Germany with Taylor: a 1700-km Adventure

In addition to my smaller weekend trips, I spent quite some time planning a jam-packed driving tour of Germany for when my girlfriend, Taylor, came to visit.  Taylor spent the first part of her summer working really hard to buy a plane ticket to Germany, and I knew that I had to show her a great time.  Our trip began on a Thursday morning in Munich, where I picked her up from the airport.  The itinerary looked something like this:

Thursday: Munich, Berchtesgarden, Salzburg(Austria)

Friday: Mittenwald

Saturday: Garmisch Parten-kirchen, Schwangau, Meersburg, Kreuzlingen(Switzerland)

Sunday: Triberg, Freiburg, Strasbourg(France), Baden-Baden

Monday: Heidelberg

Tuesday: Heidelberg, Regensburg

Wednesday: Regensburg

Thursday: back to Munich airport

The general area of coverage was what falls on and near the red line:

And this map highlights the actual cities (beginning with Munich and moving clockwise to Regensburg)

The trip was really incredible, and even though we (well, I) drove some serious distance, it didn't seem like a problem, because one, the goal of the trip was to see a lot and know where we would want to go to again, and two, even the driving was beautiful.  I'm don't know exactly how many times I will return to Germany in my life, but it's nice knowing where I really liked and where I didn't.  I agree that it takes a solid week or two in ONE city just to absorb the local life and become even slightly submerged, but we only had one week.

The trip started early on Thursday morning when Taylor flew into the Munich airport.  There was a little confusion, because she said that she was getting in at 7:25 am, and when I got to the airport, the giant arrivals board had only one plane from Boston arriving at 8:45 am.  I was a little bummed out, because I went to bed at 1 am and got up at 4:00 just so I could be at the arrivals gate to greet her.  I found a bench, and waited for a little while.  "I'm going to kill you," I heard a light-hearted voice say to my side.  I turned and it was Taylor, and it turns out she flew from Boston to Frankfurt to Munich, and the board DID say that a plane arrived from Frankfurt at 7:25 am.  Oops.  But it could have been much worse if she had wandered off from the arrivals area.  

We got the rental car (black VW Golf) from Sixt Auto company and were on our way Berchtesgarden, a German town near the border of Austria where almost every SS officer of the Nazi party had owned a house before liberation.  

 Among these houses is the one set atop Mt. Kehlstein, known as Kehlsteinhaus or "Eagle's Nest" to English speaking world.  It was a 50th birthday present to Adolf Hitler that took only 13 months to build (including a ridiculous 6km road up the side of the mountain--WARNING: Steep Road).  This area of Berchtesgarden and Salzburg is very beautiful and known to many as the filming site of the movie, the Sound of Music.  Unfortunately, it was rainy and cloudy in Berchtesgaden which made Taylor and I aggravated, because the inclement weather was between us and some really incredible views of the Alps.  We decided to put the visit to Kehlsteinhaus off until early the next morning in hopes of better weather, and we spent Thursday afternoon exploring the compact downtown of Berchtesgaden.  That night, when I told her that we were only 20 km from Salzburg, Austria (where I had been at the beginning of the summer), she wanted to check it out and get dinner there.  It almost seemed too easy how we crossed from Germany to Austria, walked around for a couple hours, ate some Döner Kebap, and drove back across the border to our hotel in Berchesgaden.  This was a general theme of the trip, and I guess the result of the European Union allowing easy travel within its territory (something like traveling from state to state in the US).

Friday morning, we started with an incredible 

(included) breakfast at the Hotel Bavaria.  When I was looking for affordable hotels, I had booked only ones that offered free, buffet breakfast, so that we didn't have to worry about finding somewhere to eat and could get going early.  To our disappointment, it was raining again, but there were moments of sun shining through the clouds that gave us hope.  We made our way to the Kehlsteinhaus bus parking lot, because only specially-modified (beefed-up for hills) public transit buses can make the 6-km summit.  The house was really something else.  Below are some of the best pictures from the Eagle's Nest (see more in the slideshow on the right).

Although it was mostly cloudy, things moved quickly enough for us to get the occasional peek of the mountains surrounding Kehlsteinhaus.  We took a scenic walk back down to the bus platform and rode back down to our car.  We decided to make our way over to Mittenwald, another small alpine town famous for its violin-making tradition.  I was really excited about Mittenwald, because I had found a great hotel room on a river at the foot of the mountains.  Some people say they live at the foot of a mountain, but actually live a mile or so from the slope of the mountain, but Mittwald is really 'at the foot of the mountains.'  The hotel was actually more of a family-run guest house with only about 20 rooms.  The woman who runs it was very hospitable and made it a fun place to spend a night.  When we were walking around downtown, I had this dessert thing from a bakery called a Schneeball ('snow ball').  It was this baseball-sized chocolate mass that was laced with some sort of cookie pieces and dipped in nuts.  Really delicious.  Also, that night we had debatably the best meal of the trip at a local restaurant.

Saturday morning, we woke up, ate another awesome breakfast, and drove a short distance to Garmisch Parten-kirchen, the site of the 1936 winter Olympics.  After visiting the ski jumping stadium, walking around the downtown, and checking out the ice hockey rink (naturally), we continued our trip to Schwangau.  This town is a tourist melting-pot as it is the home of Schloss Neuschwanstein and Schloss Hohenschwangau, two famous castles in Germany.  Schloss Neuschwanstein is the castle that Disney tried to model in building the castle in the Magic Kingdom amusement park.  You can't imagine how many people visit this castle everyday.  It's quite a site from a distance, but isn't extremely old, and I was less impressed when I was standing inside the courtyard.  Although, the king's bed ('Mad' King Ludwig the II) is the most impressive woodworking that I have ever seen and it is meant to look like a cathedral (pictures of him and his bed below).

We left Neuschwanstein with a little bit of a drive ahead of us.  The goal was to get all the way to the Bodensee, a giant lake in Germany also known as Lake Constance.  From the middle of the Bodensee in Meersburg, we would take a ferry across to the Konstanz, Germany and cross into Kreuzlingen, Switzerland to camp in my roommate's tent for the night.  Arriving in Meersburg, Taylor and I both didn't want to leave right away.  We spent the night walking around the beautiful water-front area and getting some dinner.  It reminded me of a mix between my trips to the ocean in Maine and life around Lake Winnipesaukee in NH.  I would like to go back to Lake Constance for a longer trip someday.  Anyways, we knew that the ferry ran 24 hrs/day and didn't get on until around 11 pm.  By the time that we got to the campground, it was 11:30 pm and everything looked closed.  For such a well-planned trip, this was a fundamental miscalculation.  There were some women drinking outside that tried to help us, but the problem was that the owners didn't want to help us, and the gate into the campgrounds didn't 'automatically' open again until the morning (like it was some uncontrollable machine).  After driving around for two hours into the early morning, crossing the German-Swiss border multiple times, and me alone being offered a room at a brothel by a prostitute (didn't realize at the time), we tried sleeping in the car just outside of the campgrounds.  After about 10 minutes, we 

 realized that it was too hot to bear for the whole night, and setup our tent in the last open campsite.  Taylor told me that I didn't need to put the rain guard on the tent, and then it started pouring.  We woke up exhausted, a little wet, and ready to get the hell out of this Swiss town that we both disliked at this point.  But before we could, I had to deal with a very angry campground owner that had no sympathy for some college students who had no other options.

It was Sunday morning, and we began the third phase of our trip (the first being the Alps, the second being Lake Constance) with our entry into the Black Forest.  To me, the Black Forest carries a sort of Cuckoo clock, fairy tale aura, and having visited, it still does.  So I convince Taylor that before we go to Freiburg, we need to make an hour-long unplanned side trip to Triberg, known for being the Cuckoo clock center of the Black Forest and the home of the largest Cuckoo clock in the world.  When we got to this massive-house-turned-clock, nobody else was in site.  The view of the clock was blocked by hay bails, so we went inside to find the granddaughter of the builder of the clock who wanted 3 Euros for Taylor and I to see the works and watch the clock go off.  She explained how it took X many years to build, and we went outside to watch the show at half past the hour.  I was by far more excited than Taylor and had no clue that she was videotaping my anticipation and excitement right before the bird came out to play.  The clock struck the half hour.  I was in perfect position for the moment.  The bird doors opened, and in less than enough time to get a solid picture, this giant, ugly bird stuck about three inches of its beak out and made a vomitting noise before jumping back inside the clock.  It was the most disappointing three seconds of our trip.  Well not really, because we couldn't stop laughing about it.  And right as we got into the car, a family showed up to see the clock.  We wanted to warn them, but they had to learn for themselves.

Next, we made it to Freiburg, walked the streets, ate some food, and checked out the really beautiful, red-stone cathedral.  This city felt very medieval, and I expected to still find knights roaming the streets.  But no.  It was Sunday, and I think the knights had the day off.  Anyways, after a short stay in Freiburg, we made the decision to go to France.  It was easy enough to do, and Taylor really wanted to see Strasbourg, so we went.  I couldn't how French this city felt considering it is located very near to the border of Germany and German is still spoken by many there.

But Strasbourg was not the day's end destination.  We drove the 80-100 km to Baden-Baden, a casino-bath town that really has  more appeal to people with a lot of money.  It was beautiful, but everything from the upscale casino, to the restaurants made me think that it was not the place for a low-budget trip.  Nonetheless, we made it fun and spent a few hours walking the streets, eating chocolate, etc.

Monday morning, after walking around Baden-Baden a bit more, we drove to the medieval city of Heidelberg.  It's a very historic university city that reminded me a lot of Regensburg.  It has the same 'I'm-going-to-see-knights-in-the-streets' feel that Freiburg did, and even has a castle.  There is also a very old stone bridge and another beautiful church (well not so much on the inside).  This was one of the first times during the trip that we had internet access, and it was nice to get in contact with home.  Afterwards, we checked out some more shops, and drove outside the city to find our hotel.  It was in a small town about 20 km from the downtown and had two eating options.  The Döner restaurant was supposed to be great, but we were a little too late, and opted for the Italian restaurant.  Who would have thought that an Italian restaurant in a small town in Germany would make one of the best chicken piccata's (my favorite).

On Tuesday, we spent the early day seeing more of Heidelberg (castle, coffee shops), before making the longest drive of the trip all the way back to my summer home, Regensburg.  Getting there was both exciting, because I wanted to show Taylor where I lived, walked and had fun for the past two months, and lame, because the trip was almost over.  That night I took her to the Roman/Greek-style temple called Walhalla that overlooks the Danube and the entire area around Regensburg. 

Wednesday, I had a list of the places that I wanted Taylor to see, ranging from the bench where I and played harmonica and guitar, to St. Peter's cathedral and the famous Bratwürst restaurant beside the old-stone bridge.  Even after seeing a list of incredible cities in Germany, I realized that Regensburg is still one of my favorites.  It has a great feeling about it.  And so, we finished the last day of our trip with a homemade dinner and a movie at my apartment.  We were both exhausted.

I woke up really early (around 4:30 am) to ride with Taylor to the airport and see her off.  It was weird saying goodbye for the third time in one summer, but the great part was that the trip had been amazing, and I only had one more month until I would be home for a while.  And like that, I returned to my desk at OSRAM to keep chugging along on my C++ program.  The goal is to finish it before I leave in mid-August.  I want that feeling of accomplishment and a sense of closure with my internship.

I'VE NEVER BEEN A GAS STATION DRINKER, BUT ONCE IS OKAY

One Friday, I was going about my usual afternoon routine, doing the ice hockey lifting at the McFit gym, playing some street hockey at the Donau Arena, when I nearly forgot that my refrigerator had no milk in it.  I decided that I would see if the gas station that I passed on the bike ride home sold milk.

Setting the scene, whenever I decide to play hockey at the rink, I must ride my bike with my hockey stick in my left hand, making it completely obvious what I am about to/ have been doing.  Anyways, I pulled into this gas station, found the milk, and decided that for double the price of the grocery store, I could wait until the morning.  

As I went back outside, things began to get interesting.  Next to where my bike was locked, there was an ATM machine, and surrounding the ATM machine was a group of five people drinking beers.  The composition of the group itself fit no stereotype.  There was a woman in her mid-30s wearing a dress as if she just left work, three men in their 50s looking a little more worn and scruffy, and the typical German scientist, with his extremely sharp-looking black-framed glasses, short hair, and that almost nerdy getup.  

Quick note on time: it was about 7pm.

I didn't make much of them, until the woman charged at me saying, "Spielst du Eishockey?" (Do you play ice hockey?).  To which I responded, "Ja..." (Yes...).  Next, either my accent or the fact that Germans just don't ride bikes with hockey sticks in their hands, she asked me where I was from.  I said that I come from New Hampshire, but I study in Massachusetts (sometimes only the latter is familiar with people here).  Her face lit up as she told me what I already know, "You are American!"  Yes, she said it in English.  Then she felt compelled to pull my arm over to her friends and introduce me.  "HALLO, HALLO," she said trying to get their attention.  "Hier ist...," (Here is...) but she didn't know my name.  So she asked me,"Wie heißt du?" (How do you call yourself?).  I responded, "Ich heiße Bill." (I am called Bill (lit)).  And as if they didn't hear, she repeated my name to them.

By the time that I entered the drinkers' circle, everybody was a little beyond 'sloshed.'  I asked her if they had been drinking at the gas station all night, but then corrected myself by saying afternoon (again, it was only 7pm).  They said that they had started at the bar and moved to the gas station as if that were the logical sequence of action.  We talked for a few more minutes, and when I felt thoroughly awkward with the situation, I began to get on my bike and ride away.  CUE THE TORRENTIAL DOWN POURING, THUNDER, AND LIGHTENING!!!  Oh geez, I thought.  The woman told me that I could not leave, "look at the weather."  She insisted that I have a beer with them and began scrummaging through her purse for coins to buy me a beer. 

About twenty minutes later, I rejected the offer for more beer, and set off into the sunset on my roommate's father's sketchy bicycle.  To this group of five Germans, I must have looked like a knight.  Only I rode not a horse, but an inefficient heap of metal, and I carried not a sword, but an Easton Ultralite hockey stick.  It was an interesting Friday.

Phi Sigs Travel: Ulm and Stuttgart

The week after Kristen's wedding, the Phi Sig Deutschland squad was planning something fun for the weekend.  We decided that Lawrence, Gleb, and I would spend Saturday and Sunday in Stuttgart, famous for its automotive industry.  The plan was for Gleb and I to meet up in Munich, and since Lawrence had a big conference for the DAAD RISE program (through which he got his university research position at in Würzburg), he would meet us in Stuttgart.

On Saturday morning, I boarded the early train to the Munich Hauptbahnhof (main train station) but was rerouted when some sort of accident/delay occurred on the tracks ahead.  The scheduling was such that I would arrive in Munich at 7:20 am, find Gleb near the tracks, and we would leave on the 7:40 am train to Ulm then Stuttgart.  The only problem was that I didn't get to Munich until 8:30 am, and I had no means of communication.  I checked some of the waiting areas and tracks (there are 28-30 tracks and the station is HUGE), but there was no sign of Gleb.  I assumed that he had gotten on the 7:40 am train to Ulm, and if I got the next one, maybe I could catch up.  About this time, my stomach took over with a reverberating "FEED ME" command that rumbled my innards, and I decided to buy a bratwurt to dim my hunger.  As I took the first bite, I saw Gleb out of the corner of my eye standing in front of me.  "Ohhh hey," I said, completely baffled that we had just happened upon each other.

We stopped in Ulm about half way on our travel to Stuttgart.  It was the birthplace of Albert Einstein and is the home of the tallest church steeple/spire in the world.  Although, there wasn't too much to do after climbing the 768 steps to the top of the church.  We boarded the next train to Stuttgart.

View from on side of the top of the Ulm Münster

Gleb and I waited in the hotel room just outside the downtown for Lawrence to arrive.  About two hours after we had planned to meet, he showed up with another guy doing the DAAD RISE program who happened to be doing his study in Regensburg (go figure).  It was okay that he was late, because he brought another person which made the hotel slightly cheaper.  However, since the Porsche and Mercedes museums were now closed, we went into the city for some dinner and sight seeing.  There were some nice old buildings and a cool park that had a traveling art exhibit--these life-size bears painted to represent the different countries of the world.

Picture of bears from art exhibit

The next morning we started the day with a trip to the Porsche Museum.  The good part was that it was free, but the bad part was that it only consisted of one room that held about 12 cars of various years and models.  Overall, the facilities of Porsche were not as "shiny" and impressive as I thought they would be, but they still make incredible cars.  Also, we saw the construction of a huge building that will be the new museum opening this fall.

The next stop was the Mercedes Museum, and this place was 'wicked cool'.  If you could imagine a museum describable as 'smooth, trendy, flashy, and recreating of the world from Minority Report' (starring Tom Cruise), this was it.  The building itself was architectural eye candy with it's spiraling walk way from the top floor to bottom, 'pod-like' elevators (see picture below), and sofas shaped like flowing liquids.  It turns out, Mercedes also makes nice cars.  I was very impressed with the history of the company (two men, last names Daimler and Benz) and the origins of the name 'Mercedes' (the daughter of a man in Niece, Italy who sold cars, lost a race in his hometown, had a faster model car built, and had it named after his own child).  It was also interesting to see how the museum portrayed Mercedes-Benz role in WWII when it shifted to war mode and cranked out weaponry.

View of 'Pod-like' elevators from first floor of Mercedes Museum

I had a fun weekend, but Stuttgart as a whole didn't grab me.  It seemed mostly like a good place to spend a lot of money shopping.

Kristen and James Get Married

Entering the summer, I knew that the only way this whole Germany thing could work was if I could manage to get home for my eldest sister's wedding to her high school sweetheart James "the Machine" Duncan.  During last semester when this whole MISTI opportunity was in the planning phase, I went back and forth about whether or not to buy a flight while they seemed "cheap" but ultimately decided to wait for something better.  I had written an essay for my Deutsch Zwei (German Two) class called "Wartime," and when I found out about the MIT Lufthansa Prize, I knew what to do.  Basically, I rewrote a few sentences and changed some grammar, and I had my entry.  Now comes the best part--I was one of two students studying German(all levels) at MIT to win roundtrip airfare from the US to Germany (or Germany to the US) and three nights of hotel stay in Frankfurt.

Having facilitated my return home for Kristen's wedding via the Lufthansa Prize and survived my first month in Germany, I left for Frankfurt on Wednesday, June 25 to use one night of free hotel and catch my flight home to Boston.  I arrived in Boston on Thursday afternoon to the smiling face of my girlfriend, Taylor.  It was really comforting to see her face after being so far away and disconnected (I didn't have phone or internet for the first 3-4 weeks).  

We drove Taylor's car to Saratoga Springs, NY where my sister had done her undergraduate studies at Skidmore and also where she had visited time and again for horse racing and her own competitions.  I was a little jet-lagged, but nonetheless excited to be with the people I love most, and I had an awesome but short stay in the US before boarding my flight Sunday afternoon from Boston back to Germany.  The highlights of the weekend included a seriously over-the-top lobster bake (my Dad's style--I think I ate about 40-50 steamed clams, two lobsters, shrimp, and a lot of other food), torrential rain and thunder IMMEDIATELY following the wedding vows at the race track, and a great reception with delicious food and plenty of Near family dancing.

When I arrived back in Regensburg, I was glad that everything had worked out well.  I didn't plan for a delayed/cancelled flight or any other traveling inconveniences, so it was great that none came my way.

Some pictures:

Finding Hockey in Regensburg

Real quick, I have to say that these posts are not up to date.  I had a period of craziness and never caught up on my postings.  Hopefully by the end of tonight, I will be up to the current time.

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In February, at the thought of receiving an internship with OSRAM, I immediately searched for ice hockey.  It turns out that ice hockey in Germany is a big deal, and most say that it is only second in popularity to the mighty sport of soccer (this will never change--TRUST ME).  Then I found the websites for the arena, the Donau (Danube) Arena, and the team, the Regensburg Eisbaren (Ice Bears) in my potential summer home.

Among many missions when I first arrived at Regensburg, I wanted to find a gym to train at and the ice hockey rink.  It only took about two days before I had made the 7 mile roundtrip run from my apartment to the Donau Arena (next to my current gym, McFit) and met some of the local hockey crowd.  The rink is really phenomenal (big, well-built, massive jumbotron, etc.)  I found out that there are actually five professional hockey leagues in Germany.  The Regensburg Ice Bears have been playing in the second league, but last season they had bankruptcy problems, and must now work their way up from the fifth league (GOON LEAUGE).  Because of this, there is no ice during the summer time until August 18th, and I leave on August 16th.  However, there is a second rink within the same building where the pros and hundreds of locals play recreational inline hockey.  Since my arrival day, I have had the chance to play a few hours of inline hockey with club teams and teenagers.

Lately, I go to the rink because there is a equipment shop where I can check out the newest gear and talk with a nice Czech named Peter.  Peter loves hockey as much as I do, and we spend a lot of time talking about professional players and cool equipment he receive.  One day I was there having my new roller blades heated in the skate oven and molded to my feet, when a guy came in with his young son.  He spoke German with Peter, but then a mix of English and German with his son.  I decided to ask him if he was American, because he looked like a hockey player, and might be someone interesting to meet.  He told me that he, like Peter, is also a natural-born Czech, but he has a house in Florida and played in both the IHL and AHL (Rochester, NY) during his hockey career.  He is living in Regensburg with his son for a couple years so that he can pick up the German language, and then they will return to the US.  I usually see him and his son of Friday afternoons when I go to the rink to practice stickhandling and hang out.

Finding hockey here has been a nice release, even though I don't get to play too much.  It has made me realize that I can take myself to completely different parts of the world, and still find ways to fulfill my greatest interests.  Perhaps I will have something more with German hockey in my later life.

EUROCUP SOCCER IN SALZBURG, AUSTRIA

A few weeks ago, I went online and searched for somewhere to stay in Salzburg, Austria so that I could be in one of the cities where this highly competitive soccer tournament was taking place. Tickets were out of the question, but I wanted to be among some crazy fans who had made the pilgrimage to support their motherlands. I found the cheapest room for 34 Euros per night at this place called Fan Camp Salzburg. It turns out, they took a giant warehouse, put up some temporary walls with open doorways, and threw (12) cots in each room. I was a bit hesitant, but I decided to just go with it in hopes of a good story or two about sleeping next to some crazies.

Friday night, I took the evening train to Salzburg, stopping in Landshof, one other town that I forget, and Freilassing before getting me to my destination. The best way to travel on the trains if you are staying within the Bavaria region of Germany (Salzburg is also included) is to wait by the ticket machine and buy a 'Bayern Ticket' for 27 Euros with up to (4) other people heading in the same direction as you. Then, instead of paying 19-30 Euros for your ticket you pay more like 5 Euros. The ticket is also good until the following morning around 6-7am (I'll get to why this is funny later). So I rode with two students from the University of Regensburg who were heading home for the weekend, both really nice, one an education major, and the other a medicine major to become a doctor. We had a really good conversation about different things from why I get to be in Germany this summer to the best things to do in Berlin and so on.

By the time I finally corrected for the wrong directions a woman gave me in Salzburg, I arrived at the Fan Camp 'Suite' at 11pm and decided to call it a night in hopes of an ambitious Saturday exploration of Mozart's hometown. I set my alarm for 6:50am, but slept through it and finally rose at 7:30am. I'd like to note that my rising was less attributable to any form of an internal alarm clock, and more on account of the couple hundred 40-50 year old men that have the same snoring problem we all know too well (for this I would like to thank the Greek and Russian fathers that started my day).

The first place I came to in the city was the famous shopping street that had all the famous brands, some traditional Austrian clothing companies (so expensive), and even a McDonalds. The funny thing is that every shop on this street must conform to an extremely uptight set of zoning regulations set by the city, and thus, each has a magnificent metal-work sign outside. McDonalds' had this intricate spirally structure with a brass lion and other details. In search of cheap food, I resorted to a McCroissant ham and cheese breakfast sandwich. It hit the spot. Then I found a flea market, and spent an hour talking to an old woman (mostly in German!) about her items for sale, their history, and random facts about the area. She tried to weave some sly sales tactics on me, and had I not met some of my grandmother's antique-frenzied friends, I might have fallen for her trickery. Anyways, I didn't have any cash yet, so I had to go back later to buy the few items that I saw as 'must buys.'

I spent the rest of the day seeing the main attractions such as Mozart's Geburthaus (Mozart's birth house), the Salzburger Dom (church), listening to the Glockenspiel bells, getting lost in year-round Christmas stores, exploring the castle that hovers over the town and offers incredible views, and eating Mozart's balls (literal translation of a famous chocolate candy sold all over the town--I managed to buy an extra supply of Mozart's balls that I will be bringing home for my sisters wedding.) At 8:45pm, I made my way into the fan zone where thousand upon thousands of excited Russians and Greeks converged. It was quite a sight and culminated the multiple fan gatherings I had seen earlier in the day. Russian ended up winning 1-0 with a nice goal early on.

Although Fan Camp was a great experience, the current exchange rate convinced me that 34 Euros a night for a cot, which didn't even have sheets or a pillow (I had to buy a cheap sleeping bag from the front desk) wasn't worth it. I boarded the last train to Munich at 11:30pm, splitting a Bayern ticket with two military troops that were in Salzburg for the night playing poker. We got to the Munich train station around 2:00am, and the next train to Regensburg wasn't until 5:36am. Had I not been so tired, I would have tried to stay awake, but I ended up finding a corner next to some ,sleeping elderly tourists on a bench where I caught up on some shut eye.

Now back to the Bayern ticket. So what happens is that a group of five people take the train into the city to dance, drink, party, etc. and they stay up through the entire night until the first train home which is still included on the same ticket they bought the night before (as long as they get home by 7am). This in itself isn't that funny, but when you get on a train, and you feel like the only person who can say their name without slurring, you realize that you are in for a great ride. I spent the hour and a half ride talking to three 19 year-old girls about being our age in Germany. One girl's mother was an American, born in Tennessee, who studied in Munich, got married to her father, and never left. She was especially excited to talk to an American in German, because I share a similar Americanized-German accent. The ride was the best train ride thus far. There were also drunk men in cowboys hats running through the train from the lady who demanded to see their ticket and a verbal fight between a goth and a man that looked like Adam McCaughan (for the Phi Sigs reading this).

It was a great weekend and I slept all day Sunday recovering from this fun.

My Typical Day

During the week, I sometimes go out into Regensburg, but besides that, I find myself getting a lot of work and training done so I can travel on the weekends. Monday-Friday go something like this:

7:30 am: Get out of bed, shower, get dressed, leave by 7:50am for the bus station on my sketchy bike

8:00 am: Catch the number 7 bus that goes by Siemens, Continental, Osram, and BMW

8:30 am: Start work, grab some breakfast (zwei weißwurst, dunkles Bröt, und suß Senf = two white sausages, dark bread, and sweet mustard = delicious)

11:15 am: My whole team takes a lunch break followed by a 10-minute walk outside

5-6:00 pm: Catch the number 7 bus back to downtown and ride my bike home

6:30 pm: Ride 2-3 miles to McFit (gym) and do my hockey lifting (maybe play some roller hockey at the professional arena next to the gym--you can imagine how excited I was to find this)

8:00 pm: Ride 2-3 miles back to the city and do hockey sprints/shuttle runs

8:45 pm: Get home, shower, and cook dinner

9:30 pm: Relax, plan weekend trips, update blog, etc.

12:00 am: SLEEP! At this point I have no gas left in the tank.

As you can see, I don't really find myself sitting around with nothing to do here.

REGENSBURG- Getting Settled and My First Day At OSRAM

Today my roommate, Stefan, and I woke up and headed out into Regensburg for my first daylight experience here. It's home to about 200,000 and located on the Danube River northeast of Munich in Bavaria. The city dates back to the Celts, but also has routes in the Roman Legion camp Castra Regina, and is still the home of the Thurn and Taxis family. Supposedly this family (well the one gold digger, I mean, wife who married in and inherited it all) is one of the wealthiest in the world. Their property occupies about 40 acres in the middle of Regensburg, and the castle is said to be bigger that Buckingham Palace. There is a church there that is almost entirely gilded with gold and has skeletons of some famous Catholic church figures. I think it is the most impressive church I have ever seen. Anyways, the town is very historic, extremely romantic, has a historic/world famous Bratwurst restaurant that cranks out sausage all day, and seems to be full of life during the summer.

After our walk, Stefan helped me outfit my room with a bed, desk, chair, and storage unit. By the afternoon it was looking much less lonely--red sheets on my trendy new twin bed and my Mac on the IKEA desk opposite of my IKEA dresser--a perfect setup for a summer's stay. The bed and mattress were given to me by Stefan's friend, Stefan, who I met the first night at Bismark Platz.

The next morning I woke up at around 8:00am for work, a little later than I had wanted to but no so bad for my alarm-less rising (I usually set about 5-6 alarms to get up for my 9am classes). I arrived around 9:30am, checked in with the security office, and was introduced to the Human Resource people who setup my internship with MIT Germany. The building is really phenomenal and brand new. Then I was led to the fifth floor (and did I mention that in Germany the 1st floor starts on the American second floor) for my first summit of the OSRAM box. It would be the first of many times that I would walk these six flights. I met supervisor, Julius Muschaweck, and my team, the Applications Engineers, and instantly felt a sense of excitement. All of the workers in my department are really friendly (wirklich freundlich) and interesting people to talk to. One of my older colleagues and I have a 45-minute discussion each day at my desk over interesting politics, ideas, and difference between America and Germany. I would have never thought that I would be so intrigued talking to someone about some of this stuff, but this guy was a professor at five or so American universities in different parts of the country and brings a great perspective on the two countries.

My work at OSRAM will begin with me writing some C++ code for part of the applications website in order to help their customers better choose LEDs for their products. It should be a good challenge, but I am already finding myself growing a lot in the workplace and in the programming department. We'll see how the summer turns out after working with a bunch of fun Germans. I can't imagine it being too bad.

First Days

Thursday, May 29, 2008

I flew out of Logan airport in Boston on an overnight flight to Munich, Germany. It was your average flight complete with crying babies, average food, and an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia. I couldn't sleep well for one reason or another, but to be honest, Lufthansa was probably the best airline I have flown with in terms of how they treat you and the entertainment system.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Upon arriving at the Munich airport, I picked up my 100 lbs worth of luggage and proceeded to walk without destination around the airport. I had no idea if there was a place to check my luggage, so I took it everywhere I went (bathroom, Döner Kebab restaurant, internet cafe, etc.). My situation was such: I had nowhere to be until 6pm when I would meet Gleb at his BMW apartment. However, I had forgotten to print out the direction to his apartment before leaving the US, my laptop was dead, and I didn't have the right converter for charging it. Lastly, my new digital camera had not been charged , and I was already disappointed that I was missing out on precious photo opportunities from the moment that I picked up my luggage and walked in front of a giant BMW display modeled as the front their cars that turned on when it sensed motion (lights, engine sounds, etc.) Therefore, in the best interest of my trip, I claimed a significant amount of territory at an Avis car rental lounge, and read about Germany while my camera charged.

Once I was fully prepared for 8.0 Mega pixels of fun and the feeling of a Mississippi swamp between me and the chair was too much to bear, I enjoyed my first German beer at 11 am and headed for the internet cafe. I located Gleb's address, spent quite a while figuring out the concentrically circular zones for the Munich S/U Bahn train system (for which the tickets varied), and off I went into the big city. The only problem was that I read my watch wrong (I am not so good at simple 6 hour time zone addition) and arrived at Gleb's at 3:30 when I thought it was 5:30. After waiting for an hour, a woman going into the BMW apartment asked me (in German) if I would like to come in. I said, "No, that's okay. I am waiting for my friend who will be here at 6." (in German) Her response, which I didn't understand, must have been along the lines of "6, why the hell are you going to just sit here until 6?" This is when I realized the actual time and left for more food.

That night, Ian came from Regensburg (the town that I also live in for the summer), and the three of us went out for some German drinking fun at the Hofbräuhaus, perhaps the most famous (among tourists) and highly-visited beer garden in Munich. There was music, Bavarian clothing, and 1 Liter beers. Amazing. (see photo album: Deutschland I: Munich Arrival)

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Toan woke us up with his early arrival to Gleb's apartment. We began the day with a trip to Dachau, the site of the longest-lasting concentration camp during WW II where over 30,000 people died during its 12 year existence. In high school, I remembering feeling moved by talk of the war, the Nazi party, and the influence that the Holocaust had on many different people, but nothing compares. Until you walk through the buildings, see the crematorium, and imagine the shear brutality that occurred where you stand, you cannot grasp the situation. I thought about how so many people in America never have nor want to have that experience, and the affect that has had on how we understand what happened.

After this almost-overwhelming experience, we went into town and got a recommended meal from one of the guide books (Hendl a la Parville-almost a whole lightly-fried chicken with a vinegar potato salad.) While sitting there, a traditional Bavarian procession occurred. There were about fifty people sporting their Bavarian attire led by a marching band into the restaurant for what we interpreted as a celebration of a new flag that somehow related back to the church that would last for up to three days (see video below).

We visited the Englischer Gartens in Munich that afternoon where the river allows for surfing, swimming, and summer fun. Thousands of people flock here to show off their man thongs and swim among nudists and surfers wannabees. Quite an eclectic crowd to say that least. Afterwards, Ian and I got on a train for Regensburg, because we wanted to get settled at our new homes, and three guys on the tiny floor of the BMW apartment with no pillows did not seem too appealing.

Mein Mitbewohner (roommate), Stefan, picked me up from the train station in Regensburg. He is a 27-year old physicist that works for Infineon Semiconductors. We have a lot of academic and other interests in common, so I think it will be a really great experience. We dropped off my luggage at the apartment (see photo album: Deutschland III: Regensburg), packed a backpack of beers, and he took me to Bismark Platz, a square with two fountains where hundreds of 20-40-year olds flock in BYOB style to drink and socialize.

FINALLY

I would like to welcome you to my blog for my summer of 2008 in Germany. Deutschland ist sehr schön! My name is Bill Near. I am twenty years old and will enter my junior year of college this fall. My favorite thing to do with my time is play ice hockey. I play the saxophone and harmonica and love all kinds of music (except some country).

Although this is my first post, I have been in Germany for nearly one week and there is already much to be said. Let me preface my summary of the past week with a quick description of what brings a small-town New Hampshire native to Europe.

My trip begins at MIT where I currently study Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. It is here (well there) that I found the gem of a program called MIT Germany, one of the branches off of the tree that is MISTI (MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives). Here's how the program works, at least from my experience. Last fall I was doing something (not the important detail) when I thought, "I think that I want to be in Europe next summer doing something related to my major and travelling. How can I get there?" From the sky an answer came--"MISTI"--but I needed more. After attending a few information session for the different European countries that had placement programs, I began discussing the process with MIT Germany Managing Director, Dr. Sigrid Berka. Dr. Berka basically has a list of all the companies that she has "connections" with. You tell her what you like or a particular company that you are interested in, and she tells you where to begin. Basically, if you already have a good resume and a draft of a cover letter, all you need to do is refine the cover letter for the company that you are interested in, fill out some simple background forms, and Dr. Berka will wave her magic wand to get you there (well here).

When I began looking into the MIT Germany program, I sent an email out to my fraternity, Phi Sigma Kappa, and others immediately jumped on board. There are now 6 Phi Sigs (Matt, Toan, Lawrence, Gleb, Ian, and myself) in Germany among the other 35 or so MIT students here. I am working for OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, as is Ian. Matt is working for Deutsche Bahn (transportation), Toan for Siemens, Lawrence has a research position at the university in Würzburg, and Gleb is working for BMW.

I arrived on Friday May 30, 2008 and will stay until around August 16, 2008. My blog will document the "interesting" details of my work, travels, and random times while here. The stories will most likely contain unnecessary, excruciating details from time to time for which I will apologize once. I'm sorry. I am an engineer, and to us, details matter.