Day 1 with Mom and Dad

My mom and dad are better travelers than me.  I was so impressed that on their first day here and after a 16 hour long flight (due to long layovers) we were able to go out for breakfast, explore the Rathaus (Hamburg Cityhall), explore my neighborhood, and meet David for dinner.  That would not be the case for me if I were in their shoes.  I think they would have loved Istanbul and now I hope that they have a taste for traveling so that we can do trips together in the future.

Breakfast of tourist champions.  My dad with a beer and my mom with a latte at 10:00am.

Boats gearing up for tourist season on the Binnen Alster, part of the big lake in the middle of Hamburg.

Cafes along the Alster Pavilion.

The Rathaus, which is the seat of city-state government in Hamburg and personally, my favorite building in Hamburg.

World War I monument.  It reads something like, "40,000 sons of the city gave their lives for you." 

Symbol of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg.

We met this nice German lady on the Ubahn when she overheard us speaking English.  She lived in Berlin during the time of the wall and gave us her advice on what to see there.



Head-sized, fried meat is a great first meal to have here.

 

Does mine kind of look like Germany?

Long Hiatus

I have had one of the best months since moving here.  First, my parents finally made it to visit me in Germany!  Not only did we explore Hamburg and Berlin together, we also made it to Sweden.  Being part of their first European experience was really special and as cheesy as it may sound, we definitely made memories that will last a lifetime.

There was a lot of drinking. The bigger the beer the better.

A lot of history.  Us learning about East-West relations at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin.

A lot of fun.  Us posing, post-pub crawl, for a blury photo in Beetle's Platz on the Reeperbahn. 

And a lot of "firsts."  First time in Sweden, posing in front of the Swedish flag in the outdoor muesum, Skansen.

Second, we went on another, 2-week long trip for the fellowship program.  This time, the program brought us to Brussels, Belgium and Istanbul, Turkey.  We learned all about Germany's relationship with the other European Union countries and Turkey's special relationship with the European Union and Germany.  Istanbul is offically the furthest east I have ever travelled and it was refreshingly different from what I have come to expect from Western Europe. 

It was finally spring!  Outside of Autoworld in Brussels.

We both agreed that we did not eat enough waffles, although some extra poundage at the end of our trip tells a different story.

View of the Golden Horn from Galata Tower in Istanbul.

I didn't know you could buy harem members at the Grand Bazaar.

View of the New Mosque from Galata Bridge.

Third, while in Istanbul, I was able to reconnect with my very best friend from high school.  She was a year older than me in high school and when she graduated, she went to college out-of-state.  The following year, I graduated and also went to college out-of-state.  We were sometimes able to reconnect when we were both back home, however, after graduating college, I moved further east and she moved all the way to Italy.  After not seeing each other for years, we found out that we would randomly be in Istanbul the same weekend.  I absolutely LOVED seeing her again. 

Outside of the Grand Bazaar.

Pretending like this pool is ours at Topkapi Palace.

No lie, we got trapped in the elevator at my hotel when the power went out.  This is us trying to stay calm while awaiting help.

Now, we only have about a month left of our time here in Germany.  I hope that the last month here is as good as the one I just had.