Wustrow and the Baltic Sea

This past weekend, I went to the Baltic Sea with Eileen, Sasha (our intern from Moscow, and her parents, who are business partners of ours) and there we met Guenter and his wife, Inna. This part of Germany, that I went to is very famous for its beautiful shores. Because it's from the East, it is also newer and less built up. It is also only 20miles from the Danish shores and 60miles from Sweden.

The land there is really nice, and very similar to Michigan. There are lots of little lakes, and many trees that cover the streets. Als0, there is the Baltic on the otherside. To begin, we left Berlin early in the morning to drive the 2 and a half hours to Wustrow, but that's with Eileen driving her FD Seat Leon, which is quite fast. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for Sasha's parents) there was a lot of traffic, and we couldn't drive any faster than 100km/h. There were pockets of fast driving, but in the end it took us about 3.5 hours to drive there. When we got off the autobahn, the landscape was filled with meadows and cows and pockets of forest. It is amazing how Germany is the most populous country in Western Europe and yet is smaller than France and Italy, and yet retains so much natural land. Well finally we arrived in Wustrow to this small harbor where there were parked only sailboats, no yachts or motorboats. Here is a picture of the sailboat. Its about 8 meters long (about 2 feet). To begin, I helped Eileen and Guenter change the mast to the storm sail so that we wouldn't go so quickly, and that the ride would be quite a bit smoother. We departed the marina using a little honda engine, and then we put up the sail and we were off. I should note that around this village Wustrow their is an large inlet of water, which is basically surround on three sides by land, so the water is much calmer, warmer and shallower than the open Baltic. However, this didn't matter, as we sailed at about 20 knots into the center. I learned that the boat can sail the fastest when the wind is coming from directly behind, but actually from a quarter angle, as the wind is forced between the two sails, and thus basically creates pressure pushing the boat faster. In fact, when the wind blows from behind, the boat can only sail as fast as the wind, but when the wind is from a quarter angle, the boat can travel up to two times faster.
As we turned around the bouey markers, I was resting above getting some sun. We were luckly, because in Berlin it was actually raining, but here, it was sunny and warm. I even got a light tan. When the sail was up, I wouldn't have been able to lie like this, as the boat would be sailing at such an angle that it would be hard to hold one's balance.
After watching Eileen get in the water, I decided to swim (drag) behind the boat as we were sailing at the quick pace. It was a lot of fun I have to say, and not so scary unless you let go of the rope. The problem was though that my swim trunks wouldn't stay on. At least it wasn't only me. It was a really good work out though, because pulling yourself out of the water at such speeds requires a lot of upper body strenght.
Here we are with Inna at the Baltic getting ready to go swimming. The water here was much colder, and it was filled with non-stinging Jellyfish. However, the water was not so salty, not like the Atlantic or Mediterranean. So in all, the baltic is really similar to Michigan's great lakes, and it was a great feeling to be there as it reminded me of home. The one thing you have to be aware of in Germany (especially in the East) is that people are not ashamed of being naked (fully stark naked) on the beach with their families. Most people just sit and play completely naked and go swimming with nothing on. I was a bit put off by this, and found it sort of funny.
In all, I hope to go back to the Baltic as it is really nice and pleasant here. Not so far from Berlin as well. It also means that there is only Northwest Germany that I have still to see, because otherwise I've travelled through the whole country.

Amsterdam, the Netherlands

For a break of Berlin, my roommate Robin and I went to Amsterdam for the weekend, and there I met up with some of my friends from Moscow. There's not much to say to this post, but I have to say Holland is a very impressive country for its size, and that Amsterdam is a very unique city. Peter the Great was also very impressed with Dutch culture, and implemented many reforms to Russia. Amsterdam is known for many different things, but the canals, bikes, and stroop waffles makes it uniquely dutch. We spent three days in Amsterdam, and during that time, we went to the Van Gogh Museum, walked around the Rijksmuseum, rode our bikes through Amsterdam, went clubbing, went out of the city to see some windmills and real dutch people, and lastly saw where Sergei and Pavel studied when they were here 2 years ago.

We walked so much, and also rode our bikes that I was really tired. Amsterdam is tiny in size, but huge in things to see. There are so many canals too that it's really easy to get lost. All the streets look more or less similar.
Here Nastya and I are walked through the Flower Market. There are a lot of tulips in holland, but they also have a many other type of plants, and of course, Nastya being the typical Russian tourist had to bring souvenirs home. The flower market, however, is separate from the other market, which we also went to, and is located more or less in the center of Amsterdam. The regular market, open on Saturdays is located near the Heineken Brewery, and sells everything, (including live lobster and octopuses). Also the weather in Amsterdam is hard to predict, because from minute to minute it changes, so it can change from sunny to rain several times over the course of the day.
Here we are in some village 30km outside of Amsterdam, and yes it's not a suburb, and not even a outlier, but really a village that is not part of Amsterdam. It was really windy here, and unfortunately these old relic windmills don't spin anymore (the blades were chained down), but you could see lots of livestock and cheese farms (really what Holland is known for other than wooden shoes). This village was also on the inlet that goes to the Atlantic so it was pretty windy and chilly. Not the nicest climates to say the least.
Standing at the harbor with Sergei. It was good to see my old friend from Moscow, and spend the weekend with him and Nastya. Actually we all drove back to Berlin, so they got to see the city where I live too.

Not much else to describe about Amsterdam unfortunately.

EU Semi Finals, Russia vs. Spain Berlin Fan Mile.

Sorry everyone that it has taken me this long to put up more posts. These pictures are from about a month ago, but they are definitely worth putting up here. Also, there will be be more posts this week, I promise, as I have Amsterdam and Munich pictures to put up.

So, here I am at the Berlin Fanmile for the Russia vs Spain EUFA cup semi-finals match. This whole championship was crazy for me, as I was rooting for Germany and Russia, and hoping teams like Italy and Turkey would be eliminated. Anyways, I had lost my voice several times, and I had gone to Kurfurstemdamm (the main street in West Berlin) to celebrate the victories.

Here is just a little bit of background information about Berlin. Berlin is the 3rd largest Turkish city after Istanbul and Ankara, and Turks in Berlin are not much liked because of some negative press and habits. Berlin is also the largest German city. Furthermore, there lives almost 300,000 people in Russia, making it bigger than some Russian cities. So everytime the German, Turkish, or Russian teams one, Berlin would come to a crawl, and cars would be honking their horns for hours, people would be waving their flags sitting on the windowsills of their cars as they all tried to make it down to the Kufurstendamm.

I happen to live on the periphery of normal Berlin, but in Altmoabit, which is a prevalently Turkish area. Let me clarify that not all Turkish people are bad, but many uphold current stereotypes. There are very similar to the situation with Mexicans in the US.

On this night, Russia was to play Spain in the semi-finals. The winner of this game would play Germany. For me, this was a huge game, as I really wanted to have Germany play against Russia. Andreas, my roommate, was really excited for Russia, and was impressed with how Russia played against Holland, the favorite of the championships. We walked together through Tiergarten, right in our backyard, to the Brandenburg Gate/Tor. It's only about 2 km from where I live, and took about 15 minutes to walk there. When we got there, there were already a lot of Russians shouting "Davai Rossija" or "Let's go Russia." Everyone was dressed in their tricot jerseys, and most had facepaint and a Russian flag (like me to be more exact). So, we entered the fan mile, and lined up like many others.




In front, you can see the huge screen that was placed up in front of the Brandenburg Tor. In the background you can also see the Alexanderplatz TV tower. Here, although not as full as the Germany games, are thousands of fans lining up to stand. The game lasted only about 2 hours, and Russia played poorly (you probably know this already). However, it was a great experience and something that I will always remember. Maybe next year, Russia will play Germany.


Here is my roommate Andreas converting to a Russian. You might even think that he is Russian, but he was just supporting it as he favored her more than Spain. He's also wearing a Karlruhe Jersey, which is the same colors as the Russian Flag.


The crowd at the fan mile. Dusk. Dissapointed Russian fans, and happy Spaniards (there were quite a few actually). Also, in the background towards the right, the building to the right of the Brandenburg Gate is the new US Embassy that opened July 4th. It now stands where the Berlin wall once stood, as in the same spot as the original embassy before WWII.

The best part of this game were the new friends that I made. Here in the picture is a motley of different Europeans, from Germans, Russians and Frenchman, but all living in Berlin. Laura on the right is a techtronic dancer and was in the Dortmund Love Parade. Quentin to Laura's left is from Marseille, as was visiting, then me, then some other people, and finally Andreas. Robbin also with us, is not pictured.

Working for TCH Europe

Sorry everyone for not posting in so long, the last three weeks have been really busy for me. To say the least, I really love my new job here in Berlin, and that is the subject of this post. I work for a company called TCH Europe, which stands for Transport Clearing House. We work with several business partners, but most notably Air Berlin, Domodedovo Airport Moscow, Berlin Brandenburg Airports, and several smaller Russian airlines. TCH Europe is a startup, and so there is always a lot of work to do, and we have so many ambitions, that it's difficult to decide which ones to pursue. I have three main colleagues, Eileen, Igor and Guenther. We 4 make up the marketing and management team of the office. We also have Jens in finance; Kristina, Helena, Anna and Svitlana in sales, working the call center; Bernd, Martin, Andreas, and Evgeny in IT support and programming, and finally Guenther, who I already mentioned as CEO.

The office is located in the Steglitz part of Berlin, which is in West Berlin. We have a great office, and it's nice that nobody has a cubicle to work in, it's verboten under German working law. Everyone is entitled to at least 9 sq. meters of personal work space.

So, for the past three weeks, I have been working on several projects. My first big project was collaborating in writing a business plan for our investors, and of course it was in English. But my job was not to translate or correct the texts, but it was to give my opinion as an outsider about the content and my understanding. Now that I'm a part of the company, they really like to hear my point of view and opinions about the project, and they take some of my suggestions and implement them. It's a great team of people I get to work with, and I couldn't be happier. Yes, there have been late nights in the office (once until 3am) but it's laid back and people are very understanding.

We have a website for our company, which is currently being upgraded and relaunched. Of course you can all visit www.geruxx.de/en but I assure you that by September it will be much more aesthetically pleasing.

Here is the secretary/call center office. This is the center of the office, and here we look up flights and reservations and answer calls. Some of my other projects that I am working on include correcting the English on the new soon to be launched website, managing our google ad words campaign, marketing our product to tourism websites in and around Russia and the CIS, and also leaning about the Sabre distribution data system which is what all US airlines and many international airlines use to host their tariffs and fare information. We will be connected to Sabre by December.

Other than that, there's not much else that I get to do at work. We all go and eat mittagsessen at around 2pm. We have our friend Vasco at Bar 55 across the street. We usually go there a couple times a week to have lunch.

(above) This is my own office. As you can see, I look at the window all day and have a large open workspace.
These are all our marketing materials, and there are a lot of them. We usually needs these pamphlets, fliers, calendars and what not to give to our clients or end customers during trade fairs.
Here I am standing with two of my colleagues from work, Kristina (Left) and Angelina (Right). They are sisters, and we were working all weekend at the Deutsche Russiche Fest (or German Russian Festival), but in reality it was a 99% Russian Festival and 1% East German Festival. It was located in Karlshorst, which is where many Russians live, but also in the East. Here the conditions are much different than in West Germany, and you can see the difference in living standards as well as ideology of the people. At the DRF, there were famous GDR bands as well as Ivanuski International, (a Russian Pop group that I listen to when I was very young) Lots of Russian food too, like Shaschlik, Blini, Cherbureki, Caviar, and then Bratwurst, Schnitzel, Potato Salad. Supposedly over 100,000 people attended this three day fair. All weekend we spent passing out fliers to visitors. The fair was a lot of fun, and we got to meet some new friends (below). We are wearing our specialized Geruxx t-shirts, and we passed out fliers and totes with our brand on them.
Here, Andrei and Kolya are wearing Russian tradition shirts. They had the same job as us, giving out fliers, but they had a much cooler event to advertise (but we had our banner and URL on their flier, so we got VIP access to the club). They worked for a Russian disco club in Berlin, and there were having a club night right on the fair grounds. We of course went to this disco, and listened and danced to 'poppy' Russian music, but only Russian youth can really like it. It's hard to explain why Russian music is so culture specific. It was a lot of fun, and great to make new friends in a foreign city.

Coming next: My WG (shared apartment) in Berlin and my roommates.

Frankfurt Area with Richie

So where do you think this picture was taken ? Russia right? No, guess again. Actually while meeting Max's friends at his birthday (See Baden-Baden), I made some new friends. So during my orientation program in Frankfurt, I spent a lot of time with Richard, who goes to University in Darmstadt (only outside of Frankfurt). It was really nice to have someone show me Frankfurt and the region of Hessen. Pictured is a church that was built some 100 years ago in Darmstadt, because Tsar Nicholas married a german princess (I'm not quite sure about this history? Dad can you confirm this?) who was from Darmstadt, and so this church was built. But the soil on which it is built is actually from Russia.

So to begin my story... Friday May 21st, I get ready to leave Tübingen and Jutta, and go to Frankfurt. At first I was going to take the train the whole way to Berlin, but after I calculated the costs of travelling the Deutsche Bahn almost 200 euro, which is very expensive despite my discount card of 50% with them, I decided to rent a car instead, which was the best money I have ever spent. It made taking my three large suitcases and all the little bags that i had, so much easier, and it was cool to be able to listen to German music in the car, and travel at my own leisure. Also I saved time, and I didn't have to make any connections with all my bags.

I got into Frankfurt about 20 minutes before my orientation was supposed to begin. I checked into the Tryp Hotel Frankfurt, the hotel that my program had selected for us, and we started our formalities with how to get acquainted with Germany, and what we need to do once we begin our internship... all bureaucratic procedures to say the least. However, in our conference room, we were each given a folder, a canvas bag, and on top of each table stood a bucket thing like dish with bottles of beverages for us to drink (like at the G8 summits or something important like that), so that was really cool, and I felt important.

After 6:00pm, our meeting was finished and I went to visit Richie at his home in Darmstadt, but I thought he lived alone or with some friends near campus. Actually, I went to his parents home (he didn't tell me) and once i arrived, I was asked to have dinner with them. I totally didn't expect this, but none the less, it was great to eat some real german food, and then later on we went into Frankfurt to walk through the city. We went to one of the skyscrappers which had an observation deck on the roof, and then had a cocktail and the bar below it. (look further down).
The following day, after my orientation part II, I checked out of the hotel and said goodbye to my fellow american particapatns, and I went back to Darmstadt where I would spend the night with Richie and his family. But since I was finished so early with the program, around noon, Richie and his dad took me to Ruedesheim, a place famous or its Riesling wines. There, the Rhein River flows between two valleys, and it separates the state Hessen from Rheinland-Pfalz. Unfortunately, that day in Ruedesheim, (a very touristy city), there was some sort of Harley-Davidson convention, and all the roads were full of bikers. In the picture above, I'm with Richie walking down into Ruedesheim from the top, where there is this huge statue of the a woman. I really didn't understand what it was about though. You might be able to see it in the background.
This of course is Frankfurt, the only city in Europe to have tall skyscrapers. Frankfurt isn't so big though, so it's amazing how much it has for a city only the size of Nashville (600,000 inhabitants). But it is the financial hub of mainland europe, so it plays a huge role. Here I went with Richie into Frankfurt again on Saturday night, and we went to this club called the Cocoon club, which was really cool, but not as crowded as one would expect for a Saturday night. Needless to say, we got home late, and of course, we stopped at McDonalds, because Germans eat there more than I do... so no more jokes at Americans only eating McDonalds you Germans, because you eat there more than I. :).
So can you guess what type of car I have? I was really lucky to get this car, as I, like always, ordered the lowest class car (a VW Golf or Mercedes A-class), but when I went to pick up my car, I was given a Skoda Roomster, which is okay, but I told them that I wanted a German car since I was in Germany (this always works), and they gladly changed it to this.... an Mercedes-Benz E 200 CDI in black. CDI stands for diesel, so it was great, because the fuel economy on this car was probably 42miles/gallon. Boy did I feel funny driving this car though. It was awesome, yet strange at the same time. Everyone gives you looks, and then when they see me a 22 year old, they just look bewildered. Especially in Berlin, where there aren't so many fancy cars, but you'll have to wait until this weekend to read that blog entry.
Here is a picture of the vineyards on the side of the hill coming down to Ruedesheim. Below you can see the Rhein, and the village.

Yes, and sorry to say, these were my last days in the West, or what is formally referred to Germany. The next morning, I had breakfast with Richie, and then got in the car and set of for Berlin. Approximately 540km, so it took me around 5 hours to make the trip.

Max's Birthday in Baden Baden

Baden-Baden, one of the most famous and more glamourous places in Europe, and defenitely one of the nicest places in Germany, is famous for its casino, horseraces, and natural mineral baths and spas.

Max, my friend from middle school in the US, lives in Baden Baden, and he invited many of his friends including his long lost American friend to his home to celebrate his 22nd birthday. I of course agreed to visit, giving me a chance to try out the Deutsche Bahn system again, and to my belief, not everything ran on-time. In fact, my late train out of Tubingen got me to my next connection 10 minutes late causing me to miss every following connection that I had, (a total of 3). I ended up spending 3:30minutes traveling to Baden-Baden when in reality the distance is only 60km the way the crow flies. However, the wonderful black forest is really what separates Baden from Wurtemburg in Baden-Wurtemburg, thus making the journey so much more picturesque, yet longer.

Baden Baden can best be compared to Aspen, Colorado, or some other elite town nestled inside a valley of mountains. Aspen is probably more pretentious and more picturesque, and definitely more isolated, but Baden-Baden offers its visitors enough to look at.

Once I arrived in Baden-Baden, we head straight for Max's house, but Max sort of made a car tour through the town on our way home passing famous places like his old gymnasium, or the Brenner Hotel, or the Lichentaller Allee. Once at home, we started to get accommodated, and our first task with Max's other friends (Richard, Ricky, Ruben and Johannes) was to make a couple salads, since we wouldn't have time on Saturday (the day when everyone was supposed to come). So we peeled 50 potatoes for a gargantuan typical German potatoe salad, and I peeled carrots for another salad with a genuine carrot peeler that must of been from the middle of the last century, but made in Germany, so therefore still useful and German engineered to work and withstand time.

Later on, we all went for a walk around the city, and marveled in the wonderful weather. Stopping at an Italian Gelato Cafe, we got some ice cream, and most people watched as we walked over the tourist filled streets. Baden-Baden is quite a small city, but with the amount of tourism the city gets, the number of shops is numerous. Baden-Baden is also famous with the Russians, and they are plentiful here. Somewhat discouraging to see old Russian women wear clothes the really shouldn't, or to have stores closed because some wealthy Russian wants the store to himself, but it supports their local economy, and so it is welcomed.

Describing what Baden-Baden looks like is quite difficult. It has a very French European feel to it, and that is not surprising given that the town is only 10 km from the Rhein and so has much French influence. After our excursion through the city, we prepared ourselves for dinner, which was in FRANCE at a Flammkueche specialty restaurant, yet since we going to pick up Till (remember from Dusseldorf last weekend) at the train station on our way back into town, and then head straight for the casino, we had to dress up according to the rules for entry. (See pictures below) Doesn't it look like we are ready to go to prom or something?

Going to France was great for me, as i could much better understand everything that was being said, but as always, when along the border, especially in Alsace which once belonged to Germany, inevitably, German is still widely spoken by everyone. I have a flammkueche with mushrooms, onions and bacon. The service was typical french, and we sat outside for the evening. I kept think it was going to rain because of how ominous the sky looked, but to my luck it didn't. We also ordered a dessert flammkueche (sort of like how there are dinner crepes and dessert crepes) with apples, cinnamon, and carmelized sugar which was very good, and I drank french lemonade.

Later on after picking up Till, we all headed to the casino in Baden Baden. Inside the luxurious building, we all gathered at the entrance and paid our way in (4 euro just so that visitors don't walk it to look around). However, my driver's license was not enough ID or actually wasn't considered valid government ID so I wasn't allowed in, as well as Till who didn't bring his ID card, only his furherschein or Driver's License. So luckily, I avoided spending my Euros and thus everyone went with us to to the Trinkhalle. However, since the casino is such a landmark and many of Max's friend had come down from Darmstadt to go, Till and I were left to sit at the bar whilst the others went to gamble. When they came back later, undoubtedly, they had lost their money (20 euros each), and I heard the same story, that they had won a bit, but then lost it all later.

At about 1:30am we all decided to head back to Max's house where to our surprise we found Max's parents up who wanted to have drinks with us. So we all sat down in the living room, and proceeded to have a very intense conversation, but as you may imagine, I was so tired already and my brain just couldn't take anymore German, so I decided to go to bed.

(BY THE WAY, I'M SORRY THAT THIS POST IS SO LONG... SOMETIMES I HAVE TROUBLE TELLING STORIES SUCCINCTLY, IRINA WILL PROBABLY ATTEST TO THIS).

The next morning, I of course, was the first to wake up at 10am. However, I wasn't really the first, as Max and his Dad went to the bakery to pick up 50 rolls for breakfast for all of us. As I was sitting in the living room watching CNN with Richard who joined me slightly later, we heard the doorbell ring. Odd I though, but I figured it was Max or someone who was locked out of the house, however to my surprise it was a bunch of Max's friends saying we are here for the party. Naturally I was shocked as it was 10:15am and I didn't think people were coming until later, and secondly, Max was no where to be found, and so what was I to do? Luckily Richard recognized his classmates, and everything was straightened out.

That day, the whole group of us (12) went around Baden-Baden once again. We went up to the old schloss and looked at the vast panorama that spread in front of us. Much of the voges in France were visible. Later on, we walked through the town again, going to many of the same places, but we also walked by the Caracalla Spa. I really wanted to go there, but since its 13Euro for two hours, many people dissuaded me, so instead we walked around and went into several stores. At 5pm, we were all back at Max's house for the party. He had bought a lot of meet for grilling on the WEBER grill (an American product which is preferred by German's .... that's a miracle or the apocalypse). There was a lot of food from pork chops, to wurst, to steak, add on top the salads and the beer, you have yourself a very typical German meal.

The night went on, and Max wanted to play his favorite drinking game from America, flip cup, except he really didn't know the rules completely, and I ended up having to explain them since I was the only true American. We played a couple of rounds, and it was quite funny to see the girls try to flip the cup. They really didn't understand how to do it, and it was so frustrating to see the lead that one team had lost all because one person took the whole game to flip their cup correctly.
Later on we played musical cheers (this i found really odd, as I haven't played this since I was a little kid, and I don't know whether it is a typical game to play in college or university), maybe it was suggested by a really drunk person.

The night ended with a discussion about the changes in Russia, and the differences between socialist democracies and capitalistic democracies. I was very tired, yet Max's mom was very interested in what we had to say. She went to bed before us, but it was 5:05am and the birds started chirping, and I knew that this was my segue to go to bed.

I do have to say that all of Max's friends were really nice and understanding. Most of them did speak English with me, or were considerate to speak on a dumbed down level for me.

(ASIDE: AS I'M WRITING THIS RIGHT NOW, THE CHURCH BELLS ARE RINGING AT IT'S 2AM. DOES THIS HAPPEN ANYWHERE ELSE. WHO STAYS UP ALL NIGHT JUST TO RING THE BELLS EVERY 15 MINUTES?)

The next day, many of us woke up very late, and others had to leave in the morning. Hence it was just Max, me, Richard, Ricky, and Johannes. It was the last day of the horse races in Iffezheim, one of the most famous horse races in Europe. We went all together there, and watched the races. It was quite spectacular, and the people there just as entertaining to watch as the horses. Women walking around in the clothing from the 19 century with huge hats and brouhaha. Max with his friends, again, wagered their bets on horses, but as none of us had any clue on which ones to pick, other than the information provided there, I decided to keep my money (which turned out to be very sensible). In all we stayed for three races, until it began to rain too hard to continue watching. It was very enjoyable, and interesting to see the horses. In reality, the horses aren't as big as I had expected them to be, and it's amazing how much personality the horses have. If you zoom in on the picture of the them dashing towards the finish, you'll see their mouths and their struggles to push themselves to the limit.

Afterwards, I sat on the train and headed back for Tuebingen. It was a most enjoyable weekend. Thank you Max for your hospitality.

Bonn, the old capital of West Germany

Last monday, I went with Till and Jana to Bonn to see a new German city. Ever since German reunification, Bonn has lost a lot of it clout, but it remains are very elegant city. Bonn is small and overshadowed by it much larger neighbor city Koln (Cologne). However, Bonn keeps its heritage, and is most known because it was Beethoven's home town. Also, there are several allees, where you could imagine numerous Embassy's and consulate offices, and also the walk along the Rhein is picturesque.

Here are some pictures of Bonn.

спокойной ночи малыши

This is the best Youtube Video ever, and has nothing to do with Germany, other than the fact that it reminds me of Russia. Oh how I miss it.

Till's Birthday

My friend Till, from middle school at Cranbrook, invited me to his birthday this past weekend. I traveled by Deutsche Bahn to Darmstadt (near Frankfurt) to meet up with my friend Max. There we ate lunch at the Universitäts Darmstadt in the Mensa (or cafeteria). I have to say that German cafeteria food is no better than that in the United States. I had Käse Spatzle, which was very cheesy. Afterwards, we walked around Darmstadt to kill time before we met our driver who was going to drive us to Mettmann, where Till lives.

Apparently in Germany, and common way to get around is to find someone with whom to mitfahrgelegenheit, (or basically hitchhike but you pay the driver). Perhaps Max and I were unfortunate enough to get a bad and late driver, who really didn't drive according to the laws of the autobahn, always sitting in the left lane and so one, and was completely ditzy at figuring out how to get anywhere despite our efforts to explain to there where to go, and with the aid of Tomtom.

Finally, 3:30 minutes later, we arrived in Mettmann (mind you we would have arrived in just 2 hours had we taken the train which would have cost each of us an additional 5euro.

In Mettmann, Max and I were exhausted and tired. I had been traveling since 9am that morning, and we only got to Mettmann (near Düsseldorf) only at 6:30pm. Anyways, when we arrived we ate cake and celebrating Till's birthday. We also met his family and enjoyed the beautiful weather on their veranda. After dessert, Till invited his friend Christoph to come with us to Düsseldorf for the evening, and we were also joined by Till's girlfriend Jana, and his brother, Jan and his girlfriend, Maria. We took the local train into Düsseldorf, where we got off in Aldstadt, the most lively part of town, also known as little Paris. We walked up to the Rhein river after getting some Döner, (Max and I still hadn't eaten dinner), and a couple of beers. We walked altogether to the Rhein, and just spend the evening talking amongst one another.

I recommend anyone in Northwest Europe to go to Dusseldorf. The city is vibrant and really interesting and the nightlife is vibrant. Luckily, we we given excellent weather as well.

The following day, the day of Till's and Jan's Birthday Party, was spend first preparing for their party by setting up the basement and the patio. However, later on we went to a neighboring town, where we went with Till, Jana, Leon (Till's younger brother) and Max to and Eiscafe where we ordered ice cream, but to my surprise, the portions were larger than anything you could get in the US.
The evening was spent grilling fleish on the grill, and meeting Till and Jan's friends. Needless to say, we didn't go to bed until 5:30am the next morning, and we sang songs all nights and finished off 4 cases of beer among 12 people. We played card games, one called Kingson and I was amazed at how well everyone spoke English with me.

Week One

Monday May 5th, 5:30pm. Northwest flight 52 from Detroit to Frankfurt. Seat 10H exit row. Our pilot came up to us, and saw that I could speak Russian. He decided to practice his Russian with me. His name was Steve. The flight was great, sat next to Elizabeth who works for Honeywell. She travels to Germany and England a lot for business. She hopes to go to Lake Constance, Bodensee auf Deutsch, for the weekend. Doris was our flight attendant for our section. She was fluent in German and English, and was ensuring the safety of drunk passengers on the plane. :).

Tuesday May 6th, 7:50am. Arrival in Frankfurt. I got of the plane, and heading down towards passport control or immigration (not customs for those who argue with me about this subject.) The line moved briskly but not a sound was heard in the entire terminal. Frankfurt seems to be a quiet airport and the silence is strange. I got my bags off the automatic baggage carousel that it so sophisticated that they exist only in Germany. Of course the Germans looked at bewilderment at me as I offloaded my 2 extremely heavy bags. Add to that the carry-on that I took on the plane, which included hiking backpack, my laptop messenger bag, and a small travel documents bag, and I was weighed down by over 120lbs of stuff.

I finally made it to the ReiseZentrum at the Bahnhof Frankfurt Flughafen, where I bought my train ticket to Tubingen with my bahncard 50, which saves me 50% off of all train tickets within Germany. I made it to the train with all my bags with just minutes to spare, and got on to find no empty spaces and no where to put all my stuff, but luckily I managed to sit down, and get settled. The train traveled at a speed of 220km/h so we were cruising pretty fast. The time from Frankfurt to Stuttgart took only 1h20mintues. Luckily a met a very friendly person, who took interest in me being American, and also happened to be a travel addict, and had digits in his phone number like 767, and 747, denoting the Boeing Passenger planes. He was nice enough to help me carry some of my stuff to the other train during my 6 minute connection in Stuttgart to the regiobahn to Tubingen.

I arrived in Tubingen at 11am, and Walter (Jutta's father) met me at the platform. I expected him to pick me up in the car, even though their house was only a couple of blocks away, or so it seemed on Google maps, but we just walked under a tunnel and into a park. On the otherside of the park there stood their house, and we carried the massive luggage up three stories to their apartment.

Jutta's Grandmother, Бабушка Маша смотрела с ужасом на меня, и на мой багаж (looked in horror at my baggage). Nevertheless, everyone was happy to see me, and I was happy to have finally arrived.

That day, I basically didn't do anything, and was extremely tired. I watched from the 3rd floor windows and waited for Jutta and Dennis to come home. After dinner, I took a nap, and in the evening with Jutta and Dennis, I went to innerstadt Tubingen, where we act Gelato at a sidewalk cafe.