its almost over?!?

wow. i cannot believe that this trip will conclude in under 48 hours. i hope to conjure up one last reflective post about this entire journey. but before then, let me tell briefy of two other adventures i had recenty: a trip back to møn and hamburg.

møn began at 5:30am, as Nicole and I wanted to see the cliffs while there was sunlight. because i am hundreds upon hundreds of miles more north than practically everyone reading this, the sun is out for about 6 hours a day. it doesnt rise until sometime after 8, and sets before 4. okay, maybe thats closer to 8 hours...but you know what i mean.

nevertheless the cliffs were (yet again) beautiful. whilst there we met these two older Danish men, and I was even able to speak to them in Danish a little bit (hooray C+ on the oral final!). i learned that they were from southern zealand, and both retired. one even collected old russian military artifacts. i'm not kidding - he gave me his card. the other man gave us 20 kroner for is (ice cream) and we went on our merry way, having a lovely picnic on this large rock a little out from the shore.

it was nice to enjoy møn without having to run 3 miles in under 45 minutes. despite i losing my ticket at nørreport station (which i later found), the trip went off without any major issues.

jump to friday, where i got paid for my work study job. rather than simply blow all of it on booze and other nefarious deeds (just kidding!), i decided to take advantage of this mega sale that dsb (that danish national railway, similar to amtrak) had for hamburg. i remembered that hamburg was a cool city from this german fellow i met two years in montreal, so i decided to take advantage of the deal and go there.

because my so decision was so last minute, i travelled by my lonesome. that however did not the hilarity that ensued there. overall, hamburg was a fascinating city as it doesnt looked like it got bombed to hell sixty years ago. and its a port city that is actually nice - i didnt know such places existed, but hamburg's it! despite having a rather large red light district, the city seemed to be a really safe place. the hostel i stayed at was not great (no kitchen! how can they get away with this!?!), and hardly anyone was there because it was a week or so before christmas. but the location was superb - it was very reminiscent of greenwich village in nyc. lots of (attractive) females, hipsters, punks, hippies, etc dwelled in the area.

but let me summarize the entire trip in small bullet-esque points:

on the train to hamburg i sat across this guy who used to work for dis, so we discussed the program

the hostel i stayed at didnt have a kitchen, but instead this organic restaurant. my waiter there was this rumanian film student studying in hamburg so he gave me his email address and said he wanted "to see my work." we first started talking when he asked where i was from, and upon hearing Boston, he responded "oh, culture there. no cowboys." (i am going to write about this phenomenon on a latter date. its gotten really, really annoying).

in the red light district this old asian couple was having a loud argument and the women was throwing all this clothes off the top floor

some squatters almost puked on me under a bridge i was walking through

i went to this german punk/hc show at this ungdom huset (thats the type of place that had the riots here in copenhagen last saturday. if you havent heard about it, look it up. pretty crazy stuff) where this obviously drugged up dude told me to "f--- off and die" because i didnt speak german or have any rolling papers. needless to say, that pump a damper on the rest of my evening.

at this other bar i went to the bartender was wearing a tshirt of a motorcycle store in worcester (Sheldon's to be exact). i asked him where in the world he got it as i am from worcester, but he just said "second hand store"

sunday morning i went to a fishmarket, where there were lots of festivities going on. later on during the day as i was meandering toward the train station, numerous christmas markets littered the entire downtown of hamburg. and by numerous i mean about 1000. i've been to christmas markets in three different countries, and these were by far the best. but then, the germans did somewhat invent christmas as we know it.

so overall i had a great time. i just wish a was with someone, and/or spoke german. which is something that really bothered me: no one spoke english. now, i dont mean this in an ethnocentrist way (wow, i just actually used that term in an unironic way. i am going to light myself on fire now). but if there is one nation that should theoretically speak english as its second language, it is germany. does the marshall plan ring a bell?

although it may seem i am completely enjoying myself here (which i am) and dont ever want to return home, thats not that case. i actually want to go home. after going to hamburg, i felt ready to return to the states for a multitude of reasons. i'll post these later (hooray cliffhangers!).

as always, photos are here.