some kind of travelogue

I will first apologize for taking a few weeks to update.

The trip from California to Germany was less painful than expected. I flew Lufthansa, which was awesome.

San Francisco walking in the International terminal

Frankfurt airport

I'm still settling into life in Lüneburg. I have not gotten used to no shops being open on Sundays (in all of Germany). Besides the grocery store inside the train station and the ones at gas stations, practically no shops are open. I actually need to buy a poster board for Monday so I guess I'll just do a MacGyver and use my glue stick and paper to make one. Or I could travel to another country to buy one but that seems silly since that'll cost too much. Also, all stores close early on Saturday, so the rush of everyone buying their items before closing is quite funny.Tomorrow is supposed to be a day of rest but I have a feeling I'll want to, you know, go shopping for school items.

It snows sometimes, although not a lot. The weather is rather mild.

at Leuphana University

Two weeks ago we took a day trip to Hamburg. It was colder than most people expected. We took a ferry ride and I think most of us became numb by the end of it since we were on the top deck taking pictures and videos, so I guess it was worth it.

First we traveled to the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, which taught us about the history of Hamburg. The museum is in/near the St. Pauli District and close to the Reeperbahn (meaning: rope walk, where materials used to be twisted into rope). We had a tour of the museum where we learned how to twist strands of rope into a thicker rope, among many other things. Our tour guide jokingly told us "Now you can say you worked on the Reepberbahn." This is of course a joke since Reeperbahn is Hamburg's red-light district and well, we know what goes on there...lots of prostitution, sex shops, and things of that sort.

The rope video. Please use headphones or good speakers since the volume is so low.

Hamburg fire

Hamburg after the fire

View opposite the museum

After this we walked down Reeperbahn street where we were given details about what we should expect to have happen to us (mostly the guys) when we walk through the red-light district at night. Basically if the guys are standing at the stop light, waiting to cross they should not be surprised if they are approached by a prostitute and to politely decline or joke "oh, I have no time right now. Maybe tomorrow!" As you can see, Germans have a great sense of humor.