Last day in Marburg

Well, my count down calendar finally reads "1 day" before I leave Germany for the good old USA.  That means it is time to go home and I could not be happier.  I've had a great time in Germany but I am ready to be back on my home soil.  In a fun turn of events it has turned bitter cold and started snowing, so naturally Johanna and I left work early to snap some pretty pictures of the town.

After taking pictures outside and understanding how cold it really was, we decided we needed more layers before we ventured out for the night.  I had already shipped my long underwear home, so I borrowed a pair of Jo's nylons.  The were control top and I have never felt so in control.

• A little cross-dressing never hurt anyone.

Next, we met some of the remaining English speakers for some outdoor ice skating (there was a roof, but it was open to the outdoors).

Finally we went to bed and after an uneventful flight (with a couple hours of delay) we made it back to the good old USA.

• Internship done!  Woo Hoo!

Now it's time to put the finishing touches on that thesis.

Frankfurt for Fußball (soccer) and the Christmas Market

Only two weekends left in Germany and Jo and I just had to get to a fußball match before we left.  Our fellow German LGO recommended the Eintracht Frankfurt vs. FSV Mainz match as one worth seeing.  Before the game got started, we decided to check out the Christmas markets in Frankfurt.  I was quite surprised by how many people were out shopping at these booths.  Like every other event in Germany, there was an alcoholic beverage of choice (this time it is a warm wine called glühwein).

After the markets, we headed to the arena.

It was no different from a large American sporting event as far as the atmosphere outside, but there were some surprising differences inside the stadium.  First of all, I am pretty sure that everyone in the arena has a team scarf.  Now it was cold enough for a scarf (Jo and I each bought one) but I would bet they have them even when it is not cold.  One of the cheers that everyone in the crowd did at the beginning of the game required you to hold up your scarf with the team name facing the field.  Another fun difference was all of the flags.  you can tell from the upcoming picture how many people had flags (and not just little 3 foot flags...enormous flags on poles).

Something that surprised me was that the announcer for the game led the home team in cheers throughout the entire game, regardless of whether the game was in play or not.  In America, stadium announcers and bands typically do not make noise during game play.  Finally, the biggest surprise was that the home and opposing fans lit pyrotechnics in the stands during the game...and security did nothing about it, which implies that this is normal.

• Notice the amount of security around the opposing fan section.

Leaving the arena also reiterated how much security was needed to control soccer fans.  While living here, I may see a cop every couple of days which is not very often compared to Boston or anywhere else in the US that I have lived.  Outside of the stadium must have been more than 100 cops to control the crowd between the 2-3 block walk from the train to the arena...not to mention all of the security inside and posted at other locations.  Silly soccer hooligans.

• Jo and I figured buying a home team scarf gave us a 50/50 chance of not getting beat up by hooligans.

Amsterdam Part Deux: A Rain Story

Since the last time I went to Amsterdam it was a unplanned event, I decided to go back with Jo and some other classmates.  We elected to stay on a houseboat (don't lie, you are jealous).  Yes, I was singing "I'm on a Boat" in my head all weekend.

1. Bottom left: The House Boat!
2. Bottom right: The view from the boat...ok, so it is nothing special.
3. Top middle: The room.  I slept in the single bunk and it was so close to the ceiling that my shoulder touched if I laid on my side. Tight.
4. Top right: The friendly cat from next door.  This is Friendly Cat 2 (the picture is from Saturday when it's light outside, don't worry...Friendly Cat 1 is coming).

Friday night was just a party night because we arrived too late to do anything (aside from activities that don't start until night time).

• Top: At dinner we met Friendly Cat 1.  He curled up on someone's jacket (right next to them) after they sat down for dinner.  They must have been cat people because not everyone would tolerate that.
• Bottom left: Not the first time I have urinated in public in Amsterdam.
• Bottom middle: Killer swans in the canals!

Saturday was eventful.  After waking at the crack of noon, we made our way over to the Van Gogh museum and the Rijksmuseum, which had a number of Rembrandt's and other famous paintings.  I bought postcards of all of the paintings that I like; I will comment that I bought nothing from the Rembrandt museum.  I'm not saying his work, and other works from that era, were not amazing.  The paintings were so incredibly lifelike I can't believe it was a painting...but I was not blown away like I was by some of the Van Gogh paintings.  There were some of those where I just had to buy a copy.

• Top middle: An amazing mullet outside of the Van Gogh museum.   For those living under a rock, a mullet is a haircut with business in the front and party in the back. His party is dreadlocks.
• Bottom: MITamsterdam! how great is that?

After the museums Jo and I headed over to the Heineken experience.  We've done the Guinness experience in Dublin and I'll just say that both are fun, but it is a different experience (aside from the beers you get with your entry ticket).  I gave my tickets to Jo, which produced one of the quotes of the weekend.

Jo: Do you want me to see if you can get a coke with you tickets?

Drew: I'd rather watch you pound 4 beers in 20 minutes.

We had agreed to meet the group at a certain time and had 20 minutes to leave...and you can't just throw away beer...someone had to drink it, and Jo was up to the challenge.

After that we did some more partying.  This time we found a karaoke bar.  Anyone who has heard me sing before can imagine how bad it was for everyone that night.  Luckily we were the only four people in there for quite a while...until 20 German high-school boys showed up and joined together in "When You Say Nothing at All"  which is a love song you may or may not know (look it up on youtube).  Quite funny coming from adolescent guys.

• Top right: Donner kabob and Friendly Cat 3.  What more could you want?

Sunday we went to the Anne Frank house because Jo had not been yet and then we drove home.

The don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Europe?

I'm still not sure why, but they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Germany.  Jo, another American from work, and I decided to have a Thanksgiving-esque dinner anyway.  We went with chicken, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, bread, macaroni and cheese, and ice cream.  We kind of threw it together the day of, so we're pretty proud of our effort (I say our like I did anything...I guess I cooked the macaroni and cheese, but really how hard is that?)

• Top, middle, and bottom left: Jo's officemates did not like the sound of greenbean casserole...neither do I...but she took pictures for them.
• Top middle: My boot and Jo's wine glass, after round 1.
• Bottom middle: The Lions (inevitably loosing).
• Bottom middle: The finished product.

Although I do my best to channel my inner Stephanie (my older sister who is a picture nut...averages over 100 pictures a day while traveling) I did not think to get a photo of everyone eating.  I regret this.

Hamburger

Jo and I drove to Hamburg this past weekend and it was so uneventful I almost did not blog about it, but then I figured why not and wrote a quick one.  We wanted to go to a city in Northern Germany and we had heard good things about Hamburg from some other Americans working with us.  The 4 hour drive ended up taking about 7.5 hours because ze Germans once again decided to close a highway.  No signs indicating the closure or why.  Of course. :-)

• Top left: Here you see people walking around, which tells you how long we went without moving.


• To right: My best attempt to capture the lady peeing on the side of the road.


• Bottom left: The closed highway we wanted to take.


• Bottom middle: Our detour took us through pretty farmland.


• Bottom right: With large piles of potatoes and other items I did not recognize (there were hundreds of these piles).

By the time we got there it was quite late so we just went out for dinner and to walk through their redlight district (of course once you've seen Amsterdam everything else is unimpressive).

• Apparently the Beatles spent some of their early years in Hamburg, so they have these fun picture options.

The next day we went to the fish market, which was quite exciting.  Some fruit vendor threw a banana at me while he tried to keep the crowd excited.  The vendors yell at everyone and throw (what seem to be random) things into bags as they slowly lower the price.  When someone finally raises their hand signaling that they want to buy the bag of goodies, the vendor hands the bag to a helper (and the helper deals with the collecting of monies and distributing of goods) so the vendor can start a new bag.  I honestly have never seen anything like it before.



After that we tried to go to the Rathaus (the main government building for the state of Hamburg) which, according to the guidebooks and the permanent sign on the door, claims to be open on Sundays.  A paper sign on the door informed us that there would be no tours on this day.

• No room at this inn.

Seriously disappointed, we wandered the city and then headed home.

• While wandering we saw the outline of the old city wall and part of it was named Johanniswall...when we got there we found no wall...so Jo is leaning up against her fictitious wall.

Once again, the drive home provided the most fruitful pictures.  We had seen these happy face signs on the way to Budapest but did not get good pictures then.   Here they are in all of their glory.  They indicate to the driver what mood they should be in given the amount of road construction remaining.