Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tango + sushi = Tashi? Station?
Quick update: Hamburg has both delicious sushi, and a fairly busy tango community (at least on Tuesday nights).
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
The Great Escape
Let it be known that the next several blog updates will be *back* updates. Wahoo!
Before leaving the US, we had to make a lot of arrangements to bring Coda (our cat) along with us. Microchipping, official-ified certificates, vaccinations, etc. My greatest fear was that I was going to have forgotten (or not heard of) something huge that was going to prevent us from bringing Coda into Germany. As we were getting ready to board the flight, and were paying the fee for allowing her to travel in the cabin with us, I made the mistake of asking the ticket counter lady what happens if the paper work isn't in order (wondering if they put her in quarantine, or if they send her back on the next flight). Her response? They put the cat down. Way to settle me down for the impending 12 hour trip, lady.
Coda, for the most part, was extremely quiet and well behaved as we were boarding the plane. I kept waiting for her to start yowling, but nope. She seemed to enjoy her new travel carrier ("Jetpaws"), and after we watched a movie, they turned the lights off for the passengers to sleep. About two hours later, I was woken up by a flight attendant. I was groggy, and thought maybe she was coming around with the drink cart, but I assure you that as soon as she said "excuse me, miss, but are you the one with the cat?" I was wide awake. Why? Was she making noises? Had there been complaints about her being on board? She asked me if it was "possible that she'd gotten loose? Someone in the back of the cabin said they saw a cat walking around." Sure enough, the zipper on the carrier had been worked open from the inside, and the carrier was empty.
Once we had gotten to the row of people who had seen "the cat", they couldn't tell us where she had gone to. Luckily, one of the other flight attendants had caught her and she (Coda, not the flight attendant) seemed pretty happy to be receiving a lot of attention. The flight attendant, on the other hand. gave me an earful about how I shouldn't have "let the cat out of the bag". Okay, maybe not in those exact words, but she did think I had on purpose let Coda out so she could roam around.
The rest of the flight went fine (outside of my embarrassment over the ordeal) as well as the transfer and trip to the hotel. Turns out they didn't even care to look at Coda's documentation. I brought her through customs, and they seemed confused as to why I was showing them a cat (even though I tried to explain in German). Ah well. Here she is! And she seems to be adapting well. Lots of windows and birds where we are staying, currently. And places to sleep.
Before leaving the US, we had to make a lot of arrangements to bring Coda (our cat) along with us. Microchipping, official-ified certificates, vaccinations, etc. My greatest fear was that I was going to have forgotten (or not heard of) something huge that was going to prevent us from bringing Coda into Germany. As we were getting ready to board the flight, and were paying the fee for allowing her to travel in the cabin with us, I made the mistake of asking the ticket counter lady what happens if the paper work isn't in order (wondering if they put her in quarantine, or if they send her back on the next flight). Her response? They put the cat down. Way to settle me down for the impending 12 hour trip, lady.
Coda, for the most part, was extremely quiet and well behaved as we were boarding the plane. I kept waiting for her to start yowling, but nope. She seemed to enjoy her new travel carrier ("Jetpaws"), and after we watched a movie, they turned the lights off for the passengers to sleep. About two hours later, I was woken up by a flight attendant. I was groggy, and thought maybe she was coming around with the drink cart, but I assure you that as soon as she said "excuse me, miss, but are you the one with the cat?" I was wide awake. Why? Was she making noises? Had there been complaints about her being on board? She asked me if it was "possible that she'd gotten loose? Someone in the back of the cabin said they saw a cat walking around." Sure enough, the zipper on the carrier had been worked open from the inside, and the carrier was empty.
Once we had gotten to the row of people who had seen "the cat", they couldn't tell us where she had gone to. Luckily, one of the other flight attendants had caught her and she (Coda, not the flight attendant) seemed pretty happy to be receiving a lot of attention. The flight attendant, on the other hand. gave me an earful about how I shouldn't have "let the cat out of the bag". Okay, maybe not in those exact words, but she did think I had on purpose let Coda out so she could roam around.
The rest of the flight went fine (outside of my embarrassment over the ordeal) as well as the transfer and trip to the hotel. Turns out they didn't even care to look at Coda's documentation. I brought her through customs, and they seemed confused as to why I was showing them a cat (even though I tried to explain in German). Ah well. Here she is! And she seems to be adapting well. Lots of windows and birds where we are staying, currently. And places to sleep.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Howdy!
Hi there, friends from all over the world! Sorry it's taken so long to put this blog into action, but here it is! We made it safely to Germany at the beginning of the month (stories to follow), and are slowly setting up shop. I'll do my best to update regularly with what we're up to, any side travels that we take, and lots of pictures.
In the meantime, enjoy this youtube video that has nothing to do with this blog, and a picture of us in our current place of living (non-related internet media!)
In the meantime, enjoy this youtube video that has nothing to do with this blog, and a picture of us in our current place of living (non-related internet media!)
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