We started out waking up at 3:30 am on Friday morning, going to catch the train into Bremen and then the tram from the Bremen Hauptbanhof to the Bremen flughafen (airport). When we got to the Shonebeck train station, however, Jimmy realized that he had forgotten his wallet, including his semester ticket, which we needed for trains, and his keys in his room. The rest of us proceeded as planned to the flughafen and got there around 5:30 for our 6:30 flight. As we got through security, the check in counter for Ryanair was closing (meaning Jimmy would not be able to get tickets for the flight) and there was no sign of Jimmy. Turns out Jimmy had rad back to Jacobs, gotten his roommate to let him in, and then taken a taxi to the airport, getting there at 5, before our tram even left. We then had a 2 hour not-so-comfortable plane ride to Bacelona-Girona, with a lovely sunrise as a perk. When we got to Girona, we had just missed the bus that we needed to take to get to our hotel, so we ended up taking a taxi for about an hour until we got to our hotel, Hotel Miliets in San Pol de Mar. The town is directly on the beach, and there is an amazing view of the Mediterranean from anywhere nearby. It was also supposed to rain on Friday, but it held out and the weather was beautiful. Our first mission was to find food, since we hadn't eaten all day. This actually proved quite difficult as none of the restaurants were open at the time. Eventually we found a supermarket and enjoyed a meal of muffins and orange juice. Afterward our rooms in the hotel were ready (the 6 of us were the only ones there Friday night) and we proceeded to quickly fall asleep. We woke up a little later and took the train, about an hour, into Barcelona. We wandered around to get a feel for the city, and hit up a couple of the famous Gaudi designed buildings, as well as the famous La Sagrada Familia. The next morning, the hotel staff had breakfast ready for us and then, still exhausted from traveling and the night before, we sunbathed/took a nap on the beach. The weather once again was absolutely gorgeous, and after a second supermarket lunch we headed into Barcelona to meet with Lindsey's host-brother who lives there and he showed us around the city. Once again, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. I definitely like Barcelona the best out of all the cities we've been to, much more than Berlin. Part of it could be the fact that the city is absolutely beautiful, that and it seems much more inviting than other cities, much nicer to walk around than the ridiculous hustle and bustle of NYC. It was a little difficult finding the right metro / train stations, and we walked around one main square multiple times first trying to find the right metro station, and then a second time trying to find the right train station. London definitely wins in the best public transportation category. Our hotel is pretty nice, we have balconies where we can see the sunrise and Mediterranean from our beds. It's not exactly luxurious, but the extremely friendly and helpful staff make up for it. It's really nice tiny town, and i think i much prefer it to being in Barcelona itself.
On Sunday we left San Pol de Mar right after breakfast and headed to the Arc de Triomph to meet some friends from Jacobs and go to the Picasso museum. We found the museum easily enough, after wading through a crowd of marathon runners, but unfortunately the museum is free on the first sunday of every month, so there was a ridiculously long line to get in, and we decided that it was such a nice day that there were definetly much better ways to spend our time. The six of us (3 Lafayetties, 3 Jacobs kids) instead went up to Parc Guell, the park designed by Gaudi. The park is on top of a hill overlooking Barcelona, and offered an excellent view, it would have been even better if there wasn't so much fog. After seeing the park, I am officially a fan of Gaudi's work, all of it is very cool looking. Afterward we got some lunch and then went down to Barcelonetti (near the water). On the way there we walked down Las Ramblas and were highly amused by all the people in ridiculous costumes and street vendors trying to sell random things. One little gizmo was a little plastic tube, which if you kept in your mouth, you could make noises that sound like birds or animals screeching. One of these vendors had a garbage bag with a cat's tail sticking out, and as we walked by, he made what sounded like a cat screech and shook the bag, thoroughly scaring Lanie and causing her to jump quite a bit. There were tons of street performers by the ports, and most of them were actually talented, unlike the ones in Germany. If you keep wandering through Barcelonetti for a while, you get to a nice beach. This one was sandier than the one in San Pol, which was nice in a way, but also more annoying because then it would get all over you. We made a quick stop by the girl's apartment, which was right in the city, and then grabbed the rest of their group for a Spanish restaurant before catching the last train back to San Pol for the evening. Overall it was a really fun and beautiful day. The next day we spent doing some more exploring in Barcelona and also some more relaxing on our beach, We were able to trade in our extra train tickets for tickets by train to Girona, where we could take a bus to the airport, saving us the trouble of having to take a taxi back to the airport. Due to the train schedule, we got to the airport with plenty of time to spare to catch our flight to Dublin. Tom had left earlier that day headed back to Bremen to meet up with his family, leaving just 5 of us.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Bochum, Köln, and Bonn
This weekend was the second of four class trips for the German Politics and Culture class. We started off on friday (as opposed to thursday like for Berlin, but still ridiculously early in the morning) and headed first to the small town of Bochum, where we toured a giant movable structure for a steel mill, which is now a concert venue for a nation wide arts fiestival. On of the most interesting plays that it hosted depicted the story of soldiers marching off to war, a fiance left at home, and a widdower. These three stories took place on three seperate stages in the giant hall, and seven times during the performance, the audiences seats would shift (silently and unnoticably) until they were in front of another stage. Also in Bochum we took yet another bus tour, and then went to the National German Steel Mine Museum. For this museum, you took an elevator down into a series of tunnels, where there were a ton of huge machines and various set-ups that would have been used in a steel mine. It was actually most impressive how the hell they got all of that huge machinery down there. I didn't really learn much about steel mining, but the mine shafts made for an excellent giant playground for college kids...
That evening we arrived in Köln and checked into our hotel. A couple of random notes about the hotel: the bar soap was bright orange and smelled like starbursts, they had an amazing breakfast selection, and a chair that was so comfortable that I almost fell asleep every time I sat in it, I didn't need to sit in it to fall asleep though, because that bed was probably the most comfortable bed i've slept in. ever. We then went to our welcome dinner, where we got to sample Gaffel Kölsch, one of the 24 varieties of the local beer, Kölsch, in Köln. The next morning we took a bus tour of the city and saw the roman ruins in the town, as well as where the famous and ridiculously expensive eau de cologne was first made. We then took a walking tour of the city which ended at the Kölner Dom, which at one point was the highest building in the world, after it's construction which (epically failed) only took 600 years to be built. After WWII, pretty much the entire city of Köln was leveled, with the exception of the Dom, which was relatively unharmed by some stroke of extreme luck. It was a beautiful day and at this point a couple of us decided to walk through the old town and down by the Rhine river. Later that afternoon we had a choice of two museums, and I chose the Roman museum, until I realised that I had already been to it, and then went to the Olympia museum, which was a short history of sports and the olympics, and was located directly next to the chocolate museum, which we visited next. At other meals in Köln i also sampled Gilden Kölsch, Reissdorf Kölsch, and Dom Kölsch (Dom was my favorite).
The next day we left Köln and headed to Bonn, which is a small city of 30,000 which used to be the capital of Western Germany and was the birthplace and hometown of Ludwig Van Beethoven...and that's about it. We had a guided tour through a german history museum, which was very good, mostly due to the fact that our tour guide was extremely funny. We then headed back towards Bremen, attemped to stop at the american embasy (McDonalds) but missed the turn and luckily found a Burger King to raid (as we were in the middle of nowhere at this point, and pretty hungry).
That evening we arrived in Köln and checked into our hotel. A couple of random notes about the hotel: the bar soap was bright orange and smelled like starbursts, they had an amazing breakfast selection, and a chair that was so comfortable that I almost fell asleep every time I sat in it, I didn't need to sit in it to fall asleep though, because that bed was probably the most comfortable bed i've slept in. ever. We then went to our welcome dinner, where we got to sample Gaffel Kölsch, one of the 24 varieties of the local beer, Kölsch, in Köln. The next morning we took a bus tour of the city and saw the roman ruins in the town, as well as where the famous and ridiculously expensive eau de cologne was first made. We then took a walking tour of the city which ended at the Kölner Dom, which at one point was the highest building in the world, after it's construction which (epically failed) only took 600 years to be built. After WWII, pretty much the entire city of Köln was leveled, with the exception of the Dom, which was relatively unharmed by some stroke of extreme luck. It was a beautiful day and at this point a couple of us decided to walk through the old town and down by the Rhine river. Later that afternoon we had a choice of two museums, and I chose the Roman museum, until I realised that I had already been to it, and then went to the Olympia museum, which was a short history of sports and the olympics, and was located directly next to the chocolate museum, which we visited next. At other meals in Köln i also sampled Gilden Kölsch, Reissdorf Kölsch, and Dom Kölsch (Dom was my favorite).
The next day we left Köln and headed to Bonn, which is a small city of 30,000 which used to be the capital of Western Germany and was the birthplace and hometown of Ludwig Van Beethoven...and that's about it. We had a guided tour through a german history museum, which was very good, mostly due to the fact that our tour guide was extremely funny. We then headed back towards Bremen, attemped to stop at the american embasy (McDonalds) but missed the turn and luckily found a Burger King to raid (as we were in the middle of nowhere at this point, and pretty hungry).
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Bremen, Niedersachsen, Hamburg, and Schleswig-Holstein
It's been a while since I last updated this blog, but i've also been very busy.
(Niedersachsen)
To start off, the weekend after we went to London, we had two day trips with the German Politics and Culture class. The first was to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp from WWII. The camp was originally a residence for workers at the nearby military base, and then later was converted to a prison of war camp for captured Russians. The concentration camp portion of the camp was later built by the holocaust prisoners, completely separate from the Russian POWs. While Bergen-Belsen was not an extermination camp, thousands of jews, gypsies, and other minorities stil died in Bergen-Belsen. Unfortunately, most of the camp was burned down to prevent the spread of disease when the camp was liberated by the americans, so all that is left was the basic infrasturcture (military transportation and train line) and the memorial museum, which included a series of video interviews that related the stories of the experiences of survivors that went through Bergen-Belsen.
(Bremen)
The next day, we took a quick train to Bremen-Burg to make a change to go up to Bremerhaven (A port that is part of the Lander of Bremen, but is not physically connected to the original Lander). We were informed at this point that the train to Bremerhaven was delayed by 1/2 hour, and then later that the train had broken down and was cancelled (fortunately we had the teachers with us who could understand the german announcement at the station). We were able to call ahead to the Bremerhaven emigration museum and get an extension on regular hours for our group and then catch the next train up to Bremerhaven. The Bremerhaven port was a major port for emigrants to America and all over the world, and the museum gave a very good feel for what it might have been like to emigrate across the ocean (it won the best european museum of the year award last year i believe). The museum was very interactive and simulated the boarding process, life on a ship, and the arrival and testing process (I passed the written test, yay!).
(Jacobs)
The following weekend us Lafayetties hosted a pajama party for Jacobs which we had organised with some help from the college. We started off with a presentation about Lafayette College for the Jacobs kids, which to no surprise was pretty sparsely attended. To my surprise however, the party went pretty well the rest of the night and a good number of Jacobs kids came (the fact that one of the DJs was from Jacobs and knew more international music might have helped). Lauren (from Lafayette, studying in Madrid) also arrived on Friday.
(Schleswig-Holstein)
On Saturday we took a train up past Hamburg to Lubeck. Lubeck was a very cool medieval town. The old town was on a small island built in the twelve hundreds and remained unaffected by the destruction of the two world wars. The entire town was paved with cobblestones and had amazing architecture throughout, including the hospital, which looked more like a decorated fortress than a medieval hospital. Lubeck is known as the "city of 7 spires," which can all be seen sticking above the city from afar. We attempted to find all 7 while in the city, and were eventually successful, although they're a lot harder to find when you're actually in the city. In food news, Lubeck has some of the best Donner that i've had in Germany, and is also famous for it's Marzipan candy, which we also sampled :)
We then took a very slow two-car train to the town of Travemunde, which looked like the middle of nowhere when we first got there, but once we got down to the port (on the Baltic Sea) it was much better. A random notable feature: there are millions of ducks in Travemunde, which will come right up to you and quack and hop in hopes of getting food.
(Bremen)
Today we went to the Bremen Stadium to see our local Bundesliga team, Werder Bremen, take on St. Etienne (France). The game was packed and we ended up right next to the St. Etienne fans, who were yelling, singing, and cheering, non-stop throughout the entire game. It was definitely an experience to be in the stadium and to feel all the energy during the game, much better than an american football game in my opinion. In the first half of the game, we were located directly behind St. Etienne's net, and Werder managed to keep good control of the ball and keep it on our half of the field, eventually scoring the first point of the game right near us. Halftime remark: that was the most efficient bathroom i've ever been in, it's amazing how many people went through so fast. During the second half, Werder seemed to have much less control, but that wasn't all bad, because it meant that once again the ball was usually on our side of the field (teams switch sides at halftime). The game ended 1-0 and we then made our way through the huge crowd back towards the tram stop. There were tons of mounted police and riot police blocking off the exit of the St. Etienne's fans for their protection from the Werder fans, and we nearly got run over by the horses. Overall a very cool experience, that I would not mind doing again if timing permits.
(Pictures, Bremen Parliment + Rathous, Oldenberg, and Hamburg take 2 are still to come, now i have to do hw)
(Niedersachsen)
To start off, the weekend after we went to London, we had two day trips with the German Politics and Culture class. The first was to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp from WWII. The camp was originally a residence for workers at the nearby military base, and then later was converted to a prison of war camp for captured Russians. The concentration camp portion of the camp was later built by the holocaust prisoners, completely separate from the Russian POWs. While Bergen-Belsen was not an extermination camp, thousands of jews, gypsies, and other minorities stil died in Bergen-Belsen. Unfortunately, most of the camp was burned down to prevent the spread of disease when the camp was liberated by the americans, so all that is left was the basic infrasturcture (military transportation and train line) and the memorial museum, which included a series of video interviews that related the stories of the experiences of survivors that went through Bergen-Belsen.
(Bremen)
The next day, we took a quick train to Bremen-Burg to make a change to go up to Bremerhaven (A port that is part of the Lander of Bremen, but is not physically connected to the original Lander). We were informed at this point that the train to Bremerhaven was delayed by 1/2 hour, and then later that the train had broken down and was cancelled (fortunately we had the teachers with us who could understand the german announcement at the station). We were able to call ahead to the Bremerhaven emigration museum and get an extension on regular hours for our group and then catch the next train up to Bremerhaven. The Bremerhaven port was a major port for emigrants to America and all over the world, and the museum gave a very good feel for what it might have been like to emigrate across the ocean (it won the best european museum of the year award last year i believe). The museum was very interactive and simulated the boarding process, life on a ship, and the arrival and testing process (I passed the written test, yay!).
(Jacobs)
The following weekend us Lafayetties hosted a pajama party for Jacobs which we had organised with some help from the college. We started off with a presentation about Lafayette College for the Jacobs kids, which to no surprise was pretty sparsely attended. To my surprise however, the party went pretty well the rest of the night and a good number of Jacobs kids came (the fact that one of the DJs was from Jacobs and knew more international music might have helped). Lauren (from Lafayette, studying in Madrid) also arrived on Friday.
(Schleswig-Holstein)
On Saturday we took a train up past Hamburg to Lubeck. Lubeck was a very cool medieval town. The old town was on a small island built in the twelve hundreds and remained unaffected by the destruction of the two world wars. The entire town was paved with cobblestones and had amazing architecture throughout, including the hospital, which looked more like a decorated fortress than a medieval hospital. Lubeck is known as the "city of 7 spires," which can all be seen sticking above the city from afar. We attempted to find all 7 while in the city, and were eventually successful, although they're a lot harder to find when you're actually in the city. In food news, Lubeck has some of the best Donner that i've had in Germany, and is also famous for it's Marzipan candy, which we also sampled :)
We then took a very slow two-car train to the town of Travemunde, which looked like the middle of nowhere when we first got there, but once we got down to the port (on the Baltic Sea) it was much better. A random notable feature: there are millions of ducks in Travemunde, which will come right up to you and quack and hop in hopes of getting food.
(Bremen)
Today we went to the Bremen Stadium to see our local Bundesliga team, Werder Bremen, take on St. Etienne (France). The game was packed and we ended up right next to the St. Etienne fans, who were yelling, singing, and cheering, non-stop throughout the entire game. It was definitely an experience to be in the stadium and to feel all the energy during the game, much better than an american football game in my opinion. In the first half of the game, we were located directly behind St. Etienne's net, and Werder managed to keep good control of the ball and keep it on our half of the field, eventually scoring the first point of the game right near us. Halftime remark: that was the most efficient bathroom i've ever been in, it's amazing how many people went through so fast. During the second half, Werder seemed to have much less control, but that wasn't all bad, because it meant that once again the ball was usually on our side of the field (teams switch sides at halftime). The game ended 1-0 and we then made our way through the huge crowd back towards the tram stop. There were tons of mounted police and riot police blocking off the exit of the St. Etienne's fans for their protection from the Werder fans, and we nearly got run over by the horses. Overall a very cool experience, that I would not mind doing again if timing permits.
(Pictures, Bremen Parliment + Rathous, Oldenberg, and Hamburg take 2 are still to come, now i have to do hw)
Sunday, February 22, 2009
A Busy Weekend In London
Thursday afternoon Marty and I skipped out on German Politics and Culture class and took the Train/Tram downtown to Universitat Bremen (Not to be confused with Jacobs University Bremen) where we picked up our passports, not fit with German residency permits (a requirement to get Russian Visas). We then just took the tram directly to Bremen Airport and checked in at the lovely garage that was the Ryanair terminal. The flight was only a little over an hour, and I slept through most of it, as did Marty, who was asleep before take-off. At the London-Stanstead airport, we got held up in customs and missed our scheduled EasyBus downtown, but were fortunately able to catch the following bus, for and hour and forty minute drive into London. We then proceeded to walk to our Hostel, the Smart Hyde Park Inn, which was very convieniently located within a minutes walk of a shopping district, Hyde Park, and two Underground stops. Later that night we explored the local area and planned our next days adventures along with a Turkish German from Stuttgart named Erdal whom we met at the hostel.
After consuming large quantities of toast from the Hostel's "breakfast" we set off to the far north of London to Colindale, where we found the Royal Air Force Museum and spent the remainder of the morning there. All three of us were studying mechanics (2 Mechanical Engineers and 1 Foundry Mechanic) and found the exhibits very interesting.
We then took the Underground to Trafalgar Square and essentially wandered around London until dark, seeing Trafalgar Square, the world's smallest police station, The National Gallery, the London Eye, Big Ben, the Admiralty Arch, Westminister Abby, the Tate Center, St. Paul's, the Globe Theater, the Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, the Golden Hinde (of Sir Francis Drake), Piccadilly Circus (pretty much the downtown area), Roosevelt and Churchill on a bench, and Buckingham Palace.
For the second and third nights our room in the hostel was moved, and we were now in a room full of long term french residents (they were there for about 4 months). I was able to stumble through conversations with them, and spent part of the night hanging out with them, and then later went out with Erdal and some others.
On Saturday, the weather was once again beautiful (atypical of London I believe) with blue skies and quite warm out. We first went to Leicester Square and visited the discount tickets booth. We then proceeded to go to Buckingham palace via a different station than we took the previous night, and ended up back at Big Ben and Westminster Abby by accident. We made it to the palace about 5 minutes after the changing of the guard ceremony started, but were able to get a good view from the Island in the middle of the road where the Victoria Monument is located. At this point Marty went off to meet with his Great-Uncle whom he had never met before, and Erdal also had an appointment with some friends. I then proceeded to Abbey Road (crossing and studio) with a group that I met from NY. I then attempted to see platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station, but could not get to that part of the station without a train ticket. I then spent the remainder of the afternoon at the Imperial War Museum, which also featured very extensive and interesting exhibits on secret british military and intelligence operations (MI5/MI6, secret troops in WWI/WWII, SAS), and also a very nice holocaust exhibit. That evening we went and saw the musical version of The Sound Of Music, which was on it's last night of performance. The show was excellent, and the scene changes were also very cool to watch, with a mountain that descended (giant tilting platform) and moving floors on the stage so that stage crew members never had to appear on the stage. At one point the entire theater was suddenly decorated with Nazi propaganda, which took me by surprise, and had a very cool immersive effect.
Overall the underground system was very convenient and easy to use, nearly foolproof for navigational purposes actually. Unfortunately there was repair work being done all day Saturday, and several lines were closed, making getting around slightly more difficult and crowded, but still feasible. Our plan for Sunday morning had been to sleep in our clothes, and then just wake up, check out of the hostel, and take the underground to where our bus would pick us up for the airport. When we got to the underground station, however, we were informed that it didn't open until 7 a.m. Armed with what we thought was a pretty good map of London, we set off running through London at 3 in the morning in search of our bus stop. We decided that it would be easier to run along a main road rather than try to cut corners and take a more complicated and direct route, and set off on Bayswater Road looking for Gloucester Place, or Baker Street if we missed our turn. What our map failed to show us was that Gloucester Place actually turned into Portman Street and Baker Street into Orchard Street for only the block directly before the intersection with Bayswater. As you can imagine this led to much confusion when we ended up at another underground station that we knew was too far down the road and had checked every street sign on the way there. This was one case where it was very fortunate to know the local dialect, english. We eventually found the station and had missed the bus time we were aiming for, but were able to catch the following bus, and thanks to our driver whizzing through london in his little mercedes bus, made it to the airport in about an hour less than it took on thursday night within plenty of time to get tickets for our flight, as did the other 2 students who had found a very helpful taxi driver.
After a comfortable trip back in the more-spacious emergency exit row, we all fell asleep and were then greeted by some lovely Bremen weather...dark grey skies again.
After consuming large quantities of toast from the Hostel's "breakfast" we set off to the far north of London to Colindale, where we found the Royal Air Force Museum and spent the remainder of the morning there. All three of us were studying mechanics (2 Mechanical Engineers and 1 Foundry Mechanic) and found the exhibits very interesting.
We then took the Underground to Trafalgar Square and essentially wandered around London until dark, seeing Trafalgar Square, the world's smallest police station, The National Gallery, the London Eye, Big Ben, the Admiralty Arch, Westminister Abby, the Tate Center, St. Paul's, the Globe Theater, the Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, the Golden Hinde (of Sir Francis Drake), Piccadilly Circus (pretty much the downtown area), Roosevelt and Churchill on a bench, and Buckingham Palace.
For the second and third nights our room in the hostel was moved, and we were now in a room full of long term french residents (they were there for about 4 months). I was able to stumble through conversations with them, and spent part of the night hanging out with them, and then later went out with Erdal and some others.
On Saturday, the weather was once again beautiful (atypical of London I believe) with blue skies and quite warm out. We first went to Leicester Square and visited the discount tickets booth. We then proceeded to go to Buckingham palace via a different station than we took the previous night, and ended up back at Big Ben and Westminster Abby by accident. We made it to the palace about 5 minutes after the changing of the guard ceremony started, but were able to get a good view from the Island in the middle of the road where the Victoria Monument is located. At this point Marty went off to meet with his Great-Uncle whom he had never met before, and Erdal also had an appointment with some friends. I then proceeded to Abbey Road (crossing and studio) with a group that I met from NY. I then attempted to see platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station, but could not get to that part of the station without a train ticket. I then spent the remainder of the afternoon at the Imperial War Museum, which also featured very extensive and interesting exhibits on secret british military and intelligence operations (MI5/MI6, secret troops in WWI/WWII, SAS), and also a very nice holocaust exhibit. That evening we went and saw the musical version of The Sound Of Music, which was on it's last night of performance. The show was excellent, and the scene changes were also very cool to watch, with a mountain that descended (giant tilting platform) and moving floors on the stage so that stage crew members never had to appear on the stage. At one point the entire theater was suddenly decorated with Nazi propaganda, which took me by surprise, and had a very cool immersive effect.
Overall the underground system was very convenient and easy to use, nearly foolproof for navigational purposes actually. Unfortunately there was repair work being done all day Saturday, and several lines were closed, making getting around slightly more difficult and crowded, but still feasible. Our plan for Sunday morning had been to sleep in our clothes, and then just wake up, check out of the hostel, and take the underground to where our bus would pick us up for the airport. When we got to the underground station, however, we were informed that it didn't open until 7 a.m. Armed with what we thought was a pretty good map of London, we set off running through London at 3 in the morning in search of our bus stop. We decided that it would be easier to run along a main road rather than try to cut corners and take a more complicated and direct route, and set off on Bayswater Road looking for Gloucester Place, or Baker Street if we missed our turn. What our map failed to show us was that Gloucester Place actually turned into Portman Street and Baker Street into Orchard Street for only the block directly before the intersection with Bayswater. As you can imagine this led to much confusion when we ended up at another underground station that we knew was too far down the road and had checked every street sign on the way there. This was one case where it was very fortunate to know the local dialect, english. We eventually found the station and had missed the bus time we were aiming for, but were able to catch the following bus, and thanks to our driver whizzing through london in his little mercedes bus, made it to the airport in about an hour less than it took on thursday night within plenty of time to get tickets for our flight, as did the other 2 students who had found a very helpful taxi driver.
After a comfortable trip back in the more-spacious emergency exit row, we all fell asleep and were then greeted by some lovely Bremen weather...dark grey skies again.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Berlin (Part 2)
Day 3.
Saturday was more laid back than the previous two days, with our first large chunk of free time during the day. After Prof. Hornfeck's Circuits class finished in the hotel, Rob and I organized an excursion to Alexander Platz, where there are multiple malls, large shopping centers, and department stores. This was not exactly what we were looking for, so we broke off from the pack of Lafayetties and doubled back to the famous street Unter den Linden (comparable to what Champs Ellysees is in Paris, but not as big), which translates to "under the lime trees." After some shopping, almost getting hit by a train, and having a nice sprint back to the hotel, we got on the bus with the rest of the group just in time.
In the afternoon, we got a choice of three museums to visit on "Museum Island," The German Historical Museum, the Pergamonmuseum, or the Jewish History Museum. I would have liked to go to all three, as they all sounded amazing, but settled with the Pergamonmuseum in the end. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, I knew it was a collection of ancient artifacts, and suspected a bunch of glass cases with old relics in them. Boy was I wrong! As you can see from the pictures, the Pergamonmuseum featured entire rooms set up to give you the appearance of being in an ancient civilization, surrounded by real monumental structures straight from their excavation sites at Babylon, Assur, Uruk, Miletus, Egypt, and Priene. This experience was probably one of my favorite throughout the entire trip. While not quite as impressive, the museum also featured a seciton on islamic art, a middle eastern museum, and an antiquity collection filled with statues from all over the world.
We proceded to eat dinner in Kreuzberg, finding a nice Turkish restaurant, where i had 3 turkish pizzas (delicious) and Ayran (turkish yogurt drink, it was kindof like drinking cottage cheese). We concluded the evening at the English Theater Berlin, with a showing of The Extremists, which was a "labyrinth of wordplay and mind games in which a television talk show host and his guest who wrote a book about terrorism get lost in their own doublespeak." It was essentially a witty 2 hour conversation, with one player occasionally forgetting his lines, and me occasionally forgetting to keep my eyes open.
Day 4.
We continued our guided tour of Berlin, seeing Checkpoint Charlie, the Autobahn grandstands, the Olympic Stadium, and examples of Nazi architecture, then drove to Potsdam to see the castle Ceclinienhof (doesn't that roof look like a face? creepy) and castle Sanssouci. One thing of note about Sansoucci; the ruins you see on top of the hill are actually fakes, built so that the castle would have a nice view. Exhausted, we arrived back at Jacob's that evening.
Saturday was more laid back than the previous two days, with our first large chunk of free time during the day. After Prof. Hornfeck's Circuits class finished in the hotel, Rob and I organized an excursion to Alexander Platz, where there are multiple malls, large shopping centers, and department stores. This was not exactly what we were looking for, so we broke off from the pack of Lafayetties and doubled back to the famous street Unter den Linden (comparable to what Champs Ellysees is in Paris, but not as big), which translates to "under the lime trees." After some shopping, almost getting hit by a train, and having a nice sprint back to the hotel, we got on the bus with the rest of the group just in time.
In the afternoon, we got a choice of three museums to visit on "Museum Island," The German Historical Museum, the Pergamonmuseum, or the Jewish History Museum. I would have liked to go to all three, as they all sounded amazing, but settled with the Pergamonmuseum in the end. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, I knew it was a collection of ancient artifacts, and suspected a bunch of glass cases with old relics in them. Boy was I wrong! As you can see from the pictures, the Pergamonmuseum featured entire rooms set up to give you the appearance of being in an ancient civilization, surrounded by real monumental structures straight from their excavation sites at Babylon, Assur, Uruk, Miletus, Egypt, and Priene. This experience was probably one of my favorite throughout the entire trip. While not quite as impressive, the museum also featured a seciton on islamic art, a middle eastern museum, and an antiquity collection filled with statues from all over the world.
We proceded to eat dinner in Kreuzberg, finding a nice Turkish restaurant, where i had 3 turkish pizzas (delicious) and Ayran (turkish yogurt drink, it was kindof like drinking cottage cheese). We concluded the evening at the English Theater Berlin, with a showing of The Extremists, which was a "labyrinth of wordplay and mind games in which a television talk show host and his guest who wrote a book about terrorism get lost in their own doublespeak." It was essentially a witty 2 hour conversation, with one player occasionally forgetting his lines, and me occasionally forgetting to keep my eyes open.
Day 4.
We continued our guided tour of Berlin, seeing Checkpoint Charlie, the Autobahn grandstands, the Olympic Stadium, and examples of Nazi architecture, then drove to Potsdam to see the castle Ceclinienhof (doesn't that roof look like a face? creepy) and castle Sanssouci. One thing of note about Sansoucci; the ruins you see on top of the hill are actually fakes, built so that the castle would have a nice view. Exhausted, we arrived back at Jacob's that evening.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Berlin (Part 1)
Last weekend (and by weekend I actually mean thursday through sunday) us Lafayetties were fortunate enough to have a class trip to Berlin. Berlin is the third German city and my favorite of those I've visited thus far, with the first two being Hamburg and home-sweet-home Bremen. Interestingly enough, these three cities are Germany's only three city-states.
Day 1.
We travelled to Berlin by double-decker bus, which I think was is even more comfortable than traveling by train. We had Jacob's personal travel agent, Frank, with us, as well as a tour guide which we picked up when we arrived at the outskirts of Berlin. Throughout the four days, the two of them provided more information about Berlin than anybody could hope to possibly retain, although most of it was very interesting and I probably would never have known had I visited Berlin on my own. We began our tour by bus, stopping a few times at key locations, including the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Churches, two cars in concrete, Sieges Saeulle (Victory Monument), Jimmy Carter's Smile, the German Holocaust Memorial, Hotel Adlon, the Brandenburg Gate, (not at big as you would think it would be, like the Mona Lisa) Berliner Dom, the Berlin Wall, and the Berlin TV Tower. At this point I began to understand how physically large Berlin is in actuality (second only to London in terms of area). Afterward, we had a welcome dinner at a local restaurant, and proceeded to check into our hotel, a European Best-Western. A few random notes about the hotel, the beds (once again with just a pillow and comforter-within-a-sheet) were extremely comfortable, far more comfortable than the Jacob's beds, or even my own bed at home, although my nearly instantaneous sleep might be contributed to the three exhausting days beforehand as well. Also a continuing trend from Jacob's to Berlin was the toilet with two flush buttons. The only other thing of note in the hotel was the lighting system, which required you to put your access card in a slot in order to activate electricity in the room. I really like the idea in terms of saving energy, although this led to a few students locking themselves out of their rooms. We solved this little situation by using a student ID card for the lights and kept the access card safely in my pocket.
Day 2.
On Friday, I elected to go with a few students down the road to Potsdamer Platz to visit the Deutsche Kinemathek (German Film Museum). Along the way we saw our first set of large above-ground pipes. Apparently these pipes are temporary structures that are set up at every construction site to pump water out as the foundation is being laid (due to Berlin's high water table), once the foundation was complete, the pipes would be disassembled and relocated elsewhere in the city. Going back to the film museum, I was originally unsure whether or not I would enjoy the museum, as I had zero previous knowledge or interest in German films. The museum, however, turned out to be very interesting, consisting of a large repertoire of artistically created and individually themed interactive display rooms, ranging from the first panoramic shot filmed to huge rooms that immersed you into the landscape of famous german movies (METROPOLIS), to a featured exhibit on Alfred Hitchcock. We continued our tour of Berlin, visiting sites such as the Bundesrat (second house of government), Sony Center, Berlin Wall Division, the memorial to those who didn't make it across the wall, and met with two parlimentary members in the governmental sector. We also took an extensive tour of the Reichstag (Yes, that' a crocodile standing there, and bonus points to whoever figures out what the statue is holding, my vote goes to hair dryer), where the German Parliament meets, including walking up the external dome at the top. After it was burned down (it was blamed on communists, but a covert Nazi operation is suspected), the Reichstag was completely redone on the inside, with an interesting set of interior decorations, Russian graffiti from the occupation of Berlin. One particular piece of graffiti is definitely fake, however, E. Kennedy U,S,A, 13th May 1945. This is blatantly a European graffiti, due to the european 1's that look like ^'s, 9's that look like g's, backwards date (day/month/year as opposed to month/day/year) and using commas instead of periods to write U,S,A,
Later that night, after the mandatory events were over, we attended the famous Berlin Film Festival, the Berlinale, which we were lucky enough to be in town for. The film featured that night was a Bulgarian film called As, Grafinjata (The Countess) about a young woman who fights for her individuality at a woman's re-education camp in 1968. We then explored the Kreuzberg portion of Berlin, otherwise known as "Little Istanbul."
Day 1.
We travelled to Berlin by double-decker bus, which I think was is even more comfortable than traveling by train. We had Jacob's personal travel agent, Frank, with us, as well as a tour guide which we picked up when we arrived at the outskirts of Berlin. Throughout the four days, the two of them provided more information about Berlin than anybody could hope to possibly retain, although most of it was very interesting and I probably would never have known had I visited Berlin on my own. We began our tour by bus, stopping a few times at key locations, including the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Churches, two cars in concrete, Sieges Saeulle (Victory Monument), Jimmy Carter's Smile, the German Holocaust Memorial, Hotel Adlon, the Brandenburg Gate, (not at big as you would think it would be, like the Mona Lisa) Berliner Dom, the Berlin Wall, and the Berlin TV Tower. At this point I began to understand how physically large Berlin is in actuality (second only to London in terms of area). Afterward, we had a welcome dinner at a local restaurant, and proceeded to check into our hotel, a European Best-Western. A few random notes about the hotel, the beds (once again with just a pillow and comforter-within-a-sheet) were extremely comfortable, far more comfortable than the Jacob's beds, or even my own bed at home, although my nearly instantaneous sleep might be contributed to the three exhausting days beforehand as well. Also a continuing trend from Jacob's to Berlin was the toilet with two flush buttons. The only other thing of note in the hotel was the lighting system, which required you to put your access card in a slot in order to activate electricity in the room. I really like the idea in terms of saving energy, although this led to a few students locking themselves out of their rooms. We solved this little situation by using a student ID card for the lights and kept the access card safely in my pocket.
Day 2.
On Friday, I elected to go with a few students down the road to Potsdamer Platz to visit the Deutsche Kinemathek (German Film Museum). Along the way we saw our first set of large above-ground pipes. Apparently these pipes are temporary structures that are set up at every construction site to pump water out as the foundation is being laid (due to Berlin's high water table), once the foundation was complete, the pipes would be disassembled and relocated elsewhere in the city. Going back to the film museum, I was originally unsure whether or not I would enjoy the museum, as I had zero previous knowledge or interest in German films. The museum, however, turned out to be very interesting, consisting of a large repertoire of artistically created and individually themed interactive display rooms, ranging from the first panoramic shot filmed to huge rooms that immersed you into the landscape of famous german movies (METROPOLIS), to a featured exhibit on Alfred Hitchcock. We continued our tour of Berlin, visiting sites such as the Bundesrat (second house of government), Sony Center, Berlin Wall Division, the memorial to those who didn't make it across the wall, and met with two parlimentary members in the governmental sector. We also took an extensive tour of the Reichstag (Yes, that' a crocodile standing there, and bonus points to whoever figures out what the statue is holding, my vote goes to hair dryer), where the German Parliament meets, including walking up the external dome at the top. After it was burned down (it was blamed on communists, but a covert Nazi operation is suspected), the Reichstag was completely redone on the inside, with an interesting set of interior decorations, Russian graffiti from the occupation of Berlin. One particular piece of graffiti is definitely fake, however, E. Kennedy U,S,A, 13th May 1945. This is blatantly a European graffiti, due to the european 1's that look like ^'s, 9's that look like g's, backwards date (day/month/year as opposed to month/day/year) and using commas instead of periods to write U,S,A,
Later that night, after the mandatory events were over, we attended the famous Berlin Film Festival, the Berlinale, which we were lucky enough to be in town for. The film featured that night was a Bulgarian film called As, Grafinjata (The Countess) about a young woman who fights for her individuality at a woman's re-education camp in 1968. We then explored the Kreuzberg portion of Berlin, otherwise known as "Little Istanbul."
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Mercedes-Benz, German Engineering At It's Finest
One of the benefits of our study abroad program is the scheduled day trips around Germany. We were extremely fortunate to be able to tour the Mercedes-Benz factory located right here in Bremen, for which there is apparently a waiting-list over a year long. Our tour guide was an Irishman who had been living in Germany for the past couple of years, meaning that he spoke comprehensible english, a plus indeed. Before the start of the tour, I intended to follow it up with a blog entry about the engineering and other technical aspects that I observed, however, in this case I feel compelled to mention the personality of our tour guide as well. The man (who's name I forget) was extremely willing to impress upon us as much knowledge of the workings inside the factory as he possibly could, including such specific details as the torque of certain automated screwdrivers. But among the technical mumbojumbo came more cultural references in a short time frame that I have ever heard in my life. "Where is this red car going? Not Europe for sure, back to America. Home Sweet Home. Home Sweet Home Alabama, a good song. Who saw the Grammys? Coldplay won a bunch, you know Coldplay? Probably like you know U2? A good Irishman. My daughter's name is Caroline, you know, that song, bah bah bahh. Do you know what your name means Stephen?" Note: I'm pretty sure he didn't stop to breathe during that segment.
Anyways, back to the Mercedes Plant, things I noticed:
-Black and silver are the most popular colors, with white coming in third.
-There were very few tans, blues, and reds, and almost all of them were going to the U.S.
-Mercedes has a 0% tolerance when building cars, if there's a minor imperfection, it is thrown out.
-Efficency is everywhere. It takes too long to walk across the plant, so they ride bikes in the buildings.
-Mercedes loses 22.000,00 Euros for every minute the assembly line stops working
-Us Lafayetties accidentally stopped the assembly line for a minute.
-Oops.
-The assembly lines build multiple types of cars (sedans, SUVs, ect..) on the same assembly line at the same time.
-The robots are just amazing, they move very gracefully, and make the car assembly look effortless.
-We weren't allowed to take any photographs during the tour.
-I really wish we could have.
-There are cars, doors, and various other parts moving around in every direction you look, including a couple levels above the floor.
-It takes four days to make a car.
-The Bremen plant made about 1.000.000 cars last year.
-Everything is made there except the engines, which are made in Berlin.
-I'm not too sure about that last one, because the intro video was in German.
Anyways, back to the Mercedes Plant, things I noticed:
-Black and silver are the most popular colors, with white coming in third.
-There were very few tans, blues, and reds, and almost all of them were going to the U.S.
-Mercedes has a 0% tolerance when building cars, if there's a minor imperfection, it is thrown out.
-Efficency is everywhere. It takes too long to walk across the plant, so they ride bikes in the buildings.
-Mercedes loses 22.000,00 Euros for every minute the assembly line stops working
-Us Lafayetties accidentally stopped the assembly line for a minute.
-Oops.
-The assembly lines build multiple types of cars (sedans, SUVs, ect..) on the same assembly line at the same time.
-The robots are just amazing, they move very gracefully, and make the car assembly look effortless.
-We weren't allowed to take any photographs during the tour.
-I really wish we could have.
-There are cars, doors, and various other parts moving around in every direction you look, including a couple levels above the floor.
-It takes four days to make a car.
-The Bremen plant made about 1.000.000 cars last year.
-Everything is made there except the engines, which are made in Berlin.
-I'm not too sure about that last one, because the intro video was in German.
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