Lounging around

Well, I'm stil in Krakow.  Last night was a bit funny.  I was hanging out with Robert trying to figure out what I should do between now and Wednesday when I have plans to be in France.  I was teeter tottering between Prague and Amsterdam and finally fell back on my usual method of decision -- the coin toss.  This coin had less weight than usual though -- I mean really, it was only a lithuanian one cent piece made out of aluminum (by the way, you'll hear more about that in a bit) and after deciding on Prague and then looking into my options, Robert was a bit stunned when I was ready to hop on a train that was supposed to leave three hours later.  Spontaneous?  Impulsive?  I'm not sure what the word for that is.  We continued to sit around on his porch and shoot the $#!+ for a bit and then I finally said I probably should get up and pack my things and be off.  A minute or two later I came back though and said never mind.  I decided I was a bit tired and could do with a full night sleep rather than a night on a train.  So Prague and Amsterdam will have to wait -- even if I don't make it this trip, they'll still be there for future trips.  Since I'm still here though, it would be good of me to go back and actually fill you in a bit on some of my trip thus far.  I'll go backwards and start with the best and most recent parts. 

 

Before that though, I'll make a quick commentary on the trip so far in general.  If I had to pick a favorite place I'd probably say Helsinki.  Riga would come in at a close second.  On the other hand if I had to say where I had the best experiences, I'd probably have to reverse those too -- Riga was kind of the perfect example of what I'd love this trip to be like -- with Helsinki once again not too far behind.  Of course that kind of points out that circumstances may sway my view of the places I've visted.  After all, my memories of Vilnius will always be colored by the fact that I had a stomach bug and sat around sick at the hostel for two days.  When I ventured out to try some Cepelinas, my appetite hadn't quite come back, and I spent the rest of the night waiting to see how my bowels would respond to this new attack...  So I wouldn't say my favorite places were the best for everybody, but I still think that I had good reasons for them to be right for me.

 

One thing that I haven't been able to help doing since coming here was compare the various places I've been to neighborhoods in Chicago.  Skandinavia actually struck me as most odd simply because in many ways it felt as thought I hadn't even left home -- it was kind of a cheap copy of the west.  You know how there seems to be a walgreens springing up on every corner back in the states?  Well imagine that, but with seven elevens!  Really, the whole time I couldn't help thinking, oh heavens, not another seven eleven...  Copenhagen and Stockholm both.  Outdoors sporting is pretty big there two so you find nature company and north face shops all over the place.  My clothes didn't seem at all out of the ordinary there since they really sell a lot of the same products.  Also, the people were all clean cut, nordic, blonde, beautiful, etc...  Then I got on the ferry and headed west to Helsinki.  This is where the comparison to Chicago first hit me -- Skandinavia had been a lot like lakeview or lincoln park.  Outdoorsie, sporty, clean cut, yuppy types.  Helsinki on the other hand was much more like Wicker Park or Logan Square -- punk rockers, dread locks, pink hair, studded belts, torn jeans, chains on their wallets...  I couldn't help but feel like I'd come home again =)  It was as if after spending a night out drinking at the lake view bars I'd hopped on the fullerton bus and made my way back to the safety, familiarity and comfort of the blue line!  As I continued on down the baltic, I furthered the comparison -- it was a little like heading up milwaukee.  Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and finally Poland -- I'm not saying I understand any Polish, but seeing all the polish signs in Krakow, the only difference between here and some of the neighborhoods in chicago is that you don't see everything repeated in Spanish =)

 

So that's it for my chicago/baltic analogy.  Each just seems to me to be a stretched out version of the other rotated by 180 degrees...

 

But I digress.  On to Riga!

A quick shout out to the old PCS SWAT team!!!

Scripted, Compuset, Doc1, kitmanagement, bla bla bla bla...  That doesn't make sense to most of you, but it's secret code a few select people I used to work with and to those of you who know what I'm talking about, Robert says hi =)  I was able to track him down in Poland with the help of a private detective and I'm staying at his place while I'm here, so Rick, Mitch, Matt, Francis, Susie, Dorothy, Gary and everybody else from the old team, Robert and I will be saying a toast to you in an hour or so.  The toast may go something like "God bless those hewittites, and thank god we're no longer with them..." but it will be meant in the best or spirits (and then we'll tip those spirits back). 

Late night musings...

In retrospect I'm amazed at how lucky I've been up to this point. When you're sharing a room with seven to fifteen other people, how long can you expect to go without running into a snorer.  I don't mind people talking in the background or the expected rustling of fellow travelers (some more considerate of others) bumbling into bed after me or getting up before me and packing to check out, but that constant drone of loud snoring is too much for me.  I didn't think anybody could snore louder than my dad (uh, sorry dad) and my first roommate in college definitely seemed to try, but this guy is by far the loudest I've ever shared a room with! 

That brings us to the topic of hostels in general though.  My mom said the other day I should describe them a bit more for my cousin, who I think after hearing me compare them to college dorms is seriously reconsidering her academic future. Some of the hostels I've stayed in have been better than others.  My guide described the one I'm currently staying in as quite the party hostel and "not for the faint of heart".  Then again the very same guide also mixed up "men" and "women" in the estonian language section under bathroom -- forturnately my friend pointed out the error before any embarrassing situations ensued!  Personally I'd describe this hostel as relatively tame, quiet and clean.  Obviously the guests make all the difference, and it's only Tuesday night, so maybe it's much more of a happening place on the weekend, but at the moment that's not the case.  The kitchen gets a bit stuffy if you don't turn the vent on, but then the vent actually works which says something.  The showers have decent drainage.  Really, that last part is one of the most important things in my opinion.  And I think that may be one of the things in my description that scared my cousin the most -- I think I threw in stories of girls in the dorms habitually wiping the hair that got stuck in their hands on the shower wall.  I bought flip flops in stockholm because I really don't want to catch athletes foot. Given the number of showers I'll be sharing with any number of insurmountable travelers, I really don't want to end up with fungal growth on my feet.  It's a small price to pay.  So yes, I can understand where this aspect of budget travel would deter the faint of heart, but I do feel the need to point out -- without offending those to whose dwellings I'm about to allude -- that in many ways the hostels are often better accomodations than staying with a friend would be.  A lot of us (particularly in the USA) have led sheltered lives.  We grew up in new construction homes with showers that actually have curtains (or sometimes even doors) and a house with a central hot water tank.  You turn on the hot water and out comes hot water -- granted, sometimes you have to wait a bit before the pipes between you and the hot water tank heat up.  It's a lot easier to lay two pipes in brand new wood construction though.  Imagine a home or building with masonry walls that was built 80 or more years ago.  You get one water pipe -- one cold water pipe.  Then you put in a space heater real close to the shower or sink where you want hot water.  If nobody turns the water heater on, you have to wait before you get hot water.  Or, in some cases if it's automatic, there's little tricks -- like you have to turn the water on all the way before the heater registers it should heat the water.  Of course sometimes that means the waters splashing out of the sink...  Back the the showers though.  In older construction, bath tubs are more common.  Imagine showering in a bath tub with no curtain and a hand nosel. It's nothing to complain about, but if you're used to a shower that you can stand in, it's a bit of a challenge not to make a mess!  So in that respect, the showers at the hostels can seem luxurious.

Ok, I'm going to head back to bed now.  With any luck the snoring will have ceased for a bit. Besides, the constant coughing from the guy behind me is almost as bad =)

Quick chekin in...

Sorry, I know, I've been delinquent and haven't posted anything in almost a week. I did upload some pictures from Riga to my flickr account which you can find if you click on one of the pictures below and then click on "dscheffy's photostream". I'm in Vilanius now and figured it would probably make sense at the very least to update the blog with my whereabouts in case anybody wants to find me (or track me down if I go missing =)

So today I checked in at the HI hostel in Vilanius. I think it's called the "Old town hostel". After arriving I spent most of the day sleeping. Riga was great. I spent more time there than I planned, but that was a good thing.

I'll update more later...

A short break from the hustle and bustle of nomadic life...

Well, it's already after 2 in the afternoon, and I haven't even left the apartment. At some poinit I'll need to run over to the bus depot at the very arrange my ride to Riga tomorrow (um, I'm in Tallinn right now by the way). I'll probably also pop in at Stockmann a block away to take advantage of their wifi connection. Actually, one of the neighbors in this building seems to have one, but for whatever reason I can't send emails out through it, I can only receive -- it's very remniscent of my experience in Sweden...
So what have I done today? Mostly veged out. I actually planned on doing this yesterday and then seeing the town today, but, well, things don't always work out the way you want them to... I slept in until around noon -- a luxury which I was greatful for -- and then decided to make a pot of coffee when I remembered there was no milk in the fridge. I decided to make a quick run over to Stockmann (a large department store with a grocery section on the first floor). It's only a block away from my friend's apartment, so I didn't bother to shower or change. I just hopped into my jeans and off I went -- well, for some odd reason I did decide (almost presciently) to throw the few city walking tour guide books Rene had left out for me into my pocket. You see, Rene had explained the night before that there was a slight issue with the key situation. His door has two locks -- one which works, and one which kind of works. Unfortunately the one that works well only has one key that also works well. The only lock with two good keys was the lock that doesn't work well... So we risked it and decided to use the questionable lock -- I wasn't even sure I'd be able to get out alright! Getting out turned out not to be an issue, but when I came back with my liter of piim (milk) and bottle of water, I put the key in the lock, turned it without any trouble, but still couldn't open the door. Had I forgotten to lock it in the first place? I tried to turn it back to it's original position, but now it was stuck! After a good ten minutes of jiggling, twisting, pushing, pulling, and anything else just short of kicking I finally turned it back to its original position, but that didn't help either. It was indeed still locked. I gave it another 10 minutes or so of frustration and finally gave up with the lock in such a state that the key wouldn't turn more than a few degrees in either direction. I later heard when Rene came back, it took him a good 15 minutes and some blistered fingers to finally work it open. After that ordeal, we decided to stick with the good lock today -- that means I'm here with the key and just need to make sure I come back before Rene does tonight.
So here I sit, already 2:30, soothing my throat with a nice warm bowl of seljanka -- apparently one of the few russian things the Estonians had the composure not to attempt ridding themselves of -- and watching my clothes hang dry right beside me. Yes mom, I took advantage of Rene's washing machine. There's no dryer though, and even though I'm sure my jeans would probably be dry by tomorrow morning, I decided to help them (and my oxford shirt) to dry a little faster by applying a heavy dose of hot iron. It may sound odd, but after two weeks of running around, it's great to just sit back and pretend like I'm not leading a nomadic lifestyle. I'm greatful for the opportunity to sit around in the privacy of an empty apartment and do nothing for a day. Like I said, I was hoping to do just that yesterday, but sometimes you just have to see the sites in day (or two) old dirty clothes and a slightly stale body that wants for a nice hot shower.
Tallinn is a cute little town, and under other circumstances I would be out and about wandering around aimlessly as usual, but I'm once again feeling a bit under the weather. I think I caught another cold in Helsinki and this one's hit my sinuses harder than the last one. Since getting to Tallinn my nose has been stuffy, runny, I've had a cough, and my heads a bit cloudy in general. Actually, part of me wonders if slowing down is exactly what brought all the symptoms on. Adrenaline is a great antihistamine and it's possible all the running around is the only thing that kept me from being more stuffed up earlier on.
One of the best things about sitting around here is the chance it gives me to listen to the local music. Rene left the radio on when he left this morning (lucky for me because if he hadn't, I probably wouldn't have thought to turn it on myself). So while jotting down whatever crosses my mind, sipping down my seljanka (oh yeah, I forgot to explain what that is -- it's a bit hard to explain, but for those of you who know what rouladen is, imagine a soup with the intense flavor of rouladen only maybe a litte bit sweeter. For the rest of you, there's no way I can explain the exquisite flavor, but picture a russian bachelor who wants to make soup for guests, but opens his fridge to discover all he has is an assortment of salami and other sandwich wursts, a jar of pickles, a jar of olives, an onion, a lone bell pepper -- I know, what bachelor would have that in his fridge... And maybe a hunk of some other bargain basement meat of questionable origin. Cut all those condiments up, throw them in a pot with some water and a healthy dose of paprika, and I imagine that's how you make seljanka! No, it doesn't sound particularly appetizing, but then again I'm sure I'm leaving something out of the preparation because trust me, it tastes great!) Man, that was a long parenthetical -- so long I'm sure not only I, but you too have forgotten where I was and feel the need to backtrack. Don't worry, I'll just cut the train of thought whereever it was and move on with another one =) Anyway, oh yeah, the music =) It's fun to take some time and listen to the local music, because well, it's not really as local as you might think. I mean, I'm not listening to traditional Estonian village music (if that happens to exist) but rather just whatever the popular top 40 mainstream type radio station happens to play. Radio uno -- or that's what they just said in the call signal. It's mostly english music, but with a distinctly european twist. If you haven't spent much time here, that can be hard to explain. Ok, here's an example. Most people have probably heard the comment that "Germans love David Hasselhoff". While that may be a bit of an exageration or overgeneralization, there is a bit of truth to it. How many americans have ever even heard a song by David Hasselhoff -- yes, he sings, and as I alluded to, even has a successful career in singing thanks to the European market. Chess pointed out another example in Helsinki. Saturday we went to a football game -- and yes, I mean an american football game, not soccer! Um, here's a quick aside, I think a good highschool team could have beaten either of these teams... But then again, I don't know much about football... Anyway, at half time the cheerleaders did there little cheers and a song came on that I vaguely recognized, but couldn't place. It was Man-eater by Nelly Furtado. In the US here ubiquitously unmistakebly recognizable first release would be promiscuous girl, but here she (or I should probably say her marketers) decided to release man eater instead. I can see why too -- it just fits better to the european market. There's a certain plastic overproducedness to the music that makes it here. It's almost cheesy by american standards, but it's also kind of feel good comfort music if you can get past the cheesyness. There's something else about the music here -- they never stop playing certain songs. Where else (aside from some strangely mixed up specialty oldies station) would you still here Phil Collins and Michael Jackson on a regular basis. I just heard a song by Marillion -- a CD which I actually have, but a band which very few of my friends have ever heard of. Thinking back it makes sense that I first heard the band in the room of a german exchange student who spent a year at my highschool. I've actually heard a lot of Juanes which shouldn't surprise me too much, but I was a bit surprised to hear Monchy y Alesandra's Obsession this morning on the radio. So I imagine none of this really has any significance to most of you, but having lived here (well in Germany anyway) for half a year, it's always oddly comforting to hear the music that I've been missing for the last ten years. It's just part of being "home" again. So for those of you who asked if I wasn't going to miss my home while I'm off traveling the world, yeah, sure. Of course I'll miss my friends and certain conveniences, and my favorite places, but like I've said before, when I'm at home, I miss all my other homes. Ha ha, sorry, had to laugh, they're playing Juanes again -- tenga la camisa negra. They seem to be overplaying this and a dios le pido everywhere.
Ok, I know I haven't said much, but I'm going to leave it at that for now before too much of the day slips away from me. I do after all need to run out and check on fairs and bus schedules for Riga tomorrow. As always though, I swear I'll go back and catch up on just what it was I spent my days doing in denmark, sweden and finnland =)
Until then, happy trails!

What are you sinking?

That's what all the germans were asking when I visited Rodin's thinker today at the Atenium in Helsinki.

I know, I know, I still owe everybody a better update on what I've been up to and some more pictures, but, well, I've been kind of busy having fun =) My mom will be proud though. Yesterday I did go to church. I didn't realize that's what it was when I walked in the door, but I figured it out quickly enough. Later I found out it was even the Lutheran church -- which explained a lot, because although it was somewhat ornate on the outside, the interior was rather simplistic. Tonight I'm going out with some guys I met last night. Locals actually. A few weeks before I left, I met a couple germans in chicago at a bar and went out with them two nights later. That next time I met up with them again, one of the new guys I met said he had a friend in Finnland that I should look up. I'm greatful that he sent me his friends contact information just before I made it here, because it's always nice to see a town from the locals' point of view. Oddly enough, my newly aquainted german friend's friend in finnland is actually from Columbia and most of his friends that we met up with (ok, actually all of them) were also foriegners. A couple spaniards, a turk, a welshmen, and an american. Not to worry, that just meant I had to make up for the lack of finnish blood in the group by talking to some nice ladies at the clubs =) Tonight I'm meeting up with the same guys at another bar so with that I bid you all adieu.

15. Sept 2006

Some more photos from the night out in stockholm

Some more photos from the night out in stockholm
Originally uploaded by dscheffy.

Not sure why, but I couldn't upload anymore photos on blogger. We'll see if it works this way...

Some more photos from the night out in stockholm

Some more photos from the night out in stockholm
Originally uploaded by dscheffy.

Not sure why, but I couldn't upload anymore photos on blogger. We'll see if it works this way...

Some more photos from the night out in stockholm

Some more photos from the night out in stockholm
Originally uploaded by dscheffy.

Not sure why, but I couldn't upload anymore photos on blogger. We'll see if it works this way...

A night out on the town in Stockholm

Last night we went to a bar called the KGB to watch what we thought would be a live gipsy-punk band (whatever that might be). The band wasnt what we expected, but still pretty cool. More the u2 style of music than anything else, but live music is live music... They didnt play too long, after the first set I saw them packing up and asked if they were leaving -- yeah, apparently the neighbors complained... After that we headed upstairs -- they place was a maze with two stories under ground and a few above. Ok, maybe a maze is a bit of an exageration -- the floor space on each floor was tiny, but with the winding stairs it was kind of crazy. In the bathroom they were playing teach yourself communist russian tapes -- stuff like how to say Are you an american? You dont speak russian do you? Whats wrong with you stupid american? It was pretty funny. Anyway, after the band stopped, the regular bar music was the type of music we were expecting. We went upstairs by the main bar for a bit and Christie convinced me to have a go at two cute swedish girls. No luck. They talked to me for a few minutes but it was going nowhere. Later Bernd one of the germans struck up a conversation with a group of six blondes -- half very easy on the eyes, the other half not so much... Somehow we seemed to keep getting stuck with the second half! Anyway, one of the girls pointed out the couple at the table next to us and asked if the girl with the guy was herself actually a guy. Definitely, that or a very very manly looking girl! We really werent having any luck with the blondes either, and by the time we left we were seriously starting to wonder if wed made the mistake of trying to find girls in a gay-lesbian bar... Still, all in all a very fun night out!

Vasa -- the not so little viking ship that couldnt.

Wow, how embarrassing is this. Commission some huge battle ship with double decker cannons and ornate statues, crack that bottle of champaigne on it before its maiden voyage, wave as it pulls out of the port, and then watch as it topples over after hoisting a few sails! Well, thats more or less what happened to the Vasa. It sat around unnoticed on the sea floor right outside the stockholm for a couple hundred years until somebody took notice 50 or so years ago, dredged it up and put it all back together one piece at a time. It was pretty cool to look at -- unfortunately with its size and the dark lighting it was hard to get a decent picture of.

That second pictures of me right after visiting the Vasa museum, and just before heading back to get rid of all that hair Id accumulated! Wow it feels nice to be semi clean shaven again =)

Gotenborg (pronounced you-da-bore) a charming town which I hardly saw...

I stopped in Gotenborg for a night, wandered around town and had some pizza with a french-swiss guy from the hostel, drank weak heineken (some strange swedish law about alcohol content) with 3 cool Germans, slept absolutely marvelously in a nice chilly room, did some laundry, spent far too long trying to figure out how to do Norway before finally giving up and heading out to Stockholm -- and yes, all I have to show for it is a few pictures of me walking to the train station...

A quick update and some photos...

Yeah, yeah, I know, Im a bit behind. Pardon the lack of certain punctuation (namely the apostrophe) but Im typing on a swedish keyboard at the hostel and dont know where it is. If every now and then you notice a ä slip in where youäd expect to see one, thats because thats the key thats in its place... Anway, I dont really want to take too much time right now to give a long drawn out account of the last few days, I figure maybe Ill do that on the ferry tomorrow night on my way to Helsinki -- unless of course that turns out to be one rip roaring party in which case i might wait a little longer =)

This hostel does have wifi, but for some reason I havent been able to send out mail from my pda since getting to sweden, so Im hoping thats some wierd swedish privacy policy issue with googles smtp setup... Hopefully itll fix itself. Thats part of the reason I havent updated anything. I just noticed all the computers in the hostel have memory card slots though, so that makes life even easier to upload some shots which is what I figured Id take the time to do now. Sorry, Copenhagen is very, um, nonexistent in my photos. I unfortunately forgot to take the camera with me a lot of places. Ive been a little (very little) better about it in Stockholm at least. Stockholms been great. I havent really done all that much in terms of museums (I did make it to see the viking ship Vasa at least) but hanging out an wandering around and going out with new friends from the hostel has been an unbelievable experience!

Heres a few pictures though. Once I finish up here Im going to head out and see if I can find a spot to watch the sun set over the see.

En route to kobenhavn

En route to kobenhavn
Originally uploaded by dscheffy.

I wonder if I need to be dating these. Yesterday I tried sending my first post and I'm not really sure if it worked. For some reason all the pictures I took were unrecognizable on my pda -- corrupt or something. I tried again today and the ones I've taken since then seem to be fine. I guess my palm just didn't like the pictures I took of that pile of horse @$@#... Anyway, I haven't really gotten around to figuring out how to send text only posts directly to blogger.com -- I just know the email address I use for posting pictures as attachments via flickr so I tried sending the post sans attachment and I'm not sure if flickr appreciated that. It could also be that it doesn't like it when I send too much text. These are all things I'll figure out with time.



It's thursday now -- the seventh maybe? What, I got in on tuesday which was the fifth, so yeah, today must be thursday september 7th. Last night I went out again with Mark for a few beers and some Currywurst. Doener Kebab und currywurst, was sonst hat Deutschland anzubieten? Mark suggested when I get home I should open a restaurant that serves both. Of course I think most of the success revolved around his other suggestion of topless waitresses. I said that wouldn't go over so well in the states, but if I end up marrooned somewhere else rather than making it back home, I'll definitely keep the idea in mind;-)



It was another semi restless night, but by the time my alarm went off at 5:45, I didn't want to wake up... I hit the snooze button a few times and rushed down to take a quick bath and get ready to leave in a rush. We left a little later than planned, but Mark got me to the trainstation with plenty of time to spare. Now it's a little afternoon and I've just entered Denmark. The highlight of the trip was definitely the 45 minute ferry ride between the two countries. It was my first and I didn't realise that the train pulls into a lower level of the ferry and you have to get off if you want to see anything. I went up top to look around and have a little goulasch suppe. It's pretty gray out so the pictures I shot of the cloudy horizon aren't particularly mentionable, but I'm sure I've included one. Windmills -- no, not off the side of the ferry, but on land out the window of the train just now. I looked to the side and saw a big array of them. How's that for a nonsequitor...



The one picture I would have liked to get, but had already gone back in and put my camera away, was of a seagull. It was flying alongside the boat, but since we were both moving at the same pace, it looked as though the gull was just stuck in time, floating mid air, not moving at all. Every now and then it would jut a bit from side to side, but it maintained its course sitting in the same spot, mid air, relative to the boat. A couple stood next to it, the man holding a camera focused on something off in the horizon, completely oblivious to the bird less than an armslength away. I couldn't help but wonder if the bird thought it was racing us. Eventually it did start to overtake the boat and slowly moved forward -- bad move. There a maintenance man stood with a hose in hand. He'd been washing the deck, but now that the seagull was within reach, he found more entertaining uses for his hose... It didn't take long for the bird to abandon us.

Finally found a hotspot!

So I'm sitting on a bench in some random little square, which aside from the large pile of horse maneur on the street 50 or so feet in front of me, could actually be referred to as charming.  Nothing special, but relatively empty, quiet and relaxing.  Occasionally a car or bike goes by in which case you hear that slight jingle of the bell on the handle bars as the bike rides over the cobbelstones.  Anyway, I made it here safely.  Here is Hannover by the way.  The flight was relatively uneventful.  I had the great fortune of getting assigned a seat in the emergency exit row which meant plenty of leg room!  Even more fortunately, the flight seemed to be relatively empty (or at least not filled to the brim) which is probably why there was an emergency aisle seat available for the checkin girl to offer me.  I was a bit afraid I might end up sitting next to somebody else as big as me, but no, in the three seats there were just two of us (one seat empty betweeen us) -- me and a mid sized roumanian guy who apparenlty lives with his parents about half a mile from the house I grew up in.  We took off a little late and our seats made us privy to the real reason why -- it seemed there was some mishap with the food order and they had to get it straightened out at the last minute.  When meal time came I said I'd ordered a veg meal, but if there was any shortage I could take either.  No, there was plenty of veg!  My neighbor the roumanian asked for the chicken, but all they had was the "muslim" meal of mutton.  A minute later they came out with a chicken meal for him, but he'd already opened the mutton the gave him both.  I offered to take the mutton off his hands and he was more than happy to oblige =)  mmmm, free airplane food =)  Yeah, these were the highlights, relatively uneventful.  Anyway, we landed, disembarked, went through customs (if you can call it that -- there was no line and some guy stamped my passport and waved me on in matter of seconds).  Later on after the baggage check there was also a spot with two lines -- nothing to declare and something to declare.  This may sound odd, but I went through the nothing to declare line twice.  The second time there were two people in front of me and it looked like one of them was getting checked so I was frustrated with myself for walking back into that area in.  Basically after exiting I wanted to find somewhere that I could buy a sim card for my phone.  There was nothing downstairs so I went back upstairs.  I found a shop, but didn't like the price so headed back toward the train -- the stairs said baggage claim and to trains.  I imagine there had to be some other way to get back down without going through the baggage claim, but they could have pointed that out...  Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.  As I waited for my bags, I called a friend who happened to be in Frankfurt.  Man it was nice having euros including plenty of coins on me already!  Unfortunately she said she was pretty busy and didn't have any time to hang out.  She gave me some tips on where to go to pick up a sim card, but I didn't end up at the place she recommended until today -- and unfortunately didn't bother to bring my passport with me so couldn't get one!  Anyway, getting ahead of myself again.  It was frustrating watching the units drop down on the phone though, and rather than throwing another euro in, I unfortunately let the call get cut off just as I was saying, sorry, no more time, have to go!  I'll have to write her an email now that I've found a connection...
So I hopped on the first train for the main trainstation -- there must have been some recent construction, because I don't recall having to run all over the place to get to the tracks.  They were rather out of the way and as I was still carrying a duffle bag rather than a backpack (the backpack was pulled apart and stuffed in a duffle bag for the plane checkin) the walk was tiresome on my hands...  I eventually switched over to wearing the duffle bag as though it were a backpack.  By some strange twist of luck, my train was late and I missed the connection hannover in frankfurt.  When I checked for the next train, I saw there was one that left even later from the airport which I had completely missed, yet arrived earlier in hannover -- I could have had a direct trip had I paid better attention...  Oh well.
The train came, I boarded, and opted for an empty cabin.  The cabins are much more condusive to meeting people than the open seating areas, and I'll admit to at times even selecting a cabin purely because a cute girl was already sitting there (that is after all how I met one of my best friends here in germany...) but today I opted to take my chances and see who would join me -- somebody always joins you.  In this case it was and older german gentleman (presumably traveling on business) and soon thereafter a very obviously american couple -- also older.  As it turned out, the german was very amicable and had spent 11 years of his life working in various locations around the world and his daughter currently lives in the states so the ride was one non stop conversation (in english).  Not quite what I might have hoped for, but also more pleasant than it could have been.  I spent the first few minutes debating whether I wanted to shun my fellow americans, but gave up on those thoughts quickly.

Eventually we made it into hannover and I disembarked.  When I called my friends house I was happy to hear his mother's voice.  I hadn't done the best job preparing them for my arrival, so if nobody was home I might have considered moving on to some other location and finding a hostel.  My friends mother gave me directions to their place which I must have half misunderstood, but certain stops sounded familiar enough that I tried my luck getting off at one and asking some random locals which way to their street.  At last. I was home for the night.  I could set my bags down and relax!  We had a quick snack and talked for a bit, then I took a nap and rebuilt my backpack.  When my friend came home from work we went out for a quick drink and some nice catching up and capped the night off with one of my favorites -- a doenner kebab!  Mmm!  I planned on leaving this morning for Denmark, but the jetlag hit me a little harder than I hoped and I didn't sleep that well last night.  I was also battling my cold a bit, so decided during my sleeplessness that I'd stay and extra day in hannover to relax and recover a bit before moving on.  Denmark will still be there tomorrow =)
Ok, time to go do some more wandering.  I've been at this park bench long enough.  Till the next time...