Halfway

This week marked a major point in my time here: since we recently found out our season has been extended by another two weeks, our tickets home have been extended by about three weeks, to the week of October tenth, rather than our initial return date of September sixteenth.  Due to this extension, I will be here for the full months of August and September, and most probably the first week of October.  I have been here now for the full months of July and June, as well as the last week or so of May.  As the month turned from July to August (something that seems incomprehensible to me, has it been so long yet so short a time?) I reached the halfway point of my time here in Germany.  It is surreal to reach this milestone—or more appropriately, this road marker—and I have spent a good amount of time this week contemplating the time I have spent and the experiences I have had thus far, as well as what is to come for the remainder of my stay.

As I expected, this past week was a bit busier than the week before it.  A sparsely attended practice on Wednesday night started things.  Although there were the least offensive players of any practice I have experienced and not many more defensively, it was a welcome return to the world of football. I felt good to be back on the field, even though our activities were limited because of our numbers.

On Thursday morning Eike took Steve, Mitch, and I to a sort of historic park, which I would liken to the colonial representations of the early U.S. that we have back home. The only thing missing was the droves of re-enactors that populate the villages in the U.S., something that I didn’t quite miss here. The area was set up as a village would have been ‘in former times,’ as Monika would say, with buildings that had been restored and moved to the area from all over the state and surrounding areas.  The place permeated this oldness; I could tell that many of these building had not needed much restoration but had existed in the state in which I saw them for centuries. Even some of the newest of the things we saw would be considered ancient at home, something that I still haven’t grown fully accustomed to here in Europe.

We took the tour on our own with Eike leading.  The most interesting thing to me was that many of the farmhouses that I saw (most of the buildings were farmhouses) were built exactly like the houses that I saw a few weeks ago with Kaye and her parents, buildings that had been originally built hundreds of years ago but remain in use, often by the descendents of their original occupants. From what I saw of the houses that are still in use, though, I’m fairly certain that nowadays the animals are not kept in the main house with the family.  Thankfully times have changed a bit.

Before I talk about the biggest event of the week, I’ll break sequence and talk about the day Mitch and I spent in Hamburg. On Saturday we took the train into the city and saw what was to see. Hamburg is the biggest of the cities I’ve seen thus far in Germany—although only the third, also counting Osnabruck and Bremen—and I could tell immediately, even before taking a step out of the Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station). Apparently, this station is the busiest in Germany; its hustle and bustle was more than anything I’ve seen before, even in Amsterdam. Once we entered the city this bigness became even more apparent. The city surrounding the station was more modern and spaced out than anything in Osnabruck or Bremen, and stretched further than the short expanse that I’ve grown accustomed to in Osnabruck. The most indicative quality of this ‘cityness’ I observed though was the sudden presence of an underbelly, an ugliness. Osnabruck is as safe and clean as I can imagine a city to be, even considering its smallness. The same can be said of Bremen, for the most part, although I didn’t see as much of the city as I’ve seen of the other two. As soon as we left the train station in Hamburg, however, we were met with derelicts and homeless, winos and junkies, ambling about the sidewalks aimlessly, daring you to make and hold eye contact for long enough to cause interaction. That’s not to say I haven’t experienced this type of thing before; in Cleveland all sorts of people frequent the sidewalks, as is their right. But this was the first that I’ve seen of this in Germany, where so far it seemed that if this class of people existed, they live swept under the rug of the public view. In Hamburg they were out and about and it was real and in your face, a reminder of the size and the power of the city over its people.

Hamburg Rathaus

We took a free tour of the city for most of the day from a service that Mitch has used before, and it was definitely worth the time, even if I wasn’t so free to wander as has become my wont in new places. Our guide was informative, if a bit over-eager, and we saw much more of the city than I imagine I’d find on my own. Even though it rained for half of the tour—and of course Mitch and I decided to be tough guys and forgo the opportunity to buy a souvenir umbrella to share so that we could save the money to tip our guide—it was enjoyable. My favorite stop was St. Nikolai's Church, an old church that now stands as a monument against violence and persecution.  After being built the tallest structure in the world, the spire of the church served as a marker for Allied forces during the bombing of Hamburg during WWII. The courtyard-like area around the spire, which would have been within the church building, if it were still standing, bears the signs of violence and destruction; this is a place that was certainly something proud and ornate at one time that has been left desolate and damaged from war, even, and especially, seventy-odd years on. Organizers made a conscious decision to leave the area in its damaged state to serve as a monument to those lost in the war, on both sides. Along with a statue commemorating the people killed in the firebombing campaign that took out most of the city stands a memorial to victims of the nearby concentration camp. Nearby, a center is available with information regarding the history of both Allied and German bombing campaigns. Hamburg is also the first place I've visited and seen memorials to WWII. This could be because this is the first place I've been sure about what I'm seeing, because of what I learned on the tour; it still was quite an affecting experience. I cannot imagine living through this history, something I had already been thinking earlier in the week while reading about WWII in Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.

 The spire of St. Nikolai

 Statue outside the memorial

After the tour we wandered the city a bit and got lunch. What did I order?

Of course I did. When in Hamburg...

On Friday night Steve left us to go home. He had some personal reasons to leave in regard to his family, something I won't discuss here. Nothing in his control, but enough that he had to head back to the U.S. rather than stay here for the remainder of the season. It's going to be odd at first to be here with only Mitch, not only in the house and day to day routine, but on the football field as well. The defense will miss him quite a bit, but I'm confident we'll still play well. Yet another way that the second half of the season will differ from the first, the first part of my stay from the second. 

For me personally, the biggest difference with Steve leaving is that I've been called up from the basement into my very own room. Earlier today I moved all of my things from the basement upstairs, a process that was a bit shorter than I expected. So I'm now set up upstairs, living the life. 

So, it looks like this second half of my stay will be quite different than the first, as has been prefaced by Steve's departure and my move upstairs. Things at home are quickly shifting as well, something I'm acutely aware of talking to family about how football is starting for my dad and brother, and I know that by the time I'm writing my next post, it will be time for my friends and former teammates to report back to Kenyon for camp. Safe travels, for everyone, from everywhere. Now, I move past the halfway point and dive headlong into the tides of the remainder of the trip. Best of luck at home, Steve. Let part two begin. 

Last weekend for the three of us