Mission: Find Waffles

Sooo, it's been a while since my last update. Life got a thousand times busier after classes at the university started, and unfortunately I haven't had much time for writing. A lot of the past month has been filled with school work, hanging out with friends, and getting dominated by pregnant women at the gym. (Story: Daniela and I joined a gym and attend a lot of the classes. The instructor of this one yoga class was pregnant, and she completely showed us up. We were seriously made to look like fools. At one point, she wanted us to do the Crow Pose (Click for an image). Daniela and I just looked at each other and laughed. There was no way in hell either of us could do it.)

Before I sat down to write this blog, I took a look back at my planner to figure out what exactly I had done in the past month. Rather then writing a long, boring post, I've decided to highlight the three most important, and somewhat comical, events that have taken place since my last update.

• Pulling an all-nighter in honor of 'The Waffle': I've been in Hamburg for almost five months, and the American food cravings are starting to set in. One of the first cravings I had was for waffles - the big, fluffy, soft ones. German waffles are really dense and flat, and they just leave something to be desired. I was told back in April that you can get fresh Belgium waffles at the Fischmarkt (Fish Market), so I made it my mission to find these supposedly mouth-watering waffles. A traditional "Hamburg" thing to do is to stay up all night Saturday and go to the Fischmarkt at 5am on Sunday morning when it opens. The Fischmarkt is this massive market on the harbor that sells everything from (you guessed it) fish to clothing to trinkets to food. The fish come in every possible shape and size - big ones, small ones, living ones, dead ones, cooked ones, raw ones, ones with eyeballs, ones without eyeballs, etc. Vendor carts line the road leading up to the market, and people just meander along taking everything in. When you enter the building, you're eyes are immediately greeted by row after row of benches and your ears are greeted by the sound of a live band playing on the stage. Even though it's 5am, everyone is drinking, dancing, laughing, and having a good time. It's an interesting mix of people: half the people in the market are just starting their day while the other half are still finishing off the night before. The Fischmarkt is conveniently located close to the Reeperbahn, so a lot of people stay out all night partying and then make their way over to the market in the wee hours of the morning. Three weeks ago, Kaitlyn, Daniela, and I finally pulled the traditional all-nighter and meandered with all the other crazies over to the Fischmarkt at 5am. On the way there, Daniela and I thought it would be a great idea to play soccer with a random plastic milk carton we found in the street. In hindsight, this probably wasn't my brightest idea. Halfway to the market, I lost my footing and down I went. Three weeks later, my knee still hasn't fully recuperated. Ouch! Anyways, getting back to the original story... So we all went inside the market, quickly found the waffle vendor, and bought the most delicious waffles I've ever had. Halfway through devouring my waffle, I felt a sharp nudge from Kaitlyn. I looked up and found myself staring at The Queen Elizabeth (Click for an image). No joke! Kaitlyn and I looked at each other, quickly evaluated how sober we were, and then started laughing because we realized that we were sitting on the boardwalk, all dressed up, eating waffles, and staring at one of the world's most famous cruise ships. It was a fitting ending to a memorable evening. 

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me the night we
got waffles. But here's a picture I took of the Fischmarkt a
few months ago

• Kailyn's 21st Birthday: Turning 21 is a big deal for any American. Everyone wants to have a memorable 21st birthday filled with plenty of "Remember when..." moments. Even though my actual 21st birthday was somewhat of a disappointment, I will always look back fondly on my birthday trip to Vegas and laugh at my very own "Remember when..." moments. Well, that special day finally came for Kaitlyn, and it just happened to fall on a Friday. Kaitlyn had been planning her 21st birthday ever since the first night we partied on the Reeperbahn. So on Friday night, Kaitlyn got a huge group of friends together, and we all went to our favorite Irish bar. It was Kaitlyn's goal to have 21 shots on her 21st birthday, and I'm happy to say - Mission Accomplished. Kaitlyn really wanted the three of us to wear matching shirts, so we all bought shirts and wrote funny sayings on them. My shirt said: "die Nüchterne Freundin" or "The Sober Friend." I could think of no better gift (other then homemade brownies) to give Kaitlyn on her 21st birthday then sobriety and the accompanying promise of getting her home safe and sound at the end of the night. As expected, the night was one for the record books - one part drinking, one part drama, and one part tears. But, at the end of the night, all that mattered was that Kaitlyn made it home alive with a bucketload of hilarious "Remember when..." memories.

Our matching birthday shirts

The birthday girl and me

• Hafengeburtstag: Hamburg's Harbor celebrated its 818th birthday this past weekend. Every year, Hamburg throws a massive party in celebration of the Harbor's Birthday. The entire harbor fills up with rows of vendors and thousands of people. The city expects that over 2 million people visit each year. A bunch of famous ships come into port for the weekend, including frigates, cruise ships, and tugboats. One of the highlights of the weekend is the Tugboat Ballet. The world's best tugboat operators get together and put on a performance on the River Elbe. For one hour, a group of tugboats perform a "dance" in the port. It's apparently a really difficult job and requires a high level of expertise. It was really cool and all, but honestly I got bored watching it after 20 minutes. Afterwards, we shuffled along with the crowd taking in all the sounds and smells of the festival. Unlike crappy American carnival food, the food served by German vendors at large festivals is really amazing! So naturally I stuffed my face with sausage, fries, and bread. How German of me. Even though the festivities continued all weekend, I was completely exhausted from Kaitlyn's birthday party and still had a ton of homework to do. So, admittedly, I skipped out early and missed most of the celebration. 

Part of the Tugboat Ballet