My first visitor!

Aside from Flat Stanley, at least. My friend Megan came to visit for a couple of days in April. We've known each other since middle school when we started playing soccer together. Then we went to the same high school and Megan was at ND while I was at SMC. She is also quite international so we had a blast sharing travel stories while creating new ones.

Megan studied abroad in Rome, Italy, was in the Peace Corps in Cameroon, Africa, and just finished up a law internship in Geneva, Switzerland. Quite impressive.

Another thing that was impressive was the ground we covered. We determined that we walked at least 1,000 kilometers (approximately...). We hit the parks, the city, and the harbor. Naturally, with stops at bakeries and cafés. And that was only Sunday. Monday was a little less grueling and concluded with cocktails at 20up, a bar overlooking the harbor.

The German also had a friend visiting, Thomas, so we all went sight-seeing together that Sunday. In simple terms, it was really fun.

Highlights:

1. Seeing 35-40 teenage male models promoting the opening of Abercrombie & Fitch. They wore jeans and unzipped, red sweatshirts to show off their six-packs. Perfume was pumped into the air and they shouted, "What's up, Hamburg?" from the street and the top of the Alte Post building. Henceforth it will now be known as Abercrombie Tower. Megan was more courageous with the camera, so I'll have to get some pictures from her...

2. We took a nice ride on the ferry. It had just started to rain (duh) so everyone bee-lined for the bottom level which provided seats and protection. Megan and I shared a seat, which was fine, except for when I tried to get up and felt like I had just done a 15-minute wall-sit. We then moved to the top for some fresh air. Rubber legs and all.

3. Post ferry-ride we were in need of a "snack" and "coffee:. It took a while to find the perfect one, but one we were seating the sky opened up and we were really glad we were inside. And it stopped raining just in time for us to leave.

I wish I had made it down to Geneva to visit Megan, but am very thankful we was able to schedule a stop to Hamburg. Yay for visitors! Yay for traveling!