Berlin

Here are some pictures from my trip to Berlin. I enjoyed Berlin, but I wish we would have had more time in the city. We arrived on a Wednesday evening, took a quick tour of the city, and then slept. The next day we had the morning free, so I took the opportunity to visit a few of the sites from the previous night's tour (which by the way was an exercise of torture, as the temperature hovered around 40 and a drizzle rain fell for most of the 2 hour walking tour... it's no wonder that so many of us were sick upon our return). Then we sat through 2 speakers and had the night free. The next morning we left bright and early for the Latvian capital of Riga. So a grand total of maybe 8 or 9 hours to myself in the capital city of Germany was clearly not enough. All well, hopefully at some point I'll be able to return. The pictures came out pretty well though.


This is a picture of me in front of the Brandenburg gate. It's the last remaining city gate. Napeleon actually stole the sculpture off of the top of the gate when he rolled through Berlin, but when he was defeated, they got it back





Down the road about 200m is the Reichstag building where the Bundestag (German Parliament) is housed. There's a huge dome on the top of the building. It's free to check it out, and the views are gorgeous. Naturally, I took a few pictures...











View from the top:




Next was the Holocaust Memorial. There are some 2700 stones of varying sizes arranged in rows. It's very humbling and intense and doesn't overtly preach any type of message. It worked best at night, especially in the rain. The sunlight brought a new view and outlook, and the memorial seemed to contain more hope than depression. Pictures don't really do it justice.







The last shot I'll leave you with is of the original Berlin Wall. I believe it's still in the original place that it stood only what, 20 years ago? I still have trouble believing it's all ready 2008.



Pictures from Riga to follow. And then some from Geneva. I'm so far behind...

Fasnacht

Time for a picture update! I know you're all salivating at your keyboards waiting for the newest pictures from a land oh so very very far away. What new and strange things has Rob seen on his exotic trip to Germany? Well, ladies and gents, open your minds and your eyes and prepared to be thrilllled!

Or not. Here's some pictures from a parade in Mulheim, a city about 30 minutes by train outside of Freiburg. In southern Germany Fasnacht is a huge holiday (the same as Karneval in Cologne, or Mardi Gras in New Orleans) and they start having fun a few weeks before hand sometimes (I guess since this parade was about 2 weeks before Fat Tuesday).

Anyway, I have never seen more confetti in my life. It took me about a week to get every last bit out of my clothing (the people in the parade walk around with large bags and try to get it on as many spectators as possible). Also, there are large party floats with blaring techno music and crazily dressed pagan like creatures. And they're all drinking wine. And it lasts 2 hours. It didn't get as crazy as one would think, but then again, we didn't stay through the evening when I'm sure things got even more fun.

Here's a few pictures to sample of the parade:



I think this band played a rendition of some 80's American pop song... also, I heard a german version of Billy Joel - Can't stop the fire (techno remix). I laughed out loud.











These guys were blasting techno and throwing confetti. Scary...





And.... erm... SpongeBob? He's innocuous.



These guys would sneak up behind people and stuff confetti down their coats



Anders and Adam and confetti everywhere



And for all you food junkies: Here's a picture of some breakfast in Berlin (more pictures from that trip to follow shortly)

Wheels

Here are a few pics of my new bike. It's a Legano 10 Speed, made in Italy. They were cutting chains of unregistered bikes, so I got it for free. The right brake was disconnected but that was fixed (Mostly by Bade, the bike fixer of the flat). The rest of the bike is in pretty good condition... the chain seems new and the gear shifters work well. And now that I have a right brake, it should be street worthy. Here's a few pics with updates on Berlin / Riga to follow at a later date.

The Flat

In Freiburg I live in a community called Vauban. It's an old French barracks that was converted into student living in 1992. It actually has somewhat of a world wide reputation for being environmentally friendly. Each member of the community has agreed to try to keep their carbon emissions to a minimum by not having a car. If they wish to have a car, then they pay 18,000 a year for a parking spot. Also, many of the buildings have solar panels and the entire community is heated by a single wood chip burning stove (generator).

The atmosphere is very relaxed and bohemian. All of the residents are students usually between the ages of around 23 and 27. (In my flat the youngest is 23 and the oldest is 26, I think). Anyway, I really like it here and so far everyone I've met have been welcoming and friendly. Here are some pictures. I don't have any pictures of the guys that live here yet, but I'll get those up soon.

My Room:





View out the window... You can see the small clay soccer field in the background



The bathroom (first two stalls are for sitting, the third is for standing)



The hallway / climbing wall







The kitchen and living room





Front door and porch



Feel free to leave comments. Bye for now.

Zwei Panoramas

Outside St. Peter's Church



Top of the Hill

Freiburg 1

So these pictures aren't actually from inner city Freiburg, but instead the surrounding area. I'll try to get some pictures of the flat up at some point.


St. Peter's Chapel

Top of one of the hills surrounding Freiburg (can't remember the name)





Some Paragliders





TittiSee (The biggest Lake in the Freiburg Region... I had my first ApfelStrudel of the trip here... Rating: 2.1. I neglected to get a picture though)









And here's a picture of dinner. It's kind of blurry though. I'll try to make sure everyone gets a clear view of what I'm eating in the future.





OK. That's all for now. I'll try to get a few more up tomorrow with a bit more description. Also, I'll be in Berlin / Latvia in a week, so I should be able to get some good pictures from there.

Holiday Party

Dance Party

Haven't posted in a while. Here's something coming up.

Let's Start this All Over from the Beginning

Hey everybody. It's been awhile.

No sentimental musings. Let's get straight to the point. This blog has been dead for far too long. Music shall return to the starving ears of the masses.

But not right away. Not this second. The new Black Keys, Magic Potion. We'll play a song from that.

C ya later.