Monday, June 29, 2009

Berlin, Sat 27.6.2009 - Sun 28.6.2009

I woke up at 3:30am to the sound of an American hit from the 80s blaring on my alarm clock. I enjoyed the familiar song, but needed to get moving to start the day of traveling. Breakfast was a bowl of musli, an apple, and a beer. Not a bad way to start the day. I figured because I didn’t stay up all night for a Friday night party that I should have one to take a little part in the continuing morning festivities. I actually drank the beer while I was riding my bike to the train station – I know, it’s not good to ride a bike with one hand, but the traffic was light in the morning, so I managed.
I find the morning atmosphere to just be down right enjoyable. The streets are still, quiet, and lamp-lit, there’s no waiting at intersections, and the temperature is just cool enough. Maybe I will start getting up at 3:30 every morning.
I met up with the three French interns from Airbus (Aurelius, Ileana, and Valentin), who had not gone to bed that night, and caught the train to Berlin at 5:10am. As they were understandably fatigued they tried to find some sleep amidst the train quality seats. Myself, I decided to push onward through the book I was reading about Cicero; a book so generously lent to me by Aaron from back at school. I think their sleepiness must have rubbed of on me because I soon found myself trying to stay awake. Five hours later, we found ourselves at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof.
I'm not up to detailing everything, so I've listed our general movements, more for myself so that I can look back and remember and fill in some of the stories later.

We got some maps, and headed for the Pegasus Hostel where we could check in.
So, Hauptbahnhof -> Hostel -> Zoo Bahnhof -> Prussian palace and gardens (Ileana to the zoo) -> Walk along Ku’damm street -> Watch street performers -> beer -> Bus 100 to the end of the line -> Bus 100 the other way -> Victory Statue and Gay festival -> back to hostel to take showers -> small dinner by the hostel -> Brandenburg Tor -> Rathaus -> drink/ice-cream on Unter den Linden str. -> hostel for sleep.

Sunday: Checkout at 11am -> Starbuck’s by Brandenburg Tor -> another outside look at the Rathaus -> Bus M85 to a portion of the wall -> a walk through the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe -> back through Brandenburg Tor to catch the bus for the Berliner Dom -> walk through street vendors on the way to Dom -> walk through the Dom -> back to train station -> adventure home

Monday, June 22, 2009

Iranian protest

I almost forgot (ok, until now) to mention one of the highlights of Hamburg. On Saturday, after the tour and on our way to check out one of the shopping centers, Chris and I ran into a very large procession of people protesting about the Iranian election. Some signs were in Persian, some in German, and others in English. With lots of green arm bands and other political symbols, the crowd marched through the main streets with chants and loudspeakers blaring. We had to just sit there for a few minutes and watch. We even considered joining with fists raised so that you could see us on TV, but then decided not to. I wasn’t really informed about what was going on in Iran, so after that I did some internet surfing to catch up on the news - seeing a protest up close does a lot to spike my interest in actually being informed.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Hamburg, 19-21.6.2009

After leaving work early on Friday, about 10am, it began to rain harder and harder until I decided to take cover under a nearby building entrance. Rain had been coming down off and on all that morning, so I unluckily caught one of the times that rained really hard. I waited next to a man in blue uniform who was enjoying the rain as a break from his duties outside and slowly smoked a cigarette. After about 12 minutes and 25 seconds, I decided that the rainfall rate was below the 2mm per hour threshold and chose to press on. Slightly wet, I packed my things, ate some lunch, and soon after biked to the train station with Chris to catch our train to Hamburg.

The train was unusually full. Thinking it would be a good idea to bring our bikes along to Hamburg, we brought our bikes with us on the train. While they did prove useful in Hamburg, the bikes made the boarding process a little slower for us so we could not get a seat anywhere. Thankfully, about half way along the train ride masses of youthful travelers with lawn chairs and beer exited for a weekend of concerts at one of the cities along the way, leaving us with plenty of options for seats.

The next item on our itinerary was to find the hostel that we would be staying at that night. We headed off in confidence after we turned the map in our hands around several times. Our target was a hostel called Meininger’s on Reeperbahn Strasse. Or so we thought. Following one of the main thoroughfares in a semicircle to the west, we did find Reeperbahn Strasse. About that time the rain made us duck for cover under a large tree by a bus stop. We noticed that we had stopped conveniently in front of a strip bar and a sex shop. As the rain lifted slightly, we continued on only to find that we could have stopped anywhere along Reeperbahn Strasse and encountered more of the same. By this time we were wondering, “where exactly was this hostel we booked, and what kind of hostel is it?” We stopped to ask directions at a laundromat and, thankfully, were told that they had no idea where it was, and it was at least not on Reeperbahn. After calling Meininger’s, we got the correct directions and found it without too much more difficulty.

After checking into Meininger’s, we decided to go by foot and see some of the city. I really wished we had ridden our bikes because about half way into the walk it felt like I had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. Finally, we did reach the promised land- an Irish pub called Finnegan’s. A decent beer with some potato wedges sure did the soul right.

Saturday, after having a good breakfast of brotchen (like French bread in the form of a roll) at the hostel we decided to go on the “free” tour of the city. There actually was no charge, but tips were encouraged, because that’s how the guides made their coin. I’m sure most of what I learned is now forgotten, but I’m a little more knowledgeable about some churches and shipping companies and the great fire of 1842 and the cholera outbreak and the pirate Kluas something or the other and taxes and I think that’s about it. Our guide was a younger, energetic guy named Mark who got into what he was talking about. I found him funny, but I’m not sure if everyone in the group did.

That afternoon, we rode our bikes around and went through some of the gardens of the city. As we came into the gardens, there was a large group of German sailors in an outdoor amphitheater that were singing songs with accordion accompaniment. Interesting. Moving farther along the fine red gravel path we came to a series of ponds that cascaded down a shallow hill. Crossing the small ponds were large circle stepping places. After walking around the ponds, it just seemed like a serene place to meditate. It started with some balancing yoga positions on the stone circles, and ended with handstands and headstands on top of them.

For dinner, Chris and I found an “authentic” German restaurant. It was called ‘Kartoffeln Kellar’ I think, which translates into Potato cellar. Most everything on the menu had potatoes in it, or was made out of potatoes. Go figure. I had potato dumplings with spinach and crème sauce. Very tasty. And for desert, a potato dumpling with plum sauce. It was a quality experience.

We went to bed fairly early that night so that we could get up for the fish market early the next morning. I got up at 6am and headed for the fish market. 6am felt like 9am. The sun was up and shining brightly and there were people all along a side street on my way to the fish market who were setting up their own tents for something else. As I got closer, I passed a group of drunk guys who were singing boisterously as they slowly meandered down the street. I thought it to be kind of late, or early, I’m not sure which, for people to be out and drunk still, but I guess they could be heading home soon. To my surprise, there was a large old brick building, around which all the vendors had their tents placed, where the party was going on. I heard the music and headed towards it. As I was walking I noticed that everyone was holding a cup of beer or some other drink. There were, in fact, lots of drunk people, and they were still going strong. At about 7am, the band that was playing on one end of the building finished their last song, only to announce that the band at the other end of the building would be starting immediately, which it did. Party on.
Outside, the people were more or less sober. The cobblestone street became packed with people, and sometimes clogged as some groups were held captive by the sales pitch of a vendor. The main goods offered were fruits and vegetables, baked items, fish related items, shirts, and flowers. There were many sales techniques in the market place. For those selling food, samples were often offered, though many didn’t. Of course there was the method of yelling about how great your product is, the stare down method, the wait until they come closer method, and then the auctioning or audience gathering method. I’d have to spend a bit more time there to see what the best method is, but I think they could all benefit from reading “The Greatest Salesman in the World.” They would increase their sales one-hundred fold I’m sure.

Well, that’s Hamburg in a nutshell, or at least some of my experiences with it, though I am sure there are many more sides of Hamburg that could be explored.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

bikes, planes, and museums

let's see. after not writing things down for awhile i can't remember everything as well as i thought i would. as i'm finishing up my third week here, life has somewhat normalized. i ride my bike to work everyday, take the tram places, bike to the store, and do other normal activities now.

weekend of the june 6 and 7 -
saturday chris and i went around bremen, walking through the altstadt and along the river. some stores of interest were an outdoors type store and a tobacco store. i think my favorite item of the day was a pipe that cost 300 euros. i think if i take up pipe smoking, which may very well happen here, i'll start with an intro level pipe.
sunday i went out for a drink with Svenja to an interesting bar/restaurant that had a huge glass roof so that you could sit outside if you wanted. when the waiter came, i ordered a beer, and she asked me in german(of course) what size i would like. i responded with one of the options that i actually understood, which in this case turned out to be a very small glass. i thought it was kind of funny when i got it.
later that afternoon i was riding my bike around listening to some hard core music on my ipod, and going no hands around a turn on a dirt path i decided to take a break from my riding. very quickly. my left shin is still sore today.

during the week i biked to the laundromat with a backpack full of dirty clothes, and then biked back home with a backpack full of clean clothes. i'm not really sure how that works, but i try not to worry about things like that. it was actually kind of interesting at the laudromat. as i was wandering around trying to read the directions to the machines in german, a very friendly older man decided to help me out with the process. speaking completely in german, and gesturing a lot, he even helped me check the pockets of my jeans as i loaded the washer. maybe he was looking for change, but he seemed nice enough.

this past weekend was pretty fun. on friday, chris and i went on a Beck's beer tour. the tour was in german, so we understood not so much, but there were often signs with english as well. then of course, at then end was the sampling. that part we understood just fine. after four beers, we got to know the Beck's brand just a little bit better.
saturday evening/night was a special time where the museums in Bremen were open till 1am and you could buy one pass that would get you into them all. there was a lot of modern art, some landscape type paintings, paintings by Lucas Cranach, who i guess is a featured artist this summer, and then there was a museum that had a lot of world experience displays. chris and i also took a boot trip up the weser river. it was scenic, and on the return trip there was a live band on the boat that was from the czech republic. and guess what? they sang in english! the guy in front of us was eating a really long hot dog with mustard which he dropped half of on the floor and then continued to eat. appetizing.
speaking of gross eating habits. at work this past tuesday we had a small breakfast in our department. on the brotchen, or small rolls, they would put this meat spread. it was raw pork and beef ground up with salt and onion, and they would just spread it on the rolls and eat it. i can't say i tried that one.

chris and i are going to hamburg this weekend. so, we'll see what we can see.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Now, from the beginning.

Friday, May 29, 2009 - I flew overnight from Detroit into Frankfurt am Main, from where I hopped a plane to Bremen.
Saturday, May 30, 2009 - No problems through security or customs, and an uneventful flight. The Bremen airport is a very small airport, kind of like the Lansing airport, so I could wait at the exit where I knew Chris would have to walk through. It turns out, he wasn't on the flight he thought he would be on, so I carried on without him. Grabbing my over sized and overly heavy luggage, I went out to greet the line of Mercedes Benz taxis waiting to take me to my destination. After trying to tell the driver what street I was going to, I pointed to the written directions, which he interpreted with ease.
I was kind of surprised to hear a familiar song on the radio. I forget what the song was exactly, but it was just as common here as back in the states I guess. Many of the places I've been so far have had American music playing- the taxi, stores, radio, at work. I've known that American culture reaches around the world, but it's different to be somewhere else around the world, and have the same music playing in public places and such. I'm not sure if that's comforting or not.

Then I met Ute. She's a friendly woman in her early fifties who is renting a room of her house to me. I was kind of expecting this older lady who didn't speak much english. Not so. Anyways, she's fun to talk to, and it's been great living where I have so far.

That afternoon, Chris flew in, and Ute and I went to meet him at the airport. I learned the route that I would take to work as we walked to the airport. And I learned it real good. It takes about 1/2 hour to walk to work, but the first day I went it took me an hour. Good thing I left about 1/2 hour early.

Sunday, May 31, 2009 - Chris and I, after getting up in time to eat lunch, went in to Bremen on the tram. The Bremen soccer team, Werder, had won the day before, and there was a huge celebration as the team came back to Bremen on Sunday. There were great crowds of people drinking Beck's beer and wearing their green and white Werder colors. It was kind of interesting.

Monday, June 1, 2009 - A national holiday. So, Chris and I went for a run in the afternoon along some paved trails by our house. Somehow we found ourselves on a bigger loop than we planned, and ended up going about 8 miles. Kind of rough for a first run. There was a bit of walking involved.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 - My first day of work. The morning commute took the scenic route, as mentioned before. After going through some of the usual paper signing stuff, I got to meet the people that are working in my area. It took some concentration just to hear what their names were, let alone remember them. I thought Roger was Hogar. I'm glad that it's all settled now.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009 - Work again, this time fully realizing the tediousness of my current task after having to do it All day.
After work, naptime. Then I met up with some other interns to go to a bar. It was a good time to get to meet different people. And to realize that my German is nicht so gute. It didn't take me till wednesday to figure that out, but sometimes i just have additional reminders.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Start the blog

every blog has to start somewhere, so why not with the present? it is monday, and i've finally created a blog. many tomorrows have finally come to today, which is when i said i would make one. i wouldn't want to act too rashly and fill it out completely today, so that will come in the near future. just remember- a thousand years is as a day to the Lord.