Hamburger in Hamburg!

This last week was pretty cool and fun.  As a group from school, we went to the Jewish Museum here in Berlin.  The architect designed it in a special way so that the architecture represents history and the sad events that took place.  The building is very jagged and has a zig-zag pattern throughout the museum.  I took a few pictures which will be loaded onto Facebook at some point along with others.  Once again, I'll have to mooch off free internet somewhere to do that so I'm not using up a lot of data on my internet stick.

On Friday, Kelleen, Olivia, and I went to Hamburg to visit the friends I have there.  It was great!  We were invited to stay at my friend Tim's house where his parents live.  I've stayed there before when I was in Germany previously.  Jan, Tim's dad, picked us up in Berlin.  He was on his way home to Hamburg, so that worked out perfectly for us.  The drive was only 2 hours or a little more.  They live in a village 30 minutes outside of Hamburg, so it's pretty convenient to travel into the city.  Our little group for the weekend consisted of Tim, Birte, Max, Kelleen, Olivia, and I.  

Friday night we had a big family dinner.  Anja loves to cook and was cooking away when we got to the house.  Jan demonstrated the little robot they have that cleans the kitchen.  It was entertaining to see it maneuver around the kitchen and then go back to its charging station.  Jan asked if we wanted to play the German version of Sorry, so we did!  It's a fun game to play, and took a while to finish our game.  After dinner we socialized for a bit before heading to bed.  Olivia and Kelleen were amazed with the heated floors that the Schlotawa's have in the house.  The next morning we ate a huge typical breakfast before heading to Hamburg.  

My friend Max, who is how Michael and I met, came along with us.  It was great to see him here in Germany!  We walked around the city and ate lunch at Jim Block, which is a burger place.  We had a hamburger in Hamburg!  It was delicious!  We saw the harbor where Max told us interesting historical facts about the harbor and a ship that was nearby.   After seeing the harbor briefly, we stumbled upon the City Bikes.  Max rented two and Birte rented one.  There was a total of 6 of us and only 3 bikes.  I rode one of the bikes in a few circles and was told I passed the test.  I then said I have no balance and would walk to St. Michael's and someone else could ride the bike.  I took photos of people on the bikes and also a video.  Birte, Olivia, and I walked while the other three rode the bikes to St. Michael's.    We saw a few churches and climbed the 453 stairs to the viewing point at St. Michael's.  Tim, Olivia, and I threw paper planes off the platform, but theirs didn't fly that well.  Mine flew for a pretty good distance and then crashed into a chimney.  Everyone decided unanimously to take the elevator back down and then continue our site seeing of Hamburg.  We continued walking around to see the different things in the city.  It was a pretty productive day and it wasn't even over yet.  So far, we had seen the Rathaus (town hall), St. Petri, St. Michael's, and the harbor.  Later that night we would do Dialog in Dunkeln (Dialog in the Dark).  My host mom had asked me to bring back some special tea that Hamburg is known for, so we got that, which is a whole other story!

Olivia and I had been a little skeptical about Dialog in the Dark.  We weren't sure exactly what it was other than the fact that we would be in complete darkness and have to use our other senses, such as a blind person does.  It was entirely in German, but it wasn't too difficult to understand!  It was our group and then a couple in our group for the "tour".  It was 90 minutes long and there were different situations throughout the exhibit.  We had our blind man's stick and visited a market, crossed the street, visited the harbor and went on a boat tour, a music room, and finally a bar.  These were all inside the building.  Everyone had to lay down in the music room.  You felt the music along with hearing it.  That was probably my favorite room and part of it all!  The bar was difficult because you can't see our money at all.  Before we started the tour, I put 2 euro coins and some smaller change in my pocket so I knew exactly what coins I had with me.  I had to memorize the size and feel of each so that I could pay later at the bar.  Dialog in Dunkeln was really cool and everyone enjoyed it!  Afterwards, we went to the Reeperbahn so that Olivia and Kelleen could see what it is like.  We weren't there late enough at night to really see the nightlife there, so not a lot was going on.  A friend of Kelleen's sister met up with us and joined us at a bar for a drink or two.  Max called Michael over Skype on his phone, so I was able to talk to him for a bit while we hung out at the bar.

Everyone got pretty hungry after that and we got some food at the Hauptbahnhof and then got on the train to head back to the car.  It was a late night and we had plans to go to Luebeck and also see the Baltic Sea the next day before heading back to Berlin.  Luebeck was great and interesting.  We visited a few churches and saw some historical parts of it.  Once again, Max told us historical facts throughout the day.  We visited the Baltic Sea where Olivia and Kelleen put their hands in the water.  It was a little too chilly to go swimming!  Max and Tim were determined to have us try Fischbroetchen (Fish rolls).  We found a place and everyone, except for me, got one.  Well, Kelleen and Olivia shared one and didn't really like it.  I absolutely do not like fish, so I didn't partake in that task of the day.  We had to be home for lunch since Anja was making typical goulash for us.  She also made homemade ice cream!  There was raspberry and blueberry ice cream for dessert.  Delicious!  We had to get our stuff ready for Tim to take us into the city to the bus we would take back to Berlin.  We said our goodbyes and Anja gave Kelleen, Olivia, and I our own bottle of shampoo to take home.  She's a hairdresser and cut all of our hair while we were there.  I gave her a cookbook and she and I both began to tear up a bit.  It had been 3 years since I had last seen her and the rest of the family.  Anja hugged me repeatedly and we walked outside to the car where Anja came up to me again and hugged me.  She said I was welcome back anytime I want and that I could come back before I head home to the states.  Anja and I hugged again and got in the car.  

We weren't really sure where to get our tickets for the bus that we had reserved, so Tim helped us.  We got our tickets, said goodbye to Tim, and got on the bus.  After a 3 hour bus ride, we were back in Berlin!

We got back to Berlin after 9pm and all went our separate ways to where we live in Berlin.  The weekend was great and I'm missing Hamburg and the people there already!