tim.jagenberg.info » Travels

A New Year …

Tim — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:07:09 +0000

2010 … that still sounds like science-fiction to me, guess I’ll have to get used to living in the future.
Well, I guess you wonder what I have been doing since August. I’ll recap the last few months in a few words and photos:

October 2009

My grandma turned 90 this year and as the years before we celebrated at my parents place in Spain. We went out for a very yummy lunch. Because I saw some Indian dishes on the menu, I asked the waiter about it and it turned out, that the chef is actually from india. So my grandma and I ordered curry dishes, while my parents went for Mediterranean fish.
The afternoon we spent together. I had prepared a little speech, recapitulating the years of her life. In order to prepare myself, I created a over 2 meters long time line, with all major events from our lifes and history. It is quite amazing how much can be packed into a single lifespan! In the evening we surprised her a little more by lighting a

December 2009

Towards the end of the year, there was the Christmas party of our institute. Every year the whole scientific staff spends a whole day together, visiting an interesting industry partner or some other entertaining venue. This year the organisers chose the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe which showed a very interesting exhibition, mixing technology of the past century with artistic aspects.
After the exhibition and a brief visit at the Christmas Market in Karlsruhe (where we had some local food and mulled wine), we went back to Darmstadt. At a local restaurant (3klang) we met with former colleagues and enjoyed a very tasty dinner while our professor recapitulated the past year, highlighting the achievements.

The holidays around Christmas I spent back at my home town Filderstadt with my family. I always enjoy seeing them, as we usually don’t meet too often over the year. The days were filled with tasty meals and nice talks in front of the fireplace (which we didn’t light, as it was warm enough and the fire light usually gets everyone tired ).
After the holidays I returned back to Darmstadt. The next day I picked up two friends and we drove to Berlin where we met up with some more friends to stay at a flat which yet another friend had left to us for the days around new years eve. In the capital, we went to a very interesting photo exhibition about the work of Don McCullin at the C/O Berlin, ate at a sweet little Italian place in Berlin Mitte and celebrated new years eve with a big crowd of CouchSurfers at Hostel/Bar/Club Belushi’s.

So far for 2009 … have a nice year 2010!
Tim

California, Arizona, Utah 2/2

Tim — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:22:51 +0000

After a number of interesting presentations on engineering design in at the IDETC09 conference in San Diego and a successful talk highlighting our paper, we ventured on towards our final destination, Las Vegas.
The first few days we rode along the back country roads of southern Arizona, where we saw the true “Heart of America”, small villages in vast beautiful landscapes offering simple lodging and typical healthy American food (the choice between sandwiches and burgers ).

The next days we used for some touristy locations such as the former Route 66, the obvious Grand Canyon (with some thunderstorms!) or the less overrun Antelope Canyon. Especially the latter was truely amazing, as one is crawling through a narrow rift with the sun shining in from above. In page we were pretty lucky: As this weekend is the famous Labor Day Weekend, where it seems all Americans explore their own country, all motels in Page, AZ were totally booked out. A friendly receptionist at one of these motels connected us to a local guy, renting out motel-style rooms for a reasonable price.

As I am writing we are on our way to the Zion National Park and are staying in Kanab, which is also dubbed “Little Hollywood”, as many Western movies where shot here.

So far for now, the last bits of information will be posten from home.
Cheers, Tim

California 1/2

Tim — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:43:21 +0000

As a colleague and I are presenting a paper at an international engineering conference in San Diego (IDETC09), we extended our stay by two weeks.
We arrived one week ahead in San Francisco and we will be leaving the US from Las Vegas a week after the conference.
So far the trip was really interesting. Starting in SF we stayed in a hostel (Green Tortoise), visiting some touristy places like Fishermens Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge, which we even crossed.

From SF we took a rental car to Sequoia National Park, camping in those beautiful forests and going for a nice hike through the Giant Forest and even climbing the stairs up to Moro Rock. Staying in this amazing nature, we saw plenty of wildlife; birds, squirrels and deer. Just before leaving the park we even saw a black bear!

On our way back towards the pacific coast and San Diego, we went for a refreshing swim in a small river coming from the mountains we just crossed (we went up and down all the time, reaching altitudes as much as 2200m). With a short stopover in Ventura, we even spent a whole afternoon at the beach, watching the surfers ride the rolling waves.

So far for now, I guess I’ll write the next update when I get back home.
Cheers, Tim

Free Hugs

Tim — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:32:46 +0000

A while ago a friend suggested to organise a Free Hugs Day in Heidelberg. Over the weeks we got a nice group of 13 people together. The Friday evening before heading down to Heidelberg, we met at my place to create some signs.
Saturday morning we all met at the main train station in Darmstadt and took the regional train to Heidelberg. (a trip of about one hour) Already while walking towards the city center we started giving free hugs to random people we met and who were not afraid to accept this unexpected favour.

Before diving in deeper, let’s cite Wikipedia to explain this concept in a few words:

[...] a social movement involving individuals who offer hugs to strangers in public places. [...] The hugs are meant to be random acts of kindness – purportedly selfless acts performed by a person for the sole reason of making others feel better.

At first we settled right underneath the Heiliggeist Kirche near the market. Being so lucky to catch on of the very first sunny and warm days this year, our signs were shining in the bright sunlight and the first confused looking people started to ask us why we were actually doing this. After dispersing the suspicion we might be some sort of sect or organisation trying to hook people, most people were amazed by this idea and loved it. Especially mid-aged and elder people agreed that Germany needed more of such events. (I think this is true for any country at any time)

A younger German couple we hugged early during the morning came back, carrying their instruments. After settling right behind us they started jamming on their guitars, creating an amazing atmosphere. As we were giving out our hugs for free, they also played without a hat on the street. (Thanks again unknown musicians, you certainly improved our mood even further!)

Around midday we moved down the road a bit, as the sun had moved away from our previous spot. We kept on hugging random strangers till the sun set behind the beautiful old-town of Heidelberg.
After this long day of hugging, everyone was rather exhausted. After dinner at a Libanese restaurant, we walked through the old town, catching a glimpse at the illuminated old castle. Later we crawled some local bars and got introduces to a “special” local schnapps. At the end of a long day, everyone joined their hosts, surfing some local chouches (thanks again hosts!).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Derby, UK

Tim — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:24:17 +0000

This time my job brought me to Derby, a quite sweet town in England about 45mins from Birmingham. As it would be quite hard to get from the airport in Birmingham to Derby and then around town by public transport only, I reserved a rental car. My luck started at the airport, when the class of car I had reserved was not available and I got a car about 2 or 3 classes better for the same price ! Even though I drove on the other side of the road before (in NZ) I was a bit sceptical about it but it all worked really well.
After all the meetings and work done during the day, the local colleagues and I went out in Derby, enjoying the local pub culture.

Another big luck was the beautiful weather I had for the whole stay, just as I arrived at the airport on my way back home, it started raining again.

Cheers
Tim

Bilbao, Spain

Tim — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:00:50 +0000

I was planning a trip to Bilbao, Spain, for the project and just a few days ahead it turned out that my father would be in the same region at the same time, so we adapted our plans and spent a weekend in that very beautiful city. Of course we visited the Guggenheim Museum appreciated the very diverse architechture and enjoyed the local Tapas.

Bilbao Airport:

Guggenheim Museum:

The City:

Hiking at the Donau

Tim — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:00:50 +0000

As every year, three of my best highschool friends and I went for a hike, this year we stayed in Tuttlingen and hiked from Fridingen to Hausen which all is part of the “Naturpark Obere Donau“.

back home

Tim — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:24:33 +0000

Yea I know … it’s been a while since my last post.

Local Culture

I made it home well, right in time for quite a few late summer / autumn festivals. The first and biggest was the traditional Wasen, a few weeks later I visited the Fellbacher Herbst for the first time. A pretty nice wine festival in the heart of, you guessed it, Fellbach with live music and many booths selling local wine and food. The last local festival in that row was the Krautfest, a festival around Filderkraut, which is typical for the Filder region and only produced here.

Good old Friends

Two weeks after I returned back home some good friends from highschool times and I went to Switzerland. The first day and evening we spent in Basel, joining with one of our friends who had worked there for his studies. After we finally decided on a restaurant I had a really nice wild boar roast which I won’t forget for quite a while.
The second day we drove to Luzern and started hiking up the Pilatus with fog all around us, one could barely see 50m. Overall the elevation difference would have been 1600m in one day, but in my corrent condition I gave up at about 1000m and took the cable car to the top. There we had a reservation for the hotel and enjoyed a relaxed evening (the others were totally tired as the last 600m were the toughest part).
Sunday the fog had cleared and the view was really marvellous. After a brief sunbath we took the cable car back to the lower station where we had parked the car and spend the rest of the day browsing around the inner city of Luzern.

The Studymates

The last weekend of October my group of best friends from the aerospace studies in Stuttgart gathered in Hamburg. The first day had a bar crawl through the Schanzenviertel and along the Reeperbahn.
After everyone had recovered from the night before, we went down to the pier (LandungsbrÃ¼cken) and took a boat trip around the warehouse district (Speicherstadt) and the harbour. After that we just walked around downtown a bit and found a really nice and small mexican restaurant where we managed to get a table for the nine of us. After a good meal and some Tequila we retreated to Oli’s place where most of us stayed and had a rather calm last evening.

My Grandma’s 88th Birthday

As we planned the gathering in Hamburg quite a bit ahead, I could arrange that it would be the same weekend as my grandmother’s 88th birthday. So Sunday I got up a bit earlier, took the bus to the main station to get a few fresh flowers and visited her. It is truely amazing how clear her mind is, everytime I really enjoy talking to her. As usual I ate quite a bit more than I had planned, but I guess that’s a universal fact for grandmas all over the world!

German Bierfest 2007

Tim — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 16:55:57 +0000

We arrived at the festival around 3pm with the sun burning down on us. Hoping for a nice big German stein of cold beer we were pretty disappointed by the tiny glasses. After we got to the front of the first queue (which spanned across the whole street), we really got angry because those tiny glasses were only filled half way, because of some “sampler” regulations.

After standing in the queues for a while, downing the small sips they would give us, the atmosphere got more relaxed and the queues dissolved into scattered groups of random people chatting. We even won a free t-shirt by spinning a wheel, which was really good at protecting our heads against a bad sunburn. The Americans were really interested in getting in contact with the many Germans gathering at the Bierfest, so in the end it all was a really nice afternoon chatting with many people and teaching Americans the interesting sides of the German language (swearing ).
The funniest thing happened when we were just standing in a queue: Someone accidentally dropped his beer glass (which was the ticket for free beer) and everybody in a range of about 50 yards started screaming and booing (watch the video).

The small glasses and the lack of authentic German food aside, this Fest was definitely a good experience.
Cheers, Tim.

Particle Concert at the Masquerade

Tim — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 16:20:24 +0000

Yesterday we saw the band Particle at the Masquerade, a really interesting venue, housed in a former mill. Check out the pictures in the gallery.

Fourth of July

Tim — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 15:52:12 +0000

For Independence Day Jana, Anna, Ben and I went to Stone Mountain Park and had a huge picnic in the afternoon, watching the big firework in front of the impressive Stone Mountain later that night.

Long due Update

Tim — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 02:10:37 +0000

Yeah, I know it’s been a long time since the last post … a tip for the impatient: I update the photo-gallery more regularly.
As quite a lot has happened in the meantime, I’ll just start in the past, working my way to the present, sipping on my icecold sweet tea.

Victor Wooten Concert
Ben and Zach had been telling me about Victor for quite a while, claiming he is one of the best bass-players ever! As always I was a bit skeptical.
Arriving at the Variety Playhouse in Little Five Points, Ben first went to the Turkish place next door for some falaffel. Sitting in front of the snack bar, we started chatting with the owner, who told us that they just opened that weekend. A little into the talk he realised where I was from and started talking German! He and a few more of his staff had spent a few year in Germany before coming over to the US. Being a really nice guy, he offered me a free falaffel, which I couldn’t refuse, and it indeed was very good!

With some food in our bellies we went back to the Variety Playhouse to see the concert. And I must say Ben and Zach were SO right with their raving! Victor Wooten really is one of the best, if not the best, bass-player I have ever seen performing! Toghether with a really amazing band they just blew my mind away! Every single musician was so good and as they seemed to be playing just for the fun of it, the whole concert felt more like a jam in some friends livingroom.
You can find the photos i took right here in the gallery.

In the meantime I switched from sweet tea to Pilsner Urquell, but lets just go on …

Graduation Day in Columbia
Three weeks later Zach and I drove over to Columbia for a weekend, as it was Mitul’s graduation day.
This being the second trip to Columbia (we went there for St. Patrick’s Day as well) I must say I really like this city with its central bar district and pretty much all of Ben’s and Zach’s friends living really close to the downtown area. One funny thing that evening, highlighting the absurdity of some of the regulations over here, was that we got refused to enter a bar because Zach and Steven were wearing “Gang Style”! Yeah! Those two guys really look dangerous!

Everybody being a bit tired from the night before (hanging out at Chubby’s) we just went to a nice spot at the river and relaxed there, playing with Jerry, Janna’s crazy dog. In the evening we went to a nice restaurant where they were brewing their own beer and got some nice southern food.

Plum Hollow Bluegrass Festival
Steven, who I just got to know on our recent visit to Columbia, told me about this Bluegrass and Moonshiners Festival in northern South Carolina and that he planned to go there. As I always liked small festivals and Bluegrass we planned to meet there and camp out for the weekend.
After a relaxed ride north to Spartanburg on the interstate 85, I arrived in the area around noon and soon realised that this is as cliche as it gets! When I had to ask for directions I could barely understand the heavy southern accent. The whole town was decorated with US flags and on the roads you could only see pickup trucks. After a few extra turns I made it to the Plum Hollow farm, where Steven was already setting up his special campsite. A nice hidden spot, with quick access to the whole festival.

As I expected sitting around a campfire at night, i had prepared some stick-bread, which is mostly unknown in what the Americans call the world and the rest of the world calls the Unites States (sorry i couldn’t resist ). So the first evening Steven and I were wandering around the campsite, joining different groups around their fires, spreading stick-bread and trying moonshine people brought along. Soon I was known as “The German with the stick-bread” all over the festival (around 200-300 people I would guess).
The stage was set up nicely right in front of the forest with a well needed tin roof providing some shade for the listeners. So bluegrass bands were playing pretty much all the time till around midnight, when people would move to their campfires and start playing their own music, jamming with others.
I managed to record two songs with my camera and converted them to mp3-format:

Puttin’ On The Ritz (download)
Wagon Wheel (download)

the first two pictures below show that scene at about 2am around a pavillion.

Overall I must say this was all I hoped it would be! I really enjoyed spending the weekend with these friendly and down-to-earth people sharing food (thanks for the fresh-hunted deer burgers) and a great time!Well … that’s about it … hail to those who made it all through this long post, I know how short the average attention span these days is.
Hope I manage to get my lazy bum up and write more often, so I don’t end up with these almost “half-year-reviews”.

To cite Tony Blair: “That is that, the end.”

Georgia on my Mind

Tim — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 01:25:22 +0000

Hi every one!

I’m sorry I haven’t updated this site in the last few weeks, but I was pretty busy settling in at my new town.

Let’s do this in a chronological way. After doing my thesis-presentation, I had three days left to get my bags packed. With a little overweight, I left from Stuttgart airport, boarding a direct flight to Atlanta, GA.
As I had slept pretty bad the night before, and just had a few short naps on the plane, I was pretty worn out by the time I arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson. The long immigration procedure and the double checks of my luggage didn’t really relax me either.
After I picked up my rental-car outside the airport, I made it to Kristi’s place rather easily, meeting her again after three years. She had invited me to stay at her place for the first few days, which was soooo helpful! (Thanks so much Kristi!)

During this first week I managed to find a nice shared flat, just about five minutes away from my new workplace, Engineous, Inc.
My new flatmates, ~~Zack~~ Zach and Ben, are two really friendly, laid back Americans, both from South Carolina. Ben works as a webdesigner while ~~Zack~~ Zach studies epidemiology. We share a nice kitchen connected to a well equipped livingroom (Cable, XBox, RC-Heli,Stereo) and two bathrooms. Amongst the amenities are a washer, a dryer, a mircowave, an ice-cube-making fridge and a really nice “Lean-Mean-Fat-Reducing-Grilling-Machine”. In the appartment block we also got a swimming-pool, a tennis-court and barbecues in the garden.

My workplace at Engineous is really nice as well, a small professional team and I got my own cliche cubicle!
The last few days I was pretty immobile, as I had returned my rental car. To get to work, Ben gave me a ride in the mornings and in the evnings. As America is really organised around cars (drive-thru-everything), I was looking for a used car. Last weekend ~~Zack~~ Zach and I were driving around the area, looking at some offers I had found on craigslist. In the end we found a 2000 Toyota Corolla, which is said to be one of the most reliable cars over here. As I didn’t have an insurance yet, Paul (another friend), whose insurance would cover any car he’s driving in, brought the car to my place, where it sat the last days, as I was waiting for my insurance to kick in. After getting all the needed paperwork together, I took “Heart-of-Gold” (her name) for a ride and got my the registration plates just today!

Actually I just came back from a round of tennis with Ben, though I lost 0:4 it went way better than I had expected after a break of ten years or more!

Well, so far for now, I’ll try to keep the updates coming more regularly.
Cheers, Tim.

my grandma’s 87th birthday in Spain.

Tim — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 14:28:16 +0000

As my grandma got 87 last week, we all gathered at my parents place in Spain. It’s really nice to get out of this muddy, rainy autumn weather in Germany, gathering some last rays of sunshine at 25-30 deg celsius.
Though I try to work on my thesis it looks like the next few weeks well be lots of work catching up with my schedule.

Well, I gotta catch some last sunrays before I leave for Germany tomorrow,
see you guys back home!

Tim

long weekend at Lake Constance

Tim — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 04:04:00 +0000

This long weekend (3rd was German Unification) I spent with Santa, relaxing in Ãœberlingen at Lake Constance.
Saturday we just walked around the beautiful town Ãœberlingen, meeting a friend of Santa in the evening.
Sunday was planned for the thermal spring, but as a few more people had the same idea, we delayed that till the evening and enjoyed a cup of coffee and a few rounds of backgammon in a cafe at the water front. Later we went to the thermal spring to get the massage we had booked and savour the wellness are. Sadly the massage confused Santa’s circulation, so she had to rest a bit while I went to the sauna. The sauna-area was a nice garden right at the waterside of Lake Constance. With each sauna in a small cabin, a nice view across the lake and a small beach right in front of the cabins I went swimming in the quite cold lake after each session. The evening we layed back in our hotel room.
Monday we had breakfast at the hotel and then drove to Meersburg, another historic town in the area. As the last few days were rather rainy, we really enjoyed the walk around town, with the first few bits of sunshine breaking through. Afterwards we had a “blind-date” with “Hawk”, another Infiltration(FPS-game played by maybe 50 people all over europe and still some in US) player, who is living in Friedrichshafen. Though we never met in RL before, we had some really nice talks while sitting down for lunch. After an ice at the water front, we split up and Santa and I drove back home without too many traffic jams.

Meersburg

Back home!

Tim — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 15:00:00 +0000

Saturday, 9th oktober, I made it back home.

It still feels so unreal, on the one hand being at home makes me wonder if I ever left at all, while other stuff just confuses me, like cash refund on plasic bottles and the 1euro coin you have to put in the shopping trolley.
I already met some friends, and the nice people from the photo-shop I usually go to still remembered my name!
So far for now, I’ll have a big gathering with my friends on friday, and after that, there’s plenty to catch up with at uni.

Cheers, Tim.

Amtrak miles

Tim — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 15:00:01 +0000

from	to	mi	? mi	km	? km	h	? h
Charleston, SC	Miami, FL	661	661	1063,55	1063,55	15	15
Miami, FL	Washington, DC	1164	1825	1872,88	2936,43	23,75	38,75
Washington, DC	Boston, MA	457	2282	735,31	3671,74	10,25	49
Boston, MA	Chicago, IL	1017	3299	1636,35	5308,09	21,25	70,25
Chicago, IL	St. Louis, MO	284	3583	456,96	5765,05	5,5	75,75
St. Louis, MO	Austin, TX	939	4522	1510,85	7275,9	23,25	99
Austin, TX	New Orleans, LA	655	5177	1053,9	8329,79	34	133
New Orleans, LA	Newark, NJ	1367	6544	2199,5	10529,3	30,25	163,25
Newark, NJ	Stamford, CT	46	6590	74,01	10603,31	1,25	164,5
Stamford, CT	New York, NY	36	6626	57,92	10661,23	0,75	165,25
			6626		10661,23		165,25

Back in New York

Tim — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 15:00:00 +0000

After a long ride from New Orleans up to New York, I visited Kim (an american friend I know from back in Spain) in Norwalk, CT. We had a really nice time, amongst others just relaxing in a nice park with really good wraps live can be soo simple
After she dropped me at the Trainstation I made it back to New York, staying in the Chelsae International Hostel. The next two days will be quite busy with touristy stuff and nightlife, as my flight back home is already on friday! Time flies, it feels so unreal, thinking about being back in Stuggi in just 72hrs!!! It really doesn’t feel like I was away for a whole year!

Cheers, Tim!

Washington – New Orleans

Tim — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 15:00:00 +0000

Sorry for not updating for such a long time, but the recent weeks were quite busy travelling! Just a rough idea for now, once I find more time and a place where I can hook up my own PC I’ll write more and upload actual pictures.

Washington – did all the touristy stuff, Capitol, War Memorial, Space & Aviation Museum

Boston – met up with my parent who are touring New England in a Caravan. Went to Providence and the Cape Cod.

Chicago – Stayed in Linking Park, a really nice area with lots of bars and restaurants. Got 2 free nights in the hostel for fixing one of the Internet Computers.

St. Louis – Once more the touristy stuff, took the ride over The Arch, went to Forest Park and the Science Museum there and visited the Union Station on the way back to the Amtrak station.

Austin – Got friends with some locals, had a marvellous time with them! First night we went to a Frat Party, the next day Sherry showed me around town, the green belt, a street festival and a very nice mexican restaurant. In the evening we all went to the concert of The Polyphonic Spree, a damn good experence!

New Orleans – after a verrrry long ride on the train for 34hrs (got a delay of about 10hrs!) I just arrived in NO yesterday, met some other germans and just had a relaxed evening in the hostel, still worn out from the trainride. I guess I’ll get some live music today and the next days, thats what NO is famous for.

That’s it so far,
cheers, Tim.

First train out of Miami

Tim — Sun, 12 Sep 2004 15:00:00 +0000

When the first train after Francis left Miami on Saturday, the tracks towards New Orleans were still damaged. I decided to do the tour I had as a rough shape in my mind the other way round and take it up to Washington DC next.
Though the trip took 26hrs, it was quite entertaining. The first day I met a nice mexican guy in the restaurant on the train. We kept talking about ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’ till the late evening when he had to get off. As the seats are quite comfortable I managed to get a fair bit of sleep over the night.
After a simple breakfast in the morning I just enjoyed the nice senery passing by, sometimes playing around with the linux on the laptop.

Arriving at Union Station right in the heart of Washington, it took just a short taxiride to the hostel, which immediatly felt comfy for me. It’s more some kind of shared accomodation with an interesting owner. He spent quite a while in arts and in architecture and so we surfed the net together (free wireless internet in the hostel) looking for interesting housing concepts using shipping containers.

Enjoying Miami Beach after the storm

Tim — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 15:00:00 +0000

The days after the strom I sticked together with the others from the shelter, staying at the same hostel.

One day we rented a car to go to the Florida Keys for snorkeling. (renting a car for 5 of us was way cheaper than eny organised bustour) Near Key Largo we went on a boat which took us to a reef ashore. Compared to the reef I saw in Thailand years ago, this was quite alive and populated by heaps of different colorful fish. Though the water was quite muddy (maybe still because of the storm?) snorkeling was great fun and we enjoyed the rest of the day at a nice reopical beach in the national park. (Mo even managed to get a fresh coconut from a palmtree! )

Miami Beach after Frances

Tim — Sun, 05 Sep 2004 15:00:00 +0000

What looked like a severe cat 3 hurricane a few days ago, clamed down on the way and when Frances hit Florida it was just a minor cat 2 hurricane. Just like any usual autumn storm in Germany.
But the experiences at the shelter were a thousand times worth all the trouble!!! After Tom helped me and some other backpackers form the hostel to get to North Miami Beach Senior Highschool, we reported to the redcross as volunteers, and started working that day. First it was just getting people registered when entering, the next days we helped whereever a hand was needed. The handing out of the food each day was a big thing, as people started queuing an hour before the kitchen actually opened, so we had to sort them and get it all done in a civilised way, elderly and handicapped first, then families with young children followd by the rest.
As most people were really friendly and thankful this was a nice experience, some kids even drew a picture saying thanks for the help and stuff like “When I grow up I wanna be like you!”.

As the “storm” is over, we moved back to the Tropics Hostel, enjoying a shower and a room with just 6 people in it.

Cheers, Tim. (aka Tally – a nick one of the kids gave me )

Stuck in Miami

Tim — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 15:00:00 +0000

Well … when I left Charleston yesterday it wasn’t clear that there would be a hurricane closing in on Miami, so now I’m facing evacuations and will join an american guy (Tom), going to a red-cross shelter in some school in north Miami.
I’ll try to keep this updated, but I expect broken power as well as phones and internet beeing down.
Cheers everybody, Tim.
*blown away *

Relaxing in Charleston

Tim — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 15:00:00 +0000

As the trip from San Diego to New York was quite stressing (midday-evening – SD to LA Airport, the night at the Terminal, flight to NY in the morning, arriving at the hostel in the evening) and as most hostels were booked for the next weeks because of the republican convention I decided to move on and find some more relaxed place. Looking at the map, and by what others had told me I decided to take it down to the Carolinas. Looking for something at he coast I ended up with Charleston, SC wich seemed quite nice judging by it’s website and street-press.
The transfer to Charleston, a 15hrs overnight busride, wasn’t relaxing, but the Hostel and the town seem to be worth it.
With three colleges Charlestin is quite a student city and offers plenty of nightlive with a range of live-music to choose from. (reports on that will follow, so far I just recovered from all the restless moving around)

Cheers, Tim.

Hang loose in San Diego!

Tim — Mon, 16 Aug 2004 15:00:00 +0000

Well, after a LONG travel taking me from Wellington to San Diego (11hrs nightbus well-auck 4hrs sleep, day in auck, 11hrs flight LA 4hrs sleep, 2hrs bus airport – greyhound, 3hrs greyhound LA – SD 1hr sleep) I had a good night with a few Dutch guys, two british girls and Peter (THE peter! ).
Today I just had a looong sleep and then met up with the rest at the beach wich is just a 5min walk from the hostel. After a nice lazy day on the beach, bodysurfin’ ,we just bought all the stuff for a nice big BBQ!

Finally back to warm weather, sunshine and late sunset!

Cheers, Tim.

New panorama pictures

Tim — Thu, 12 Aug 2004 15:00:00 +0000

Thanks to Dan, a fellow German from my region I got a new program wich automatically puts panoramas taken in multiple pictures together. See the outcome on http://gallery.oh7eleven.de/.

back to hitchhiking again

Tim — Thu, 29 Jul 2004 15:00:00 +0000

After caring for the official stuff like cancelling the rego, I spent a night at the “Lazy Cow” backpacker in Murchison. After rearranging all my stuff from car to backpack, I hit the road again. My first plan was to go down south along the westcoast, but as all the cars that stopped were going to Christchurch I decided to go there as well, meeting up with some fellow germans I met in Nelson.
Travelling comfy in two trucks (one of them with 25 tons of fish ) with a way better view, sitting so high I got to CHCH in just one afternoon, staying at the Foley Towers backpacker 5mins from Cathedral Square.
After walking around the city and the parks the second day, I decided that I like this place and will stay for the weekend with some live music and the [url=http://www.nzff.telecom.co.nz/]NZ Filmfestival[url].
On the left side I added a few more pictures from my time in the Marlborough Sounds and the time after.

Cheers, Tim.

rest in peace Marvin!

Tim — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 15:00:00 +0000

1981 – 26th July 2004

After 23 years on the road, joining my travels for three weeks, Marvin’s life ended by a short and painless hit of a rock on the road which smashed his engine.
His last rest is in Murchison, a small town in the north-west of the southern NZ island with a really friendly small hostel. (the good luck with the bad )

quick hop to the southisland

Tim — Sat, 24 Jul 2004 15:00:00 +0000

coming down to Wellington from New Plymouth, I stayed outside Wellington for one night (there was a rugby game NZ / OZ so everything was full). Driving towards Wellington the next morning, I decided I wasn’t in the mood for city, so I took Marvin to the Ferry Terminal and got me a ride to the south island of NZ. Taking over was really fun, getting some saltwater over the deck and a strong mindclearing wind.
Over in Picton I checked in at Atlantis backpacker and spent the next day preparing for a four-day-hike along the Queen Charlotte Track. Going for a walk to the Ferry Terminal with Jesse (an american girl) she spontaniously decided to change her ticket and join me. So we just got some more food, packed our backpacks and relaxed with a nice movie (Before Sunrise, with the sequel Before Sunset runnig at the NZ Filmfestival).
The days in the sounds where really nice! Other that the forecast we had good luck with the weather and with some modifications of our (not really existing) plans we had a dmn good time! One morning I even had to chase a sheep around wich tried to get into my backpack . As we traded our return trip to Picton on the way, we hitchhiked back to Atlantis the last day.

check http://gallery.oh7eleven.de/tim/ for pics

riding to Ship Cove (video)

The next day she went off with the ferry to the northern island and I hit the road towards Nelson, giving an english girl from the hostel a ride. In Nelson we were just sipping on a nice long black, talking about where we’d been so far, when we realised that we had been neighbours for two months in Sydney!!! We even had talked across the fence once without seeing each other! The world is soooo small, especially down under .

New pics and a video!

Tim — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 15:00:00 +0000

(changed) check http://gallery.oh7eleven.de/tim/ for pics

video of Marvin driving on 90 Miles Beach

But sorry, I’m quite lazy so I’ll just write a rough timeline:
After a few rather relaxed days in Auckland I went up north to the Northland. (quite logic name ).
after lot’s of coincidences I ended up in Whangarei Backpackers, a really nice and cosy place with an interesting bar downstairs which should be open by the time you read this (it wasn’t really when I was around)
For two nights I went further north to the northern AND western most tip of NZ Cape Reinga (it’s neither most northern nor most western) and went back down via the westcoast where I stayed in a beatufil calm place called ‘The Treehouse’. Back in Whangarei (pronounced Phangarei) I went shopping at Pak’n'Save where I ran into freinds from the Backpacker who were preparing for Ruthy’s Birthday. We didn’t really stop celebrating that birthday for three days .
After the weekend, we (Fab4 Ruthy[Wales], Matt[England], Gavin[Kiwi] and me) spontaneously decided to take it down to Auckland and just go on.
After another two days in Auckland we split up and I went further south, following the westcoast. At the moment I’m enjoying a few clam days in New Plymouth in a friendly place which even has a Sauna! (Shoestring Backpacker).

Enough for now, got longer than I though …
Cheers, Tim.

The Prom, Brisbane & Frasier Island

Tim — Wed, 23 Jun 2004 15:00:00 +0000

The Wilsons Promontory was just amazing beautiful nature! Aside the class from melbourne wich was hiking the same way, I was completely on my own with the wildlife. The first day was quite rainy, but all my equipment prooved to be well suited for all conditions. The next two days was mostly sunshine so things got really enjoyable. Each day itr seemed like hiking through a different landscape, the first day it was cold rainforest, the second day was mostly eucalyptus forests and following the coastline over heaps of big rocks, the last day was a mix of beaches, dunes, swamps and mountainforest.
Having the class on the same route, I didn’t get too lonely and had some nice talks in the evenings. As it’s winter over here, the evenings were quite short though, as it got dark around 1730. With the darkness all the nocturnal animals showed up, wombats and lots of different opossums. During daytime there were lots of birds around, Ravens and something like a smaller parrot in red trying to get food out of everything they found, not fearing humans. One of those parrot-thing birds even landed on my head! I even saw a coala, which looked quite dissapointed, as he just found out he climbed a tree without leaves to eat on the top .
After all this nature I got a stay at Daniels (living near foster) place, from where Nadine (german girl on the way home) gave me a ride to Sydney via Canberra where we stayed at Bea&Ros’ place. Arriving in Sydney, Nadine dropped me at the BBQ Party at Holly’s house, where I met up with lots of my sydney friends. Staying at Toni’s place for that night. After a few more nights, staying at Eva’s Backpacker in Kings Cross I got me a cheap VirginBlue flight up to Brisbane, hoping for some warmer weather and sun before leaving for NZ. As my flight to Bris was quite late, I couldn’t get in the backpacker I planned to go to, so I ended up in one of the few places open 24/7 still having free beds (there was a big rugby game that day, so everything was full), the Bunk Backpacker, which turned out to be really nice as well. Still quite young (running for 6 mon), really spacious 4 beds with their own shower and bathroom. A pool and SPA downstairs, next to the bar with a pooltable.
Brisbane itself is quite nice and easily walked in one day. Nighlife is one of it’s big features, thus called Brisvegas from time to time.
Looking forward for some nature after partying there, I booked me on a selfdriving 4wd tour on Frasier Island, staying the night before and after at the Backpacker which organises the tour. After a general briefing in the afternoon, the groups (~9-11ppl) swarmed out to buy food and drinks for the three days. Packing a threedaypack in the evening. After a short sleep we got up early to load the trucks and get to the ferry by 9. Driving around on the biggest sandisland of the world was really fun! The narrow trails through the woods and along the “highways” on the beaches, staying in small basic camps behind the dunes for the night. Beeing experienced in outdoors and camping the camp was set up and running in a short while. Water for the BBQ-pasta boiling on the fire, a cold beer in my hand and heaps of people to chat with around the fire. Way different from the hiking in the Prom, where I had to carry everything myself and cut it all down to the bare basics. the days we spent getting amazing views from spots as the Indian Head, spotting sharks and whales below us, swimming in the inland freshwater lakes or even snorkeling in the Champaign Pools, seeing heaps of different fish. Coming home from the island, I stayed two more nights in the beautiful Koala Resort which organised the tour. Relaxing under some palmtrees at the pool. (for just about 10 euros!!!) Right here in the internet cafe I just booked me on a cheap backpacker bus going down to surfers paradise for the last few days up here in the warm north.

Brief update

Tim — Sat, 05 Jun 2004 15:00:00 +0000

The next days I’ll try to get to Wilsons Promotory, getting some nice outdoor/hiking. Don’t know when I’ll be online next. Report on melbourne and actual pictures will follow ASAP.

Tim.

Leaving Sydney

Tim — Tue, 01 Jun 2004 15:00:00 +0000

Afer over half a year living and (very succesfully) working in Sydney I left the city I fell in love with. With a short hop to Melbourne I start the backpacking-season.
Sitting at the gate, I’m sipping a “Tall Long Black” (a small one would have been a “Short Long Black” that happens when americans don’t care about local specialities (Starbucks)).
Guess this is a fine time to recapitulate. The things I liked most about Sydney were it’s multicultural lifestyle and it’s live-music scene (Cheers to all the Ska-people and “Waiting For Guinnes”).
The major small things I’ll be missing are the nice walks through the park to the uni, the beatiful glimpses at Sydney Skyline in the sunset from Glebe and the probably friendliest pizzeria around the corner (Boost Cafe Glebe).
In this rather short time I met so many nice people, had heaps of interesting conversations and made lots of new friends (hope I’ll be able to stay in contact with them).
Working at the Uni Sydney was a pleasure and interesting. I enjoyed helping the firstsemesters with their catapult and like to hear what hapened to the hovering platform.
The talks with profs, former students and the staff were really inspiring and I hope I can set up my own small workshop to work on my ideas.

Well, enought of the past, I’ll be boarding any moment.
On the road again, taking the long way home.

Thanks everybody for this nice time,
Tim.

busy Germany/amazing KL

Tim — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 15:00:00 +0000

Two weeks compressed Germany
After 26hrs from door to door, I arrived back home on my fathers 60th birthday! Feeling a little weird in my own room after 4 months, I unpacked and made myself comfy. The day we had a really nice relaxed family birthday, joining around the presents. The next weeks should be busier!
Briefly: Do:concert in Stuggi, two great local musicians (Stefan Hiss & Ralf Groher) Fr: Drehbar with Holger & GF and John, afterwards big party at the Tennishouse, meeting LOTs of friends. got home around 6. Sa: hangover, leaving for Esslingen, where the big BD-party will take place, ppl show up around 1900, taking fotos, telling my stories a thousand times, getting amazed by the great plays. A really busy evening. My dad, mum and friends danced mith live music till 2! So: brunch with the guests from further away, preparing my stuff for Hamburg in the afternoon, jumping on my plane in the evening, resting in the jouthhostel in Hamburg. Mo: Spent all the day with my granny! Talking all the time, just with short breaks for lots of good food(porree-pampe thumb-up!)! It’s so nice every time again! In the evening I met Chryschdl and Tilli at the Reeperbahn, where we had some beers and good engineering talks Tu: Walking around Hamurg inner city, working on BETPAT a couple of hours in a nice cafe. Meeting Chryschdl again in the evening. After some confusion we ended up at some liveconcert with more experimental ambient music, really weird stuff. We: leaving for Stuggi. Feeling a little ill, I stayed home the next days. Sa: Vienna, walking around the city in my typical chaotic way, enjoying nice cafes. Little tired in the evening I stayed in the Hotel and got me some Club-Sandwich by the roomservice. Su: Flight to Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Arriving in KL at 6 in the morning I got me a cheap cab to the hostel where I had a reservation for a room. Surviving the crazy cab-ride, I faced some confusion about my e-mail reservation. But everything went out well and I got a nice single room for about 6 EUR a night! Sleeping all day. In the evening a walked through chinatown around the corner. Coming home I just asked some guy (Owen from Melbourne) sitting in the lobby where he got his power adaptor. Beeing openminded travellers we ended up drinking way to much beer till 5 in the morning He was working on a malaysian cookbook, with lots of nice pictures and an attached CD with the sounds of the country. Nice idea!
The next day I spent the evening with another group in the backpacker, as Owen was still working on his hangover . Sitting in the comfy lobby we watched some musicviedos from the laptop. Afterwards Kristi (a photographer) asked to have some walk outside, so four of us went to the reggae bar I discovered the day before. Arriving at there three were left and after another hlf an hour only me and Kristi were left. We talked till the bar closed, talked on in the lobby till late …
The next days we sticked together, doing some touristy stuff like visiting the twintowers, having a view from the TV/Radio tower, went to the zoo and some nice temples. The evenings we spent with the crowd in the lobby, going out for some beer, a indian show-dance or a transvestite show.
In the end it was kinda hard to leave, but we had more like opposite directions. She just left Sydney (after living there for 4 years, so we lived some months aside each other without knowing!), taking the long way home to Atlanta.

arts & culture

Tim — Thu, 11 Mar 2004 15:00:00 +0000

More culture …
just before leaving for Germany, Tom, Miro and I went to some event in an old factory, wich was inhabited by artists. Arriving there, seeing how colorful and interesting the setting was, I realized that I didn’t take my camera with me … stupid me … after some confused minutes I luckily ran into Marlon, who gave me a ride home to fetch it! (Man you’re just great!!! IOU!)
The evening was just amazing! The first band (Waiting for Guinness) just rocked the crowd with a mix of eastern european music madness! Afterwards I had some time to have a look at all the small exhibitions and installations. They even had an old Jet-Cockpit standing around, glowing from the inside!
After taking LOTs of pictures, the second band staged around 100 … some more decent chilld music. Everybody just looked for some nice spot on the ground or the steps and relaxed. On the bar they sold typical aussi homebrew. So the evening went on and on, having really nice talks with some friends of Tom and Miro. We all finally got us a cab home at 5 in the morning!

Living in Sydney …

Tim — Thu, 12 Feb 2004 15:00:01 +0000

Visitor from Germany!
Last week Eric & Melli visited me, after 8 weeks of driving through Australia. I tried to show them what Sydney culture is about, so the first night we went to a jazzy, funky jam session at the Townhall in Newton.
After walking the city the whoe day, they where pretty tired the next evening, so I just went to the usual wednesday-evening-trivi-night at the pub around the corner.
Thursday night Tom (from Czech moved to Aussi in ’91) invited us to a Czech restaurant of a friend. The meal was just awsome! Like at home, as the Czech and suthern German cuisine are pretty similar. Nice roasted Pork in lots of yummi fat with Sauerkraut and knedlÃky (dumplings) aside! Lots of good Czech beer and Vodka afterwards. A really nice international evening with people from Czech, Italy and Germany at our table.
Saturday we had a bbq with cangaroo and lots of aussi wine (out of these 4l cardboard boxes! ). Leaving on tuesday, Eric & Melli left on sunday for another short trip south of Sydney, returning monday evening after getting rid of their buy-back-car. Another nice evening hanging out in our backyard with some more friends of the house.
Leaving for Thailand, they catched their plane that tuesday afternoon. It’s been really nice to see some known faces again, after leaving Germany in october.
subculture in Sydney
Friday I went to a concert of my favorite local band Rastawookie. 9 people on stage, lots of different instruments (brass, big drums, flutes, …) playing an very interesting mix between reggae, ska, latin, and some eastern-european sounds.
The last weekend they had a nice concert in the pub “Empire of Anandale” with a nice afterparty in their hotelroom, where I took two films of slides the night.
This time things were somehow different. The location more central, bigger advertisement all around Sydney and probably as a result of this long queues in front of the pub. (The earlier gigs were smaller in a rather familiar athmosphere)
But even with lots of people not really connected to that scene (lots of overdressed girls!) the party lasted till two or three in the morning.
A view days ago, Seani, a friend of Madelaine, invited me for some weird funny movie at an really interesting venue. It looked like an old storage building, with a huge archive of movies and some chairs arranged like in a cinema. The movie was pretty weird, about some conspiracy in the american upperclass. Seemed more like a good laugh to me. But the people were really nice, and asked us if we wanted coffe or tea while watching the movie.
There are so many small nice things to discover in Sydney!

… and working in Sydney

Tim — Thu, 12 Feb 2004 15:00:00 +0000

Aside all this cultural living, I still manage to do my work for the internship at the aeromech department of the University of Sydney.
Mostly programming at the moment, this is easy, as I usually work at home, whenever I want. KC (my prof) is in some deep trouble at the moment, as both his computers crashed and refuse to work.
While beeing back in germany for two weeks starting next tuesday, I’ll try to keep improving the actual program. With the internet it really doesnt matter where I work, as long as I don’t have to be somewhere physically.

Oh bright future!

I made it to 2004!

Tim — Sat, 10 Jan 2004 15:00:00 +0000

Had some nice parties in the meantime,
new years eve I spent in Pubs in Newtown, together with Ishtar, Helen and Amina. Got home around 6 in the morning.
Just yesterday there was a really nice housewarming party at the house of some ska/reggae ppl I met on an internet ska/reggae forum. (Big thanks to Glen, Andy and Jo!!)
Today i spent reading the newspapers of the last few days.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Tim — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 15:00:00 +0000

Hope yours was as nice as mine!
Had a german christmas in Canberra with good old friends from Germany living here in Oz.

Living in Sydney/Glebe now.

Tim — Thu, 27 Nov 2003 15:00:00 +0000

Just moved to some nice shared acco
with three girls and a friendly fat cat.
A whole house for us, with a (a little trashy) backyard and two balkonies. Took me the last few days to set up the most important stuff in my room. (Bed, some BeenBag, some Boxes to put my stuff in and a very special wardrobe) Looking at some used table (wich was too big) i found some working TV wich the one who sold the table didnt need anymore.
Yesterday, we went to the Pub, just around the corner. There they had a trivia evening, where you could win free jugs and concert-tickets. I got to know some of the friends of the girls i’m living with. As at the mom I’m still on 56k modem connection (maybe we’ll get DSL soon?) you’ll have to wait a little till I upload actual pictures.

Greets, Tim. (king of homeimprovement)

Stuck in Sydney ;-)

Tim — Wed, 12 Nov 2003 15:00:00 +0000

One more week at Eva’s
As i really like it here in Sydney and especially at Eva’s Backpacker (rooftop), I just booked one more week.
The last few days were really nice, i managed all my stuff with the authorities and got me a cheap mobile. (mail me if you dont have my number yet) Some evening we (some friends from Eva’s) had a really nice night-walk at the waterfront of Sydney, ending at some spot with an amazing view over Sydney harbor with the opera and the harbor bridge!
Got addicted to surfing!
Just yesterday we went to Menley Beach near Sydney, where we had a relaxed day at the beach. In the afternoon Sebi, Tobi and me got us some Longboards to try surfing!
Its not that easy and really exhausting!!! But after a few tries all of us managed to stay on the board for a few seconds. As I wrote before, I got addicted to it. With about 7 more months down under, i think there will be enough time to train a little more.
Greetings home, HANG LOOSE!!! Tim.

Down Under

Tim — Tue, 04 Nov 2003 15:00:00 +0000

I made it to Eva’s Backpacker
Wow … this is a really nice backpacker! With BBQ on the rooftop, and really nice ppl. Lots of Germans here, so i won’t loose my mothertongue.
The first day here, i joind some others from the backpacker and went to some pub to watch the rugby match Wales-Newsealand. I dont like soccer too much, but rugby is really great!!! Way more interesting and really male!
The Pub was really nice, if you ordered something before 830 that day, the bartender would throw a coin, and if you won, you got what you ordered for free! … we won two jugs of beer!
After the match some black singer showed up, playing lots of evergreens. A really good party with about 2/3 of backpackers there.
The second day I slept till 1300, read the newspapers from the last few days on my notebook, had a shower and went out to get me something to eat. On the way I found a small wooden backgammon, just the kind I was looking for. Back at Eva’s i made me the noodles and sat on the rooftop where Axel joined me when he returned from his work (a small candle factory). Sitting in the sunshine (sure with sonblocker on my skin!) having a beer and playing backgammon was really like holiday.
As more and more ppl showed up om the rooftop, we decided to have a nice BBQ for dinner, so some of us went out to get some kangaroo meat, and some vegetables for sidedish. Another one got a 4l box of Ozzy wine (not too bad). With all this we had a really nice dinner with a bautiful look on the skyline of sydney! At 2300 we had to change to the kitchen, as the rooftop is closed after then. But that didnt stop the party!
Today I’ll have a walk in the city, looking for a mobile phone, and other stuff I need. Cya m8s!

Back from Kyoto

Tim — Thu, 30 Oct 2003 15:00:00 +0000

two days in Kyoto
Monday i went to Kyoto by Shinkansen, the fast Bullet-Train. I Kyoto i had reservation for some cheap hotel called Uno-House, an german couple in the New Koyo had told me about. A really funny place, with japanese-style dorm (4 matrasses on the floor and nothing else ). The rest of the house was really chaotic but a nice atmosphere, like living with a family.
the first night there i went out with some guys (GB, NL, DE) who stayed there, too. after dinner we found some original japanese reggae-bar hehe … had to take off our shoes and where laying aside the small table … a nice place with a calm and darkatmosphere.
the next day i took for walking Kyoto, starting at the main-station, wich took me some hours for itself, really amazing architecture!!! later i went to some area with lots of temples and park, a nice walk for the whole afternoon, but sadly there were masses of japanese tourists.
in the evening i called my grandma back in hamburg, who went 84 that day. in the evening we went out with the ppl from the hotel again. we startet with 6 ppl (Sing, Jap, GBx2, NL, DE)on the way we acquired an english couple, and in the restaurant we met some friendly american guy. after a good dinner and lots of japanese beer we went outside and split up in smaller groups. The Sing and GB went to some club with two japanese girls the met in the restaurant, some went back home and the US-guy and me got us some sake and had a nice talk on some bridge with a view on a river floating through Kyoto. in front of an ampm we ran into a really friendly ozzy guy in his 50s, who took us with him to his favorite japanese restaurant where he knew the chief and staff. we’d been living in Japan for 15-20 years or so and did the english translation of the menu there. after some really tasty pork-sticks and some french wine i got home to the hostel at 330.
In the morning everybody at the hotel got up around 900 and nearly everyone had a good hangover the others who went to the club came back around 200.
after searching some international ATM, i went to the station to get on my bus back to tokyo.
having a nice talk with a friendly and english-speaking girl, the 8 hours to tokyo didnt seem very long. even though i’m getting better in seeing differences in japanese faces, it still hard for me to guess their ages, so i thought she was around 26, but in the end i realised that she was 37!!!
at some 15min stop in the evening we had some hearty japanese noodles for dinner.

back in Tokyo
arriving in tokyo around 1900 i went on to the starbucks where martine and i set up a date. with a big cup of hot chocolate i waitet for her, later we dropped my stuff at the New Koyo and went on to Ueno, where we looked for some english pub.
after some beer we had to get the last train home, each of us in another sirektion. we set up some date for the next day (today).
after a long sleep till 1000 i had some cup-noodles and went to the place where we wanted to meet, as trains had to wait a while (probably some track-works) i got there about 30 mins late, and couldnt find her. after another 30mins waiting i gave up and went to the HotSopt in Shinjuku to update my webstuff. well here i am … up to date again. two more days in Tokyo and on i go for Sydney.

back in Tokyo

Tim — Fri, 24 Oct 2003 15:00:00 +0000

YHI @ Asakusabashi
spending just one night here, i didn’t unpack my things. spending the evening with a nice chat with some older guy from Oz, i went to bed around, 2200, Martine really got me done!!!
moving to the “New Koyo”
the New Koyo i probably the cheapest place to stay in Tokyo, aside the sleepingboxes at some station! I got this tip from some japanese looking canadian at the YHI Tokyo International.
Beeing designed for Backpackers, those are the usual guests there. Just the kind of place I’ve been looking for.After a short trip with JR and subway and a 15min walk, i checked in at the hotel. When i first saw my room (single room for 2700yen !!!) i was completely amazed, just the perfect thing. A really small room japanese style (i had booked jap just because i was interested in what this meant). Jap style means like nothing i the room except some rice-mats on the ground and a TV-Set. As i dont want to type my fingers off, i made some video of the room before. (room @ New Koyo)
this really seems to be what i was looking for!
My further plans are to get some nightlife (in the New Koyo they’ve got no curfew!!!), and spending one or two nights at Kyoto (probably Mon-Wed).

Greets, Tim.

Mt. Fuji with Martine

Tim — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 15:00:00 +0000

first day
Martine and I met at around (;-) … martine) 730 at some Starbucks near Shinjuku station.
After some hot chocolate we went to the highway-bus-terminal, where we bot on the bus to Kawaguchiko, some town near a lake belwo Mt. Fuji. The day before we had booked a hostel there at the tourist information, who also helped us with the busses.
After a short walk we checked in at the hostel, a small, flat building, run by a grandpa in his 70ies-80ies. Seemed like an older english couple where the only ones at that place.
Looking for some place to have lunch at the lake, most restaurants were closed, as we were out of season. After some japanese lunch we had a nice walk around a part of the lake and across a bridge. As it had stopped raining right when we went out for lunch, and the cloud had risen, we had an really interesting view over the lake. With the coulds hanging in he hills around it’s been a really interesting athmosphere!
To some japanese ppl we must have looked like aliens, as they were greating us as they’d never seen redheaded girl and a tall man before!
In the evening the friendly old man running the hostel, helped us heating the burritos we’d bought before for dinner. With a bottle of Sake (I think it was, as we couldnt read the label, but it was standing beween other sake bottles) we had a nice movie on the notebook.
second day
Getting awake with loud classical music at the floor and some announcement throu some really loud loudspeaker a really nice day started. The clouds had disappeared, and the sun was shining from a blue sky!
Together with the english couple we had a kinda mixed japanese/western breakfast, wich gave us the power we’d need later that day! Leaving my bags in some locker at the station, we got on the bus to 5th station on Mt. Fuji, arriving about one hour later.
When we got to the 5th station, there where clouds all around us. But jut this mad a really amazing atmosphere!!! getinng a walk up the Fuji in these foggy forests was just amazing, sometimes supenly sun was shinig, as some free spot in the clouds opened. hiking further up the mountain, trees got few and disappeared. as Martine really loves hiking in mountains (as there are so few in Holland ) she made me climbing up to 7th station with her! she ‘s in a really good condition, unlike me … but i made it. arriving there, getting really cold, having some snowballing, the clouds opened just for us and gave us an amazing view on the top of Mt. Fuji, the sun right above it! (there are quite few fotos in the gallery, as i took most pics with the good old analog cam). After a shorter walk back down to 5th, we had some hot coffe waring us, waiting for the bus back to Kawaguchiko. Back there we had dinner in some nice japanese restaurant with an beatuiful view on Mt. Fiju with sunset right aside it. After another bustrip back to Tokyo, we divided and i went to my new hostel.

Online again …

Tim — Mon, 20 Oct 2003 15:00:00 +0000

some relaxed days with fred-frencho
*smile
yesterday we went to some handcrafts-market (really impresive .. they got a REALLY big choice here … you can get everything… Obi is nothing!).
afterwards we had lunch in some nice small japanese lunch-bar in yoyogi.
in the afternoon we walked to some nearby park with an ols shrine in it. after we had a look at the youthhostel there we managed to get back to ours at around 1900 with hurting feets… we really walked a lot that day.
to relax a bit before going to bed, we watched some movie on the notebook.

this morning i first answered some e-mails from Martine, trying to set up some meeting. (it’s really hard without mobilephones, i can remember how thing were working before mobile-communication), afterwards we walked to downtown Tokyo, passing a beautiful park and the emperors palace.
after a visit in a BIG bookstore (having a look at some nice photoalbums with fred (he studied design)) we split up, with me travelling to Shinjuku, where i set up the meeting with Martine. Right around the corner there’s a beatiful hotspot, with some trees and banks to hang out and relax. (see pic below)

The first few days

Tim — Sat, 18 Oct 2003 15:00:00 +0000

Stuggi-London
met Rob & Oli, guys from Karlsruhe, doing the same round the world ticket but other direction (starting in LA)
London-Tokyo
got to know Martine, a girl from Holland, who was sitting aside me. this way the flight didn’t take too long but as things startet out so nice als already guesse there was something to come. (Murphies Law!)
arriving in Tokyo me and some others from Stuggi realised the our baggage had stayed in Heathrow … so i made it to the hostel without any heavy backpack.
the nice thing about is that my bag arrived that evening without hassle, and i had nothing to carry
Tokyo
The first day in Tokyo i slept from 1700 till 500 in the morning, getting awake with a amazing beatiful sunrise over Tokyo in front of my window on the 18th floor!
video1
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The first day i managed to buy some LonelyPlanet on Tokyo&area and a power adaptor for the notebook.
it’s been really funny to read the LP on Germany, especielly the part regarding Stuggi. They even had the “Palast der Republik” as a tip in there!!!
today i tried to buy some mobile-phone, but i realised that those thing cost nearly double the price they cost in good old europe! as do MP3 USB sticks! ill have a look when im in oz … maybe the prices there are better … else i need some carepacket from germany.
searching for WLAN
in the afternoon i was walking the hotel-district of Shinjuku, looking for some free WLAN hotspots. i found some outside, but as this was not tooo comfortable, im now sitting in some cafe below the hilton tokyo, having a hot chocolate with free internet.

The journey starts!!!

Tim — Wed, 15 Oct 2003 08:00:00 +0000

W-LAN at Stuttgart Airport!
Niceee! I got W-LAN access at the airport. Just typing a few words, letting the world (lÃ¶l) know i made it at least to the airport.
Hope my luck will ast further …

Cya m8s, read you soon.

A really relaxed 4th semester

Tim — Sun, 01 Jun 2003 11:00:00 +0000

Summertime … weather is fine!
My 4th semester is starting with a really nice summer! Most of the time its quite warm/hot, really nice to hang out at the university between the lectures.
As theres no university thursdays and fridays, the weekends got quite long! 3 days university and 4 days weekend! But after this quite stressing 3rd semester we really needed this!
While learning for the last test, i got the idea to stop studying for a year, and to travel through Austrlia! I’m really looking forward to getting my backpack stuffed, travelling around, seeing new places and meeting new ppl.
As my father gave me the tip about some information-day for students at the Australian Embassy in Berlin, i spent a few days there. Just arriving at the youth-hostel, i met a nice guy (also named Tim) from Australia. Getting into dialogue we decided to pass the afternoon in Berlin together.
We had a look at the Reichstag, the Brandenburger Tor and Checkpoint Charly. In between we had some nice talks and (of course) some cold beers. We walked the bars till 1:00 (i had to get to bed a little earlier, as the info-day started at 10:00).
The day at the embassy was really useful! 3 of the 6 universities, represented there, were offering aeronautics. Might be interesting to have a look at them when travelling there!

What happend since december 2002

Tim — Sat, 01 Mar 2003 11:00:00 +0000

Dec/jan i moved to my new room. My dad really helped much, and we also had kinda fun, painting walls and constructing tables out of what we had in the garage.
Then i had to finish some construction for university till the end of semester(the flaps-mechanism for a small aircraft). Afterwards i had 1-2 Weeks to relax before the learning for the examinations began.
In between i manged to go snowboading to Engelberg (CH) with some firends! Haven’t been on board for about 2 years, but all went fine … i didn’t forget how to do it!
The only bad thing about this trip is, that Sergio (Espace ’87) lost it’s exhaust right in front of Olli’s door! So the trip back was quite loud!
Right now, I passed the first two tests. TM exam should be OK, but with maths3 i’m quite unhappy. Hope ET, TD and FGK will work out better!

Sergio, Europe and InfCon

Tim — Mon, 07 Oct 2002 11:00:00 +0000

Sergio (the Renault Espace ’87) survived the trip throu southern Europe, the holidays are over and InfCon lays behind me.
The trip with Kathi, Aiko and Sergio was a really interesting “on-the-road-holiday”. The car did it’s Job and even more, we had a funny time camping in the wilderness or at some campground and we even saw some cultural stuff like the Guggenheimuseum in Bilbao. Our way took us across the Alps to Italy down to the mediterrean sea, where we followed the coast throu France till Spain (Alfaz del Pi), there we visited my Parents for 3 days. After that we went throu Madrid driving further NW to Santander, from where we followed the atlanic coast till Bordeaux. As the weather got bad around there we took a hard daytrip of about 1200km directly back home.

Studies

Tim — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 22:00:03 +0000

After a long break i finally managed to update my homepage! Lots of things happend!
After finishing my armyservice i went to spain with an army-friend of mine. We had much fun,
playing billard and watching the waitress! In may/june I went backpacking in the USA.
Me and a good friend hitch-hiked down the westcoast. (SF, Yosemite, Santa Cruz,
Santa Barbara, LV, Flagstaff, San Diego, Ensenada, LA) That was a really great month!
In July me and four friends stayed in our house in Spain. A really hard time!
Greetings to Kim and Lindis, two really cute girls we met there. In mid october
I started studying space- and aviationsince in Stuttgart. It seems to bee really interesting,
but challanging, too! As i got back home from the states i startet taking lots of
photos with an old camera of my parents. (A really good one!) So there are lots of good and
funny pictures to be added to the gallery soon!Â Â Stay tuned!