I've been rather unmotivated to blog of late. Things have been kind of crunched between all this travel and the demands of work and other projects. Here's the latest news:
Two weekends ago we traveled to München (Munich). We met up with a couple of Steve's friends who live in the area and generally got a pretty first class tour of the area through the eyes of a locals. They described Munich as "the New York of Germany". Everything is relatively expensive there; its the one place in Germany where they say it is easier to find a job than to find a place (that you can afford) to stay!
Josiah also joined us for the weekend, although it was only by the grace of God that we actually met up: We'd both forgot one piece of important contact information or anther and Josiah finally caught me just as I was about to leave the meeting area we'd established. I've come to a realization that it is vitally important to keep a backup of my most important information on paper and with me at all times. I'd told Josiah I would call him, but I'd forgotten that since my cell phone doesn't work in Europe, I'm using my advisor's old phone, which doesn't contain any of my numbers.
We missed out on the Deutches Museum for our antics, which is supposed to be the worlds largest museum of science and technology, but still saw most all the famous cultural sites. Munich is definitely a touristy city. Tourists flood the main square 3 times a day to watch the show in the Glockenspiel in the Neues Rathaus (clock tower in the new town hall).
I had a rather short and mostly unproductive week at work after Munich. I was tired from the late nights of travel, and simultaneously unfocused and stressed due to the ambiguous status of my project at work. Hopefully that'll change this coming week as I'll have a full nights rest Sunday and I've been given some clearer direction for my work.
Tuesday night was one highlight though; some of our Darmstadt RISE crew met up for a potluck dinner, ostensibly for the purpose of discussing travel plans. The food was quite excellent (I brought a salad) and everyone had a great time together. I've become thoroughly convinced of the value of these sorts of gatherings; food seems to naturally serve to bring people together. I think potlucks are especially nice since everyone has a piece to contribute. Meals in a dining hall or even prepared by one host for some guests just don't have quite the community building effect to them.
Josiah came through Darmstadt on his way to Paris on Wednesday so I took the day off to show him around the city. We again had a little trouble connecting, but not too much and I think we both had a pretty good time just wandering though the interesting parts of the city, chatting about travels, work, etc, and enjoying the tasty food available around here. I'm really going to miss the availability fresh bakeries, Döner and real ice cream. It was really fun to spend time with a familiar friend after spending several months with people I've only recently met. We finished off the day by meeting some of the RISE folks again for Döner and a movie (in english; it was the new Harry Potter film).
Josiah left on Thursday morning for Paris and I left just a bit later for the RISE program conference in Heidelberg. It was a rather odd experience to be among so many Americans for a couple days. The conference was pretty nice, though kind of boring. DAAD paid for everything and we got excellent food, good accommodations, toured factories and got a guided tour of the city. The conference was rather disorganized as much of our dealings with DAAD have been, but everything worked out even when dinner took 4 hours since everyone(~270 people) arrived at the restaurant at the same time! I discovered though that I've made a lot of progress in meeting new friends since the last time I was in a completely new place (freshman year). I found it pretty easy to wander off by myself and meet some of the other students at the conference and actually develop some contact to the point where I felt comfortable talking with them later on in the weekend. While I was by no means gregarious (especially since I was running short on sleep the whole time), but I had the confidence to be my introverted self while also taking some opportunities to meet new people.
Now on to the pictures:
There were many churches in Munich; In general, I liked them much better than I liked the Dom in Cologne both because they were generally lighter inside and because they had a distinctly more reverential atmosphere about them. There were several tourists like us, but they were real churches where real people meet to worship God, which I wasn't convinced of in the Dom.
We went up the tower in the Frauenkirke and got a chance to look out over the city:
The last afternoon in Munich was spent at the Schloss Nymphenburg, which is an absolutely massive palace that used to be the summer home of the royal family:
I didn't bother to take pictures in Heidelberg other than on our city tour. They wouldn't let us take pictures in the factories and there wasn't much of note otherwise. This is the (rather steep) path up to the castle:
Another way up is by tram:
Some of the castle:
The view of the city from the castle:
Germans seem to like to hold their festivals in the historical landmarks like castles :
A castle needs a big barrel to hold it's wine:
Looking up at the castle from the city:
The Necker River:
1 comments:
What is it with Europeans and red roofs?
Post a Comment