Hodgepodge Hamburg

Alright, well this post is going to be a bit of a rambling mish-mosh post.  Since I only have time to post once a week and I want to document as much as possible, that is just how it is going to be.  So, here is what happened last week.

We took pictures of ourselves so that Tom's family could photoshop us into their family photo.  We really have a hard time getting photos of the two of us together, so this is a rare treat!  In this one my camera is perched on the seat of some bikes we had rented.  We are at a huge, beautiful botanical garden right by my work.  We go there some times and take walks and read.

Not last Saturday, but the one before, Tom played in a soccer tournament with his work.  It was a bunch of law firms against other law firms.  Tom doesn't really play soccer, so we decided to leave early, go to the park by the river that I talked about in this post, have a picnic and practice a bit.  We also rented bikes for that activity.

The soccer tournament was quite a few hours long and I was one of the only fan for our team - the only one that was English-speaking.  So, I occupied myself by trying to take action shots.  The coloring is a bit off, as always with my camera, but here's the stud in action.

In case you can't tell, this is when Tom headed it away.  Good defense!  And check out the height!  That's the basketball player in him.

Foul??

One of their only goals and the only one I caught.

Sadly, their team lost every single game...

One of the days after work this week we decided to go explore the botanical garden close to our house (this is a different one from the one by my work).  We didn't stay that long, but I caught these photos.

I keep seeing leaves that look like they are changing, as if it's Fall.  Apparently, Hamburg's weather is also confusing to the plants.

The view from out metro stop.

On this past Saturday we decided to go check out a "design fair" right one of the metro stops that we go through on the way to downtown.  We had no idea what to expect, but it turned out to be a flea market / night market / general celebration of jubilation.  The food looked great, the music was great and we even bought a souvenir!  The best part is that Tom, who usually hates crowds and, thus, things like this, was somehow more than willing to wander for quite a long time.

African food!!!  We miss Philly...

Look down this one street that didn't have any stalls or anything and saw that people were dancing to music  at the end of the street.  Went and checked it out.  So nice to see people having "good, clean fun."

Just as we were about to leave we saw this band setting up.  We kind of had to go, but I could tell these guys were going to be great.  We waited and waited, almost left, decided to stay, waited, and so on.  FINALLY, they started to play.  We.loved.them.  They reminded me of bands I saw live in the South singing bluegrass, except they were German and, while we couldn't understand what they said for the most part, it was clear they were singing about Hamburg.  One of their songs was "House of the Rising Sun," changed so that it was in German and talked about Hamburg.  They also had TONS of character.  We stayed for about 3 songs, which was about 3 songs longer than we had time for, but I wish we'd stayed for the whole thing.

The guy on the right was my fave.

This couple started dancing.  Such joy all around.

The reason we had to leave was because Tom had singed up to do this charity run with a team of other people at the law firm.  We didn't entirely understand where to go because of a combination of the website being really unhelpful, the people at work being unhelpful ("just meet at the orange clock-tower" isn't great directions to foreigners when you're in a huge area of downtown with tons of tall building blocking all views...) and Tom not paying enough attention to directions.  As a result, we ended up wandering, following the runners we saw back toward what must have been the starting point for a half hour or longer.  Finally, when the time came when they were supposed to start running and we still hadn't found it, we gave up.  We enjoyed seeing the harbor though and all the great views!  Hamburg is very proud of its harbor, which is suppose to be one of the the biggest in Europe.  

Both Tom and I kept staring at this building trying to figure it out.  One the one hand the silver-blue facade looked like the tarp workmen often put up when a building is under construction.  One the other hand it looked solid.  Just, it was strange.

I really liked these apartment buildings on the water.

Love seeing random old-style buildings.

Hamburg has more canals than Venice, but luckily it is not sinking.

FINALLY, on Sunday we decided to head back over to the botanical garden by our house, which we had only barely explored before.  Tom, sat on a bench and read/slept while I wandered the entire thing, taking photos of whatever I pleased.  It was huge and gorgeous.  Germans really know how to do landscaping.  It's very cleanly landscaped without being too symmetrical.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, I was impressed.  Here are some shots.

This tree was just bizarre.  Not sure if you can tell.

You can't tell because of my camera's bad color-quality, but these leaves were half pink.

These next several photos are from the Chinese garden, which may have been my favorite part.

This tree had a strong resemblance to cousin it.

I love English garden style.

weird tree

lake in the middle

This was in a greenhouse, which was locked, so I took the photo through a window.

And now it's Monday and back to work!  We've already been here for a month!  

*Warning* This One's Just a Bit Gross

The first cultural moment I have upon entry into any new country (or my home country, for that matter) is almost always using the restroom at the airport.  Airports tend to be quite generic and, therefore, don't really signal the entrance into a new culture very much.  But, surprisingly really, bathrooms are always a bit different no matter where you go.  If you've never been to a different country, you've probably never really thought much about the uniqueness of bathrooms there.  You might assume that something as elemental as the restroom, which is used for a function which really is the same all around the world (the function of excreting bodily waste that is), there couldn't really be too much difference.  Well, perhaps I can give you some examples to show you how very wrong you really are.

In the hostel I stayed at in Paris, the toilet in the room was actually a bidet. - you know, the things that shoot a little spray of water on your tush.  We couldn't figure out what to do with the thing, or even how to sit on it.  I still don't really know.  The toilet in the hall had a string with a tassel on it that you would pull to flush.  I vaguely remember that there was a bit more oddity to it than that, but I can't remember exactly what.

This is pretty close to what the bidet looked like.  I'm guessing you only use it for #1.  

In Romania the plumbing system wasn't great, so you weren't supposed to flush the toilet paper.  Just think of the ramifications of that.  This is actually true a lot of places.  What we did instead was throw the used toilet paper in a trash can to the side of the toilet.  If we didn't empty it frequently, trust me, we'd know.  Gross. 

A lot of places both in Romania and in Taiwan (and elsewhere) have "squatty toilets."  As it sounds, there's a hole in the ground and you just squat.  It can take a lot of balance.  I have often wondered how a pregnant lady might fare using those.  Heaven help her if she's constipated.  Sorry.  I know.  Super gross.

Also, in Taiwan, a lot of public bathrooms use tissues (like the kind you blow your nose on) instead of toilet paper.  Plus, they usually have the tp in the area by the sink instead of in the stall, so you better be good at estimating how much you will need.  And heaven help the foreigner who doesn't know the system.  Yes, I experienced that problem.

Lately, at work, a lot of the interns have been having bathroom issues.  One intern didn't realize for the first week or two (or more?) that there were both men's and women's bathrooms.  Her rational is that she thought Germany was so "progressive" that they just had combined restrooms.  She thought the picture of the guy on the men's bathroom was for both because girls can wear pants.  She used the men's bathroom that whole time.  Another intern got confused and walked into the IT guy's office instead of the bathroom.  "Oh, hi Tony.  Uh, I thought this was the bathroom."  

On my part, after work one day Tom and I were going to go to the park.  So, I needed to used the restroom at the train station to change out of my work clothes.  The way it was set up is that it costs 1 euro to use and you have to put the coin in a machine, then walk through a turnstile.  The machines and turnstile for the women's is right next to the men's.  They face each other.  You walk in and go right for men's, left for women's.  Well, I was new to this system, so I carefully read the instructions and tried to figure out the right spot for the coin, etc. etc.  In fact, I paid so much attention to the process that I forgot to focus on which side was for women's.  I ended up paying my euro, walking through the turnstile, looking to my left and seeing urinals.  To complicate matters, I couldn't figure out how to get back out at first.  So, yeah, I was trapped in the men's bathroom.  Awesome.  I went over and pushed/shook some of the bars to see if they'd give way and open.  In other words, I was shaking the bars of my cage as two women appeared from the women's side and made to leave.  They looked up at me and I looked at them like a dear in the headlights and said, "help me??"  Maybe they didn't speak english, but they just gave me a look of embarrassment and walked away.  Don't worry, I eventually got out.  

I even took a picture for you once I got in the right spot.  Hope that's not too personal for you:

Notice that there's three rolls of toilet paper on the left side of the photo and another one (for good measure?) in the middle of the picture.  I wasn't sure what that white thing on the top left is, so I push the metal bar toward the wall and it sprayed something at me (sanitizer??).  I haven't a clue why there's a metal rectangle on the top right.  In case you're wondering where to flush, the button encompasses the entire top part of the metal thing in the middle (to the immediate left of the toilet).  Very stylish though, no? 

I tried to take a picture of the turnstile area for you, just so you could really picture it, but people kept walking in and I thought that might be awkward.  I'd had enough of awkward.  

Well, I hope this has made restrooms, something you may have never given much thought to, a bit more interesting.  Have you ever gone somewhere, where the bathrooms are different?  Have you ever experienced any of the differences I've listed here?  Tell me about it!

Hamburg = Cold

So, I haven't really be feeling the blog this week.  Why not?  Well, because we haven't really done much this week.  Why not?  Well, because it has been freezing and windy and sometimes rainy!  That's right.  At this very moment the temperature in Hamburg is 52 degrees and the day's high was 54 degrees.  It has been at least that cold all week.  Boo.  I love love love my summers, so this is very sad to me.  Also, while I've VERY grateful to be living in someone's basement for free, the unfortunate part is that it is often colder in our home than it is outside and we have only a rather thin blanket.  As a result, our activities have been more taking warm baths and using the sauna than exploring the city.  However, we have managed to do just a few things outside, so this post will just be for those photos.  

These first ones were taken on our last day of warm weather - last Monday, which was also a holiday here (pentecost).  We went to a church and then to a nice big park.  The park had a big lake where people were canoeing and swimming.  There was also a very large field where, as far as the eye could see, people were barbecuing.  We just lay on the grass and I read while Tom napped.

Here's the church.  It wasn't the best ever, but was still nice: 

Michael the Archangel stomping on Lucifer

Hopefully we will have the chance to go to an organ concert there later!

This lady is sometimes at the main train station.  Not sure what exactly she is selling - newspapers??

HUGE kebabs.  No kebabs are ever as good as the ones from the little stand by our apartment in Iasi, Romania.

These last ones were taken yesterday.  We went into town because Tom needed a new ipad chord from the Mac store.  Then, we decided to just wander around a little bit as well.  

Someone feeding the birds at one little section of the lake.

The Rathouse (city hall).  I know, an actual picture of ME on my blog!

The geese moving to their next food target.

Well, hope you enjoyed the pictures and hope that next week is more interesting!!!

One last thing, and by far the most interesting that happened this weekend is that I got a new niece!  Aurora June Packard was born yesterday, at home, in a birthing tub, to my sister Emily and her husband Kevin.  She's darling!

The whole fam!