Old Friends

Saturday night I am going to Kiel, a small city right at the Baltic sea. Not for bird-watching but for meeting an old friend and drinking some cocktails. When I arrive at the station Berti picks me up. Its not much more northern than Hamburg but the day seems to last much longer, its still light outsuide at 10:30pm (or 22:30h) before I enter the train, I am buying a really great waterproof jacket.its a German brand: Name is "Jack Wolfskin" Hum, I wonder what book has inspired THAT??????? (J.L.??? and NO its NOT Jay Leno!) Quite Outdoorsy, no? the cocktail -Party is nice but I'm not really in a drinking mood, guess I miss a bit of the old parties in PB and wheereever. No dancing of course, time passes by, people get older(me too , I know). Berti is the kind of guy who spends half of his life in "second life" (great sentence, actually!! THINK about it!!!)
Berti is´s moving in with his girlfriend, Steffi, after having survived a pretty bad breakup. (why does it always hit the nicest guys?) Anyway, now he found a new soulmate in second life (!) so some real people meet real people there, and not every attractive woman in "second life" is in the real world (ITRW) an overweight chips/pizza/coke-consuming nerdy-slacker-GUY..... As you can see from the picture above, Berti is a scientist and not afraid of dry ice drinks. I am taking the last train home to Hamburg. Tuesday I am supposed to help him move his stuff into the place in Kiel. Not ideal to spend a weekday afternoon carrying boxes and computer parts, instead of getting stuff done in the lab. But thats what old friends are for, no?

Talking about old friends: Yesterday I met Andreas, another old friend, who lives in Berlin now. He´s in Hamburg for a Symposium on "emerging viruses" held by another old friend, Stephan at the BNI (Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine. I could go too, especially because it would be a great chance to meet Stephan bút in light of Berti´s move today, I decide not to. yesterday we sat and ate at a little asian place around my neighborhood, after starting to talk about old times we decide to call up Hans, our both Ex-Boss, to join us. 30 minutes later he is there. The guys are talking about their kids, which is nothing I can contribute much. But its great to see them both again!!! After 2 beers we move on to another place down the street (its new, name: "Diwan"), where I finally get that "Hefeweizen" that was lingering in my expectations the whole evening. After this Hans says goodbye. Andreas and me move on to another "historic" Hamburg place the little bar "439". The barman is still the same and greets us like old friends. (I honestly doubt he really remembers me, I was a regular but not THAT regular, it was 9 years ago, after all. We used to call the guy "Fussel", for his signature hairstyle, in the post-punk tradition. (all standing up vertically and VERY disordered) most importantly, the tradition of having the best poured whiskies in town is still alive!! I am touched, after 9 years still some things are unchanged!!!!!! Thank you Fussel!!!