I’m sailing away…

So I broke with tradition and used an English title, but it fits since I returned to the US today (though it’s mostly because the song’s stuck in my head). What a journey it was to get home. I’ll begin really where I left off yesterday. After lounging around at the McCallan’s, I packed up my stuff and got ready to leave. Chris and Kelly walked me to the nearest U-Bahn stop around 1 AM, so I could catch the last train to head to the Hauptbahnhof until 4 AM. It was important to catch this train since my ICE train was to leave the Hauptbahnhof at 3:24 AM.

So I get to the Hauptbahnhof around 1:15-1:30 AM and now have roughly 2 hours to kill before my train departed. I grabbed a Red Bull since I was dragging a bit, then spent the next hour and a half reading, listening to music, and watching Robin Hood on my laptop. Around 3-3:15 AM, they opened up the train to allow us to begin to board. When I first got on the train, all the seats I saw were labeled as reserved. So I wander around trying to find a seat not labeled as such with a place for my big-ass duffel bag. With my search to no avail, I eventually just took a seat and stood my bag in the floor of the seat next to me. This was not a problem until the stop before I needed to change trains in Mannheim. Luckily, the woman who sat in the seat didn’t mind having my bag invade her personal space.

I made it to Mannheim around 6:30 and had only a few minutes to catch the ICE I was supposed to take to Frankfurt. It was convenient though because my new train was at the adjacent platform so I just needed to walk the 20 ft or so to the new train. The new train actually appeared to be an older train but seemed to have a lot more room. This time, I was able to stash my bag behind my seat and had plenty of leg-room to stretch out.

The trip from Mannheim to Frankfurt lasted only a half hour or so, at which point I reached the Hauptbahnhof. Once there, I attempted to find one of the trains going to the airport. After wandering around for a bit, I eventually found one that was going in the proper direction. I had to wait 20 minutes or so to catch the train, but I didn’t feel like trying to race and possibly catch one leaving 10 minutes or so earlier. With my luck, I would have gotten all the way to the other stop and just missed the train, thus having to go all the way back down to the stop I started at. Once on the train, it was a short 15 or so minute trip to the airport.

Before I get into the airport discussion, I thought I would mention something I realized on the first train I was on. That particular ICE went to the airport, but I didn’t stay on since my ticket told me to get off at the Hauptbahnhof (they actually check tickets on those trains). It made me realize though how retarded I was for not checking Munich to Frankfurt Airport tickets instead of just Munich to Frankfurt Hbf.  Had I done that, I could have probably avoided both stops I had on the way to the airport…Na ja…

Once I got to the airport stop, I exited the train and navigated my way up several escalators to the terminal check-in. One thing that surprised me about the Frankfurt airport was the flight schedule. Unlike the DFW ones which are all digital, the Frankfurt airport still had an old-school schedule where the numbers were on tiles and flipped to change (like the old numerical alarm clocks before LEDs were used). The check-in line went pretty fast, but I ran into a weight issue at check-in.

My duffel bag ended up being 10 kg heavier than the allowed baggage weight. Luckily, I had my messenger bag in the duffel, so I pulled it out, along with a couple books and a plastic bag with my dress shoes in them, to meet the weight requirement. The one thing that would later annoy me is that the woman made me check my messenger bag too, which happened to contain most of the souvenirs I had bought. I figured my duffel would have been overweight, but I think I should have been able to carry on my messenger bag considering I saw people with small suitcases plus another bag, thus having a total carry-on size greater than my messenger bag and backpack combined. I have a feeling one of the micro-Steins I bought David broke because the messenger bag was checked and tossed in with the rest of the luggage.

I might have been able to argue my way into carrying it, but at that point I just wanted to get into the airport and to my gate. Well after check-in, I made my way through security and made my way to the departure gate. With another hour to kill, I grabbed another Red Bull and sat down to watch more Robin Hood.

I think the most annoying portion of the journey came around boarding time. So around 9:15, 15 minutes prior to the official “boarding time”, the people working at the gate decided to make us all line up for pre-boarding or something, not quite sure. So we were then forced to stand in line for 30-45 minutes while they scanned our tickets. I wouldn’t have minded this except that we didn’t board the plane right after this. No, we were forced to sit around for another 15 minutes or so after everyone was “pre-boarded” before the actual boarding process began. For a culture so adament about punctuality and order, the whole boarding process made no sense. At least they did make an attempt to seat people by section for the most part, though no one at the gate really seemed to enforce it. Around an hour or so after the pre-/boarding process began, I finally made it to my seat.

I had a window seat next to this Swedish guy, probably in his mid-20s or so. He works for Ericsson (go figure) and transferred to Dallas a few years ago. He had gone back to visit family and friends for a few weeks. The flight really wasn’t overly exciting. I had no real desire to see the in-flight movies, so I watched a little more Robin Hood till my battery died. After that, it was mostly just reading, listening to music (I charged my mp3 player some while watching Robin Hood so it didn’t die on me till late), and napping. I did take advantage though of a free whiskey-and-coke. I got two meals over the course of the flight: one was a beef and potatoes dish; the other was a chicken dish with corn. After the latter meal, they came around and gave out cognac, so I figured now was as good of time as any to try it. Some 10+ hours after leaving Frankfurt, I arrived at DFW.

So with my 10+ hour flight, I landed in Dallas around 2:30 PM, officially 4 hours from Frankfurt with the time changes. Let me tell you, that’s about the longest 4 hours I’ve ever had. From there, it was a long walk to the passport check and then another long walk to baggage claim. Another 20 minutes waiting for my bags, followed by 5 or so minutes getting through customs, and I was finally back into the Dallas heat. And with that, I conclude this entry.

Notes:

• I updated the Terms/Places page for some of the German in the previous entries.
• Pictures will come eventually once I get time to caption them

München und meine letzter Tag in Deutschland…

Today, I spent the day in Munich with the McCallan’s (Kelly, Chris, and Shauna). The day started out by waking up on a half-deflated air mattress and hopping in a non-community shower for the first time in nearly a month. Man was it nice to use a real shower for a change instead of the community shower I used in the dorm. From there, we had breakfast (Frosted Flakes and coffee for me). The McCallan’s haven’t found coffee creamer over there, so they’ve been making their own. I must admit to it being rather tasty. After breakfast, Shauna and I headed to the store before we all left for the day since the store would be closed before we made it back to their apartment.

After returning from the store, we departed towards the Deutsches Museum, Germany’s equivalent of the Smithsonian. As soon as we left the apartment, it began to rain. Luckily, we were taking the U-Bahn so the rain mattered little. Once we got of the U-Bahn and headed towards the museum, the rain had stopped. We walked a few blocks from the U-Bahn stop and arrived at the museum. Once inside, we began the arduous task of making our way through the museum.

The first area we entered the “Electrical power’ section. This focused on electrical generation and transmission. This area included everything from power generators to transmission lines to transformers; it contained a lot of different aspects of the end-to-end power supply process. We then proceeded into an area with machine and engine components. I thought it was pretty cool to see how a rotary engine (like the ones used in the Mazda RX-8 ) operate. From there, we ventured into a big open area with all sorts of planes and helicopters. We looked through all of that and proceeded upstairs, where more plane stuff was.

We continued upwards, finding more and more aeronautics stuff as we went. Once on the third floor, we discovered the space exhibit. This contained some info about the solar system and a big space exploration portion. Chris and I wandered around into the Photo & Film and Printing exhibits. Here we saw old-school printing presses all the way to modern printing technology. We had gotten separated from Shauna and Kelly, so we waited around for a bit then met up with them. We all made our way to the ships to look at old ships and models of fancy ocean liners. In our quest to find a stairwell, we wandered through the machining section. Eventually, we found a stairwell and made our way to the Physics and Energy technologies exhibits. Both were pretty cool. The whole museum reminded me of a cross between a traditional museum and the Science Place. With much still to do and see but little time, the gang departed the museum for lunch.

On our way for lunch, we walked through Marienplatz, looking at the old Rathaus and Mariensäule. Apparently, the Mariensäule in Munich was the first built north of the Alps and inspired others to be made throughout Europe. Finding a nice Italian cafe next to Der Alter Peter, we stopped to eat. I had really good tortellini with a mushroom cream sauce.

After eating, we walked our way to Odeonsplatz. There, we saw the Feldherrnhalle and the Theatinerkirche St. Kajetan. In my Architecture class, we talked about the Alte Pinakothek. This museum was damaged heavily by bombs in WWII. During the rebuilding of Munich, it was decided to repair the building but not blend it with the intact portion. This was meant to act as a reminder of the War whenever anyone saw the building. Since we talked about it in class, I had the desire to see it. So we ventured off in search of said building. Noone in the group had gone to the building before, so it was a bit of a challenge to find it. After going the wrong way on one road before heading back and going the right way, we eventually found the museum. Since we spent all that time looking for it, we decided to go in and visit the art gallery. It had a lot of cool old paintings from the 14th-18th centuries.

We looked around the museum for a while, then headed back towards the main part of town. At this point, it was midafternoon, and we were all in need of a good sit for a while. This led us to go to the Hofbräuhaus. that was an experience. Imagine a huge, barn-like building with row after row of wooden tables and benches, all full of people drinking beer, eating pretzels, and having a ball. We sat for a while, enjoying a beer and pretzel, listening to traditional Oom-pah music, and talking to an older couple who met each other on a boat heading back to Germany from the US.

After the Hofbräuhaus, we wandered around for a little while more. Shauna’s knee started to hurt her, so she went back to their apartment. Since I still hadn’t found my Dirk jersey, Kelly, Chris and I ventured our way to one of the big shopping areas. I wandered into 5-10 different stores looking for this jersey, all to no avail. Time had run out on the hunt as the clock struck 8 since all the stores begin closing at that time. With little choice left, we retired back to the apartment, me slightly dejected for not finding a Dirk jersey or at least buying a German national soccer jersey. Once back, we lounged around the remainder of the evening, looking at pictures of the day and conversing. Since we hadn’t gotten dinner while we were out, Chris ordered a really good pepperoni (salami or pepperoniwurst, not what Germans consider “pepperoni”) pizza. I guess with that, I’ll conclude for the day, though my day technically won’t end until I’m back in Dallas tomorrow…stay tuned for the journey homeward…

Der Zug…

Today was all about the train for me. I got up, finished packing, then headed into town to return my key. I stopped to pick up one more thing while I was in town and made my way to the Hauptbahnhof. I was there plenty early, so I read for a while. Eventually the train came and I was off to Frankfurt. A quick change of the trains onto an ICE train to Munich, and I was off again. The ICE trains were really nice. I was concerned for a while I had sat in a reserved seat, but I ended up being ok.

Once I got to the Munich Hauptbahnhof, I managed to get a 3-day ticket for Munich transportation, eventhough I’m leaving tomorrow night. I figured it would have just been easier to do that. I’m also not sure if I actually got the right ticket, but oh well. You know the typical subway scenes in movies with the cars packed with people? That’s exactly what it was like on the U-Bahn to meet the McCallan’s. Luckily the stop was only a couple down, so I survived. I met up with Shauna after I got off the train, and we headed to their place. Once there, Kelly and Shauna made rouladen; it was really good. The rest of the night, we sat around talking and drinking wine. Twas a nice relaxing evening…Bis später…

letzter Tag in Marburg…

So I’m breaking with the tradition of my blog in this edition of “What’s New”. All my other entries have been written on the day or two afterwards, so the events of Monday were technically posted Tuesday. Since I’m heading to Munich tomorrow, I figured it would be easier to just do this tonight and update if necessary. So today’s my last full day in Marburg. Started out with my German class, as per every other weekday. Today though, we spent half the class on grammar then went downstairs for a class breakfast.

My EU class was divided into two parts today. In the first part, the groups finished presenting on the different Western Balkan countries, including my group. Our presentation went good enough, I suppose. The second part was a discussion exam. Groups of 8-10 went into the room with him, and he gave us a topic to discuss. Our topic happened to be about the expansion of the EU, past and future. Easy enough. After class, I went to return my Mensa card, getting €5 back. I then proceeded to procure my final Döner and met people from my Architectue class to wait for our tour. At 2, my Architecture professor took us on a tour, pointing out some themes from class in buildings within Marburg. After we concluded the tour, we stopped and got Eis at a cafe in Marktplatz. Eventually, we made our way back to the dorms since they were doing check-out room inspections starting at 5.

I waited around a while for mine, then headed back into town to return all my “Pfandflasche” (bottles I paid a refundable deposit on). After returning my bottles, I was given a receipt. Since I had no clear idea what to do with said receipt, I decided just to leave it on an aisle for someone to find. It was for €2, so I figured it might make someone’s day. From there, I walked across the street to the Mensa for Internetz one more time, which is where I sit now.

I definitely enjoyed my stay here, and figuring everything out got easier by the day. Since I have 2 more days in Germany, I will at least continue this through Sunday. I’m planning a “Final Thoughts and Conclusions” entry, but you’ll just need to stay tuned…Bis später…

Notes:

• So I was sitting here online and went to the Yahoo home page. One of the top 4 stories was this:
  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/world/europe/07solar.html?no_interstitial

keine Ahnung…

With my classes wrapping up today and tomorrow, I wouldn’t expect very exciting tales of adventure. What did I do today? Started out with my language and EU classes. My group didn’t present in my EU class, so we’ll have to go tomorrow. For my Architecture final, we were allowed to create a sheet with names, architects, and images of buildings we discussed. Since the Internet was not working at Hörshaalgebäude, I was forced into walking to the Mensa. I got my cheat sheet all worked out and went to print. Well the ISU only provided one computer with a printer, and someone was on it the entire time I was waiting, which forced me to go into the final without said sheet. In the end, it mattered not as my professor had a continuous slideshow of some of the buildings we discussed.

After class, I headed to Oberstadt to do more souvenir shopping. I also went and explored a couple other places that I didn’t make it to before. I stopped at Barfuß one last time to use the Internet and grab a Diesel. The latter was no problem, but the network I had been using suddenly became secure, so I couldn’t use the Interweb. After my tasty beverage, I headed back to the Mensa for Internet and some food (got this interesting but good potato casserole thing). Eventually, I caught a bus back to call it a night. After spending a while in my room, I got the bright idea to go adventure and see what was on the road past my dorm. Little did I know, the whole thing was uphill at a steep incline nonetheless. After getting half a mile or so up, I gave in and headed back. Tomorrow’s my last full day in Marburg, so it should be slightly more exciting. Bis später…

Let’s see…What happened today? Honestly, not a lot. Went to my language class then to my EU class, where we looked a lot at statistics of the Western Balkans. In Architecture, we reviewed for the test. After class, I headed to the library to meet with my EU group one more time since we needed to talk a little about our paper and presentation. I decided to stay in the library to use the Internet and stayed till 8 or so. We I headed out to get food, I ran into Maria and a few others that were heading to the botanical garden. So I joined up with them and hung around out there for a couple hours. Eventually, Brian and I headed to Lecker Eck to grab some food before catching the bus. I  got a pretty tasty brat with fries. We caught the bus back, and I took it easy the rest of the night. Not an overly exciting day, but what can ya do? Bis später…

Notes:

• I uploaded the pictures from Eberbach, the Rheingau, more Marburg pictures, and re-uploaded the Turm pictures with captions. That should make up for the uneventful entry.

In der Bibliothek…

So today was a really long day. It started out with class as per usual. In my EU class, we talked more about problems integrating the Western Balkans into the EU. In Architecture, we wrapped up our discussion on Italian architecture and talked some about the final. After class, I had a meeting with my EU group to discuss our paper and presentation on Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Well we were supposed to meet in the library, but I had never been there. It took me a good 20 minutes or so to figure out how to find my way over to it since it was on the other side of a highway. Once I finally got there, we split up who would work on what, my part being the Economy of B-H. I then spent the next 7 or so hours in the library working on the paper and on translating my mom’s tortilla soup recipe into German for my language class. I stopped and get a Red Bull on my way to the bus stop, then caught the next bus back to my dorm. Once there, I finished my language homework and worked on the paper for a while until I passed out. Waking up on my own at 5, I finished my portion of the paper to give to my group. I know this entry technically covers events of Tuesday (when I’m actually writing this), but it makes sense given the context. Sorry I have nothing more interesting to share. Bis später…

Notes:

• I uploaded a few pics from my dorm room to show what “grand” living space I have. The door pictures may seem odd, but there is a reason for them. My closet door doubles as another door to separate the main room from the sink/closet/front door.
• I also uploaded a few shots of the botanical garden. I should take more of the garden and will upload them when I do.
• I also added a new page to the blog (“Pretty Pictures”) that has a page containing the link to my main gallery

Letzte Reise mit der ISU

Today was the final planned trip by the ISU program. What a long trip it was. Leaving around 8:30 in the morning, we headed to our first stop: the Eberbach Monastery. The monastery dates back to around 1135, with most of the original building still intact. A group of Cistercian monks founded the monastery when they felt other orders of monks were getting to lax. For them, life was supposed to be hard. This was reflected in the minimalist architecture and lack of decoration of the monastery, along with daily routines (i.e. praying 7 hours per day, including waking up at 2 or 3 in the morning). The monastery was supposed to be self-sufficient, so they grew their own crops, etc. Eventually, they would begin to grow grapes and turn them into wine to fund the monastery. The success of the winery would later fund more elaborate and decorative upgrades to the monastery.

One bit of design I thought was rather interesting was in the sleeping quarters of the monks. To get to the quarters, you needed to pass through the sanctuary of the monastery and go upstairs. Once you got upstairs, the room was built with a slight slope upwards. This gives the optical illusion of the room being longer than it actually was. The theory is that the room was designed this way to make the outside world in the direction of the room seem further away. When you stand at the end of the room, though, and look back towards the stairwell, the room appears to be smaller. This was said to make the monks feel closer to the Church and God. Not sure if it’s true, but seems logical enough.

One other interesting tidbit: an old Sean Connery movie, The Name of the Rose, was shot mostly at this monastery. From the monastery, we headed towards the Rheingau. Our voyage began at the town of Rüdesheim am Rhein. This small town lies along the banks of the Rhein near the Niederwalddenkmal. Here, we grabbed some food at this little “Weingarten” and hopped on this cruise ship. I qualify it as such since it was really too big to consider a boat, and it takes passengers of cruises along the Rhein. From there, we made our way downstream, passing a multitude of castles, churches, and vineyards. I was amazed by some of the vineyards given that a fair amount are built on really steep sides along the river banks.

We took this cruise just past Lorelei, one of the most famous rocks in Germany. Geographically, it’s the narrowest part of the Rhein between Switzerland and the North Sea. The legend has it that at this place, a beautiful woman used to sit atop the rock and sing. The singing and beauty, combined with the strong river currents, would distract the navigators, causing them to crash.

After passing through this point, we got off the boat and back on the buses. Our final destination before heading back to Marburg was Johannisberg for a wine tasting. We sampled 6 different wines, 5 of which were different types of Riesling. One interesting thing I learned is that Rieslings are graded, with Auslese being the highest. With it being the highest quality and very good, I gave in and bought one, plus another since I couldn’t decide which I liked more. After the long day, we finally returned to Marburg, where I worked on homework until time to sleep. Guess that’s all for today. Bis später…

Ich bin ein Frankfurter…

Today, the ISU took a trip to Frankfurt. We began at the Goethehaus to go on a guided tour of Goethe’s “birthplace and residence” until he left Frankfurt when he was 26. I referenced the building in quotes for one reason: WWII. In World War II, the building was destroyed. What stands now is a reconstruction of the house with some original pieces and some period pieces. There were too many people for one English tour, so a group of us went to grab some breakfast then went on the tour. The building was pretty cool, especially one grandfather clock they had. It kept track of the lunar and solar cycles as well as the time. It also had a bear in the middle that would fall on its back 6 hours before the winding of the clock would stop to remind you to rewind it.

After Goethaus, Brian, Tatiana and I wandered around looking for some old archeological site that used to be a Roman barracks and bath. Initially going the wrong way, we wandered around stopping in a few stores to browse the merchandise. I still didn’t find my Dirk jersey. Before making it to the archeological site, we passed by the Römer. We also went in to Nikolaikirche right across from the Römer. We eventually found our way to the ruins and met some other ISU people there. From there, we wandered our way to Dom Sankt Bartholomäus. It was really cool to visit, though I was slightly disappointed because part of the exterior tower was under repair and covered up.

From the Dom, we wandered around the arts district, where we stumbled upon a store called “Made in Happy Germany”. This store was very hippie, and a bunch of the people commented on my Bush “Liar” shirt. It made me happy. After that, we wandered back to Paulskirche to wait for the rest of the ISU people. This building was also destroyed in WWII and faced heated debate. In the end, the exterior was rebuilt to look like the old building, but the interior was modernized. This building was hotly debated since it was the place where the German National Assembly met in 1848, the first attempt at democracy in Germany.

After waiting for a little while in front of Paulskirche, the rest of the ISU group arrived. It was then time to head to our next destination: an Apfelwein tasting. I believe it grew out of the necessity for an alcoholic drink when some sort of crop failure hindered the production of beer. I don’t remember the exact story, but I believe it’s along those lines. At any rate, the place we went was one of the oldest, if not the oldest, Apfelwein “brewery” in Frankfurt. It tasted pretty good, though I didn’t see much difference in taste between that and regular wine. After that, we headed back to Marburg. I made a quick stop at my dorm, then went to Cafe Barfuß for Internet and a beverage. I know I go to Barfuß a fair bit, but it’s really because of a couple reasons:

1. Free Internet
2. Good music
3. Good food/drinks

So there you go, in case you were curious as to why it seems to appear as much as it does. I suppose that’s it for today. In the next episode, more globetrotting, more alcohol tasting, and more crazy stories…(ok, maybe less “crazy” of the latter, but it sounded better)…bis später…

Am Ende der zweiten Woche…

Class, class, class…Let’s see…What did I learn today? Talked about passive voice most of German. Learned about conflicts involving integrating the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Serbia) into the EU and their integration parallels to Central Eastern European Countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Romania). In Architecture, we talked about new Italian architecture and some of its contrast to Germany. Apparently in Italy, Fascist symbols and sayings can still be seen, whereas Germany has removed all traces of Nazism.

After class, I decided I should finally do a little souvenir shopping and general wandering around for photo-taking. I wandered my way through Oberstadt, taking pictures here and there, buying a couple souvenirs, and stopping eventually at Barfuß for Internet and a drink. On my way back to the dorm, I stopped to find something for Matt, though I would later find out I got the wrong thing. Na ja. Since I have the trip to Frankfurt tomorrow, I headed back to my dorm and took it easy the rest of the night. I apologize for a rather uneventful day, though tomorrow and Sunday should be more exciting…Bis später…

Notes

• German Terms/Places updated
• Noten über Deutschland updated
• Just as a notice, I’m not sure how many souvenirs for people I’m actually going to buy. Marburg is a lot less “tourist-y” than some of the other towns I’ve been in, and it’s been a challenge finding things that inspire me to buy them for people. If you have a specific request or idea, just let me know…