Hamburg or Chicago?

Doug and I both lived in Chicago for twelve years before moving to Maui. Our Hamburg hotel's neighborhood is almost indistinguishable from our old haunts in Chicago: the same narrow tree lined streets, brick, brownstone and graystone apartment buildings, the restaurants, bars and shops - it's all the same! We feel like we have stepped back into our old lives.

Unlike Maui, ethnic restaurants abound here. Strangely enough our past is catching up with us in another way. In Portugal we could only find Irish pubs, here we are finding mostly Portuguese restaurants such as the one we ate at tonight. This one specialized in wild game - delicious! And not just p.r. wild, I had to pick the shot out of my pheasant breast. Doug ate wascally bunny wabbit in a wed wine sauce, which triggered memories from long ago of his pet rabbit, Mr. Pooper, the meanest rabbit that ever lived.

We got a little taste of home in a musical instrument store window this afternoon where we spotted some Mahalo Ukuleles for sale for 30 euros.

Non smoking areas are becoming commonplace throughout Europe, but there is still a lot of smoking. We've even seen a fair number of people smoking while riding their bicycles. The image which struck both of us this afternoon was of a guy riding by on his bike, cigarette in one hand, open beer bottle in the other, alternating puffs and drinks.

We stumbled across a massive stone monument to Bismark at the top of a hill we were climbing (if there's a hill, we go up it). Notice how small I am in comparison.

Okay, it's almost midnight on Friday. Time to head out and check out the dance clubs.