Easter Bike Trip

Seven people from four continents have somehow all found their way to a small city, Linz, in the north of Austria. We all have our bike laden with supplies - hopefully enough to get us to Vienna. All that separates us from this city is 230km of bike path along the backbone of Europe - the Danube river.

Why did we not just catch a train to Vienna? To be honest, I'm still not sure, but I think it's something along the lines of the saying "lessons come from the journey, not the destination".

With our journey stretching out ahead of us, a blue sky above us, and a good Austrian breakfast inside us, we start our journey. We've only given ourselves 50km to do the first day - to get into the rhythm. We'll play the rest by ear. After a few minor bike adjustments, it's pretty clear that we'll manage 50km today. The next two days are a different question though. 85km sounds like quite a lot. We take it slow on this first day, and we get a bit separated for lunch, but most of us find a market square in (the first of many) cute little old villages. We manage to hold ourselves back from buying excessive quantities of exotic cheeses. Sausages for lunch.

After a mammoth hill climb, our accommodation is a bit of a shock. We'd seen on its website that they sell ceramic garden figurines, but that doesn't really prepare us for the reality. Every piece of land that isn't covered with house is covered with hideous porcelain gnomes. We slowly edge our way through them to the front door, and are rewarded with hot showers and comfortable beds. After a bit of down time, we limp to the local pub, and eat various kinds of deep fried meat and potatoes. And the pancake soup is great.

Day two. We're pretty sore from yesterday. But we would have been encouraged to hear from our future selves that that day was the hardest. I guess we all just had to get used to new bikes, etc.

This day has the nicest scenery - passing through so many really cute really old villages, and nice European "wilderness" between them. An impromptu picnic for lunch also felt very European. Cheeses and sliced meat on fresh bread in a courtyard surrounded by tiny cobbled streets.

The worst bike malfunction happens on Saturday too. Long story, and this blog already looks pretty long, but to cut it short, one of us peddles for about an hour with her front brakes on, complaining the whole time about how hard it is. Once we figure it out, disconnect the breaks and it's all good to go.

For our second night, we stay in a really tiny village called Willmersdorf. It's got half a dozen bnbs, a great pub, and a museum for a famous stone statue found in this village. This statue is so famous it's got its own wikipedia page.

The next day, Sunday, the Easter bunny forgets to distribute Easter eggs, but biking is easy. Really getting into the zone now. It's a bit windier than the last days, but Mirko seems happy riding at the front, breaking the wind for us. We easily cover about 80km and find another bnb in a place that's almost a suburb of Vienna. More deep fried stuff for dinner on the side of the river as the sun goes down - including the very healthy sausage stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon, and served with chips.

On our last day, we have only about 1 hours ride to Vienna. By now this is absolutely no problem. I have to say it was very sad handing our bikes back to the rental place.

Vienna was fascinating. So many amazing old buildings everywhere. I'll spare you the details, though, as I told you it was about the journey, not the destination. So how was the journey? It was fantastic. We really lucked it with the weather, with the people, and had no accidents of any kind really. It was my first "bike trek", but I will definitely do more.

Thanks for reading, I'll post another update rather soon covering all (ok, some) of the goings on since Easter.

Adam

The latest from Germany

Hello!

Random sunset.

Again, I apologise for forgetting to blog. I think I've been hibernating through the winter. But finally spring is upon us! I never appreciated the seasons at home, I think because they aren't nearly as dramatic as they are here. Sure, summer is sunny in NZ, but the rest of the year is all pretty similar. But here, it's amazing how brown winter is, how white winter is, and how green spring is. A few weeks ago, there was still 10 cm of snow on the ground, that had stayed there since before Christmas, but then in a week it all melted, and the daffodils and co. have sprung up everywhere. It's not green yet, but it will be soon, I'm sure.

Archway at castle up the hill from my house.

While it was still winter, the Berlinale happened. The Berlinale is a big international film festival in Berlin. Unfortunately I didn't manage to see the NZ film everyone is talking about now, "Boy", but I did see an awesome NZ documentary about a family living off the land ("This Way of Life"). And the world premiere of some long lost footage of the classic sci-fi movie, Metropolis. I was completely blown away what they could do in 1927 (that's not a typo!). Sure, they didn't have sound, but they had some pretty tricky special effects and amazing sets. As you can see in the picture, it was an outdoor screening, and it was freezing! Glad I managed to stick with it and watch to the end, though.

Metropolis screen, with Victoria, the roman goddess of victory on the Brandenburg Gate.

Other than that, it's been quite a bit of working, and I kind of got some results which I kind of believe! But anyway, I won't be so slack about my next blog, a group of us are going to Austria to do a bike trip for Easter, so I will be sure to take lots of photos and will have something to write about (probably about what a disaster it was!), so check back in a couple of weeks for more!

Hope you are all well,

Adam

2010

My last blog, I see, was at the start of December last year, and now we're at the start of February. Two months... sorry.

So since then, I had a couple of weeks at work, then made the long and perilous journey back home for Christmas and new years. That was 3 weeks or so, which means I've been back in sunny Potsdam for about 3 weeks too. I'm gunna gloss over the 3 weeks in New Zealand, because most of you are kiwis, and stories set in exotic locations are much more interesting.

My flight back took me via Korea, not quite Seoul, but really close. I had an overnight stopover there, and the airline put me up in a (pretty nice, actually) hotel. It was really cold. Especially when I'd been in 25C the 3 weeks before. And I didn't have the best cold weather clothes, but I still braved the Korean subway system and found the city centre (not of Seoul, of Incheon - this city just beside Seoul). It was full of bright neon lights and icy footpaths. I did not see a single other tourist, all the people around seemed to be locals doing late night shopping in these brightly decorated clothing shops. With a bit of pointing and sign language, I managed to get some delicious Korean food (seafood pancake thing) that a friend had recommended (thanks Paul). That was Korea, I went back to the hotel and fell asleep with my backpack on.

Incheon town centre. There were actually lots of people - I don't know why there is noone in this picture...

"Simplicity Descending Life Line" in the hotel room on the 8th floor.

The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, got back to Potsdam in the early hours of the morning, had a few hours sleep and went to work the next day. Turns out this wasn't such a great idea, and the next day I had a killer cold, so I took the Friday off and it was all good by Monday.

Now I thought Korea was cold - maybe it was -5C. The day I got back to Potsdam was -15C, I think. Since then it's been close to 0 a few times, but also down to -25C. Minus 25 degrees is cold. Even in -15C it's very dangerous to lick a metal pole. I learnt this the hard way. But cold also has advantages - snow, for example. Potsdam is still covered in at least 30cm of snow now, it's lying in huge piles on the sides of the roads. It kind of rained a bit last week so it's really crunchy and satisfying to walk on. My flatmates and I went sledding the other day too in Park Sanssoucci.

The institute in snow.

Icicles on the balcony.

Last night I went into Berlin with friends from work. Twice a year, all the museums and churches and stuff stay open until 2am, and you can buy a cheap ticket to visit all of them. We didn't go to ALL of them, in fact we only went to 4, but we didn't want to rush through heaps and see nothing. So we went to the Berliner Dom - an impressive cathedral I've posted photos of before, St Marienkirche - the oldest church in Berlin, the Natural History Museum - with the biggest dinosaurs in a museum, and the first dinosaur they found with feathers, and finally we finished up at the aquarium - which is HUGE and even has a tuatara exhibit. I know tuatara aren't fish, but the aquarium also had reptiles, amphibians and insects. A good night, lots of fun and lots of interesting stuff. Got back home at about 3, and had to get up by 11 today cos it's my flatmate's birthday and we had a big brunch so have been eating food ALL day.

Dome of Berliner Dom.

Dinosaurs!!!

That's the highlights - feel free to drop me an email bragging about the fantastic weather you're having.

Adam

Prague

Sorry for not writing for ages, [insert excuse here]. To make up for this (OK, maybe not just to entertain my loyal readers), I went to Prague for the weekend, and took lots of photos.

A friend, Sarah, is living there at the moment and kindly offered her couch and tour guide skills for the weekend. I took a night bus from Berlin arriving in Prague at about 6am. I managed to get a little bit of sleep on the bus, but it nicely set the tone for a sleep deprived weekend.

First thing on the list was a visit to Charles Bridge, the famous bridge in Prague that's on all the postcards. It's covered with souvenir stalls and tourists most of the time, but was very pleasant early in the morning in the off-season when we went.

Statue on Charles Bridge

Here are a few random photos from the rest of the morning.

I forgot what this was called, some building of some kind. It was close to the miniature museum, which was not very big, and had all kinds of really small art, so small they had microscopes set up to see the pieces.

Skodas everywhere! Noone else in Europe seems to think they are a joke, especially not in the Czech Republic. We did get asked to help push start one, though...

Then I checked out the castle, the biggest in Europe, I'm told. It was indeed very big, and pretty crowded with tourists, but there was still room to breath, I don't think there is in summer. Maybe I should have taken a tour, because I don't really have anything else to say about it, it had a nice feeling though.

The changing of the guards. Their bayonets look pretty scary.

Postcard shot of the castle.

Another clichéd postcard shot of the castle.

That night, we met Sarah's flatmate (Jana) at a pub in the region of Prague which boasts the most bar/pubs per square meter compared to the rest of Europe. It was a pretty crazy place, full of crazy Czechs. It kinda looked like a good old fashioned country pub, only it was full of incredibly drunk (+) people singing Czech anthems and jumping on the tables. Someone had a bubble blower, and there was a disconnected telephone hand piece and a ski mask on our table. The one owner/barman/chef somehow managed to stop for a chat with all the regulars, and people seemed to deal with their change themselves from a bowl on the bar. An old man with missing teeth pointed out that we had the same shoes, and showed me a special orthopedic insert he had put in his. This sparked a flurry of more shoes being removed and closely inspected.

Jana had trouble leaving...

Sunday, after a slow start, we saw many more of the sights. Unfortunately, my camera battery died, so there are no pictures for them all. They included; a metronome, churches, cemeteries, hills, bridges, old buildings, many small dogs and many more Skodas.

To finish we had dinner at a great restaurant which had been recommended by 3 different people at various times. And the last sight I hadn't managed to see was the astronomical clock, "the iphone of its day". It predicts sunset/sunrise, phases of the moon, zodiac, and all that jazz, and every hour it does a cuckoo clock kinda thing. So we are standing in front of the clock at 10.59pm, dozens of tourists have their cameras at the ready. Finally, the minute hand ticks over and the bells begin chime. Nobody breaths and the fingers on shutter buttons tense. Then the chimes stop. Nobody dares breath. Then the minute hands ticks over again. Some of the tourists begin to lower their cameras, people begin to look side to side. The minute hand ticks over again. Nothing happens... nothing happens... nothing happens. The darn clock is on the blink. Beaten but not broken, we give up. I'll be back, astronomical clock!

Thanks for reading, hope you are all fine. I hope I get to see many of you in a couple of weeks! I'm in NZ from the 17th Dec till the 10th Jan, so keep those dates in your diary!

1 Year!

Hi,

I have trouble believing it, but, according to my calendar I arrived in Germany a full 13 months ago. I was meant to write a big retrospective piece on the anniversary, but (as usual) it slipped my mind, and here I am a month late.

When I arrived, I remember I had 2 days of sunny weather and then winter hit with a vengeance. So this year, the weather has definitely taken a turn about the same time. I took this photo in Berlin about a month ago, when it was still warm.

It was an omen of things to come. Last week we turned the central heating on in the flat, I take my jacket with me whenever I go outside, leaves are rapidly yellowing and disappearing. Xmas decorations are appearing shop windows, and at street festivals they are serving gluhwein (mulled wine).

Although it feels like this year has passed really quickly, when I think back to what it was like at the beginning, I realised that it has really been a long time. Those early days I was really completely clueless about everything - German, supermarkets, buses, Berlin, my project, Germans. I feel like the language thing is the biggest thing that's changed. I'm definitely not fluent, or even competent, but I can survive using just German now. When the German knows that my German is rubbish, and they are very patient, we can usually understand each other. Living with 4 Germans definitely helps (although soon to be 3 Germans and 1 American), at parties and things people tend to speak German. So yea German has gone from a 1/10 to maybe a 5.5/10, which is good enough for me at the moment.

In other news, I'm worried I may be becoming a little bit too German. The things that I scoffed at when I first got here now seem pretty normal, like the not-talking-to-people-at-the-busstop kind of culture. And before it was "Wow, beer is really good and cheap here", but now it's "Beer is really bad and expensive in NZ". And I get really annoyed when a bus is more than 2 minutes late, just like a German. I also was talking to someone (German) at work, and he said he went to England for 6 months, and when he came back, people would complement him on how good his German was because he had picked up an English accent in his German. So I hope that I don't talk funny in English now. I think I definitely talk slower, and don't use as much slang, because otherwise noone would understand anything I was talking about.

But you'll be able to find all of this out first hand in a couple of months - I've booked tickets for Christmas and New Years in lil old NZ - arrive on 18th December, leave 11th January. Will be great to see all of you again, and escape another white xmas!

And just to pad this out a bit, here are some random photos from the last few weeks:

TV Tower in Berlin.

7m high puppet in Berlin for Reinunfication Day

7m high puppet's feet

Heidelberg, a city in the South-West. Was there for a conference/meeting thing.

Hope you're all going well, send me an email or whatever to let me know what you're up to!

Adam