June 6, 2000

Denmark to Germany

One of the most exciting things for me in Denmark was that, even the thousands of miles we were away from home, we still had fans come to our game. I am mostly Danish, with several relatives still over here. The first night we played, I had two of my grandmother's cousins at the game and the next night, several of their family came. It was pretty exciting for me, being the first time since I was less than a year old that I have seen them. It was so exciting for me! It also helped that we played extremely well both nights, beating them both times. We stayed in two different hostels while here in Denmark. The first and second night, everyone was in the same one with separate rooms per two people and bunk beds in each room. The third night, the team stayed at a different place with no showers, one toilet and sink for all of us and everyone was in bunk beds in three different rooms. It was a really fun experience.

We just got off the two-hour long ferry ride from Denmark to Germany. What a different it was from the first ferry we took from Germany to Denmark just a few short days ago. The first one gave us the opportunity to go out on deck, had money exchanges, and a duty free shop. This ferry was just one big room with a cafeteria-style restaurant. They served a good "meat and potatoes" meal for about 5 American dollars. This boat however was much smaller and the water was much rougher. Several people had difficulties with motion sickness. What amazed me the most about the whole thing was that the eating area was split into two different rooms. We all sat in the "mellower" of the two rooms. In the main room, though was the party crowd. There were several tour groups who were living it up every second we were on the boat. They was an accordion player and other musicians and the ale was flowing freely. You could hear them singing wherever you went on the boat (I think their songs were in German, though-I could not understand it nonetheless). They must have strong stomachs to be able to withstand the rocking of the boat as well as singing, dancing, and drinking.

We now have driven off of the ferry and are heading into East Germany. You can tell right away where you are because of the abundance of guard towers. Every hundred feet or less, there is another one, standing several stories up in the air. Of course, they're not in use anymore but I can picture guards sitting up there and could not have imagined anything being able to sneak by them.

We're now heading to Berlin. The countryside is very green with huge trees. One thing that has been consistent throughout Europe are the traffic signs (at least the ones with the pictures on them). I'm starting to be able to recognize what more and more things mean even though I know none of the languages.

That's all for now.

Talk to you soon!

Maren