Let’s do it!

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. -Neale Donald Walsch

It’s been a crazy transition, moving from everything that you know and hold familiar to a place where the language is foreign, the customs are foreign and you yourself feel foreign. We’re taking it one day at a time… Let’s see how this goes. But first…a recap of our new year celebration…because that was insane!

Our first New Year party in Hamburg went off with a bang, literally. Apparently it is legal to buy fireworks (like real professional grade fireworks) and just light them off in the streets with pedestrians and cars all near by. We happened upon an outdoor celebration with kitschy German music, berliners (jelly donuts), giant bratwursts and spiced wine (glühwein) and decided to drink to stay warm. It drizzled all night, and now unfortunately we are also one umbrella short due to Ken’s desire to mooch free wodka from some German dude instead of hanging on to his umbrella! I told him that now that we are in Europe it’s ok for him to have a man purse, but he’s not interested.

But anyhow. This all began because at around 6pm we realized it was New Year and we didn’t know what to do. I was desperate to find a European plug so I could charge my laptop, and decided our night would begin with an adventure finding the Apple Store. This led to the discovery of the outdoor Christmas market / New Year celebration just next to the Alster. We ate our brats and had some wine and then, since it was only 7pm or so, we decided we would leave and come back closer to midnight since it was raining and cold and Ken wanted a “real meal.”

There were no restaurants to be found except this awful Italian place and this chain steak house called “Block House” which seemed to be the only place open. I figured that due to proximity the Italian food would be more authentic, but German Italian food is less authentic than American Italian food! We ate cheese – but not good cheese! And bland marinara sauce. I think Ken got some pasta and I got chicken, but really both were just a pile of cheese and marinara! We decided that this place served its purpose in warming us up and getting us out of the rain – but it was time to go back to our glühwein and berliners, and we wen’t back to the Alster.

Finally at the end of the night, we took the bus back to DESY where the bus driver was dodging more fireworks. It looked like a war outside. A fog had set in, and there was the smoke from the fireworks and every now and then you’d see a light zing past the side of the bus – very exciting!