Dancing into May

Blankenese

May 1 was a lovely mid-week holiday here in Germany. The big thing to do is "dance into May". I missed this last year due to illness (not my own), so I was determined to do it this year. The experience as a whole wasn't much different than a typical weekend out in Hamburg, but with more broken glass and the fact that it was a Tuesday.

After earning bonus karma points at yoga, I met some girlfriends at a sportsbar to watch Dortmund lose to Real Madrid but advance to the Champion's League final due to the aggregate score. Then we met up with the rest of our no-so-soccer inclined friends for dancing on the Reeperbahn.

The other thing I learned is that my interest in being out late and surrounded by super drunk people is waning. Terribly sober and reeking of smoke, I went to bed at 4am.

After sleeping in a bit, I met a girlfriend for an afternoon in Blankenese. We met up at our favorite café where we met at book club and then we sat by the water for quite a few hours. We even got a little color. After a Bratwurst we made our way back to the city.

I then met up with a group of Germans in Schanze. This was the area we avoided Tuesday night because it's a "different crowd" than sometimes leads to riots including fires and tipped cars. This is typical in Berlin and Hamburg where a lot of extremists and protestors get a little carried away. Before leaving the area, we saw a parade of more than 20 police cars, trucks, and tanks. There were police stationed all over and many streets were closed.

We made it into the city just in time to score seats to watch FC Bayern destroy Barcelona to secure a German final for the Champion's League in a few weeks. Before the game ended, we already were privy to images of water sprayers used to control people in Schanze. We made a good decision.

And that's how you celebrate the start of May.