Long awaited update

Hey! So I'm typing from a hostel in Lisboa Portugal! We've been backpacking around the southern coast and sleeping on cliffs and abandoned houses. It's been pretty awesome, though I can't even begin to describe how happy I was to take a hot shower today and sleep in a warm soft bed. It's also nice to finally be able to sit down at a computer and update this thing.

Sadly I have one last obstacle to overcome before coming home. I'm pretty much completely broke, and my credit available for this trip maxed.

So wish me all the luck in the world so I can make it back to Germany, and then from there back home.

I have tons of pictures to show and I miss you all.

-Sam

Road to Berlin

So today Hannes and I leave Hamburg for Berlin and other adventures beyond. This also means that my only internet for some time will be from his ipod touch, so don't expect any new blog posts in the near future. Anyway Hamburg has been an incredibly fun city to visit, especially at night, and I've been fortunate to have such a lovely host while I've been here. Thank you Nina and Jan.

Love you all, and hope all is well.

-Sam

Awesome day.

So today has been pretty much spectacular. It started off with a nice motorcycle ride to Harley Days, where we got to see a huge festival of nice bikes and skanky biker chicks. After the festival we took a nice ride through downtown and I got to see the very wealthy areas. It was neat.

After that we went to a medieval festival. We drank delicious home-brewed mead, watched some sparring, bought a kilt, and watched an incredible bagpipe band. It was amazing.

So now my update is short because I'm exhausted and I want to sleep.

In short, I went from pajamas to jeans, to tight leather, back to jeans, and then to a kilt. It's been a good day.

-Sam

Here 'thar be giants!

Remember how I was tall over at America? That is so not the case in Hamburg. Nina, her family, and her boyfriend tower over me like skyscrapers. Jan, her boyfriend, is six foot five for God's sake! I feel so much for all the short jokes I poked at Colette and Robin in high school.

Anyway I got here on Sunday. The weather has been annoyingly warm so we stayed inside for like two days straight and had a lan party with two of Nina and Jan's friends. It was pretty great. I did get to see downtown Hamburg though. It has a very similar atmosphere to Seattle, which I loved. The harbor is especially nice, as street musicians perform at most corners.

The homeless however are a little bit frightening however, because they don't take "Mein Deutch ist nicht gute, English?" as an excuse for not understanding what they want. Had I not had a German giant to tell him to get the fuck away from me, I think I would have just ran.

Anywho, Nina's family is awesome, especially her mother. She's taking me on a long ride on the autobahn on her motorcycle, and she's promised to make her top speed, with a passenger that is.

So tomorrow we're going to Harley Days, and then to a midevil festival. Big fun, I'm hoping to find a kilt there.

Anyway, hope all is well. I miss you all! Well, most of you anyway...

-Sam

Tor!!

So I just got back to Hannes's appartment after going to see the Germany vs Australia game. Oh my God. World Cup in Germany is incredible! We watched the game on a theater size screen in an event center. It was a mosh pit of 10,000 sweaty Germans. It was awesome! Fortunately for me, the only German I needed to know to be welcomed as a German fan was prophanity and "super Deutschland." I learned more as the night went on though.
After the amazing ownage that Germany wrecked on Australia we went downtown which was one enormous party.
Becks all around.
Anyway I'm working with Hannes's father Martin tomorrow so I suppose I should get some sleep. Best wishes.
Sig für Deutschland!
~Sam

Choppin' wood.

So for the past couple of days I have been staying with Hannes's father while Hannes is on a work trip. It's been a lot of fun and a whole other perspective of Germany. He lives only thirty minutes from the city and yet the villiage is in it's own seperate world. When I first arrived we took the dog for a walk up into the fields above the villiage. The tranquility was tangable. This is peace. Not peaceful for that implies that it holds qualities derived from peace. This is the other way around. Never have I ever felt so still and yet alive, every breeze felt like the earth's breath. I think if I could choose to live anywhere in this world that I have known I would choose this villiage.

Anyway, poetic mumblings aside it's been fun getting to spend time here. Hannes's father is paying me to work for him. So I've been splitting and stacking firewood like crazy. He's far too generous, he refuses to let me buy my own Scotch or beer when we go out, so I had to settle for cooking breakfast this morning. A good ol' American pair of One Eye'd Jacks.

Sadly, even though I'm having the time of my life over here I find my thoughts turning homeward. I hope all is well with you all. Send me emails with all the latest news and happenings in your lives.

Thinking of Y'all,
~Sam

First trip to a Concentration Camp

Had a very good day today. Hannes's mother, sister, and I visited two museums. One about the Berlin Wall and the defenses used to keep people from crossing the Iron Curtain. The second was a Concentration Camp. It was such a moving experience. Even more so than I expected. Words can't describe the feeling in my gut when I read that the camp was not even built until 1944 and most of Germany already knew the war was going to end, but that the camp would help their "Total Victory," also I do not think there is any way to describe the feeling of seeing the ovens, barely touched since their origional purpose. Yet what I think struck me the most, was how beautiful the area was. With a few minor changes it would look the same as Bennington College in Vermont. The trees were beautiful and old, the birds were chirping and the view of the surrounding towns and villiages was breathtaking. Were it not for the weight of knowledge wrapped around my heart, it would have been an ideal place for a picnic.
Oh! I don't know if they taught you guys that Wernher von Braun was an awesome guy like they taught my class, but I will tell you that he was one evil bastard. Just sayin'.
Sadly I came accross the first thing I miss about American culture. Ice. No one put's ice cubes in their drinks in Europe unless it's a cocktail on the rocks. It's hot here, I like ice in my drinks thank you very much.
Anywho, I hope all is going well over there in the time zone my body is still trying to sleep to.
Much love,
~Sam