Blogs from Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Europe

Currently I am sitting in a computer lab at a university in Dortmund. This is where my buddy Ferhat attends school. Right now he is meeting with a professor to discuss his exam grades and next semester's classes. Unfortunately, the wait in line to speak with this professor has been at least a half an hour long, since we arrived to see three guy before Ferhat waiting. I have been in this computer lab for an hour, running out of things to do. Luckily there are people on Facebook whom I can chat with! The constant challenge, though, is navigating this German keyboard. The y's are switched with the z's, and a whole bunch of important punctuation is located all over the board. Plus, to get this punctuation, you have to press Shift, Control, Alt, maybe ... read more

15th March '09: “Crazy” Sandra, the avid heavy metal fan, turned up again last night, this time with her partner Uwe in tow. We’re off to a steak restaurant - Namibian, as you may have guessed, likes a steak or three - and a “spaznav” (satnav) device is produced to find it. I ought to just mention here that we are, in fact, pedestrians. A farcical quarrel over directions ensues - left, no, right, straight on? Namibian coolly smokes a Chesterfield throughout the squabble, and looks at a shop selling suitcases. He explodes with expletives, his eye wandering from one expensive suitcase to the next, culminating in near apoplexy at the €300 flagship model. The German couple are stumped, and eventually ask a taxi driver for assistance - embarrassing, I know, but we're starving. The restaurant ... read more

I'm in Dortmund at the moment. Fabian met me at the train station and told me he had a small car so he wasn't sure if we could fit the bags in...I was thinking a Lada or something. I wait at the entrace and he pulls up in a Mazda MX5! Today I'll be going to class with Fabian and then a few friends will be coming over for some beer later on tonight. He has a dog named 'Easy' that hasn't had a bath in probably a month so hopefully we can sneak him a bath sometime in between. Zürich was lots of fun, Ashleigh is doing well with an assortment of several douzen yougarts in the fridge. The family has towel heaters in the bathrooms...fancy art all over the place, a priceless view of ... read more

This post is going to be broken down day by day because there is so much to cover. Monday; Woke up early as we were driving to the North Sea. Packed up the van, picked up dennis' friend Nicole and then off. 350km further north we arrived in Wellhemhaven. It was pouring rain so we walked around the mall, then went for a late lunch at the McDrive. Which is what they call the drive through over here. Got lost on the way to the maritime musem. When we finally did arrive we checked out the collection of old WWII boats and even a U-Boat. At the campsite we had pizza for dinner, played cards and then slept in the van. Tuesday; Woke up to beautiful sunny day. Drove to Carolinsiel, walked the canal. The area ... read more

Friday was a rather chill day for Dennis and I. We slept in, which felt amazing. For lunch we biked to the bakery down the street and had fresh baked good and coffee :D. That afternoon we drove around and did some errands, dropped off a ticket for wednesdays match between Bayern and Dortmund at dennis' uncles house, went to go visit his oma, and then took it easy at home. That evening we went to the next towns Shutzenfest. Now i deffinetly didn't get this festival at all before, but i think i get it now. Well sorta; basically Shutzenfest translate to shooting festival, the main part of the festival is everyone shoots at a wooden bird with a shotgun, and who ever shoots it down becomes the King of the festival. Then we went ... read more

Well I am currently just outside of dortmund staying with dennis. But i will fill everybody in on whats been going on in the last few days. On Tuesday Jonas, Fabian and I took the train to Nurnberg and went to go see the WWII museum. Which is housed in a building that is on the original site of the Nazi grounds, and I'm not sure if the next part is impressive or creepy. But none the less, the museum building was commisioned by Adolf Hitler himself, and was some sort of rally building during the nazi regime. Leaving the museum feeling sad, we headed to go take a look around the old part of town, and had ice cream. That night we went out to a bar and had some local beers, and I said ... read more

just one week left... next week we´ll go to india, this time for 6 weeks. we start in Delhi, Mcleod Ganj (Himachal Pradesh), Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and Bodhgaya (Bihar) if you want to read more: www.klaudiablue.de ... read more

Hi all, Have just spent the weekend in Amsterdam and am heading back to London later today. No longer have to use Euro, back to pounds and back to where they speak english - or at least a version of it. Had a huge day on Saturday. Got up at 5 to make it to the train. Couldn't really sleep on the train as I ahd many stops along the way where I was actually switching trains. Thankfully all the trains were on time and I managed to make it onto the correct on each time. Stopped for three hours in Amersfoort which is where my Great Great Uncle is buried. Walked for about half an hour, out of town even, to make it to the cemetery. The old one which the web site had said. ... read more