Refresher: this is Julia.
The other is Edda, who studies in Kiel but is from Lüneburg, which is right outside of Hamburg. Edda's family invited me to their home for the weekend, which just happened to include Easter and my 21st birthday.
Finally reunited with Edda!
Anyway, I had an AWESOME weekend. As fun and exciting as city life is, it was so relaxing to stay in Edda's house (which is actually located in a tiny town outside of Lüneburg) with two levels, and a backyard, and a patio, etc. Edda's family was so hospitable--I really couldn't have asked for more. We spent one day touring the charming city of Lüneburg, which has population of about 70,000: so like the 120th biggest city in Germany. No really, I looked it up. Later in the day, we stopped at a cafe and I had my second Flammkuchen [I guess we would call it a tarte flambée] in Germany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammkuchen Later that night, Edda and I went back into the city to meet up with two of her friends at an outdoor Kneipe overlooking the river.
A couple pics from the L-burg.
The night before Easter I drove into Hamburg with Edda to her boyfriend's house for an Osterfeuer [Easter fire]. I would have never understood this connection between a fire and Easter if Frau Campbell had not made me do a presentation on it back in high school. Vielen Dank, Frau! I guess it's pretty common in Germany/Northern Europe to make a big bonfire on Easter. The tradition comes from the chasing off of the winter ghosts or something and welcoming warm weather. Maybe you all in Montana should have tried this a while ago?
Our Easter Fire
So Saturday night, Edda and I were at this celebration and we were up until about 1:30. Now, this wouldn't have been a big deal at all if we didn't have to attend a six a.m. church service. We slept for two hours at her boyfriend's house, got up at 3:30 (yes, I woke up on Easter Sunday at 3:30!) and drove back to Edda's house just in time to shower, get dressed and set off driving to another village for church by 5:30. I'm glad I did it though because it was really interesting to sit through a German church service that wasn't all that different from my own church back in Billings which has strong German roots itself. I did almost fall asleep though (Edda nudged me to wake me up), but I didn't feel too bad because I found out later that Edda's dad did fall asleep.
The rest of Easter Sunday was pleasant, although I did try to fit in as many cat naps as possible. We went to an Easter brunch and then drove to the Baltic Sea. Yes, the weather was warm enough to go to the beach--guess that fire worked,
With Edda's family at Easter brunch!
Soaking up the sun. BTW: See that coat? Yeah, found it for 10 Euros! Snäppchen!
The next day was my birthday. Yep, I'm 21. Doesn't really feel any different. Edda and her dad took me into Hamburg. Hamburg is breathtakingly beautiful. I'll let these pictures I took from the top of St. Michel's church speak for themselves.
But if I'm going to be completely honest, for most of the day it didn't really feel like my birthday. My favorite part of having a birthday is all the birthday wishes you get when you go out with friends, the calls and texts you get and the birthday cards. Facebook did a moderate job of satisfying this, but overall it just felt like another awesome day in Europe, but not my birthday. However, the evening ended splendidly because Edda's mom made my new favorite meal here: asparagus with Hollandaise sauce with a tasty raspberry-something for dessert. They even got me presents! It was nice that even if I wasn't home with my family for my birthday, I had another family to make my day extra special.
Thanks for your post script because I was, in fact, wondering that very thing. And although you apparently didn't get hammered, you did at least partake in some day drinking! Day drinking is the best! ;)
ReplyDeletePS I think you meant "Osterhase."
ReplyDelete