I Got Sick

November 14th--I'm already better, so don't freak out, Mama.

I woke up feeling a little strange, but with good intentions of seeing a lot of Hamburg. I wasn't really hungry, and then on the walk to the S-Bahn train station it got worse. It was soon pretty clear that I had caught a flu bug or something.

Nevertheless, I stayed on course, hoping to push through it. Something that made this difficult was the fact that it was REALLY cold today. The sky was clear and blue, but there was a stiff wind that made the already cold day much more difficult.

I walked along the waterfront and saw some of the enormous Hamburg Harbor.

But then it was on to the Minatur Wonderland. Again, one of the biggest miniature landscapes in the world, and it was really impressive. However, two things hampered my enjoyment--1. My camera batteries failed so I only got one picture of a small part of it and 2. My sickness came on with a vengeance, which meant that either I got out of there or I would make a little vomit river through the minature world.

A miniature concert scene that was maybe one hundreth of the total area of mountains, trains, towns, etc. Pretty incredible.

I had a lot more planned for the day, like riding up to the top of the tower I saw on Tuesday, but I knew I couldn't keep going, so I called Karim and headed back to his house to rest.

The end of the saga is that I got back, was able to, you know, deal with it and take a nap until 7:30, at which point I was just fine, if a little woozy (not having eaten all day). I'm not too bummed out, because at least it didn't get worse, and I should be ok tomorrow.

I also got to do my laundry and add a new hole to my belt, as I've apparently lost weight since I've been here.

One of the cool things about seeing my cousin has been getting to know his three-month old son Yannis Max, so once I got better we were able to have the obligatory photo shoot, which he was extremely perplexed by.

This one was right before I ate him. Mmm, fresh baby.

Now it's off to Berlin tomorrow. However, something almost changed those plans drastically.

There's nothing more European than a good transport strike, and after narrowly escaping the huge strikes in France, I'm hitting the one here square on the nose. Luckily the Berlin trains won't be too affected, but the transport to get to the station will be, so that could be a bit rough. However, there are lots of trains to Berlin, and it's only an hour and a half, so I should be alright.

And as always, I'll keep you posted. Thanks so much to everyone still reading.