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Saturday, April 26, 2008
Travel Update
Finally .. a post from our trip. I can't believe that it's already Saturday. Time has just been flying while we have been here. Had a really nice three days in Hamburg. We took a 2-hour canal cruise, went to the top of St. Michael's Church where you have really nice views of the city and pretty much walked all over downtown. Had a really great Italian dinner in the Altona neighborhood as well.
Friday morning we left Hamburg to continue to Luebeck, a really super pretty town about 40 min from Hamburg. Made a stop at the Niederegger Marzipan store (so many great things) and walked all around the old center. It's such a pretty historic town.
From Luebeck we continued to Owschlag to attend my friend Lena's wedding. The wedding was at a small village church and the reception was held at a country bed+breakfast inn. Rural northern Germany is definitely very pretty. We had a good time at the wedding. Hopefully we will be able to meet up with Lena again on Monday to catch up some more.
Today we left for Copenhagen/Denmark so that's where we are now. Explored the city center of Copenhagen today. Went to see the Little Mermaid statue, the Amalienborg Palace, City Hall Square and Nyhavn. I really like Copenhagen so far. It's a very pricey but also very beautiful city. Tomorrow we are going to meet up with Tizz and Lotte. Then Monday it's back to Germany and Tuesday back to the US.
Mail Update: Mailed letters on Tuesday from Germany to: Tizz/Denmark, Charles/TN and Alex/Germany. Received letters from/still owe replies to: Jetta/Finland.
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Sunday, April 20, 2008
Getting ready for a trip can be very tiring
Spent most of the day today so far getting everything together for our trip. My cat Oliver followed me around for most of the day but eventually decided that taking a nap in the last sunrays on the bed would be much more fun. Can't say I blame him really. I am mostly done at this point, just wondering what I am forgetting - the usual feeling really. I have my outfit for the wedding and the wedding gift & card so I guess that's what's most important.
I am definitely looking forward to the trip even though it still doesn't seem quite real. Will be fun to explore Hamburg, then head up to Luebeck and to Lena's wedding and then further north to Copenhagen. Can't wait to meet up with Lotte and Tizz in Copenhagen as well. It will definitely be a fun trip even though I am sure it will fly by really quickly.
Mail Update: No letters have gone out. Received letters from/still owe replies to: Tizz/Denmark, Charles/TN, Alex/Germany and Jetta/Finland.
Posted by Hanna at 05:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Up, up and away
Somehow it hasn't quite clicked with me yet but we will be on a plane to Europe in less than 2 days. Our flight leaves on Monday at 2:25 pm. We have to connect twice (once in Washington DC and once in Brussels/Belgium) and get to Hamburg at 9:50 am local time on Tuesday.
It will be nice to be away from work for 8 days. This past week has just been really busy and hectic. I hope that things will calm themselves down again soon. I don't know why it always happens like that but things always tend to fall apart a few days before we go on a trip. I am sure I will have my hands full when I get back from our trip but in the meantime I just put together an emergency plan amd hopefully it will be ok at least until we get back.
Not sure how much I will be able to update while I am in Europe. If I don't get around to it I will make sure to post when I get back. :) Keep me updated on any of your news. I'll try and post as much as I can while we are away though.
Mail Update: No letters have gone out. Received letters from/still owe replies to: Tizz/Denmark, Charles/TN, Alex/Germany and Jetta/Finland.
Posted by Hanna at 07:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sunday, April 13, 2008
"Dirt" Play
Another weekend trip to NYC. Spent the day in NYC yesterday, first hanging out at an Irish pub in the East Village and then going to a play later in the evening. At one of the Austrian meet-ups in NYC I had met Chris who is from Salzburg but has an American mother so is half American, half Austrian and has lived in the US for quite a few years now. He told me about the play Dirt that he is currently in in NYC. It's a one-man-show based on a book by Robert Schneider (an Austrian author). It's a story about immigration and racism which is very relevant these days. I enjoyed seeing the show and am glad we went to see it.
We got home pretty late so I haven't really done that much today. Researched some things for our upcoming trip to Hamburg/Copenhagen (sights, restaurants, transit/subway maps, etc.) - can't believe that we will be leaving in only a little over a week. Our flight leaves on Monday, April 21st in the afternoon.
Not much else planned for tonight. Will probably make a Thai chicken dish for dinner later (Spicy Basil Chicken) and maybe we will watch a movie afterwards. Will see what happens.
Mail update. Since the last update a letter went out to: Charles/TN. Received letters from/still owe replies to: Alex/Germany and Jetta/Finland.
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Monday, April 07, 2008
Pen pal meet-up, eye doctor visit and other random stuff
Yesterday's meet up with Panagiota in NYC was a lot of fun. We met up at her hotel and then headed to Arturo's for a late lunch/early dinner. After we were done eating we went for a walk over to South Street Seaport where you have some great views of the Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan. It was really nice to finally meet her in person. Hopefully we'll get to do it again some day, maybe in Switzerland next time. :)
Today was just a nutty day at work. I don't know why but everyone seems to be exta crazy on a Monday (customers, drivers and other employees, ....) I also had to rush to leave work at 3 so I could make my eye doctor appointment at 3:30. Of course the way the day was going I ended up waiting forever anyway. The good news is that my prescription hasn't changed so I can keep my glasses. The annoying part is that I had to pay $45 in co-pay, have my eyes dilated and sit around for over an hour to find that out. Oh well, such is life I suppose.
I am home now, made myself some dinner and tea. Mike's out with a friend for a bit. Maybe I'll treat myself and have some chocolate and watch a girly movie. My eyes are still kind of screwy from being dilated so maybe I'll wait just a little bit longer to do that. I guess I'll have some more tea in the meantime.
Mail update. Tomorrow (I forgot to mail them today) letters are going out to: Nicki/Australia, Carmen/Malta and Celia/MA. Received letters from/still owe replies to: Charles/TN, Alex/Germany and Jetta/Finland.
Posted by Hanna at 06:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Random Update
And another week has flown by. Somehow time is just flying this year. I really can't wrap my mind around the fact that it's already April. Does anyone else feel like that?
Went to a Customer Service Seminar on Tuesday which was pretty interesting. I did realize that I have been out of school for a while though because listening and studying for a whole day did seem kind of draining, especially in the later part of the afternoon. I did enjoy going though and liked some of the suggestions/ideas. Now the tricky part of course is to actually implement some of these techniques in my every day life at work. :)
Was at work today till about 3, did the dishes when I got home and then had some tea and wrote some letters. Made dinner a little while ago (scrimp scampi over egg noodles with some garlic toast) and am now surfing the web/catching up on some online stuff. Will probably watch a movie in a little while. We have "The Kingdom", "The Lake House" and "Scoop" to choose from.
Tomorrow we are meeting up with my pal Panagiota from Switzerland who is here in NYC on business. It will be great to meet her in person. I always enjoy meeting my pals/online friends in real life.
Mail update. On Monday so far letters are going out to: Carmen/Malta and Celia/MA. Received letters from/still owe replies to: Charles/TN, Nicki/Australia, Alex/Germany and Jetta/Finland.
Posted by Hanna at 08:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack