"The British are coming!"

Two weeks ago, some of my friends from Reading came to visit me in Hamburg. These are the same friends I visited during my first trip to England back in January. Unfortunately, the weather in Hamburg was somewhat temperamental, so most of their stay was shrouded in rain. I suppose they were used to it though coming from the UK. It was such a blast showing them around Hamburg and watching them experience traditional German cuisine for the first time. We had a lot of laughs about a certain little British ditty that bathroom attendants sing to get guys to buy their cologne. It reminded me of this one particular night in Dublin when I was stupid enough to accept nasty smelling perfume from a random bathroom attendant in a bar. Unfortunately, she didn't sing me a dirty little jingle to get me to use it. That silly song was stuck in my head for days.

In front of the River Elbe

Surprisingly, the Queen Elizabeth was in port that week. I had
absolutely no idea, so I was shocked to find myself staring
up at her during a boat tour of the harbor.

The one request my friends had during their time in Hamburg was to party on the Reeperbahn. The night did not disappoint, and I think it's safe to assume that the infamous street once again lived up to its reputation. After four days in London and four days with my UK friends, I found myself going through a massive British accent withdrawal after they left. I tried to cope by drowning myself in BBC television shows, but it only took the edge off.

This picture was taken around 4am after a night of partying
on the Reeperbahn. The subways in Hamburg shut down on
weeknights, so we had to wait for them to reopen before we
could head home.

Another exciting thing that's happened since my last update is the start of the EUFA European Football Championship. It's no surprise to those of you who went to college with me that football (American style) is not my favorite sport. I very rarely sit down and willingly turn on an American football game. Thus, I was shocked to find that I actually enjoy watching European football (aka soccer). It's way more action packed, they don't stop the game every 10 seconds, and it's over in 2 hours. As an added bonus, you get to watch incredibly fit men run around for 90 minutes. Germany won all three games in the first round, so they'll continue on to the next round. The next game is on Friday, and I'm actually really excited to watch it. My goodness, Europe has changed me in more ways then one!