http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/karpase/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from karpase en-us Mon, 20 May 2013 13:35:53 +0000 Mon, 20 May 2013 13:35:53 +0000 Now that I'm back home I can summarize this little Lufthansa love story the way I always like to do with numbers36 hours later than planned1200 Euros richer I hope apparently in Israel it takes up to 14 business days for the moneyand 1 upgrade to business class what an experienceNo more travels any time soon the semester is starting tomorrow but I think I've had enough travel until next http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/Haifa-District/Haifa/blog-444676.html So I'm spending another night in Frankfurt and making another 400 euros.I spent the day just wandering around Frankfurt following some tourist map more or less.You can look at the pictures but to be honest Frankfurt is pretty boring.Tomorrow's flights are overbooked as well but I think it's time to come home unless they make me an offer I can't refuse. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Hesse/Frankfurt/blog-444452.html Funny story I got to the airport yesterday night all happy and willing to come back to Israel.At check in I was informed that the flight is overbooked and if I am willing to stay I will get 400 euros a hotel room for the night and will fly the next morning. So about 10 people from the flight did this and got to the airport in the morning.We proceeded directly to the gate since we had a b http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/blog-444302.html Today I went for a walk around in the old city in Freiburg and after that I went with my hosts to the Black Forest.I climbed the munster the big cathedral here and happened to be inside the bell tower at exactly 1000. When the bells started ringing it was pretty loud.Then we went for a walk around town and went up the Schlossberg the hill overlooking most of Freiburg.After that we went fo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Baden-Wurttemberg/Black-Forest/blog-443795.html I've been in Freiburg for a few days now working during the day and hanging out with the people here at night and generally having fun. As promised here are some pictures from Freiburg. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Baden-Wurttemberg/Freiburg/blog-442874.html I arrived in Freiburg this afternoon and was met by my local hosts. We went and had a nice lunch and then I took a long deserved nap after not sleeping most of the night. The hotel is a little strange there is a shower in the room but no toilet. I've had worse in South America but it is an interesting concept. Freiburg itself is a very nice town with some impressive buildings and the su http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Baden-Wurttemberg/Freiburg/blog-442056.html Today was the last day of the summer school the actual conference starts tomorrow.Since one of the speakers today got sick and cancelled at the last minute we had half the day off so we went sightseeing.So without further ado pictures.Shana Tova to Everyone http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Central-Macedonia/Thessaloniki/blog-437712.html We arrived in Saloniki after 3 hours on 2 planes and about 6 hours waiting in airports.The hotel seems pretty nice and we met some other people from the conference and had lunch with them.Not much else to write about everything is fine. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Central-Macedonia/Thessaloniki/blog-436744.html I got back home yesterday and am slowly getting over my jet lag.However I still owe everyone some Vegas stories so here goesWe stayed at the stratosphere hotel which is the tallest building west of the Mississippi. On the roof they have 3 short rides. The coolest one spins you around off the edge of the building high above Las Vegas which was really cool. We also some some standup comedian http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/Haifa-District/Haifa/blog-422881.html Today we went to the Grand Canyon. The first thing that comes to mind when you see the Grand Canyon is yep it's really big. And it is. Really big. So anyway we drove around the north rim where relatively very few people come and took some short hikes and had a nice time.The motel we're staying in tonight is in a town called Kanab Utah also known as little Hollywood because a ton of old w http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Arizona/Grand-Canyon-National-Park/blog-421280.html Today we went for a short hike in Bryce. It was pretty good until it started raining but even then it wasn't too bad. The hoodoos the tall columnlike thingies in the pictures are even more impressive from below.In the second half of the way we went for a scenic drive on Highway 12 and I use the term highway very loosely to Boulder Utah the most remote town I've ever seen. It's been said http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Utah/Bryce-Canyon/blog-420876.html We got to Bryce Canyon National Park today. Apparently the fire there is still burning but it under control.On the way we stopped at Cedar Breaks National Monument trivia the President can declare a national monument but congress has to vote on national park status.Bryce is much higher than Zion about 3000m compared to 1000m and is much colder I actually wore my fleece jacket which I li http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Utah/Bryce-Canyon/blog-420499.html Today we went hiking in Zion National Park. It was great but I'll let the pictures show you that.It was also pretty hot but we went hiking early enough. We actually took about 5 short hikes actually 2 short hikes and 3 that are so short it's insulting to call them hikes.Tomorrow we're going to Bryce. Apparently Bryce is on fire or at least a part of the woods there so we are not sure exac http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Utah/Zion-National-Park/blog-420197.html We started our trip today with a 7 hour drive from LA to Hurricane Utah just half an hour from Zion National Park. The drive was actually pretty good. We went from California to Nevada to Arizona to Utah passing through the Mojave Desert. One note about the weather it's hot damn hotAt some points along the way it was 46 degrees outside and even at evening it's over 40. This weather is e http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Utah/Zion-National-Park/blog-419893.html I gave my talk at the conference today. It went fine despite some technical difficulties my laptop froze in the middle of the talk and I had to reset it. I also met a lot of the people whose names I only know from reading their papers and most of them are very nice. All in all I'm having a lot of fun.Tomorrow is the last day of the conference and Saturday morning I'm meeting Yuval and we s http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/Pasadena/blog-419359.html Here is what I've been up to in LA.On Friday I worked as a volunteer at the conference. There were 8 of us all Ph.D. students. To use this highly qualified group of people they gave us 1000 bags and stacks of pieces of papers from the conference sponsors to put in the bag. Being 8 CS students we quickly came to the conclusion that the optimal way to do this was to set up 2 assembly lines with http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/Pasadena/blog-418035.html I finally arrived in Pasadena after a long flight to Philadelphia and then another long flight to Los Angeles. I think I had a 16 hour long night l left Tel Aviv at 2300 and 1200 hours later it's 400 in Philadelphia but I'm too tired to do the math. The motel looks pretty nice with a big room and a pool. Tomorrow I'm going to volunteer at the conference but the day after I have a free http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/Pasadena/blog-416944.html Since I'm going abroad I decided to use this travelblog again.I'm going to a conference in LA and then traveling with a friend.We plan to visit Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks and Las Vegas.I fly tonight 20 hours fun. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/Haifa-District/Haifa/blog-416419.html Today I went to Rio's two most famous lookout points Corcovado Christ the Redeemer the big jesus and Pao de Aucar Sugarloaf mountain. Although it was a little cloudy the views were great and you can really appreciate Rio. This is my last night in South America tomorrow I'm flying back home. See you soon. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/Botafogo/blog-261027.html Today is my last day in Bahia. I got the ferry from Morro de Sao Paulo to Salvador yesterday and went to a candomble show last night which was pretty interesting. Everyone wearing white dancing and making weird noises supposedly in a trance. This was an authentic candomble ritual not for the tourists but even though there were more tourists than locals it was still nice.Today I went http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-260670.html