A Quick Impression of Hanover

After being so surprised at Rostock, I was curious whether other parts of Germany would impress me as much. Sadly this little sojourn through Germany is a very brief one as I head to France. But I do intend to come back and see more of it at some stage. Apart from some fantastic countryside and numerous cities like Hanover and Hamburg, I really can't wait to sink my teeth into Berlin.

So I left Rostock by train heading towards Hanover with a change in Hamburg. So many German cities have names that are so familiar to me, yet I know next to nothing about them.

My very brief glance at Hamburg through a train window was, I have to say, unimpressive. But I don't hold that against it. Sadly one of the downsides of train travel is that railway lines tends to pass through the less attractive parts of town. Graffitti-riddled industrial rail landscapes are the norm everywhere, not just Hamburg.

Intercity Rail is a fantastic way to see the countryside, but not a good way to see cities. I'll leave my first impression of Hamburg for a time when I can have a proper walk around town.

So on to Hanover. I'm spending two nights with my friend Uli and her partner Clemens. Uli is a friend I met through our common interest in Photography, and she also happens to love travel. Both her and Clemens are ridiculously smart when it comes to Bio-science stuff, but sadly the closest I come to understanding Biology is to know how computer viruses are made. Not really the same thing. But none of that matters. What does matter is that they are both wonderful people and I am so grateful for them letting me stay, and for their company.

I really hope we get to catch up again before I head back to Australia, and this time I'll try to time it better with your work.

Hanover itself is fascinating, although I really only had a brief time to explore.
One thing I had noticed through Mongolia, Russia, and Finland was that the kids I saw didn't really play much in the snow. I saw the occasional kid with a sled, but hardly any snowmen and I hadn't seen evidence of a single snow fight at all! Even the parked cars all covered in snow were left unmolested by kids who might otherwise be drawing or writing snow graffiti. I could barely resist the temptation to draw a giant smiley face on every snow-covered windscreen I walked past, how did these mischievous kids hold back their urges? It seemed unnatural. I guess they get so much snow that there's no novelty factor to it.

But things were very different in Hanover. My walk to the lake must have taken me along a busy school route because there were school kids everywhere.. And snow fights everywhere too. The evidence of splattered snowballs littered the pavement, and every convenient flat surface within reach that was once covered by fresh snow had been pillaged for ammo. This went on for a couple of kilometers. It seems these mobile snow fights would last the entire trip to and from school. That's more like it. Kids being kids. Wreaking havoc.

There is a beautiful artificial lake not far from Uli and Clemens' house called Maschsee lake that is completely frozen over at the moment, but looks like it would be a hub of activity during summer. Apparently it was built in 1936 by "unemployed laborers" who weren't really given much choice in the matter by the government, but I don't know the full story.. Just that there *is* a story to it.

I was told to walk along the length of Maschsee lake until I got to the town hall which was apparently worth a look. Pfft.. A town hall? We have them everywhere in Australia. What's so impressive about that?

Well, when I got there I found out exactly what they meant. Calling this building a town hall is like calling the Titanic just another ferry, or The Beatles just another boy band. As impressive as the building was itself, the grounds were equally impressive and looked beautiful with their frozen ponds and snow-covered lawns.

I continued wandering through the city, and soon found Hanover's Christmas markets. I'm so used to seeing Christmas decorations and fake snow in Australia, it somehow seems strange to see real snow on real pine trees in front of real old stone buildings. All my life I kind of grew up thinking a white Christmas like this was about as real as Santa Claus, and here it is right in front of me.

And the architecture! It's so German! I was expecting a few distinctly German buildings, but nowhere near this many. It's fantastic to see the character of cities change so much in such small distances between countries.

And All the people I've met along the way have been very warm and friendly and up for a laugh. Not in the same way as in Finland though. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think I just connected slightly better with the Germans I met. It's as if I "get" how their social interactions work in a way that baffled me a bit in Finland. While the "slightly cold and clinical" German stereotype was well and truly busted for me, their reputation for efficiency was reinforced. The train stations were well laid out and everything ran mostly on time. One of my trains (the first leg of a trip requiring 4 connections and passing through 4 different countries in a single day) was delayed by 20 minutes due to "a fire" (which one of my fellow passengers told me probably meant a suicide).

I also stumbled across a very old church right in the middle of town that had been gutted and left as a ruin. All the exterior walls were left standing, but there was no roof or interior at all. Just a cross and a plaque on the ground in the snow with the words "unseren toten" written on it. It was obviously left this way as some kind of war memorial, and it's effect was really moving. I had to consult Professor Google when I got home to discover it's history and significance. As it turns out, this site called Aegidienkirche is a 10th century church bombed by the allies during WW2 that was left as-is as a memorial for 90% of the city centre that was destroyed by bombing. The plaque on the ground translates simply to "Our Dead".

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Hanover, Germany

Rostock Christmas Festival

The more I travel the more I realise just how little I know of the world.

Many of the places I've been and will be going to have been just dots on a map, no different than any of the other dots around the globe. Even the satellite imagery of Google Earth can't really provide any real measure of what to expect before setting foot on the ground.

My time in some places I was excited about visiting has been disappointing, while other places, like Rostock where I really wasn't expecting much, have turned into highlights.

There is only one reason I visited Rostock. It's because the ship I took from Finland to Germany brought me here. I liked the idea of a German coastal town, so I thought I'd stay for a couple of nights and check the place out.

I booked a hotel the night before I left Helsinki. It was a good rate, good location, had good internet, and 24-hour check-in, meeting all my requirements.

As it turned out, this hotel and the room I got have by far been the best of this trip. The room was massive, looked great, and was directly above the market square which at this time of year plays host to the Christmas markets. So when I awoke the next morning I looked out and saw Christmas stalls full of people, decorations, food, carousels, and a busy crowd below me. I could not have chosen a better location if I grew up in the town and knew every street.

So I just spent the next day and a half wandering around. The Christmas market was huge and engulfed many blocks beyond the view from my window. And when I walked down to the docks, the view across the river was stunning.

I imagine Rostock is pretty quiet for most of the year, but I would definitely recommend a visit during December when their Christmas festival is running. I've seen a number of Christmas markets in bigger cities (Hanover, Helsinki, Toulouse, Paris) and the Rostock festivities were my clear favorites. It was as if the whole town was on holiday.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rostock, Germany

Crossing the Baltic Sea

I've done most of my journey so far by train and loved every minute of it. But trains aren't the only way to travel. I'm heading to Germany and it's time for something different.

So here I find myself aboard the Superfast VII overnight ferry from Helsinki in Finland to Rostock in Germany, a journey that runs most of the length of the Baltic Sea.

And I'm loving it! All the things that make rail travel so enjoyable are also here on the ship (meeting interesting people, watching the world go by, super relaxing), with the added bonuses of having heaps of room to walk around in and a really good restaurant. I wish it were a longer voyage than just one night.

The ship is a huge ice-breaker ferry that seems to carry a lot of freight trucks between Finland and Germany, but also caters for private vehicles and foot passengers like myself. But being winter, there aren't many passengers on board and the lounges and restaurants are pretty empty. However the people who are here have plenty of time to chat and are very interestiInter for some reason though are hardly any kids on the ship, and also hardly any women. Out of the 40-odd passengers floating around, there are probably only 5 women and 4 kids.

I'm sharing a 4-berth cabin with 2 other guys. A very talkative Estonian guy in his 50's called Ian, and an awesomely friendly Finn guy in his 30's called Mikko.

Initially, Ian took me under his wing and was very keen to discuss all things Estonian, European, and Australian. But mainly Estonian. His English was very good but his accent still made some words difficult to understand. I thought it was quite funny that he was giving me grief about my Australian accent.

Sadly though what began as a very interesting two-way conversation slowly turned into a lecture seemingly for him to feed some inferiority complex he had about Estonia towards the west. I'm happy for people to love their homeland and be passionate about it. That's great. I've had many conversations with such people through Vietnam, China and Russia and loved them all. I've been really lucky with the people I've spoken with. But sadly by the second day, Ian was just being a dick.

I explained that the reason we didn't learn about Estonia in school was because it was part of the former USSR and when I went to school (during the cold war) everything behind the "Iron Curtain" wasn't really talked about in Australia except in the context of World War 3. This was seemingly proof that our entire education system was totally dysfunctional (which may be true, but has nothing to do with the Cold War or our Estonian school curriculum). Meanwhile his encyclopedic knowledge of Australia included impressing me with such pearls of wisdom as knowing that Rip Curl jeans came from Australia. He even came up to me in the bar while I was enjoying a nice quiet game of Black Ops and forced me quit the game, open a web browser and google "Estonia". He told me my homework was to learn about his country. Dude, WTF. I'm 38 years old, and on holiday. I've got a better idea. Why don't you Google "pretentious tool" and see if your photo comes up? Those baddies in Black Ops weren't going to shoot themselves you know. I've got work to do that's far more important.???

Mikko

There is one thing I'm grateful to Ian for though; introducing me to the Estonian liqueur "Vana Tallinn". That stuff is delicious!

?????????Mikko on the other hand was pretty quiet to begin with, but slowly opened up during the voyage to Germany. By the end we were having a ball, and we ended up facebook friends - perhaps the benchmark of friendship. (Hi Mikko if you're reading this!). Although I had some trouble connecting with some Finnish folk while in Helsinki, I had no problems with Mikko. He's just an uncomplicated, down-to-earth, genuine, friendly guy. I've got all the time in the world for him.

He also introduced me to the Finnish drink Salmiakki, a salty liquorice alcoholic drink best served ice-cold.  I was a skeptic at first because I'm not a huge fan of liquorice, but absolutely love it now.  Mikko was generous enough to buy me a bottle to take with me when I leave the ship. What a champ!

And finally, there's Lance. He's a 40 year old American bunked up in the cabin next door, and he's a fascinating character. A quiet, softly-spoken guy with a profound air of sadness about him, but not in a self-pity kind of way. Not at all the stereotypical American. He's not looking for sympathy, but he is definitely searching for something in life which he hasn't found yet. He kind of reminds me a bit of Toby's character from the US version of The Office, but with more depth and a much more interesting backstory.

Originally from Indiana, Lance made his career as a professional poker player and moved to Europe to pursue his gambling over here. But he soon burned out and became disillusioned with that way of life, and I get the feeling he hasn't felt really settled since. That was 13 years ago. Since then he's lived in numerous European countries, but spent most of his time in Finland due to the fact he has a 12 year old son there.

He now makes his living coaching basketball to Finnish high-school kids, and while he seems to get great satisfaction from seeing these kids improve, I get the impression that coaching isn't his true calling in life.

After a while, our discussions turned to the state of the world and he started talking about how man needs to reject *all* technology and return to manual farming methods for the survival of the planet, and he also started talking about the end of the world, armageddon-style. Right about this time I began to really wonder about his life and the thoughts he had floating around his head. He really does seem lost in life.

I know I won't ever see Lance after I get off this ship, but I get the feeling he's one person I'll look back and wonder what happened to. He's such a good natured guy, he deserves to be happy.

Location:The Baltic Sea