Hamburg, Germany.

When I first arrived in Ireland I got a message on facebook from Swanni, an old friend who was a foreign exchange student at our high school. We hadn't spoken in years, but she saw that I was coming to Europe to study abroad and invited me to come visit her in Hamburg! After numerous logistical problems, including volcanic ash, Meagan D. and I were finally able to go see her. We flew to London and had a connecting flight to the Hamburg airport.

The Plane.

For those of you who don't know, this is how we board the RyanAir planes.

There was a particularly scary looking group of young men in front of us when we were in line to board the plane. Meagan and I exchanged a few quiet wisecracks, and then said agreed that there is no way we would be sitting by or near them on the plane.

After avoiding them on the flight we landed safely at the airport, and walked to the bus that would take us to the city center to meet Swanni. I was told the bus ride would be just over an hour. Meagan got on the bus while I loaded my luggage into the storage compartment, then followed her. As we were walking toward the back of the bus I started to get concerned that there were no seats left, when we saw that there were exactly two seats left. They were at the very back of the bus in a row of 4 seats, and were surrounded by the scary gang from the plane. The most charming one, Za, who had a crooked mowhawk and a big cross tattoo centered around a large mole on his head, scooted over to make room for us in between him and his friends. Of course.

We reluctantly took our seats, and learned that despite their scary exteriors, they weren't as bad as we thought they would be. Granted, they drank an entire bottle of vodka during the bus ride, but they courteously offered us some every time the bottle went by. They were three lithuanians and one brit who were on an anti-fascist, anti-racist soccer team. They were competing in a tournament that weekend in Hamburg. As a whole, they were fairly inebriated to begin with, and only became more drunk as the ride went on.

Za was quite talkative and interesting, but by far the scariest looking. Jack was friendly, but became way too friendly by the end of the ride and insisted on hugging us as we exited the bus. Paulo was the friendliest and most composed, but was constantly ridiculed by the others for being British. They all did their impressions of British accents as they explained to us that we were easier to understand. They said in England they sound like they're talking with an "apple in their mouth" or "water in their mouths." Their impressions of this sounded a lot like angry dinosaurs. Paulo had a good sense of humor about all of it though.

The last boy, Reagis, never said a word to us because by the time we got on the bus he had already passed out cold against the window. He had a pony tail of dread locks, (some pink, some his natural dirty blonde color), with a hello kitty barrette tangled into the mix. Za kept saying Reagis was his girlfriend as he would smash his unconscious, ragdoll face into the window. He also frequently belted out the chorus from Guns N' Roses "Paradise City."

By the end of the ride Za asked Meagan and I for our phone numbers. He called both of us Marilyn because I think he was under the impression it was one of our names and if he just said it to both he would get it right eventually. He asked, and I said "Nope." and he said "please?" and I laughed and said "Nope." As he tried to convince us again, Jack piped in telling him that we said no and to stop asking. I appreciated Jack a little more after that. Mostly out of fear, we asked Za for his last name and said we would find them on facebook when we got home. Za gave me his dirty, stained team t-shirt as a parting gift when we left. It was thoughtful, but was a terribly unclean, disgusting looking shirt. They were entertaining for an hour, but we were glad to get off that bus and don't plan on ever contacting any of the boys.

Swanni's street.

After we arrived, Swanni took us to different places with great views of the city.

We also walked under the harbor from one side to the other with this tunnel.

Me in the tunnel.

Me and Meagan.

Here is one of the streets of Hamburg in the evening.

The first night we were in Hamburg there was a huge festival, and Swanni and a group of her girlfriends took us to the lake to watch the fireworks. It was very cool because we were walking through town like a parade with hundreds of people, all going to the same spot at the park. At the end when we were all clapping and cheering together I really felt like a part of the city.

Here is the central train station.

Me and Swanni riding the train together.
The man behind us knew he would be in the picture. haha

The black steeple is a part of the church that we climbed to the very top of to get the best view of the city. We decided it would be faster to take the stairs than to wait for the elevator, and climbed 467 steps to get to the very top. We were quite exhausted when we got there.

Swanni said she sometimes comes to this beautiful church for the Christmas services.

The organ.

View of Hamburg.

Second view of Hamburg.

Me at the very top. It was a little windy, as you can see.

Swanni had to feed the pet bunnies at her neighbors apartment while they were on holidays, so Meagan and I went with her. They were very shy bunnies though. Here they are hiding under my chair next to my shoe:

The little white one was less skittish.

More of the city.

Swanni and I walking.

The city hall.

Another view of city hall.

For bachelor parties in Europe the groom-to-be is basically dressed up like a fool and forced to embarrass himself in public. This poor jail-bird with the microphone was about to serenade everyone in the plaza in front of the city hall.

The 'beer bicycle' seen above is a bar where every stool had pedals. We saw it a few times while we were walking around in the afternoon, but usually we could hear it coming before we saw it.

We spent our last afternoon in the city at Swanni's parents house and had lunch with her family. The lunch her mother and older sister made for us was wonderful, and they all spoke English quite well so the conversations were great as well.

Here is their house:

Me and Swanni at a pub.

I really liked the wall at the pub.

At the tiny airport before our flight we had a few hours to kill, and Meagan and I quickly discovered the children's play area. We kept ourselves pretty entertained:

Me in a rocket.

It was a tight squeeze.

Meagan's helicopter.

It was great to see Swanni again after all of these years! She gave us the best time in Hamburg! She might be coming to the states in September for a wedding, so hopefully it won't be too long before we see each other again.