Picture dump

Mountain (The Eiger)

Imposing Rock Cliff

Other Big Rocks

Man Fighting Horse 1 (Wien)

Man Fighting Horse 2 (Wien)

Praha

The Production of a new Tom Cruise Movie that I stumbled on in Berlin

Juxtaposition

Reichtstag German Parliament.

4000 Vertival Feet, Venice at Sunrise, Wiener Schnizel, Superstardom, and Photos Pending a Computer with USB

It has been about a week since the flood experience, though it feels substantially longer. In that time I've managed to stumble my way through four countries and seem to have survived it unscathed.

After leaving Interlaken I traveled to Grindelwald at the base of the Eiger. The clouds finally broke allowing for a gental stroll the gradually turned in to seven hour round trip hike to Kleine Scheidegg almost a mile higher than where I started. My legs suffered for the next two days, but the views were well worth it.

After Grindelwald I took a long train to Venice, which is very beautiful and so forth. It's also a maddening maze of narrow unnamed streets. I would probably have gotten lost without my astounding sense of direction that automatically took me in a circle back to my hostel even though that not where I was trying to go (Autopilot).

Then I took the really long train to Vienna, where I ate Wiener Schnitzel. Aside from gastronomical pursuits I visited the Kustgeschichte Museum, which was amazing. The Egyptian, Greek, and Roman exhibits were especially interesting.

Danach I hopped over to Prague, where the man at the reception desk had a good laugh apparently because Peter Novotny is a famous Czech movie star. I assured him that I was Peter Novotney and not Peter Novotny.

Now I'm in Berlin and tired of writing.

Goodnight.

Catching up to the Past

Prohibitory Internet rates aboard the 'River Ambassador' (0,75 €/Min) prevented me from posting from quite some time. Now I've located free internet.

The River Ambassador

After a successful rendezvous with my parents at Mooring Place Rijerkade, Amterdam we set sail down the Rhine River towards Köln. The passengers on board consisted of roughly; 90% old people, 5% really old people, 2% parents but not yet grandparents, 1% Younger Kids, 1% People more or less my age, 1% whiny 18 year old girls who continuously complained that there wasn't a party in the streets on a Monday night ("I thought Europe was supposed to be out of control"). Aside from that minor annoyance wI was pampered with 4 course meals and a proper shower every day for an entire week. Most days we stopped in a city or castle locale along the Rhine, where we were taken on guided tours. The continuous theme was the destruction caused by various European wars, with the 30 Years War, Napoleon, and WWII being the most frequent culprits. At the end of the week we disembarked at Basel and bussed to Luzern.

Switzerland - Part One (The Good Part) ((Forshadowing!))

Luzern is pleasantly placed on a lake surrounded by mountains. My Family and I took a boat ride around the lake, took a cog rail to the summit of Mount Pilatus, hiked around for a few hours and then descended via Gondola. The day was sunny, warm, and made me like Switzerland.

The next day a light rain began, my Family departed for home, and I hopped on the train to Interlaken.

Interlaken

Interlaken is a small town tucked between two lakes with mountains surrounding. The imposing Eiger, Jungfrau and company lay to the South, but I have yet to see them*. A break in the rain allowed my hostelmates and I to travel to Grindelwald and hike up the foot of the Eiger. The accent went well, but rain accompanied us the entire decent. By the time I returned I was soaked through 3 layers of clothes, but at least we had made it back to the safe and dry hostel, Right?

The Flood

Wrong.

At around 10:30 we were informed that the river adjacent to our hostel was rising and threatening to flood. We were evacuated to the local emergency evacuation center/bomb shelter under a school in the back of a Swiss man's Jeep. Standard Swiss Army blankets and cots kept us the night.

Bunks that are not made for people over 6'

Room 15 Members weathering the storm

* I wrote most of this yesterday when I was stuck in a cafe, wet and cold. Now things are drier and looking up. I can even see part of a mountain.

Initiate Phase 2

In the last week my class has ended and I have progressed on to the Netherlands, where I await the arrival of my parents and their food purchasing power. Before leaving Bremen I successfully passed the Zertifikat Deutsch Examination with a "Sehr Gut" (1) Mark. Basically this certifies that I am somewhat competent in my German.

Afterwords I moved on to Amsterdam where they don't believe in street signs. I've visited the Van Gough and Rijks Museum and even bought a post card. I've also seen lots of canals.

Now I have to find the boat 'River Ambassador' somewhere in Amsterdam.

I can count things on my fingers, I can count them on my toes.

Days in Germany: 22 and counting

People Encountered From: German, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Latvia, Russia, China, Ecuador, Australia, Hungary, Cameron, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Mexico, Norway, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Netherlands, Ukraine, and of course the U.S.A

Languages Spoken: German, English, and even a little Spanish.

Brats Eaten: Though little more than a glorified hot dog, I`ve more or less subsisted myself on brats and kartofelsalat.

Attempts at saying Mayonnaise with the proper German accent before being understood: 5 (it´s [mei´neize] not [´meiəneiz] ).

Encounters with people on the street claiming to be Prince Edward of Turkey: 1 and he also claimed that I was Prince Williams, even though I told him I´m not British.

Days of Class Left: 3

In the world of pictures, I visited the Netherlander town of Gronining (imagine you have serious case of phlegm in the back of your throat and are trying to cough it up. Thanks how to pronounce it). First we visited a Modern art museum, which had 1 or 2 painting of interest and a good 100 from a kindergarten finger painting class (I`m guessing). I did however bend the museums windows based kiosk to my will, and get it to play David Hasselhoff music videos off of google video.

Market. Guy in Red Shirt is King Loui of France, quite the character

Tower

So on and so forth. Tomorrow I have an Examination, so I must stop all this English and return to a German frame of mind.

If only we had a Bratwurststand, so I could be fat and happy

To anyone interested in the production, consumption, or any other -tion of beer, I would like to recommend the Brauereitour of Becks & Co. They let you test to final product.

Bier Production on a Massive Scale

In other news I climbed all the way up 265 dark windy stairs, to the top of the St. Petri Dom Turm

And I went to the Stadtmusikantenfestival. It left me wondering, and I´m serious about this, How does one become a professional washboard player?

Hallo. Ich bin Tourist.

Time has been flying by here. This weekend I thoroughly explored the Altstadt, which is certainly beautiful, but also completely inundated with tourists during the day. Along with large Cathedrals and Townhalls there are a bunch of mini-streets filled with shops of various varieties. I´m not much of a Consumer Tourist though and spent only a little time there. I´m saving my money for a Werder-Bremen jersey.

(Expensive*US-EuroExchangeRate=ReallyExpensive).

Dom

Friday evening some fellow classmates invited me to a German belly dancing festival. It was interesting.

A famous person once said "If you haven't seen German Belly Dancing in the rain you haven't really lived," but I may have misheard the quote.

I discovered a nice park near my apartment the contains soccer fields, basketball courts, and even a baseball field. I had no idea that Germans played baseball, but apparently they can and do. I plan on attempting the play some German basketball at some point, though it seems that the only Germans who play b-ball are those too large to play soccer. I'm not sure if I'm ready to take on a team of 5 DirkNowitzki's.

I also went to an Orchestra Concert at Die Gloke in the middle of the Altstadt, which was simply amazing, and for only 4€ was the best deal i've gotten yet.

Pitures, of a random order and of questionable significance, follow

Germans Love Hasselhoff

Windmill Resturaunt that cost too much

Daniel Radcliffe?

Suddenly I found myself in the middle of a German Bicycle Festival

It was not cool

Bis Später

Erste Zwei Tage

After 10 hours of uneventful flight I arrived at the Amsterdam airport, where they politely exclaim, "Mr. or Mrs. so and so you are delaying the flight for all the other passengers" every time a person is late to their flight. After a short 30 minute hop, which was barely discernible after a direct connection from Seattle to the Netherlands, I arrived in Bremen, and soon afterwards I had the first test of my German.Having successfully made it through the door I continued on to my Hotel, and since I had nothing else to do until I had to report to the Universität the next day, I went exploring. I first went to the Bremen Hauptbahnhof, which involves crossing a life threatening 7 or 8 lanes of bus/train traffic to reach. I am now able to cross train tracks like it is second nature.

I then went on to find a wonderful park on the river.

And a Movie Theater. Apparently Die Hard translates to Die Slowly.

The next day I took the train to the University to report for class. There were lots of people from all over there, but most seemed to be from the USA, one was even from University of Washington. I first had to placement test to determine which class I would be taking (B1.2), and then was taken to my accommodation. I´m pretty confident that I got one of the best rooms available. It´s on the third floor right next to the river and the football(soccer) stadium. To my unbelievable disappointment the season doesn´t begin until August 11th. Frau Holste is the Landlady and she seems very nice, and I share the upper floor the two other students, one from Köln who studies History and Math at the University, and the other is from Bulgaria, studied in America, and is now interning in Bremen.

Fussball Stadion from my window

Street from my window

River right next to my apartment

View from back Patio

After settling in I went out on the Hamburg Staße, which is the main street nearby, and followed it all the way to the Altstadt, everything was closed by the time I got there, so I will have to return. The Alststadt was old and beautiful, as I suppose most city centers are here. The feeling however was a bit ruined when I stumbled upon a McDonald's.

Hamburg Street

A very dark Old City

McDonald's ruining my fun

My first class begins in a few hours, wish me luck

Blogarific

Welcome to my wonderful new interweb site. I plan to fill it with reports of my adventure in far off lands. I leave this Saturday the 30th for Bremen, home of Die Stadtmusikanten of Grimm Brothers Fairy Tale fame and Becks Bier. Please leave me a comment or send an email if you so desire, I should be checking them both regularly.

Bis Später

Packing Prudently for Germany

At some point I will be able to post interesting content here. Right now all I have to do is ponder what to pack. Here is what I have come up with.

1. Canada Hat

Normally I am relatively proud of my status as an American Citizen, but just in case an argument over foreign policy gets out of hand I can simple exclaim that Molson is better then Beck's any day, put on this hat and leave.

2. Angry German Music

To better acclimate myself to Germany culture and society I will spend my ~9 hours of flight indulging myself with the course wrath of Rammstein et al. By the time I arrive, I will be depressed severely enough to fit in.

3. Personal Protection Photograph


This is me with Joseph Alois Ratzinger aka Benedict XVI and "Der Kaiser" Franz Beckenbauer, and I am confident it will secure my safety in Germany, considering that if there was a German version of the Justice League they would both be on it with Goethe, Einstein, und Nietzsche's Übermensch (Germans have no real Superheros). In fact the picture guarantees asylum, so long as Germans aren't familiar with Photoshop™©®.


4. Techo

because if there's one thing I know about Europeans, they love techno, and faking fouls in professional sports. Finding the correct mix of #2 and #4 on this list will be vital.






5. Book of German Foul Language

Not so I can say them, but so that I can understand exactly what the foreigner I just offended via cultural misunderstanding is saying.