Tag Archives: germany

Bin Zurück!

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Just wanted to let everyone know that I’m back in the good ol’ US of A. I basically hit the ground running here, so haven’t really had much time to reminisce on my eurotrip, which is good and bad. But I can say for sure with no need for reminiscing, that Germany [and Europe] is utterly amazing, and I had the time of my life there. So before I go on, I just want to give a huuuuuuge thanks to everyone who helped me out, in any way, on making the trip reality. I also want to thank all the amazing people I met while there for opening up and being so welcoming to me. I can’t imagine the trip without you guys. It was a truly eye opening experience, and life changing. I’ll never forget it, and I definitely expect to go back someday.

So after 11 hours in the air, a short delay in Dallas, and then another 2 hour flight to Albuquerque, I finally got home Thursday night (Aug. 16). Friday morning, I had an orientation BBQ for school, and then Saturday shot a wedding all day. Then of course school started on Monday.. Things were a little hectic there for a while but, seem to be going alright now. I’m still playing a mean game of catch-up, but I just wanted to shoutout a quick thanks and update to everyone to prove that yes, I am indeed actually still alive. :D

Berlin Tag und Nacht

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Everyone in Germany talks about how cool Berlin is. How different it is from anything you’re used to. A perfect mixture of past and present, order and disorder, day and night, yeah yeah..

Well after going to Berlin this past week, I’m going to have to say I agree with all of these statements. I’ve never really been anywhere quite like Berlin. People say New York and Vegas don’t sleep, but Berlin apparently invented the concept haha. There was so much energy; the vibe of the city was so crazy. There would be pristine glass paneled skyscrapers, sitting next to burnt out, crumbling Soviet era concrete structures filled with squatters –everything within reach covered with graffiti and street art. At first this might not sound like something worthy of praise. But for Berlin, it is its identity. The city embraces this Neapolitan sandwich, and it really works. It’s really hard to describe, but I found it great.

So three friends and I carpooled the 4 hours up to Berlin with some random Egyptian guy, for pretty cheap. We stayed in a really cheap, but pretty nice hostel, and ate 2€50 Döners for every meal. We went to all the typical tourist places, Brandenburger Tor, Berlin Wall, Reichstag, Siegessäule, Berlin TV-tower, Alexanderplatz, and the Pergamon, as well as took an “Alternative Tour”, which showed us around all the kind of street art, hippy, less-touristy places, which was really cool. We were only there for two nights and one full day, but we walked and rode the subway alllllll over Berlin. I’d say we managed to get quite the Berlin experience.

Nürnberg

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Last week I got the chance to spend a day in the city of Nürnberg(or Nuremberg), about an hour southeast of Würzburg. It is definitely one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever been to. Classic German atmosphere, huge churches, a castle (of course), and a long, interesting history behind it all.

DeutscheBahn offers a “Bayern Ticket”, which allows 5 people to take the trains anywhere in Bavaria for a 24 hour period for only €30. So the roundtrip transportation for the whole day was only €6/person. In Nürnberg, we visited Nürnberger Burg (Nuremberg Castle), which is over 1000 years old, Nürnberger Felsengänge (Nuremberg ‘Rock-corridors’), 300+ year old beer cellars cut out of the bedrock, and manditorily, the Bratwursthäusle bei St. Sebald, which not surprisingly has the best brats ever. If you’re in Nürnberg, I recommend going to all three.
I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

More photos on flickr here.

Würzburg!

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Let me introduce you to my new home: Würzburg, Bayern (Bavaria), Germany. It has a population of about 160,000 people, four universities, a castle, and is the second sunniest city in Germany. Pretty ideal place to live.

Upon my arrival, the first thing I noticed was how incredibly picturesque the town is. I felt like I was in a movie; rolling hills, cobblestone streets, medieval-style architecture, sweet cars, etc. Everything is so organized and clean, the public transportation is flawless, people never J-walk, recycling is a big deal, and a bottle of beer is the same price, or often times cheaper than a bottle of water. haha. The people are reserved, but really nice when you start talking to them. Und natürlich, the food is awesome.

I’m rockin a small like studio apartment which is on a hill above the city, and very close to Universität Würzburg. I’ve met several students from the universities here, and turns out there are lots of people from across the world here. Fortunately almost everyone speaks english but unfortunately that means that I don’t get as much German practice as I’d like..

I recently got a tour of the facilities and studio that I’ll be working with, and it’s easily the nicest photo/video setup I’ve ever seen. I’ll describe it more after I’ve had a chance to use it and maybe grab some pictures with/of it. But let’s just say I’m stoked for this year.

So much has happened in the short time since I’ve been here, that’s its really difficult to remember everything and write about it.. But I’ll try to keep the blog up-to-date with my most current ramblings and shenanigans. Also, I’ll be posting pictures to the blog, but because of the amount of photos I’ve been taking/plan to take, not all of them will make it onto the blog. So if you’re interested in seeing more, I’ll link to my flickr photostream for the whole shibang.

More photos on flickr here.

Hasta Luego

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Or rather, bis später. Yesterday/today I hopped the pond for a 6 month jaunt over in Germany; a 1.5 hour plane ride to Dallas, a 10 hour plane over Greenland to Frankfurt, and then a 1.5 hour train ride to Würzburg. So 36 hours after getting up ‘this morning’, I’m going to bed..

I’ll post more, including pictures and all, once I get more situated, but for now a quick panorama of the Frankfurt-Flughafen Hauptbahnhof (airport maintrainstation):