A Bavarian Weekend in Munich

Well, my stay in Europe has come to an end, and I am now on my flight back across the ocean to the U.S. Last week was my last week in Lübeck, so I tried to make the most of it. I started getting up earlier in the morning so that I could get more work done without having to stay late in the evening. After work I spent time with my friends in the guesthouse. I cooked with Jana, the other American in the house a couple times, and had post-sunset dessert and Egyptian tea with Mohammed and Ahmed almost every night. One evening I rode my bike downtown to explore Lübeck some more and take additional photos before leaving.  After walking around a bit, I got to the Northwestern part of the island, where I discovered a Duckstein festival across the river. As I’ve said before, it’s hard to go anywhere in Germany during the summer without stumbling into some sort of festival, usually sponsored by a type of beer. I had heard this festival was happening the previous weekend, when I went to Paris, but I didn’t know the festival would last all week too. I had a (admittedly pricy, by German standards) Duckstein while watching a band perform, and had my last flammkuchen for dinner.

Friday evening I took a night train to München (Munich). Mete had planned a Turkish night and was in the process of cooking Turkish food for everyone in the guesthouse as I was leaving, so unfortunately I missed that. I also missed Egyptian night the weekend before. The guesthouse has recently become much more social, so the only downside of travelling so much is missing events like these. Unlike the weekend before, the night train was not full of international travellers like me. I had a room with a German woman and her two daughters (I assume they were both her daughters, one was probably ~9, and the other probably just a few years younger than me), another older woman who I think was the grandmother of the noisy kids in the next compartment, and a German man who boarded the train later at night, in Hannover. The older woman presumably spoke no English, but the middle-aged woman could, and was the only one to talk to me at all. She told me that her younger daughter had been studying English for 3 years now and spoke better English than her, but neither of the younger girls would say a word to me. Overall, they weren’t the most interesting people to share a room with, and they wanted to sleep early, but I suppose that was good, because I was fairly well rested when I arrived in Munich.

I arrived in Munich just after 7 AM, and had an early start to the day. Unfortunately, the tourist information center did not open until 9 AM, and I had not printed a city map, and additionally I learned that the s-bahn trains east of the station (which go to Marienplatz, the city center) were under renovation and unavailable. I had directions to go to Dachau, which I planned to do first anyway, but the concentration camp memorial did not open until 9 AM either. So after grabbing a pastry for breakfast at the train station, I wasted some time by walking around the area around the hauptbahnhof (train station). I started walking towards Marienplatz (it was only two s-bahn stops away, and seemed simple enough to find even without a map), but by the time I was halfway there, I decided to head back to the station and catch the train to Dachau.

On the train a girl sitting across the aisle asked me if I spoke English (believe it or not, I do speak a little English), and asked if this was the right train to Dachau. I told her I was also going there, and she said she’d follow me. She told me her name was Jen (short for a harder to pronounce Korean name) and she was an economics student from South Korea, doing some tourism in Europe. We talked a bit about Korea and the U.S. They count ages differently in Korea, so she said she “thinks” she is 19. It was convenient meeting a friend so quickly while travelling alone, and when we found out neither of us had concrete plans but were interested in visiting similar places (such as Schloß Nymphenburg, a palace), we decided to stick together for the rest of the day.

At Dachau, we first entered the camp through the gate with the words, “ARBEIT MACHT FREI” printed on it, which I later learned translates to “WORK SETS YOU FREE.” As I stepped through the gate into the camp, I immediately felt chills go up my spine. I immediately felt uneasy stepping into the camp, even though there was nothing immediately in sight that served as obvious evidence of the atrocities that occurred there.

As a side note, it looks like I’m now flying over Newfoundland, so I guess I’m officially back in (well, above) North America! Oddly, I think I probably slept more on this flight, which was entirely during daylight, than on my overnight flight to Europe two months ago. Staying up late for beers with my guesthouse friends probably didn’t help though.

Back to Dachau, I first entered the museum and found the theater to watch a short documentary about the camp. After watching the documentary I walked through the museum, which was quite extensive. Despite spending a couple hours there, I felt like I kind of rushed through it too. Of course a lot of the information was quite general, such as the general historical context, which painted a picture of how the Nazis rose to power and were able to commit such atrocities with the general support of the German people. However, there was also plenty of information specific to the camp, as well as many pictures of victims, and some of the victim’s personal belongings were on display. The museum also did not focus solely on Jews as victims, but all victims, including Gypsies, homosexuals, and pretty much anyone who disobeyed and resisted the authority of the Nazis. After walking through the main museum, I entered the bunker, which was the military prison. Here I saw the tiny cells, which used to have extra walls making them even smaller so that special prisoners were not even allowed to sit, and had to stand in darkness. Outside the bunker I saw the poles that were used to hang prisoners sentenced to death.

After making my way through the museum and bunker, I walked around the camp some more. I walked past the barracks, which were mostly demolished, until I eventually found the crematorium. As you might expect, this was the most difficult and uncomfortable part of the experience. I walked into the room with the ovens, which still strongly smelled like death. It is hard to believe that the room still has the same stench as it did in 1945, but there was a pungent, noxious odor in the room, which combined with the sight of the ovens made me feel sick and lightheaded. I had to step back outside for some fresh air and sunlight. I walked back in to see the gas chambers, which were never actually used at Dachau, but of course similar chambers at other camps were used to murder millions of people, and they were built at Dachau with the same intention. The door was labeled “BRAUSEBAD,” meaning “SHOWER ROOM,” to trick victims into entering the room without resistance. While there was enough at the camp to spend several more hours, I already felt quite uncomfortable, and wanted to spend time enjoying more positive things in Munich, so we headed back to the city. My pictures from my visit to Dachau are here.

Jen and I returned to the hauptbahnhof, and I picked up a city map and some lunch. We then headed to Schloß Nymphenburg. We took a u-bahn (subway) instead of the tram that stops near the palace, and I underestimated the length of the walk to the palace, but we got to walk along a canal leading up to the palace. The water was green and not as pretty as I expected, but we saw swans and I had a good view of the palace from a bridge over the canal. The palace was a bit pricy to enter but we were both satisfied just admiring the building from the outside. We saw the large English Garden behind the palace, adorned with statues and fountains.

Next, I decided to head to the Olympic park. This area had a lot of interesting modern architecture. The u-bahn stop was next to the BMW museum (and close to the Munich BMW offices), which both had interesting architecture. The Olympic park itself features strange architecture that looks like glass tents suspended from large poles. I was surprised to find a large carnival at the park. Also, most of the athletic facilities seem to be now available for use by the public. The area was quite active. The park features beautiful scenery too; the pond, large, green hill, and blue skies provided for some excellent photographs. I do not know if there is a memorial for the assassinated Israeli athletes, but if there is I was not able to find it. Rather than turning around, we tried to walk to another u-bahn stop by following signs pointing to a u-bahn station, but either we missed a sign or the signs were very misleading, because the next stop in that direction seemed to be several kilometers away, and we wasted quite a bit of time walking, before finding a tram stop that took us back to the train station. I got in touch with Mike, another RISE student interning in Hamburg who was visiting Munich as well, and we agreed to meet at the Hofbräuhaus after Jen and I checked into our hostels.

When we met up, Mike had met some other people too (some were also on RISE, others weren’t), and we ended up with quite a large group. Of course the Munich Hofbräuhaus is probably the most famous beer hall in the world, and despite it being very large (with multiple floors), we decided it was unlikely we’d find seating for all of us, and checked out some of the other beer halls and restaurants in the vicinity. We ended up at an Augustiner beer hall, which was okay because apparently most Munichers prefer Augustiner to Hofbräuhaus anyway. Here I had my first maß, a liter mug of beer. The Augustiner Helles is a very smooth, light beer, so it was actually quite easy to drink a full liter. Traditional Munich beer (as well as most of the old breweries in Germany) abides by the traditional Bavarian Purity Law, which specified that beer could only include three ingredients: water, barley, and hops. When yeast was discovered, that was added as a fourth ingredient. This simple ingredient list results in very smooth, easy to drink beer. Of course I didn’t just have a liquid dinner, I also had some shweinebraten, a traditional Bavarian pork roast with potato dumplings. After dinner we grabbed ice cream for dessert, and about half of the original group went to another bar, for another half-liter of beer. Our group continued to dwindle in size, until just Mike and I headed to a second bar for a third beer. It was great being in Bavaria, which could be rightfully considered the beer capital of the world, and I had three different types of beer: helles, dunkel, and weißbier. After a night of Bavarian beer drinking, I returned to my hostel for some sleep.

In the morning I had a quick breakfast at the hostel, and caught the free (for tips) tour of Munich (by Sandeman’s, the same company I took a free tour with in Copenhagen). The three hour tour took us all around the downtown area of Munich, and our tour guide was great at explaining the history of Munich, which usually involved beer. We started with the glockenspiel at the rathaus (city hall), which our tour guide loathed, and described as the second most overrated and boring tourist attraction in Europe, after the astronomical clock in Prague. I don’t necessarily agree with him, I found the little puppet show complete with a jousting match between knights from Bavaria and Austria, kind of cute, but the glockenspiel bells were horribly out of tune. The guide explained that the city sent the bells to a company in the Netherlands to be fixed, but they returned in even worse condition. Next we went to Munich Frauenkirche, a church, which according to legend was built with help from the devil, who angrily left his footprint by the entrance after being tricked by the architect. It’s strange how many churches in Europe have legends involving the architects making deals with the devil, including a church in Lübeck and Notre Dame in Paris. This church in Munich featured an icon of a menorah on the roof, as the church allowed Jews to hide in the basement during the Holocaust, and therefore has a strong connection to the Jewish community in Munich. Additionally, the church towers were spared in WWII because the allies used them as a landmark to find the Munich city center, and purposely avoided bombing them.

The tour continued to show us major historical sites in the area, and our tour guide told us crazy stories involving Munich and beer. In one instance the city was actually saved from Swedish invaders by making a deal to surrender several thousand barrels of beer to the invaders. However, beer sometimes caused problems too. A government official once suggested extinguishing a fire with beer (because it was in greater supply than water), but the men preferred to drink the beer or steal the barrels, and failed to put out the fire. Our tour guide also explained the history of the Hofbräuhaus, including why the first floor is referred to as the “wash” (ask me if you’re interested, but I warn you it’s pretty gross). There was also the story of the miraculously unbroken beer stein. After the cross fell off a church tower, it was easy to find a fearless volunteer to climb the tower and replace it at the Hofbräuhaus. This volunteer climbed the tower without even putting down his stein, and after putting the cross on in the wrong direction, dropped his stein. It fell to the street, but did not shatter. The church proclaimed this a miracle. Our tour guide also explained Hitler’s gradual rise to power in Munich, and his failed putsch attempt. Of course, even this involved the Hofbrähaus, and perhaps it wouldn’t have failed if it weren’t for some irresponsible Nazi beer drinkers.

After the tour, I climbed up the Alter Peter church tower, which provided me with an excellent view of Munich. After this I had just a little more time to walk around Munich and see some sights, such as the Siegestor, that I did not see on the tour. I then had to catch my train back to Lübeck. My pictures from my weekend in Munich (not including Dachau) are here.

Monday was my last day of work, and I started working on a final report and said goodbye to my supervisor and colleagues. On Tuesday I got up early to head downtown one last time to close my bank account, as well as to do some touristy things I had not done in Lübeck. I went up the tower in St. Peter’s Church, which provided me with a great view of Lübeck. I also visited the museum in the Holsentor, which had many artifacts from medieval Lübeck, when it was the capital of the Hanseatic League. I also took the tour of the rathaus (city hall), but the tour was only offered in German, and I found it rather slow and boring, especially since I couldn’t understand the tour guide. I biked around the city a bit, and had my last currywurst for lunch. I also finally bought some marzipan from the famous Niederegger store to take home.

After returning to the guesthouse to finish packing, I was invited out to the Paulaner Munich-style restaurant in Lübeck, which I often walked by and wanted to go to. I went out with Bruno (from Brazil), Mete (from Turkey), Rodrigo (from Chile), and Stephan (a German friend of Bruno’s). Since it was my last night, I splurged and spent almost all of my remaining money. I had another maß of beer (this is probably the only place to get the in Lübeck), but I chose the weißbier (Paulaner weißbier is one of my favorite German beers), which is a heavier beer, and I realized is harder to drink in such a large amount, compared to something like a helles. It didn’t help that I ordered both a large schnitzel dish and a soup (it was shwarze beer soup, which sounded way too good to not try, and it was delicious). I left with only about €5 to my name, but the guys insisted on going out for one last drink and agreed to pay. They picked an Irish pub, so my last beer in Germany was actually a Guinness, which is quite silly, but at least I had a maß of German beer too. Finally we returned to the guesthouse, and met up with Mohammed and Ahmed as well (who are always up late during Ramadan). I really wanted to get some sleep before my flight, but I spent a while longer hanging out with my friends before catching a few hours of rest before my morning commute. My remaining pictures in Lübeck have been added to my Lübeck album here.

In the morning I got up very early to catch the 6:30 bus to the train station and started my journey home. Luckily I was able to get some food despite my limited money, I found a cheap cinnamon roll in Hamburg, and was able to use my US currency to get Burger King (a little welcome back to America, I suppose) in Dublin. Now I’m nearly home! I’m flying over Maine, only 198 miles from Boston, and should be arriving in half-an-hour. This trip went by really quick, but it was great have an international work experience and meeting so many friends from all over the world. While I have missed some things from home, it has been great travelling Europe and experiencing different cultures. I hope to return to Europe sometime soon!

P.S. As a final note, I’m looking at the map of our location on the plane, and now that it’s zooming into New England, I’m noticing New England towns named after German cities such as Berlin and Bremen, I never heard of those towns in the U.S. before.

A Weekend in Paris

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent this past weekend in Paris. One of Rui's colleagues from her lab drove us from Lübeck to the train station in Hamburg, and we caught the night train to Paris. We travelled in a "couchette" car, which has rooms with two triple bunk beds for six people. We coincidentally shared the room with Prajwal, a RISE Pro student (another DAAD program for grad students to have industrial internships in Germany) from India (and a grad student in the U.S.) who apparently was at the Dresden meeting with us. We also shared the room with an Indian IBM employee temporarily working in Hamburg and touring Europe, as well as a couple who I think were Norwegian and German, if I recall correctly. Prajwal was really interesting because he's a more adventurous traveler than most, and shared his stories and photographs. He often avoid trains and hostels, opting instead to hitchhike and find shelter using couchsurfing.com. Rather than only visiting European cities, he hiked to some of the most beautiful sights in the world, including glaciers and a secluded mountain in Norway (Kjerag) where there is a boulder wedged between two cliffs. He had some great photographs of him standing on the boulder, I'm a bit jealous of his experiences.

After getting some sleep on the train, we arrived in Paris in the morning (albeit about half an hour late). After figuring out how to buy a ticket, we hopped on the metro and met up with Rui's friend Rosie, who is working at the Pasteur Institute for the summer. Rosie managed to hook us up with a free place to stay, as her friend who was away for the weekend graciously lent us their flat. After dropping off our stuff, Rosie started showing us around Paris. After a brief stroll through the gardens near the flat, we took a walk by the river towards Notre Dame Cathedral. The sides of the bridge over the river near Notre Dame were covered with padlocks with the names of couples written on them. I've seen similar displays on other bridges in Europe, including in Lübeck, but none had as many as this bridge in Paris. We did not brave the long line to enter Notre Dame, but we admired the intricate gothic architecture from the outside. We continued exploring and found a piano available to the public as part of a campaign called "Play Me I'm Yours," and Rosie played a little piano for us. We soon made our way to  Le Marais, which is apparently both the gay and lesbian district and the Jewish district of Paris. Here we grabbed some falafel and ate it in a little park.

After lunch we continued exploring, admiring the grand architecture of the city. We found a public viewing of the Olympics, with red phone booths bringing a taste of London to Paris, but we did not stay for long. We soon found another park to relax in for a little while (Rosie had a problem with her foot and needed to stop and rest every now and then).

Eventually we made our way to the Louvre. I wasn't able to go into the museum, but I was amazed at how large the Louvre is from the outside. You could probably spend a whole week in the museum. By the Louvre I had my first glance of the Eiffel Tower from a distance. We planned to have a picnic by the Eiffel Tower, and soon found a grocery store to buy food for dinner. We bought a bottle of champagne (technically it was only sparking wine because it was a cheap bottle, and not actually from Champagne, France), some salami, chocolate, and some sort of pâté (I think it was duck meat). We found a bakery and bought their last two baguettes, and found a spot to sit in the grass near the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately the sunny weather we had all day changed into ominous clouds, but we had enough time to eat our food and drink our champagne before the rain came down. We waited for the rain to stop under a covered platform, and from there we saw the tower light up as it got dark. Lights quickly flashed on and off at different positions on the tower, causing the Eiffel Tower to glimmer. After the rain stopped, we headed back to the flat to change before going out again for the evening. We went to an outdoor club where we met some of Rosie's other friends. One of her friends was from Connecticut and had worked on a project involving EEG-based BCIs, very similar to what I am working on here (if you're wondering, I have so far failed to get good results, and now have less than a week to change that).  We did not stay at the club too late because we were very tired after walking all day (and strangely, the music outside stopped before 1 AM, even though most European clubs do not become busy until after 1).

On the first Sunday of every month all the museums in Paris are free, so we thought we might be able to go to the Louvre, although I expected it to be very crowded. Unfortunately, I had an alarm clock malfunction, and slept a couple hours later than I planned. After finally getting up, Rui and I first went to the Arc de Triomphe. The Arch is in the middle of a large traffic circle (Place Charles de Gaulle), and at first we didn't notice the underground tunnel to get to the arch, so we waited for a break in the traffic and ran across. We climbed to the top of the Arch, where we had a magnificent view of Paris. Twelve major roads meet at the traffic circle (and radiate out like a star), so the Arch feels very much like the center of the city. We had a great view of the Eiffel Tower, as well as the modern business district, La Défense, with its ultra-modern Grand Arche (built in the '80s). I also liked watching the large traffic circle below; I saw both a Lamborghini and Ferrari drive by, and was amazed by what I can only call "organized chaos" as traffic passed through the circle.

After visiting the Arc de Triomphe, we planned to meet up with Rosie again by the Louvre. Unfortunately, the lines for the museum were very long, and I did not have enough time to wait. We tried another art museum nearby, only to find lines that were just as long, if not longer. We gave up on the museums, and instead found a place to eat crepes for lunch. After lunch we took the Montmartre funicular (incline) to a hill in the northern part of the city. There we saw Sacré-Cœur Basilica, as well as a great view from the highest point in the city. We saw the nearby Moulin Rouge, and I grabbed a donut from a bakery and a panini. Soon Rosie had to go, and I did not have much time left before my train. Rui and I took the metro to Place de la République, but the square was under construction, so there wasn't too much to see. We sat in a park for a while before heading to the train station. There I said goodbye to Rui, before boarding my train back to Lübeck.

On the train I found that I was once again sharing a room with the IBM employee from India (I admit I forget his name, but he was very friendly). I also shared the room with a girl from Buenos Aires and a woman and child from Sweden (although the woman was originally from France). There was another guy in the room, I think he was French, but he did not seem interested in conversing with us. In the morning, the train arrived to Hamburg 80 minutes late, but I eventually made it back to Lübeck, getting to work very late. I spent a lot of time on trains this weekend, but it was great to visit Paris. You can see my pictures here.

This is my last full week in Lübeck, my trip has gone by very fast. This Friday I will take another night train to Munich, and I will return to Lübeck one last time Sunday night. Next Monday will probably be my last day of work, and I think I will spend Tuesday morning in downtown Lübeck for the last time, before heading to Hamburg. I will hopefully spend the night in Hamburg with another RISE intern, and then I will fly home Wednesday morning. It's crazy that soon I need to start preparing for my final two semesters at Pitt, but for now I will try to enjoy my last week in Deutschland.

Dresden and Prague

Well, I failed to stick to my normal blog schedule, so I’m writing this post while on a train (with some editing later). Last week I went to Dresden for the RISE conference and then to Prague for the remainder of the weekend. This was Rui’s last week in Lübeck before leaving for Paris to visit a friend before returning home. Somehow she managed to convince me to come with her for the weekend, so I’m writing this while on my way to Paris. Paris is the furthest I’ve travelled (quite far for a weekend trip by train), so this is my first trip on a CNL (city night line) train. The night line trains have rooms with “couchettes,” which are like triple bunk beds to sleep in, so hopefully I’ll get some sleep before arriving in Paris tomorrow morning.

Going back to last week, I woke up early Thursday morning to catch the train to Dresden with Rui and Amanda. After weeks of very mild weather, summer finally hit Germany, and the temperature was very hot. We took a crowded, uncomfortable EC train (EuroCity) train, which was continuing all the way to Budapest (I think the train was from Hungary), to Dresden. We had difficulty finding seats without reservations, but we eventually arrived in Dresden, and after giving up on trying to figure out Dresden’s poorly marked S-bahn trains we walked to the hostel. When we arrived we got to experience something glorious and unusual on this trip: free lunch! After weekends of travelling on a budget, I was grateful to have good German food offered for lunch, and I got to eat with many other RISE students. I saw other interns I previously met in Hamburg and Berlin, and met many other interns, while eating spätzle, served like macaroni and cheese.

After lunch, most interns stayed at the hostel and waited for the bus to the conference, but I chose to leave with a group of people who wanted to instead walk to the conference, and explore the city along the way.  All I really knew about Dresden before coming was that it was firebombed and destroyed in the war (and Kurt Vonnegut witnessed a fellow POW get shot for taking a teapot from the rubble). On the walk I saw many old buildings that had obviously been restored, and many still looked like they had been burnt. I learned later that some of the black stones I saw were not burnt, but rather turned black due to the minerals in the stones. Eventually we made our way to the opening ceremony of the conference, which wasn’t particularly interesting. The room was also quite hot, a common theme of the Dresden trip. This was by far the hottest weekend in Germany since I’ve arrived, and Dresden is much further south than Lübeck. After the opening ceremony, we had yet another free meal! The DAAD invited us to a nice Bavarian-style restaurant, where we had roasted pork (sliced right off the pig) and beer. Later in the evening, a group of us walked around trying to find a biergarten (I still have not been to one), but we unfortunately arrived just as it closed. We continued walking (further and further away from the hostel), but failed to find anywhere too interesting before realizing how tired we were. Most of us eventually turned back to catch some sleep before getting up early for the conference the next day.

The conference was not particularly interesting, and mostly consisted of presentations about graduate school programs in Germany for international students. After the conference we were given a walking tour of the city, which was more engaging. We saw many of the same sights as the day before, but were now given context and history to go with the sights. Dresden had a beautiful protestant church, which was unique for being more extravagant than the city’s Catholic church. Our tour guide shared quite a bit of Saxon history, and the tour was one of the most enjoyable parts of my Dresden trip.

After more free food (breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all included with the conference), many interns headed to a park by the river to relax and drink beer, before eventually finding a bar to watching the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. We found an Irish Pub, featuring an Irish man singing songs on guitar, which meant we had to watch the Olympics on mute, but it was still an enjoyable atmosphere (although imported Irish beer is more expensive than German beer). A lot of people were interested in going to a club afterwards, but the club we found had a dress code banning shorts, which everyone was wearing due to the heat in Dresden. I ended up meeting a couple other interns who decided to return to the Irish pub for another drink before returning to the hostel.

In the morning, I got up early again for free breakfast at the hostel. But as most people boarded the buses to the remainder of the conference (additional presentations and a group photo), Rui and I broke away from the pack and returned to the train station to catch a train to Prague. Unfortunately, the train ended up being the same crowded, hot, uncomfortable EC train that we took to Dresden in the first place. We also had to sit near crying babies, but at least we had a beautiful view of the Czech Republic from the window. After a couple hours we arrived in Prague! Prague is a beautiful city, and while Dresden was nice, Prague was the highlight of this trip.

After dropping our stuff off at our hostel, we ventured to the old town, which featured some of the most intriguing medieval architecture I’ve seen. There was some sort of folklore festival going on, and people from many countries were there with flags and costumes representing their culture. We saw churches more lavish and beautiful than the protestant church in Dresden. We found a restaurant for lunch, which was nicer than where we usually eat when travelling. We were spoiled with free food in Dresden, and felt like splurging a bit, but luckily Prague is a fairly inexpensive city. I had goulash and Pilsner Urquell, and we even split an ice cream sundae. We also fell for a trick I heard is common in Europe. Warm bread was put on the table, but it was not free like in the States, and we were charged for it on our bill. Regardless, it was a really good meal, one of the better ones I’ve had in Europe.

After lunch we made our way to Charles Bridge (everything in Prague is named after their most famous king, Charles), an old bridge lined with many statues, and offering spectacular views of the city and river. There were also great street performers on the bridge: a group playing music similar to New Orleans-style Jazz, and a duo performing with musician marionettes. After crossing the bridge, we hiked up to Prague Castle, which is really a complex of buildings from various centuries with various types of architecture. The castle is on a hill west of the main city, and offers an excellent view of Prague. The gothic St. Vitus Cathedral within the castle complex was very beautiful. There was a wedding at the cathedral (I see weddings everywhere I visit in Europe), and we saw the bride getting out of an old car, looking like an actress in an old film.

After returning downtown, we walked by the river, and eventually grabbed dinner at an Italian restaurant, and had pizza with salmon, an interesting topping I wouldn’t normally think of (but I suppose it’s not unlike putting lox on bagels). We eventually returned to our hostel, and while we originally thought we’d go back out and find a bar (there were other RISE interns we hoped to meet up with), we ended up going to bed pretty early due to exhaustion. In the morning we checked out of the hostel and returned to Old Town Square to catch a free (for tips) tour. The tour was given by a very enthusiastic local, who was eager to tell us about the city’s history. She explained the astronomical clock, a functional work of art, which includes a little puppet show every hour during daylight. We got there just in time to hear a bugle call from a trumpet player high up in the tower. We saw another church famous for displaying what is supposedly the 400 year old mummified hand of a thief who tried to steal jewels from the statue of the Virgin Mary. The sculpture supposedly grabbed the thief’s wrist, and would not let go until after the hand was amputated the next day.

The tour ended in Josefov, the small Jewish quarter of the city (and Franz Kafka's birthplace), with several old synagogues. The oldest is the Old New Synagogue, which is famous for the legend of the golem of Prague. According to the legend, Rabbi Loew constructed and brought life to a golem to protect the Jews of Prague from anti-Semitic attacks and pogroms. According to legend, the golem, which was likely an inspiration for stories like Frankenstein, is still stored in the attic of the synagogue. After the tour I returned to the synagogue to go in, but it was quite small and there was not much to see (other than admiring the fact that the building has survived for so many years despite facing years of antisemitism, including WWII, in Europe). The simplicity of the synagogue was a stark contrast compared to the grand extravagance of the Catholic churches we visited. We continued walking around the city, and grabbed Chinese food for lunch before departing Prague to return to Lübeck.

My pictures from Dresden are hosted here, and my pictures from Prague can be found here.

After returning to Lübeck, I realized that the guesthouse is in a constant state of transition with people constantly moving in and out. Of course my friend Akshay left the previous week, and my Russian friends also moved out while I was away. When I returned, I met the new girl living in Akshay’s room, and was surprised to find I was no longer the only American in the guesthouse. I think I am also now the youngest person living here. This week I also finally got to know my neighbor Mohammed and his friend Ahmed, who just moved into the guesthouse for the second time. They are both Egyptian medical doctors practicing in Lübeck. They are both Muslims observing Ramadan, and spend the late evenings (after sunset) in the kitchen feasting and relaxing. Northern Germany is a difficult place to observe Ramadan because of the long summer days (Muslims do not eat while the sun is up during Ramadan), but my Egyptian friends are very friendly and it was nice joining them for post-sunset fruit and tea. Ahmed brought Egyptian tea and mint, grown in his grandmother’s garden, and is eager to share with everybody. While I feel like I’m not meeting too many German people here in Germany, I think it’s great meeting so many international people in the guesthouse.

Now I’ll try to sleep on this train, and tomorrow morning I’ll wake up in Paris! Next weekend I’ll be taking yet another long train to Munich, and then I’ll only have a couple days left in Germany before returning to the States.

A Day In Berlin: DDR, Kunsthaus Tacheles, Olympic Stadium

This weekend I did not have big travel plans like last week in Copenhagen, but I did plan a day trip to Berlin to see some sights I missed out on last time. The general opinion seems to be that it's foolish to go to Berlin for just a day, but I made it work.

I took an early train and arrived in Berlin by 11 AM, but had to meet my travel buddy Rui, who instead took a bus, arriving at the same time but elsewhere in the city. Unlike me, she was planning to stay overnight at a friend's, so after meeting up, we found our way to her friend's flat and briefly relaxed their. For a single dormitory room, her friend's room was really large, with a lot of open floor space. This seemed unusual for a large city. Finally, we were ready to head out, and we eventually found our way to the DDR Museum. This museum of life in East Germany definitely took itself less seriously than most museums, but was still very interesting and fun. I got to sit in a Trabi, see a model East German apartment, pretend to be in an East German jail cell, and sit in a Stasi interrogation room. Here there was a desk with transducer pads, which when you placed your elbows on with your hands over your ears allowed you to hear the sound of interrogating questions (with the vibrations travelling through your arms to your ears). The museum was also filled with everyday objects. Most of it was quite normal, and just outdated, but it was still a neat exhibition of every day life in the communist East Germany. I also was able to listen to some East German music at the museum.

After the museum, we headed towards Kunsthaus Tacheles, an art center which Melissa recommended I visit while in Germany. Of course her recommendation was a good one; there was a lot of neat art here, and we got to see firsthand the after hand of an attempted eviction by the banks. A room on the top floor had been taken over and guarded by the banks between December and May, and the art in the room was completely destroyed. The room was trashed, and while the room has since been reclaimed, the condition has been preserved to show what the bank has done. The Kunsthaus was definitely an interesting cultural center, providing an outlet for an international group of artists to showcase and sell their work.  Near the Kunsthaus we also got to see the "New Synagogue" (New meaning built in 1859-1866). Most of the building was destroyed by the end of WWII and had to be rebuilt, but regardless, this was definitely one of the most beautiful synagogues I've seen.

Next we hopped on a train and headed West of the city to the Olympiastadion, which was built by the Nazis for the 1936 Olympics. The 1936 Olympics are famous for the fact that Hitler tried to prove his whole "Aryans are the master race" thing, but a group of black American athletes such as Jesse Owens, and John Woodruff (an alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh), ruined that by stealing numerous gold medals from the Nazis (four in the case of Owens). Jackie Robinson's brother Mack won a silver. I'll have to look for John Woodruff's medal on display at the Hillman Library when I return to Pittsburgh in August.


Behind the stadium there was a tower which provided a great view of Berlin. We were on the far west end of the city, but we were able to see the whole city to the East from the tower, it was a great view.


After visiting the Olympic park, I had just enough time to look for Schloß Charlottenburg, the largest palace in Berlin. While it was too late to go in or even close to the palace, we were able to see it, and found that there was a Duckstein festival right by the palace. We ate some flammkuchen (like a thin pizza) and pommes (french fries), and heard some live music. I had just enough time to visit the four sights I hoped to see in my trip, before heading back to the train station. I've added pictures from Saturday to my previous Berlin album here.


After getting back late from Berlin, I slept in Sunday morning. However, after finally getting up I got a text from Billy, another American that I met in Hamburg at the 4th of July barbecue. He was coming to Lübeck with some friends of his and wanted to meet up. Akshay and I biked downtown and met up with the group. They were finishing lunch when we met them, but after that we showed them a little bit of Lübeck, (the Rathaus (city hall), St. Mary's Church, and Holstentor). After relaxing in the field by Holstentor for a while, we decided to go to the beach in Travemünde (the weather has finally started to become summery here in Lübeck, although it's still not nearly as warm as home). Conrad, an Australian working at Airbus, had a car, and we drove to Travemünde. Once we found a parking spot, we walked to the beach, only to find yet another festival going on (I swear I find at least one every single weekend here in Germany, no matter where I go). This one had something to do with sailing (racing I think). We sat on the beach for a while and enjoyed the sun. While this would have been a mediocre beach day at home (it just wasn't warm enough to be perfect), the weather was about the nicest we've had here, so it was great to be at the beach. Of course in Germany, you can enjoy a beer on the beech too (and I also bought a bratwurst from the festival). I added some more pictures from Sunday to my Lübeck/Travemünde album here.


Tonight was Akshay's last night in Lübeck, so we met up downtown with Rui and bought some falafel and döner to eat by the Holstentor. For the second day in a row, I enjoyed good weather and relaxed by the beautiful medieval Holstentor. Tomorrow morning I'll have to say goodbye to my friend Akshay; it's sad that my friends here are now starting to leave. 


I have two more days of work this week (I'm finally starting to get a bit more done, I've been developing a program that simulates a BCI with prerecorded data to control the hand, and hopefully I'll eventually develop one that works while acquiring EEG data in real time), and on Thursday morning I'll head to Dresden for the RISE conference. After the conference on Saturday I'll be heading to Prague for the remainder of the weekend. It's hard to believe, but after this weekend, I'll only have two left in Germany. I haven't started planning much yet, but I think I'll do a weekend trip to Munich in two weeks, and my last weekend I will probably spend here in Lübeck (something I've never done before, I've travelled at least one day every weekend!). 

A Hygge Weekend in København

After my lab's day out last Tuesday (where I left off last time), the remainder of last week was fairly uneventful. Bruno, my Brazilian friend in the guesthouse, bought a grill, so we had a couple barbecues which were fun, and I made tasty grilled chicken (the stores here sell really good marinated chicken). On Friday, I left work early so that I could catch a 6 PM train to Copenhagen (København in Dansk) with Rui, Akshay, and Sam.

 We got on the train only to discover that it was the most crowded train any of us had ever been on. While we initially hoped to find four seats together, when we boarded we realized we might not get seats at all. We initially had to sit on the ground by the doors, which was uncomfortable, and we had to move whenever people walked by. Eventually, we split up and took random seats (except Sam, who probably could have found a seat, but chose to just sit by the door the whole time).

 After taking a seat, I met yet another Canadian and a Danish claymation artist who produces short films for his company Porkfish. He showed us several of his video clips, which were incredibly detailed for claymation, and then he showed us his new 20 minute film, which he spent two years working on, and is submitting to film festivals. I usually don't meet people on trains, so this was definitely my most interesting train ride.

In addition to meeting people on the train, there is also another unique thing about trains from Germany to Denmark, which probably also explained why there were few seats available. The train had to be smaller than other trains travelling between big cities, because the entire train fit on a ferry. The ferry crosses the Fehmarn Belt between Germany and Denmark. It was neat getting off the train inside a ferry, and taking a break from the train to stand on the top deck as we crossed over to Denmark.

Eventually we arrived at the train station in Copenhagen and met up with Vishal, another RISE student interning in Greifswald. We walked to our hostel to drop off our stuff. The four of us from Lübeck shared a nice private room in the hostel, and Vishal had a bed in the mixed dorm of the same hostel. After dropping off our stuff, we went out to explore a little bit and check out some bars for Danish beer (Carlsberg and Tuborg). We went the last weekend of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, and we found a bar that had a jazz band playing, but the beer was too expensive (Copenhagen is an expensive city), so we didn't stay too long. We found another bar where we were able to play foosball, dance, and drink more reasonably priced beer, which was fun.

In the morning, Rui, Akshay, Vishal, and I went on a free walking tour of the city, while Sam went exploring on his own. If anyone reading is planning to travel to major European cities at some point, I highly recommend New Europe Tours. The tour guides work only for tips, and give really good, thorough tours. Our guide was actually an American master's student studying in Copenhagen, but she was quite knowledgable and shared lots of great stories. She shared interesting stories about Denmark's role in WWII. While the country surrendered to Germany a mere 2 hours after invasion, Danish people, including King Christian X, continued to protest in some way throughout the war. And of course, Neils Bohr made sure Sweden would offer political asylum to the Danish Jews before agreeing to work on the Manhattan Project, saving 8,000 Jews. 99% of Denmark's Jewish population survived the Holocaust. Our tour guide taught us the Danish word "hygge" (the closest pronunciation an American can do is probably "huga"), which has no direct translation in English, but combines concepts such as coziness and solidarity. Because of hygge, Danes felt a sense of solidarity with the Jews during WWII, which led to the population being saved from the Nazis.

On the tour we saw a lot of great sights in Copenhagen, including the Christiansborg Palace, which houses the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of Denmark (the only building in the world to house all three branches of a country's goverment), and Amalienborg Palace, the home of the Danish royal family. I also noticed some great street musicians while I was on the tour, some of them were affiliated with the jazz festival.

After the tour we met up again with Sam and headed to the Church of Our Savior for the best view in Copenhagen. The spiral church spire was built 260 years ago in 1752, and a climb up the building, you can climb up a staircase on the outside of the spire. This was a bit terrifying (it was windy up there, and while I didn't know exactly when it was built when I was there, I knew it was old), but the view was incredible. After admiring the great view, we headed to Freetown Christiana, which Wikipedia describes as an anarchist community. The residents of the area, which was once owned by the Danish military, claim that Christiania is not part of the EU. Here we got to see a reggae band doing a soundcheck for a concert later in the evening, and eat some shawarma (which was prepared pretty much just like döner in Germany, but smaller because Denmark is more expensive).

After we headed back towards our hostel, briefly stopping by Rosenborg Castle, but the premises were closed so we had to return in the morning. After resting for a while, we went to another bar that had been recommended to Sam as one of the cheaper ones in Denmark, where we danced for a while. We agreed to check out a show affiliated with the jazz festival, but rather than jazz we ended up seeing an electronic musician, Nosaj Thing, that Sam wanted to see. At this point most of us were really exhausted, and I didn't really enjoy the music. Finally we returned to the hostel for some sleep.

On Sunday morning we split up again since we wanted to see the sights Sam saw the day before, and vice versa. We walked around Rosenborg Palace, but could not afford to go inside (in addition to Denmark being expensive, they use Danish Kroners instead of Euros, and we barely exchanged enough money). Next we saw the botanical gardens, which weren't quite as interesting as in Hamburg, but were still nice (and they had butterflies). We then visited Kastellet, a historical fort and memorial to Danish soldiers, before heading to the port to look for one of the city's big tourist attractions, a statue of the Little Mermaid. We walked a bit too far north, and first found a statue of a big mermaid, before eventually finding the actual statue, surrounded by tourists. While the statue has a history of vandalism for various protests, I didn't really see what made it so famous compared to the many, many other statues in the city. For example, we soon found the Geffion Fountain, an epic statue of the Norse goddess Gefjun driving oxen in a large fountain.

Finally we met up with Sam again and visited the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, an art museum notable for its extensive ancient collection. I didn't have time to see the whole museum, but I saw much of the Greek, Roman, and Etruscan collection, including many heads from Roman sculptures (I joked that we were in the head museum) and a lot of ancient pottery. We had to leave the museum early to pick our stuff up from the hostel and find some food before catching our train (despite being nearly out of Kroners). Luckily we found some cheap food: Burger King (which was pretty much the same as in the U.S.) and Nutella crepes. Apparently Sam and Vishal got to try a type of sandwich that Denmark is known for, but the rest of us never found them. Unfortunately, I didn't really get to enjoy Danish cuisine on my short trip (in addition to Burger King we also had a cheap brunch from 7-11, although I did have a good sandwich for lunch on Saturday); my advice to anyone travelling to Copenhagen is to prepare for the expensive city by bringing more money than you think you need so you can actually experience everything you want to in the city.

Finally, we had to catch our train back to Lübeck. We first got onto a car in which all the seats were reserved, and while I initially took a seat, it was reserved from the second stop and I was promptly kicked out. I resigned to sitting by the doors again with Sam, but when the conductor came by, he told us that there were seats in a car on the other side of the train, and we eventually were all able to sit together (other than Akshay, who took a later train). We enjoyed another ferry ride (I remembered my camera this time, and the weather was really nice, although very windy at the front of the boat), and eventually returned to Lübeck. Vishal came with us to Lübeck so that he could stay with us overnight (Akshay has an extra bed) and explore Lübeck the next morning (he got the day off work). We had some late night döner downtown (just about the only place open late in Lübeck) before returning home for some sleep.

Copenhagen was really beautiful, as you can see in my pictures here. I think I came back with a cold, but hopefully I'll get over it soon (I'm already feeling better). Next weekend I'm planning to take a day trip to Berlin to see some more sights I didn't get to see last time. The following week is the RISE conference in Dresden, on Thursday-Saturday (July 26-28th). After the conference ends Saturday afternoon, it sounds like I'll be taking a train to Prague, and returning to Lübeck Sunday night. I initially wasn't expecting to make it to Prague, but it's not very far from Dresden, so there's no good reason not to go. After Dresden and Prague, I only have a couple weekends left before returning home. By then, most of my friends will already be gone, which I'm not looking forward to. But hopefully I'll meet up with other RISE people during my last two weekends. I'm hoping to make a weekend trip down to München (Munich) before leaving, as I have not had a chance to see southern Germany yet.

Hamburgers in Hamburg

It's been over a week since I last posted, and I've kept busy. I've been so busy, in fact, that I'm really exhausted now, but I'll write about my past week, perhaps with slightly less detail than usual.

On Wednesday (the 4th of July), after work, Rui and I caught a train to Hamburg (which is 40 minutes away by train, not counting the commute by bus to the train station). We met up with some other RISE students in Stadtpark for a 4th of July/Canada Day (there were actually probably more Canadians there) BBQ. We took an s-bahn from the train station, but the directions I wrote down weren't the best (we got off a stop too early), so we had to walk over a mile to the park, but we eventually found the other RISE students (and some RISE-wannabes, one actually didn't get into the program but independently organized an internship with the same supervisor he wanted to do RISE with). One of the other RISE interns in Hamburg is also an engineering student at Pitt.

I brought some bratwursts, and the Hamburg interns brought a tiny disposable grill, steak, beer, and "American-style hamburgers" (which were awful). I can now say I've eaten hamburgers in Hamburg, but those American-style hamburgers were probably the worst I've ever had. German grocery stores seem to like to sell really cheap products labelled as American-style. They often sell really cheap white bread under names like "America's Finest." Even chocolate-chip cookies are sold as American. Despite the bad burgers, it was nice meeting all of the RISE interns in the nearby city of Hamburg, and it was nice to celebrate the 4th of July (and Canada Day) with a group of other North Americans. The brief visit to Hamburg was also a teaser for the following weekend.

On Saturday morning Rui and I again travelled to Hamburg to see more of Germany's second biggest city. We picked a good day to go, because this weekend was the Schlager Move festival, a huge festival for Schlager music, a type of pop music associated with the '60s. People at the festival wore colorful costumes, which seemed to blend hippie and disco culture, consisting of bright neon wigs or afro wigs, sunglasses, and various disco-style suits. The festival was near the Reeperbahn, which is Hamburg's red light district. Although risque, the Reeperbahn is the most vibrant part of the city, and perhaps the most popular destination in the city. While most stores in Germany do not stay open very late at night, the Reeperbahn is lined with bars and clubs that stay open all night long, and the area attracts so many people at night that even the grocery store is open 24 hours. This is also the area where The Beatles used to play before they became big, when they were only 17-18 years old. During the early afternoon we explored the Reeperbahn area before watching the Schlager Move festival for a while (which was larger than we imagined, it looked like there were at least three simultaneous parades).

After leaving the festival we walked to the city's botanical gardens. We got caught in a thunder storm and took shelter under a bridge by the gardens for a while, but then the sun came out again, and we saw lots of flowers covered with raindrops. We found really cool games at the gardens: one where you had to use a mounted water gun to push a ball suspended a string into a basket (kind of like basketball), and another one that was like soccer (or I guess water polo), and the water guns had to be used to push a ball in the pool into a goal.

After the botanical gardens, we took a subway back to our hostel, which was not far from the Reeperbahn area. We tried to find dinner near the Reeperbahn, but the area mostly only had bars that seemed to only serve drinks, and fast food type places, and we already had döner for lunch. We decided to take another subway to the downtown area near the central train station, where we settled on a Chinese restaurant.

After dinner, we headed back to the Reeperbahn, and met up with Taylor, another American RISE student, and Jakob, a RISE student who is originally from Hamburg (but moved to the U.S., making him eligible for RISE). The four of us visited several bars and clubs in the area. Of course Germans nightlife doesn't really start until 1 AM, so it took a while for the clubs to fill up, but the area was still crowded because of the Schlager Move festival. Because Europeans tend to party so late, a popular thing to do in Hamburg is stay up all night at the bars and clubs and then head to the city's famous fish market, which opens from 5-9 AM on Sundays. It seems that the market is only able to thrive at such an early hour from people that have been up all night long, because few people would be able to get up in time before it closes at 9 AM. Some people have suggested not even bothering to get a hostel in Hamburg, since it is so common to simply stay up all night long, but I assumed we would not have the energy to do this. However, I was right, the vibrant community really does make it pretty easy to stay up all night long, and the fish market is a great way to end the night. If you're concerned about safety, I did not drink too heavily so that I could make sure my friends and I stayed safe and aware, and the area really did seem very safe, simply filled with a lot of people wanting to have a good time. We had fun dancing in the club all night before having our morning fish sandwich. After the fish market, Rui and I headed back to the hostel to catch some sleep. We had to check out by 11 AM, and we probably checked out at about 10:59 AM after getting as much sleep as we could. We then headed back to Lübeck because we were still too tired to spend Sunday continuing to explore the city. Despite not spending Sunday afternoon in the city, we still got to see most of the city on Wednesday and Saturday (plus the day I arrived in Germany), and I think staying up all night in Hamburg was a great experience. You can see my pictures from Hamburg here.

Yesterday in Lübeck I met four Russian medical students who moved into my building. They are some of the friendliest people I have met, but only one of them speaks English. The other three speak German, and one was making a serious effort to pick up English last night despite not studying it, which really impressed me. By then end of the night we were communicating pretty well despite the language barrier. I met them when they were eating dinner in the kitchen, and they offered me some of their extra food. Later we played some card games, which were ideal for people not speaking the same language, and was a lot of fun. One used a special set of cards and involved matching similar looking shapes and racing to grab a wooden totem, which was fun and easy to learn without everyone speaking the same language. The other game was a variant of B.S. using a regular set of cards, and the Russians were able to count in English, which made it easy for us (although we probably should have tried German), although some of the Russians kept getting confused with the words king, queen, and jack. Overall, it was a fun night hanging out with these new friends. On one hand, I was getting used to the fact that everyone in this building spoke English, and most also didn't speak German. But I also had very few friends here (most people who live here are quite a bit older, they're mostly all PhD and MD students, and many of them already have families), so it's nice that there are some really friendly people living here now, despite the language barrier.

Today my lab took a day off for some cross-country cycling, archery, and a barbecue. A week ago I finally went ahead and purchased a bike, but it's pretty embarrassing. It's pink, only has one gear, and the back brake works by pedaling backwards; there's only a handle brake for the front wheel. Despite this bike being terrible, virtually everyone owns one here, and it's nice finally having one as it makes it a lot easier to get around. However, my bike was not designed for the trip we took today. We biked through farmland and woods to a lake south of Lübeck. The trails we biked on really required a mountain bike, and mine is about as far from a mountain bike as it gets. However, my bike and I somehow survived the trip (although I had to push it through some muddy trails), and we eventually ended up at an archery place near campus. Here we had an archery lesson (most people had never done it before), and at first, despite not doing it in about 4 years or so, I was pretty good. However, the people giving the lessons then told me I was doing a few things wrong, and I seemed to get worse after that. The fact that we were drinking beer probably didn't help so much either. At around 5:00 we finally had the barbecue that I thought was going to be for lunch. I bought some bratwurst to grill, but most people brought steak or chicken. They sell pre-marinated chicken here that looks really good, but I expected bratwurst to be normal barbecue food here. I also brought some chips, but I learned that apparently bringing chips to a barbecue is an American thing. While I couldn't take any pictures while I was on the bike, I took a few pictures during the day, and added them to my Lübeck album here.


Now I'm looking forward to Friday, when I'll be leaving after work to head to Copenhagen for the weekend with Rui, Akshay, and Sam. I found out another RISE intern, Vishal, will be going too, and we'll be meeting him in the train station when we get to Copenhagen.

Food, Football, Friends, Hannover, and Travemünde

Well it's been a week since I've last posted, and I've definitely kept busy, and I've also been planning my trips for the next month as well. It's weird, the friends that I've met here have all been here longer than me, so they're already starting to count down their remaining days. I'm already about 1/3 into my stay in Germany, and we've all realized that every weekend really counts. So far I think I've been doing a good job at making the most of my short stay, and I'm glad that I've made some really good friends here, although I'm not looking forward to them leaving a couple weeks before me.

Last week I decided I wanted to get my friends together to cook, since we all agree that cooking and eating by ourselves every night is boring and a bit lonely. I planned for us to get together on Wednesday, which ended up being Rui's birthday. I met Rui at the grocery store, where we picked out birthday cake, beer, and wine, and waited for Akshay and Syrena (another American RISE intern who thought she was alone in Lübeck until she discovered me on Facebook the other week). Once the four of us met up, Syrena asked what we were making, and we revealed to her that none of us were good at cooking and we didn't have an idea in mind. Luckily, she exclaimed, "Okay! I got this!" and we discovered she's a good cook! We ended up making nice, thick burgers with cheese, veggies, and curry ketchup. We had marzipan cake for dessert to celebrate Rui's birthday. After eating, Rui, Akshay and I headed downtown to try to catch the end of the Portugal vs. Spain football match. We would have missed the game if it hadn't gone to overtime (due to a 0-0 score until the penalty kicks at the end), but we ended up at a bar where we got to watch the end of the game and celebrate Rui's birthday with drinks.

On Thursday, Rui, Akshay and I met up again to watch the Germany vs. Italy game at the viewing on campus. We ended up showing up a couple minutes late, but somehow we still managed to get seats together in the second row of the auditorium. The game was a disappointment, however, as we lost the semi-final game to Italy 1-2.

If you're wondering what I accomplished in lab last week, I honestly didn't do as much as the week before. I read up on C++, but rather than applying it, I translated code to control the mechanical hand into Matlab, which I finally got (mostly) working today. Hopefully it won't be hard to interface the mechanical hand with the BCI from here. I also have to apply my native English skills to proofread papers by other lab members (including my supervisor) for English grammar.

After finishing a relatively uninteresting week in lab, I had a lot more fun over the weekend. On Friday night, Rui and I headed downtown in an attempt to find what sort of nightlife Lübeck has to offer (I had heard not that much). Of course we arrived downtown too early, and first simply wandered the streets, only finding empty bars. Rui was hungry, and after trying a restaurant which had stopped serving food (it was about 11 PM), we found a döner place that was still open. A couple German guys approached us there (intrigued to hear English-speaking foreigners), and we found out they were going to a club on Hüxstraße, the street we were previously searching for clubs on. We found out the clubs were at the very end of the street, on the edge of the island. We also learned that the clubs generally don't get busy until about 1 AM. We told the German guys (I believe one was named Nikolaus, the other just 'Laus) we'd look for them at Hüx, the club they were going to. After Rui finished her döner, we headed down Hüxstraße, which started to look livelier now that it was later. We found our new German friends (with another girl) standing near the club. They asked the typical "Why did you come to Germany?!," (my answer: "why not?") but the girl had studied abroad in Oklahoma, so I was able to ask the same question. Eventually we went in the club, and our new friends were very generous; one of the guys paid for Rui's cover charge, and then bought both of us a beer. We danced for over an hour, but while the German's may like to stay up all night, I knew I couldn't since I was catching an early train again the next morning. We left a little after 2:15 (The Germans had us take a sip of their Jäger before we said goodbye), and then, since public transit here stops after 12:30, I took a cab in Lübeck for the second time (but first time that I directly interacted with the cab driver). I got home in time to at least get some rest, although I didn't really sleep, before getting up again at 7:30 to go to Hannover.

After forcing myself to get up, I caught the bus to the train station and met up with Sam. After a stop at the Hamburg train station, we caught the train to Hannover, where we arrived at about noon. At the station, we met up up with my friend Alicia, another BioE at Pitt, who is doing the Hannover research program that I originally intended to do. I'm glad I got into RISE, because I found out they were only able to fund three of the five people that were accepted, so my prior acceptance was not a guarantee. The program sounded a bit unorganized, but it is also a long program, so Alicia has been able to plan a lot of travelling across Europe. I picked a good day to visit, because she normally travels every weekend as well.

After a cheap lunch at the station, we started wandering the town. The station extended into a mall-like area, which was very modern and commercialized. We headed to an more interesting sight, the city's Neues Rathaus (New City Hall). While every city in Germany has a Rathaus (city hall), Hannover's, which was built in 1913 (they have an older one that looks more like Lübeck's), was a huge, elegant building. It was as beautiful and interesting as the castles and palaces I saw in Schwerin and Potsdam a couple weeks ago. Inside there were models of the city at four different points in history: 1689 (when Hannover was a small city on an island, much like Lübeck), 1939 (prior to WWII), 1945 (immediately after being destroyed by the war), and today, now that the city has been completely rebuilt half a century later. The model of the destroyed city was very detailed and revealed how devastating the war was to the city. One of the few buildings that appeared intact in the model was the rathaus, despite being the biggest building in the city.

This weekend Hannover had a big festival called Schützenfest, but all we saw was a big carnival that wasn't too interesting. The fun stuff was probably later in the evening, so we continued on. Hannover has a self-guided tour similar to the Freedom Trail in Boston, called the "red thread." A red line is painted along sidewalks, and Alicia had a guidebook explaining the 36 sights along the line. We decided to check out a few sights along the line, notably the house of Leibniz (which I figured my Dad would be excited to hear I saw). Although, apparently the real house was destroyed, along with most of the city, in WWII, and the rebuilt house wasn't even in the exact same location. After grabbing a beer across the street from Leibnizhaus, we continued walking and Sam flipped through Alicia's red thread book. We decided to check out an art museum, which got us out of the sun (it had been very mild here in Germany, but it finally got pretty warm by this weekend). The museum was large, and we spent several hours there. The museum mostly contained modern art, some of which I really liked. There was one room that looked like it could have belonged in a cool '60s apartment, with relatively simple pieces featuring shapes and colors that some might find bland but I really enjoyed.

After leaving the museum, we continued walking around, admiring many of the old buildings (although they probably all had to be rebuilt after the war). We found several groups of people on the street in costumes for bachelor and bachelorette parties. Eventually we found a Mexican restaurant (Mexican food is nearly nonexistent in Germany) for dinner. However, while the restaurant helped to suppress my craving for Mexican food, I have to say that Germans really don't seem to understand Mexican food. I ordered "enchiladas," while Sam ordered "mini-burritos." We were given almost the same meal, which I would describe as neither enchiladas nor burritos. Still, I liked how the items on the menu were in Spanish, which I could mostly understand, but the descriptions were in German, which I mostly could not understand. After dinner, we headed back to the train station, and Sam and I said goodbye to Alicia and headed back to Lübeck. While it was a short day trip, it was nice to see yet another Pitt student (the fourth I've seen in the 3 weeks I've been here), and it was neat seeing the city where I originally expected to spend my summer. You can see my pictures from Hannover here.

After returning from Hannover, I caught up on much needed sleep, and slept until 1 PM on Sunday! Sunday was the first weekend day I've spent in Lübeck. I took a quick walk around campus (I normally only walk to lab and back, so there are still parts of campus I haven't explored), but at around 6 Rui called me to see if I wanted to go Travemünde Strand, a beach north of Lübeck on the Baltic Sea. Unfortunately, on our way there the weather became cloudy and the temperature began to drop. Earlier in the day would have actually been a good beach day, but we went too late. Still, we walked around a little bit, and we each grabbed a beer to enjoy while sitting on a dock at the beach. After an hour-and-a-half we caught a bus back, and decided to have a movie night. This was a wise decision, because the weather became even more ominous, and we got inside just before it started pouring. Hopefully I'll get to go back to the beach on a day with better weather. I added my cloudy beach pictures to my Lübeck album here.

I'm already planning to do quite a bit more travelling too in the next couple weeks. On Wednesday, I'll be taking a train to Hamburg after work to celebrate the 4th of July and Canada Day at a barbecue with some other RISE interns. Rui and I will also be going back to Hamburg this weekend to explore the city more. In two weeks, Rui, Akshay, Sam, and I will all be going to Copenhagen for the weekend. Apparently there's a big week-and-a-half long jazz festival in Copenhagen, which will continue that weekend, and while all the big names are playing before we get there, I'm still excited to see some interesting jazz groups in Denmark. The week after that, I may take a day trip to Berlin to see some more sights that I failed to see during my two days there (it's such a big city!), and the week after that is the RISE conference in Dresden! I definitely have a lot to look forward to this month.

All In All It Was Just Bricks In The Wall (Berlin)

I have now been in Lübeck for a full two weeks, and I'm starting to become settled, or at least about as settled as I expect to be before leaving again. I'll briefly talk about last week from where I left off before talking about my weekend trip to Berlin.


Last week in lab I continued working on my flex sensing glove, finishing it on Friday. It's definitely a prototype, which is fragile and I didn't even test it enough to see if it really works that well (it likely doesn't, the smaller sensors might not bend with the small joints), but at least I verified it was able to control the mechanical hand (which Stephen hasn't finished anyway, only one finger can be independently controlled right now), although perhaps not too accurately. Regardless, I do not wish to continue this project and perfect it, because I want to get experience with the BCI, which I will start working with tomorrow morning.


Coming home from work during the week can sometimes be boring, but for a while I kept having things go wrong at night, which I guess kept me occupied. Early last week I attempted to make canned ravioli as a quick dinner, only to find the can opener in the kitchen was broken, and it took me well over half-an-hour to remove the ravioli from the can. Then, the next night I discovered washing machines are very different here. I tried to wash my clothes, only to discover the machine tried to wash my clothes for several hours, which I later learned is normal here. I eventually cancelled the cycle instead of waiting, only to end up with soaking wet clothes which required 4 dry cycles to dry. Luckily laundry is free here, but next time I'll need to plan ahead now that I know laundry takes much longer here.


Later in the week things went more smoothly and I was also more social after work. On Wednesday I went downtown with Akshay and Rui and we explored some more of downtown that we hadn't all seen before. As I've said, downtown is pretty small and you can explore most of it in a few hours (or less), but nevertheless we still found places to explore. I have since added more pictures to my Lübeck album here. On Thursday night I didn't go out, but I watched a movie with Akshay here in the guesthouse.


On Friday I planned to meet up with Sam to watch the soccer game downtown, but earlier in the day I ran into Bruno, another guesthouse resident (from Brazil), in the kitchen, and he invited me to watch with him too. I ended up hanging out with him, Max (another guy, from Russia, who lives here but is leaving soon), and Bruno's German friend (I think his name was Stephan) in Bruno's room for a while, drinking beer and taking turns playing a soccer game on Bruno's PS3 (he's probably the only person who has a TV in the guesthouse). Thursday was the first time I cooked enough to have leftovers, which were handy as I quickly ate them before leaving with the group to go downtown and meet up with Sam. The 5 of us then headed to a public viewing in a warehouse by the port. When we entered, the security guards stamped our hands "DON'T FORGET TO GO HOME," (in English) which was definitely funny to see when I woke up early the next morning. After the game (which Germany won), the guys convinced me to stay out and we went to a couple more bars (leaving the first after the German pop music annoyed them). Since Lübeck is a smaller city, you can't catch a bus here past 12:30 AM, so the three of us heading back to the guesthouse had to share a taxi. Of course in Germany the taxis are mostly all Mercedes (the main exception being VW vans).


After staying out late, I somehow managed to get myself up early and to the train station to catch a 9:10 train to Berlin. I didn't get any more sleep on the train, but I did spend my time on the train (there and back on Sunday) listening to the Radiolab podcast, which I would highly recommend. Once I arrived at the train station in Berlin, I met up with Andrew, a RISE intern from Scotland who is interning in Karlsruhe. While I didn't get much sleep the night before, he didn't either, because he had to get up at 4 AM to get to Berlin by 11:30 AM from Karlsruhe (in Southwestern Germany). Regardless, we decided not to waste time, and head out into the city. Luckily he brought a guidebook and map, because I came completely unprepared, and Berlin is a huge city!


We were both hungry, but instead of eating the station we walked around the city a bit looking for places to eat. We ended up finding a Chinese restaurant, and I ordered Gong-Bao chicken, which is an alternate spelling of Kung-Pao, but it was a bit different than the Kung-Pao I order at home. There were no peanuts and the sauce was different, but the other ingredients were similar.


After lunch, we walked toward the Reichstag. On the way I called my friend Tommy, a RISE intern in Berlin who also goes to Pitt, but he ended up leaving the city for the afternoon. So Andrew and I spent the weekend exploring by ourselves. We got to the Reichstag, the German parliament building, but we we found out you needed a reservation to get inside. After sitting in the field in front of the Reichstag to rest, we kept walking (toward the Brandenburg Gate) and ended up at an outdoor festival. There were many food and beer vendors, as well as big jumbotrons. I later learned they usually have outdoor viewings of the soccer games there, but there was another big event this day that we discovered a little later. We saw that they were setting up for concerts, which we missed, but I did get to hear a drummer and bassist doing a soundcheck, and they were funky! The bassist was playing an Esperanza Spalding lick that I liked. We found a large foosball table and a guy asked us if we wanted to play. I expected him to want money, but it ended up just being a free game of foosball. We played for a little while, and I scored once but also failed to stop a lot more goals on my side. Still, playing foosball with some strangers in Berlin was some unexpected and fun.


Next we found the Brandenburg Gate, where there were many tourists taking pictures with various people in costume. Some of them were wearing American and Russian military uniforms, while others were in more bizarre costumes such as Darth Vader. There was even a guy in a bear costume, although a bear is on Berlin's flag/coat of arms. By this tourist area, we also saw a really cool break dance group perform. They were actually really talented, and when they finished by playing the ABBA song "Money Money Money" I didn't mind giving them a little.


After seeing the Brandenburg gate, I was determined to find Hansa Tonstudio, a recording studio where in 1977 David Bowie, Brian Eno, and Iggy Pop recorded the albums Low, "Heroes," The Idiot, and Lust for Life. The studio used to be right by the wall as well. We walked through part of the tiergarten on the way there, and ran into a friendly German man who gave us directions and alerted us about the gay pride parade up ahead. Sure enough, after leaving the tiergarten and returning to the city streets, we found that the gay pride parade had just begun, and we ended up in the middle of the crowd. The studio was right by the parade route, and we had to cross the parade to get there. After shoving through the crowd, we ended up with stickers on us, but we soon found the studio. Satisfied that I found the building where a couple of my favorite albums were recorded, we then watched a little more of the parade before continuing on.


Next we decided to walk towards Checkpoint Charlie, which was the checkpoint between the American and Soviet quarters of Berlin, and a critical location during the Cold War. On the way there, we saw a section of the Berlin Wall that was preserved by an outdoor museum called the Topography of Terror. The museum was about Germany under Hitler's Nazi regime, and under the wall stood remains of the basement of the Gestapo headquarters. Next we found Checkpoint Charlie, where we arrived just in time to hear a tour guide discussing the checkpoint, and saw another tour group drive by in loud Trabants, a small car made for decades in East Germany with a two-stroke engine that sounds like a chainsaw. We also saw another tour group go by on a bierbike, which is essentially a mobile bar in which everyone helps pedal, while drinking beer.


Now it was getting later, and Andrew and I were both tired of carrying around our backpacks all day. Tommy, who I was staying with, was on his way back to the city, and Andrew decided to drop his stuff off at his hostel. We were near a u-bahn (subway) station, but the lines didn't go where I needed to go. After a stop or two, Andrew suggested I get off, but now I was alone, without a map, and still had no idea where to go. I studied the transit map in the station, but the map was confusing (Berlin has a lot of trains (u-bahns, s-bahns, plus regional, and there might have even been additional trams)), and I ended up just walking to the main train station, even though I knew the train I needed didn't go there. I tried to call Tommy hoping he could meet me there, but he didn't pick up. When I got to the train station, I ended up getting help from the information desk, caught a train that went through the station I was originally at, to another station where I could transfer to the right line. I finally got in touch with Tommy, who tried to give me directions to his place from the nearest station, but the directions to his place were also very confusing, and he soon met me near the station. Finally I dropped off my bag, and we headed out to meet some of his friends for dinner.


We met one of his friends at another u-bahn station, and expecting his other friends to take a while, we walked to a grocery store to grab some beer to drink while we waited (you can tell that I really like being able to drink beer on the street here). Soon we met up with Tommy's friends, and attempted to find a German restaurant he had been to once before, but the address he looked up was for another restaurant: a rib house. After searching for a while, we realized we were hungry (it was rather late for dinner), and a rib house sounded really good. Andrew met up with us again at the restaurant, and we all enjoyed ribs with potatoes, sauerkraut (which I didn't like at home, but I guess it's better here), and of course beer.


After dinner (which we didn't finish until around 11), we decided to head towards the brandenburg gate, where I saw a concert being set up earlier. However, when we got there we saw everyone leaving because we were too late. Regardless, the gate looked pretty lit up at night, and we stood around and talked while one of Tommy's friends went off to find a friend, and Andrew went with her. We thought they were coming back, but they never did. We didn't mind, because we were having a good time, and met another American, who was trying to meet up with a friend-of-a-friend-of-a....of-a-friend without a working phone (they never met up either), but ended up hanging out with us instead. He was a bit crazy, he told us how he was tackled earlier while trying to cross train tracks near a train station, and accused of terrorism, but he played the ignorant American card. Finally we left, and I Tommy and I headed back to his place.


Saturday night was rough, because Tommy had a very small apartment, and I had to sleep on the wooden floor next to his bed. I packed a towel to lay down over the floor, and a small pillow. He let me use one of his sweatshirts as a blanket (although I eventually just wore it as it got colder later in the night). I didn't get much sleep, but at least I was able to stay in Berlin overnight despite the fact that I waited too long to book a hostel, and hey, it was free.


The next day, I hung out with Tommy and some of his friends, and I didn't end up meeting up with Andrew again. We went to another outdoor museum, which had a border fence and information about the wall, and people escaping from East Berlin. We then went to a large flea market, which was more like an enormous yard sale. A lot of random old junk was being sold, and Tommy said much of it, the bikes in particular, was probably stolen. There was also food being sold there (we originally were planning to grab lunch there), and one guy was smelling spices that smelled amazing even from several feet away. Outside the flea market we briefly watched a band play, but then we left to find somewhere else to grab lunch. We found a döner place, and since I was hungry and knew I'd be on a train during dinner time, I pigged out and had both a döner and currywurst with fries. Tommy and his friends then grabbed ice cream that looked really good at a subway station, but I was too full to have any. I was hoping they'd have the same ice cream at the central train station later, but I didn't find any.


After eating, we headed to the East Side Gallery, which was probably my favorite site in Berlin. This was a stretch of the Berlin wall, probably about a mile long, which had been painted over on one side with various murals. Many of the murals were very interesting, and I took a lot of pictures here. One mural even featured artwork from Pink Floyd's The Wall. Another mural superimposed the Israeli flag onto the German flag. Some of the art was defaced with graffiti, but much of it was very beautiful.


Next we headed back to the Reichstag, because Tommy planned to meet up with more people there and play soccer. I was too physically exhausted to play soccer, but I did throw around a frisbee for a few minutes before leaving to quickly see some more sights with another one of Tommy's friends, who was visiting Berlin for the second weekend in a row from Dresden, before we both had to catch our trains. I briefly visited the Holocaust memorial, an area with a collection of large blocks symbolizing tombs, and then briefly saw parts of the French Quarter and the Berlin State Library. Outside the library is a glass floor, where you can look down to see a room empty (except for empty shelves), symbolizing the missing books destroyed in a book burning by the Nazis. I also saw the location of Hitler's bunker (where he committed suicide). After this final quick tour, I headed back to the Reichstag to meet up with Tommy again, and found him just as he was leaving and it was starting to run. I still had time before my train, and we tried to hang out at a Starbucks, but it was too crowded, so we headed to the train station, where Tommy was able to go grocery shopping (most stores are closed on Sundays, except in the train station, which also functions much like a mall). After he finished shopping, I said bye to Tommy, and waited for my train. I was exhausted after a weekend of little sleep, but I had a great time!


Despite observing that Berlin is probably the dirtiest place in Germany (broken bottles and litter were all over the place), I found much beauty in the city, even in the preserved sections of the wall covered in graffiti. The city is Germany's largest, and I'm sure there was much I didn't get a chance to see. If I have time I'll definitely try to go back before I leave the country. You can see my pictures from the trip here.


After I finally got home, I was exhausted, but I still had to get up in the morning for work, which meant I was tired at work all day (and not too productive, I just spend the day reading articles and a refresher text on C++). I finally caught up on sleep by this morning, but I had to get up early again for an appointment downtown at the immigration office. I had to make this appointment when I registered two weeks ago, but I wasn't sure why, and I found out the other interns did not have to do this. I was asked to bring several documents, including €100, which I planned to ask why I had to pay. When my appointment started, I was first asked for my passport and a passport-sized photo. I had cut out my picture from a printed out copy of my passport, which the woman said was unacceptable, and I had to pay €6 to use a photo booth. After I did this, I gave the woman the rest of my paperwork, and when she realized I was only in Germany for 2 months, she realized she didn't need any of this, and the entire appointment was a mistake. The guy I talked to two months ago apparently thought I was staying for 9 months, not 9 weeks, and scheduled me an appointment for a visa (without telling me what the appointment was for). While I was glad I didn't have to pay €100 to the government (especially since my stipend, from the government, is small to begin with), it was annoying that I wasted my time, plus money on the photos and bus fare. I again didn't do much in lab after returning back to campus, but tomorrow I'll finally start working with the brain-computer interface!


Finally, tonight I felt like I'm finally starting to get the hang of cooking, as I improvised a recipe that actually tasted pretty good, and even had leftovers! I just fried up some sliced potatoes (they came sliced in a box...) and ground beef(/mystery meat?), added it to pasta, with the remainder of my tomato sauce, and then added some random spices/seasonings that were in the kitchen (oregano, thyme, curry, something I couldn't translate that I think was a mix.. I just threw everything in there). It tasted good, and I've learned it's more fun to cook while listening to music and enjoying a beer (yeah I know, you can tell I've been drinking plenty of it here), and a little seasoning can greatly improve the taste of anything. I'm trying to get the other interns to meet after work to shop, cook, and eat together, and perhaps make it a weekly event. We might do that tomorrow night. On Thursday I'll go out to see the soccer game (Germany vs. Italy in the Eurocup semi-finals), and another Pitt student who's interning in Hamburg mentioned he might visit Lübeck on Friday. While yesterday I was figuring I would just relax next weekend (all this travelling is exhausting!), it already looks like I might be visiting Hannover. Clearly, I'm getting better at occupying my time, and hopefully I'll have less boring nights after working in lab all day. While not knowing German still makes living here difficult, I'm definitely starting to become more comfortable here, and it's really great meeting people and travelling around the country every weekend.