Bremen Against the Odds

Separated the posts into 2 to demarcate the days. Had to do this cos we are sharing Internet access so as to remain economical. Haha as for the title, well I do know that it is only the round of 32 but it does go a long way for I was so disappointed that I wouldn't be able to watch more of Bremen even though I m here in Germany itself.

Despite being jet-lagged, i had left the TV on lest they decide to show the match on TV. There was only a 50-50 chance of it being available even though I was in the area because I was acutally between Hamburg and Bremen and ^&)*)*_)%^%^ both teams are playing on the same night so they may decide to show Hamburg instead. And to complicate things, there were 4 German sides playing that night. Anyway I had not kept my hopes too high and they were indeed proven right as only the Hamburg and Stuttgart matches were telecasted live. I was cursing and swearing and when I woke up in the morning, full of jitters because I saw 2-2 on my TV screen. My limited knowlege of German meant that i had absolutely no idea what had transpired and my pessisimism veered me towards the alternative thinking that this was the final aggregate score and that something might have happened during the penalty shootout or something like that. This was not helped by the fact that the team manager had a grim face when being interviewed. Thank goodness my host was a Bremen supporter and he managed to convey the good news to me. We had a good chat on the car as we recalled the dark days of Bremen flirting with relegation and our angst at how the way the current season is developing. Haha now just to see if I can somehow convince me to bring me to the Bremen-Bayern match this Sunday at the Weser =p (Anyway, just for the record, he told me that the reason for them not showing the match despite it being so high-profile was that the Italian side had demanded a fee of 1 million Euros for the broadcasting rights. Talk about daylight robbery :(

Spent the remaining time shopping for groceries and taking a little walk around the neighbourhood. Munster has a small local population and it does seem that everybody knows each other with all the hellos being exchanged between drivers and cyclists. Food selection is fair but also quite limited. Its quite unlike all the big cities that i had explored so far. Life virtually stopped after eight, with the public lights being switched off in certain areas to save electricity. Even the traffic lights were removed after 10 and no trains run through the area after 8 pm. It is also unlike the rest of Europe where PDA (Public Displays of Affections) are few and far between. This is of course not helped by the near zero temperature with chills winds and light drizzles that had been plaguing the area.

Can't do much in the area so I m logging off now. Will be heading back to Hamburg city tomorrow again so guess its more nostalgia. Will be updating again soon.

Aufwiedersehn =)

Hamburg Revisited

Yep this blog is back in action again. Many months had passed since I last blogged and many things had also happened. Time was a luxury and there was little time to update myself without getting frustrated by the stupid computer. (This was of course not helped by a desktop that is behaving weird again, kept reseting the date and not recognising itself). Anyway realised this was the only way I can keep you folks back home aware of my exchange programme. Haha certain words will of course be encrypted but I m sure you guys are smart enough to decipher them =)

Haha before I get mushy and all about landing in Hamburg Airport, I must bitch about Lufthansa Airlines. Did not realise that I was actually quite spoilt by all my travels so far, namely Emirates and Malaysia Airlines. I had not realised that PERSONAL in-flight entertainment was an excess and not a given. Yep imagine the horror that was on me when I was stuck for 12 hours on the plane doing nothing except for SLEEPING!!!!!!!! Okay there was audio but imagined listening to the same songs over and over again for 6 cycles. Boooooo!!!!!!! Honestly speaking, i now realised that I should just ignore all the advertisements and price offers and go straight for Emirates when coming to Europe because the 200+ dollars savings is just not worth it. For the first time after so long, i finally understood the meaning of jet-lag =(

Anyway, managed to survive the torture and landed in Frankfurt early yesterday morning. Will talk more about it in one of my routine airport reports another time but nothing out of the blue actually. Typical airport (yes airport and not German airport) with all the silver ceilings and shops. Took the short haul flight to Hamburg which made me a bit emo again. As I stood at the baggage collection area, I recalled the time 3 years ago where I made my first overseas trip on my own. Flying into Hamburg and realised that I was going to realise a childhood dream of travelling to Europe just made everything so surreal. The retrieval of my luggage after it fell through the gap, the nice looking green arch that greeted my exit from the customs, the 8 Euro airport express to the city centre... Every liitle thing that came into view held a story of its own.

Day 1 was spent quite uneventfully. Went around in the car to find our hotel and other interesting place. Took a car tour of Hamburg and again memories returned. I still recalled looking at the Chillihaus and wondering what's so amazing about the building. Then there was the bridge which had a statue of Columbus and Vasco De Gama on each side to commemorate the importance of the Age of Exploration had on the development of Hamburg as a port and commercial centre. Then there was the cathedral of St. Catherine where I was caught in heavy rain and still decide to take a photo of it to show that I was there. It was another trip down nostalgia lane. However was quite jet-lagged (all thanks to that 12 hours of no TV) and concussed.