Bearbeiten aus Deutchland

OSNABRÜCK - Wilkommen! My German has improved in leaps and bounds even though we lost the phrasebook in yesterday's travel cycle. It's a softer language than it gets credit for (see: Arnold Schwarzenegger parodies) with lots of 'sh' and 'ein' noises. It's getting confusing though, this multi-lingual thing. The wires in my brain get crossed and sometimes Spanish and French come out when I'm trying to say something in German.

Broke the fast food duck last night as well, due to everything being closed. Burger King reigns the German fast food world apparently - I had a whopper and Leo the 'Long Chicken'. I guess this will have to substitute for my trying McDonald's once in every country I go to as the grease made me feel pretty awful.

But the real highlight of the day was London. We traveled into the city instead of spending 10 hours in the airport waiting for our connecting flight to Germany - just a quick train ride from Stansted and we were in the mix in Liverpool Station, Picadilly Circus, Big Ben, fish n' chips and the like. It's absurd to try and take in such a globally important city in an afternoon, but it felt über-Bohemian to swing through foggy London town then jetset our way to Deutchland. Bizarre cultural observation: British people smell really nice, even the men. Definitely was taking stock of if this was a place I could see myself doing grad school.

Today it's off to explore Osnabrück with Leo's friend Carsten, who's shown us some quality German hospitality even though things are a little cramped in his one-bedroom flat. It's just a little university town here, but there's not much else to do until the WC fires up again tomorrow with Germany v Argentina. Should be a classic.