Skiing in the Alps: Take 2

Hello everyone! I’m going to be honest with you all, I’m exhausted, but here we go!

On the weekend of March 1-3, I traveled down to Munich to go on another skiing trip in Austria. Another moment of honesty: we were incredibly lucky! The weather was perfect for skiing (and taking awesome pictures of course)! It was about 3°C (37°F) at the warmest part of the day, so the snow was still good, but it was not freezing. I was actually skiing in a long sleeve t-shirt and a coat because it was so warm. It was awesome!

 

The sun was shining and we could see forever. Seeing all of the mountains off in the distance was one of the most beautiful, breathtaking things I have ever seen in my entire life. It was also nice to not be freezing while we were skiing, making the whole trip a wonderful experience. Luckily, this time around, Anton and I did not almost meet our doom. Haha!

This ski resort, Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis, is gigantic! There were so many different ski paths and places to go. Unfortunately, that meant we spent a significant amount of time on the ski lifts after the long 3 hour bus ride to the mountain. Luckily, in the grand scheme of things 4 hours is not a big deal, and we eventually got to enjoy ourselves skiing. Some of the runs were incredibly steep and a little too intimidating for Anton and I, but the others tried their luck. At one point, we ran into Kyle attempting to put his skis back in (it brought back funny memories).

Overall, the day of skiing was a great success and a lot of fun. We got to eat lunch outside near the top of the mountain, which was quite awesome! We had fun skiing in relatively warm weather, and everything else went swimmingly.

There was also a "Fun Park" with jumps and a giant ramp into a giant air bubble! I didn't really care to go off, so I sat and took pictures of Justin and Kyle while they jumped off the ramp! It was a lot of fun and a great view of Justin flapping his arms when he went off the ramp.

Our return trip on the bus was a little bit wilder than the last time. Last time, people drank and sang for about 30 minutes to an hour and then fell asleep. This time, they played loud music, danced, sang, and partied the entire way (this bus ride was even longer than the one two weeks ago). I don’t know how they had the energy to keep going like that, but it made for a very fun atmosphere, and since I can’t really sleep on the bus, it was something for me to be entertained by.

I also met my new fried Julia (pronounced: “you-lee-a”, which I think sounds much cooler than the American pronunciation, probably because it’s different), and she and I talked for part of the ride back. She doesn’t like to speak English, and it was very loud, so communication was a little bit difficult, but we made it work! Now, she and I chat on Facebook, which provides me a good opportunity to practice my German and make a new friend! J

On Sunday, Kyle and I went to the Deutsches Museum in Munich, which is a massive 6-floor museum with pretty much everything you can imagine. There was no way we could have seen everything, so we hit the big things, namely the boat/ship section, aircraft, spacecraft, technology, astrology, and sundials. Now I know what you are thinking: “Sundials! Really?”, but that was my favorite part. On the 5^th floor, you could go outside on the roof, and they had sundials from several different historical periods and all over the world. Uniquely, a couple of them were from the late 1900s. I didn’t realize people were still researching and developing sundials, but they are. It reminded me of one of my favorite (also most underappreciated and nerdy) aspects of UC’s campus, the Analemma Sundial.

The Deutsches Museum has so many exhibits and a lot of really cool information, but we were only able to make it to a few of the exhibits, and we didn’t really get the opportunity to stand around and really appreciate some of the history in there. Looks like I’ll be making another trip to Munich!

The Brief History of Prague

Let’s start in the beginning (kind of): Jan Hus is the most famous figure of the Czech Republic (2^nd place is Jaromír Jágr; NHL player). Hus is famous for many things in the history of Prague and the Catholic religion. We were told the story of how he went against many Catholic teachings and instructions to translate the lessons of the Bible from Latin to Czech, allowing the general public to read those lessons for themselves. Hus was burned at the stake for heresy.

In response to Hus’ death, a group of Czech Hussites formed to respond to the death of such a great man; he who gave the lessons of the Bible to the people. Appalled by the charges and eventual burning of Hus, this group marched to the New Town Hall on Charles Square. They marched into the town hall and, in a process called defenestration, through the judge and thirteen members of the city council out the window to fall to their deaths. I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t fly in this day and age either (It’s a pun! Get it!).

Fast forward a few thousand years, and we have the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. In an effort to appease Adolf Hitler, the British and French give Hitler the area known as the “Sudetenland” (which included Czechoslovakia) through the Munich Agreement so that he would not forcefully try to expand Germany (it worked really well). The funny (ironically funny, not comically funny) part is that the British and French did not speak with Czechoslovakia about the decision. They were just given away like some kind of offering.

During World War II, ReinhardHeydrich, Hitler’s number two man, occupied Prague. He was arrogant and believed himself to be more than human, nigh invincible. Prague Castle holds the royal family jewels that are said to be cursed. Any person not of the royal lineage who wears them will die within the year. (Do you see where this is going?) Heydrich could not resist, so he occupied the castle and dawned the jewels and marveled in his own glory.

A group, the Czechoslovakian government-in-exile, was trained by the British Special Operations Executive, and they wanted their revenge. They wanted to kill Heydrich. Because he was so pompous, he continued to drive around in a convertible. When Hitler called him for a meeting, the former government/new assassins found their chance to kill him.

They knew there was only one road between Prague and Berlin, so two of them camped along a bend in the road where they believed they could kill Heydrich. As he drove by, one of the would-be assassins sprayed his car with machine gun fire. Somehow, (he must have closed his eyes) he managed to miss with every single shot. A normal man would tell his drive to punch the accelerator and flee. However, Heydrich was proud. Daring. He asked that the car be stopped to kill this attacker.

They stopped, a short distance thereafter, in front of the second federal assassin standing with an explosive. He tossed the bomb onto the car’s windshield causing a great explosion and rendering the car useless. Yet, somehow, Heydrich emerged from the smoking wreckage, wounded and bleeding, to exact revenge on these two men. Eventually, he collapsed from blood loss and exhaustion before he could catch these two attempted murderers.

A woman had seen the explosion and came to Heydrich’s aid. She flagged down a van that would take him to a nearby hospital. He had lost a lot of blood and would need a transfusion to survive his injuries. Unfortunately (maybe), the nearest German city was Berlin, and he would only accept Aryan blood. The blood of Czechoslovakians was impure and unfit for a king like himself. He would die awaiting the shipment of pure Aryan blood. In the end, he would die of his own arrogance and pride 363 days after dawning the royal jewels.

During WWII, many of Prague’s Jewish citizens were held in Terezin, a concentration camp.. They held many famous Jewish artists, musicians, and more here and were used to video tape the inside of the camp to show how popular and nice it was. This was all a clever trick because obviously things were not enjoyable inside the walls. A famous artist who also studied art psychology, Frederika Dicker-Brandeis, was held in Terezin.

She wanted to prolong the innocence of the children stuck in the camp, so she smuggled in art supplies. The children drew and painted marvelous, happy pictures. When the Nazis found out what she had been doing, she was transferred to Auschwitz, but she was able to collect many of the childrens' paintings in a suitcase and bury it in the yard of Terezin. Years later, this artwork was uncovered and is now on display Prague's Jewish Museum (unfortunately, we didn't get the opportunity to see these).

Now we move forward in time to the occupation of Czechoslovakia by communism. Communists carefully (although not carefully enough) select Alexander Dubček (Pronounced: “doob-check”) to lead the country. This marks the beginning of an era known as the Prague Spring. Dubček believed in giving some of the power to the people, and during the Prague Spring, allowed his people the rights to free speech, media, travel, and partial decentralization of the government and economy. Needless to say, the Soviet power back Dubček was not exactly thrilled with this event.

They organized an invasion of Czechoslovakia to begin at exactly 12:01 am, when all of the radio communications would be disabled for the night. Unfortunately for the Russians, the Czechs observed daylight savings time, and they invaded at exactly 11:01pm. The Czechoslovakians were able to relay a message through the radios that the Russians had invaded their country. They could not fight such a vast army with so little preparation, so they devised a two-part plan…

Citizens were told not to fight the army. They were told to go out and take down, paint over, or destroy the street signs; all save the signs directing the invading army back to Moscow. The second part of the plan was to name every city Dubček. Each city the commanding officer entered, he would meet a citizen and ask, “Where are the street signs? What is the name of this town?” To which, the law abiding citizen would respond, “Why I don’t know, but you’re in the town of Dubček, sir.” Town after town this happened. The commander raged with anger. With no street signs, no city names, and no Google maps or TomToms to direct them, it took three days to find Prague; a journey which should have taken only a few hours. Unfortunately, the forces eventually did cease control of Prague and remove Dubček from power, but it was a good effort, and it is estimated that 70,000 people fled the country immediately, while the wave of emigration eventually reached a grand total of about 300,000. Pretty clever bunch, if you ask me.

Shortly thereafter, in response to the taking away of the rights and liberties provided to them by Dubček by the Soviet insertion, many non-violent protests spread throughout the country. The most famous of these protests was performed by a Czech student, Jan Palach. He entered Wenceslas Square, poured gasoline over his body, and lit himself on fire. His protest was not only in response to the Soviet invasion but a response to the demoralization felt by the Czechoslovakian citizens. He wanted his people to not give up or give in to the communist regime moving into their home.

Although Palach's attempts did not succeed, a more powerful and supported non-violent movement of Czechoslovakians, dominated by students, made and effort to oust Communism in 1989. This effort was known as the "Velvet Revolution", which eventually succeeded. Between 1913 to 1993, when Czechoslovakia dissolved (in the peaceful "Velvet Divorce") into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the Czechs had undergone eight different regime changes, including the Nazi and Communist invasions, and now they must deal with a new invasion: tourism. Their national anthem, “Kde domov můj?”, is appropriately translated to “Where Is My Home?”. You would probably feel the same way if your country was conquered, traded, and reformed like the ragdoll country that is the Czech Republic. 

Prague

Hello again,

Yes, I know, you’re thinking: “Nate, you’re killing us with these two posts in one day thing.” My response: I’m sorry that my life is so exciting. J

As I said, last weekend was a good one. It started with the Kohlfahrt, and then I made my way to Prague!

 

Prague is an absolutely beautiful city with such a rich history. It’s one of those things where I can’t tell you something that I loved most about Prague or one thing about the city that blew me out of the water. This city had a special energy to it; a warming invitation; a great mixture of local culture and tourist attractions. The architecture was diverse and quite incredible. The history of this city makes you wonder how they ever became the city they are today. The people, even though you don’t speak their language, make you feel at home.

The Astronomical Clock has many facets. This section will be updated later. 

We toured the castle, saw the famous Charles Bridge, climbed to the top of the hill looking over the city, toured the city, at authentic food, attended a classical music concert, and so much more. I have only been here a short time, but it was one of the most beautiful and incredible cities I have ever been to. If you want to get an idea of some of the things we heard about the city on our tour, please check out my article: The Brief History of Prague.

Kohlfahrt

Hello friends, family, and miscellaneous followers,

The last week was a good one. Let me start with the unique cultural experience I had, the “Kohlfahrt” (pronounced: “coal fahrt”; literally translates to cabbage drive…allow me to explain). On Thursday, we worked for the first half of the day, and in the afternoon, we partook in a beloved event known only to this region of Germany, being this “Kohlfahrt”. We met outside DLR (where we work), and people drank beer and grabbed shot glasses for the upcoming adventure (I didn’t drink, which was probably a good idea).

Basically, we marched from DLR on the north side of town to a restaurant on the south side of town. Along the way, people would stop at each intersection to do shots. People not carrying a beer at all times (like me) seemed to be out of place. We strolled through a park and played a game called “Boßeln” (“Bosseln”; pronounced: “bow-seln”), where teams of eight people would roll a ball as far as we could along the walking path. The team to get the furthest wins, although we never did find out who the winner was because the drinking is “the most important part”.

Once we got to the restaurant, there was another competition amongst the “elite” performers for determining the “Kohlkönig” or “Kohlkönigin” (pronounced: “coal-coo-nig” and “coal-coo-nig-in”; Cabbage King or Queen) who is tasked with planning next year’s Kohlfahrt. This is actually less of an honor than it is a burden (as with most royalties… right…). Three men had to throw tea bags from their mouths as far as they could, and the loser would become Kohlkönig. It was quite a site.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “Nate, where does the cabbage come into play?! (and why do you use so many quotation marks in your blog posts)”. The answer is: Now (and because I can). “Grünkohl” (pronounced: “groon-coal”; literally translates to kale) is somewhat of a delicacy here in Bremen. Kale, according to Wikipedia, actually tastes sweeter and more flavorful after being exposed to a frost. Thus, the Kohlfahrt and Grünkohl have a limited availability and timeframe. The kale is served with “Pinkel”, “Kassler”, and “Speck” (basically, sausage and ham). I could honestly take it or leave it, but some people genuinely love this dish, including Matheus.

 Anyway, it was my first time witnessing German people, in large part, take advantage of the fact that they can roam the streets and drink alcohol. It’s really not something that is done on a regular basis, but in the instance of improving worker relations, no reservations are made. It really was a fun and unique experience to be a part of, and I got to meet a lot of people that work at DLR!

Skiing in the Alps

Hello again! I’m going to get two posts in back to back here. This past weekend (Feb. 15-17), I traveled to Munich to visit friends and go skiing in the Austrian Alps! Talk about incredible, this is it. Justin, Anton, Elizabeth, Lauren, and I left Just and Anton’s apartment building at 4:45am to catch the bus that was leaving at 5:45am. Way too early… We drove for about 2.5-3 hours, and finally arrived at the mountain! I was about to experience an entirely different caliber of skiing than the “hills” we ski on in Ohio and the mountain we used to ski on in West Virginia. It didn’t help that I hadn’t been skiing for three years or so.

Of course, at the start of the day, I was overly confident in my abilities. I used to be really good. How difficult can it really be to get back into it? The answer: quite difficult. I probably should have taken a little bit of time on the easy hills to get back into the swing of things, but it worked out okay. Haha! We skied several different routes down the mountain. Anton, Elizabeth, and I stuck to the easier ones before lunch, while Justin and Lauren went off on the harder hills. We all had a few good crashes. It’s actually pretty fun to wipe out on a mountain because the snow is fluffier, and it doesn’t really hurt. Admittedly, when I started to get tired and physically exhausted, I fell on purpose instead of stopping. Haha!

At noon, we stopped for lunch, which we ate at a restaurant at the top of the mountain! Awetastic! (It deserved its own word). You could look out the windows and see all of the mountains off in the distance, serving as a constant reminder that you were eating lunch at about 9000ft above sea level. I had a delicious pork schnitzel that hit the spot. It was a nice break from all of the hard work we were doing. :P

After lunch, we continued skiing down all the runs we could find. We found a ski lift that took us to the highest point of the mountain, and were able to see over the smaller peaks down to the city. It was quite a view. Unfortunately, it was quite cloudy, making the visibility limited. We skied and skied and then skied some more. I don’t know if it’s me getting older, being out of shape, or being a little bit sick, but I was getting sore. By the end of the day, I could barely even bring myself to turn my skis to stop. We were the last group to catch the lift up the mountain, which was an awesome feeling being up there with nobody behind us.

At one point in the afternoon, Anton and I were adventuring on our own. He saw a path from the ski lift in between two of the runs that had a few trees and looked like a nice little detour from the normal path. I followed the leader. We got to this part of the mountain and went off the beaten path, if you will. Unfortunately, we found that it was just huge piles of unpacked snow. My skis and his snowboard kept sinking into the snow, causing us to fall and causing me to lose my skis. Anton was ahead of me and was able to make it out before I could.

I was struggling my way through. At one point, I thought to myself, “Okay, if you go faster, you can glide over the top and make it down.” That worked for a short time. Then I saw a valley in front of me. I was heading downhill, and then it changed directions and went uphill again. Again, I thought, “You got this. No worries. Just lean back and try to lift the front end of your skis up, and go over it.” Please reference the very crude pictorial representation below of the events that transpired next:

No, I could not make it up the hill in front of me. Yes, I face-planted right into that giant pile of snow. Yes, I came out of it laughing. No, I don’t regret going down into that area because it was the funniest thing that happened to me that entire trip. I wish someone could have been there to videotape it.

Little did I know, Anton had made it out of the area and was calling for me. I couldn’t hear him, so I obviously wasn’t responding. On my end, I would try to walk, and fall into the snow up to my waste. I’m not going to lie, I thought at one point that I might fall into a crevice and be buried, unable to get out. So like any engineer would do, I laid on my stomach to disperse my body weight and used my skis to pull myself to safety. It was a totally logical thing to do. Haha! I finally heard Anton yelling for me, and I yelled back letting him know I was still working my way out. His reply, “I thought you died!” Overall, not the best decision we’ve ever made. Would I do it again? Probably not. Would I go back and change it? Absolutely not! (Please note: if I was actually buried in the snow for a period of time or I died, I would probably want to change my decision.)

Anyway, skiing in the Alps was an absolute blast, and I can’t wait to go again on March 2^nd!

Köln: Take 2 and 3

Hello everyone! Sorry about the lack of posting lately, but I killed my computer. I broke the hard drive, so I’m currently in the process of navigating the technical terminology of the German language. I think I have just about everything in order, and with a few creative solutions and help from my mom and some friends, it should be up and running by next week (as long as I only broke the hard drive; cross your fingers). P.S. Never in my life did I think I would be hoping that I “only” broke my hard drive. Good times. Oh well…it’s been a unique learning experience separate from everything else that’s going on.

So now that we’ve covered everything you didn’t care about, let’s get down to business: what in the world has Nate been up to for the past two weeks. Holy crap, I have some catching up to do! First of all, my uncle, Uncle Wayne, was in Köln (Cologne, where my European adventure began), and I was able to visit him on Tuesday, February 12^th! That was really awesome. I haven’t seen him for several years. He is here with his friends Rick and Kim, as well as the mentally handicapped man he takes care of, Michael. We got to explore parts of the city together, including a tour of the chocolate factory. I would be lying if I didn’t say it was quite a delectable delight! We took a tour of the factory and had dessert afterwards. No complaints there!

We then continued our bus tour about the city, hitting all of the highlights of Cologne, including the zoo and the Dom (cathedral) again. After the tour, we took a short break to get ready for dinner, and I got to spend some quality time with my uncle. I have to say, it’s probably my fondest memory thus far about being in Germany. How is it that I had to travel halfway around the world to connect with him? Haha! We then had a very delicious meal at a local restaurant, Pfäffgen Kölsch Brauhaus. Authentic German food! Wonderful! Unfortunately, I was only able to stay and visit for one day, but I have already made plans to visit them in London.

The following weekend, Matheus, his cousin Diego, and I traveled again to Cologne for the Kölner Karneval (Cologne Carneval) to celebrate. It was absolutely nuts! There were people everywhere dressed up in colorful or ridiculous or spectacular costumes. We found a square block where people were celebrating; eating stew and drinking beer and enjoying the moment. The stew was delicious and warm (thankfully, because it was freezing outside). As we ate, a band marched by and performed on a stage in the center of the area we were in. Following the marching band, a famous German band performed some of their famous songs for us (I have no idea who it was, sorry!), and people all around were singing these anthems and beloved tunes. It was quite an incredible sight.

After the performance, everyone started to head toward the Dom and the city center, so we followed the crowd. We walked around the central train station and the Dom for a while, looking at all of the costumes and soaking in the ridiculous nature that was the Kölner Karneval. We saw Power Rangers, Dragon Ball Z characters, Barbies, Marios and Luigis (even a Wario), Gorillas and Bananas, Doctors and Nurses, German men dressed up in Lederhosen and German women dressed in Dirndl. We even saw a few German men dressed in Dirndl. Anything and everything you can imagine, we probably saw. If we didn’t see it, I’m willing to bet someone there was dressed like it.

 (I'll post pictures from the carneval as soon as my computer is up and running)

We ended up finding an area near the Dom playing music with people of all ages hanging around dancing and drinking and enjoying the moment. We danced. We sang. We enjoyed the crazy atmosphere and the company around us: people we had never met before, just happy to celebrate carnival together. It was a special event to be a part of.

Wie gehts?

Hello all! Thank you for all of you support and help over what has nearly been a month since arriving in Germany. I don't have anything spectacular to share, so I'll just give a general update about my planned adventures, sight-seeing in Bremen, work, and my personal life, in that order.

First of all, I have some good stuff coming up that I'm really excited about! I'm a little bit nervous that I won't get to sleep in the near future, but you only live once (YOLO) right? Newest development, my uncle will be about 2 hours away by train, so I may take off work on Tuesday to go hang out with him. This is as of 20 seconds ago. The 8th of February is Matheus' birthday, so I'm going to let him decide what's on the docket then. On Friday the 15th, I will jump on a train to Munich. We will spend the 16th in the Austrian Alps skiing. The bus leaves at 5:45 and will bring us back later that day. Then we will explore Munich on the 17th. I, being the smart person that I am, decided to take the late train back, so I will arrive in Bremen at 7am to be at work by 8 or so.

The following weekend, a group of us are traveling to Prague on the 22nd-24th. Of course, I booked overnight trips so I can make the most of my time exploring. One week later, I will be going on another skiing trip similar to the previous ones. Different mountain in the Alps, same bus schedule and weekend plan. Crazy! Some of us plan to spend our Easter in Paris. Will and I want to go to Disney World while we're there. I can book really cheap flights from Bremen to places around Europe, so I may try to fit a trip in before Easter (I probably will). No rest for the wicked!

Last weekend, I finally had the opportunity to see Bremen...kind of. My explorations were cut short by rain. I'm told it rains quite a bit here. The climate is very similar to that of northern Ohio. It gets fairly cold and receives some snow in the winter and mildly warm in the summer. Anyway some pictures are below.

The Bremen Dom (Cathedral)

Nothing like Bremen in the winter!

The Dom in the middle of the snow

Once it warms up I will go around and take more pictures. There are a lot of really awesome older buildings around the city that have been preserved, and I have only seen parts of the city myself.

Work goes pretty well because I like the people I work with and sometimes what I do. MATLAB (programming tool) pisses me off sometimes, but I guess that happens. I have yet to receive the key to my office, so I moved into the room with the rest of the interns and students. I may just stay there. They're fun to be around when I need a distraction. Thimo and I talked about "How I Met Your Mother" for quite some time today. He knows it pretty well, which makes me happy! Here's a picture that shows you the development plan of DLR and the German space program:

lolz

On a personal level, things are going pretty well. I have made a few challenges for myself while I'm in Germany. I want to get in shape to do a triathlon when I return to the United States. My cooking abilities have already increased dramatically (easy to do when the only place to go is up), but I plan to challenge myself a little more in the near future. Homemade pizza coming soon. I also challenged myself to write to my little brother 3-4 times a week. He's in basic training for the National Guard right now, and I want to keep him busy when he gets free time. I told my coworkers that next week we are only allowed to speak German. Thimo said he would give me the silent treatment unless I'm talking in German. I came here to learn the language so I guess I should get on that. Another coworker, Ali, and I are going to play in a volleyball league on Tuesday nights! This past week was awesome, and I'm excited to be playing, even if I don't understand most of what they're saying to me. Despite being on the other side of the country, I'm still pretty involved in SigEp (my Fraternity). I am constantly talking with those guys, meeting with them via the internet, and sending them things on Facebook. Plans are in the works to talk to my grandparents this weekend on Skype! That is going to be awesome. Finally, I want to get a bike, hike, and travel as much as possible. There's no time to waste, and I don't plan on having any money left when I'm done. I'm 100% sure I'm going to exhaust myself, but that's why I'm eating healthy and exercising regularly so my mind and body can keep up with each other.