I have been in Hamburg enough times, and stayed here at Olaf’s enough times, and long enough, to feel loser to it than most other places. If not exactly home, it is a kind of home away from home, and I always enjoy hanging with Olaf and getting reacquainted with the people I know here (and meeting new ones). This particular trip I have stayed longer than any other visit, and so it is a little sad to say goodbye. That said, I have an exciting few weeks ahead of me. I will leave today for Paris to meet my brother and sister in law, and on Thursday we will take a rental car south towards Nimes for the night, then to Nice the next day. From there we will take a train to Genova (Italy), spend the night there, and pick a car the next day to head to Florence. In a villa just south of Florence, we will be staying a week with much of the rest of the family (My mother, father, sister, brother in law, niece, and nephew). And like us, they are converging from all over Europe on trips of their own this summer. After that, I will go to Florence and Modena to stay with my friend Jonathan for a few days, then fly to London to stay 11 days with my friend Arnaud before heading back to NYC finally on the 8th of August. Whew.
Things are winding up here in Hamburg. I fly Monday back to Paris for two days and then back to New York. I am pretty happy with the site I have just finished, I think it looks good and works well. There are as always more things that could be done, but overall it is pretty spiffy. I look forward to feedback on it when it launches in a few weeks. Tonight we are going out to a celebratory dinner of sorts in one of the fancier restaurants of Hamburg. Stay tuned for the details, it should be fun.
Yesterday Olaf, Werner and I took a walk around Hamburg. Click on the pic below to see the album.
Maybe it was because I had had a couple of beers already, but the funniest damn thing happened to me in the bathroom of a bar Olaf and I were in this evening. After finishing my business, I went to wash my hands. As I reached for the button on the towel dispenser to spit out some paper, all I heard was a long mechanical “whrrr” sound. Clearly it was empty, but I pushed the buttton again 2 times, only to hear the dispenser start to play Dusty’s Springfield’s “Wishin’ and Hopin’“.
And no, I am not kidding!
Been working in Hamburg the last few days on a project for my friend Olaf. It is funny being back here, as it was the last major Western country I was in before beginning my long trip around the world. Everything seems so familiar and yet slightly of another world at the same time. The otherworldyness is due in large part to my inability to understand much German at all. I should really commit to six months or more here to try to learn it, I find it really interesting. The days have been filled with working on the project, and the evenings with wonderful meals, conversation, tv or movies, and drink. Since I don’t have easy access to a gym, I have been trying to get back into my yoga, and I can’t tell you how difficult it has been relearning touching my face to my knees and giving salutation to the sun. And speaking of the sun, I must be very far north indeed, because it is still light out at 10:30pm every night. One loses the sense of time a bit, not being used to daylight taking up so very much of the day.
This cracks me up. Arriving at the Hamburg airport, I pass this charming little glass smoke house reserved for all those that just HAVE TO smoke. Olaf tells me that especially in the mornings, there are a fair amount of people shoehorned into this tiny, smoky, smelly room, and they come out of there looking rather unhappy.
