Central Gasthof Bad Segeberg

... meet on a daily basis. An hourly basis. Do you know any of these people?

This experience made me experience so many revelations. Here I am, in Hamburg, Germany, stressing over the fact that I might have to pay extra money to get my suitcase full of souvenirs home to Minnesota.

Well at least I was able to buy souvenirs and have parents who want me to come home and will pay to get that suitcase home with me.

Some many things seem trivial to me now. And the ...

... knitted goods, amazing food, cheese, jellies and jams, cookies, chocolate, pottery, etc. It was a great place to buy Christmas gifts. We got Glühwein for the first time and ate gingerbread cookies. We took another short nap at the Hostel and watched CNN on the tv and watched the NYSE open in the US. We found an awesome restaurant to got to dinner, the ...

... which gave the church a very amazing effect. Then we found the cool Rathous and market area where they were setting up the Christmas market (Weihnachtsmarkt) for the next day. We walked around so much in the 2 days we stayed in Hamburg, and even the entire week. We went back to the hostel in the afternoon to shower and nap. Then we went back to the city to get some dinner. We ate at a restaurant next to a ...

... everything that I have been doing these past few days. However, I am up to the task!

First of all, I loved rooming with Annie! We had a great time together and got along really well! Joe and Diana were a perfect host family and we already miss them!

And now I'm in Hamburg! Living with Kathrin Arnold, my 22-year old host sister :)

Next, the subway. Who knew that subway rides could be so entertaining? Especially in ...

... Kathrin. We had a great time and met up with Therese (Sweden) and her host sister. We went to a huge amusement park called "Dom", which is only open 3 times per year, and rode on this huge ride that spun and twirled and twisted Therese and I around for about 8 minutes.

How do I know it was 8 minutes?

I filmed the whole thing ...

Continuing on, we headed on up to Germany through Austria and the mountains...covered in a light touch of snow. It looked like icing sugar!! It was really pretty. We had lunch in Innsbruck, and cutting a long drive short, we ended up in Lubeck to see Dieter and Christel. We spent a good day and half there or something, had a look around Travemunde again, and had some very yummy dinners!!

But all in all was a quick stop, just a hi and bye as we had to get down ...

... but still, very very cold!!! But it was a good day out to see this area of Germany, but its just so hard for me because it is so cold. I don't know how people can live like this, it is completely ridiculous. And I just remembered why I didn't enjoy being in France all those years ago...just because of the weather! I would have liked to wander around the towns, cities and se much more of the country...but in SUMMER!!! I really either need to follow summer ...

... looking for a magical one night connection with a blond, melon breasted woman. How GREAT.

Our tour leader Dane (who is an intern/works for DIS) asked our coach bus driver if he could drive us down there after dinner. We all got on the bus and together as a group, went down to the RLD. Only in Europe would our teacher and leader take us to such a place. We arrived there, and everyone was having a field day pointing ...

Actually the title for this blog should be 'it's getting better all the time', but the pun came as we sat in the shadow of the Marienkirche in Lubeck, eating a delicious German sausage and supping a pilsner. We took the Hull-Rotterdam ferry and then a 240-mile mainly flat dash to a little town called Bielefeld, about half way between Dortmund and Hanover, for an overnight stop. The town's main ...

Making it to Germany was very exciting for me. I had taken three years of German and had never got to use it outside of the classroom. Once there I impressed myself, I got us a cheap hotel room near the train station (this was just an overnight stop on our way to Denmark) and went and found some excellent German food. This is where the trip started to feel better. The way things were going so smoothly now made things feel right.

Hamburg, Germany koolkev88