The begining of the end...

Today is the first day that I realized how quick my time here in Germany is coming to an end. I would like to firstly apologize for the lack of posting anything here for quite some time, as I simply forgot to and was too lazy when I remembered. So what has been going on the last few months you may ask? Well a lot of good times, spent with good friends I have made here, impromptu trips to various cities, and of course soaking up my last bit of German culture and heritage before my journey home. As of today I have purchased my ticket home, and will be arriving on Wednesday the 20^th of July. While it is still a while off, there are many things that must happen between then, including a visit from my family, a wonderful vacation with them in Austria and southern Germany, packing all my belongings into a couple suitcases, and then finally making the trip to Frankfurt to fly back, but not before having one last night with some of my favorite people that I have met during my time here. So a great deal of things. As of right now, I am trying to enjoy my last couple days of work, thankful that it is finally over and will be returning to school life here in the Fall. I miss all of you terribly and will be posting pictures of my most recent stuff a bit later. If you want to just look at the pics, don’t forget about the link on the left side of the page under Picasa album, I believe.

I have just a quick update to let you know how happy I am right now...die grund ist

 

=) 

Going to be a great next 10 days.

Frühling kommt wieder!

So this week of March has been so far a very good week, a bit boring to be sure but good nonetheless. My training for my marathon is going well, I think I am over running my distances but I cannot be too sure, as I am judging mostly by time and not distance, as I have really no way of measuring distances accurately. I am hoping to scrape enough monies together to buy this little doohickey, as to better calculate run times, distances ect. I am very happy though that I am persevering but would be lying if I said I am falling in love with it. In the same vein of honesty tough, I would have to say that I am growing quite fond of my afternoon runs and who knows one day we might even see eye to eye and share a meaningful life together, but I digress. March in Baden-Württemberg is shaping up to be just gorgeous, with many sun filled days ,pleasant temperatures in the low 60s, and the ever pleasant springtime reminder of manure in the air. Work is ok, not really much to write about at this point but all seems to be going smoothly and they have graciously allowed me to leave early on Thursday to make the trip to Magdeburg, to participate in a birthday of a friend and hopefully a true picture of the DDR and the socialist experiment that took place so many years ago, here in Deutschland. I did forget to write a bit about my trip to Berlin, but in summary would like to say that fun was had by all and much celebrating and good food was eaten, including but not limited to Crawfish Étouffée, burritos, and wonderful hamburgers made by yours truly and the talented Mr. Chris Brase. Our little group of raggle-taggle Bremenites (and adoptions) are now in the planning stages of Easter weekend and I will be dammed if it is not the best Easter ever. So until this event, or hopefully before then I bid you all adieu and good luck with you endeavors today, I am going to get my fressen on with a dönner for lunch…

February

Update for February

I apologize for the long absence from this bit of literary work but as of recently there really has not been much to write about. I have started work at Bosch GmbH, which if you are familiar with it is a electronics manufacture for autos, home appliances, power tools and pretty much anything with an electric motor in it. I work in the purchasing department in the Automotive Electronics division in Pfullingen, Germany which is a very small town near my place of residence in Reutlingen, Germany. While the work can be interesting at times, I find that for the most part it is not very rewarding. The main problem I have identified is that it is too worried about details and no worries about the aggregate. Everything is about the price on this bolt and this screw, moving sheets around to get the numbers right, at times it can be down right boring. I feel that I am being led to a field that requires me to talk to people, and be more involved in the big picture ideas of either a company or government. This being said the experience I am gaining here is invaluable and will be used much in the future. It is just hard sometimes to not be a little frustrated with the job and the language barrier as well. So that is the story of work, and this weekend I am going on my first trip in a long while and will be going to a friends birthday party in Berlin, which is one of my favorite cities. I miss you all and hope that spring is in the air.

Greece .wmv

A little video of my trip to Greece. Here is the version that will work in Germany.

Christmas ramblings

As I sit on this train bound for the city of Köln, (Cologne) I am reminded that I have not written for a while in my blog. So with pen in hand I begin this entry with my holiday plans. For a brief overview, I will be traveling to first Bremen, with my good friend John, after which I will take a train to Köln, a bus to Frankfurter-Hahn Airport, a plane to Kos, Greece, a ferry to Athens and Crete, a flight back to Frankfurt-Hahn, a car ride to Berlin, Germany for New Years and then finally back to Reutlingen on the 2^nd of January. I have just finished the first leg of this trip, which took me back to the old city of Bremen and my original introduction to this wonderful country. I would have to say things did not go as planned, but in the end all worked out. I stared this trip in my home town of Reutlingen on Friday morning the 17^th of December at 7am. From there I sojourned through the town of Stuttgart with John to go to my interview at Mercedes. The interview went very well, with a small introduction to the work I would be doing. The work while very intriguing, is not really anything I have experience with but I believe it would be a great stepping stone for me into the world of Database systems. I will have an answer after the New Year, as everyone is now on vacation. Once I was finished with this task, I then boarded a train for Bremen. As you might have heard, we are having an abnormally large amount of snow this year, and apparently this wrecks havoc on the usually punktlich (punctual) system of the Germans. Through the three trains I had to take, I was delayed 3 hours, so what would normally have been an already long six hours on the train became 9. I did not really appreciate this, however I had little choice. When I finally did arrive in Bremen, I was delighted to see my old stomping grounds again. There is a special place in my heart for Bremen and I think there always will be. After a wonderful weekend spent with great friends and a visit to the lovely city of Hamburg, I departed at 21:43 for the city of Köln and am currently in route and should arrive around 1:00am. My bus for the airport departs at 2:30am and then arrives at 5:00am ish. Until then, I, Brent am out.

December 21, 2010. I am currently on a ferry bound for the city of Athens. It is 1:00am and I feel like I should be sleeping, but alas there are few places to do so. In order to save as much money as possible one purchases what is called a “deck ticket” . This means just what it says, you sleep on the deck, one of the three that are offered. This trip lasts from 8:00pm until 9:00am so as you can see I am only half way through and strangely wide awake. The events of the past day have been most enjoyable though, with much time spent cruzing around the Island of Kos on rented mopeds, catching beautiful sunsets and the wonderful freedom of personal transportation again. Not having it for four months has been one of the hardest things I have had to deal with. The ability to simply wake up and say, where do I want to go today? anywhere the open road takes me. Tomorrow leads to more experiences and hopefully even better things are in store.

December 23^th 2010

Over the past few days I have seen, smelled and most importantly tasted some of the best things my senses have ever experienced. After spending a day in Athina (Athens) which included, visits to the many Soulvaki shops, the Parthenon, the Acropolis and many other ruins of this ancient city, as well as a 10km walk to the town of Athens from the port, as a result of the strike currently underway. 

We then continued our trip to Crete, the largest of the Greek Isles. Once we arrived off our overnight trip on the ferry, we had some time before we would be picked up from a German couple, that my friend Craig, had become acquainted with. During this time we took a chance to visit a castle fortress on the seaboard from the Byzantine era. We stretched out in the sun and took as much in as we could, until The couple, Roland and Manuela, picked us up from the bus station in Rythemno, Crete. After a short car ride we were in the mountains of Crete, surrounded by beautiful scenery and the incredible ever-present smell of olive trees. We stopped in Spili for some of the best coffee and sweets that I have ever had. We also drank from the fresh mountain water that flowed through an ancient aquifer. After this we then continued to the home bass of our hosts, through the breathtaking vistas that the mountain passes and dirt roads provided. The town we ended up in was Triopetra, a land of beautiful beaches and the warmest part of Crete. It was 22 c when we drove in at 3:00pm and the cliffs of Triopetra were calling for a nice plunge into the Mediterranean. Before we did this however we got the chance to meet a native Cretan that welcomed his old friends and us, the newcomers. After a quick chat, we hiked over to the cliffs and plunged in. Every time I am on the edge of a cliff, waiting to jump in a get a sense of exhilaration that cannot be rivaled. We topped this day off with a homemade Cretan meal and fresh Raki, a traditional Cretan drink, after which we drove home and shared some wonderful 14 year scotch from our wonderful host, and hit the hay.

December 24^th, 2010

Today I woke up, greeted with the sound of birds singing out my window and rustling in the kitchen of my breakfast being made. After a delicious meal on the deck, taking as much advantage of the sun I could, we were interrupted by the landlord of the house we were staying in, bringing us fresh olive oil, and Christmas sweets. We thanked them for this with a, efalisto, and then tried the goods, which were wonderful. After we finished this wonderful mid-morning snack, we drove to first the town of Sivas, for a delicious lunch of goat, beef, squid, and lamb prepared in different sauces. The flavors I tasted could only be rivaled by some of the finest restaurants I have eaten and even then, there was a certain freshness to the food that could not be duplicated. We finished out time before out ferry back to Pireaus, with a visit to the hippy town of Matala, which as most of Greece at this time is pretty dead. We stopped and had a wonderful glass of Mountain Tea, a local specialty and soaked up the last few rays of the fleeting rays of sun. Our final leg of the trip took us to the bus stop of Mires and then to Heraklion. In Heraklion, Christmas spirit was in the air, with open air choirs and fake Christmas trees lining the streets. After some navigating through the roads to the harbor, we found some internet and called the folks back home to wish them a Merry Christmas and tell them we missed them very much. I would have to say that this Christmas held many firsts for me, but this was the first Christmas that I was not able to see my family, and it was much harder than I had imagined. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, I guess? Once on the ferry, a familiar scenario transpired. Search for a seat, save said seat, try to get some sleep. End of Christmas Eve.

December 25, 2010

Started the day out by arriving at 5:30 into Pireaus, we talked to the families again and waited for It’s a Wonderful Life to download, as I realized that I needed at least one constant for the Christmas Season. It being Christmas day, our thought process was, we had already seen Athens, Nothing would be open for the next couple of days anyway. This being the case we determined that a trip to the nearby island of Agena would be better for our plans of camping out for the night. After a very successful fire was built we cooked up some sausage and Pasta with very minimal materials and both of us were quite impressed with how they had turned out. We then settled down to watch It’s a Wonderful Life and take in the beauty of the moment. Merry Christmas, Greece.

December 26^th

Awaking to the sounds of the waves lapping on the shore, I had to do a quick double take of where I was. Ah yes, I remember now, Greece, on a beach, watching the sunrise, sadly my last full day in this little slice of heaven. The events up to this point have been pretty uneventful, ferry ride back to Pireus, quick check of the ol’internet and jump on the next ferry bound for the Island of Kos an our flight back to the frigid lands of the North. While I am very sad to be leaving this place, I am a little excited to be going back for more adventures this New Years when I travel to Berlin to ring in 2011. 

Wein (Vienna)

 So a quick summary of Vienna and then off to bed. It was great. Let me expound upon this idea a little more in depth. The plane ride was a success, with ease of transfer and time schedules being met. The weather was sub-par, cold but not raining or snowing. The accommodations were surprisingly nice. Me and my partner in Crime John from Pennsylvania, found a nice cheap spot outside of downtown that was reasonably priced as it was out of seasonal travel time. The food was wonderful. The first night we had a classic Vienna dish at this pub that also had a special Austrian beer, Ottakringer, both were an absolute delight. The next morning we set out to explore the city, after a delicious breakfast of bread and cereal. We then plotted out our route and were on our way. The  buildings beautiful. Vienna has this wonderful museum district with a large amount of either original buildings or post WW2 reconstructed buildings. As shown here 

After much walking we stumbled on one of the most fantastic finds yet, a gentleman's shop of sorts. The store was one of the most aesthetically pleasing stores with a posh selection of menswear only a little out of my price range (a small understatement there). Nevertheless I was able to justify buying a one of a kind scarf there and was very pleased with my purchase, hopefully I will be back for more some day. 

We then journeyed on to see the Museum of Modern Art which was surprisingly to my liking with a well designed layout and informing exhibits, plus it was the only one that was free. A couple of my favorites.

We ended the day by finding a local bar to try another local brew in but first made a stop by the University to see the place Freud and many other important men and women had studied over the years. 

Our final day was filled with traveling and staying out of the bad weather. We then had a uneventful flight back to our home city, after a short photo-op on the famous Blau Danu river or in English, Blue Danube. Famous for the waltz by Johann Strauss with the same name. Cheesy photo-op that is. All in all an amazing trip and a chance to get to know the east coast better, learn to appreciate modern art, and class up the wardrobe a little, All without the help of the Johnster would not have been possible.  See you in July Vienna.