Traveling to Berlin

My travels to Berlin started in the Morning at Marco’s.
I packed up my stuff, made a few sandwiches, and dashed out the door, coffee in hand, since we were running late.

We got to the train station just in time, only to find that the train was delayed 10 minutes. Since I was originally scheduled to only have 13 minutes to switch trains, it might be tight.

The train pulled up, I thanked Marco and was on my way.

The trip to Frankfurt went smoothly, and since I’d been at the Frankfurt station before, finding the right track was easy. The ICE train to Berlin was also delayed, so I was there with plenty of time.

Once the ICE train arrived, things went less smoothly. Marco had been unable to get me a non-smoking seat, but said that there were sometimes free seats on the train. I got in, found an empty seat, and plopped down for a nap. Shortly however, the conductors booted me, because I had plopped down in a 1st class seat, and my railpass is only for second class.

I travelled down the cars, searching for an empty seat. I had my large luggage in tow, which barely cleared the isles, so there were plenty of annoyed glances as I thumped my way down the train. Three times I thought I had found an empty seat, and three times I was booted. I finally found myself (gagging) in the smoking section, but was unable to locate the seat I actually had a ticket for, due to the odd numbering system (there are three numbers: car, area, seat. I could get car and seat to match, but couldn’t find the right area).

Finally I gave up and did what I had seen many others doing, I sat down in the space between cars. It was noisier and bumpier than in the cars, but there was room, so I sat down on the floor, surrounded by my luggage.

I soon discovered that since this hallway was adjacent to the smoking section, people from the non-smoking section would come here to smoke. So I was essentially in a smoking area, without a seat.

At this point I started to get very depressed. I was too stupid to figure out the seat numbering, and too embarrassed to drag my luggage back down the train to at least sit in a non-smoking piece of floor. The fact that I couldn’t figure out a simple rail system had me nearly in tears, either that, or it was all the smoke I was breathing in. What the hell was I doing, I thought. What the fuck was I doing in Germany, all by myself? How stupid was I?

But lately, I’m not very good at being depressed, so a couple stops later, I tried again, and grabbed an open seat in the non-smoking area. I couldn’t really sleep much, since each new stop was like a game of russian roulette – would someone with this seat number get on the train and make me homeless again? Every time the train stopped, I would crane my neck looking at the people getting on, cursing them as potential seat thieves, and praying to the god of trains to let me keep my seat. My luck held, and I made it the rest of the way to Berlin.

From Berlin, getting to the subway was a quick walk next door, and it was a straight shot to my stop, though it was almost the full length of the line, so took awhile. I got off on my stop and then realized something.

I had somehow forgotten to write down the name or address of my hotel. I had a vague idea in my head of what the name was like and what the street felt like, but nothing concrete. I saw a street that felt correct, and began walking down it.

After a block, I wasn’t so sure anymore, so doubled back and tried another street, one that felt less right but seemed in the realm of possibility. I saw a hotel there, not mine, and went inside to ask for directions. A note at the desk said the clerk would be back in a few minutes, so I waited in the lobby. It was nice and cool.

I remembered I had the cellphone Marco lent me, so I tried calling him. No answer. I tried Alice. Again, no answer. I put the cellphone back in my bag.

The clerk appeared, and I suddenly remembered the name of the hotel and got directions to it. Turns out I had been on the right street before, I just needed to walk one block down.

I got to my hotel, and the lady at the front desk, who it seemed likely was also the owner, was very nice. I checked in, and carried my bags up to my room. As it turns out, 3rd floor meant I had to walk up 3 flights of stairs, since here the ground floor is floor 0.

Once in my room, I set my bags down and flopped on the bed for a moment. Then I got out my laptop… and discovered that I couldn’t connect to the internet. I could connect to a kind of weak access point marked “Hotel2” but I couldn’t get to the web from there. I called the front desk, and the woman related a story of woe, which the long and short of was that the access point in the dining room worked, but not the upstairs one.

So I carried my laptop down to the dining room, the desk lady brought me some sparkling water, and I briefly browsed the web and fired off a few emails.

I went upstairs, intending to go through my guidebooks and plan my day out, but what happened instead was that I passed out in bed, and slept from around 9pm until about 9:30am. Guess I needed it – I’d only slept 3 hours the night before (turns out coffee at midnight is a bad idea) and hadn’t really slept at all on the train.

Maxon

I’m hanging out with Marco at Maxon, where he works. Yesterday was a holiday (Ascension Day, which is 39 days after Easter) so most people took today as a vacation day to get a 4-day weekend, leaving the office here mostly empty.

Right now I’m browsing the web, and looking up hotel rates for the next stage of my journey.

Initial Plan

I sat down with Marco and Alice today and sketched out a rough outline of my tour of Germany.

5/17 – Marco’s
Arrive, hang out with Marco.
Acclimate to local time.
Make plans.

5/18 – Maxon and Frankfurt
Go with Marco to work and see what Maxon is like.
Visit Frankfurt in the evening, buy 5-day German Rail Pass (189€ or about $256).

5/19 – Rotenburg
Visit Rotenburg with Marco and family.

5/20 – Berlin
Take train to Berlin.
Look at Berlin.

5/21 – Berline
Continue exploring Berlin.

5/22 – Berlin
More Berlin.

5/23 – Munich
Travel to Munich.
Explore Munich.

5/24 – Munich
More Munich.

5/25 – Stuttgart, Heidelberg
On the way back to Frankfurt, explore places on the way.

5/26 – Cologne
Travel with Marco to his parents’ in Cologne.

5/27 – Cologne
More Cologne.

5/28 – Around
See stuff.

5/29 – Return
Fly back to Boston

5/30 – Work at Staples
If I’m conscious.

Still need to flesh out the details, but that’s the general outline.

Will cost 189€ for rail pass, probably 200€ for hotel rooms (~40€ x 5 nights)
Total travel costs, ~400€ (~$543), not counting plane, food, and shopping.

Underway

I’m now officially underway… I’m in JFK now, I have 4 hours until my flight to Germany leaves.

I was stressed yesterday, but now that I’m in the process I’m pretty relaxed. I’ve flown often enough that it’s a familiar, easy process and so far it’s all gone nicely.

In the connector flight from Boston to NY I sat next to a nice guy who, it turns out, also lives in Worcester. He works at Astra-Zenica, inspecting labels on bottles all day to make sure they are correct. He says if he makes a mistake, people could die, so he is under tremendous stress all the time, and often just collapses in bed when he gets home after work. He was going to JFK to get a flight to London, where he will visit a friend there and then continue on to Ghana.

I had lunch at Boston-Logan, a side salad and plain baked potato from Wendy’s. Healthy and cheap food from an airport fast food joint. Who knew? Cost $2, less than bottled water.

Man, my neck hurts. Those little planes are not comfortable.

I just noticed a Nintendo DS demo station. Interesting. Cheap enough for Delta and Nintendo to do, since it’s basically just a DS that’s plugged in and running a custom cartridge. Cool to see one in the wild.

DS download station

Now I’ve got a few more hours to kill. My defective laptop battery will give up soon, and the power plugs here seem to be disabled. Bastards, can’t give a little free power to their customers…

Guess I’ll play some DS and flip though some books on Germany.

Doritos X-13D

I was looking for a snack to bring to a meeting at work, and while reaching for some Quakes (flavored mini ricecakes – yummy) I noticed a solid black bag of Doritos, marked only “X-13D” in big letters, with a white box below with text saying “This is the x-13D Flavor Experiment.”

X-13D

So of course, their clever marketing ploy was irresistable, so I shelled out a buck and bought the fat-laden bag of mystery.

I went to the meeting and passed the bag around, we all tried one.

*sniff sniff*
“Smells different.”

*CRUNCH*
“Tastes like…”
“A big mac!”
“Yeah!”

Yes indeed, Doritos has produced a chip that captures the flavor of a Big Mac. Which is exactly what you expect – it tastes pretty good while you’re eating it, but afterwards, you’re like “bleh”.

So, 100 points for marketing, 50 points for amusement factor, 10 points for actual flavor, 10 points for nutritional value, 0 points for “will I buy it again”.
Score out of a possible 500: 170.

Bzzzt. Interesting idea, Doritos, but try again.

Leaving, on a jet plane

I leave tomorrow, so I’m all jittery, unfocused… stressed.

Still have some packing to do, but I’m not too worried about that. I’m more worried about the things I *haven’t* thought of… some regulation or procedure that will make me miss my flight or get stuck at customs…

Plus, I want to bring Marco a present… what to get him that they don’t have in Germany?
Suggestions I’ve gotten so far are Maple Syrup and Fluffernutter…

Also, I’m *still* waffling on travel methods… do I get a rail pass? do I rent a car? do I just buy train tickets as I need them? And now it’s down to the wire… choose! Quick! Now! Schnell! Aaaargh!!!

Carl played the song Lost in Germany for me… hopefully not my anthem there…

Golden Compass

The Golden Compass series of books is being made into a movie, on the website they have a personality test that tells you what your dæmon is. Here’s mine:

Gettink ready for ze Deutschland

My trip suddenly looms, I leave next Wednesday, less than a week away!

Things to do:
[X] Get plane tickets
[X] Get passport
[ ] Plan Itinerary
[X] Buy German -> US power adaptor
[ ] Buy extra memory card for camera
[ ] Research cellphone use in Germany
[ ] Pack clothes
[ ] Pack gadgets

I plan to travel moderately light, so for gadgets, I’m thinking
* eBook reader
* Nintendo DS
* Camera
* Laptop
* Cellphone

So much to do! Guess I’d better get organized for a change.

The Tao of Dev

(if Tao is pronounced Dao, then Dev must be pronounced…)

Very relaxing day today.
Instead of lunch, I did yoga.
In the afternoon, I took a nice walk in the sunshine.
Then I ate a late lunch of sushi at my desk while poring over SQL queries.
A very deliberate, well-paced day.

momentary resolve

I feel a strange ennui
the sense that i have left things
incomplete
once too often,
sat around
too much

I think a spring cleaning
is in order
a feeling of accomplishment
from completing a task
dishes
boxes
lawn
laundry
desk
room
trip
life

I swear today will be
different
not like the last
eleven
thousand