Best Western Premier Parkhotel Kronsberg Hannover

... the Hauptbahnhof. We took the train to Wolfsburg to catch the ICE to Berlin. The trains can travel 125 mph on conventional tracks and 174 mph on high-speed tracks, it was like riding in an airplane it was so fast!! The ride to Berlin only took 1 hour! Then we had to find our Hostel which took a while since it was a 10 minute walk from the Ostbahnhof train station in Berlin.

We headed to the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof to get tickets back to Braunshweig. We stopped in Hannover for 1 hour and we quickly walked through some of the shopping section. We were tired when we finally arrived so we hung out in my room for a while just relaxing. We hung out with all of the URI students in Weststadt and it was a lot of fun.

... be in such a huge crowd. It was going to take us forever to get back to Weststadt but Mason was a genius and suggested we go to the S-Bahn stop before the really crowded one to make sure we got a seat. I have never seen the S-bahn that crowded, even the Germans had to tell each other that there was no room for more people to come in. It felt so nice to sit down since everyone’s legs hurt from standing so long and after a long day of walking in Bremen and the 5 hr train ride.

... costume stores in Germany since Halloween isn't really a big event here.

Wendy and I also explored for the Staples on the Ring but it was a disappointment, we were hoping it would look exactly like it does at home. Oh well.

When I got back I went to the Michaelishof area for Denise's handball game with Soth and Shawn. Denise is Soth's German International Partnering Projekt (IPP ...

... some fun. We wrote our names down on index cards and then we were put on random teams for 15 mintue games. All the players on each winning team got a shinny ribbon and whoever collected the most ribbons won a prize. We didn't realize that the tournament lasted from 8:30pm -6am!!! So we left around 11. It was a lot of fun, but some of the Germans were very intense and I had no idea what they were telling me to do sometimes!

So I can't really remember much about Hannover besides that there was nothing to see, nothing to do, the weather was bad and the campsite was overpriced! Dont get me wrong, I'm sure its a lovely place with nice weather and during the summer when the gardens are open which is where Hanovers charm is supposed to be. Wasn't our cup of tea so we moved on rather quickly. Byebye Hanover....maybe next time!

... it was ridiculous!!

We weren't really sure what we were going to do so we wandered into the middle of the innercity and found some Döner (food was extremely important). We saw some interesting things on the way such as a one man Wurst station, a juggler who decided he would wait to put on his show until 20 minutes later. While we were walking a random band was marching down the street so we stopped to watch it. We finally found a cool market place ...

... a whiz of scenery, none of it particularly attractive..and then we hopped of the train at the station..walked to the Europcar hire place which was under the station and there the fun began. The french speaking hire car man was quite nice, but his English not so hot. We picked up the key to the Fiat Punto that had been set aside for us (not the VW Polo..ah well) and he gave us a contract to sign, not much information, the key and some vague instructions about getting out ...

... trip. that for itself needed many hours! i tried to clean up my room and to bring out most of my stuff to prepare for my rental. i had a supernice talk to another guy. he is from paris and gay and i like him very very much. we write to each other since a few time... he gave me the feeling to be nice and that seems to be very good for me!!!

... very seriously. This, at least, was a bit like being back in China, but not much else was and I was glad of a refreshing new perspective on life, and trying not to talk only about myself in the context of the past year - that's harder than I realised! For the first time in a long time, I flaked out and fell asleep where I sat. It was a shame that I couldn't savour a glass of wine with my old friend, Claus, but in a way that was also a good sign. My mind ...