Vienna

Vienna is beautiful. (That's where I was this past weekend.) Its large, grand, old buildings, architectural stylings, and focus on art reminded me very strongly of Paris. Schönbrunn Palace and it's gardens are strikingly similar to Versailles' and, as if to solidify the connection in my mind, the opera I went to see, Foust, was also completely in French.

I set out from Juelich at 5:30am to be able to get to Vienna at a decent hour, see it on Saturday and then go to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, for Sunday. There was a 15 minute train delay that caused me to miss my connection and I was stuck waiting a few hours for the next train to Vienna. I finally arrived at around 6pm and knew that I wanted to see more of Vienna than I wanted to see Bratislava, so I chose to stay in Vienna both days. With that decided, I hurredly checked into a hostel and hopped on the subway to get to the opera to see if there were any €3 standing room tickets still available. While I'm in a city famous for it's culture and music (Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, and Brahms all lived here or were buried here - Vienna's cemetery is the 2nd largest in Europe, I think), I figured I might as well experience as much of that culture as I could. In the opera, the orchestra was great and the singers' voices filled the hall most impressively.

I ate at the Sacher Café after the opera and had the Original Sacher Torte (the first ever cake). To round out my first evening, I sought out a local, Mozart-themed restaurant and enjoyed some authentic Wiener schnitzel (that means schnitzel from Vienna in German, the national language of Austria) and paired it with a local beer.

Perhaps you haven't noticed, but some of my favorite activities in each location I have visited have been eating the local foods and trying the local beers and wines.

I got to bed, got up early and walked the city, seeing the impressive buildings and as many of the sights as possible. I hope to go back and see a few of the more interesting museums as well as the inside of the Hofburg, Schönbrunn, and Belvedere Palaces.

After a few hours of walking around, to finish my time in the city center, I hurried to Zantoni and Zantoni and had the best ice cream in town.

I had to leave Vienna much earlier than I wanted to because of the oppressively long return trip (11 hours on trains), and that prevented me from seeing most of the Schönbrunn gardens and the other locations I hope to return to. I just had time before the train to purchase a pack of Manner Neapolitan wafers, another Viennese specialty.

The trip was long enough that I managed to finish reading Harry Potter. For the past two weeks I've averaged a half a book, or around 200 pages, per day. It's been very enjoyable rediscovering my love of reading while here. I found an iPod app that let me download Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin at the start of July and ever since then I've been reading something whenever I've been underway on public transport. I won't spoil the ending of the Harry Potter series for you, but I will say I thought it was very well done. That's in stark contrast to the end of the Animorphs series. I read all 57 books in that K.A. Applegate series when I was younger; I had a standing pre-order of every book as it came out. And then she ended it without a conclusion, in essence, with an ellipsis "..." and a page that said "Try reading my next series!" That was really frustrating; quite the let down. Thank you, great authors like J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling, for giving me hope for satisfying ending in book series.

Interestingly enough, there are a number of small connections between the authors I like to read or have read recently. Without knowing it until now, Rowling is compared by some analysts to Jane Austin. And three of the four authors I mentioned in the last paragraph go by their initials, like me. But for now I have to break my contemplation and to get to work; today is my second to last day.

I am going out on the town with my coworkers tonight and celebrating with a barbecue tomorrow for lunch. I'm really looking forward to some more German grilling complimented nicely with American BBQ Sauce.

Tomorrow night it's off to Italy for a week (Rome, The Vatican, and Cinque Terra) and then back to Germany for Oktoberfest (19th and 20th of September), and then I fly home on the 21st. It's approaching so quickly!

Just after bows before the intermission of Foust. For arriving two minutes before the show started, I had a decent spot. I couldn't see about 1/3 of the stage, though.

Part of the Opera Hall during intermission.

The Original Sacher Torte, complete with milk-coffee. An after-opera tradition.

The Karlskirche at night, reflecting quite clearly in the pond before it.

Hard to see, but on this mirror in red there is a digital counter showing the Number of Wiener schnitzels eaten since January 1st. One of those was me.

This is part of a subway series where they have all kinds of active counters going. I thought it was very interesting.

Mmmm. Pi. It continued around the corner.

The Parliament building. Just one of many many large and impressive buildings in Vienna.

Some buildings near the town hall (the spired building in this picture).

The gardens at Schönbrunn Palace.

Wii

I played Wii last night at my new apartment. On Monday I had to move out of my last apartment and in with a coworker to avoid paying another whole month's rent when I'm only working until next Friday.

It made me miss my Wii at home. I've had it for two years but haven't played it much in the past 12 months. College classes and activities sapped a lot of my time before I left for Europe and I knew that no matter how much I like video games, I'd be doing more exciting things in Germany, so I left it behind when I flew over. You can be sure I'll spend at least one evening soon after I'm back shooting a bow and arrow, bowling, boxing, sword fighting, or battling in a tank (all virtually, of course).

No internet at home now, so I can't update these posts. Instead I'll be working on some homework for my nuclear distance learning courses, reading some books (I have the Harry Potter series to finish), or maybe, just maybe, playing a few more games on the Wii :-)

Have a good evening everyone, I know I will.

Like the Energizer Bunny...

Hi All!

I can't write much right now since I have 10 minutes to catch a bus to the train to make it to Hamburg to take a Harbor tour this afternoon.

Then I'll use my weekend rail pass to travel somewhere in Germany. Maybe the famous Sylt Island. Perhaps Bremen and then the border with Denmark. Maybe south to the Saxon Switzerland. Or maybe even to Trier and the border with Luxembourg.

All I know for sure is that I'll be on the go all weekend and unable to post what I have written about this week or write more until I return.

Have a great weekend!

Signs

So today I asked my supervisor about signs that I've seen around Germany and what they mean.

A lot of them are simple signs saying who has priority at an intersection (right before left is the general rule), but some of them are quite unique.

My favorite example is the speed limit for tanks on small bridges. Yes, they actually have posted speed limits for tanks here. I think that's awesome. See pictures below. You can't drive tanks so easily in the US. Though it's not as though driving them through Germany has always been easy. On one of my bus rides after a particularly long day of biking I snapped a picture of the Panzersperren, the tank blockades that Hitler set up near the border with Belgium during WWII. It was so difficult to remove them that they remain to this day.

Some other signs that I've seen that I've enjoyed are also below.

Truck and tank speed limits for this bridge.

The Panzersperre.

"We would like to take leave of our guests in Aschaffenburg." Supposed to convey they would like to say farewell to those guests departing the train at the next station. Click to enlarge.

No Seats Thanks. Seats. From Brugges.

The Weather Forecast Station near a castle I visited.

It reads like this: Condition; Forecast

Stone is Wet; Rain

Stone throws a shadow; Sunny

Stone is white on top; Snowfall

Stone can't be seen; Foggy

Stone is swinging; Windy

Stone is jumping up and down; Earthquake

A sign hanging in the hallway of my apartment complex showing where the exits are. You should click to view this one full screen.

I don't know why, but I like this poster from Amsterdam.

Another topic of discussion was advertisements.

I really enjoy the ads in German that I can understand because many of them are very clever.

Here's one I managed to snap a picture of. It's an add for a Kölsch beer brand, Früh. Früh also happens to mean 'early' in German. There is a large rivalry between cities and sections in Germany about who makes the best beer. You can imagine it's pretty heated in Bavaria, where the average person drinks enough beer in a year to equate to a half liter per day. There's also a strong rivalry in the area near me between the cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf, their characteristic beers being Kölsch and Alt respectively. Alt also means 'old' in German. So now the ad: "Früh, bevor es Alt wird." roughly: "'early' beer, drink it before it turns into 'old' beer."

Früh vs Alt.

You might also know of the Haribo gummi snacks. They're quite good. It's a German brand who has used the same slogan for many decades. When they took it to other countries, they also made sure to find a good translation of their rhyming slogan that still rhymed, rather than simply translating the words. That was a great marketing move.

German: "Haribo macht Kinder froh - und Erwachsene ebenso."

English: "Kids and grown-ups love it so - the happy world of Haribo."

There are many more languages of their ad for you to read here.

Also interesting, though, are those ads that are translated from German to English or vice versa and just not done so well.

Douglas is a perfume and makeup store here. Their English slogan is good: "Come in and Find out." If you want to translate that to German, however, the words don't play together so well. The translation turns into "Come in and Find your way out," which, though very funny, is no longer a good ad.

An oft-used example is a guy who wanted to sell backpacks. In Germany, using English is considered to be cool and you can find English everywhere. This guy decided to translate the words poorly however. Rücksack is the German word. Rück = back, sack = sack. But he used the word "Body" and the word "bag." So... who wants to buy a Body bag?

My boss' first email program was AOL. I was surprised that America On-Line was his first program in Germany to get e-mails. What I wasn't surprised by was that he, too, was always greeted with that timeless and memorable welcoming tone and message "Sie haben Post" ("You've got mail").

The last story for this post also comes from my discussion with my boss. We talked about postcards and mail systems and he shared with me his first impression of the US Postal Service that he got from a true story from one of his friends in high school. His friend was going on a month or two trip through the US, with no definite plans of when he'd be in a certain location. His parents wanted to send him a letter and knew that he'd end his trip in New York City. They told him they would send the letter there. You could send a letter to a city's post office that would be available for pickup when the person to whom it was addressed came in and asked if they had received mail. So, after many weeks of venturing through the US this kid came into the New York City Central Post Office. It was huge. Gigantic. It served millions of people in the area. He walked up to one of the desks and asked if he had received any letters, looking around at the gigantic building and the vast expanses of the building full of mail being sorted behind the desk. The person at the desk asked his name and, after he had given it, the post office worker, without standing up, reached down below the desk, grabbed a letter, and handed it to the German boy standing, in awe, in front of him. It was the letter his parents had sent him. How's that for efficiency?

Alemannia Aachen

The new "Tivoli" soccer stadium in Aachen.

A few typical fans heading to the game.

You had better order this brand of pizza, or else!

(it's a Germany-wide pizza company that has a comic, too)

It's Monday and tonight was the first home game for the best-known soccer team from Aachen, Alemannia Aachen.

Why are the pictures first, you ask? Because that's where the blog puts them by default and it is easier to leave them there.

Tonight was the first home game of the season and the first game in their new stadium. The Aachen fans were numerous (~30,000) and spirited and dressed in their yellow and gold. My pictures can't do it justice, but all these people were excited to be going to the game. The public transport buses were absolutely packed. Scarves are the typical fan-wear and lots of people have them and tie them on their wrists (like the guy in the foreground of the picture above). The Aachen team was founded in 1900 (hence the number on the guy's shirt in the first picture) and has been playing ever since. Oh, I should mention that you can click on all the pictures to see them larger.

I didn't actually go to the game tonight; I just rode by on my bike to see the crowds and hear some of the chanting. I do plan to go to one of the home games before I leave town.

Back to Blogging, my mom's visit

Hi everyone! Did you miss me?

I created this blog and promptly spent two months and a week not updating it. That was not very kind of me. So I am going to try to make it up to you by adding pictures to this post (see below!) and by posting something each weekday till I come home (since I am still traveling every weekend, normally without internet). I have plenty to write about but I'll begin with this past week since it is, of course, freshest in my mind.

Last Thursday I skipped work and left in the early morning to travel to Frankfurt International Airport because my mom was coming to visit! Rather than doing what I do every time I travel, taking the trains, I decided to go for something new, Mitfahrgelegenhiet. It's a German word meaning Carpooling Opportunity. People post online where they're driving and you can tag along and give them a few bucks for gas. The main reason I did it was to try it out, since it was only €5 cheaper than the train, but I really liked it. I met up with a guy in Cologne and he drove me on the Autobahn to Frankfurt. For those interested, he was a Civil Engineer and had a new BMW. There were a lot of construction sites along the way (poor economy in Germany, too, so the government offered money now to rebuild roads so they could offer more jobs), but he still managed to get it up to 240 kilometers per hour (kph) at one point, and we were going over 200 kph on average. That means I was in a car going 150 mph, the fastest I have ever traveled in an automobile. It really didn't feel that fast and the car handled quite well, but it was still exciting. Okay, that's what the mechanical engineer in me wants to talk about, but I should probably talk more about the rest of the trip.

While my mom was here we did a lot. A whole lot. I definitely can't type everything because of how long it would take. When I did the planning for the trip, I meant for my mom to see Germany and relax. We got one of those two accomplished...

Mom was only here for 7 days and she was in each of the 4 largest cities in Germany and was in the west, east, north, and south of the country at some point during the trip.

She did get a lot of relaxation in Aachen while we were here, including waking up late, getting a tour of my workplace, two massages during our time at the spa and a pleasant barbecue at my boss' house (Oh, mom, it turns out we were lucky with the rain. Though it rained a little at our barbecue, some of the surrounded cities really got poured on and had high water problems). But except for that day in Aachen, I have to admit that her vacation was all high-adventure. Not what I meant for it to be, actually.

Her first day here involved climbing the 509 steps (103 m) to the outlook point of the tower of the Cologne Cathedral and then we walked around a bit of the city, including a local brewery's malt beer version of Kölsch, before sitting down and enjoying a meal at a great local restaurant. We saw the town hall and looked at some of the German-Roman historical sites before heading to Aachen for the night.

The day at work and in the spa came and went all too quickly.

Then Saturday we spent all day walking around Aachen (the Cesna plane ride I had planned didn't work out because of the foggy and rainy weather). Note: if you come to Aachen, don't bother with the English tour. It's not at all worth it. We went through the Cathedral Treasury, which was excellent. It had a wealth of relics and interesting items to see. We went to a brewery that is no longer brewing beer for our dinner. It has specialties from the Aachen region available. I tried out the Blutwurst. The English translation is "black pudding" but those of you who know German know that the German word is much more descriptive in telling you what you're getting. It took a lot of effort for me to go through with the decision to try it. It is a meal formed from cooking coagulated blood. It wasn't awful, but I don't think I'll be trying it a second time. After dinner we got ready for our overnight train to Berlin. My mom cleaned my apartment (thanks mom!) and I packed and then we were on our way.

The overnight train was nothing special, and got us to Berlin at a bright-and-early 5am. We put our luggage in a locker and went outside, used the nifty Call A Bike option to rent some bikes from DeutscheBahn for the day and we set off. (You call a number and get the code for the lock and call when you're done riding and tell them where you left the bike and then they charge you based on time. It was only €9 per 24 hours, which was better than most the other bike rental places that wouldn't even have opened up until 10am.) We happened to be by the Reichstag by chance right as it opened, so we went in. It's the German version of the U.S. Capitol. We walked to the top and around the glass dome with a great city view with an awesome audio guide (all for free) that told us what we were seeing and the history of it all and then we got back on our bikes to see a few more sights. Normally the Reichstag has a 2 hour wait but we only waited 15 minutes because of our timing. It was great! We took a 5 hour bike tour through the city starting at 11am and then went to more sights on our bikes after that. We saw all three major sections remaining of the Berlin Wall, not to mention almost all of the major sights of the center of the city. Quite a successful day! Finally at 10pm we returned the bikes (thanks mom for putting up with so much bike riding) and got back on a train to head to Munich overnight since the cheap guest room didn't work out.

We had a 3 hour layover from 1-4am in Hamburg so we walked the whole time (street cars and subways weren't running) to get to the famous harbor and back. It was dark in the middle of the night in Germany's second largest city and it made my mom very nervous no matter how safe it actually was. And I can understand that feeling. I certainly wouldn't want to do that through Cincinnati or many of the other large cities in the US, for example. It was her least favorite part of the trip. We made it to the harbor, took the wrong streets a few times coming back and ended up seeing more of the city than planned, and made it back completely safely, without incident, to the train station in time for our train to Munich. From there we dropped our luggage off at our hotel and took an hour train to the Ammersee and hiked an hour uphill to the Andechs Monastery and Brewery (the best beer in all of Germany) and spent the whole day there drinking beer and eating German food till we couldn't anymore. We hiked back down and went back to get to bed.

So the next morning was already Tuesday and we were originally planning to buy a transportation pass and head to Neuschwanstein by ourselves (it requires a train and a bus and 3.5 hours one way) and then buy tickets to the castle there and figure everything out ourselves, but we had a place recommended to us by our great bike tour guide in Berlin for trips in Munich. So we signed up for their tour in the early morning. We got a luxury tour bus there, a very informative DVD, and didn't have to wait in line for tickets. Good thing, too! It was the busiest day in 5 years at the castle. Had we gone ourselves we wouldn't even have made it inside! We had a leisurely bike ride around Swan Lake (I got to swim in it, cold but clean and fed from the glaciers in the alps) during the time we would have otherwise had to wait in line for tickets. We hiked up to the castle through a waterfall gorge and saw Mary's Bridge before going inside for the incredibly short 30 minute tour. Only 16 of the 70 or so planned rooms were completed before King Ludwig II's "death under mysterious conditions" at age 42. You can read a short bit about the tour we took here if you're interested. That evening we got back to Munich and walked the city, seeing the sights and enjoying the Biergarten at the Hofbräuhaus. I did my best to be a tour guide for my mom, telling her everything I could remember from the historical Munich tour that I had taken a month earlier.

On our final day we slept in, had breakfast, tried some Italian Gelato (this ice cream can be found all over Germany and is really tasty) and took a train to the airport. Nothing exciting.

A lot done and seen in a week, and it was very good. She was in the largest German cities during her time here and got to see a lot of the country. I could have been a better host on quite a few occasions and I have to beg her pardon for that, but I am very happy with how it went overall, how much of what we planned we were able to accomplish, and I know she enjoyed her week-long workout short vacation in Germany.

If you're planning your own vacation to Germany, I'd add 5 days in each of the cities mentioned above to give yourself time to really see them and enjoy what they have to offer. I'd also suggest you add Dresden to the list as a place not to be missed. When there, check out The New Green Vault. I found it fascinating. I was there 3 months ago... and the post on that will be coming soon!

And now for the pictures!

That's me at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

Mom and I excited to be seeing remnants of history (partially torn-down Berlin Wall in background)

Our bike tour in Berlin stopping at a section of the Berlin Wall

Mom coming down the 'Alpine Slide' luge ride after lunch at the base of Neuschwanstein

Mom and I on a field in front of Neuschwanstein Castle. Those are the foothills of the alps behind it, only a few miles from the Austrian border.

Mom and I in the waterfall gorge on the hike up to Neuschwanstein Castle.

This Blog is Officially Online

Okay. So it has been a really busy month. Lots of travel (30 of the last 40 days), lots of assignments and scholarship applications (here's hoping that those hours will pay off), and not so much computer time. And I like that last part. And I probably wrote way more than you wanted to read so far anyway. So updates will be less detailed from here on out and, perhaps, I'll spend that extra time saved from not writing so much endeavoring to make my posts more interesting...

Anyway, I'm finally uploading this blog to the internet, where it can be of some use to someone. I was going to put it off until I was caught up in writing posts but that'll never happen at this rate. I hope you like reading it!

TJ

Nachfüllen gratis

I found a place with free refills in Aachen today. It's a Subway. The McDonalds I've tried so far haven't had them, so I'm glad to have found this Subway. And I finally figured out what to call it, since I have thought for a month and asked multiple people and come up with no good answer. Free Refills in German is "Nachfüllen gratis." So now you know what to ask for. Speaking of free refills, there's a Pizza Hut in the center of town with all you can eat that I'll try out one of these weeks.

Belgium and the Netherlands

This weekend Charlie visited again. We went to the Barbecue on Friday at my place with a lot of the people I live with. There's one almost every week and it's a great place to go and just relax and talk with people while grilling some food. It's held right outside next to the tiny stream at my place. I went with Charlie to see the start of the bike race on Sunday. They weren't yet racing where I saw them ride by -- they have pace cars like in Nascar for certain parts of the race. We had a Belgian beer and some Belgian Waffles and then Charlie biked off for the race and, once I had walked through a couple-mile-long outdoor market, I decided to use my all-day train+bus pass to go to Maastricht, Netherlands.
First, the market. It was interesting. They have lots of chickens, live and dead. People were buying cooked chickens on one side of the aisle and buying one to put in a box on the other side. Old-school 'for here' and 'to-go'. And they literally just put the live chicken into a cardboard box when they sold it. That's different. They had a lot of stuff to sell, actually. Sweets, clothes, fruits, waffles. They even had guys like Billy Mays who sell things in TV commercials. Vacuums, Knife Sets, and the like.
Something I particularly liked was that when I was ordering french fries I said everything correctly in French (most of Belgium speaks French) but I said the word "large" in German and the owner of the stand changed languages immediately and I finished my transaction in German. I was impressed that she was fluent in both and picked up on the mistake I made.
Okay, so now to Maastricht. Maastricht is beautiful and jam-packed with history. Impressively clean and architecturally a great blend of past and present. My favorite part of the city was Stichting Dierenpark because it felt like an accidental zoo. Before reaching it, I saw a moving artistic display of dying or extinct animals. Once there I saw a new animal. It is like a deer mixed with a calf. It is pretty.
To get back to the main train station I wanted to take the bus and, after 10 minutes of waiting, I realized I was at an out of use bus stop. It said something in Dutch that I hadn't read upon arrival about being closed.
Dutch. That's something I should write about. My first impression of the Dutch language, written just after arriving: It's like a German speaker and an English speaker got together and they weren't sure how to spell or say things so they just took their words, mixed them together, and then added and changed letters.
Examples: "Price List" + "Preisliste" = "Prijslijst"; "Drink" + "Trank" = "Dranken"; "French Fries" + "Pommes Frites" = "Franse Frietjes"
It's actually kind of nice that I can read and understand almost everything.
Passed a coffee shop that required membership cards / ID on my walk back.

A German girl on the bus had the Australian song Waltzing Matilda as her ringtone.

Jocelyn and Charlie's Visit

This weekend was fun. Charlie and Jocelyn came to visit. While Charlie biked insane distances both Saturday and Sunday, Jocelyn and I checked out part of Aachen. We tried to go to the Lindt Chocolate factory but, since it had already closed, we went to the Oesher Bend, a temporary, mini-amusement park (I later looked up the right term: funfair. It doesn't have animals so 'fair' didn't seem to fit). It was fun. I had cotton candy for the first time in a long time and I had a half-meter bratwurst. The 50m elevated swings weren't that much fun, though they did give a great view, but the ride that spun was great. I can't describe it very well. I just know it's very similar to the Matterhorn, but on a smaller scale. Also, there was a ride that wanted to tell people to pick up a picture taken of themselves during the ride and it kept saying in English, "Don't forget you!", which I thought was a funny direct translation from German. Watched Pulp Fiction for the first time as well. Not a bad movie. Quite a few people I've talked to here like the movie, especially the opening quotes about Europe being different than the US.

I remembered something from way back in Cologne. There was a guy that called himself DJ Mark that did Karaoke every week in Köln. He brought in what looked to be a kid's mini-training-electric guitar, a recorder, and a harmonica to accompany his singing. He was very entertaining. About 45 years old, too. But the mini-electric actually plugged into the sound system and somewhat worked. It was about as big as my forearm. Don't know why I'm remembering that now, but I thought I'd share it with you.

Saturn and German University

I went into a Saturn store today. It's the German equivalent of Best Buy.
I really liked their video games section because of two things I saw.
First a sign that read:
"Erst Schule,
Dann spielen.
Unsere Konsolen sind bis 14.00 ausgeschaltet."
First School, then Play. Our consoles are off until 2pm. They are either helping to prevent children from playing hooky, or they are just using school as an excuse to save power. Either way, I'm a big fan.

FIFA 2008 was displayed across 2 large screens with 1. FC Koeln against Alemannia Aachen. Awesome!! I have spent time in each of those cities and the German pride in their city's "Football Club" cannot be matched. You know when it's a game day. I was excited to see the German league teams playing against each other in the video on the demo. 1. FC Köln (read "erste eff-say cooln"), stands for "first football club in Cologne" and is the team from that region. Alemannia is the name of the soccer team in Aachen. Seeing that really brightened my day.

I went to class at RWTH Aachen today. That's Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, the theory-based engineering school here, most equivalent to UC's College of Engineering. My supervisor wants me to gain academic progress as well as professional experience on this co-op. It was all in German and, therefore, difficult to glean a lot from. There's too many new technical words flying by too quickly. It's not nearly so nice or electronically advanced as schools in the US, as is typical in Germany. The most surprising difference I noted was that they really pack students in. There's no aisle, so if you want to sit in the middle, everyone between you and your seat must get up and fold up their desks and seats to let you through. For those of you familiar with the size of classrooms at UC, the 160 seats in the class I went to today fit in a room smaller than 755 Baldwin. UC's website says that room should hold no more than 72 people.

Easter Travel 5 - And I'm back

Wow. I had no idea how happy I would feel upon returning to Aachen! I walked off the train into the station and my heart felt light and a smile sprung to my face. I could read and understand everything! I felt so confident in my German as I ordered dinner. I'm really glad to be back. I really do like Germany. Especially in comparison to France. (No offense meant to anyone who is a fan of France. But without knowledge of the language it is much more difficult to get by there then it is in Germany. France is not nearly so foreigner-friendly.)
On the train ride back I was able to help point out to some Indians on the train some things to see in Cologne since they were going to have a 2 hour layover there and wanted to see some stuff in town. They are living and working in IT in Sweden and on their way back from Brussels. Apparently not an interesting place. They suggested that I never even visit it.

Hm. Another €2.30 to ride the bus back home after the train station. It's so expensive and it's the only way for me to get around other than over an hour of walking each way or a more expensive taxi ride! I wish I had more options like in the bigger cities I've stayed in.

I have my wonderful paperwork meeting downtown for foreigner registration. I hope all goes well there and that my German is good enough to explain what I need. And I hope that the next bus doesn't drive away so quickly. I just missed this one because the driver didn't even wait long enough for me to walk from the bench at the bus stop to the curb to be picked up :-/

Easter Travel 4 - Paris Again!

I am having a wonderful time in Paris seeing everything the city has to offer (not literally because this is a Gigantic city on the same level of scale as New York or Chicago and it has hundreds of years of history).

As an example of how busy but how interesting my time is right now, see the following quickly typed itinerary of what I did today on Easter Sunday:
Started out waking up and getting breakfast at the hostel.
Then had a bunch of walking to do because metro line 7 was partially closed for Easter
Saw the Notre Dame but before Mass started went to Sainte-Chapelle (crown of thorns church), and viewed the amazing stained glass windows. It was built in only 6 years!
Open air market with birds and flowers
Notre Dame grounds and then looking through the offerings of individual's shops along the river Seine
Notre Dame Easter Mass
La Conciergerie, the prison that held Marie Antoinette before her beheading
Then authentic french lunch and pastries along the river
The Louvre (Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, works from Raphael, De Vinci, and many many others)
Musée d'Orsay (impressionist paintings from Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, etc.)
Metro to the Mount of Martyrs
Awesome smoothie made of nothing but actual fruit
Walk up to the church at the top of the hill, the highest point in Paris
Enjoyed the great original artwork there, on sale by people painting
Enjoyed the spontaneous music performance on the steps of the church Sacré Cœur with the great view of the whole city.
Walked down some famous steps to a famous intersection and ate at that corner at an authentic French restaurant. I had duck accompanied by french wine and it was awesome.
Walked down the mount and took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed to the top so, as night had fallen, we could look out from the roof onto the Avenue des Champs-Élysées back towards Notre Dame with all the cars' headlights and taillights and many pedestrians. Also saw the rest of the city again from a high perspective, as we did from the Eiffel Tower, and it was beautiful yet again.
After we came down we walked the entire Champs-Élysées to the Egyptian Obelisk and then headed back to the hostel.
Another very full day in the awesome city of Paris.

Easter Travel 3 - Versailles!

We visited Versailles today. I'm back at the hostel now, resting my feet. I was standing or, more often, walking for a total of 12 hours today. All on cobblestone. But my feet and how hot it is in this room are the only two things that I can complain about today.
The palace at Versailles was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, and the palace grounds are Gigantic and Beautiful. Everyone should see the display of the fountains there at some point in their life.
We got a tip from a local to go to one of the more secluded fountains when they turn on and it was just awesome.
I looked it up later. It is called "Bosquet of the Salle de Bal" and you can see a picture of it without the fountains running here.
The Palace at Versailles was one of the most ornate palaces and was used for many years by Louis the XIV and XV and XVI and where Marie Antoinette last lived before she was captured and beheaded during the revolution. A lot of very neat history there, too. Definitely worth a full day to see the Palace and the Gardens.

The first thing I tried to read in France when I got off the train from Germany was a tourist information desk sign. There were 100 person lines at all the desks for tickets and info so I went to the closed window to glean what I could without waiting. The English translation said "No Tourist Information at this window now. Thank you for your comprehension." Haha. The French word for "understanding" is compréhension. I have actually learned quite a bit of French while in France. 3 years of Latin, 2 years of Spanish, 9 months of German, and 21 years of English help a lot :-)
But I think I like reading poor translations much more than correct ones. 'Not a Passageway' was what the French said. The English translation: "No Way"

Easter Travel 2 - Paris!

I took some short notes while traveling through Paris whenever something came into my head. I'll let you read them as I wrote them ...

This is really hard.
I'm completely unsure of where I'm going, but I'm on the subway going there. My German phone costs tons of money to use here so it's not a viable solution. I haven't yet found an English speaker, but at least one guy knew how to say 42 in English, so I found the right subway gate (I think)!
Aw! I just missed my group's boat ride by the Eiffel tower! They texted me just now.
Somehow I must still look like I know what I'm doing because I've had 3 people come up to me and ask for help. Interestingly, though one man was French, the other two were Germans! So I could speak to them, but I still don't have a clue what I'm doing. New plan: find a cafe by the Eiffel tower, I hope, for an hour wait till their boat ride gets over!
Darn. I was not on the right train (though I did find the right gate I got on the wrong train at that gate). I try again. Now I must take 3 trains to get to where I want to be. I think I understand the system now.

...And all of the above occurred within the space of five minutes.
A little later ...

Okay, I made it! Only took 2 tries and 4 trains and 40 minutes. Plenty of time left for some Ice Cream under the "Tour Eifel" :-D
It's very crowded here now. It's Good Friday and tons of Europeans are vacationing in Paris. I heard a lot of German and Spanish today. It was about 3 hours from time we got in line till time we left the tower. It's really cool! At first it didn't seem that big then it looked really big and then, from halfway to the top, it seemed gigantic. Weather was great, only sprinkled a few times, and we could see probably 30 miles from the tower. And wow, Paris is big. Just enormous.
We were there as they did the Light Show on the Eiffel Tower and we watched from the Tower at the city as the sun set and all the lights across Paris turned on. Very beautiful.

Easter Travel 1

I finally have my Easter travel all booked. I'm really late in booking, so it will be €180 for trains to and from Paris and €90 to stay in the youth hostel for 3 nights. My first trip outside of Germany in Europe! And I get to see Paris! Alright!
Time for some sleep. It's now 3am so it's certainly my bedtime.

In Aachen

I am safely in Aachen, where I'll be living for the next 6 months. I'm doing great, the place I'm living is fantastic, and I have already met at least 20 people! Everything here is good except that I am, very unfortunately, without internet.
I have to go for now since Im using someone else's internet (and keyboard if you see no apostrophes and mistypes the keyboards are different over here and this one particular computer is set to type in Polish :-) )

Answering Questions

Kira and Nisrene were kind enough to send me a list of questions to answer and that's what really got me started on taking notes to eventually start this blog. Here are a few of the questions and answers:

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1. What does your dorm look like?
My hostel looks like an older brick building. It's not too interesting. It has really cool grounds, though. A large field, a place for campers to park, lots of trees and paths, and it's right next to the Rhine, so I can always look out and see the river flowing by. The inside has been renovated fairly recently so it's somewhat modern.

2. Have you drank a lot of beer?
Yes. For lunch sometimes, but mostly with dinner or at the clubs. It's pretty good. I still don't like beer for its taste but I like it here a lot more than what I've had in the US. Each area in Germany has local beers that they brew and everyone drinks so here in Köln the beer is called Kölsh. They like to mix it with either Coke or Sprite. You can find Coke products Everywhere here. I've had Orange Fanta at some point every day.

3. Have you stumbled into your room at 3 am?
Stumbled? No, though I have walked to my room that late three or four days of the last 7. I got a full night's sleep for the first time last night. But it's been so much fun that I don't mind.

4. Did you forget any socks?
Nope, I have plenty of socks. I bought a new pair of German everyday shoes, but that was part of the plan. They're nice. I like German style shoes better than shoes from the US. But shoes and clothes are actually a lot more expensive over here. Future ICP students, be warned.

5. How much is your internet?
Internet here at the Hostel is free, but very unreliable. It goes out every half hour sometimes and sometimes every 5 minutes. Normally it's about $1 per hour at different places. You even have to pay at Starbucks. When I move into my apartment it should only be €5 per month.

6. What kind of food have you eaten?
I've eaten all kinds of food. The Germans have bread with everything. They have very good bread, too. Sandwiches are the easiest thing to get from "fast food" shops along the street. Sandwich and bread stands all over the place. Döners are also common. It's kind of like a Turkish Gyro. There are lots of Turks in Germany (I think about 2.5 million live in Germany). I ate at McDonald's one day; it was close to the same as the US, except no free refills. I am surprised by how few Wursts and Brats there are and how little Sauerkraut. Not so important up in this more-northern part of Germany, apparently. I had Japanese food, as you know. It was good. I have enjoyed all the food I've had so far except a cold, breaded, tuna schnitzel that I ordered by accident. I did not like it. Ordering food is still my biggest weakness here. Too many nouns that I just don't know.

7. Have you seen any interesting animals?
As for animals, I've seen tons of sheep on the green areas near the Rhine. Lots of people walk around with dogs. They take them on the trains with them and walk around without leashes a lot. A few people from my group saw a llama yesterday. There's some sort of fair or circus coming to town and the llama was being walked around to advertise it. A girl staying all the hostel showed me her Guinea Pigs; I only bring them up because I love the German word for them: Meerschweinchen, which means "little pigs of the sea." That name makes them cuter, I think. I like some of the birds I've seen. There's a really pretty bird with a white chest and blue markings on it that I see around the hostel all the time. It's decent sized, too. It's my favorite animal here, so far. [Some parrots escaped from the Zoo down the street after I wrote this. They stayed in the trees next to the hostel. They were a welcome addition to the local wildlife, too.]

8. What kind of interesting architecture have you seen?
What kind of interesting architecture? I'm in Europe! All kinds of architecture. The gothic Kölner Dom cathedral is my favorite so far. Construction started in 1248 and they worked for 300 years, took 300 years off, and finished it after 50 more years of work. It's gorgeous. I went up to the top today. 509 steps up is a lot to walk. Great view from there. Not many skyscrapers even though I'm in a metro with millions of people. That surprised me. The old city area has lots of pretty and old European buildings that I like. Düsseldorf, where I went yesterday, was more modern and had some cool architecture in its media harbor (Mediahaffen). I like it all.

9. Do you plan on traveling to any other European countries? How much will it cost?
I'm definitely going to be traveling all over Europe. I'll wait to go too far till I get settled in and know my local area. But it's $30 for a 5-person group ticket to go to Netherlands (ONLY $5 per person!), $30 for one person to fly to London, etc. etc. So yeah, I'll be going all over Europe. Probably hitting up Paris for Easter as my first out-of-country experience.

10. Where?
Around Germany and a lot of other European countries. France (Paris, Versailles), Spain (Madrid, Barcelona), Netherlands, Sweden, Austria (Salzburg, Vienna), Switzerland, Italy (Vatican City, Rome, Milano, Venice, Florence, Naples), Greece, England, Ireland, Czech Republic (Prague), Lichtenstein, Turkey. Those are the ones I can think of right now that I'd like to visit. I'm keeping the list small for now ;-)

11. What have you used for transportation?
So far, I've pretty much just used Trains and Subways to get around. I have an unlimited bus pass too, but not used it. One night a new friend drove me home in her car, so I had the German car driving experience, but there was no Autobahn driving yet, so I'll have to wait to comment on that.

12. Are you going to answer all of these?
Yes :-)
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Thanks Kira and Nisrene!

Japan in Europe

Hi to all the Japanese ICP students that are reading this! I took a train to and went through the Japanese Quarter of Düsseldorf today. It actually felt like I was in Japan. Most of the shops and people on the street were Japanese. I couldn't read anything :-) I went into one of the restaurants for a Japanese dinner and I tried a few things, but I can't tell you what because it was only in German and Japanese on the menu and I only know a few nouns in German for food... my main meal had Udon and Chicken and that's all I could discern :-) It was really good. [I found out a few days later that Düsseldorf has the largest Japanese population of any city in Europe.]

It finally struck me today that I'm in Europe. It was evident from how much Düsseldorf mixes old Europe and modern everything, too. US and Europe are quite similar but next to our large shopping centers we don't have 400 year old houses lining the streets and hundreds of people outside being served at a bar that their great great great grandfathers drank at. It's such a cool thing to see!

Arrived!

March 22
I'm in Germany!
Arrived in Frankfurt, bought a BahnCard 50 (all train travel = 50% off) and took a train to Cologne. A two week language course will take place in Cologne. I'll also practice my speaking with a whole bunch of native speakers for the first time. I'm excited!
We'll see how it goes!

First Posting

I'm finally starting my blog about Germany. I'm in Deutschland now but am still waiting for internet in my room, so updates may be sparse, but they'll come with time. Thanks for reading!

TJ