Leipzig is a nice place to stay a few days. Sergej picked me up at the airport and fed me a bowl of soup. The next morning we woke early to head out with his American-style football team, the Leipzig Lions, to their match in <insert name of a small German town about 150 km out of Leipzig>.
It was neat hanging out with the team, and I suppose it isn’t surprising how much English was used – one of the coaches from the U.S.A. does not speak German at all. The Lions kicked butt, finishing 26-07 over the Mountain Tigers. Before Saturday, I didn’t know that mountain tigers existed – I thought tigers and mountain lions existed, but I digress. Sergej and I explored the Leipzig nightlife a bit (I still think the club that had a courtyard last year was cooler) then went to bed.
The field in the small town the Lions played in
The Mountain Tiger’s tiger bouncy venue… and the team!
The victorious Leipzig Lions
Tradition is that the rookie players are sold as slaves to the senior players…
The next day I helped Sergej disassemble, move, and reassemble his bedroom furniture in his new apartment. The glories of European style moving include:
- borrowing a truck not from a friend, but a father’s workplace
- some pieces of furniture, once completely dissembled, being too large to fit into the elevator (which I refer to as the “univator”) at Sergej’s parent’s building – not because they were too long, but because the floor plate of the elevator is perhaps 80×80 cm
- having no elevator at the new apartment – and a nice 4th story apartment
Fortunately, while North American stairs tend to be dreary and tight, built only with the purpose of a fire escape in mind, European stairs tend to be much more open and inviting, perhaps meant to be a primary method of gaining access to alternative floors. The stairs were easy to maneuver furniture through.
After moving Sergej’s furniture, we lit a barbecue at his parent’s garden – a holdover from the GDR period which allows city dwellers to have their own small green space. Two types of sausage – one apparently made of horse (and quite good) were had along with a baguette and some marinated garlic. Yum!
After diner I booked a hostel in Prague (Miles Hostel) and Berlin (Generator – it is supposed to be unique), checked in for my Ryanair flights, and headed to bed.