right away. Isn't that the point of being out and about? Well we met this very nice Australian darling who was living in England at the time and just traveling for the sake of it. She was funny and sweet and I'm very glad to have met her. After that I moved down the table and met a boisterous man named Jordan. He runs a blog called signmyguitar.com. He has the coolest carbon fiber guitar I've ever seen, and he's good at playing it. He has been traveling for the sake of it as well, but he's been collecting signatures and videos of talented people he happens across, and man does he pick the good ones.

It was a beautiful finale to our trip with an epilogue made of a wonderful foggy morning on the train ride back. I loved spying tiny farm towns through the fog, tucked back in between the hills we passed on the way home.

The People of Germany

Due to some tough times recently, I have been forced to find the ultimate way to cheer me up. Normally it's along the lines of dancing, tree climbing, or hanging out with friends. Since none of those three were available for a bit, I had to find something else. And do you want to know what I have found? Of course you do! otherwise you wouldn't be here....

I found out that I have been bitten by the travel bug. One of my new favorite pastimes is to show up at the Bahnhof and take the first train to anywhere. I also decided this was a great learning experience, so I wrote out a little sign in German asking people to sit with me if they want to chat so I can improve my German.

Now, I have tons of gorgeous pictures from Osnabrück and then again from Delmenhorst (the second time I ran off), but, as always, it's the people that make the adventure worthwhile.
On my way to Osnabrück the first time, a very nice Russian lady accidently sat in the seat without seeing the sign. I told her she didn't have to do it since she didn't see it, but she very graciously decided to go along with it. We talked about various political and social structures of different countries in Europe and what it means to be a white person there. Honestly.... I was lost for half of it. It's hard to have a conversation like that in a language you aren't solid in.

Probably one of my shining moments in Germany happened just last night. After having a bit of a rotten afternoon into night, I was waiting at the bus stop to go home when a very nice young lady sat next to me. She started off the conversation my making a comment on my shoes and how she liked them. After that things just kept going. I learned she was Turkish and she learned I came from the US. When my bus showed up, I noticed that we both had to take the same one, so we kept chatting. Right before I got off she gifted me with the one compliment anyone here would die for. She said I sounded fluent.
GUYS. A LADY WHO HAS SPENT HER ENTIRE LIFE IN GERMANY SAID I SOUNDED FLUENT.
I danced home. Not even joking.

Today I decided another train trip was in order, so I ran off to the Bahnhof as soon as I showered and got some food into me. I show up and hop the first train, which happened to be to Osnabrück again. But hey, I can always stop off at Cloppenburg or anywhere else that looks/sounds interesting along the way.
Yet again I settled down with my Kindle and the sign stuck to the seat next to me.

The ticket guy came around and saw my sign. He got all sorts of excited and said he was going to go grab his co-worker to come talk to me because said co-worker is not only German, but my age, and shyer. I nodded, smiled, and waited. Well, this co-worker walked past me and decided that he couldn't talk to me because he already had a girlfriend. Lame. Not what I'm looking for duuuuude!

However, the nice ticket guy came back. He introduced himself as Manuel. He came from Portugal but he's been in Germany for years and years. He speaks close to 7 languages and has a daughter just two days younger than myself. We hit it off right away. He spent most of the ride next to me making me laugh and helping me with my German.
Dear Manuel kept slipping in and out of English once he learned that I was from the US so he made a deal with me. Every time he spoke English, he owed me 50 cents. After about €3-4 he decided that he'd just buy me coffee in Osnabrück or something.

We got off the train at Osnabrück (he was done with his shift) and headed to a cafe down by the river where we sat and had some nice ice cream and coffee. He fed me brain teasers, jokes, and made up German history. He helped me when I got grammar wrong or couldn't find a word. When we walked back along to the river to the Bahnhof at the end we looked for animals. He told me their names, the sounds the make, how rare they are, and a lot of information about the city.
At the end of the trip, he said that I was invited to come back down to Osnabrück sometime before I go to meet his wife, have a drink in his garden and maybe we could even go fishing at some point. (HOW COOL?!?)

Now I've been taken under wings before and adopted into families, but nothing can beat this. I've been taken under the wing of a very nice Portugese man in Germany. How many people can say that happened to them? After the comment from the Turkish lady last night, and spending a chunk of the day with Manuel, I feel like I'm actually LIVING!

An American Saloon in Berlin? WHA-?

You saw right folks, there is an American saloon in Berlin.
Once Blake and I saw that we tripped over ourselves putting our cowboy boots on and running to the train station.
We spent the entire weekend in Berlin, but I think the most blog worthy part was the saloon (though I think he'd beg to differ).

So Blake and I swagger into said bar (after paying an €8 cover charge...ouch!) in our plaid shirts, jeans (mine was a skirt), and our boots.
All eyes were on us and they were all saying the same thing. "Geez! Stupid people are trying way too hard to look American."

We decided to take a seat in the back of the room. We ordered some Jack, Sam Adams, and burgers. This is the one place I can tell you that you get American proportions! However, they burn the patties to a coal and the ketchup is curry ketchup. It's like THEY were not trying hard enough.
Lucky for us, there was a live band that night. They mostly played songs from the Johnny Cash era that neither of us knew, but at the end they decided to go out with a BANG and play Margaritaville by Allen Jackson. Anyone who knows anything about country to parrot heads should be clutching your heart like a true fan. Jimmy Buffet guys....come on.

The bar was funny and I love being able to say that I went to Berlin's American Western Saloon, but golly gosh it was not the slice of home I was looking for.

Elternzeit II

The next adventure up for my family was the North Sea. Being so close to a huge body of water is like a magnetic pull to at least visit once....well it was for this land-locked girl.
We all piled in the car and headed up north until we hit water. The water was a bit chilly, but not nearly as

bad as I expected it to be. Eli and I played in the sand, made signs, and kept out of the way of jellyfish.
Oh yeah....
jellyfish....
They were everywhere! They were really pretty just slightly terrifying because none of us had to go pee.
They were this gorgeous purple that reminded me on a iris.
we kept poking them with sticks... Okay... -I- kept poking them with sticks.
It was very nice and I'd go there again in a heartbeat!

After that drive to the North Sea, I convinced my parents to try and travel by train since that's just how you do it here. So we decided to go up to Bremen the next day by train with a group of my friends. We all went to the Bahnhof, piled in a train, and were able to relax the entire way to Bremen. No yelling at the GPS. No looking for parking. It was rather great.
But first! We had to take a picture with the statue Bremen is known for. The Town Musicians of Bremen is a statue of a donkey, dog, cat, and roster all sitting atop the other's back. It comes from a very popular children's story that I'll let you google (or click the link I provided).





Just down the street from said statue, is a cathedral that Ty just had to check out. The St. Peter's cathedral was very nice, but the best part is that we could go up into the tower, just like in Hamburg.

View of the square from the tower.

Mom and Eli looking out over the town.

Just because being in the tower didn't make me tall enough....

Aw..... someone from 1986 loves me!

Love the english here.... think you're missing a consonant....

After that we walked over to the chocolate shop in style:

Hey, hey, we're the Monkees!

Mom was pretty happy once she got there.

She may have tried to buy out the whole store...

We walked back to the Bahnhof and were admiring the beauty of the building when I heard someone playing the saxophone on the street. Well....you know me! The dancer inside of me just jumped up and couldn't help but move. Sadly, Eli has gotten to the point where he needs to lead now, so I can't dance with him until I teach him how to do that.
So, next option. I slapped on my best puppy dog eyes and asked Blake to PRETTY PLEASE dance with me.

And it seems to have worked!

The next two days were fancy dinners. Both days we decided to suit up and go out either with or without my family depending on how tired they were. Here are some pictures just because when you suit up, you gotta take pictures! 

After that the family left, but I can't wait to see them again when I get home. Seems like they had a great time! I was very glad to explore with them and show off Germany!

Elternzeit

First of all I want to tell you that is post is grossly mislabeled, mostly to forestall any freak-outs from people who know German.
In Germany, after a woman has a child, her husband can take leave from work to help raise the kid. This time taken off is called "Elternzeit" or "parent time" in English.
However, this blog is not a clever way to tell you I'm pregnant (I can promise I'm very much NOT), but I think it sounds like a good title to put all the adventures my parents and I had over here under.
Without further ado, our adventures:

After the shenanigans of trying to get them here (dang storm in Newark!), they flew into Hamburg where Blake and I picked them up.

Mom, Eli, and Dad in front of the Rathaus

Side note about the S-Bahn ride to the airport: Blake and I got on the proper line but saw that it split about half way along the trip and one line went to the airport and the other line went to some little name we didn't know. We were worried, did the train go to the airport and back track? The other side and backtrack? Because we were already late....
Much to our amusement, the nice voice told us that if we wanted to end up in (insert name of stop here) then we should kindly move to the last three cars. Isn't that the coolest? The last three cars split off and go to a different stop!

The first day with my parents wasn't too exciting. We walked around the city a bit, mostly just to find a place to eat. The poor waitress at the steak house we found (trust my carnivorous father and brother to sniff one out here) didn't speak a lick of English and I had to translate most of it. By the end of dinner the family was tuckered out and we saved any more adventures for the next day.

As soon as everyone had a day or two to sleep off jet lag, we were off. This time, to Amsterdam! I know, when you think of Amsterdam, you think of smoking and the red light district. Why would I want to bring my parents there? Two words: Amsterdam Dungeon. Not only is it the coolest one I've been to, but they also present it half in English. If you've been following this blog you'll see how I raved about it the first time. I'm happy to report that we had even MORE fun than the first time I went!

A little think you need to know about my family before I go on is that dad, being tall and bald, always gets picked for things. He just seems to look like a good guy to pick on. So when I tell you that they call up at least one person in every room, just know that the red head and the big, bald guy got called up a lot more often than you would think. One of the times that dad got called up and accused of selling not only him, but everyone in the room to the VOC ships, he called mom up too. Eli got questioned by the inquisition and I got burned at the stake for being a witch.

For me, the coolest thing was the witch burning. The actress in the room called me forward and sat me down with my "book of spells". As she's talking to the rest of the crowd about witches, she points to the side of the page where there are flags for different languages. I flip to English and begin to read. It's simple. They are asking me to act along. They are going to "burn" me at the stake. If I wish to continue, look scared. If you don't want to, just shake your head.
PWHA! This room was made for me!

I put on my best scared face and closed the book. She demonstrated the powers I had by making me stare at flowers until they wilted. Then she tied me up to a pole on top of a pile of wood at the back of the room where there was a nice sign placed just where I could see. It asked me to act like I was choking. Screaming helped.
WELL HECK! This room really was made for me!
It outline that when the lights went out, the whole contraption would get turned around and I was to remain still as the attendant finished the story.
As the lights went out and the platform turned, I let out a high pitched wail of a scream.
Ah, another one of my shining moments.

Among other things we did in Amsterdam, the canal tour was probably the best. It's always nice to do so you can see all the culture without killing your feet. Mom and dad seemed to be much more into it than Eli, however. We went by some neat churches, houses, and the Anne Frank house.




The next day, instead of going to Potsdam and seeing an awesome Renaissance festival there, we found one much closer, even if smaller. Heavy emphasis on the -small- part. I think the best part of that adventure, though, was the fact that we got to go on a ferry. Coming from a state with few rivers and fewer lakes, needing a ferry to cross anything is neat! I think mom found it coolest. She, promptly upon getting onto

said ferry, started taking pictures, much to the chagrin of the other passengers.
Once we get to the other side, we drive and drive until we end up in a small town with a little yellow sign pointing us to the outskirts where the fest is being held. I do have to applaud one thing, though. the dogs in Hagen im Bremischen seem to be very capable. Running shops all on their own like that....



On our way back home, we passed through an interesting little town that mom just had to take a picture with.:

Hint: Her maiden name is Popken

Our next adventure brought us south of Oldenburg to a little town I love called Sandkrug. This town has some of the best forest nearby. So we packed up a lunch, hoped in the car, and headed down south....for about a 10 minute drive. We walked to the forest, had lunch, and explored a little, but we kept hearing music

and announcements coming from farther down the tail. We also kept seeing families going past with kids. We decided we didn't want to miss out on cool things happening, so we went down the path and stumbled upon a family fair!

We joked about dad giving me his hat and letting me hop onto the mechanical bull ride they had there and showing them how a REAL cowgirl does it, but we never really got the chance.....sadly...

We saw some fun things, like the booth that sells all the cookie hearts which seem to be very popular here. I've seen them at just about every fair or fest I've been to so far. There were neat rides, fun booths, and lots of people just having a good time. Towards the end of the fair there was more of a kids circus where kids could try tightrope walking, juggling, hula hoops, and balancing spinning plates. As we were standing out of the way, talking in English, a very nice carnie came up and handed Eli and I sticks with plates already spinning on top of them. Let's just say, this might have been the starting point to me wanting to run away with the circus.

TADAH!

The English Pub

Regrettably, this is going to be a picture free blog entry. I always like to include at least one picture of the event....more if I can really fit it in (you might have noticed already).

Last night our English friend, Emma, brought us to and English speaking club.

Let me explain a few things about that name, however.

First of all, they mean English as in the British English, not really American. They had lots of cool English beers like Monty Python's Holy Grail, Old Speckled Hen, and Newcastle. And when they say club, they mean like a gathering and not dancing. In other words, it was a lot of older people who moved to Germany from England and who wanted to get together and speak English from time to time. Might sound stuffy, but they were all quite friendly, talkative, and rowdy once you got them to drink.

We were quite lucky to stumble into this little pub on the night we did. Heck, it was lucky we stumbled on it at all. You'd have to blame our friend, Emma, who just seem to find it at random on the internet and drag us all there. But tonight was special, it was Sing-Along night. Packets were passed out with tons of song lyrics. I didn't recognize too many at first, but then I started going through one by one and all I could think of was, "bless my mother." There was one children's song CD she would always play in the car that had sons like "Drunken Sailor", "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean", "A Waltzing Mathilda", and "Loch-Lomond". I proudly requested those on the sheet of paper being passed around

After a very delicious veggie lasagna and creamy fruit dessert (I really need to learn how to make both), they started singing the songs I requested. After a few drunken rounds of "Hey Jude" and a very touching, albeit drunk, version of Scarborough Fair, I heard John say they were doing "A Waltzing Mathilda" next. For any of you who don't know this, I love this song. I used it as a sign project once and had to sing it while I signed in front of the class because I couldn't find a version to my satisfaction.

John who was in charge of the bellowing singing, was leading everyone in the song, but not very many people seemed to be into it. About half way through the song his voice started to give out. Can't say I blame the ol' chap. He had been singing for a while and drinking nothing but beer. Let me say again, I love this song. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that as soon as he faltered, I lifted my voice above the crowd and sang the entire next verse by myself....or at least until John got his breath back and then people started to join me in the chorus again. After the song, John came over to me with a huge smile saying he owed me a beer. He kept good on his promise and got me a Newcastle before we had to be back at the train station to head home for the night. This story may not be really epic but I thourghly enjoy it. Me, a little Ami, who just belted out an Australian folk song in an English Club in Germany. Anyone else have culture shock yet?

The Journey is the Destination

Between these epic adventures to far off, German cities I find ways to entertain myself. I mean, I'm in Germany after all.... I'm sure I can find something to do with my time.
People are always a good place to start when you're looking for something to fill the hours between sunup and sundown (which is getting really long here. I think we're up to 18 hours of light a day).
A few weeks ago, Blake graciously let me take him on a date. How sweet. We made sandwich stuff and then packed it off to a dorf just south of where we're living called Sandkrug.
Knowing we both miss our forests back in Colorado, I thought this would be a perfect place, and I think I hit the nail on the head. After hiking around for awhile and just enjoying the fresh, albeit heavy, air of the forest, we found a nice hill to plop down onto and eat lunch.
This isn't one of those amazing adventures that I'm going to tell over and over, or even tell my grandkids, but it was a beautiful place

Another nice person to waste time with is Bethany Blackburn. She's another one from UNC, but she's based

out of Köln right now because that's where her boyfriend lives or is studying.... or because that's where she likes to capture dragons. Either way, she's there, so it's a real treat when she comes up to Oldenburg and we get to see her. The first time we saw her here, she was just passing through, but this weekend she was here for a few days. First, we just hit the local watering hole and just had a good night talking and laughing. Ya know, the norm.
Also, she's my favorite red-head.
She's just cool like that.

And then the next day she and Björn invited us to go to Olantis with them. I guess Oldenburg is kinda famous for this water park. COOL! It was only €2,30 since the indoor part was closed and I used a student discount. We still got the outdoor heated (THANK THE LORD) pool and the river that had a pirate boat in it.
Ty showed off his Michigian blood by hanging out in the water of the river longer than any of us. When I said I was going to jump in Alex and Ty kept making jokes about burining my body on the pirate ship like a true viking funeral. And yeah, it was that cold.
Have you ever jumped into water and all of the sudden you couldn't breathe? Like cold just took on a human form and FALCON PUNCHED you in the diaphragm? It felt something like that.
The rest of the time was cool, especially when I pwned at a game of chicken. Goooood times. :)

Lübeck: City of Endless Rain

Last weekend was another one of those fantastic, international student trips that the school sponsors. And if fantastic means dreary, wet, and waterlogged, then I have the trip for you!
siiiiiigh.

CLICK ME!
I GET BIGGER!

I guess it wasn't -that- bad, but Cranky Lex comes out when she gets cold and wet. And it was both....all weekend....
Just a little history on the city of Lübeck and why it's cool (and some pretty pictures of the city for you to look at while I'm explaining all of this):

Lübeck is the second largest city in northern Germany, second only to Hamburg. Lübeck also has the second largest harbor in Germany....again second only to Hamburg. Lübeck is situated on the other side of the Denmark peninsula from me/Hamburg. Once upon a time, a long long time ago (13th-17th centuries), Lübeck was the capital of the Hanseatic League. For those of you who don't know what this is (don't feel bad, I didn't know who they were until I came to Germany) the Hanseatic League was a very powerful organization of merchants...essentially. They were so powerful that their cities lived under their own laws and had their own army and because of this power they pretty much owned northern Europe. There are still a lot of things in Germany and northern Europe in general that reflect this influence. Zum beispiel (for example) take the name Lufthansa. Luft = air and hansa is a reference to the Hanseatic League.

Awesome defensive building
 we got to tour

Because Lübeck was their main port, this means the city was also well fortified. Lübeck is(/was, most of it was destroyed in WWII) pretty much a walled off island with tons of churches and awesome defensive buildings.

Sadly, most of the time we were here, it was raining. Not always a pouring rain at all, but steady enough to be considered Chinese water torture.
One really cool thing that we stumbled upon (no seriously, I pointed at tents and said, "Let's go to the thing".) was a viking/renaissance festival in the Markt of Lübeck.
A few of our group bought celtic, leather wristbands as a group because we're just awesome like that.

Also, between all the Americans who went to Lübeck, we bought 6 liters (jugs) of wine/mead and one nice glass thing. Well, we bought more glasses of the smaller variety that aren't in the picture, but they aren't really all that big (so they don't count). I still have one jug of mead sitting on my shelf, waiting for my parents to get here. Then, and only then, will I crack it open. :)

After trekking around the city in the rain to see all the beautiful buildings, we went to the marzipan museum. I, sadly, am not a huge fan of marzipan and just wandered around the building looking at all the things you could mould out of this sweet treat.

One other thing we did that weekend was go to the sea. Sadly...again... it was rainy and cold, so we didn't do much besides throw rocks into the gray mass that was the ocean.
All in all, it wasn't my favorite trip ever. There were some cool things though, so it wasn't a total bust. 

Hamburger Hafengeburtstag!

So many people...
So many BOATS!

This is now the third time I've been to Hamburg. I'm not sure the first time counts considering it was when I flew in. All I did was walk to the train from the airport and then go to Oldenburg.

The last time I came here we all went to the Hamburg dungeon and didn't get to see much of the city.
Now, there are still many things I want to see here, but we got a few more covered when we were here for the harbor's birthday. We took a long walk up and down part of the harbor. It was so crowded that we gave that up as soon as we had the chance.

But! Before I get into what we did when we left the harbor, I want to tell you something that makes me SO excited! I can hardly contain myself!

In our travel group we had two young Indian ladies who didn't speak German...or if they did, they didn't speak much. The tour guide tried to explain everything in English to them too, but she didn't know very much. Towards the end of our time as a whole group I had been picked to translate for them. With a little help from my American friends (wait, that's not how the song goes!) I was able to translate everything just fine.

Ty and I in front of a cool, German boat

I was SO proud of myself! I was able to understand German well enough to translate for these young ladies.

When my parents first told me they were going to visit me in Germany, the coolest thing to me was to translate for them when they got here. I don't know if it was just because I wanted to show off, or just to prove that I could do it. Either way, it was the one things that got me most excited about the prospect of them visiting.
Once I got to Germany I lost all of that excitement because I could hardly understand anyone.
But in Hamburg, translating for those girls and then trying my darndest to speak only German with Dominika,

Dominika, Anne and I with flowers I picked for us. :)

the polish girl, my confidance is back up again!

So after that happy thought...
We went to a nice park just outside of the harbor where I ended up picking flowers for the three of us girls in the group. It was beautiful there, with everything in bloom.
We found a cool statue of Bismark and from the top of his platform we could see the church. THE church. The one that is a symbol of Hamburg.

St. Michaelis Kirche rose stately out of the tree tops to the east. After fooling around and taking cool pictures on the top of Bismark's platform, we decided to head over to the church.

I know you want to see some of those photos I'm talking about. ;)

Jump, Ty! :D

Perfect representation of our relationship! 

When you first walk up to the church, the first thing you notice is a spiral staircase in the very top of the tower. I jokingly said that I was going to get up there, that I was going to climb it. Everyone just smiled and laughed, pictuing me climbing the building spiderman-syle to get to the top.
As you walk up to the church you get this view:


And you regret ever life choice you've ever made. Ever. But that's okay, when you're on your way up to the tower you can look our the window right behind him and see up his skirt. Makes it a little less scary....

And for a mere €4 you too can climb to the top of the tower, a grand 400 somethin' feet above Hamburg. I

think it was worth the money to climb up there. You got to see the inner workings and all the bells on your way up as well as the little restaurant they have right below the very top (I smell a date idea). Once up there, I couldn't help but face the wind and embrace the world.

It was so beautiful to stand there (in the frigid, raging wind) and watch the storm roll in over the harbor. I wish we could have stayed up there longer to see the sunset or even the fireworks later that night. Hm. Maybe some other time.
One thing about this spot though, we can get some really neat pictures from up there!

IT WAS REALLY WINDY!

Ty is the Wind God

Sadly, we were all too worn out to stay for the fireworks because that would have had us back in Oldenburg at about 2am. So we watched the sunset from the train home....well, those of us who were awake did at least.
It was a very fun day that, as always, ended with a vow to go back.
Maybe next time we'll get a reservation for the rooftop terrace at sunset? Sounds like a good plan to me!