RSS Feed

March 21st, 2006

  1. Hamburg: Bok with Iris and Torsten

    March 21, 2006 by Gail

    Last Sunday I took Iris by surprise by getting Berit to phone her and then hand the phone over to me. I’d been meaning to ring her last week to let her know that I was coming to Hamburg to attend Vinny’s memorial service, but I never did get around to making that phone call. Needless to say, she was surprised!

    I met Iris nearly four years ago, when she came to Vancouver for an extended visit and Berit suggested she get in touch with me. Iris stayed in my apartment while I was in Europe and then lived with me for about three months to travel and learn English. We met again in Italy to go camping in the spring of 2003, then she flew to Vancouver in the summer to visit again!

    Iris wanted to show her boyfriend Torsten why she spent so much time in Vancouver, and she booked their flights to coincide with the Vancouver reception for my wedding on October 8. It didn’t take place because David was too sick to fly, so I wasn’t able to see Iris and Torsten last autumn. I’d heard a lot about Torsten, especially that he was TALL…

    Torsten and Iris(A photo they sent last June to wish me a happy birthday.)

    Iris came to pick me up at the apartment, and we took a bus and train to a restaurant called Bok (I couldn’t find a website for them) in the Schanzenviertel area of Hamburg. The restaurant is fusion: popular Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai dishes are all served here, from a rather extensive menu (more than 20 pages!). A good kickoff to our meals of sushi, curry, dumplings, and satay was the lycheewein!

    Torsten joined us later and I got to finally meet the Jolly German Giant in the flesh. He is, indeed, very tall… at least 6ft 5in, in my estimations, so it was to my advantage that we were sitting down the entire time, otherwise I would’ve sprained my neck trying to peer up and speak to him. We spent the entire evening at Bok, but since it was a weekday and Iris and I were going to meet each other again tomorrow and we’d all meet again at the memorial on Saturday, we thought it best to call it a night after 11 o’clock.

    And now I’d best hurry up and make this test CD to bring to the airport in the morning…

    Category Europe, Food + Drink, Friends | Tags: | 3 Comments

  2. Dannenberg

    March 21, 2006 by Gail

    A late start today, partly due to the late end to yesterday (I was on a bit of a tear, scanning away until the wee hours), and sleeping in a bed. The previous two nights I fell asleep on the couch and woke up naturally at 06:00-06:30, even though my stuff was set up in Vinny’s room, but last night evidently broke the cycle. We have a morning meeting at the airport, so tonight I’ll have to try and return to an early rising.

    silent protest Dannenberg

    Berit had errands in her home town of Dannenburg, an hour and a half east of Hamburg, so we took the car and spent the afternoon there. It’s been more than seven years, but I remembered the café we stopped at and remarked on some gentrification changes in town centre. Dannenberg is near the former East German border and when I visited before, Berit took me across to tour through a nearby village. The buildings, cars, and overall look of the area suggested economic differences that may have evened out since; we’d probably go again if we weren’t short on time.

    old skool

    leaving their mark

    Where we took the dog for a walk happened to be near Berit’s old school, so we stopped by and she showed me where her class made inscriptions back in their graduating year, 1989. (more…)

    Category Europe | Tags: | 2 Comments