Hamburger Dom

Howdy howdy. First of all, apologies on the lack of posts lately. I started working in a lab at the beginning of December, and then the holidays hit, so there's hasn't been a lot of time for updating the site. I will try to cover what's been going on for the past several months over the next few posts. But first! Some eye candy, or Augenweide! Literally!

One of the things that Hamburg is known for is the "Hamburger Dom", which is a giant festival that happens three times a year. The winter Dom happened this year from November 5th until December 5th...basically straight up until Christmas craziness. Comes complete with smurfs!



Seriously, though, I've seen more after moving here than since I was a little kid. Anyway, the Dom is basically a giant fair. Rides, fun houses, carnival games, LOTS of sugar and LOTS of gluhwein. Here are some shots from the top of the ferris wheel of the Dom around us.










And back on the ground...





We wandered around the Dom three times, mostly just soaking up the sights. But we couldn't leave without partaking in the German tradition of gluhwein (Hot spiced wine...they give it to you in a mug, which you pay a deposit for. You can either return the mug at the end and get your deposit back, or keep it as a souvenir)

There are only four letters in the phrase "Cat Attack"

Coda has always enjoyed sitting on window sills and watching what's going on outside. At my old place, she ripped down the curtains that I had put up, but she seems to have found a better game with the ones that we've installed in our apartment here. Namely, spying on and attacking anything that moves too close to the curtain opening.








I mostly just like scrolling back and forth between these two pictures...

Apartment Pictures and what not

Finally getting a chance to post about our new apartment! We were rather lucky in the place that we found. It's a three room place, plus bathroom and kitchen, 84m2, and in a very nice part of town. And there's no Kaution, which in German terms is an extra payment of 2-3 times the price of rent that goes to the rental agency for...well...basically for having the apartment. You don't get it back, and it doesn't do anything. Anyway, big plus to not have to pay it, because that's a lot of money.







We had to get some things from Ikea for the place, like ceiling lights, and bathroom curtain rod, towel racks and whatnot, and we had to repaint most of the rooms, but I think in the end it was worth it. And as I said in my last post, our stuff finally made it here from the US! We've been unpacking and setting up and cleaning and installing and drilling...we're not quite finished yet, but it's pretty close.






A few moving in stories. We were a bit worried beforehand because the stairwell up to our apartment is fairly narrow, so we weren't exactly sure how the movers were going to get our two couches up into the apartment. After a few hours of bustling up and down the stairs, there was a long lull where I didn't hear anything from the movers, so I went into the hallway to see what was going on. One of the movers and Hasan were airborne with the couch halfway in the window - and yes, I do mean airborne, as both pairs of feet were off the ground. A few seconds later, the other mover came sprinting up the stairs, and they managed to pull the couch all the way in. Amazing.








Our other favorite bit was the box that was labeled "pots and pans and martini glasses". Now, to our knowledge, neither Hasan nor I had packed any martini glasses to be shipped here, and by the size of the box, it was going to be a lot of martini glasses. Turned out, it was our wine glass set, but we enjoyed the renaming, and the 007 style it gave us.






It seems like a really big deal to finally have all of our things. Even though we've been in Germany for more than two months now, it's refreshing to have familiar stuff surrounding us. Now, if only we can get the internet to work at our apartment...







Anyway, enjoy the pictures of the place, and ignore the small messes...they'll be cleaned up soon. We're glad to be moved in!

Just moved!

More updates soon. We moved into our new apartment, and our things have arrived from the US (only a few casualties). Unpacking is ensuing, and hopefully we'll have internet at home on Friday! I'll update soon with pictures of the new place and a few moving stories.

Wahoo!

France!

Between hiking up mountains, and listening to my "coffee break French" free podcast to learn how to say (but not not spell) simple phrases, I've been having a pretty okay time in Grenoble. We're here for a week because Hasan has a conference here and I've never been to France, so what the heck!? So far, I've found that the stories about French people are not all true; people I don't know great me on the street with a smile and a Bonjour (in the morning), and as long as I ask in French, most people who know English are willing to speak in English. Though I have to say, when I try to speak the little French I know, I feel sort of like this video.

Grenoble is in the middle of the Alps. It's quite beautiful to be walking down the streets, turn a corner and see mountains at the end of the block. They say you cannot get lost here because eventually you will either hit a mountain or a river. So far, this has been true for me!








On Sunday, we took the teleferique (apologies in advance for my spelling) up to the Bastille, hiked around, and had the tiniest bottle of wine possible with our lunch as we looked over the city.














And the food. I have had some delicious foods...including these snails in garlic, pesto and butter sauce. Mmm! AND they serve water for free here. Come on, Germany, let's get on that boat!

Dahlias

Hopefully, we'll be moving shortly, but at the moment we are living quite close to a giant public garden...a dahlia garden to be specific. It's free entry, lots of benches, and the names of each type of dahlia are posted in front of them. Enjoy!

Tango + sushi = Tashi? Station?

Quick update: Hamburg has both delicious sushi, and a fairly busy tango community (at least on Tuesday nights).

Water Water

Just posting some glamor shots of the city. One of our favorite things about Hamburg is how green everything is. This is because it RAINS ALMOST EVERY DAY, and then gets sunny and then RAINS SOME MORE. Not actually that bad. You just always have to have an umbrella. But the payoff is a lot of this:



Hamburg is particularly known for it's waterways and canals. It has two lakes (Binnenalster and Aussenalster...the inner and outer Alsters), as well as a large river (Die Elbe). Because of all the canals connecting these three major bodies of water, Hamburg has more than 2300 bridges (more than Amsterdam or Venice). It's maybe hard to see, but below is a picture of several bridges over the canals in downtown Hamburg.



And here is of one of the (apparently) famous Alster swans. They started coming to the Alster during the summers in the 16th century. In the early 1800's, Hamburg decided they would do what they could to protect them. They appointed a "swan keeper", or Schwanenvater, who looks after them, and transports them to a comfortable place for the winters (weird, eh?). At this point, there are around 120 swans living this life. And they are beautiful. Also a good chance to USE MY ZOOM FUNCTION ON THE CAMERA! ZOOM FUNCTION: ENGAGE!



And of course, water sports. Hasan and I took the sailing class at Northwestern two summers ago, so hopefully we'll be able to put some of that knowledge to good use. There is no shortage of sailing schools and rental places here.




Beautiful city, is it not? I must say, we're enjoying it.