Best Western Raphael Hotel Altona Hamburg

... place where the homeless can meet their drug addictions in a safe way in order to prevent transmittable diseases, and hopefully turn those addictions into nothing.

Do you know where places similar to these are in your community? Where do those who cannot make ends meet get food for the week? For the day? Where are the street corners where they ask for money? Where do their children play? Or better yet, where are they? Most communities have people that struggle to make ...

... München in Hamburg. We got schnitzel, potato dumplings and a kraut salad and of course a beer. Then we walked back to the market and got Eierpunsch which was so thick and filling, and also Apfelpunsch, roasted almonds with some sugar, and also chocolate covered cakes. It was so easy to fall asleep every night since we had had so much exercise.

... but that is how Germany is. We ate our first German meal at the harbor, cheap bratwursts with good bread. We walked to St. Michael's church and took the stairs to the bell tower at the top. It was still just as hard for me the second time, I never knew how bad my fear of heights was until then. Then we made our way to the older section of town and found 2 more churches. One had been bombed and was never ...

... with friends that were arriving.

One of cast members asked the PR member for that city why we had to wait so long (after about 15 minutes had passed). She returned to our group saying that Paul looked pale and upset and told her that something serious had happened to a student and that the roadstaff members (the staff members that consistently travel with us) were meeting about it.

(I will tell you now that nothing ...

Hello dedicated blog readers :)

I just wanted to let you know that I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth. We arrived in Hamburg, Germany today and I just went out with my 22 year-old host sister/host mom. Yes, that's right. My host "family" is an awesome 22 year-old girl (not really a "girl" but typing the word "woman" seemed awkward ...

... train left at 2307 so we had a little time to chat in the station while we waited. This trip consisted of Eric, Mark, Bryan, Dustin, Alonzo, Boyan, Carolyn and I (Dan wasn't feeling well so he decided to stay home). We found one other person at the station to go in on the ticket with us (they are 5 person tickets) so we were able to make up a little of the cost. The ride went pretty well except for the dude that we got to ride with us kept randomly ...

... 20- 7 C (44 F) -1 C (31 F) rain Friday March 21- 7 C (45 F) 1 C (33 F) rain Saturday March 22- 4 C (39 F) -1 C (31 F ...

We began the day with a bus tour around Hamburg. Our tour guide was a very pretentious woman who, in her best affected British accent, tried to impress upon us the various places in Hamburg (such as Harvestehude and Blankenesee) where one lives, "if one has the money." Apparently Hamburg is home to more millionaires than any other city in Germany. Afterward, we had a fascinating tour of the DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron ...

... were on (Romo, with the little diagonal lines through the O's). The water was freezing when I touched it, but the sunset was beautiful and made up for the brisk breeze. The beach was a large expanse of nothingness and very, very flat. I can see why the flood fields we saw on the way there were necessary. We played around on the beach and the sand dunes far back from the water and then watched the sunset. The drive back was quite dark, but I did get a slightly blurry picture ...

... being out we saw the smallest car I had ever seen. I could have sworn it was just a fancy golf cart. Later we learned it was just a Smart Car, but before they made it to America years later I was amazed by it. It was a rainy day so we didn't spend too much time out side but instead learned a lot about German television, which can be summed up as confusing. Next day we woke up and headed to the station to catch the train to Copenhagen.