I'm back!

Hello everyone!
I finally have some down time to catch everyone up with what i've been up with. I also managed to buy  an SD card reader! Hurray!
First- I'll recount my adventures in Hamburg before I forget.
On June 2nd the USAC group took a field trip to Hamburg. Our student ID lets us travel around the state of Niedersachsen for free! I'm so glad we have this pass.
State of Niedersachsen, in dark green:

You'll notice three small areas in Germany- those are city-states of Hamburg, Bremen, and Berlin. So far i've been to Bremen and Hamburg (often), and Berlin is planned for next month!

We went to the Hamburg Historical museum where we learned a lot about the history of Hamburg. One interesting fact: there was a huge fire in Hamburg in 1842; before then, the city refused to modernize their water supply. After the fire...it was a different story. About a quarter of the city was destroyed by the fire. As mentioned before, one of the buildings destroyed was St. Nikolai church, which was rebuilt and then destroyed again by Allied bombings in WWII. The bombings destroyed a majority of the city. Our group leader Sören told us that in all of Hamburg, there are only 2 streets that remain that are actually "old"- meaning they look like the streets of Lüneburg. The rest were destroyed or modernized. The museum was awesome- Hamburg has a long maritime history: the Reeperbahn, pirates, trade, and it was also part of the Hanseatic league (more info on this tomorrow, since our class is taking a trip to the Salzmuseen (Salt museum) to learn more about it.

Firetruck used in 1842. Fire went from May 4-8.

Melted relics from the fire in 1842

Our second activity consisted of taking a river boat tour of the Elbe River. My, it was so windy! We walked there from the museum, and it was a 20 min walk there. We saw the Reeperbahn during the day, which isn't as hectic as it is at night. There are ferrys run by the public transport system of Hamburg (HVV) and they have ferries that can take you across the river to other stations. At first, I was really nervous about getting on a boat, since I hadn't been on one in such a long time. After a while, I got used to the life at sea- er, river. 

Me on a boat!

We walked to our third and final stop- St. Nikolai church. My experience about the church is posted in the entry previous to this, if you want to check it out. But here are some pictures:

My first view of the church, and thinking: "That's a very odd structure for a church..."

Statue to the victims who lost everything. 

Now for a pick-me-up: after Hamburg, we all went to dinner at a nice place called "The Capitol" in Lüneburg. It was nice to relax with friends and reflect on the day in Hamburg. I had my first currywurst!

with pommes frites (french fries) of course!

For next post: our adventures at the former GDR border.