Blogs from Lower Saxony, Germany, Europe - page 13

I'm restless all morning from when the day light begins to stream through the slits in the heavy outdoor blinds. I keep picking up my phone to calculate what time it is, but I cannot remember whether to add or subtract eight hours. 6am or 9am? I don't know and am unlikely to figure it out unless I find another clock, but I keep checking every ten minutes as though I might miraculously find an answer. I get up. I have to fiqure out the time. I've been nervous since last night because it's mothers' day today, and we don't have any flowers for mum yet. All the way from Braunschweig to Hannover last night, I was scanning the shop fronts and petrol stations in the hope of finding a bunch of flowers; not that I ... read more

So, yesterday I gave my first talk at TU Braunschweig and it went very well. Everyone was really nice and they really liked my work. I went to dinner with most of the students from the graphics lab. The city is really clean and friendly. I only took a couple photos, so I'll attach them on here (the first 2 on the page). This morning I got up and took 2 trains to get to Hannover. At first, I wasn't impressed with the city since it seemed dirtier than Braunschweig. For example, around the University EVERY single building had graffiti all over it. Also, the building(s) that contain the institute I visited today were kind of older and run down (not "old" in the cool European, many hundreds of years old sense...but old like 1960's old). ... read more

Bad Grund, Germany, still monday the 9th. Mostly we spent the day in the car. And mostly it was raining. These highways are really great. But they tend to be very,very,very long... We picked a little place not too far from the autobahn number 7 that we are travelling, and it turned out to be the oldest of twelve "Bergsstäddte", high up in the mountains. And now for people who like "kurort" and "gesundheit". "Bitte leuten", as it said on the sign, and we were in. Had an apartment for ourselves. The owner told us we were not alone at the hotel, but we daubt it. This is not the season for a "bergstadt". The winter just gone, and the spring.... no, they'll have to wait. And so do we. www.parkhotelflora.de In the restaurant "downtown", one ... read more

In Berlin at the moment, figured I'd give a little update. The last few weeks have been just great! Christoph's family were the best hosts you could ask for and took me all over the town and fed me like crazy. ANDD this is good news for you guys, I got a new website for putting up pictures which allows me to add about 10 pictures at a time and works MUCH faster than putting up one picture every ten minutes as is the case with this blog. I'll put a link for the website at the bottom of this blog entry. But Berlin is the important one. This city is just amazing, it feels like its own little country. Charlie lives in West Berlin and it's always interesting when you enter East Berlin since you ... read more

das tattoo ist inzwischen am abheilen und alles ist gut. die schwellung ist so nach 2-3 tagen zurück gegangen und gerade pellt es sich ein wenig.... and i still like it very much. die letzten tage in berlin waren noch sehr nett, auch wenn sie größtenteils aus im bett liegen bestanden. mittwoch allerdings war ich mit a. im pub um die ecke, chelsea spiel angucken. noch nie gemacht, aber war echt mal nett. donnerstag abend bin ich dann nach hamburg zurück. wie unglaublich doof das war. und die situation am bahnsteig zu stehen und plözzlich kommt der zug, viel zu schnell, das sollte man verbieten. um halb 10 war ich dann in hamburg, hab mich am hauptbahnhof mit a. getroffen und sind zusammen nach hause gefahren. da war noch konzert. hab ich mir aber nicht angeschaut, ... read more