Final Entry . . . For Now

I am sitting on the plane right now, about 9 hours out of Minneapolis, and I have plenty of time to really give a good summation of my journey. For starters: WOW . . . I have been (From west to east) to: The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, The Czech Republic and Latvia. That is 6 countries!

 

This has been a truly amazing experience. Both through work and my travels I have managed to learn a significant amount European (specifically German) culture. I learnt that German like to shake hands, girls from Latvia are ridiculously good-looking, that there is a giant toilet in Wolfach and how much I enjoy German beer.

 

Coming away from this experience I would say my biggest realization is not that I learnt so much about the world but the fact that there is so much to see, do and learn. I will be returning to Germany at some point in the future, albeit with more German skilz, to explore some more of this great country.

 

My last week in Germany produced a few interesting anecdotes. I got back to my desk after an extended period of building things in the factory last Friday to see a note on my desk. It turns out that my boss was heading out to Turkey on Monday! This meant that I did not have a chance to fill out all the end-of-term paperwork that I needed to! I also could not ask any questions to him while I was finishing my big report.

 

I managed to get all my work finished on Wendsday, my final day of work, and pleasantly my day ended with a hour and a half conversation with Martin, one of the engineers, about German vs. Canadian engineering. Martin is an extremely proud German; he took his time to tell me why the German industrial machine is so much better then the rest of the world’s. My favorite part was when he was telling me about the guy at Porsche whose only job is to ensure that the cars smell right. He goes from car to car and ensures that the smell meets spec. I also learned how real engineering is designing things and “anyone can just pull stuff out of the ground.” He meant that is the best of ways but I still laughed at it.

 

Anyway, I can genuinely say that the past four months has been challenging, rewarding and full of stories. My favorite few adventures were partying in Prague with the two British girls, the flute player, the DJ and a hard-core guy rapping at light speed in Czech; hiking up a mountain with my American/German couchsurfing host Bradley and walking along the Baltic sea 200km west of Riga in Latvia. I have been out of what I have been used to for long enough and I am prepared to take some time in my familiar island home.

 

This summer is going to be great! I am excited to be choosing my own courses at school and excited to be running the UVic Caving Club during prime caving season. This summer looks like it might also be the last four months that I live in “The Castle” which means really the end of an era. I need to work hard, cave hard, climb harder, swim (I do not swim hard but my new Speedo will help), bike and truly savor the every drop of what will be a great summer. This entry marks the end of my (almost) daily reporting but I will be sure to toss up some trip reports and pictures from my various adventures.

April 22, 2009: The $%^&* Fax Machine

 

Today at work I got a lot of quality work done. I am finally seeing my efforts this semester producing some real results. It feels good. I sat through a meeting today; they were speaking German but I kept hearing my name, it was confusing. Eventually they gave me synopsis so it was ok, but I need to learn more Deutsch.

 

My boss speaks very good English, but his swearing I think is better then 99% of native English speakers. Today at about 17:00 the fax machine jammed. He let out a string of swears that was absolutely incredible, almost beautiful, words that I did not know could be fit together were. I think that swearing history was made today. It worked too, the fax machine finally spat out the paper.

 

I got home and sorted out the photos that I want to print. I am creating a book with my collection of train, museum and monument tickets along with some photos. Some could call it a scrapbook, but those people would be wrong it is my superturbochargedtestostobook. Anyways while collected the pictures I forgot that I had been to some of the places that I had, so I guess it was a good thing.

April 21, 2009: Goin’ for a run

The ol’ work term report is starting to appear. This is good news. It is helping me piece things that I have done this semester together and I sort of wish that I had started earlier. I also need to figure out my plans for this weekend. I am thinking Köln. I ran 4km in 19min after work, it was the first time I timed a run in. .  . forever.

April 20, 2009: Tom’s Part

A prototype of the part that I designed showed up today!!! With all luck management will approve it and before I know it there will 500 of the little guys floating around the factory. It is a bit of a pain in the ass that the metal fabricator showed up and I had to talk to him through a translator, but oh well.

 

April 19, 2009: Catching up

The last week I had neglected to update my blog in full so I took today to fill in the holes. I decided to release it onto the internet in chunks so that people could digest it better then laying down 20000 words all at once. I also went into downtown Ratingen to get some fresh air and I was surprised when I saw the streets filled with brand new cars. It turned out that it was an open-air car sale. It was nice to check out all the European cars. I got a Döner and went home to finish my blogging. I did some reading and got to bed.

 

April 18, 2009: The Kö

The day started with a cup of coffee, a loaf of rye bread fresh that morning and discussion of the day’s plan. Soon after breakfast Stuart went off to get a haircut, I brought the bottles to the depot with my dad and Mom tidied up my flat (thanks Mom).

 

Today we were going to get downtown without the car! We all walked to the S-Bahn station and scooted down to the main station. After a brief ride on the U-Bahn we made it to the Königsallee, one of the “poshest” streets in Germany. This is the place that people who buy shoes that cost more then most peoples cars go to show them off. We all bought some clothes, and my mom found a store that she had read about in a magazine. Everyone had had their fill of shopping, except Mom, and we headed home.

 

Back at my place we all took a breather, Dad caught some shuteye and before I knew it they were off, heading back to Frankfurt to spend the night before their early morning flight.

 

I took the afternoon off and watched a movie, or two.

April 17, 2009: Mercedes-Benz Museum

We got up and had another breakfast that could not be beat. Soon we were on the road again. We tuned in the GPS on the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart and we were on our way. We got re-routed by Elizabeth (the name I gave the voice of the GPS) a few times due to traffic, but we ended up there safe and sound with lots of the day left to explore what is essentially like the Taj Mahal of the mechanical engineer. The glorious double helix of pre-tensioned concrete, structural steel and metal cladding loomed over us as we skirted it in our Benz and pulled into the lot.

 

We got inside and were greeted by an enormous Mercedes dealership to our left and the museum store to our right. The odyssey began. We picked up our audio guides and took the leather lined stainless steel elevator to the top of the double helix shaped building and got started. The museum is organized so that you take the elevator up and walk downwards transcending the history of the automobile, Germany and society in general in the process. The audio guide had four settings: Fundamentals, Society, Technology and FOR KIDS. I kept it on technical (boo yeah). I could ramble for pages about the contents of this great place but I do not want to spoil it for you.

 

After eating at the museum we bought some trinkets from the store and began the drive to Ratingen, my home (far) away from home.

 

Elizabeth got us around the traffic and we were at my flat four and a bit hours later. We picked up some food and beer and went out for a walk about town. I proudly toured them about town and showed them the nicest bar in town. We all stopped in for a beer, including my 15 year old brother Stuart. Nobody asked any questions and we stood there amongst the people chatting in German and enjoyed some Frankenhiem Altbier. We got home, my parents “complemented” me on my place and we got to bed after some cold cuts on extremely good German bread.

April 16, 2009: We Go to the Toilet Museum

This morning I woke up and headed down to meet my parents for breakfast. The lady who runs the hotel served us some eggs and Mom took the opportunity to re-state how much she liked the place. Breakfast was great.

 

We all piled into the Mercedes and drove off to explore some of the locations in the Black Forest that the hotel owner recommended. On the way we took a wrong turn and ended up going through a 1.85km tunnel; at the far end of the tunnel there was a sign for the Duravit Design Center. I had no idea what this was but Mom apparently did and soon we were in the parking lot.

 

The front of the building was clad with stainless steel panels and to the top left of the building there was a MASSIVE door with a huge toilet inside. I soon discovered that Duravit designs enamel bathroom parts. We walked in to the place and were happy to discover that there was no entry fee to take a look around. The first floor was essentially a toilet showroom with showers, sinks, bathtubs and, of course, toilets. This was fun. The different floors all had different exhibits from toilet design, manufacturing and, of course, lots of toilets. We got back to the main floor after a whirlwind walk about, bought some Duravit pencils and got into the car to head off to the next destination.

 

The next stop was the historical village. It was a setup similar to the Heritage Park of Calgary except way older. The oldest building was built in 1624! There was everything from an old school sawmill to a grain mill to a really short guy that made whistles. I even bought some wool socks from a lady who was probably pushing 100 promptly realizing that the desired recipient of the socks is allergic to wool; my mom now has the socks.

 

To get back to the future after the historical village we went to check out a sort of rollercoaster that was on the side of a hill nearby. It was a strange setup, each person sat in a sort of go-kart that was on two rails. After climbing up the hill with the aid of a wire winch each person got to take their cart down the track and choose how fast they went by applying the brake. The first time I got caught behind what my dad calls “a plumber”, a term meaning a person who drives slow; that run was a bit slow but the second run I got the true feel of it, it was a good time.

 

For lunch we stopped in the historical town of Gegenbach and had lunch in a building that was built in the year 1350. After lunch we had a sauna in the hotel swimming area, I watched some Southpark and we got some eats at the town restaurant. We got home and got to bed.

April 15, 2009: Swarovski Crystal

Again the day began with some coffee and food from the buffet in the hotel restaurant. We got up early(ish) to start the day’s journey. Today we wanted to go to Innsbruck in Austria, the Neushchwanstein castle and at the end of the day end up in the next hotel in the Black Forest. We all piled in the Benz and we were off.

 

My mom had a desire to go to the Swarovski crystal factory that is located in Austria just before Innsbruck. Like it or not this was the first stop on the day’s trip. We pulled up at the factory after a little miss-navigation caused by us thinking that we were smarter then the GPS unit (we are not apparently) we arrived.

 

It turns out that there is more to be done at the Swarovski factory then simply visit the store, there is a whole crystal theme park. We decided against the theme park because of the exorbitant price, plus it was just a bunch of crystals. So the shopping began. Mom shopped and shopped and shopped and shopped. While she was shopping I looked around the store at all the massive crystals. I also had some fun playing with the faucets in the bathroom that operate by touching a metal spot on the faucet prompting the water to flow out of the backlit stainless steel trough and into the sink. The more you pressed the button the more this bar of light changed colors. I fooled around with this for quite some time, both to kill time and because it fascinated me. Long story short I managed to get the entire thing to light up in red and stop working, I took my cue and left.

 

Soon the shopping was over and we were back in the car and on our way to Innsbruck. We parked the car upon arrival in a large underground parking lot and got out to explore the Altstat. We had some pizza from a street side Italian place, the weather was still unbelievable.

 

The next stop was the Neuschwanstein castle right across the German boarder. This is the castle that the Walt Disney Corporation logo is based off of. My mom stayed at “base camp” to shop and Stuart, Dad and I ventured up to check out the castle. It was HUGE. The place bled opulence, it was built by King Ludwig II as one of his many castles and is situated on a rocky outcrop that overlooks his mom’s castle. We managed to get up and down to/from the castle in 50min and soon were on the way to the Black Forest.

 

We rolled up at the hotel in Wolfach and piled all the bags into our rooms. This place was VERY nice, my mom just could not get enough of it and every second sentence was about how great it was. After putting our stuff away we went to the hotel restaurant for some eats. This was a contender for best meal of the trip. The owner of the place served/cooked the meal with help from her staff; the portions were huge and delectable.

 

We were all full and waddled off to bed.

April 14, 2009: Hiked around the lake

I wiggled out from between the sheets, wiped the sleep from my eyes and greeted another day in euro-paradise. The day started off with a cup of coffee and an all you can eat breakfast buffet. We decided to spend the day exploring the area around Schliersee.

 

We picked up a map and decided to take a hike around the small lake near the town. We took a slight wrong turn and in the process were rewarded by seeing the local saw mill, it was very organized and the wood smell helped to mask the ever-present cow smell. After getting back on path we circumnavigated the lake; while we were going around the lake we enjoyed the sight of the Bavarian buildings, the train tracks and some swans that decided to join us.

 

To reward ourselves for the hike we stopped in at a café on the shore of the lake for a beer and some dessert. My mom and dad had the apple strudel, Stuart had the spätzle and I had a MASSIVE (both in size and deliciousness) salad.

 

We took some time off for a nap and then headed off to the restaurant that was recommended to us by our German neighbors. We all ordered beer and sausage and took in the view of the Alps reflected off the lake. Wow. 

April 13, 2009: The Hills are Alive in Rattenberg

We got up at a reasonable hour and met up in the restaurant to have some breakfast. The food was great and the coffee was decent but it was a good start to what promised to be another great day in my parents’, brother’s and my Euro-venture. Today we were going to dip our toes into Austria. The goal was to check out the town that our former neighbors from our cabin on Kootenay Lake that we still keep in touch with, Dani and Hannes, recommended, Rattenberg.

 

It was Easter Monday so we thought that most of the stores would be closed but we were happy to discover that there were still places to pick up some lederhosen and dirndl. After a brief shopping spree I gathered the family in and informed them of my desire to “go climb a mountain.” They agreed and we found a nice path that led up a steep hill and towards a shallow pass between two large hills; it was not a mountain but it was close enough.

 

The weather was beautiful for the third day in a row; it was in the low 20’s. We had a great time getting up to the top of the pass. Once there we were given a great “The Sound of Music”-esque view of the next valley over. Unlike in Canada the next valley contained another town and houses scattered between the trees; I am used to climbing a mountain and looking over into the next valley to see nothing but trees and mountains.

 

We got down from our hike and treated ourselves to some beer and ice cream at a café on the main street in town. After the beer we went to some more stores and got our shop on. I must add that beer in Germany is absolutely amazing.

 

Mom was soon shopped out, for the day, and we headed back to Schliersee. Once there Stuart and I headed back to our room. I was on holidays, not that the past four months has not been one big holiday, so I decided to take a nap. 2 great hours later I got up; it was dinnertime!

 

For dinner today we decided to check out one of the many restaurants in town. We settled on a particularly Bavarian-looking place located in the lower level of a brown building with shudders and mural. The roofs were low so Stuart and I, not Dad, had to duck. We took a seat a small table nestled among German knick-knacks and peculiarly a Canadian hockey stick. Soon our waitress showed up, she was the ultimate German Oma, about 5’2” 220lbs and eager to please. She did not speak English so my parents got to witness my “mastery” of the German language.

 

The food showed up and it was delicious, easily the best that I had since I got to Europe. We accompanied our pork with spätzel, bier and kartoffelcremesuppe. I was in gastronomical heaven. The experience came to an end way too soon and I was full as full can be in bed with a mild, but welcome, case of the German meat sweats.

April 12, 2009: The Calm Lake Amongst the Alps

We got up 10am and went down to the lobby for our breakfast that was included with the hotel room. Today the plan is to go to our next hotel in Schliersee in Bavaria. It is not that far to get there (especially with my dad driving on the Autobahn) so we are going to have some time to check out some towns along the way. We got our things packed and piled into the Mercedes E200 station wagon. We were on the road. Dad was happy to be zooming down the Autobahn at up to 210km/h, the speed the car is governed at, and we soon were approaching our hotel. We decided to stop for some food in Ausberg, a town/city just outside of Stuttgart.

 

We pulled into a small café adjacent the town Dom (cathedral) and ordered some baguettes; I got the American. We enjoyed our food and some iced coffee while sitting in awe of how clean and quiet the town was.

 

After lunch we went to check out the Dom. The Ausberg Dom is quite interesting, it was very old (circa 1060) but reconstructed more recently this century. Like some of the old buildings that I have been to in Germany the walls were oddly coated with plaster and painted with lines that gave the appearance of being constructed of blocks. I picked up a post card for my Uncle Terry and we continued on our trip to Schliersee.

 

Schliersee is a small town on the side of a small lake. It is located close to the Austrian boarder in Bavaria. Once arriving in town we went for a walk around to check out the town. Like all German cities/towns/villages that I have been in it was ridiculously clean; Schliersee was also über-Bavarian with all the buildings having the ornate wooden carved railings on the balconies, brown wooden shudders and some having Bavarian looking murals painted on the side of them.

 

It was dinnertime; we decided to go to the hotel restaurant for the Easter dinner special. It ended up not being that special but it was good. After dinner we got to bed.

April 11, 2009: Heidelberg Adventures

We were up a reasonable hour and took off to the airport to pick up the car. We caught the S-Bahn and got to the airport. Here my Dad picked up his new Autobahn rocket, a Mercedes Benz E series (unfortunately a station wagon).

 

We got in the car, tuned in the GPS, turned up the AC, reclined the seats and pumped the German radio; we were off! On the Autobahn my Dad got his first taste of road legal 210km/h driving, it was nice.

 

We were in Heidelberg in no time. We parked the car and went in to explore the city. Heidelberg has awesome red brick buildings skirting the Rhein with a huge castle tucked majestically into the green hillside. We got some eats and hiked up to the castle. Here there were great views of the river from the former gardens of the king. I could not believe how nice it was out; at this point it was pushing 25 degrees.

 

We got back to the car, checked into another hotel (not a hostel!) and went out for some eats in the Altstat (old town). On the way back we pulled a Tom and got nice and lost; we had taken the wrong tram. I quickly figured out where we should be and we were back in the hotel and ready for bed in no time.

April 10, 2009: Momma Bear, Papa Bear and Baby (15 year old) Bear Re-Unite with Tommy Bear

This morning wins the award for earliest rise; I was up at 3:30! I had to catch the 4:12 train into Düsseldorf in order to catch my train into Frankfurt. It did not seem as bad as I thought that it would but I managed to get out the door on time and catch the train. I had to wait around in the station for 45min before my train left so I took a seat in the waiting room next to a bunch of people of varying levels of sobriety. I busted out my book and started reading. One of the drunk guys made a bit of a scene and was yelling at another guy to talk to him in French, but he eventually saw the light and apologized to the other guy. I eventually caught the train into Frankfurt at 5:13. It was a short 1 ¼ hour trip from D-Dorf to the Frankfurt airport.

I got off the train and amazingly had no problem finding my way to the terminal that my parents and my brother Stuart were due to arrive at. They showed up and we had a joyous reunion. We were all ready to start exploring the city.

We took a cab to the hotel and dropped off our bags. We took a walk around the city to get our bearings and then it was nap time! After the nap we decided to take a boat tour of the city. The sun was out and it was by far the nicest weather that I have seen since coming to Germany, 22 and sunny. We sat on the top deck of the boat and saw the sights.

We got back and had a nice dinner on the patio of a restaurant in one of the cities main squares. It was delicious; it is nice to not be eating peasant food while in another city for a change. We were all tired and after a trip to the pub we got to bed.

April 9, 2009: The Forgotten Thursday

Today was a blur. I say this not because it was so at the time but because I foolishly forgot to record the happenings of the day. If my memory serves me right, it is now the 18th of April, I spent the day tying up loose ends at work. I do remember however that I did say goodbye to my colleague Dr. Steffen Rau, he is going away on holidays and I will not see him again because I leave back to Canada before he comes back. So I said goodbye to him and picked up some parting tidbits of engineering wisdom then kicked off my steel toed boots and scurried home to get some shut-eye before my big trip.

April 8, 2009: Preparations

I was quite busy at work today getting ready for my extended absence from work to travel with my parents. I got home and did some more preparations there getting the place ready for my parents to visit. I cannot wait for Friday, this trip is going to be amazing.

April 7, 2009: Not Too Exciting

Today was not too exciting. I got home and really did not do much. I remember going to bed and thinking, what did I do today and remembering, not much.

April 5, 2009: Flea Market

I was tired. I got up at 10:00 and had some breakfast. At breakfast I met two guys from Germany and a lady who was teaching English in Seattle. After breakfast I got to talking to the teacher and it turned out that we were headed in the same direction. We took the buses and trains together all the way back to East Berlin, where I was last night. Here we parted ways I went to check out a flea market. The flea market had all sorts of interesting things from custom teeshirts to old postcards to junk in boxes to old medical instruments. It was a good time and I bought some trinkets to remind me of the experience.

After the flea market I got some all-you-can-eat Indian food buffet, it was hella-good. Time to go home. I caught the train to the main train station and saw which trains were going back to D-Dorf. I did not want to pay for a reservation so I had to wait for an hour for a train that the computer said I did not need a reservation for. I decided to go and chill on the front lawn of the Reighstag. It was a good choice, the sun was out and the grass was green and inviting. I wrote some post cards and admired both the Reichstag and the Berlin Hauptbahnhoff.

I got on the train to the realization that it was going to be packed. I managed to find a spot in the restaurant car and took a seat. About 3 stations into my trip a girl about my age took a seat across from me. I asked her if she spoke English and it turned out she did. Mary, as it turned out her name was, is working on an internship in a town west of D-Dorf doing essentially the exact same thing that I am! She was great because she spoke English very confidently and because English was her third language she did not know some of the words so she just tossed in the German equivalent, it was fun to listen to. We talked for three hours about pressure vessels, medical grade rubber and bolts in shear (somebody out there talks about this kind of stuff). It was nice to talk to someone about my job and it helped pass the four hour trip back home.

I got back to Ratingen at 22:30, checked my email and got to bed.

April 4, 2009: The Climbing Wall/Club

I got up at 7:00, surprizingly early. I took my sweet time and had a lesurly breakfast in the hostel kitchen. I got to talking to an older man who was staying at the hostel, he was going to run a half-marathon the next day, impressive. My free tour of the city commenced at 10:30 so I had loads of time to make it there. I left the hostel at 8:30 and took the two busses to the train station that the tour started at. Once there I realized two things: that I had an hour to kill and that the case that I thought had my sunglasses in it was empty! This same thing happend on my trip to Garmish. I used my massive intelect to deduce a solution to this problem, I would go out and buy some new glasses in the hour that I had to waste.

The stores did not open until 10:00 so I did some window shopping and spent a good deal of time standing mezmorized by the large aviary with parrots flying around in it. Eventually I went H&M and picked up some cheap 6 Euro cheap sunglasses (ZZ Top would be proud). Time for the tour to begin, I headed to the meeting point and met some people on the tour. Because it was a free tour and it was 4 hours of walking most of the people on the tour were young, less then 30. We took two S-Bahns to get to the Brandinburg gate where we met up with the rest of the people who coming on the tour. There was about 200 of us! We spit up into 5 English groups, a few German ones, a French one and a Spanish one and it began.

Our tour guide's name was Clair, she was a peppy English (from England) lady and tons of fun to listen to. It was 22 degrees out and sunny, I could not be happier. Clair took us from through tons of hstorical land marks, my favorites being the brandinburg gate, the Holocaust Memorial, the Berlin Wall, Bebelplatz and The Museum Island. It was a beutiful day and the people who were on the tour with me were all fun to talk to. We got some food at a nice resturant near Checkpoint Charlie; I had an omolete sandwich. The tour was 4 hours of educational, sunny good times and ended on the stairs of one of the museums on Museum Island. Here we all parted ways; it was about 3:00.

I met up with two of the people from the tour, Debby from Peru and Kivanc from Turkey, they wanted to go and check out a few more of the sights that had not been included on the tour. My plan origionally was to meet up with Tom, from Couchsurfing, but I had problems with the phone and decided that this would be just as much fun. We took the S-Bahn to the East Side Gallery, both the largest intact section of the Berlin Wall and the world's largest open air gallery (1.4km long!).

Unfourtunatly most of the wall was under construction to keep it from crumbeling (damn Soviet concrete) so the bulk of it was not very interesting. The neat part was towards the end, where the original paintings from 1990 were still there. They were heavily vandilized but you could still see the paintings quite well. They all represented the excitement of the fall of the wall in some way, it was a neat bit of history to check out.

After the wall I tried to contact Tom again, this time I got ahold of him. He told me which train station to meet him at and I was on my way. I said goodbye to Debby and Kivanc and got on the train. I met up with Tom at the train station and we walked to his apartment. Tom is a masters philosophy student working on his thesis. Philosophy is a fun topic of conversation, more people enjoy talking about religion then bolts in shear, and it kept us occupied for a while until his roommate Tim came by.

We decided to go out for some food. I really wanted to try some of the famous Berlin döner kebab. Tim and Tom are both vegitarians but brought me to a place that they thought would have good döners. They were right. We stayed for quite some time waiting for their friend Lara to show up. Once she did we decided to get the night started.

Apparently Berlin likes to mix things that are not normally mixed together in one venue. Tom was telling me about a driving school/winery. For tonight after hearing about how I was into climbing they recommended a nightclub/climbing wall. This is what I have been waiting for my whole life. Once we got there it turned out that there was cover on Saturdays and we were not down with that so we left. On the way out I learned something about Germany; a fifteen year old kid asked the two older looking of us (Tom and Laura) to pretend to be his parents so that he could get into the bar. Apparently in Germany it is OK to go to the club as long as you have your parents with you; your parents can also write you a note that lets you get into the club.

So, no climbing wall/club I had gotten over that. The next odd combo to be suggested was the basement of a döner shop that apparently was also a psychedelic electronic music club. This had been closed down due to changes in ownership of the shop though. We ended up in the park, by a playground drinking beer and listening to a chick play a guitar and sing. It was relaxing. We went back to Tom's had a tea then I headed back to the hostel at 2:30.

I took the S-Bahn. It was a long trip so on the way I almost fell asleep. When I realized that I should not fall asleep I realized that there was 4 emo girls singing lullabies to me, this had never happened to me before and I was not sure what to do, so I just rolled with it and pretended to fall asleep while I kept one eye on the display that said which station we were at. I got back to the hostel at about 4:00 and hit the hay.

April 3, 2009: Ich bin ein Berliner

I got to work early today so that I could leave in time to catch my train to Berlin. I got off at 15:00 and walked out into the sun; it was the start of another mini-holiday inside my mega-holiday. It took me 4 ½ hours of travel on one of Germany’s awesome ICE train to Berlin.

I pulled up to the station at 19:50 and walked out into the AWESOME sight of the new Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station) in all its glass-clad glory. Unfortunately I had to change trains here in order to make it to my hostel on time and I could not stay to take it all in. I caught a train to the zoo station and got out to change trains. There was a party going on, the streets were full of people at the various Imbisse (foodstands) drinking beer and vodka, walking down the street and singing. It was warm out and I had both my jacket and sweater in my backpack, a first for my trip to Germany. I had a box of Chinese noodles and headed to the bus stop to catch the first of two busses required to get where I wanted.

I got off the second bus in an ultra-fancy part of town. Pücklerstraße is the same street that the several high-ranking German dignitaries live on; it has three story buildings, all with electric gates, and fancy BMWs outside. If the BMWs are outside I can only imagine what is inside the garage. Anyway, I made my way down the street, it was dark by now, and finally made it to the end, the hostel was in the forest at the end of a dirt road. I was finally at the hostel!

I got in and met up with two American girls and a guy who was the staff member on duty that night. I checked in and got the tour, the hostel was relatively empty and extremely clean. After the tour I sat down with the Americans, got a beer from the vending machine and watched both Religulous (that is very hard to spell) and my choice in movie Trailer Park Boy’s: The Movie. I told the Americans all about how popular the show was in Canada and they did not believe me. Before I went to bed I was informed about a free walking tour of Berlin. I thought that I HAD to go on that.

I got to bed at the reasonable hour of 00:30 and had great dreams of the days to come.

April 2, 2009: Berlin on the Morrow

Today was characterized by the smell of Spring in the air. The sun was out and the sky was blue. I guess that Ratingen is not always gray. I was out and about without a jacket on! it was about 17 degrees out and I was loving it. I got my work on at work, got home and did some shopping, at the grocery store.

Tomorrow I am going to Berlin! I am staying at the Jet Pak Ecolodge in a forest in the southwest of town. I have talked with Martin, a guy at work who is from Berlin, about where to go and where not to go in town. This is going to be GREAT!

After making my travel arrangements, I had a minimalist dinner and got to bed.

April 1, 2009: Uzbekistan

Before I left for work I had two not so nice things happen to me. Firstly I left my keys in my apartment officially locking me out, I am unfortunately not living in the keyless Castle this semester. Secondly I realized that the lump of Euro-Cash that was paid to my landlord at the end of December was not my first and last months rent, but my first months rent and my security deposit, this means that I have to suck the funds out of my not so plentiful bank account and pay rent this month. Damn.

“Hello,
I have decided to preemptively terminate my employment at Dynetek. I have found work with a small company called Tusktree Composites in Uzbekistan, their birch bark/ivory composite pressure vessel technology is impressive and in my opinion vastly superior to the product marketed by Dynetek. I will be leaving by camel train after work today. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
Tom
P.S. Happy April-Fools Day”

This is the April-Fools email that I sent out at work today. Most people caught on and sent back equally hilarious emails, however one lady honestly thought that I was leaving and sent back a very concerned email asking about how long I would be staying in Uzbekistan and what a camel train was. In the end everyone got the joke and a chuckle was shared by all.

I got home and remembered that I was locked out. I sat on my concrete balcony and read the book that my mom sent me for an hour or so until my neighbor showed up, beers in hand. I gratefully accepted a beer and we got to talking about Antonov Russian transport planes, this is what normal neighbors talk about, right? I was happy with the topic of conversation because I had just read the Wikipedia article on the Antonov; the conversation held me over until my landlord showed up and let me in.

March 31, 2009: Acetone Adventures

Today, to get one of my projects at work to come to fruition I had to re-label a hundred bins in inventory. This involved a lot of acetone to remove the previous labels. This was no fun on the nasal passages. It took me the bulk of the day to get half way through the part of inventory that I wanted to label. It was a mellow day with not too much thinking involved, it gave me a good chance to reflect and think about my plans for my next weekend. I am thinking Berlin.

March 30, 2009: T.D to D-Dorf

After work today I was going to meet up with a few people from couchsurfing at a bar downtown. I got off work, got some food in me and then hopped on the train into town. I got off the train just in time to make it to the bar that was only two blocks away from U-Bahn station. This is when the un-magic happened. So I managed to get lost for 45min getting to the destination that was only two blocks away, don’t ask me how, but I did.

I got to the Olive Bar and Restaurant and nobody from couchsurfing was there! I missed out on it. This was a particular shame because I had spent the last weekend exploring the Ratingen area solo and I was in dire want of some English speaking company. Oh well, I made the most of it and ordered a beer, in German, at the bar. I finished up and took the train home. I was back by 9:30 and in bed soon after.

March 29, 2009: Tom Takes Helga to Duisberg

I got up at 10:00, or actually what was 11:00 thanks to daylight savings time. It was nice to sleep in for once. I had a coffee and a nice little breakfast before packing up Helga’s panniers with food, water, warm clothes and a bag of gummy bears and heading out.

 

I wanted to go west from Ratingen to Kaiserswerth then north to Duisberg and loop back through Lintorf to Ratingen, this would have been around 40km or so, a nice distance to cover on a 1960’s era three speed. The weather was being nice and I cruised along the road-side bike path for 15km or so just enjoying myself. I reached a fork in the road and decided to take the more exciting looking path, the dirt one. It ended up skirting all the way around Düsseldorf International Airport. This was ok though because I got to take a break and watch the planes fly close above my head on their way to the runway.

 

I passed the airport and went into an affluent neighborhood filled with boulevards teeming with tulips. I took a seat in a nice park and enjoyed a water and gummy bear break. From there I went to Kaiserswerth, along the cobblestone streets, beside the castle and along the Rhein River. After a long while of biking I made it to Duisberg, at least the outskirts of Duisberg, and took a seat in a café at the local horse riding school. I had a small lunch ruined only by the fact that I was an idiot and put lemon in my tea with my milk.

 

After that I got nice and lost, for about two hours. It was not the bad kind of lost though, the weather was nice and I was exploring! I ended up in Duisberg Süd. I found the most significant landmark of Duisberg Süd, a small white mausoleum; I took a picture and continued on.

 

I found a bus stop that had the name of the train station near my house on it as the final destination and played Hansel and Gretel following the bus stops back to my house. I finally was home! My journey ended up being about 60km and 5 hours. Helga more lumbers then zooms along, but she got the job done. I made a great dinner for 6 even though it was just me here and saved the rest for lunches. I typed up some blog, watched a movie and hit the hay.

March 28, 2009: Transit to Transit

Today I got up at 9:00 and made myself a wonderful breakfast. Fried eggs, hashbrowns and toast with cheese. The forecast was for lots of rain so the plan for today changed from biking to Wuppertal to taking the train. I took my sweet time getting ready and finally left at around 13:12.

 

Two trains and 45min later I arrived in Wuppertal, the home of the worlds oldest monorail. The monorail is really the only thing to see in Wuppertal. In fact, the Wikipedia article on the Wuppertal Schwebebahn is longer then the one on Wuppertal itself. I off of the train and stopped by the mall for some food. I only went to the mall because I wanted to get out of the rain. I got some döner and kiwi juice then headed out for some monorail!

 

The Wuppertal monorail is a suspended monorail that opened in the year 1901. It has 13.3km of track and is mostly suspended 12m above the river Wupper. It is really a sight to see. I paid my 2.20 Euro to ride the monorail and took a great trip from one end of the line to the other and back. The whole car tilts on the corners and the elevated position gives a great view of the city. The other neat thing about the monorail is that most of the stations are suspended above the river as well so while you wait for the monorail you can look down into the river.

 

I got off after I finished traveling the length of the track and luckily the sun came out to greet me. I decided to take advantage of the sun and walk along the Wupper and back to the main station to catch a train back to Ratingen. Sorry Wuppertal you are a bit of a one trick pony, you have your monorail, but what else?

 

I got back into town and I decided to go out and have a beer at the bar. I went to DasLiberty, the American Bar in town in hopes that there would be English people that I could talk to. Unfortunately I was not feeling up to approaching random groups of half-drunk people who may or may not speak my language in an attempt to make some friends and I promptly left after one beer.

 

I got home and hit the hay, after some Sypeing. 

March 27, 2009: Tom and Helga go for a Ride

I was productive at work today, got some quotes sent out for and gathered some more data for my work term report. I left work at 3pm. I wanted to take Helga (the name of my little blue bike out for a ride through the countryside.

 

I had no idea how nice the area right outside Ratingen was. I biked to the bike store and bought a helmet; it was more expensive then my bike. Then biked briefly along a secondary highway before going along the narrow cobblestone roads of the nearby hamlet of Homberg. I found the bike path that I was looking for and started on my way. The trail went through lush green farmers fields, then into a forest with a calm creek meandering through it. The whole time I was on a single lane cement path. Helga liked this.

 

I figured out how to use the gears on my bike. Old-fashioned hub gears do not like being shifted while pedaling, you have to stop pedaling and then shift. The path weaved through old looking farmer’s houses and gradually turned from paved to hard packed dirt. This was still ok for Helga as she is not a road bike and has a little tread on her tires. After I made it to Hösel things got interesting. The path got dirtier and muddier; soon I was offroading, I mean offroading for a city bike with thin tires, no shocks and panniers on. I ended up going the wrong way and ended up in a mud puddle under a bridge adjacent to the train tracks. I found my way and I was soon back on pavement and able to enjoy a smooth ride back home.

  

This is my first weekend at home so I made the most of it and got to bed at 7pm. 

March 26, 2009: Shelving

Got up the usual hour, two smacks of the snooze button and I was ready to go. I broke my promise to myself and ended up bussing to work. At work I was busy assembling shelves and gathering data. After work I was somehow very lazy. I decided to check out how comfortable my couch was and laid down. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to watch two movies in a row, I fell asleep at some point during some sub-par Hollywood flick. 

March 25, 2009: Meeting, Take Two

I have work now!!! I finally gathered the troops together and hosted my little meeting. The long and short of it is that I now have some work to do! Most of it is in the factory, so no Ron Burgundy suit tomorrow just grungy jeans, man sweat and a torque wrench in both hands, that’s right, both hands. Anyway I was properly happy and actually got some stuff done this afternoon. Tomorrow I am going to bike to work. This weekend I am going to bike to Wuppertal, a local town that has the world oldest monorail, it was sold to them by some guy named Lyle Lanley (Simpsons reference).

 

I got home and watched “Good morning Vietnam,” typed some bloggage then got to bed.

March 24, 2009: The Little Raccoon that Could

According to Wikipedia it is illegal in Germany to house a raccoon in a pen by itself. You have to have two raccoons in order to prevent loneliness; it is true, look it up. I was sort of feeling like an illegal raccoon today. All day at work I only had business conversation, no talking about the weather or what people are doing on the weekend, just blankets of overheard audio noise and engineer valve talk.

It is a bit late to come to this conclusion but instead of attempting to wallow in self-pity, I am not very good at that, I am going to make a real effort to learn more German and make work the best part of my day. Of course the first step to having a good time is buy a bike, not really but that makes for a good segue into my next story. By the way that is one of the dumbest spellings for a word ever, did the Segway Corperation just steal the right spelling?

So I bought a bike today after work from the used bike store by the train station. I went all out. Her name is Helga, she is a three speed bike with hub gears, back-pedal brakes, a headlamp and taillight and it is a cool blue colour. To break her in I went for a ride to near by Homberg. It was a nice 5km on roadside bike trail. To celebrate making it there I stopped at the pub for a beer. Then I biked back in time for dinner, that I made. Bed time came swiftly after.

March 23, 2009: Meeting?

Today was rainy. I went to work and nobody showed up to the meeting that I scheduled, that was a let down. I talked to everyone and set a new date. I got me some eats at the grocery store on the way home and had an uneventful evening.

March 22, 2009: The Largest Technology Museum in the World: ACTUALLY!

I got up at 5am and said goodbye to Brad. He was kind enough to let me stay there after he left and I slept for another 2 hours before getting up and starting the day. My goal for the day was to visit the Deusches Museum in Munich. I went for a breakfast at the same place that I went with Brad the day before and ordered an Obama Bun, a Taj-Mahal Bun and a coffee and took a seat. It was great. A short walk after that brought me to the train station where I caught the train to Munich.

The hour and a half train ride gave me some time to read the book that my mom had sent me in the mail “The Sparrow.” Pretty good so far, and believe it or not it is my fourth book that I have read this semester! The others being “Jurassic Park,” “Pride and Prejudice” and “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” Anyway, I was soon in Munich. I got a map and headed to the museum. I managed not to get lost and was soon in the foyer of the kind of place that, if there was a bar, would be the closest thing that I could fathom to Engineer Heaven.

I got in for 3 Euro, because I am a student, and walked into the first exhibit, of 40! The Marine Navigation Exhibit was massive, not unlike all the others that I explored over the next 4 and a half hour that I was there. My favorite two exhibits were the mining exhibit: they transformed the basement and subbasement into a mine. They covered the walls with fiberglass rock and had all different types of shorings, mining technologies and tales of how terrible it was and still is to work in some mines. To give you an impression of just how large this was it took me 45min of walking at a reasonable museum-pace to cover the whole thing!

My other personal favorite was the Aeronautics exhibit. Three floors of planes on the floor, the walls and hanging from the roof. They had cross sections of various types of jet engine that I sat and ogled for a very long time. I will leave it at that, but if you ever have the chance GO HERE IT IS HEAVEN!

I left and went to Starkbierfest, a celebration of a beer that is brewed only during lent by monks. Dirndl and Lederhosen were ubiquitous, ska music was playing and strong beer was served from ceramic mugs. It was interesting to sit in on. I really would have liked to have some buddies there for this event but I made the most of it. I had a beer and a giant pretzel. Then the trip home.

I got home at 1:00, talked to my mom and got to bed.

March 21, 2009: Climbing up a Ski Hill

I awoke at 9am after a sub par night sleep, I would later figure out that I slept on the wrong side of the mattress. I had a shower and got ready for the day. We were planning on going to Partnach Gorge, a famously beautiful area near town. Brad was ready and soon were heading out in search of some breakfast.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a beautiful town filled with the true essence, in my mind, of what Bavaria should look like. Most of the buildings in town have ornate murals painted on the walls adjacent the street; these murals depict everything from religious scenes to fairy tales. There was snow on the ground and I could not be happier. We stopped for breakfast at a local bakery, I was surprised at how inexpensive everything was, and had some food. We were going to meet one of the girls from The Abrams at 12:30 so we had some time to waste until then. We went shopping. At 12:30 we realized that Brad's friend could not come and we departed. We took the bus to the stadium from the 1936 Winter Olympics. The Patnach Gorge starts directly behind the building. We asked a lady at the shop there where it was and figured out that it was in fact closed due to avalanche danger. Damn.

We adjusted the game plan and decided to hike up a ski hill instead. We headed to the base of the Eckbauer, the mountain with the massive ski jumps at its base. The sun was out and we enjoyed a 2 and a half hour sunny walk up the ski hill. We got to the top and sat down at the Bavarian style lodge at the summit. We grabbed some water and took a seat on the balcony. We had an amazing view over the Alps. After sitting for a while we went into the restaurant and enjoyed some spaghetti. We sat for a while longer until the place closed, at 16:00. We then began the trip down the hill.

I REALLY wished that I had skis or a sled at this point. Walking down a ski hill, how lame is that? We were passed by two parents and their kids on GT Racers. Oh well, the walk down was a lot easier then the trip up and we were at the base in no time. We caught a bus back into the Garmisch side of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and stopped for some chicken at the local chicken shop.

Brad had work the next day at 5:00 so he got to bed early. I watched some Looney Toons with one of his neighbors for a while then hi the hay too.

March 20, 2009: String Theory to Clubbing: Good Times in Garmisch-Partenkirchen

I got to work at 7:00 this morning, later then I would have liked because I forgot my bus pass at home and had to miss the bus I wanted. At work today I worked away drafting up a part for the factory here. I actually spent the whole day working. That being said I did get off work at 13:00 so I guess it was not the WHOLE day.

After work I grabbed my backpack and my cloth bag with my compressed sleeping bag in it and got on the bus to the main train station in Dusseldorf. I had 40min to kill before my train left to Cologne so I grabbed a Döner at the local shop and sat in the sun waiting for the train.

Before the train that I wanted came another one (an ICE train) came to the platform. It said Cologne on it so I got on, I have this thing for ICE trains. Turns out that this train did not go to the station that I wanted in Cologne and I would have to take another train to Cologne Main Station. If I missed the connection then Bradley, my couchsurfing host, would be sitting at the train station and I would not be able to contact him. I got off the train and ran to the other platform caught the commuter train then got off that and ran to the train I would take to Manheim.

On this train I was sitting across from a guy who was doing very complicated looking integration at staggering speed. I inquired as to what it was about and I soon figured out that he is a professor researching string theory. Lucky for me I had just read the Wikipedia article on string theory. We spent the hour and a half ride talking about the 11 dimensions of space time as stated by the M-theory, the mystical Higg's particle and supersymmetry. I was surprised that I actually remembered what I had read. We parted ways in Manheim and I switched trains; onwards to Munich!

3 hours later my train pulled into Munich, I switched trains and was finally on route to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. An hour and a half later, at 21:00 I pulled into the station. I was happy to see snow on the ground, Ratingen has long been past the snowy part of winter. Brad was waiting for me on a bench in the station.

Brad is a Chef at the American run hotel in town. He is one of the many Americans staying in the Abrams, the staff residence of the hotel. Anyway, we shook hands and walked back to his residence building, the whole time talking about the US, Canada, Germany and all the fun little quirks that differentiate them. On route we picked up some beer at the gas station, and so the night began.

I checked into The Abrams with my passport, the place is guarded like a military base, and Brad proceeded to give me the tour of the place. Apparently it was an old Nazi hospital. It had wide hallways, medical-related murals painted on the walls above the stairs and in all probability the highest density of 'Proud Americans Live Here' doormats in Europe. The vibe of the place brought me back to residence in university, a bunch of 20 year olds living in a big building, the main difference is that these guys do not need to study and have a source of income.

Time to get our'pre-game' on, soon Brad's room was filled with an assortment of Americans drinking beer out of 2l glass bottles and having an all around merry time. The plan for the night was to go out to Music Café, a local disco. Brad and Lanea told me that it was possible to make it through the night there not buying any drinks (getting other people to buy them for you); I was not sure how that would work but the concept intrigued me.

A group of us walked to the club and the festivities began. Lights were flashing and sweaty people (some more so then others) bounced up and down on the dance floor. Sure enough drinks kept on coming my way. I would order a drink and offer to pay, then someone would say 'are you trying to insult me (by paying)' and soon I would have a drink in my hands free of charge. I was not sure why this was going on but it was nice. The night ended, as most great ones do, with a 3am trip to McDonald's. We got a ride back with the US Military Police. At some point during the ride I tried in vain to argue the superiority of the Canadian military, for some reason he did not believe me. He dropped us off and I was soon asleep on a spare mattress on the floor of Brad's room.

Garmisch

Deutsches MuseumOn the top of Eckbauer after a long hike
The ski jump
On the way up
Clubbing in Garmisch-Partenkirchen