Mostly volleyball

A bottle of honey and some pictures of volleyball playing, all from my new D90. Bigger pictures makes higher ISO shots more palatable, and there’s probably less noise as it is.

Anyways, semester is ending, in the midst of a lot of work. Been doing a lot more work than usual…and it’s not really a bad feeling. But I do not like having a lot of work sometimes and no work lots of other times. It should just be consistent. Hopefully I’ll be able to take better advantage of my camera soon…and may even be going to Groton next weekend. Perhaps.

some mo, by poopular request

 

Haverween

 

Loooong time no post

Wow it’s been awhile. Can’t really blame anything but myself, and a new school year. Been busy, but not nearly as busy as I try to make myself believe.

Also strange to find that people have still been reading this, or at least finding it, even when I haven’t added to it in a long time. I guess that’s what happens when it’s filled with lots and lots of words.

Anyways, way too much (and not enough), has happened since I wrote last, so I won’t try to document everything. That would take even more time then I hope I wish I may believe I didn’t have. Here are some pictures (just a few of a few, another reason why there haven’t been many posts. Not enough picture taking!). There was a correlation between picture taking and happiness last fall that I somehow forgot/haven’t tried to take advantage of yet. But correlation does not equal causation, as any good scientists know. Most of these pictures are from a recent ecology field trip to a small local bog (which I mistakenly called blog multiple times).

Maybe I’ll write one of those silly poems my brother writes all the time for his blog later. Now I need to read some organic chemistry.

 

How to take apart a security tag

So I went with my grandmother on Tuesday to help her pick up some pants for my cousin and uncle who live in Taiwan and ended up with a pair of pants for myself too. Too bad the chatty sales clerk forgot to take off those silly security tags and I didn’t realize until I got home. If only I could drive (more on that later), I would probably have driven over to the mall again and get them to take the tag off, if only to practice driving. But alas, I can’t drive yet, and I didn’t really want to bother anyone else to drive me over there. So I decided to try to get the damn tags off without going back to the store. Turns out other people have had the same idea, and a quick google search came up with a bunch of hits. The top result was aa pretty good tutorial, though required a Dremel (which I couldn’t find) and was written for a different type of tag, the ones with ink in them. Here’s a link to that one http://sites.google.com/site/inktagremoval/. I had thought they all had ink, but upon a quick inspection, it looked unlikely my tag did. I was a bit wary of busting the tag open, as I wasn’t compltely sure it had no ink, but I went ahead anyways.

For tools, I used a sturdy, if not very sharp, knife and a smallish (but stiff)  flathead screwdriver:

Here is the offending tag, it’s one of the newer looking long retangular ones with a little hump:

First, I stuck my knife into the little hole at the end closer to the hump. Maybe not all tags have this, but then you’ll just have to make your own hole.

Just jimmy your knife a bit and make the hole wider and deeper. Soon you will be able to start splitting the tag a little along the seams. The plastic is quite soft and not too hard to cut if you leverage the knife. After awhile you can swap in the screw driver and really pry it open. Just like opening a clam.

There’s a little plastic post holding the two halves together in this model, and if you cut that everything becomes easier. The pin itself is held on by a spring like metal piece. Poke at it a little and it should release the metal pin. After that you can take the pin out and you’re done. But of course, I went on and cut the whole thing in half just for fun.

I didn’t really figure out how the unlocking works. There is some sort of circuit board printed on paper that probably has something to do with it. I’m not sure if it’s unlocked by magnets or some sort of radio signal.

The long end of the tag holds two sheaves of thin metal wafers seperated from a weak magnet by a plastic spacer. I think this must be the antenna. Something from physics is trying to suggest to me that magnetic fields causes radio waves somehow. Oh electromagnetics…

So that’s that. And of course, I don’t suggest you go steal clothes and take these tags off afterwards. Especially because I’m pretty sure the whole reason these tags are there is to trigger those alarm door things when you leave with them. Obviously these were broken…or it would’ve saved me a lot of trouble and a blog post.

In other news, I am heading back to school soon. Tomorrow, in fact. Starting to pack a little.

In other, more interesting news, I’ve “started” running. I put started in quotes because I’m not sure if this is something I will be able to keep up. Perhaps I will soon “stop” running. It’s the first time I’ve really been running for a couple of years, and basically the first time I’ve been running by myself (I was on the cross-country team at Groton for a season). I can’t say the sensation has changed, and I can’t say I like it. But it’s not too bad as a whole, I feel, for some reason, the need to step up my ultimate game somewhat. I think a major part of doing that is being able to play more then one or two points at full effort. I’m shooting for three points. Not that my skills and game knowledge and such don’t need improving, but I think extra endurance would help substantially and there’s not much I can do do about “learning the game” other then go to as many practices and tournaments as I can (which I have already done, and don’t see a problem in continuing). Anyways, back to running. I am not really sure what sorts of “workouts” I should be doing, but I don’t think that is such a big issue for my first few runs. Though I should probably figure out if running is actually gonna benefit my game or not…because playing ultimate isn’t that similar to running at a steady continious pace for an hour.

Anyways, I went running for the first time on Friday evening and did about 3.15 miles at something like a steady 7:21 pace. I’m using Nike + (a major reason I decided to start running in the first place) and it’s pretty nifty (except when it doesn’t work, more on that later). Apparently my best mile was 7:02. I was very impressed. That is almost race pace for me, at least on trails. I don’t think I’ve ever broken 20:00 in a 5k in my short career. But once again…that was on trails, and 2 years ago. And since we’re on this topic, I must say running on roads is weird. Everyone looks at you when they drive by and I feel the need to run faster, which may or may not be a bad thing. I’ve always made fun of runners I see when I’m in a car when they look like they’re barely moving…and I guess that has made me self concious. Well, after my little run Friday I could not get down the stairs without holding very tightly onto the handrails. Both of my legs were so sore and tight I couldn’t sit down for awhile or they would cramp up. My ankles and feet also hurt like hell. And I couldn’t remember the last time I was so damn sweaty (it was 88 degrees and probably 88% humidity). It felt kinda good though, at least mentally. I had trouble getting down the stairs for at least 36 hours. After most of the soreness and tightness went away I was left with achy feet which felt perpetually ready to cramp and a real shitty feeling high right ankle. I think my left quad was a little more strained than the others muscles as well. I attribute these to new shoes and not having run in two years, and I was not too worried yet.

Next time I went out was Monday morning. Nike+ said I did 2.7 miles in 28:34. I didn’t believe it. Google Maps showed more like 3.4 miles. Apparently Nike+ is not so good at detecting my elongated strides when I did sprints. Yes…I tried to do intervals. Didn’t last very long. I did 3 or 4 and gave up, I even had to take a little rest stop. Getting back home sucked. I did recover faster after this run though, and I felt more or less ready to go again the next day. However, I waited until Wedendsay morning for my next run. I wanted to see if I can actually pace myself and run for a longer distance. The thing is I didn’t really want to run on big roads…so I had to run through some neighborhoods and make a lot of turns. I got lost a little, mostly because Google Maps did not update its map after the new local high school was built. I felt pretty damn good yesterday. It was something like a 5.3 miles run, but I didn’t know exactly since Nike+ decided not to record any information for some reason. Google Maps says about 5.3 though, but I don’t know exactly how long I took to run it. I think it was around 50 minutes. Not bad. The route was pretty nice too, only on a major road for a little bit (and with sidewalks), and winding up through some hilly developments. I barely felt any pain during the run and did not ache more then half an hour after.

I had thought I was going to play some pick-up today, to redeem my horrid showing the last time (I blame it on snacking too much/eating an meal right before), but I think we might just go out to dinner instead. This makes it seem like I should also run tomorrow morning…despite the fact that I need to load the car and leave. Oh, I am also taking the written portion of my driving test tomorrow. It shouldn’t be too bad. I am hoping to schedule and pass my actual road test for October break. I think I can pass now, though a little more practice wouldn’t hurt. It would suck to have to pay the testing fee again.

Wrapping Up

So it’s been awhile since my last post. If you haven’t deduced…I am back being bored in good old Connecticut, and have been for a few days now (since Tuesday). Spending my time watching every season of Entourage, downloaded from bittorrent. My last few days in Europe were quite busy…sort of. I ended up staying at the Best Western for a couple of nights. After that I went to Bern and very briefly to Frankfurt before flying home at 8:30 AM on Tuesday.

So…the whole reason I was in Zurich was for the Street Parade. I guess I should say a few things about that then… The parade/techno festival was on Saturday 8/8, starting around 13:00. I went into town around 11:00 and picked up some lunch, some Italian cured meats, bread, a tomato, a carrot, and a bottle of Spanish wine. I figure a bottle of wine should be enough to keep me happy for most of the day and avoid paying absurd charges for beers later. It probably has something like 6 beer’s worth of alcohol….and is less bulky to carry around. Turned out to be an excellent plan (after I went into a bar/cafe and got the damn thing opened…) I’ve never really drank too much wine before, but I can’t say it’s too bad. I really liked that Spanish Rioja wine too, not that I am experienced enough to say much more about it. Anyways, the parade. It was pretty damn crazy. There were 600,000 people there (according to wikipedia). A lot of people were dressed in flamboyant crazy techno costumes, but there were plenty of “normal” people too. Some people danced fervently, though most people just stood around and watched or bobbed slightly. The music was pretty good, I’d say, and loud enough to get me moving. There were 5-7 stationary stages as well as something like 25 “love mobiles”, basically flatbeds decked out with speakers and dancers, winding slowly along the parade route.

Zurich on Sunday:

It also poured rain. It held up for awhile, and drizzled from 1-2:30 or so, but it really came down for a couple of hours after that. I sat under an eave for a large part of that couple of hours as my flimsy (but really really light and awesome) Mountain Hardwear jacket was not able to stand up to the deluge. I did get up and dance for quite vigorously despite the rain after sitting for awhile though. Got pretty wet…but I wasn’t too ill prepared to enjoy myself, having left most of my usual junk at the hotel. I did forget to wrap my passport in some newspaper though (it still got damp in my jacket pockets) and it got a bit warped. Minor problems. Anyways, I enjoyed the event quite a lot, though I didn’t really go all out at any point. I think I was a little too careful and preoccupied with staying hydrated, resting, not losing shit, staying dry, saving money, etc. I took many breaks and had a good dinner of some sort of Sri Laken ragout with lamb. It cleared up quite nicely after dinner. I stuck around until the official end of the event at 12:00 AM but didn’t bother to try to get into a club  afterwards. I guess most people don’t start from the beginning and then go clubbing. I even waited in line to buy my ticket like a law abiding citizen on the way back…but at the platform I found out I had to get some sort of extra supplement for the night trains. I tried to get one…but the line was too long and the train coming soon. Fuck that, I wasn’t waiting for the next train. I figure I took enough chances without getting tickets that this wasn’t worth bothering. I could just say I didn’t know about the supplement (I had to ask a platform agent about the extra words beneath my train arrival time) and hope it’ll be alright. The fine is even greater in Switzerland though, 80 CHF (about $80)!  got back to my hotel and passed out with no problemo though.

So, Sunday. I took my sweet time getting my shit together and checking out at 12 noon. The two nights cost something like 230 CHF (oh and I just looked up CHF because I always wondered why Swiss Francs is abbreviated CHF. It’s because Latin is used as the neutral langauge of the trilingual country…and Confoederatio Helvetica is Latin for the Swiss confederation. Damn) with taxes and such. Meh, could be worse. I took the commuter/ S-Bahn into Zurich and had lunch between some walking around. Everything was closed though…so I headed off to Bern around 2:00 PM. Everything in Bern was also closed. Damn Sunday. I had planned on finally doing some souvenior and gift shopping. I got pretty depressed having nothing to do and being so close to going home and not actually being able to. The loveliness of romantic Bern at sunset made it even worse… I swear all of the other people I saw were couples. After an overpriced dinner I sat in the streets and read East of Eden a bit. Not very satisfying….went back to my room and read some more before going to sleep disheartened. I had wanted to check out the supposedly hopping club just downstairs…but apparently people don’t party much on Sunday nights. Damn place wasn’t even open.

Bern on Sunday:

Monday didn’t turn out much better… I walked around gloomily and half heartedly look for things to buy, but ended up spending half of my time walking in deserted residential neighborhoods next to the river. I only manage to pick up two small flask of expensive liquor (grappa and absnith) from this really sweet store. The store had all sorts of spirits in giant glass flasks and whisky in barrels. They also had oils and other things too. You buy a bottle, from simple to really ornate, and they fill it with whatever liquid you want. I really should have gotten more stuff/some whisky, but I didn’t want to carry too much liquid/alcohol in my backpack. Other then that, all I bought was some risotto. Didn’t even find a damn chocolate store. I also hung out/took a quick swim in these cool open air pools. They were surrounded by nice soft lawns and right next to the river. Too bad the weather wasn’t too great (though it was sunny for a bit) and no one was there except really old men in Speedos and little kids. Plus I couldn’t really relax as I only had something like 40 minutes before I had to book it back to my hostel and then out to the train to make it to Frankfurt at a reasonable hour. Luckily I caught a train that went straight from Bern (well Interlaken really, but that was before Bern) to Frankfurt without needing to change in Basel like I thought I had to. I miss those nice ICE trains already (especially after the damn Metro-North from NYC to New Haven, which would’ve seriously taken 1/3 of the time in Europe). I got to Frankfurt around 8 and gamely walked out the train station and into the steady rain. Then it started to come down like no other. Damn thunderstorm caught me right in the open and soaked my pack pretty well. I got to the hostel and dropped my wet gear off before heading out. There really wasn’t much for me to do at 9:00 PM. I was in a real shady district and I had no idea where to find a respectable bar even if I wanted too. I ended up just wandering about empty and drizzling Frankfurt for awhile. The river and bridges were pretty cool…and there were some people jogging by the river, but otherwise it was dead. I went back to my room and bummed around a little, talking to a few of my roommates. They were pretty interesting…but I wasn’t really in a mood to be too proactive in socializing other then chatting from my bed. Bahh… Ended up going out and getting some chicken nuggets from McDonald and drinking a beer on the streets by myself. Sweet….

Bern again (no pictures of Frankfurt):

Woke up at 5:50 AM, packed up, and went to the airport on Tuesday. Nothing went wrong…except I flaked out on buying more stuff. Stupid security was also right at the gate so as a result of me waiting to get shit until after security I got absolutely nothing. The flight was alright…apparently the front of cabins is where babies go. They weren’t too bad…though I don’t understand why some kids feel the need to scream for no reason and why some parents don’t shut them up immediately. I don’t think I’ll let my kids do that, at least not in public. I also sat in the aisle seat (by choice) for the first time, thinking I prefer to be bothered and let other people out then worrying about bothering other people when I want to piss. I hate bothering people, and I’ve spent many hours just sitting uncomfortably in my seat holding it just because I didn’t want to wake someone in my way. Anyways…it turned out that I didn’t have to move to let people out anyways, since I was in the front row and there was plenty of leg clearance. I did have to eat my goddamn seafood meal though. Why did I play with the special food request menu online? Who knew you couldn’t change it back to the default. The regular food looked so good (pork vermicelli? curry?) and I had to eat tilapia and dry as fuck salmon. Unfilling too. I did get to see Fast and Furious though, which wasn’t bad. Infinitely better then Tokyo Drift (worst movie I’ve ever seen, period.) and noticeably better then 2 Fast 2 Furious. About par with the original I’d say. Landed around 11:00 AM EST. Customs was fine…though I was worried about smuggling in alcohol and Cubans…they weren’t any wiser. I also had to check the “have you been on a farm” and “have you had contact with livestock” bits on the entry card, but that didn’t cause nearly as much trouble as it may have. They did ask to check my sole for soil and I almost had to get my boots out of the bottom of my pack (in the process of which I would have had to get out my liquor). But I convinced them that my boots were clean (which they were) because I’ve been hiking in the Alps and tromping in the rain in Zurich with them after I left the farm. They let me go with a smile. Score. I made my way via the now obviously inefficient public transportation system of NYC (Air-train to E-Line to 7-Line to Metro-North) to New Haven…arriving at 3:00 PM, where my brother picked me up and took me home. That was that.

Here are the panoramas. Clickity click to make them appreciabley large.

Bernese Oberland/Swiss Alps:

Stockholm:

Berlin:

THE END
Well…obviously not really the end, fortunately. But there sure is less to talk about now that I am at home. Haven’t been doing all too much. I’ve made a lenghty list of things I wore out or lost on my trip that need to be replaced….but I already know which exact things I need to get…so not much fun researching is needed. I’ve sorted through my pictures and picked a few that I may want to print, including some pretty sweet panoramas, but I haven’t gotten to actually ordering them yet. Also went to the mall, supposedly to get a pillow, on Thursday and came back with a pair of jeans, a nice shirt (French cuffs!), a replacement Nalgene bladder, and a shoddy pillow I’m gonna return. I also bought some replacement Chacos on the interwebs, along with replacement headphones (Shure E4c, dated but still remarkable), and some sunglasses which I am sure to return. Long story about the sunglasses… Oakley has these “Asian Fit” glasses which they don’t carry in stores…so I had to buy them online to try them out. But I am sure I want to customize my (with green lenses like my old ones), but I can’t return customized ones once I bought them. So, the only way I can check if they will fit nicely/better then the regular ones, is to buy some and return them. Oh well. Complicated…but defintely worth it for me. Also need to pick up a replacement knife soon…though the only one that caught my eye at the store was the one that I lost…

Other things I want to buy in the not-so-near future/if I get extra cash?, in order of likelihood:

1) new camera/small/hydration pack

2) new full size pack (Gregory Baltoro or Osprey Aether?)

3) D90

4) saltwater fishtank setup

Oh, and I am also thinking about starting to run. But unlikely that I’ll actually do something about it…especially since I need shoes. I can’t tell if I’m thinking about running because I want to get these sweet Nike Lunar Racer+ or the other way around. Probably the first, though I had been thinking about running even before I saw these shoes. Only 5.5 oz though! That’s crazy. Besides, it’s too hot to run. Maybe if I wake up early….

Unexpected Adventures

So, two things happened today of note. 1) I almost capsized a boat with another person in it. 2) I found out I had booked my hostel for tonight and tomorrow night for the 7th and 8th of JULY.

There are, sadly, no pictures of anything. But fortunately it’s not because my camera broke (I wouldn’t really be suprised), but because I these things don’t really lend themselves to pictures, unless I could somehow capture how scared and disheartened I was by pictures.

So, 1). I researched a bit last night and figured out that I could actually go sailing. 60 CHF (slighty less then $60) gets me 3 hours with a Laser dinghy. So after checking out and stowing my shit, Matthew (who is actually the one from St. Louis) and I went and took the bus to the lake. The Lake Thun is a pretty big lake, and pretty cold too. There were a bunch of people just chilling on the lawn by the shore and we found the boat rental without difficulties. The guy was quite nice, and looked a bit like how I imagine Papa Hemingway might look. He asked me if I knew how to sail…and stared into my eyes while I answered him. Apparently it was satisfactory, though I was a little less confident, not having sailed for a few years. I signed some paperwork, got life jackets and a drybag, and we were off. It was quite calm when we set off and sailing was easy enough. We headed out towards the center of the lake and just hung around for a bit, and I wrote some postcards.

Then the wind started to pick up. It was ok at first, and I enjoyed having actually having the boat move. But as it turns out, the little Laser is a bit hard to maneuver with two people in it, and I don’t think I’ve ever sailed a Laser with 2 people in it. Tacking quickly became hazardous. I decided to go a little closer to shore just in case and began to hope that Matthew would put his nice new D60 back in the dry bag. Alas, apparently I hid my anxieties well, and he snapped away blissfully. At some point I was able to casually convince him to stow his camera though, before things got real hairy. And hairy it got. If I were wearing swimming trunks (I was wearing my heavy cotton shorts) and didn’t have my iPod, passport, phone, etc, etc, around, I would be able to enjoy sailing much more. Plus, I was also responsible for Matthew’s well being, which made me even more nervous. I was able to tack without too much incident a few more times…but eventually my inexperience caught up with me. I let go of the tiller or pushed it too far, or didn’t switch sides fast enough. But the end result was that the boat tipped completely horizontal. By some stroke of luck we went back upright instead of continuing until we turtled. Lucky us. However, the travils were not quite over. I had released the boom from the back of the boat and had to re-attach it to get under way again, but the boom had swung around and wrapped the mainsheet around the bottom of the mast. It took a lot of sketchy pushing and pulling to get the boom all the way around. By then we were more then ready to head back in, though we still had an hour or so of time left. Getting to shore was surpsingly easy…though I forgot to jibe until the last moment. Even so, it turned out to be quite the perfect docking. Afterwards, we were refunded 20 CHF by the kindly man for our unused time. We then soaked up some sun on the lakeside greens. It was still sunny and warm onshore…though the wind made it seem quite the opposite on the water.

2).

So I rolled up at “my” hostel at around 7:30, climbed 5 flights of stairs, and waited while the reciptionist dealt with a large group of loud Spanish women. Then two guys in front of me promptly got turned down for a room…as they didn’t have a reservation and the city was chock full because of the parade tomorrow. Good thing I made my reservation months in advance. Oh…wait. Yes, it turns out I did make a reservation, but it was for JULY. WTF… What a thing to mess up, and especially for the most popular nights possible. Well…I knew I had to mess up big somewhere on this trip, but finding out when it happend was not pleaesent nonetheless.

But I wasn’t flustered yet…there was free Wifi and I got to work looking for alternatives. I was sure Zurich was full…so I looked at Lucerne (1 hr away), Bern (1 hr away), and Geneva (3 hrs away). If I stay at the first two, I can still come into the city and check out the parade. But at that point I didn’t much care about the parade anymore…and I could have happily gone to Geneva and just stayed there for two days. Though it is suppose to rain until I leave Europe…so no place was especially inviting. Turns out every hostel in Switzerland is booked full for tonight. Really. Hostelworld.com tells me so, and it must be true. I even called a few places. Next…I started to look for hotels. Downtown was out of the question, with the cheapest being 200 CHF or so. But there is a large airport here, so I tried looking around there. Alas…found a Best Western in suburbia between the airport and the city. And “only” 99 CHF! Cool. After calling my mom and somewhat begging for money I know I don’t deserve, and looking for some sort of encouragement/advice, I decided to come here. Good decision.

After checking, double checking, triple checking, and quadruple checking, I made an online reservation for this place. Then I looked up the train schedule, the train station map, the hotel on Google Maps, and I wrote everything down. I even sketched a map in my notebook. Yup. That’s how freaked out I was that I messed something up. I was sure something else was gonna go wrong. But alas, I got here wihtout incidents. The reciptionist did give me a scare though. She couldn’t find my reservation (since I booked it so recently), but I convinced her with a copy of my confirmation email (thank Steve Job for the iPod Touch). And holy shit, I never realized how sweet a hotel room is. It’s sweet, let me tell you. It may take a few weeks of hostel sleeping, but I don’t think I’ll ever look at a Best Western or even a Motel 6 in the same way. To have your own private room is a great luxury…and even your own bathroom! I can type this without worrying I’m distrubing anyone…and I can drink as much water as I want before I go to bed because the bathroom is right here, and I won’t have to remember to bring my key with me to go piss. There is even a TV (though I haven’t turned it on, as the Interwebs is entertainment enough).

I think I might just have to stay here tommorow night as well. Ah the convnience! My wallet won’t be too happy…but it is good to have somewhere secure to sleep (especially given how tired I expect to be). Oh yeah, I might have forgotten to mention that it is the the Street Parade in Zurich tomorrow (despite the rain). There are suppose to be something like a million people showing up in a city of 361,129 (according to wikipedia, of course) for this shingdig. Suppose to be pretty crazy. But yeah, another night here would sure be nice, but I think I can worry about that in the morning (as long as this uber comfortable looking bed doesn’t make me sleep into the afternoon).

Interlaken, eh? (big mountains, crazy people)

So, Switzerland is pretty sweet. But you knew that. Or at least you should have. I don’t think I’ll try to describe it too much…since pictures are suppose to be worth 1000 words. And I have 28 of them, so I already wrote 28,000 words. Also, I didn’t bother putting them in singly, since that takes forever, and I have to check out soon. But if you click on them they should get nice and big.

Anyways, I took a long hike yesterday, taking a train from Interlaken to Wilderswil, then a cog train up to Schynige Platte at 1967 meters (6 453.41207 feet). Then I hiked along the ridges to a little horn called Faulhorn which happens to be 2,681 metres (8,796 ft), and by far the highest I’ve ever been (outside of flying). That was pretty sweet. I was pretty tired since I can’t seem to pace myself very well, or I just like to go fast and take breaks. I hung out on Faulhorn for a bit (about 3/4 of the way to my destination). Then I scrambled off the trail for a bit until I got to some alpine lake. I took a dip there (freezing, but not much colder then Mt. Washington’s streams) then sat there in the sun for awhile. Finally, I hiked up to First and took the cable car down to Gindelwald where I caught a train back to Interlaken. The whole trip lasted something like 12 hours, from the time I woke up to when I stepped off the train back in Interlaken. The hiking took about 7, with breaks, and probably like 5 if I didn’t stop at all. Pretty good hike, and I am even a little sore (though I didn’t carry much). Oh, and the transportation cost like $53 all together, with the cable car being like $30 and the cog train for most of the rest.

Last night I met a few people staying in the same room. They were all American. Eric from St. Louis, Matthew from Oklahoma, and Ben from Boston. Also Jack…but I don’t know where he’s from. I also met Lewis from Texas the day before. So, actually talked to lots of people. I wanted to hang out for a bit last night…but turned out that I was more tired then I thought…so I went to bed pretty early regardless. I really want to go sailing today…which seems possible. From the Google Translated website it looks as if I might be able to rent a small sailboat without any sort of license. Eric and Matthew may come along too, which would help defray the costs and provide conversation…but really I think I might prefer to sail by myself (if not with some girls…).  Oh and this hostel, other then the guests, is quite possibly the worst one I’ve been at. Warped floors, pre-fab showers in the hall, toilet that only I figured out how to stop running, no lockers, plywood bed springs, and fake-friendly staff. I don’t see why it’s so popular. But it is popular, which I guess is a drawing point by itself.

Anyways, I’ll be going to Zurich later today to catch the Street Parade business, but it looks like it’s actually gonna rain on my parade. But it’ll rain here too, and there’s defintely more to do in Zurich in rainy weather then here.

Munich/Dachau

Ah, Munich.

So, after I wrote my last post, I was able to check-in and get into my room. I stashed my stuff quickly and went off for lunch (this was like 3:00 already).  I went looking for a beer hall/garden for some Bavarian fare. Oh and apparently I forgot to mention what I did before I posted yesterday. Not much, just walked around and explored a bit before getting rained on and coming back. All before I usually wake up. Anyways, I went to the Augustiner Keller, which is the closest beer hall/garden I could find. I had a nice weissbier and some roasted suckling pork. Just like in Chinese cooking! I also got some sort of liver soup to go along with it, which tasted a bit like cat food in hot water. But I happen to like cat food (and hot water). It was pretty good, but for some reason, probably because my stomach was completely empty when I started drinking, I got a little more drunk then I wanted.  So after a bit I headed back to the hostel for a nice nap, paritially because of the booze, partially because I was actually tired from my trip.

So after my nap I headed out again around 9:00. I didn’t have any sort of plan being getting another donner kebab and trying to find somewhere to drink/listen to music. It wasn’t really raining…so I only wore a t-shirt. But really…I didn’t think about it. It held up pretty well though, and the two times it started to pour I was already under shelter. First I stumbled upon some Balkan string band playing under an overpass. I stuck around for awhile…but left when they took a break. I hate waiting. I was going to get a CD from them for my brother…but they were 15 euros…and the effort from saving money in the past week or so has made me rather cheap. My bad. Then after failing to find a lively district, I happened upon a full blown outdoor jazz concert. That was sweet. And free. Too bad they were already finishing up though. I was able to snipe a disposable poncho and leave through the pouring rain without getting too wet. After that…I wandered a bit more looking for places to go, but there was none to be found. So I walked back to the hostel. I ended up having a few drinks at the bar, which turned out to be the best idea I’ve had in awhile.

After the usual awkward drinking by myself at a bar buisness, I started to chat to a couple of Americans from the suburbs of Detroit. They were brother and sister and are about 20 and 25, the sister being older. We had a pretty good conversation going and I was amazed at how much beer I was able to withstand. I drank more then 1 liter…plus a free jager shot. Not bad for a couple of hours. I’m getting a hunch that the pilsners are not as strong as the weissbiers. The brother is going to be a senior this year and was doing some sort of program in London and his sister met him over there a few weeks ago. She graduated from MSU in 2006 and has been living in Charlotte, and will be going back to school for radiology this fall. Meanwhile, he’s hoping to get into law school. This was the first real in depth/prolonged conversation I’ve had with “strangers”, and it’s pretty fun. Too bad I’m not so good at taking the initative on such matters, but I think I can hold a conversation pretty well once it’s been started. The bartender was pretty helpful last night in that regards. Anyways, eventually a couple of boarish Dutch dudes showed up around 2 and we decided to call it a night.

So today I took the brother’s suggestion and decided to go to Dachau. I’ve seen enough museums and old palaces and such, but this was something quite unique. I didn’t really think I would want to go to a concentration camp, but I was curious. I had always thought it is a bit disrespectful to poke around so freely in a place where so many people suffered and died. But I guess the survivors who set up the place felt differently. Indeed, the place was swarming with eager tourists, many of whom didn’t seem to understand the significance of what they’re seeing. But who am I to say I do? And how do I know they aren’t appreciating and paying homage in their own ways? I guess I don’t. I just get a feeling a irrevernce when someone laughs merrily where thousands died. But really, I should get off this horse before it gets away from me. Personally, I found the place quite sobering, but not to an unprecdented degree. I have experienced the same feelings simply by reading about the atrocities. And through both media, I find that I am able to conciously decide whether I want to feel emotions or not. Weird. I did learn a bit more about the concentration camp system in general though, especially about non-Jewish prisoners. My learnings about the system has mostly been regarding the Holacaust and the persecution of Jews, but they were really only a part of the camp population.

Gate into the prisoner’s part of the camp.

Authentic sink?

Execution wall…where people were lined up and shot

The roll-call parade ground. It’s pretty damn big.

The main “camp road” down the center of the barracks.

Crematoriums. Now that I think about it, they’re really not that sinister…since the people are dead already and dead people get cremated all the time. But I guess the scale as something to do with it…

Room where they kept the dead bodies to be burned. Sinister.

Door to the “shower room”

The gas chamber. Sinister, creepy, etc., etc. Though it was never used fully at Dachau, it being more of a distribution/work camp center.

I was starving halfway throught the museum. But there was nothing to eat other then my emergency Cliff bar that I’ve carried around forever. I ate it, but that didn’t really help. So I went through the last bit of the compound a bit rushed and distracted (I cannot imagine how the prisoners feel…starving and working non-stop when I can barely read on an empty stomach). I decided to eat before I head back  into Munich, partially because it would be cheaper and partially because I was so damn hungry. I found a decent place attached to an hotel right in front of the train station and had some sausages. They were quite tasty, though a bit salty. The saurkraut was really good though, being fresh and not too sour.

It was clearing up a bit by now, and I planned on napping or chilling out at the English Garden once I got back (especially since I only slept from like 2-8). But it got cloudy again once I got to Munich. It even drizzled on me a little. Damn. I lay around in the park anyways…but I headed back here to the hostel for a nap (which turned out just to be me on the computer for 2 hours). On the way, there were some people surfing a standing wave on one of the canals running through the park. I’ve heard of people river surfing, but never seen it. It was pretty cool.

And some random/typical shots of a few buildings around Munich:

Now I’m off (soon) for some dinner and to check out one of the famous touristy cliche beer halls at night. I think I may just get another donner kebab…. Oh, and to Interlaken tomorrow…something like a 7.5hr train ride with lots of transfers. I’m afraid I’ll miss one and get stuck (kinda like in Hamburg, but with less trains going to Interlaken, I might actually be stuck…) I think I might just take an earlier train to be safe. Not like I can do much if I take the later one anyways. Gotta go make a reservation too.

I too, am a jelly donut

Ahhh, it is raining. Well, it looks like it isn’t really anymore, but too late now. Now I have to bloggg. I took the night train last night from Berlin here to Munich, which was pretty quiet. I only got a seat, and it wasn’t particularly comfortable, but at least it was quiet. I slept fitfully, but not much worse then a plane ride. Now I am sitting here in the hostel lobby listening to a couple of pretty ignorant sounding Australian/American tourists. I had planned on heading to the Englicher Garden to nap/relax in the sun (possibly naked? I hear that’s what they do in Munich). But alas the weather is not cooperative. Meanwhile, I don’t really feel like trekking around or museum going. Besides, most of the museums are closed today (Monday). I did take a short walk to the town center before it started raining in earnest, but came back here since I didn’t bring my rain jacket with me and I didn’t fancy getting wet. Munich seems quite small, especially after Berlin. I think I’ve pretty much seen all of the sights in 30 minutes. Well, seen…but not really appreciated yet. Anywho, can’t say too much about Munich yet, as I’ve just got here a few hours ago.

So, Berlin.

Berlin is the first actual city I’ve been to so far. Hamburg was kinda big too, but in a sprawled out kinda way. Berlin was actually densely packed and interesting throughout. I think I actually like really big cities. I like sitting on the subway forever and transferring lines 2 or even 3 times. I  like feeling that the whole city is worth exploring, and not just a couple of streets and squares. That is not to say I didn’t like the other cities I’ve been to (I do), but it’s like the city is there because of the sights, monuments, cathedrals, pretty buildings, etc. and not a worthy city by itself. I guess that’s pretty silly thinking, but I hope you know what I mean. Like New York…there isn’t really any specific sights or anything (ok, maybe a few), but it’s a interesting city simply because it’s an interesting city.

Anyways, I arrived in Berlin in the middle of the afternoon and got settled in at my hostel (after misreading/ignoring directions provided and walked instead of taking the bus. My friend Dave, whom I haven’t seen since middle school, has been in Munich for a couple of weeks doing some summer studying and such and we planned to meet up for a bit. After some communication mishaps (apparently my phone doesn’t handle calls as well as it should) I ended up calling him via Skype. Yay me for thinking. We met up with a couple of his friends from the program and went looking for something to eat. One of them is about to start at Cambridge this fall and the other is going to be a junior at Harvard (from Lebanon originally). Pretty interesting people. We walked about a bit and had dinner (I had blood and liver sausages, which turned to be one blood and one liver, instead of mixed..), then went looking for this jazz club Dave found. Too bad it costs like 15 euros for entrance. Oh well…we went and just had a beer instead. On the way to the club we met a woman from the Boston area on the subway who has been living in Berlin for a couple of years, scraping by with savings and odd jobs. I found her story quite interesting, though Dave and the English bloke were quite incredulous that her German was not as good as theirs. Did they know that not everyone is as good at learning a new language as they may be? Anyways, we parted ways after having a couple of drinks and I went off to bed. It was a pertty enjoyable evening for me, especially since I haven’t really hanged out with many kids my age for awhile. But it also made me realized that I could be just as happy without it (at least for another week or so).

So, the next day…I walked forever. Or it sure seemed like it. First, I went to the Paragemonmuseum, supposedly the most famous museum in Berlin. I was a bit bored with it. It was on ancient near-eastern culture and Classical antiquities. Meh, I already knew enough about the subject to be intrigued. I didn’t know too much about the Assyrians, Babylonians, etc, but still…I was a bit bored at looking archaeological stuff. Meh. Guess I should pick better next time. At the same time, I felt the need to at least look at everything, especially since I paid for the ticket. And even if it were free I would feel like I was just passing up a golden opportunity if I didn’t see everything. But that sort of thinking isn’t too helpful…because then I just feel tired and cranky and can’t really enjoy anything at all. Well, after the museum I went to check out the Berliner Dom, or Berlin Cathedral. Much better choice. Plus, not one bothers you if you fall asleep in a church (which I did) because you may be praying (which I also did). I don’t know, cathedrals make me want to pray even though I’m hardly religious. I guess that’s what they’re designed to do and they do it pretty well. I also climbed a shitload of stairs to get to the roof, but the view wasn’t all that spectacular. Sweet cathedral though (but Antwerp is still my favorite).

After the Dom I went looking for something to eat. It was something like 4 by now, and all I’ve had to eat was a couple of pastries at 11 or so. I’ve settled by now on having only one proper meal a day at most in the interest of saving monies. The other two would be either from the supermarket, not at all, or from a kebab/wurst stand. For my proper meal that day I decided on weiner schnitzle, which I’ve never had in a restaurant but have cooked a few times myself. It was good, but not noticeably better then what I can cook. Meh, I was hungry though (and wasn’t exactly full afterwards either). After lunch/dinner I treked down to the Brandenburg Gate, then to the Reichstag. There were a few people tossing discs on the Reichstag lawn…and I was tempted to join in. But they were doing silly freestyle bullshit so I stayed away (not that I can promise you I would’ve joined in if they were just throwing normally…). After resting a bit, I went on down to the Prussian victory column. That was pretty sweet. Maybe I’ll build myself a column with golden cannons strapped around it and crown it with a golden angel too. Someday. I then went to Postdamer Platz to check out the “mammon to modernity” as Lonely Planet calls it. Not very exciting. Some cool indoor plazas and architectures, and lots of tourists. Most shops were closed by then anyways. I contemplated catching a movie…but then left with the possibility of coming back. I also sat outside of the casino for a bit, wondering if I should go in. If only they had been more welcoming they probably would’ve make some money off of me. I swear I used to be good at poker…but that was like 4 years ago now.

After Postdamer Platz I went looking for the famous Checkpoint Charlie, the only place where Allied troops can cross from West Berlin into East Berlin. It took awhile to find and I unknowingly passed by a stretch of the Wall without taking a picture…but the site itself was pretty cool. I spent awhile reading the detailed accounts and description that were posted along some of the walls leading to the checkpoint. After that I was tired as duck. Really… I must have spent at least 11 of the 13 hours I had been awake on my feet. I had wanted to check out a few clubs or something….but I was way too tired to make the effort. O well. I’ll just have to go back to Berlin some other time. I found a little Asian noodle shop and had something more to eat before heading home. The beef pho was good, though I put too much hot sauce in it and made me cough and sneeze everywhere. Gwoss. It was also funny because none of the Asian people that worked there spoke English. Or Chinese, for that matter. Anyways, I went back to my hostel (by subway this time) and had a beer before heading to bed.

The next day/yesterday, I woke up and didn’t want to do nearly as much walking as I did the day before. I had heard that the Berlin Zoo is pretty famous, so I wanted to check that out. But before that I decided to go to the Jewish Museum. On the way (I took public transportation instead of walking that day), I grabbed a donner kebab to see what the fuss was about. It was delicious! And only 2.80 euros. For those of you who don’t know, a donner kebab is a vaguely Middle Eastern creation with meat shaved off of a gigantic rotating mystery meat in a rotisserie and stuffed in a grilled bun with all sorts of delicious veggies and sauces. Lots. It was really good…I should’ve taken a picture. The Jewish Museum was pretty interesting too, and the architecture cool. I liked the dark concrete “holocaust tower” and the “void” fille with iron faces the most. Though I thought the voids themselves aren’t all that special, being just light wells in the building. The exhibits were interesting too, though I didn’t pick up too many things I didn’t already know. Of course the details were interesting, but I’m sure I won’t remember those in a few days. The point is, no big relavation/theme was revealed.

After the Jewish Museum I headed to the Zoo…which took a bit of finding after I got out of the subway station. There were conflciting directions…because there were different entrances. I circled aimlessly between the entrances for awhile. The zoo wasn’t all too big, but it was densely packed. I especially liked the cathouse…with areas inside for the big and little felines. I had never been so close to a lion/actually seen it eat before. The rest was so so. There were a lot of birds, and I couldn’t help admiring them even though I tried to convince myself I didn’t like birds much. I also forgot to visit the elephants…. But it looked liked they were not there anyways. I usually like to see animals that I can interact with and at least think that they are thinking something when they looked at me. But other then the lions and tigers I kinda failed at that. I didn’t see the great apes either…. But in the end, a zoo is a zoo, and it’s awesome no matter what. After the zooo, came the rain, and the boiled pork knuckles with saurkraut. Mmmmm. I like German food. Oh, I forgot to mention, there was also a very strange item on the menu when I had dinner with my friend: cow udder! Really…I’m usually all for weird foods…but I feel that might just be corrupting…. After dinner I went and caught the train (an hour late, uncharistitially) and headed for Munich.

Also “met” a very interesting man on the train here. He must have been about 85 or so…and extremely stooped over. He started to talk to me in German…and didn’t seem to mind that I did not understand a word. I though I might as well indulge him and listen, laughing and saying “ja” when I thought it was appropriate. I think he enjoyed it. I really wish I could understand what he was saying though. He did get that I was from America though, and I told him New York…just because I don’t think he knows were CT is. When he got off at Postdam he was met by two police officers. I wonder if they were helping him or arresting him. Sad either way. He must have been a veteran or at least lived through WWII.

Well…that took forever to write, and I feel a bit sick now. But I don’t think it’s raining anymore (probably stopped as I sat down and will start again as soon as I go outside though). And maybe I can even check-in now. Regardless…it’s time to eat…