On Feb 16th I once again made my way back to Germany. The trip got off to an auspicious start, as I lined up behind Vlade Divac (famous basketball player) at LAX Lufthansa check in. Of course I was too chicken to ask for a photo.
Feb 17th – arrival in the world’s cleanest, most über-modern & efficient airport (Munich), where I was tempted to eat my between-flight snack off the shiny floors, as they appear to be cleaner than any dining table I’ve ever eaten at. Oddly, Munich is also a very eerily deserted airport, almost straight out of a sci-fi movie, as there seems to be NO ONE in it each time I’m there.
Upon arrival in Hamburg (and subsequent exit from the heated airport), my body re-entered the ultimate freezo-shock that is winter in Germany. I’m almost getting used to the pain. To psyche myself out, I like to comment briskly about how warm it is when we step into the blinding snowstorms, suggesting excitedly that we should get outside and soak up some rays later. Soenke just loves my weather humor.
Thursday night – dinner at a boisterous restaurant with Soenke & Knut, where we micro-planned certain future aspects of Knut’s life. I am sure he appreciated our meddling! I appreciated the gigantic bowl of French fries and several mid-meal calls from clients & even a Franchise Tax Board auditor. The rest of my evening was spent apologizing to Soenke for the interruptions, while feverishly re-running calculations for a client back home, hoping that my jetlagged state was not hopelessly ruining my credibility!
On Friday, we braved the elements to go visit some larger apartments. We found the perfect specimen in an area of Hamburg known as ‘Poppenbüttel’ (DON’T LAUGH; IT’S A NICE AREA!). The flat is 106 m2 (about 1150 ft2), with hardwood floors, 2 stories, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and lots of big windows. It’s located in a new, modern apartment complex where most of the units are owned by their respective residents. I give my wholehearted thumbs up!
Friday night was an especially invigorating evening! It was Klaudia’s birthday (of the Mehmet-Klaudia partnership), & the big celebration was at a Mexican restaurant called Sausalitos in downtown Hamburg. I decided not to mention that Sausalito is actually a posh townlet outside of San Francisco (hardly Mexican). The evening began with margaritas & polite English speaking (for me)… and soon deteriorated into tequila shots, loud chanting encouragement of the more reluctant tequila drinkers, enthusiastic dancing, and probably many “I-love-you-man’s” in German. It was quite an event! Because I like Klaudia so much, I won’t go into detail about, er, how she was feeling by the end of the evening!
Saturday night, Soenke & I were treated to a fabulous dinner at Lena’s gorgeous new flat. (Lena is Ole’s long-term girlfriend; Ole is Soenke’s brother). She has energetically renovated the apartment in bold red and white… it looks fantastic! Dinner was scrumptious; it was so nice to have some home-cooked food for the first time in goodness-knows-how-many-time-zones. In an especially revealing discussion afterwards, I learned of Soenke’s childhood hero-worship of David Hasselhoff. This information provided *much* hysterical enjoyment for me (I’m glad that’s the darkest secret HE has), & I suggested he might not want to publicize this fact in the States. In response, he later treated me to an hour of his David Hasselhoff Greatest Hits CD (yes, the Knightrider sings.. and there is a reason you didn’t know this…).
Sunday evening Soenke departed on a 5-day tour, & I was left to my own devices. Those devices included his car, his apartment, & the telephone numbers of everyone he knows in Hamburg. Somehow I knew this would be interesting!
After a few errands (with me clutching the Hamburgian roadmap… the city is a MAZE and they don’t believe in street signs… plus it apparently is normal there to change the street name every few blocks), I bravely headed across town to Sally’s apartment. We had a tasty Chinese dinner, & introduced her Moroccan husband Malik to eggrolls. He had earlier informed us that ‘he didn’t like Chinese food’, but of course in true Moroccan form, he had never tried it before.
On Tuesday night, Soenke’s friend Knut gamely invited me to a very cool performance by a English-speaking group called ‘Teitur’ in a funky, cool venue. This night was a blast! The music was GREAT, & Teitur himself (I guess that’s his own name?) had a fantastic sense of humor. Knut is a BIG fan of his music, so I accosted one of the band crewmembers & invented a story of having flown in all the way from California just to see the concert… so of course we were taken backstage to meet Teitur & got his autograph on Knut’s CD and concert ticket. Oh yeah, & I parallel parked the car that night, AND ordered kirschsaft (cherry juice) all by myself from the bartender. Lots of gold stars for Jennifer this night.
Other notable experiences in Soenke’s absence included successful grocery shopping, post officing, and even going-to-the-doctoring (don’t ask). Thank you VERY MUCH Sally & Soenke for all your help on the last point. And, ok so maybe I had to call Ole a few times for help in figuring out the parking meter…..!
One especially fun evening was again with Sally, where we took a big field trip around town in the snow. We visited the packed grand opening of ‘MaxBahr’ (think: gigantic Home Depot), where we got free folding measuring sticks & checked out light fixtures. We also browsed around a shopping mall, where I was happily reunited with peanut butter & cranberry juice at the health food store. Later, a wrong turn by me took us to a quaint Italian restaurant where we enjoyed seafood dinners. Finally, a visit to the new apartment with our new flashlight (from MaxBahr of course) for taking window measurements. That was WAY MORE FUN than it should have been!! I’m sure the neighbors were wondering what the heck was going on in the empty, dark apartment with the two giggling girls and all the flash photos.
In spite of all the nonstop fun, I was so happy to go gather Soenke at the airport on Thursday night. There is really something about picking up a fully-uniformed pilot at an airport. I may have smirked with secret delight at my immense good fortune. (This smirk repeats itself every time I pick him up at an airport).
Following are some photos of these various events:
Klaudia’s birthday :
Lots of snow that night! :
Sally shopping at MaxBahr
Taking measurements in the new flat:
The beautiful Hamburg city hall :
I can’t believe that picture of me in the dark turned out! You’ll have to send me the rest you took… Where’s the snowman, for example?
The Munich Airport floor was cleaner than my dining table??? BOY ARE YOU OUT OF THE WILL!!!