Germany (Hamburg)

The train to Hamburg from Warsaw was excellent. I ended up reading The Pianist which gave a brilliant depiction of what it was like to live as a Jew in Warsaw during the German occupation between 1939-1945. The movie, starring Brad Compton's love child, Adrian brody, won some Oscars...looking forward to watching it again when I get back to Canada.

Actually, come to think of it this whole reading thing is new to me. Reading a book from start to finish in a day was unheard of...since traveling I've read about 7 books...whoa! that's more than 1 a month. Wow. Anyhoo, I recommend the following

1. Fit For Life - health book from the 1980's that emphasizes eating high water based content foods (fruits and veggies) and combining your meals properly with high water based content food...common sense book that has given me that extra boost of energy
2. Care for the Soul - the title sounds corny but how much of us really know what soul means. I thought I did until I read this book...has made me change my outlook and opinions on life in so many ways...essentially, don't over analyze and try to find solutions for everything...live life today and enjoy it for all its nuances and quirks

Andre picked me up at the bus station in Hamburg. World Cup fever was obviously on, evidenced by all the people dawning their national flags as capes and chanting loud and obnoxious songs in their foreign languages. We grabbed some donairs (Germany has the second largest Turkish community in the world outside of Turkey) and some pints of Astra beer. Hamburg is a cool city. It was amazing for the amount of cars and people that live here, not to mention the surge of tourists that are running around the streets, how uncongested the city felt. Everything flows smoothly...no real traffic jams...none that I saw anyway.

I spent 2 days in Hamburg. Andre worked during the day while I toured around the city and checked out some sites and watched football. Got my haircut for the second time in almost four months. I've been letting it grow now that it is not falling out as much since I quit my job. I played football with Andre and his friends which was a lot fun. What better place to play football right now than Germany. I was rusty but still had some ol moves to impress the locals. Canada isn't really regarded as a soccer nation by the Germans so I had to make them recognize. Visited Andre's mom out in this countryside town just outside of Hamburg, where Andre grew up. Absolutley beautiful. Couldn't have thought of a better place to grow up...other than Dartmouth, Nova Scotia of course :) Andre had a few music teaching appointments that afternoon at the highschool so I decided to tag along. He had a percussion class, a pop singing class and finally a saxophone class to teach. I ended up banging away at the drums like a monkey...first time I played the drums...probably will be the last time...je suck. Next were the pop singing classes...belted out Hero, Angels, and I Will Always Love You...first time I took such a course...it may not be the last either. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I just sat and watched the little kids strangle their saxpohones for 40 minutes. I've had better times.

After, Andre and I walked his half German Shepard/ half Doberman Pinscher dog around the neighbourhood...yikes...Andre had a big yak of the Whopper that was sitting in his stomach like a brick all afternoon. Good times for Andre.

We got back to Hamburg and Andre, had a few more yakking apponintments so I had to walk and grab a bus to the train station. Came close to missing my train to Paris, but with the help of an arrogant, obnoxious, cigarette smelling Frenchman I managed to find the right train. I was taking the overnight to Paris where my best friend Peter Guy, who has been studying at INSEAD this past year, (located just outside of Paris in a town called Fountainebleu) would be awaiting me at the Garde de Nord train station in Paris at 9am in the morning....um, probably not.