A weekend at the Berg

This weekend (and yes I think I will now officially start considering Thursday evening part of the weekend), the glorious, unmatched, beer-fueled fun fest known as the Bergkirchweih began here in Erlangen. I didn't bring my camera to any of our numerous outings there, but thanks to a website which translates to 'Pictures of the Night' (where I've been featured before after the infamous karaoke night which resulted in my bra collection increasing in number by 1).

Its kind of like Summerfest, only with excellent beer at reasonable prices (7 Euro for a liter), no fat people in spandex, better food, and more fun. Also, copious numbers of Germans in lederhosen. Raf and Eric arrived from the Medical Physics conference in Berlin on Friday, so we immediately set of for the Berg, which is conveniently located about a mile from my apartment. I was in awe. Not only was the beer spectacular, but despite the teeming masses, there was no pushing, no fighting, because life is good when you have a liter of beer in your hand, surrounded by friends and have decent bands covering all the feel good songs you ever want to hear. So, we met up with some of Bjorn's and Ada's (hmm, maybe I haven't introduced her - she's Bjorn's girlfriend). There was lots of dancing on tables, I prevented many falls by one fortunate soul who had been there since 1pm, whom I was also able to converse fairly fluently in Spanish with. Someone needs to do a study on the relationship between foreign language skills and consumption of alcohol. I peaked at about 2 liters.

The Berg closed at 11, so after that, it was of course time for the clubs. A couple of us wanted to continue the dancing, so we set off for a club while the others stayed at a bar. I was convinced that I would not be allowed in as by this time I was down to just my beach shoes (which resulted in GIANT blisters the next day), shorts, and an A-shirt (my t-shirt having fallen to the ground after laying it on some railing and then subsequently apparently used as a convenient deposit for someone's snot - a nice surprise). The girls assured me I would be allowed in. Of course, I wasn't. So, we walked back to the bar. By the way, not only can you drink beer in the streets here, but during the Berg, all the bars set up windows or stands so you don't have to go inside to get a beer, so you have at least 500 people hanging out outside the bar. We did manage to get a little dancing in at the bar, and after an ill-advised rum, headed home to wind down the night sitting outside, listening to music, and nursing beers. All and all, an excellent start to the weekend.

Saturday included a near perfect BBQ, the arrival of Jim and Shannon from the conference in Berlin (unfortunately right as the German Soccer Championship match was occurring - featuring the nearest top level club, Nurnberg, who won). But I didn't see the game, instead we went off to the Berg again. It was more low key than Friday, but still a very good time. I dropped Jim and Shannon off at the apartment and rendezvoused with the soccer revelers. I was generally derided when I chose to end the evening at 2am. But, in my defense, the bar we were in sucked, and I was tired. I guess I could have manned up, but I didn't.

And I'm glad I didn't, because then, there's no way I could have stayed out dancing at a club until 4 am on Sunday. Its all a give and take. So yes, the night began at the Berg again, after eating some of Raf's gumbo and leftover BBQ food. We explored the fair area of the Berg more, a fun house was visited, and beer drank. At closing time, it was off to a pub to rendezvous with the girls who had been in the 'funner' area of the Berg where all the bands and dancing are. From there, Raf, Ada, myself and Katrin (the Spanish-speaking occasional table-faller-offer from Friday night) went to E-Werk, a massive club. The first room was playing much to much techno music, so we went upstairs were there was some moshing going on. I stayed on the outskirts longing for hip-hop. We eventually went back downstairs where the music had improved, not ideal, but at leas with the mix of techno and old school dance-pop tunes, I didn't tire myself out as I do with hip-hop. Around 2 am, I noticed water dripping on me from the ceiling. I was originally thinking, oh, that's not a bad idea, just a little shower action to cool us all down. Shortly thereafter, I realized, no, its not a good idea, its sweat that has evaporated, condensed on the ceiling, and then dripping back down. Eck. Of course, it didn't matter much as my shirt was completely soaked anyway. So yeah, dancing fun till 4 am and then a nice 12pm wakeup on Monday. All in all, a great weekend.

I'll hit up the Berg again on Thursday and Friday, and then I'm off to Salzburg and then the German Alps on Saturday and Sunday. Here are a couple of other pictures from the Berg.

Tales and Pictures from Vienna

I've just returned from Vienna (really, its Wien, but for some reason that I don't really understand, we don't call lots of countries or cities the names they actually have in the local language; why do we call it Germany and not Deutschland - I think we should call a place its name in the local tongue). Good times were had. I walked around a lot, met some cool people, took lots of pictures. That's the gist of it. You can see all of the photos I took here. If you are so inclined, you can read on for my accounts of what went on with some pictures interspersed (I wish I had something really, really exciting to recount to get you to read on, but I don't - I could have gone clubbing with a bunch of Italians last night, and maybe that would have led to some good stories, but I was tired and whimped out).

Actually, on second thought, I'm not going to write anymore. I just played some soccer, and I don't have any excellent stories to regale you with, so just enjoy the pictures. On tap for me this week is research (the purported reason I am here) and the Bergkirchweigh, the giant beer festival. I'll have three fellow Madisonian Medical Physicists crashing on my floor (as they are over here for a conference. The next weekend, I plan to visit Salzburg and the area of Germany where The Eagle's Nest, Hitler's 50th birthday present, is. Its in an area of the German Alps called Berchtesgaden, and is gorgeous. Other than that, I've got a trip to Barcelona booked for the weekend of June 22nd, and I'm working on a trip to Rome in July.

Taxes

Yes, I've been on a crazy posting spree lately; don't complain, I know you love it. But this time, I must disappoint those of you looking for stories akin to the one in which I get a bra thrown to me whilst singing karaoke. Instead, its time for more of my political philosophizing. Today's topic is taxes.

So, throughout most of the States, you see sales taxes of around 5 to 7%. Here in Germany, sales taxes are 19%. I think that's just about where our sales taxes should be. Consumption of goods is an equitable way to tax the people, as long as basic foodstuffs are available at reduced or no tax. Taxing the consumption of goods, energy usage, cigarettes, booze, gasoline, non-defense lawyers, capital gains, inheritance, and financial planners is a way to equitably tax those who have the money to spend and reduce the tax burden on folks who don't earn as much.

By taxing the above list of items, and offering significant credits for use of renewable energies, investment in education, etc. we could reduce the income tax and ease the financial hardships faced by many families while increasing the revenue to the gov't for use on projects such as a proper rail system and universal health care.

So yeah, let's do that. Again, I'm sure this will not sit well with some folks and when it comes time for me to run for political office, this may provide some ammunition for my opponents. Fine, I look forward to defending this idea and my plan for a substantially subsidized public transportation system. Also, I think we need to cut back on subsidies of milk and encourage the eating of buffalo meat instead of cattle meat. On the cattle tip, first of all, its only a recent evolutionary development that allows adult humans to metabolize lactose. We don't actually need it, we can get plenty of calcium from other food sources. And as for buffalo, not only does it in my opinion taste better than beef, but buffalo are the natural grazers for in the states and are able to graze in areas with coarser vegetation. One of these days I'll link to some decent articles about these topics.

Right, that's it for now.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mom's Day Mom!

So we arrive today at one of the two Hallmark holidays I'm actually OK with, Mother's Day (you figure out what the other one is). It ain't often enough that many of share our love for our folks with them (especially guys - society tells us the expression of emotion is not manly and it takes a bit of deprogramming to get passed that). So, I guess I'm OK with holidays that remind us all that our parents are owed some love from us for everything they've done and continue to do for us.

So, a special (hmm I almost wrote shout-out here, but then I realized that would just be stupid, we need a new colloquialism to replace shout out - how about "sky writing?") sky writing goes out to my folks for all the support and love and affection they've given me over the years. I think this is also a good time for us all to also thank all the other folks who have provided us with important support and guidance - whether it be that special friend, a mentor, etc.

But, back to the parents tip... Mom, Dad, I don't know how you guys did it, but you've raised me so well that my only flaw is a glaring lack of humility :) You found the perfect balance of encouraging me to learn and explore society's conventional beliefs while also striking the perfect balance of encouraging me to question those very learnings and find my own way. I can't think of many parents who would first require that I attend all Catholicism classes (which was great fun for me by the way - that was the one area where I could really have some fun with the teachers, oh how they couldn't stand me) and then accept it when I declared my intention to not get confirmed. You should a faith in me then that few parents would show in an obnoxious teenager, and you continued to show that faith in my decision making abilities when I quite grad school years later. You've both done a great job helping me to look more closely and evaluate the choices that I make while not being overbearing or restrictive.

For all of that, and so much more, I thank you and send my love and appreciation from Germany back across the Atlantic to ya'll. Love, your globe-trotting son, Mark (ah, that's my one regret, I kinda wish I was Marcus instead of Mark, ah well, I guess I can live with that one complaint).

So, remember everyone, show your folks, and the folks-like-figures in your lives some love.

Oh, where to travel...

If you are so inclined, check out some of options and plans for travel this summer. I have some decisions to make.

I've started a free intro German class that the University here offers. Its not exactly what I was looking for as it seems to have the goal of actually teaching me German, where as I just want to know enough phrases and understand enough to be able to interact in shops, etc. But I guess I can try to pick that up on my own. It also seems much to slow and easy. I missed the first two classes, and so I joined it on Friday (that's another problem, class on Tuesday and Friday evenings - and I plan on doing a lot of Friday traveling) and well, I was bored. Yes, I do speak another foreign language, but Spanish is nothing like German and there are only 7 people in the class and it is sooo slow. The instructor actually pulled me aside and asked if I already knew some German as it was quite apparent that it was a cake-walk for me. I of course, know no German and told her that, its just ridiculous that we spent two hours learning how to introduce yourself, say where your from, what languages you speak, where you live (and ask those questions or say that info about someone) and learning numbers. But, beggars can't be...

Other things of note, they've got an H&M here. 70 Euro suits and cheap jeans, capri pants, and shorts here I come. It's interesting, the suits, jeans, shorts, pants and coat styles are all ok, but the shirts just suck. They're either absurdly plane - single color or polos with a few dull stripes - or they have stupid things printed on them. Well, I guess I'll have plenty of time to find stylin' shirts during my travels.

A Night on the Town

Most Germans confuse me. My confusion was further extended by a night on the town that included my karaoke debut in Germany. Yes, a monumental event I know, and I'm sorry that I did not properly publicize the event an give ya'll an opportunity to travel to experience the debut.

After some delicious pizza (oh, I learned I can eat Jalapenos, at least on pizza) and a few cocktails at a bar called Havana (which by the way has a happy hour that extends until 21:00 - now that's a happy hour), Dirk, Phillip, Andrea, Robert (all from the IMP - Institute for Medical Physics) and I arrived at a completely packed bar called Papa Joe's for some karaoke action.

It was a fairly mixed bag as far as the performers go, kind of the standard. I was devastated by the poor selection of R&B - no Al Green, only 1 Marvin Gaye song, and only 2 Prince songs. So, I was forced to go with the old stand by of Faith. Apparently that was a good decision as mid way through the rendition, a bra arrived at my feet. I've had underwear thrown at my feet before, but that was at the cabaret, and I was in costume and singing Tom Jones - so being on the receiving end of a barrage of ladies underwear is kind of expected. Well, anyway, the black bra at my feet - yeah, it remained there all by itself, none of its sisters joined it.

So, I was feeling pretty good, but here's where my whole confusion on the Germans comes in. Obviously they have some sense of taste - evidenced by their response to my George Michael efforts, but shortly after I went, the crowd again went crazy (well not quite as crazy as the went for me, wink) for some dude signing - poorly - a Backstreet Boys song. I was shocked, confused, appalled. So I must figure this out, either everyone there is really weird, or I have to come to grips with the possibility that in some circles, its acceptable for young people to like both George Michael and the Backstreet Boys. I have to decide if I am ready to part of that world.

So, that's the big question here, can I possibly get over the generally awful fashion sense and universally tragic taste in music of the German people and have a good time? I still, do not know. Tonight though, the answer was no.

Prost!

My digital camera has arrived, you can look forward to much more interesting blogs from now on!

A quick update

I had a very frustrating morning today. First, somehow the bathroom that I share with one other fellow at the boardinghouse was apparently locked from the inside. So, I suffered for a while when I woke up at 3 am having to pee. Got that taken care of though... But I had to wait until about 9:30 am to take a shower, which is when the owner arrived with the master key to open the bathroom up.

Then, as I was riding my very old bike (bought by Bjorn from a police auction for 5 Euro and last used by Rafael when he was here last year) into the lab this morning, the back tire decided to shift suddenly and lodge against the frame. So I had to walk it about 15 minutes, all the while lifting the back wheel, to a bike shop to get the proper wrenches to fix it. So, I arrived at the lab at 11:15, a bit later than usual.

I've decided not travel anywhere this weekend, but as next Thursday is a holiday, apparently their Father's day, I'm taking next Friday off and heading down to Vienna for a nice 4 day weekend. If anyone has any particular tasks, errands, treasure hunts, or double dares for me to do in Vienna, I'm willing to accept. However, challenges such as: "Walk around in a T-shirt that says 'I Love George W. Bush,'" will be rejected without further consideration (Shirt's reading: "Arnold is a surprisingly effective deal-maker and delegator of authority," will be given due consideration). I am willing to accept amusing and slightly demeaning challenges though. Proof of completion will come courtesy my new digital camera.

A BBQ-Filled First German Weekend

I can declare, based on a small sample size of the German population, that Germans love to BBQ pork products. Luckily, my tastes and hankering for BBQ'd meat flesh mesh nicely with this German characteristic. Furthermore, the same population sample enjoyed drinking beer with BBQ flesh. Its like I'm the same as them.

It was a good weekend, took things pretty easy on Friday night and caught up on Scrubs, 30 Rock and the Black Donnellys thanks to iTunes. Saturday evening Bjorn (the son of the professor that I'm over here working with) invited me to a BBQ at his friends' place. Turns out that you can't really buy just beef here, so I picked up some ground pork-beef combination and made burgers out of that. That was actually quite good, as were the sausages and pork steaks others brought. Good times all around. Then, the fellows (5 of us - the 2 women begged off) went to a bar to play some foosball. I liked the bar, kind of a student spot, a little dive-barish and a few excellent foosball tables. After being thoroughly underwhelmed so far with the attractiveness of most German women, I was pleasantly surprised by the plethora of good-looking rock n roll type girls at the bar. I think it is safe to say that I will venture there again, if I can find it.

Did some work on Sunday, yes, I must work weekends as I have responsibilities both here and to continue my work from Madison. Later in the evening, I again consumed BBQ'd pig flesh. Bjorn (who lives right downstairs from me in the boarding house - although he has a proper apartment) his GF and his brother and I consumed copious amounts of meat. I think that unless I learn to exercise regularly, my pants will shortly no longer fit me.

Fairly uneventful day so far today. I have a talk to give on Wednesday, so putting the finishing touches on that and continuing to process some data from Madison. I also decided to suck it up and buy a digital camera. Its just too damn expensive to develop APS film. So, in a couple of days I'll be switching over. I found a nice SLR-like style digital - I refuse to go with the small point and shoots, I need something solid and real camera-like - the Fujifilm Finepix S5700.

Well, that's it for now, I must decide where, if anywhere, I would like to travel to this weekend. Suggestions, votes? My main options are Vienna, Salzburg, and Munich.

Some Pictures

So, probably the easiest thing for me to do with pictures is to put them onto a Web Album, so I've done that using Picasa.

Here is the album.

It should be public, so ya'll should be able to see it, let me know if you can't. I took many pictures of the Munich skyline with the thought that maybe I could merge them together to make a giant panoramic picture, but 1. they're not all that cool, and 2. I don't really feel like it right now.

I also have to find a different place to get my APS film developed into CDs, they charged my 10.50 Euro. I know there must be somewhere cheaper.

Ah well, enjoy.

Arrived in Erlangen and I must learn some German

This one will be much shorter than the last two, I promise.

So, I've arrived in Erlangen and my lodgings are quite sufficient. Very close to a nice part of town with many shops and produce stands and beer gardens. I couldn't ask for anything more. At the Institute for Medical Physics - the reason I'm here - I have a giant office with a window. This will spoil me ridiculously and make going back to my tiny desk in Madison nearly impossible. I'll have some pictures from London and Munich to post tomorrow.

Good things about Erlangen:
-Very bike and pedestrian friendly
-Cheap produce, bread, and of course, beer
-The upcoming Bergkirchweih
-The ease of catching a train to Munich and from there to nearly anywhere my heart desires to take me


Bad things about Erlangen:
-It took me forever to find some Olive Oil - really, I can't live without it
-The cheap Weiss Beer and the havoc that it wrecks on my stomach (hopefully I'll adapt)
-Me not speaking German - I feel like a complete ass, though I have mastered the German for "I'm sorry, I speak German poorly. Please speak slowly. Or, do you speak English?" At least that way I'm not a completely stupid American. I plan on remedying the situation shortly by taking a course in Everyday German
-The AWFUL, AWFUL fashion sense of most Germans. I recoil in horror occasionally as I walk down through the city. I don't know where to start, the ridiculous jeans, the ugly shorts, the incomprehensible pants/shirt color and pattern matchings, or the popped polo shirt colors. And that's not even mentioning some of the printed t-shirts such as a girl I saw wearing a shirt saying "Sexy, Dangerous, Intelligent" - she wasn't sexy, she obviously wasn't intelligent as she was wearing that shirt, and the only dangerous thing about her that I could determine was her lack of fashion sense. I'm too delicate to be assaulted visually like this everyday.

Oh, and a quick little note on my most recent album listening habits:
Amy Winehouse Back to Black - mix Lauryn Hill, Carly Simon, and sultry 70's soul with a hard drinking British party girl
Arctic Monkeys Favourite Worst Nightmare - still digesting this one, not up to the standard of their debut, but I'm giving it time
The Veils Nux Vomica - Outstanding Rock and Roll. Top Notch. Spectacular.
Elvis Perkins Ash Wednesday - In competition with Nux Vomica for the best album of the past 6 months - singer-songwriter stuff, with some excellent players backing him
Bloc Party Silent Alarm - a couple years old, but it doesn't get old
Arcade Fire Neon Bible - A close third to The Veils and Elvis Perkins for top album of the past 6 months and in my opinion far superior to their debut, Funeral

Mix in liberal helpings of Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, The Strokes, The Hold Steady, Regina Spektor, The Decemberists, Rufus Wainwright, Velvet Underground, Beck and Prince.

Train Blogging

I am composing this entry - for what I am sure is now the highlight of all of your days, my European Blog – as I sit in the train from Munchen to Nurnberg. From there I just make a little hop to Erlangen and I will be at my home for the next 2.5 months.

Some fun adventures over the past two days to report on. First, I flew from London to Munchen on EasyJet. Supposed to be cheap, right? My ticket cost 30 pounds; a great deal. However, they charge you a ridiculous amount of money if your checked baggage weighs over 20 kilos. Mine weighed thirty, and they get away with charging 6 pounds per extra kilo. So, all the sudden my flight is like 100 pounds. Absolute rip-off. What really got me is that they only allow one carry on piece, even if its just a laptop bag. It’s a normal plane, an airbus, there was plenty of room in the overhead bins for my normal carry on, but no, they weren’t having it. So, good lesson learned: the cheap airlines are excellent if you have no baggage and rubbish if you do. Luckily, I have found a British Airways flight back to London that’s dirt cheap, and they at least should be reasonable.

Right, so got into Munchen, found my lodgings no problem, sat outside in their beer garden and had a couple of €1.50 Weiss beers. Good times. I then wandered around a bit, grabbed some food, and thought about writing a blog posting at that point.

Later in the evening I started talking with a couple of German chaps – good fellows – and we proceeded down to the discothèque they have on premises. At first, it was awful; my lodgings were in the Haus International and many tour groups come through and stay there. Unfortunately, one of them was composed of the most obnoxious Italian middle schoolers (although to be fair, if I was on holiday in Germany at that age, I guess I’d be pretty obnoxious as well). So, they were dominating the place, requesting crap music and being kids. But, it was soon their bed time, and shortly after they left a group of Ausies on a tour came in. They were proper fun.

I did my part to improve international relations between us and the Australians by dancing and having a grand old time with cutest of the group. She was an acceptable dancer, so it wasn’t really that big of a sacrifice on my part. I can’t abide dancing with women who have no rhythm – that’s definitely a deal breaker.

Have I mentioned how much I love how cheap the good beer is here? No, I haven’t allow me to take this opportunity to do so. I love the cheap, good beer here.

I got to bed at a more reasonable hour than I did on Friday, so I was able to wake up in what may not have been tip-top shape, but pretty good. Since, my boarding house isn’t expecting me till around 5 pm, I decided to take advantage of being in Munchen by taking a stroll to the Olympic gardens. Interesting tidbit about the Olympic garden and village – which is gorgeous by the way (although, I’ve never seen an ugly Olympic area) – They built up a rather large hill with different levels, topography, etc from a lot of the rubble from the war. So, as I stood on the highest point in Munchen and surveyed the city with the alps to the south, I was standing on some of the ruins created by one of the saddest eras in our history. Anyway, I took many pictures, walked around in my boots, thereby giving myself a blister, and had a jolly old time. I got a couple of nice action shots of some swans chasing each other around as well as the obligatory skyline shots and pics of the village. So, I then walked back looking for a cash machine. In my five miles or so of strolling I encountered only two banks – both of which were closed due to a holiday – and both of which didn’t recognize my card as a valid one to open the doors. I’m just used to cash machines everywhere – but here, no, only in banks it seems. Luckily, the guy at the Haus International pointed me to a bank which did let me in through its doors.

That’s about it. Oh wait, also, I love trains, especially the German trains – quiet, fast, reliable, comfortable, and very little pollution. The Midwest better get some train action going on soon, and the government should invest more in Amtrack, and all children should be taught about how evil cars are and how wonderful public transportation is. You can do things like write your blog.

I was going to stop there, but I’m still on the train and I had some more thoughts about public transportation. First, not only should the government be investing much more in renewable energy development and offering much larger tax breaks to individuals and companies who use or develop alternative fuels, and not only should the government be taxing the hell out of fossil fuel usage and stopping any further construction of non-clean coal power stations, but we should have a nationalized train and bus system. Here’s my plan. First, maybe wait a bit until some further developments have been made – maybe like magnetic trains, but once we get to a point where they don’t have to run on a lot of fossil fuels, we have a major government led construction project to connect any city of say, 50,000 or more people, and have busses or trams running from those cities out to smaller cities. Yes, it’d be expensive, but we’d also create a lot of jobs and offer an alternative to driving everywhere. Then, I’d like to see the government subsidize the operation. So, it’d cost maybe 20 bucks to get from Madison to Milwaukee and 25 from Milwaukee to Chicago. Yes, airlines would complain, and Republicans would have a hissy-fit, but I don’t care. The only way to ensure that Americans start using public transportation and stop using so much bloody fuel is to make it cheap, reliable, and easy to use. That’s more important than the free-market (which is often a little too free in my mind). Hmm, yes, so a bit socialist, I wonder if this will ever be dug up when I run for office. Screw it, I don’t care, I embrace certain aspects of socialism, and I’m not afraid to say so.