Easter Weekend Cont.

So the traveling gypsies were pretty good and you play better on one foot...ok back to Hamburg. continuing the walk through the Magnificent Mile...actually it was a lot longer than a mile but you get my drift, toward the end of the street there was a man made lake with a fountain and boats and a bunch of people sitting around on the steps. We got an icecream and sat there and people watched for a bit. Stephan told me that at the other end of the lake there was something he wanted to show me so we went out on the dock and waited for the ferry to come. There are a few different companies running tours off this dock and we waited and searched and couldnt find the boat that took us down to the other end of the lake and dropped us off; we only saw the tour boats. We asked a guy where they were and he was like, "oh yeah, I know exactly where that comes in at, its either right here (pointing to where we were standing) or over there (pointing to another dock 100 yards away) but im not sure which one." so much for knowing exactly where it was at. so we waited a little bit longer before giving up and just walking around the shopping district some more. we walked down the street and into a sporting good store, that just so happened to have a restaurant on the top (4th) floor. once we got to the top we got beers and took them out on the patio to relax and draw out our route for the 2nd half of our trip. we decided to go to portuguese place for a late lunch before hopping the train back to tostedt. stephan and martina had to go to the bathroom before we continued so i made my way down to the 3rd floor to the golf section to check out their selection of clubs. prices are pretty much the same on everything and i looked at the new R9 driver by taylormade and i dont see anything better about it. i wanted to take a few swings with it but there was some guy hacking it up with a 6 iron in the video range. on the way out i saw something im going to go back and get though, i think it will make a great present. St Georg is a part of town that is very diverse and cultural. we started our tour with a walk down the "strip" where there were sex shops and strip joints lining the street. haha there is this one club called the Slut Club that i thought was rather funny and i got my picture taken in front of it. Im not sure if Slut means something else in turkish, but i thought it was pretty funny. many of the signs were written in Turkish and even Stephan and Martina didnt know what they said. but then just after the strip, we got into a really nice part of St Georg that Stephan told me is getting more and more expensive because the people are trying like mad to change the stigma of the neighborhood. St Georg also is the gay part of town and was littered with rainbows in windows and on cars everywhere. so after that experience, we went to where gays are not welcome...church. haha just kidding, but the St. Michaelis Church, more commonly called the Michel, is the biggest church in Hamburg and a huge tourist attraction. there were a lot of people there looking at the church even though its main room is under construction and looking at the city atop its 132meter tower. we left the michel and headed toward Portuguese town...like china town in america. the steak i had was phenomenal and a good capper to a great day. the train ride home was packed full of people and i ended up sleeping the entire way.

Once we got back to dohren, it was 8 and the party had already started at the easter fire. i walked the km to the field because i didnt want to risk leaving my bike there or something. here in germany, the bars pay you to bring back your glasses and the bar at the easter fire was no different. each glass you brought back was 50 cents and a beer was a 1.20 euros. so there were a few times i took back 3 glasses, got a beer, and they actually paid me money! I got paid to drink! add pro drinker to the resume now. the party lasted until 5:30 when the sun was coming up and there was a good crowd still there when we finally shut her down.

the crowd was not so big however on sunday when we went back to clean up and tear down the bar and dj booth. the youth group here in dohren takes care of putting the easter fire on and the booze and everything and it was a fairly young crowd there tearing everything apart. but we got it all taken care of pretty easily and started drinking again. once it got to be about 7 oclock, we left, went home and changed and started for Vistedt to join them at their easter fire. their fire is much bigger and with more people. and instead of lasting the entire night, it ends prompty at 1 am. it was at this point that we ventured into a local bar for a couple more drinks.

I took a cab home and woke up monday afternoon at 1 for the family lunch with Hans Georg, Antje, and her parents and brother. needless to say i reeked of bar smoke and booze and didnt say a word the entire meal. it was great lamb though. I went straight back to bed after lunch and only woke up at 4 because Thies called me to go throw. Monday was a pretty worthless day for me all around. Monon Weekends dont compare to Easter Weekend in Dohren.

today i felt a lot better, though trying to sleep last night was next to impossible because my body was so used to passing out because of alcohol for 4 straight days. but i went to henriks and helped tear out carpet and get a couple of rooms ready for the floor guys. we also tore out 2 windows that are going to be replaced at some point. After we were done, i went out in the barn and worked on my bat on Johsts lathe. I've never turned a bat before or anything that big really, i've only made candlestick holders and bowls which dont really compare to turning a 33" bat and trying to make it playable. its going to be an interesting project and im going to be pissed if i break it on the first swing since ive already got like 4 hours into it.

I think that pretty much catches me up to date with whats going on in Dohren City through my first month. One month ago today i was sitting on a plane somewhere over Europe watching Madagascar 2 with no clue as to what i was in store for, who i would meet, or where i would go. Looking back over the first in a long line of posts, I feel i've done a lot already and its just getting started. there will be many more trips to foreign cities for baseball and leisure, there will be stories about people i havent met yet, and undoubtably more inebriated nights with these wonderful people. Happy reading