Posted by alalonde
Thu, 13 Oct 2005 21:34:00 GMT
Lately I've found myself with quite a bit of free time, mostly due to a lack of classes this week. It appears that each class runs about 2 hours a week, in stark contrast to the strict 4 hours/week I'm used to at RIT. Well I'm certainly not complaining, especially since these classes seem like they'll be pretty damn easy anyway.
However, this post was originally going to be devoted to my entrance in Osnabrück and what has happened since. Well, in short, a lot...
So Tuesday I moved in. My flatmates were very nice and I soon realized that there may be a bit of a language barrier (duh). One of them did speak quite good English so we chatted for awhile, and he pointed out I needed bedsheets. Ah yes, sheets would be nice. So he walked me down to Plus, a small chain grocery store down the street where I proceeded to buy some sheets and a ton of other food. Excellent. And as I'm rounding the freezer section a familiar face appears. Brittany?!! (A friend from RIT who had spent some time in Germany as well beforehand) So we discuss the eccentricities of the Germans and finish up shopping.
Around then I realized I probably wouldn't have enough cash, since apparently debit/credit doesn't really exist in most marketplaces. Brittany was kind enough to lend me some cash and we went through the checkout line. Surprise! The cashier yells at me to start bagging groceries so I start throwing them back in the shopping cart. Surprise! They don't provide the good ol' shopping bags we've gotten so accustomed to. By this time I had a shitload of food and other stuff so I just wheeled the damn thing back to my apartment (there's a euro deposit to try and prevent this, haha; the next day somebody returned it for me). What fun.
The rest of the week consisted of group leaders taking us around Osnabrück, getting us set up: bank account, health insurance, etc. This was all well and good, I must admit I didn't know what the hell was going on for most of it. Just about all fo the other foreign students have over a year of German experience, while I have six months with some major gaps in between. That is, their German is good, mine sucks. This has become frustrating, but it's slowly coming back...
They did organize a few social events as well, a party, pub crawl (which I regret missing to go to a movie), and some other things in the evenings. Somehow they managed to pack things in every day of the week from about 9 am til 12 midnight. By the weekend I was exhausted.
On Saturday we went to Köln (Cologne to you westerners). This was quite fun, and deserves it's own post (along with my photos).
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Posted by alalonde
Sun, 09 Oct 2005 19:18:00 GMT
A whole lot has happened in the last week-plus, so I'm going to break this post up. Let's start from the beginning...
Arrival in Munich
On Sat, Oct 1 I departed from Heathrow airport in London bound for Munich. I was in very high spirits, with great confidence on my navigation abilities, and maybe not so much with my german language abilities. The flight to Munich went without a hiccup, and having run into 4 or 5 different groups of Californians bound for Oktoberfest, I delayed switching to German mode. Upon arrival it hit me: "shit, I'm gonna need to use German to get around."
Well, for the most part anyway. Passport control was a joke, they didn't even ask me how long I was to be in Munich. I managed to buy my train ticket using English and took the hour or so train to the Hauptbanhof, or central train station. Upon arrival I realized I had forgotten how to get to the hostel from the train station and hadn't printed directions. Awesome.
So I wandered outside and walked a couple blocks, not recognizing any of the streets (I did remember the name of the street connecting the hostel's street). I decided to ask this old dude where the street was (in surely horrid, scrambled German) and he didn't know. So I wandered around some more and eventually found the street and hostel. Chris greeted me warmly upon arrival. He was a welcome, familiar sight in a strange, foreign land.
That night we met up with Kevin and Ivan, his friend from Munich, and promptly made our way to a club. The club was below ground and was fitted with a room consisting of nothing but large couchlike cushions lining the walls in a seductive red color. Unfortunately the room was reserved so we grabbed a table in the adjoining room, near the bar. Upon receiving the menu I opened it up and immediately (as in less than a second) lay my eyes on an interesting cocktail: an Absinthe martini. "Hell yeah," I thought to myself and ordered one soon afterward. I had wanted to try Absinthe for awhile. So we sat and talked for a little while and sipped on our cocktails. The martini had a very strong licoriche flavor, but wasn't too unpleasant. After finishing it I felt definitely intoxicated, but not really drunk. Later Kevin/Chris and I went to a Bierhaus for a few beers. I had a bit of a buzz but that was it, the absinthe was a bit disappointing. No worries, for I will dabble in it again since it must be legal here.
Day 1: Where's the party?
Oktoberfest is like a gigantic fair with several beer "tents" run by
a few of the local breweries, who develop a special Oktoberfest brew.
It is quite immense, the tents themselves are huge and probably sit 5
to 10 thousand people. It has the special distinction of being the
largest public festival in the world (making it quite touristy).
So on sunday we slept in a bit and didn't meet up with Kevin/Ivan til mid-afternoon. We were told that if we got to Oktoberfest too late all the tents would be full and we wouldn't be able to get in. Well, that was exactly the case, as 3 PM was too late for every tent we tried to enter. The rest of the day was mostly a bummer, we ended up riding the bumper cars for a while and then (on the third try) getting into a pub for dinner and a drink. I ordered a random beer and it was pretty gross (real sweet). Later we went to a Russian movie (dubbed in German of course) of which I understood just about nothing.
Day 2: Success!
So upon our return I decided Monday was to be dedicated to getting into a beer tent so we could really experience Oktoberfest. We (Chris and I) got up at around 9 or so and were on the festival grounds by 10:30. After wandering around a couple tents and not finding any seats I spotted a table that was just being surrendered, and quickly pounced on it. (The tent was #14, Löwenbräu) Not two minutes afterwards we were joined by a couple from Texas and a Bavarian family, filling up the table. Then the fun began!
We were happy to find the couple was American and chatted for awhile, putting down a Liter of beer apiece (check out the Munich photo album, these mugs are just huge!) After awhile they left and I started chatting with the rather attractive young German lady next to me about all kinds of stuff. Luckily her English was still pretty good, and my German good enough to initiate converstional topics. This continued until 5 PM or so when they took off. All this time the beer had been flowing freely (4L!!) and we decided it was time to leave before I got in over my head. So we wandered back to the hostel in the rain, well after buying a sweet hat at the festival that is! After 15 minutes or so of sitting in our room watching the tube I got bored and wandered downstairs to the bar, conveniently located near the check-in desk (I highly recommend this hostel, the Euro-Youth Hotel in Munich).
I was still wearing my ridiculous hat from the festival and drew all sorts of attention at the bar. An Irish lad flagged me down and I took a seat. So the next few hours were spent chatting with him and a few Australian girls about all kinds of stuff. Then a Spanish girl the Irishman knew took a seat next to me and the Irish kid tried to get us to go with him to a local pub, where he was to perform or something. I decided that'd be a horrid idea based on my current level of inebriation and declined. By midnight or so I headed back up to my room to literally pass out.
Day 3: Hangover!
4 AM came real real fast. This was the time Chris and I had set to get up and head to the airport for our 620 flight (I knew this was a horrible time when booking it but did it anyway). Needless to say I was still quite drunk and felt awful, but managed to get up, pack up my shit and head back to the Hauptbanhof. The train came pretty quickly and we were at the airport by 5:30 or so. However the walk from the train station to our departure terminal took forever and we arrived at the checkin line at quarter of 6 or so. By the time we checked in it was 615, and too late for the flight.
So we bought tickets for the next flight and paid the 40EUR rebooking fee. Then we sat around the airport waiting for our new flight at 14:10. I managed to sleep for a good deal of it, feeling horrible, and eventually we checked in and made the flight. I contacted my Hausmeister when we arrived in Münster and the rest of the day went fairly well.
Welcome week fun will be my next post...
Posted in Travel | 1 comment
Posted by alalonde
Fri, 30 Sep 2005 02:24:00 GMT
It's nearing midnight, and I've spent the better part of my day in France. It served as the climax of my stay here in SE England, precursed by many enjoyable activities throughout the week. My Aunt and Uncle have treated me like royalty, their unabashed generosity and warmth has really been great. This week I've been treated to several dinners around the Reigate area, namely Thai and French (all were delicious, and complemented with merry amounts of wine). I've golfed 18 holes on the course viewable from my bedroom windown and gone into London solo on two occasions, for sightseeing and theatregoing both. Kevin Spacey reaffirmed my faith in him as a fantastic actor, especially on the stage (second-row seats didn't hurt).
Today was our glorified booze cruise. We took a ferry from Dover to Calais for the purpose of restocking the wine cellar and having lunch at this magnificent restaurant in Boulogne. The meal had as many courses as days in a week, and each one seemed more tantalizing. It still amazes me how the French treat food like an art form, and how the presentation is almost as carefully prepared as the food itself. The emphasis on quality, rather than guantity, is a welcome change from typical English and American cuisine. Not to mention the service; the waiters constantly topped off our wine, water, and bread throughout the meal. (I could go on for hours about French cuisine, guess it's my inner frenchman surfacing.) They're not so welcoming, but they sure as hell know how to cook.
After picking up a dozen cases of wine and several selections of cheese, we made our way back to the harbor. It was pretty interesting seeing French men and women mingle about on the tiny streets and squares of Boulogne where we purchased the cheese.
I have captured several dozen photos of my adventures here in England and France, and will post them when I get a free afternoon (tomorrow?). Alas, tomorrow (Friday) is my last day here before I depart for Munich on Saturday. Don't have anything planned as of yet, so I may just lounge around and relax. The last few days have been pretty tiring (Poor me, haha).
My next post will be from Germany. Rock!
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Posted by alalonde
Sat, 24 Sep 2005 03:07:00 GMT
This morning I arrived in London at around 4 am EST. I am writing this at 12:45 AM, but my body is convinced it's 7:45 PM. It's rather strange discovering half of your evening completely disappeared.
So a couple hours into the flight (11 PM or so) we're cruising over newfoundland and the flight attendants start passing out "late-nite snacks" consisting of sandwiches or something. I declined since my parents treated me to a large, delicious meal at Chili's earlier. I watched a movie and managed to fall asleep around 1 am or so. So I'm sleeping soundly (well as much as is possible on an airplane in coach class), dreaming about Lederhosen and foreign cars, when the flight attendant wakes me up for "breakfast." I accept, since the lights had been turned on already and I had no chance of falling back asleep. After treating my taste buds to a dry croissant, I look at my watch: 2 am. Who the hell eats breakfast at 2 am? I know I'm losing 5 hours, but do they all have to be deducted from my night's sleep? Sigh.
Other than that unavoidable aspect, the flight went off without a hitch. I met my uncle (who unsurprisingly didn't recognize me) and entered a land of foreign cars, signs, and roundabouts galore. Nice!
Posted in Travel | 1 comment
Posted by alalonde
Sun, 18 Sep 2005 08:07:48 GMT
Having just posted a recent set of images from a weekend of hiking in the Adirondack High Peaks, I couldn't help but reminisce about the trip. I've found myself being pulled back to the area more and more over the past few years, for reasons becoming more obvious. The overwhelming serenity and peace I get from being in the middle of the woods carrying everything I need to live on my back is awesome. Everything becomes incredibly simple, as the only thing you are concerned about are your basic needs: food, water, shelter. Everything else just falls away.
The inherent beauty of the land, of course, is the main attraction (very evident in my photos). But the people you meet (depending on what area of the HP you're in) are also incredible, too. Where else do you stop, say hi, and have a brief conversation with every person you meet? There is a hidden, yet very present, commonality between everyone: a love of nature and the serenity that comes with the land.
Even though it probably won't be for many months, I look forward to my next adventure in the Adirondacks. Undoubtedly this feeling will well up into a pressing urge by the time I'm back in the states.
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Posted by alalonde
Fri, 16 Sep 2005 05:42:11 GMT
Welcome to what is commonly referred to as a blog, in this case my blog. In lieu of email correspondence, I have set this up to document my travels in Europe (and beyond) to a broader audience. I expect to post photos galore taken by my new digi (Kodak of course) over the next few months, as well as some older sets of images. Keep an eye on this, for there will be many developments leading up to my departure from this country.
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