This has been another busy week at work, but now the work week is finished for me. I am packed and have cleaned up the temporary apartment and am trying to stay awake. I have to catch the train to Kiel at 1 am in order to catch the bus to Hamburg at 3 am in order to get to my flight which leaves at 6 am. Normally it doesn't take so long but there are fewer travel connections to pick from at night especially during the week. I will connect in Amsterdam and arrive in Atlanta at 2 pm tomorrow. Then I have to go to NC in the next couple days to try to get a new drivers license. Then on Wednesday I am flying back up to DC to wrap up some loose ends at my old job. After that the whole family will come with me back to Germany in mid March (the ides of March, which I hope for me is lucky).
See you state-side.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Some animals around town and a drive north to the Baltic.
A couple of things to mention this week.
There are red squirrels, the kids with tufted ears, in the area around Ploen. They are much larger than the "boomers" back home, about as large as a regular gray squirrel. I saw one briefly about a year ago when I first visited, here is its picture,
then I saw one again when visiting last December, and earlier this week one strolled by on the porch in front of me, not 10 feet away. These are very rare to see back home so it is fun to see their cousins here.
Also, there are small birds here that seem like a cross between a chickadee and a house sparrow. They have a black stripe down their bellies. They act kind of like a chickadee but are larger. I wonder if they are related or are some kind of sparrow. At some point I will look them up.
Also, there is lots of waterfowl here. Sea gulls, mallard ducks, geese, and "coots" are very common. I've seen big groups of geese grazing in the fields around here. The coots, which we don't have back home, are more timid birds and very good at swimming under water. A few days ago I watched a mallard here swim under water to get away from gulls that were badgering it for food it had but couldn't swallow. It would duck under the water and apparently go under part of a dock to prevent the gulls from seeing it and resurface further down. It kept doing this to get away from the gulls hovering above it and dive bombing it. Also, I've seen grebes a few times and they can travel a long distance under the water as well.
There is a fisherman in town that keeps fish in a large tank behind his restaurant and I look in there from time to time while walking by. Earlier today the sky reflection wasn't bad and I saw lots of very large fish. Some looked like giant gray carp and I definitely saw a couple sturgeon several feet long.
One morning this week before work I biked halfway to Preetz, a town nearer Kiel, without stopping, another small accomplishment for me. It's was a little over 3 miles one way, 6 miles round trip. I added it to the biking map below in pink.
Saturday G and I drove to Kiel via a scenic route. First we went north to Luetjenburg which was a nice town but not accessible by train.
The we turned west to parallel the coast and passed what appeared to be a medieval village, so we veered back and checked it out. It was deserted so we walked around and looked at the buildings.
Then we hooked north to see the Baltic coast at Schoenbergstrand. There was a statue on the walkway that I liked of a person holding an umbrella in a strong wind.
The sand on the beach is very white (no I didn't spot any amber, but I couldn't help looking). There were rock walls jutting out into the ocean at intervals, perhaps to stop erosion.
While walking I spotted a group of mallards swimming in the Baltic, another first for me. I've never seen ducks in the ocean that I can remember. I walked out on a dock before heading back and only later after looking at the map realized that this is the point farthest north that I have ever been on the ground, N54°24'57" (some transatlantic flights have hooked further north, but that doesn't really count). I have been to Canada but they have all been points south of this. Europe is deceptively further north than one expects compared to America.
Then we headed to Kiel and IKEA where I bought some mattresses, blankets, pillows and some other odds and ends to get ready for my family moving in to our new apartment--only about three weeks from now.
Here is a map of our route Saturday in blue.
There are red squirrels, the kids with tufted ears, in the area around Ploen. They are much larger than the "boomers" back home, about as large as a regular gray squirrel. I saw one briefly about a year ago when I first visited, here is its picture,
then I saw one again when visiting last December, and earlier this week one strolled by on the porch in front of me, not 10 feet away. These are very rare to see back home so it is fun to see their cousins here.
Also, there are small birds here that seem like a cross between a chickadee and a house sparrow. They have a black stripe down their bellies. They act kind of like a chickadee but are larger. I wonder if they are related or are some kind of sparrow. At some point I will look them up.
Also, there is lots of waterfowl here. Sea gulls, mallard ducks, geese, and "coots" are very common. I've seen big groups of geese grazing in the fields around here. The coots, which we don't have back home, are more timid birds and very good at swimming under water. A few days ago I watched a mallard here swim under water to get away from gulls that were badgering it for food it had but couldn't swallow. It would duck under the water and apparently go under part of a dock to prevent the gulls from seeing it and resurface further down. It kept doing this to get away from the gulls hovering above it and dive bombing it. Also, I've seen grebes a few times and they can travel a long distance under the water as well.
There is a fisherman in town that keeps fish in a large tank behind his restaurant and I look in there from time to time while walking by. Earlier today the sky reflection wasn't bad and I saw lots of very large fish. Some looked like giant gray carp and I definitely saw a couple sturgeon several feet long.
One morning this week before work I biked halfway to Preetz, a town nearer Kiel, without stopping, another small accomplishment for me. It's was a little over 3 miles one way, 6 miles round trip. I added it to the biking map below in pink.
Saturday G and I drove to Kiel via a scenic route. First we went north to Luetjenburg which was a nice town but not accessible by train.
The we turned west to parallel the coast and passed what appeared to be a medieval village, so we veered back and checked it out. It was deserted so we walked around and looked at the buildings.
Then we hooked north to see the Baltic coast at Schoenbergstrand. There was a statue on the walkway that I liked of a person holding an umbrella in a strong wind.
The sand on the beach is very white (no I didn't spot any amber, but I couldn't help looking). There were rock walls jutting out into the ocean at intervals, perhaps to stop erosion.
While walking I spotted a group of mallards swimming in the Baltic, another first for me. I've never seen ducks in the ocean that I can remember. I walked out on a dock before heading back and only later after looking at the map realized that this is the point farthest north that I have ever been on the ground, N54°24'57" (some transatlantic flights have hooked further north, but that doesn't really count). I have been to Canada but they have all been points south of this. Europe is deceptively further north than one expects compared to America.
Then we headed to Kiel and IKEA where I bought some mattresses, blankets, pillows and some other odds and ends to get ready for my family moving in to our new apartment--only about three weeks from now.
Here is a map of our route Saturday in blue.
Friday, February 22, 2008
WCWIII?
In some regional politics back home, a friend sent this news link to me this morning:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23076509/
The seeds of the third Walton County War (WCWIII) may be germinating.
(busy at work now, more later ...)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23076509/
The seeds of the third Walton County War (WCWIII) may be germinating.
(busy at work now, more later ...)
Monday, February 18, 2008
Nach Ascheberg
I found my gloves! I thought I had left them here boxed up last December but couldn't find them until now. They, of course, were in the one place I didn't look and didn't think they were--in a bag with some of V's clothes.
It was a gray day today but armed with gloves I took off for a bike ride before work. Starting off I noticed that they are shingling our future apartment. There was a large flat bed parked out front lifting stacks of red terra cotta tiles to the roof with a crane where people were unloading it.
I extended my explored route to the west, further toward Ascheberg from Koppelsberg. The extension is plotted in blue in the map below. It occurred to me later that instead of turning back I could have kept going to Ascheberg and rode the train back from the station there. I'm might try that sometime.
One quick observation about Germans, Germans tend to be very quiet in groups and many avoid eye contact when walking by. In contrast they, and many other nationalities I've talked to, consider Americans to be very loud and "chatty".
Also, the door thing that I mentioned in an earlier post, the outside doors to buildings tend to open inwards rather than outwards as in the states, and the doors in bathroom stalls tend to open outwards, again the opposite as the trend in the states. I keep finding myself pushing on doors in the wrong directions and feeling stupid about it, but hopefully even I can learn.
It was a gray day today but armed with gloves I took off for a bike ride before work. Starting off I noticed that they are shingling our future apartment. There was a large flat bed parked out front lifting stacks of red terra cotta tiles to the roof with a crane where people were unloading it.
I extended my explored route to the west, further toward Ascheberg from Koppelsberg. The extension is plotted in blue in the map below. It occurred to me later that instead of turning back I could have kept going to Ascheberg and rode the train back from the station there. I'm might try that sometime.
One quick observation about Germans, Germans tend to be very quiet in groups and many avoid eye contact when walking by. In contrast they, and many other nationalities I've talked to, consider Americans to be very loud and "chatty".
Also, the door thing that I mentioned in an earlier post, the outside doors to buildings tend to open inwards rather than outwards as in the states, and the doors in bathroom stalls tend to open outwards, again the opposite as the trend in the states. I keep finding myself pushing on doors in the wrong directions and feeling stupid about it, but hopefully even I can learn.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Kosovo Declares Independence!
Kosovo has just become the worlds newest country (following Montenegro which also parted from Serbia in 2006). It's parliament unanimously approved a declaration of independence earlier today, breaking away from Serbia. Serbia and Russia oppose an independent Kosovo while the US and much of the EU support it. Serbia has threatened to downgrade diplomatic relations with any countries that recognize Kosovo, while businesses in Kosovo have offered discounts to citizens of countries that recognize its independence (I see a future trip brewing here). This follows recent elections in Serbia that elected an "EU friendly" president rather than one with a tougher stance on Kosovo independence and closer ties to Russia. I'm told, by EU citizens here, that the back room deal was, if Serbia stays peaceful and does not take any military action against Kosovo, it will get the fast track to EU membership.
A day of rest
It sunny and clear this morning so I started out for a bike ride, but it has gotten colder and my hands were freezing without any gloves. It isn't really that cold however. I just checked online and it is at or just a degree below freezing (I average the Kiel and Lübeck temperatures), but the 18 km/hr wind on a moving bike makes a difference. So I turned back and used this time to update my blog, do some reading and fight the urge to go to work. It's probably for the best. The clouds are rolling in now and the wind seems to have picked up.
As my work schedule becomes more efficient and a routine develops, there is less down time for other things. Plus there is a tremendous amount to do to get things started in my new job and finish up projects in my old one, so I haven't had as much time to post here on the blog and update entries lately. This may have to turn into weekly or biweekly postings, but I do want to keep the blog going if I can. It is amazing the changes that have happened in just one week. Now, crocus and snowdrop flowers are coming up everywhere, some lawns are carpeted with them and the days "feel" like they are getting longer from when I arrived two weeks ago, but this may just be wishful thinking. The grocery stores have put up racks of seed packets for people to plant in the spring. One thing that is noticeably missing are hot pepper seeds. German food tends not to be spicy-hot at all. I like using peppers in some of my cooking and I may eventually try growing some peppers of my own, but I may have to import the seeds from the US?
During this last week I received more mail from Deutsch Bank, containing my account cards and information and a letter from the local government containing my tax registration certificate, which I turned in to my employer. It contains information about my income tax rate to be charged. Later when V and the kids arrive and we move to the apartment I have to reregister at the Rathaus and will get another certificate that has updated information for my dependents to turn in as well. I also picked a medical insurance company. I had to do this within two weeks of working and need to pay retroactively to my start date, Feb 1st. Here in Germany insurance is required, you have no choice not to pay for insurance. If you make over a certain amount for the last three years (even if it is outside of Germany) you have to buy the more expensive private insurance. Underneath this cutoff you can choose from many different "public" insurance providers. The cost is a percentage of your paycheck, usually around 13%, and is split with your employer, so you pay around 6% of your income for insurance. It is tightly controlled by the government and I am told there is very little real difference between the providers. Also, here in Germany they have a very radical system compared to US insurance--you're allowed to see doctors and the insurance pays for medical expenses!
As my work schedule becomes more efficient and a routine develops, there is less down time for other things. Plus there is a tremendous amount to do to get things started in my new job and finish up projects in my old one, so I haven't had as much time to post here on the blog and update entries lately. This may have to turn into weekly or biweekly postings, but I do want to keep the blog going if I can. It is amazing the changes that have happened in just one week. Now, crocus and snowdrop flowers are coming up everywhere, some lawns are carpeted with them and the days "feel" like they are getting longer from when I arrived two weeks ago, but this may just be wishful thinking. The grocery stores have put up racks of seed packets for people to plant in the spring. One thing that is noticeably missing are hot pepper seeds. German food tends not to be spicy-hot at all. I like using peppers in some of my cooking and I may eventually try growing some peppers of my own, but I may have to import the seeds from the US?
During this last week I received more mail from Deutsch Bank, containing my account cards and information and a letter from the local government containing my tax registration certificate, which I turned in to my employer. It contains information about my income tax rate to be charged. Later when V and the kids arrive and we move to the apartment I have to reregister at the Rathaus and will get another certificate that has updated information for my dependents to turn in as well. I also picked a medical insurance company. I had to do this within two weeks of working and need to pay retroactively to my start date, Feb 1st. Here in Germany insurance is required, you have no choice not to pay for insurance. If you make over a certain amount for the last three years (even if it is outside of Germany) you have to buy the more expensive private insurance. Underneath this cutoff you can choose from many different "public" insurance providers. The cost is a percentage of your paycheck, usually around 13%, and is split with your employer, so you pay around 6% of your income for insurance. It is tightly controlled by the government and I am told there is very little real difference between the providers. Also, here in Germany they have a very radical system compared to US insurance--you're allowed to see doctors and the insurance pays for medical expenses!
My new computer
My employer offered to buy me a new computer so I picked out a Dell XPS M1330 laptop with the RAM and hard drive maxed out and it was ready for me to pick up on Friday. It is small and lightweight so I can carry it around easily and has all kids of ports, drives and wireless connectivity. It came with windows vista so the first thing we did is wipe the hard drive, partition it in half, and install windows XP on one of the partitions. Later I plan to install Ubuntu Linux on the other partition. The first software I installed was 1) Mozilla Firefox, 2) Google Earth, and 3) Skype. I haven't had much time to explore all of it but one unexpected thing I'm really starting to like is its built in fingerprint scanner. To log into my account I don't have to select my user ID and type in a password, all I do is swipe my finger over the scanner and I am in. (But there is the nagging wonder if the US federal government is collecting this data from Microsoft, for a reasonable fee.) It also has a built in video camera that I used last night for a skype video call to my wife and kids back in the states.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
A little regional background
I have been to Germany three times before moving here (visiting Leipzig, Munich, and Cologne) and have visited Plön twice, last March (2007) to interview for a job and last December with my wife. I have never been here in the summer but I am told it is a popular German tourist destination. I can believe this. The area is surrounded by lakes and farmland. The water is crystal clear and the air is very clean. The town of Plön itself is almost an island. It sits between three main lakes with three isthmuses connecting it to the mainland. It has a Schloss, which the Germans translate as a castle (literally it means "lock" as in "to lock up"), but Americans would be more likely to call it a mansion because it's not in a medieval style. Plön is the the northernmost German state of Schleswig-Holstein, which borders Denmark. The area has changed hands between Denmark and Germany and the Danish make up a large minority here. In the past Schelswig-Holstein has also included part of southern Denmark. The landscape here was shaped by glaciers in the last ice age, creating a multitude of small lakes across the countryside, similar to northern Minnesota. Being virtually in Scandanavia, Plön has a slightly higher latitude then Goose Bay, Labrador. One of the most striking things to me is how low the sun is in the sky. On a clear day if you look toward the south the sun is in your eyes. It can be noon but "feels" to me like it is earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon because the sun is so low. Also, when we were here last December (closer to the solstice) the sun set at 3:45 in the afternoon! The days in the summer should be equivalently longer. The local dialect of German spoken here is known as Plattdeutsch (low German) but it seems to be being replaced by standard (high) German, which is taught in the schools. Today there is more Plattdeutsch spoken by communities outside of Germany than within, such as the Mennonites. The largest of these Plattdeutsch communities appears to be in Kazakhstan. It seems that there was a migration of German farmers to the Soviet Union and now some of their descendants have returned. In fact, I'm told Plön has a "Russian" community of repatriated Germans that often speak Russian at home and to each other. There is also a small Turkish presence in town. Last December I spoke with a man from Turkey that had lived in Plön for 13 years. This last week I grabbed lunch at a döner kebab place, and several people inside were having a Turkish conversation. At one point the woman sang part of a song and her voice went up and down in a Middle Eastern "sound". Plön is also a small town. Already I am recognizing people as I walk through town and bumping into people I know.
Lübeck
I hopped the train down to Lübeck today and walked around the old-city island. At the train station in Plön I bumped into someone, C, I had met briefly at work and who was visiting to interview for a job here. They were from India and this was their first trip out of India. He was also going to Lübeck so we rode together on the train and chatted about our impressions of Germany. At one point I asked him what I should see/do if I ever went to India. He said that something he has always wanted to do was rent a houseboat and travel along a river. I remembered a professor of mine years ago saying that he did this in Western or Northwestern India and loved it. C said they were available all over India now. C also said to travel to NE India to see something different. One of the reasons he was traveling to Lübeck was to check his train connection to Hamburg on Monday, along this same route, and to buy some Marzipan. Lübeck was a very powerful member of the Hanseatic League. In fact it can be argued that the league originated and spread from Lübeck from the 13th to 17th centuries. Fortunately, Lübeck also was spared extensive bombing during world war II so the old center of the city has remained intact. Because the this, the medieval center has also been designated a UNESCO world heritage site. The train station is a short walk to the center of the city and the historic market square, which when V and I visited last December had stalls set up for a Christmas Market.
Just beyond this is Niederegger's famous marzipan (almond and sugar paste).
There is a restaurant in the back and the front is lined with different forms of Marzipan. You can buy it shaped as animals, fruit, buildings or just bars of the stuff.
From there we walked through the old town.
At the river on the far side, we saw a rowing team being chased under a bridge by a motor boat; that's one way to get them to speed up.
Then it was time to grab a doener for lunch, and just before we went back to the train station we passed, in this medieval Baltic city, a guy dressed up in a stereotypical Plains (American) Indian costume, complete with face paint and playing a gigantic pan pipe along with his partner (and another guy was selling CDs nearby). Occasionally Germans would come up and dance to the new age sounding music coming out of speakers they had set up. Now I have seen it all!
Friday, February 15, 2008
Made it to Timmdorf this time
On Friday afternoon the sun came out and it turned into a ghost town at work. R happened to be there so I asked him where everyone was. It said that it was a German tradition to do what you want on Friday afternoon. So I figured I had better seize the opportunity of good weather and grabbed my bike for a ride. I headed back toward my failed previous attempt at Timmdorf and this time made it. Timmdorf has some nice old timber framed thatched roof houses and the land around it is either under water (lakes) or nice open rolling hill farmland.
I was able to push west and connect into a route north of town for a nice circuit. Also, my legs felt very good and I didn't have to stop once this time on this hills. When I got back I went into work and finished out the day. Here is the route in red.
I was able to push west and connect into a route north of town for a nice circuit. Also, my legs felt very good and I didn't have to stop once this time on this hills. When I got back I went into work and finished out the day. Here is the route in red.
Monday, February 11, 2008
A Foggy Morning
This morning I had to wipe frost off of the bicycle seat. I rode through the town and it was very foggy.
I went on out of town a ways to the next town of Koppelsberg. The fog got thicker as I went and starting building up on my glasses making it harder to see. I stopped at the top of the hill and it was starting to rain so I headed back. My legs felt much better this time. I think I am starting to adjust to biking more.
I went on out of town a ways to the next town of Koppelsberg. The fog got thicker as I went and starting building up on my glasses making it harder to see. I stopped at the top of the hill and it was starting to rain so I headed back. My legs felt much better this time. I think I am starting to adjust to biking more.
What happens in Amsterdam, stays in Amsterdam
Just kidding, I didn't do anything bad/immoral (or if I did I wouldn't put it here). I was surprised at some of the things I saw however. I've heard there are a lot of illegal drugs in Amsterdam, but it was surprising to see it displayed so openly. Amsterdam is also a very pretty city. It had a very individualistic anything-goes feel, people can dress weird, act strange and no one seems to care, a lot like a huge college town. It also had a strong "you can find anything here" aspect that made me think centuries ago large port cities used to be like this everywhere but now it's essentially unique to Amsterdam. Let me start back at the begging.
Saturday morning before flying out I got up before sunrise and tried to get the ATM card to work again. I still had problems with it. The sky was very clear so I went down by the lake and looked at the stars. I found the big dipper and the north star. This far north it is very high in the sky and not where I'm used to seeing it. The sky was so clear, and light pollution so low, that I even saw a satellite's refection as it was going over in a polar orbit. You can tell it's a satellite because it was much fainter (higher) and faster than an airplane. Before this I don't remember seeing any since I was a kid in rural North Carolina.
The train to Kiel was five to ten minutes late arriving. This meant that when I got to Kiel I had just missed the bus connection to the Hamburg airport (it is timed to leave just after the train arrives) so I had to wait an hour for the next bus. After we boarded and started out the bus was flagged down by someone in a car. So the bus pulled over and picked up a passenger from the car as well (apparently they had just missed getting on the bus back at the station). So I got to the airport later than I liked and had to run to the gate to catch the plane. When I was checking in I recognized the attendant. She checked V and I in when we were flying back from Germany last December. Anyway, I made it to the flight and was off to Amsterdam. All along the way, on the train, bus and in the air I noticed all the windmills that dot the landscape. These aren't the old fashioned kind, but tall modern ones with airplane-glider-wing-like blades. All the windmills I saw, and there were many from Germany to the Netherlands, had exactly three blades and rotated clockwise when they faced toward you. This made me curious if there are any counterclockwise windmills somewhere in Europe.
After landing there was a rail station directly under the airport and the ticket machine had signs in English so I followed the directions and bought a return ticket to the Central Station in Amsterdam, then boarded the train and was off. After walking out of the central station I noticed two things right away; there were bicycles everywhere,
I have never seen so many locked up in rows upon rows, and that the sky over the roads was a web of wires for the city tram system.
I had some time before it got dark and walked aimlessly for a while before heading to the hotel. (The next day I had an agenda however.) I just turned down a random side street toward the center of the city. It had narrow streets with buildings built up tall over them (for that "old world" feel) and crowds of people walking between.
As I walked by I saw one shop after another that sold marijuana, hash, and/or hallucinogenic mushrooms and cacti (like peyote). I know I am being hopelessly American when I say this but this amazed me that it was advertised openly here in the center of town.
I walked into a shop out of curiosity and there were people there buying the mushrooms and eating them. I snapped some pictures before someone grabbed me out of the blue and told me not to take any pictures of the pot or mushrooms.
I stepped back outside and there was a woman with a rope going to a pulley on the top story of one of these buildings and what looked like people about the push a heavy box tied to the other end out of the window. (Note that this was a crowded street [and this is the off season] with people walking around her and under the trajectory of the box.) They were really struggling with the box so I figured if she held onto the rope when they let go she might fly up into the air but they seemed indecisive about pushing the box out and eventually wrestled it back in so I gave up waiting and walked on some more.
I found an internet cafe and started to go in to post on this blog and send some email, but the air was so think with smoke (and it wasn't tobacco) that I was afraid to spend too much time in there, so eventually I headed for the hotel. On the way back to the hotel I passed a shop that sold lots of varieties of absinthe. Absinthe is illegal in the US and some countries in Europe. It is an alcoholic drink with wormwood extract in it and has been blamed as the reason Van Gogh went crazy and cut off his ear as well as for many other people loosing it. Sure enough, they seemed to capitalize on this and varieties had names like "mad cat".
I booked a room at the "Lloyd Hotel" because they were pretty cheap, but it was quite a walk out of town. It was next to the main waterway and by the time I got there the sun was setting.
I checked in and went up to the room, on the 6th floor in the attic. The hotel is an old renovated building. In some places it has art nouveau windows. My room was down a narrow hallway that at some points had floor to ceiling windows that looked down into the rest of the building.
In my room the wall on one side was white painted sheetrock with nice little lamp lights mounted on. The other side was the raw wooden underside of the sloping roof, complete with splinters and old nails. It had a window that opened and overlooked the water in front of the building.
The floor was sealed concrete and in the middle of the room was a white, spotless fluffy bed with oversized pillows and blanket. The bathroom was separated from the rest of the room by a blue frosted glass wall (cut to fit the sloping roof) and was gleaming white tile.
I think they were going for an avant-garde contrast between the rough and refined parts of the room. I dropped my stuff and headed back out for some supper. I passed several McDonalds and found a döner kebab place and got a döner. (I need to make a separate post later to explain these.) Along the way I passed all kinds of tourist shops that combined postcards, clogs, porcelain windmills, t-shirts with things like hash lollipops and grow kits. I followed the crowd of people and ended up cutting through the infamous red light district. Prostitution is legal here and there were women soliciting all along the sides of one of the roads, but it's not quite what it sounds like. Besides the 20-something young men there were also grannies and kids walking by all this along the sidewalks and not even batting an eye, again I was very surprised. I ended up in a back alley and guys were trying to sell me drugs and/or "live shows" so I figured I'd better head back and called it a night. Along the way back I got behind a group of Americans (there were lots of Americans and British there) and I heard them exclaim that even the manhole covers had a triple X on them. (The ancient symbol of the city is three white "X"s on a black and red background.) As I passed a bar door someone threw a bucket of apparently puke out the front door right into the street in front of walkers. I picked my way around and watched my step more carefully on the way back.
The next morning the crowds were gone and the light was good for pictures so I headed back into town. This was when I could see how pretty Amsterdam is. The city is crisscrossed with canals and bridges.
I picked up some postcards then stopped at a cafe and ordered a ham and egg breakfast. When I bought the cards the people in front of me used a €0.20 coin with a Maltese shield on it. Malta has just joined the EU and this was the first Maltese coin the shop worker had seen. He saw me admiring it to and offered to sell it to me for €0.20. At breakfast I got out my guidebook and started flipping through it. Amsterdam was/is a major world port city for centuries and has museums with amazing collections such as Vermeer and Van Gogh and many other world class cultural resources such as Anne Frank"s house; so where did I go? The choice was obvious, I went to see the thinnest house in Amsterdam. Apparently, for a long period in the cities history property taxes were calculated based on how much street length your house occupied. So houses grew thinner and thinner in response. The house I was looking for has the record in the city at 2.1 meters and is completely self contained, not just a shed beside a larger house. It was near the red light district so I headed back in that direction. Here street sweepers were cleaning up the garbage on the sidewalks from the night before and families were out walking with their kids and strollers. The house was so thin that I walked right by it the first time without seeing it and had to backtrack (honest). It looked like single rooms stacked one on top of another.
I snapped some shots and headed off deeper into the city. I passed some more cafes and diamond shops then came out onto a flower market. The market is along one side of a canal and the shops are on floating "house" boats.
They had bulbs and cut tulips of course and orchids and cacti and the apparently ubiquitous marijuana seeds for sale. I walked through snapping some pictures then headed off to a different part of the city. Along the way I passed lots of graffiti. Here in Europe graffiti doesn't seem to mean the same thing as in the US. In the US we take it as a sign of bad neighborhoods and run down buildings, but here I have seen it everywhere, in small towns and on university research buildings. Some of the graffiti here was very extravagant and too up entire buildings.
I also saw every kind of bicycle imaginable. Some folded up into tiny sizes. Some had two wheels in the front with large boxes on top for carrying things. Some had two seats and two wheels in the back for transporting people taxi style.
People of all ages were on bikes everywhere. Some sitting sideways on the back hitching a ride. I grabbed a sandwich at a small shop for lunch and eventually I came out near the central station again and started back. I ended up home in Germany late Sunday night at about 10:30 pm, just in time to wash a load of clothes before the week started again.
Saturday morning before flying out I got up before sunrise and tried to get the ATM card to work again. I still had problems with it. The sky was very clear so I went down by the lake and looked at the stars. I found the big dipper and the north star. This far north it is very high in the sky and not where I'm used to seeing it. The sky was so clear, and light pollution so low, that I even saw a satellite's refection as it was going over in a polar orbit. You can tell it's a satellite because it was much fainter (higher) and faster than an airplane. Before this I don't remember seeing any since I was a kid in rural North Carolina.
The train to Kiel was five to ten minutes late arriving. This meant that when I got to Kiel I had just missed the bus connection to the Hamburg airport (it is timed to leave just after the train arrives) so I had to wait an hour for the next bus. After we boarded and started out the bus was flagged down by someone in a car. So the bus pulled over and picked up a passenger from the car as well (apparently they had just missed getting on the bus back at the station). So I got to the airport later than I liked and had to run to the gate to catch the plane. When I was checking in I recognized the attendant. She checked V and I in when we were flying back from Germany last December. Anyway, I made it to the flight and was off to Amsterdam. All along the way, on the train, bus and in the air I noticed all the windmills that dot the landscape. These aren't the old fashioned kind, but tall modern ones with airplane-glider-wing-like blades. All the windmills I saw, and there were many from Germany to the Netherlands, had exactly three blades and rotated clockwise when they faced toward you. This made me curious if there are any counterclockwise windmills somewhere in Europe.
After landing there was a rail station directly under the airport and the ticket machine had signs in English so I followed the directions and bought a return ticket to the Central Station in Amsterdam, then boarded the train and was off. After walking out of the central station I noticed two things right away; there were bicycles everywhere,
I have never seen so many locked up in rows upon rows, and that the sky over the roads was a web of wires for the city tram system.
I had some time before it got dark and walked aimlessly for a while before heading to the hotel. (The next day I had an agenda however.) I just turned down a random side street toward the center of the city. It had narrow streets with buildings built up tall over them (for that "old world" feel) and crowds of people walking between.
As I walked by I saw one shop after another that sold marijuana, hash, and/or hallucinogenic mushrooms and cacti (like peyote). I know I am being hopelessly American when I say this but this amazed me that it was advertised openly here in the center of town.
I walked into a shop out of curiosity and there were people there buying the mushrooms and eating them. I snapped some pictures before someone grabbed me out of the blue and told me not to take any pictures of the pot or mushrooms.
I stepped back outside and there was a woman with a rope going to a pulley on the top story of one of these buildings and what looked like people about the push a heavy box tied to the other end out of the window. (Note that this was a crowded street [and this is the off season] with people walking around her and under the trajectory of the box.) They were really struggling with the box so I figured if she held onto the rope when they let go she might fly up into the air but they seemed indecisive about pushing the box out and eventually wrestled it back in so I gave up waiting and walked on some more.
I found an internet cafe and started to go in to post on this blog and send some email, but the air was so think with smoke (and it wasn't tobacco) that I was afraid to spend too much time in there, so eventually I headed for the hotel. On the way back to the hotel I passed a shop that sold lots of varieties of absinthe. Absinthe is illegal in the US and some countries in Europe. It is an alcoholic drink with wormwood extract in it and has been blamed as the reason Van Gogh went crazy and cut off his ear as well as for many other people loosing it. Sure enough, they seemed to capitalize on this and varieties had names like "mad cat".
I booked a room at the "Lloyd Hotel" because they were pretty cheap, but it was quite a walk out of town. It was next to the main waterway and by the time I got there the sun was setting.
I checked in and went up to the room, on the 6th floor in the attic. The hotel is an old renovated building. In some places it has art nouveau windows. My room was down a narrow hallway that at some points had floor to ceiling windows that looked down into the rest of the building.
In my room the wall on one side was white painted sheetrock with nice little lamp lights mounted on. The other side was the raw wooden underside of the sloping roof, complete with splinters and old nails. It had a window that opened and overlooked the water in front of the building.
The floor was sealed concrete and in the middle of the room was a white, spotless fluffy bed with oversized pillows and blanket. The bathroom was separated from the rest of the room by a blue frosted glass wall (cut to fit the sloping roof) and was gleaming white tile.
I think they were going for an avant-garde contrast between the rough and refined parts of the room. I dropped my stuff and headed back out for some supper. I passed several McDonalds and found a döner kebab place and got a döner. (I need to make a separate post later to explain these.) Along the way I passed all kinds of tourist shops that combined postcards, clogs, porcelain windmills, t-shirts with things like hash lollipops and grow kits. I followed the crowd of people and ended up cutting through the infamous red light district. Prostitution is legal here and there were women soliciting all along the sides of one of the roads, but it's not quite what it sounds like. Besides the 20-something young men there were also grannies and kids walking by all this along the sidewalks and not even batting an eye, again I was very surprised. I ended up in a back alley and guys were trying to sell me drugs and/or "live shows" so I figured I'd better head back and called it a night. Along the way back I got behind a group of Americans (there were lots of Americans and British there) and I heard them exclaim that even the manhole covers had a triple X on them. (The ancient symbol of the city is three white "X"s on a black and red background.) As I passed a bar door someone threw a bucket of apparently puke out the front door right into the street in front of walkers. I picked my way around and watched my step more carefully on the way back.
The next morning the crowds were gone and the light was good for pictures so I headed back into town. This was when I could see how pretty Amsterdam is. The city is crisscrossed with canals and bridges.
I picked up some postcards then stopped at a cafe and ordered a ham and egg breakfast. When I bought the cards the people in front of me used a €0.20 coin with a Maltese shield on it. Malta has just joined the EU and this was the first Maltese coin the shop worker had seen. He saw me admiring it to and offered to sell it to me for €0.20. At breakfast I got out my guidebook and started flipping through it. Amsterdam was/is a major world port city for centuries and has museums with amazing collections such as Vermeer and Van Gogh and many other world class cultural resources such as Anne Frank"s house; so where did I go? The choice was obvious, I went to see the thinnest house in Amsterdam. Apparently, for a long period in the cities history property taxes were calculated based on how much street length your house occupied. So houses grew thinner and thinner in response. The house I was looking for has the record in the city at 2.1 meters and is completely self contained, not just a shed beside a larger house. It was near the red light district so I headed back in that direction. Here street sweepers were cleaning up the garbage on the sidewalks from the night before and families were out walking with their kids and strollers. The house was so thin that I walked right by it the first time without seeing it and had to backtrack (honest). It looked like single rooms stacked one on top of another.
I snapped some shots and headed off deeper into the city. I passed some more cafes and diamond shops then came out onto a flower market. The market is along one side of a canal and the shops are on floating "house" boats.
They had bulbs and cut tulips of course and orchids and cacti and the apparently ubiquitous marijuana seeds for sale. I walked through snapping some pictures then headed off to a different part of the city. Along the way I passed lots of graffiti. Here in Europe graffiti doesn't seem to mean the same thing as in the US. In the US we take it as a sign of bad neighborhoods and run down buildings, but here I have seen it everywhere, in small towns and on university research buildings. Some of the graffiti here was very extravagant and too up entire buildings.
I also saw every kind of bicycle imaginable. Some folded up into tiny sizes. Some had two wheels in the front with large boxes on top for carrying things. Some had two seats and two wheels in the back for transporting people taxi style.
People of all ages were on bikes everywhere. Some sitting sideways on the back hitching a ride. I grabbed a sandwich at a small shop for lunch and eventually I came out near the central station again and started back. I ended up home in Germany late Sunday night at about 10:30 pm, just in time to wash a load of clothes before the week started again.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Rebel Flag in Germany?
This morning I didn't got for a ride. I slept kind of late and needed to fix a loose bolt holding the front light on my bike. The nut had fell off and the light was about to fall off so I replaced the nut and tightened it down. By then it was time to go to work. At work we made up our first batch of food for the animals we're going to be working with ... and burned it. We will try again on Monday. For lunch I walked to town and tried to withdraw money from the bank, but I messed up the PIN number and it locked out my card. It should be released again in a few hours. When I got back I found that I had managed to leave the keys on my desk and lock myself out of the building. No one came to the buzzer, so I went for a walk. A couple of days ago I thought I saw a confederate flag early in the morning while I was riding my bike, so I went to check it out. Sure enough, there were the tattered remanins of a flag with a motorcycle on it flying over a small garden plot (surrounded by lots of other small garden plots and sheds). I can't imagine why it would be flying here in Germany. However, when I lived in upstate New York I often saw confederate flags there as well. ??? I had my camera in my daypack so here is a shot.
On the way back I noticed lots of small yellow flowers blooming. I'm told it is unseasonably warm here this winter.
When I got back someone was there to let me back in. There was a nice purple sunset from my office window.
I am heading to Amsterdam, Netherlands, this weekend, just to see it (I've never been there except for the airport last week). I grabbed some cheap tickets months ago. After all the mistakes I made today I think I could use a little break, and I have got a huge amount done at work this week (I just don't write about it here). Also, there is so much to do here that if I stayed in town I would be tempted to come in to work. See you in Amsterdam!
On the way back I noticed lots of small yellow flowers blooming. I'm told it is unseasonably warm here this winter.
When I got back someone was there to let me back in. There was a nice purple sunset from my office window.
I am heading to Amsterdam, Netherlands, this weekend, just to see it (I've never been there except for the airport last week). I grabbed some cheap tickets months ago. After all the mistakes I made today I think I could use a little break, and I have got a huge amount done at work this week (I just don't write about it here). Also, there is so much to do here that if I stayed in town I would be tempted to come in to work. See you in Amsterdam!
Bike Accessories
I forgot to mention. The day before yesterday I picked up a basket that snaps onto a frame just above the back wheel of the bike. It has a handle and pops off easy to carry into stores for shopping. I picked up some groceries with it. Here the grocery stores don't automatically give you plastic or paper bags for your groceries, so you have to bring your own bags or buy them at the store (or use a bike basket!). I also grabbed a cable lock for the bike. I would hate to see it stolen.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Tried to Bike to Timmdorf
This morning G suggested I try the route to Timmdorf. He really liked it. Starting out I caught a good picture of the sunrise over the Edebergsee.
I missed my turn but it was a really nice, level route next to the lake. I stopped in the town of Niederkleveez (just south of Trollholm, by the way some of the place names around here are wonderful, like Taterborn!) where I realized I was off course from the road signs. I noticed the sign back toward Plön had an apparent rune character for the "P" in it so I snapped a shot.
This place actually hooked back up with the route back from Eutin I took last Sunday so I went back this way and stopped at a new grocery store to get a cappuccino and look around. Then it was off to work. At 7pm G and I made a run to IKEA in Kiel and picked up some more parts for the lab furniture and a "curly grass" plant for the office. I now have my desk set up with pictures of the kids, a plant (see above), some reference books, a lamp, file cabinents and dry erase boards, clock and dry erase calendar. My private IKEA empire is taking shape! Here is the mornings route (in orange):
View Larger Map
I missed my turn but it was a really nice, level route next to the lake. I stopped in the town of Niederkleveez (just south of Trollholm, by the way some of the place names around here are wonderful, like Taterborn!) where I realized I was off course from the road signs. I noticed the sign back toward Plön had an apparent rune character for the "P" in it so I snapped a shot.
This place actually hooked back up with the route back from Eutin I took last Sunday so I went back this way and stopped at a new grocery store to get a cappuccino and look around. Then it was off to work. At 7pm G and I made a run to IKEA in Kiel and picked up some more parts for the lab furniture and a "curly grass" plant for the office. I now have my desk set up with pictures of the kids, a plant (see above), some reference books, a lamp, file cabinents and dry erase boards, clock and dry erase calendar. My private IKEA empire is taking shape! Here is the mornings route (in orange):
View Larger Map
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Lost in an Endless Sea of Muck
After a light rain all night I tried to bike around the Trammersee for the first time; this is my story.
I chose this route because it seemed like it might be nice and level and I wouldn't have to push my bike up so many hills. The first part was very nice. I passed through some small hamlets with thatched roof houses and saw some cattle that were reddish and very hairy. They reminded me of the Scottish Highland cattle but were a little different. They looked up and stared at me as I passed but it was hard to see their eyes, kind of like a sheep dog.
I got to a small town and missed my turn. I almost went the right way but it didn't "look right" to me and I turned back. I went down a promising road that seemed to be going the way I wanted around the Trammer See, but the road slowly dwindled into a muddy trail and it got harder to pedal. Mud was accumulating around the brakes and sticking to the tires, but I could keep moving forward because I was going down hill. Then this trail finally disappeared under waves of plowed mud and I was at the bottom of a long hill. I had to slog through the sop and push the bike. The wheel's rotation got stuck once in a while and I pushed the bike sled-like, gliding over the mud. I tried walking up to a low ridge because I figured it would be drained better. It was but this meant the mud had a more sticky consistency and it started adhering to my shoes in bigger and bigger globs, making each step weigh more. At one point I wondered if they would find me here in the spring encased in a cocoon of dried mud. I made my way to a grassy bank and scrambled up it. Even on this I slipped and slid on slick muck and barely made it to the top. The field on the other side was higher and less sticky but there was no way I could go back and push the bike up over the bank with me, so I looped my belt and reached down and lassoed the handlebars and pulled the bike up the bank with my belt. The other side was easier going and eventually I found the right trail. It was nice and hard packed with grass on either side and an extension of the road I almost went down before. I made it back to Plön and went through the centre of town (the altstadt, old city) with my lower half and the bike covered in mud. Everyone else seemed to be immaculately clean and I got some looks as I pedalled by.
At work I found out the results of super Tuesday. McCain has pulled ahead on the Republican side and Obama and Hillary are still neck and neck, which makes it more interesting. As I have said earlier I prefer Obama, then McCain. Also, I realized one big difference from America was that the super bowl passed by last Sunday and I didn't hear a thing about it, which is fine with me. I never liked (American) football.
For supper, R (an Italian-Canadian) invited G (British) and I to supper at his apartment along with another American living in Plön. He said bring something to fix so we grabbed some fondue chocolate and fruit. I have never had fondue before so I wasn't sure what to expect. We melted it in a double boiler and I suggested adding some hot pepper powder for some spice. So we added that and R added some soy milk to make it more liquid but it had the opposite effect and thickened it to a frosting consistency, so we frosted the fruit bits with chocolate and ate that. The red pepper wasn't bad; it was kind of a spicy aftertaste.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Work Visa
I got up before sunrise, which this time of year isn't difficult, and went for a bike ride as soon as there was enough light. This time I tried to circumnavagate the Schöhsee, a lake near Plön. It was very dark when I started out and two things happened right away. I missed my turn and I thought I saw a confederate flag, but I wasn't sure (sometime I'll go back and check on that). I went until I was next to another lake and descided I had gone too far so I turned back and missed my turn again. So I turned around, again, and finally found my way around the lake on a dirt road.
This afternoon I went to the 'county office' to start applying for my work visa. I spent some time waiting in line, at least an hour, I'm suprised there were so many other families also applying. When it was my turn, I had all the paperwork I needed (passport, photo, letter of invitation, residency registation) except for one thing, a health certificate. I explained that we do not have this kind of form in America so it is impossible for me to get one and they said ... not to worry. This suprised me as I have had horror stories told to me about how byzantine and inflexible German beuracracy can be. The officer even came around the desk and helped translate the entries on the form I had to fill out. After that was done they handed me a certificate and now I wait for an official letter to come, then I'm supposed to return to complete the process. Sure it takes time and there is various paperwork to do in various places, but so far I must say I am pleasently suprised at how easy everything has been and how friendly the people have been at work, at the city office, the county office, and the bank. I can't complain if this continues.
In other news, more of our future apartment is destroyed. The roof tiles have now been ripped out over the living room as well, the old window is lying in a heap of rubble in the yard and as I walked by the second time today the workers seemed to be frantically stapleing a tarp to the 2x4s to get it covered as a rain storm was coming in. I will continue to monitor the project with much curiosity. I'm not alone in this, a crowd of passer bys had formed on the sidewalk before I got there watching the work just before the rain.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Ich bin ein Plöner
Today I offically registered as a resident with the local Rathaus (courthouse)! I had to do this in order to open up a bank account (and it is required by law) so that I can start recieveing paychecks. On my walk to the Rathaus I noticed that part of the roof is missing now on my future apartment. I could see through into the attic. The workers were raising and lowering something to the apartment with buckets and a rope, and the framing around my bedroom window is larger than the other windows now. Anyway, after registering they gave me a document saying I'm a resident then I went to Eutin again (on the train for only €2.60, not on a bike, I saw two deer in a field along the way) to the Deutsch Bank office and opened a banking account. Without this account I can't recieve income. Evidentally, here in Germany they only do direct depost and can't issue you a paycheck. After that it was lunch time so I headed to Knaack, where else? By now I had my order down 'Ein Käsebröchten mit Schinken und Cappuchino, bitte.' Then it was back to Plön. On the walk from the train station to my workplace the workers were now nailing tarpaper to the roof to go under the shingles. At work I met another one of "the team" (it feels strange to be "the boss" for a change) and got my keys for the building and so on. On the bad side the computer I ordered for work is back ordered and I probably wont get it for a couple more weeks, which makes it difficult for me to work in the meantime, but I will see if they can loan me one until then.
By the way, I overslept a bit this morning and didn't go biking. It is dark now but perhaps I can go for another ride in the morning before work.
By the way, I overslept a bit this morning and didn't go biking. It is dark now but perhaps I can go for another ride in the morning before work.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Biked to Eutin and back
There was a dusting of snow on the ground this morning, but it was a bright clear day. First thing I walked into town and took some pictures of the kids future school so they could get an idea of what it looked like. I made a promise to myself not to work on weekends anymore once I got to my new job in Germany so after taking the pictures I headed back to the apartment. (It feels really odd right now not to be at work for two days in a row.) Along the way I bought a bike route map for a couple of euros at a convienience store (everything else, including the grocery store, seems to be closed in Ploen on Sunday). When I got back to the apartment G was here and I said I was going out for a ride on my bike. He said he was up for a ride so I said how about we go to the coast on the Baltic. He laughed at me but went along with it. (Honestly I wasn't sure I could bike that far but I could take the train back if I needed to.) We biked down 76, the main road through town toward Haffkrug, a town on the coast. After about a third of the way it was clear to me that I wasn't going to make it to the coast and back so we diverted to the town of Eutin where I bought my bike yesterday. Evidently, during my years as a postdoc in Maryland my leg muscles have atrophied and turned to mush. We took a break in Eutin where I got a hot cappuchino and a sandwich at the same cafe on the town square, "Knaack," we stopped at the day before when buying my bike. Here is a picture:
Then we proceded to bike back to Ploen via Bad Malente. We got a bit lost and went on a longer route then we planned (north of the Kellersee rather than south of it), but made it. I was so tierd I had to walk and push my bike up a few of the hills. What was doubly embaressing about it was that this area is actually very flat. We finally made it back to Ploen after sunset and just before it got dark. I am determined now to get in better shape so I can bike to the coast if I want. I plan to try to bike a little each day, if the weather is good, to build my strength and stamina back up. Below is the bike route map updated with the route I took today and some pictures.
Then we proceded to bike back to Ploen via Bad Malente. We got a bit lost and went on a longer route then we planned (north of the Kellersee rather than south of it), but made it. I was so tierd I had to walk and push my bike up a few of the hills. What was doubly embaressing about it was that this area is actually very flat. We finally made it back to Ploen after sunset and just before it got dark. I am determined now to get in better shape so I can bike to the coast if I want. I plan to try to bike a little each day, if the weather is good, to build my strength and stamina back up. Below is the bike route map updated with the route I took today and some pictures.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Went for a bike ride
I couldn't resist. I had to take it out immediately when we got back to Ploen. The great things about this area is that there are bike trails everywhere. Even some of the major sidewalks have their own dedicated bike lanes (as opposed to the drainage ditch on the side of the road we call bike lanes in the states). G and I both rode our bikes on a trail that goes around the lake, but we didn't nearly go that far. We went part way toward a town called Bosau and then it "opened up on us" and started snowing heavily so we turned back. (which was a good thing, my legs were exhausted from being out of shape when we got back.) It's strange being on a bike again; I feel very shaky and uncoordinated on it. Here is a map with some pictures.
PS - The price tag for the bike was written on some duct tape that was taped to the seat. While riding it came off and ended up taped to my butt. G noticed and had some choice things to say about it for his entertainment during the ride.
PS - The price tag for the bike was written on some duct tape that was taped to the seat. While riding it came off and ended up taped to my butt. G noticed and had some choice things to say about it for his entertainment during the ride.
Got a Bike!
Last night I took a look around my new work space then had to go back to the apartment to sleep. I woke up around 1am local which means I overshot my jet lag adjustment and landed somewhere around the Indian timezone, but I was able to fall back asleep then got up again around 9:30. It was a clear sunny day this morning, after eating breakfast I went straight to the local bicycle shop and looked at used bikes. The best I could find was a bike for 130 euros with a "feminine" frame, so we went down to a nearby town, Eutin, and found a bike shop there. There were only newish expensive bikes so I asked if they had anything cheaper and he lead me to "the back room" which was a garage full of old bikes. I found one the right size for me for 80 euros. It has back pedal braking and a hand brake on the front wheel, a "klinger," enclosed gears, 7 speeds on a rotating handle shifter and a engageable wheel driven dynamo for the lights. It also has a frame for a basket in the back.
I haven't owned a bike since I was 18 but I got one within 24 hours of landing in Germany. I plan on using it a lot since I also don't plan on having a car here.
As a side note, I'm getting much more used to my chipped tooth. It doesn't bother me as much and I'm not so aware of the rough (and sharp!) edge now. Also, I unpacked some last night and found out that I have both my keys and my wife's set of keys in my coat pockets. I hope she made it back OK from dropping me off at the airport!
One thing that I'm noticing right away here in Germany is that doors open in directions I'm not used too. I can't quite put my finger on it but they tend to open inward when I expect to push out and vice versa.
I haven't owned a bike since I was 18 but I got one within 24 hours of landing in Germany. I plan on using it a lot since I also don't plan on having a car here.
As a side note, I'm getting much more used to my chipped tooth. It doesn't bother me as much and I'm not so aware of the rough (and sharp!) edge now. Also, I unpacked some last night and found out that I have both my keys and my wife's set of keys in my coat pockets. I hope she made it back OK from dropping me off at the airport!
One thing that I'm noticing right away here in Germany is that doors open in directions I'm not used too. I can't quite put my finger on it but they tend to open inward when I expect to push out and vice versa.
Friday, February 1, 2008
In Germany!
The flight went well. I got two seats to myself across the Atlantic but I couldn't sleep a bit--too excited. The sun came up during the layover in Amsterdam. We boarded the plane outside in Amsterdam and it was very windy. When we were approaching the landing in Hamburg the pilot made an announcement about the wind. I thought he said 80 km/h gusts but I'm not sure that's right. The handle broke on my big suitcase when I got it off the baggage conveyer, must have packed it too heavy. (This is the most I've ever packed during a trip, 3 big suitcases and my daypack. One was too large for a carryon but they didn't stop me on both legs and it squeezed into the overhead rack.) I met G right away at the airport and we drove his car to Ploen and to the apartment I will be staying at this month. Then we went to get some lunch, ate at Eisenpfanne, I had calamari which was the largest calamari I've ever had, like onion rings, and came with a side salad. Along the walk there it was very windy, waves in the Grosser Ploener See were whitecapping and there were streetlights that had the tops blown down and broken. The apartment building I will be moving to was surronded in scaffolds. and my future bedroom has a tarp where the window used to be; I hope the work is finished soon. After eating I went to grab some groceries. The lady at the checkout greeted us with "moin moin" (I've heard this is a regional greeting in southern Denmark and northern Germany) and I was able to say "zusammen" to pay for things together but then I missed the rest of what she said and had to say "sorry" in English and she asked where we were from.
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