Allright, so let me tell you a story about 24 hours in Germany:

After meeting Tareek on the CBH -> Berlin train
(Which actually drives INTO a cruise ship
to cross the Baltic Sea [pictures to come] )
we agreed to paint a mural in the sunroom of her new flat in Hannover.

Arriving in Hamburg we met two Canadian travelers
painted a roll down at "The Hottest Dog" American Style hotdogs
and then walked 1km to the romantic gardens where we met Selma,
whose 25th birthday it was. After drinking 5 bottles of champagne and smoking many a hand rolled cigarette on the sidewalk with a total of 8 germans and 2 foreign travelers, all over some delightful, light hearted german conversation, we were ready to check into the e-tap hostel. Alex passed the F out, but I was ready to see more of Germany, so I called up
Tareek and we met on
THE RIPPERBAHN!

The Ripperbahn is the redlight district of Hamburg,
but unfortunately (or fortunately) it was Monday, so the place was completely dead. Tareek and i stepped into one of the delightful shops there, for an informative and insightful 45 minutes. After purchasing some erotic cookware and raunchy pins, we took a cab to the Binnenalster canal and walked under the stars.

Tareek taught me a lot in the short time we had together. Most importantly,
I'm starting to see that more can be understood from being attuned to how you feel,
rather than mulling over what you hear and say. Words and people tell many different tales, but the heart and soul will always steer you onto the right path.

...i think I got back to the hostel around 3:30 am. After a spot of sleep and some great German
breakfast (I now crave soft-boiled eggs at breakfast). It was time to pick up the packs and travel once again. We met back up with Selma's mom and Tareek and took the slow train through the countryside of Germany, finally arriving in Hannover a bit after lunchtime.

Hannover is a smaller city in central Germany. It was totally bombed flat in WWII and the buildings are all 50-60s Architecture with modern buildings interspersed. It has a decent graff scene. We got a great little tour of the city and public transportation system there. (Oh, one of the best things about Europe is no one checks to see if you paid to ride the metro. Alex and I must have ridden city street cars and buses at least 20 times without paying!). We dropped off our packs