ich bin ein jaegerschnitzel

in the smokiest internet cafe/sports betting center right now with some definite mafioso. this is gonna be fast.

where i've been, what i've done:

monday in kiel, went to one of only 2 u-boots left in the world. awesome. big military memorial for germans and others who lost their lives in some of the big wars last century. crazy. talked to this RAD 63yr old artist on the ferry back. i love meeting people. i love that i understand more deutsch now. took a train to luebeck, which is a charming, charming little city with medieval towers and windy streets. the best marzipan in the world comes from luebeck, and we went to the salon and ate loads of it. also bought more books than i feel like carrying around in my busted backpack, as well as more groceries than i should have at aldi's (but i love books, and i love aldi's, so...naja).

tuesday we spent the morning in luebeck, and dad had an important lesson in wendy style backpacking when he decided to ship some stuff back to ca (levis are no fun to wear, wash, or carry around, turns out9. always pack less than you think you should! late morning, train to hamburg. met up with friend of a friend anita, a 24yr old slovakian turned german, had an excellent time running around hamburg with her and my dad. hamburg is the 2nd biggest city in germany, another huge harbor town. ate some fresh fish, saw the best unibrow i've ever seen in my life (unfortunately planted on the face of a young turkish girl), ran back to our 25-bed hostel, then parted company with dad to have a night out with anita (this involved much fun-making at Dom, which is like a county fair on steroids, walking around the city, and getting cocktails - alcohol-frei - at some swanky lounge). yay.

wednesday, more of hamburg...we've seen so many cool churches, i climbed a massive statue of bismarck, and then we went outside the city to this former concentration camp (solemn stuff, but strange to consider the 55k people who died there when the surrounding countryside was soooooo beautiful and...hopeful looking). after this, to the remains of a big cathedral in the middle of the city left as a memorial to the ww2 dead (55k died in hamburg as well), and thennnnnn to the biggest non-nuclear sub in the world, a russian one parked in the harbor. yay for memories on how to speak a little russian too. took dad to the dom, and we had great fun as well...ate some pirate fish, had 2 hamburgers (had to - hamburger eating in hamburg, of course) and way too much else, performed very well with our rifles in the shooting gallery, and then parted ways so i could meet up with anita again. anita and i had dinner, then saw '300' in the theatres (dubbed in german, so i didn't understand 100% of it, but i do know how to say 'spartans' in german with some ferocity). anita is a gem, and we had a really fun time together, especially talking (me with bad german, her with better english...i'm working on it).

today we took a 3 hour train to detmold, which is on the border of the teutoburger wald. we're going biking through the forest tomorrow, and i'm really excited. heard a gospel choir in this martin luther cathedral today (i was just listening through the door, and when i peeked in, i was delighted that they did indeed look like a german lutheran choir of your standard white-haired ladies, etc. any martin luther (king) church in LA with a gospel choir would probably NOT look like that).

i am happy in germany. es freut mich.

hope you are all happy too.

apologies for hasty not terribly interesting narrative. when smoke gets in your eyes, you are either get blinded by love or you lose your ability to construct coherent prose.