It took a few more hours to get to the Hamburg station, during which time I was able to read and slightly get to know an old German woman who sat down beside me. She didn't really speak English and, unfortunately, my German is practically non-existent, but she got really excited when she saw I was reading "Catcher in the Rye" and kept pointing to different things that were passing by outside. I love taking the train because it goes through so much beautiful countryside, and it's still so amazing to me that you can jump on and in hours travel pretty much anywhere in the country. On the train from Köln to Hamburg there were a ton of people, some of the most amusing of which were a group of guys whom I think were having a bachelor party - they were already completely drunk and singing for the whole car at 11 in the morning. Once I got to Hamburg, I only had to wait a short time before my final train to Kiel, which was supposed to arrive at 15:36. The transportation system is amazing here - I stepped onto the platform just as the clock in the station was reach 3:35. Arne was there to meet me and we walked a little ways from the station down to the harbor, which was beautiful. It was a great weekend to go, because all of last week was the "Kieler Woche", one of the world's largest sailing events and a huge party for the entire city. People from all over come to watch the thousands of ships in the harbor, which during the week do everything from racing to just hanging out and sailing.
We accidentally took the wrong bus and had to walk a bit more than intended to get to Arne's Mom's flat, but it was a good opportunity to check out some of the city. Kiel was destroyed pretty badly during the second world was because of the harbor there, so many of the houses are newer and the street plan is much more modern than in other towns. However, we went to a really nice older part of town where his mom has a great flat. Since we were both starving we started making dinner, which was a pasta dish with a whole array of vegetables and cheeses.
We had a fun time talking and hanging out at dinner - Arne's mom and sister are really fun and wanted me to be stuffed before I left the table. After cleaning up we jumped on the internet for a bit to check out the bands playing that night at the Kiel Woche - Arne had told me there was a really big party on the harbor and throughout the whole city during the entire week, and that it got best at night. We looked up what bands were playing and when and walked down toward the harbor. What he had told me was a "party" was a complete understatement. When we got to the harbor, I was engulfed in the largest, most eclectic and fun group of people I think I have ever been in. It was amazing - along the entire harbor, which is quite a few kilometers long, were stands to buy sausages, döners, beer, cocktails, cakes, and pretty much any other item that could possibly be sold. There was music blasting when we first got there, and as we walked one concert would be drowned out by the sounds of another on up the street. It was awesome just to be in the middle of all of the crazy revelry and on one side have parties, food, and fun, while on the other evening lay over the harbor. There were a ton of people just hanging out on their boats either in the docks or nearby, just relaxing and watching everything that was going on.
Something interesting the Germans do to promote cleanliness at this type of event (which I think is virtually impossible, since people are dropping beer bottles, food, and everything else all the time) is to charge an additional amount when you first get a beer cup and then give a 1-2 euro refund if you bring it back. Arne had picked up a bunch of cups the night before and I had been amused watching him carry this whole stack through the crowd, but sure enough after a little wandering to find the right booths he had sold back all of his cups and made a pretty impressive amount of money. So that became a sort of auxiliary game for the night, collecting any stray cups we found laying around and selling them back.
Along with all of the partying that was going on, there were some other interesting things to see. There is a research institute right along the harbor, complete with a huge ship that they use when studying out in the open water, and next to their facility is an area where rescued sea lions can swim outside, so it was fun to watch them playing in the water for a bit.
The couple concerts we went to were pretty fun - one was a German band that is really popular here, so it was a fun atmosphere with everyone screaming the words along and me just kind of clapping and laughing the whole time. We also stopped by a Bon Jovi coverband who actually played really well, then walked by an AC/DC coverband that looked and sounded eerily similar to the real thing. After a while we ended up by a floating party platform, which had a DJ up in a sort of watchtower overlooking the sea.
I think we left around midnight when all of the booths started closing down, at which point we headed toward the student area of the town. As we walked, I became even more amazed because the party was not only in the harbor, it was literally the entire town! No matter where we went there were a ton of people and I think that a lot of people had the same idea as we did because when we got to the club area it was already picked. We wandered for a while and found a really fun little club to dance in for a while, then finally started to head back home. I think we got in around 3 or 4, but I was more interested in getting to bed at that point.
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