After what felt like a very, very long winter, spring arrived here with a solid 2+ weeks of sun, including the four-day weekend over Easter, a vacation for almost everyone. People who have lived here for a while were amazed by the weather, and there were many jokes about how this is our summer so we should enjoy it while it's here. (That's alarming, but reinforced by what I remember of my three-week trip to Düsseldorf when I was 16 - it was the end of June and cold and rainy every day.) It was warm enough to go around in a skirt and a t-shirt and not be cold, which was oh so nice.
We did all kinds of things to enjoy the warm weather - rented bicycles and explored new parts of the city, happened upon a street festival and an awesome South Asian grocery store, and on Easter weekend had a lovely picnic in a park on the Außenalster.
We also explored what is apparently a northern German tradition - fires on the night before Easter. I heard two main explanations for the fires - the first is that it's the time to burn all the trimmings from cleaning up the garden; the second was that the fires are lit to burn away the winter ghosts and welcome in the spring ghosts. Either way it's a nice idea, and apparently in smaller communities it's quite fun, but we went to the beach on the Elbe. While it was definitely a cultural experience it wasn't one that I'm itching to repeat. There was a crush of people (mostly teenagers with beer bottles) trying to get down to the beach, and once we were there it was hard to walk without stepping on someone or a fire. It was quite nice looking at all the fires up and down the beach, but the charm was somewhat lost when a flying beer bottle almost hit me in the head. I'm not sure we'll visit the Elbe Osterfeuern again next year.
I ended April with a trip to New York and got to spend some much-needed time with my sisters and mom. And now it's May - I officially start my fellowship tomorrow and we're starting to seriously look for a new apartment, but hopefully I will get back on track with the blogging. In the mean time, I hope you've had at least a bit of nice weather wherever you are.
