TomTom you are so wrongwrong

This past Saturday, Alyssa and me took a day trip to the very most southern end of the Netherlands, a quaint little town called Maastricht. Maastricht is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands dating back to the time of the Romans. It is home to a few universities and is a predominately Catholic area as opposed to the northern Protestants. It takes about 2 hours to get to Maastricht from Rotterdam via train or car. On this excursion we went by Alyssa's mom's toyota corolla. To assist with getting around a foreign country Alyssa's mother bought a TomTom navigation system which has an English accent and has been nicknamed "Fred". With this our story begins.ili

Around 10:30 in the morning we hopped into the car and programmed Maastricht into Fred and were comfortable with him just leading us on our merry trip. For about an hour Fred is giving us excellent directions. Then we enter Eindhoven. We've been to Eindhoven before. On our Oktoberfest trip we stopped there to pick up some more people on the bus, including the Farmers of infamous drinking ability. We've also watched a football (soccer) match between the Eindhoven club, nicknamed the Boerers (farmers), and a Romanian club. Needless to say we were familiar with the town. There apparently is a difference between knowing "a" town and knowing "the" town. Fred did not know "the" town.

As we're driving towards Eindhoven there is a lot of construction going on. This doesn't seem like too much of a challenge since we are just going around the town and not through it. Fred is confused though. We take an exit towards the city where we are supposed to take a left then take another left and go back in the direction we just came. With the construction going on we can only take one left but can take a left later on down the road. This continues to confound Fred. He continues to change his route as we veer off the path he's taking us. We eventually make it back to the highway we were on and head south but just about as soon as we get to highway speed Fred has become so twisted and turned around that he tells us to take a road which according to his map is on the far right lane, when in fact it is the left lane. Now we are heading towards town and Fred adjusts his route once more. By now we are fed up with Fred and decide that we'll just use the map on the iPhone to get us where we need to go. So Fred gets put to sleep and I become lead navigator. About an hour later we have reached our destination of Maastricht. We park the car and walk into town.

We start off on the north end of the historic part of the city and eat lunch at a chinese cafe in the Markt square. In the square is the Stadhuis and a cool statue of a man (can't remember the name) holding an eternal flame.

We then crossed a bridge, looked around then crossed the oldest bridge in the Netherlands.

Once across we were in the main shopping district of Maastricht with lots of people and plenty of shops. From there we went to the Vrijtof square which is supposed to be the main touristy area probably because of its two churches:

Sint-Janskerk

Sint-Servaasbasiliek

From the Vrijtof we headed towards the old Roman quarter which is actually a lot smaller than you would think. Once we got there we headed south to the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwbasiliek (Basilica of Our Lovely Lady) square. After that we headed west towards Maastricht University. After all this walking though finding a restroom became a bit of a priority. Usually in Europe you can't use a restroom in a restaurant unless you pay, so that was out of the question. Luckily we were near the Natural History Musuem but it was only open for another 25 min. So we rushed over there taking a few pictures along the way.

 We eventually made it to the museum only to find the doors to it closed and locked. We attempted to push and pull them to see if they were stuck but to no luck. Then just as soon as we were about to turn around a lady opened the door. So we asked if we could use the restroom and she said it was fine. A good way to tell how good a museum is where they put their exhibits. If there are exhibits EVERYWHERE then its probably a good museum. This one had exhibits in the entry hall, in the floor, on the way to the bathroom; knowledge anywhere you looked. Sadly we had to leave though since the museum was closing. We will be back though to check it out.

After the museum we walked a little bit west and found the old city walls. Here you could actually walk along the top of the wall just as people did centuries ago.

We then walked east to cross the 3rd bridge of the day. On the other side we grabbed some food at a gastropub called El Python, which was a very good name for the place since our bellies were stretched like we just swallowed an animal. We save just enough room to swing by a gelatto place and pick up a tasty single-scooped dessert. With the daylight fading we headed back to the car and drove our way back to Rotterdam. We tried to use Fred again but he apparently was so frustrated with us that he wouldn't pick up signal, so we just put him to sleep again. It must've helped because we made it home without any problems in Eindhoven.

It's a small world after all!

Now that I have my first "self-study" day of the school year, I can update with what my masters program is like.

I'm not in Texas anymore. Hell I'm hardly in the Netherlands. My program brings people from 29 different countries from 6 different continental areas. I'm pretty sure I've stated this already but it's still impressive. Even the lecturers and teachers come from very varied walks of life. One professor is Dutch and has worked in Africa and Southeast Asia. Another has worked throughout Europe. One is from Venezuela and studied in Germany. It's a little crazy to wrap your head around, especially when you've only really seen the Southern half of the United States and lived in Texas your whole life.

Before I came here, I enjoyed meeting people from all over the U.S. I have friends from the Southeast, some real good friends from Kansas, some people from the rust belt, I know a few Californians and Rocky Mountain types. There was still alot of ground I had to cover in the U.S. though to really get a sense of all the places people are from. Now I've put that on steroids. Now people speak English which is EXTREMELY helpful, but they also speak Mandarin Chinese, Indonesian, Spanish, Italian, Persian and so many African dialects its hard to wrap your head around where they're all from. Instead of having to listen to a Louisiana dialect, Minnesota dialect, Chicago dialect, New York Dialect or So Cal dialect; I now have to jumble through all these different tongues to understand what they are saying in English. I'm going to have really good ears after this. With enough interaction I should be able to really get an amazing understanding of what other countries are like from the very people that live there.

The classes so far seem pretty straightforward. We've already had one debate which was a blast, but that's been the only debate so far which is a bummer. I really enjoyed working in a group with a collection of students. We're all in the same classroom right now for the basic courses and the subjects aren't really the most thrilling so it can kind of bog you down. I have this sinking feeling that I will be the death of many a tree this year. Even with the invention of computers and email, I suspect there will be multiple slides to be printed, papers to be written and books to be read. Today I'll get to catch up on a little reading and other things around the house, which will be nice. Tomorrow Alyssa and me celebrate our 1.5 years of dating. Maybe some Indonesian food will be in order... Who knows?

The puzzle is finished

Now that I have more time, I can write the blog I had intended to write yesterday.

I've never committed to a puzzle quite like the Escher puzzle. It wasn't even just the level of difficulty associated with the task that kept my interest. There were themes about the puzzle that intrigued me. There was the deadline to finish it. Finishing what I started with had to be the most driving force behind the whole thing. It was actualy quite marvelous to watch it all come together. There were times that I felt like it would take months to finish, but after I reached a certain point it all came together quite quickly.

The puzzle is 1000 pieces. It is named "Line Infiniti" and is a picture done by M.C. Escher. It is done in black and white and shades of grey. It is a picture of two men looking at each other except their heads are made in the shape of ribbons. The two ribbons connect at the top and bottom, while also intersecting near the forehead. The two heads are surrounded by a multitude of orbs in all sizes. The picture is shaded to where it appears there is a light in the top right corner of the image. So that is the facts about the picture now to go on to the themes.

The name of this puzzle alone is something interesting to me. I believe that the two men are a father and a son based on their similarity to one another. Which is also why it is line infiniti, because a line also refers to a family tree from one generation to the next. There is also the infinite part where the line never ends because the two objects are tied together on the same ribbon. This is a common trait amogst M.C. Escher drawings and paintings, who also happens to be one of my favorite artists. He commonly rejects the normal direction of painting in reality, while instead he toys within the infinite realms of art where there is no gravity, no structure. His ability to abuse perspective to its utmost is what I really enjoy. He also happens to be of Dutch origin which happens to be where I am living and I have walked by his musuem. The tie between father and son also enticed me. This can easily be explained because I am the son of a father and I will be carrying his line on for future generations.

Carrying on with this puzzle was not such an task. From the get-go I realized this was not going to be an easy task. In common puzzle etiquette, a person starts by finding all the borders and framing the image. So I layed out all the pieces and placed them face up to get a look at them, then I combed through searching for any flat edged pieces and corners. I was fortunately able to find all of them but saw a disturbing pattern arising. While the top and bottom edge were pieces with a thin line of white for the border and then black with maybe a piece of ball on it, the left and right edges where white. There was no color to them, no image to give away where they went, just a white shape. I attempted to finish the left and right edge but quickly realized that was going to take forever so I just pushed it to the side and moved on. I could complete the border because the next piece in on both sides had a visible distinction of a border and gave me my frame.

With the frame done I moved on to finding pieces that were part of very distinctive features of the picture, things such as: eyes, mouth, nose, hair, anything that was obviously different. Not as easy as it sounds. In a fiendish move, the designes of the puzzle managed to take anything that could be readily identified and then split it into two, three and most commonly four pieces. I was able to get most of the eyes done quickly but then all I had was these pupils staring creepily back at me. Eventually the face began to make a little sense. Then the heads began to take shape, all be it with a lot of holes. There was a point maybe a week or two ago where I thought it would take months to finish. I just couldn't believe I could connect anything that fast. The shades of grey made it extremely difficult. Everything looked the same. There wasn't any reds in this corner, blues on the bottom or greens up top. It was all the same piece, over and over again. I often would put a piece that I thought worked in a place where it fit, only to find out later it was the opposite side of the puzzle.

Throughout all of this turmoil, the core of the puzzle came into place and I could see the picture on the box. There was but one thing left in my way: the darkness. In a stroke of maniacal genius, the creators of the puzzle made sure to leave around twenty pieces as simply black. There was nothing else to them but their shape. They were just images of an infinite void. Luckily I saved them for towards the end so I cavemanly put pieces into the holes until they fit. With one final piece, I finished the puzzle around 10 pm last night. I felt great and was finally happy to see the puzzle done.

Then a strange feeling came over. With many puzzles, the picture is so neat or so challenging you want to frame it. I should frame the puzzle because it was quite an accomplishment to finish. Not even Alyssa's mom who does puzzles ALL the time could finish it. And she is a higher up at Shell. I don't think I want to frame the puzzle though. I don't want to hold on to it and try keep it forever. I think I would much rather break it back down to its original state and have someone else get the satisfaction of finishing it. Alyssa thinks no one will ever want to do that puzzle because of how hard it is. Possibly destroying got me thinking. Here in Europe it is common for there to be very old buildings in cities. These are centuries old and a window to the past. Often times they are being refurbished or restored so they can last forever. That is not the nature of things though. In life things are created, they live and they die. All things must end, they just can't be forgotten. That way future generations can see them and remember what came before them and possibly even restore the past with their own twist. Hopefully after I've shown my accomplishment to Alyssa's mom and I destroy that puzzle someone else will take up the challenge and try to finish the hardest puzzle I've ever done.

The preview to "The puzzle is finished"

It is currently 10 till midnight over here now and I am going to need to go to bed soon or I will be very tired tomorrow. I have finished the puzzle today though which means for a month I hunched over our dining room table struggling to turn an amoeba of thin cardboard into a rectangle. The picture is done though so now this lies on the table:

Tomorrow I will try and blog this epic experience of mine. I've had a lot of time to think many thoughts while completing this project and luckily I finished just before school really began.

Until later

First day of school

So today was my very first day of Master's courses. Right off the bat I realized one thing and one thing alone, I'm not in Texas any more. I'm in a foriegn country, with people from all over the world and I am the minority. There is even a Dutch student who is the only student from the Netherlands. The only student from the same country as the program. This is a World program. There is a person from every livable continent on the planet. We could hold the Olympics with this group if we wanted, however Africa and Asia would be greatly represented and everyone else would have to have some great athletes to keep up. Oceania would have to be the greatest athlete in the world because she is all alone.

Before all the diversity though, the day started as most autumn days in the Netherlands do. Cold, gray and rainy. Nothing quite like a brisk bike ride into a sprinkler. In all honesty, there is one thing and one thing alone that made the trip tolerable, rain gear. I was a little skeptical when Alyssa decided to get some at Wal-Mart 3 months ago, mainly because of how expensive it was. After today though, it was worth every penny. It rained just about all the way to school and the whole way back. The rain gear came in very handy when my bike chain decided to hop off its gear and leave me a hamster in a wheel going nowhere. So with a quick fixerup and a wash off in rainwater, I made it to school on time.

School consisted of meeting, greeting and meetings today. It was very informative but of course not the most exciting of topics. After lunch though, we took a bus ride to the Netherlands Architecture Institute. That is a cool place. So many city designs, crafty ideas, and Legos. There was so much information that I really would need a few days to soak it all in. The theme of this exibhit was how to approach the problem of informal cities (slums) to make them more livable. This made it even more interesting for me since my Master's program focuses on the same type of issues. They even had a focus on Indonesia where many of the students in the program are from. Just awesome stuff.

So in conclusion, I am looking forward to this academic year and now I'm going to see if I can finish that friggin puzzle.  Tomorrow I go back to my U.N. (one of the students is actually from the U.N. ironically enough)

Munich Tour

To continue with the touring theme we will venture this time to Munich, the host of Oktoberfest.

On this trip we maximed our enjoyment by partying at Oktoberfest the first day we were there and then relaxing with a stroll around Munich to site-see. This was one of my favorite city tours I've done since we've been in Europe and I have Frommers.com to thank for it. So without further ado lets begin.

The tour begins as we arrive at the Marienplatz in the center of Munich:

Upon leaving the station and turning around to face the plaza, this is the first thing you see. This is a golden statue of the Virgin Mary. The pavement around it was first laid in the 1300s. On the north end of the plaza is:

The Neues Rathaus, or new city hall, was built between 1867-1908 as a symbol of Germany's power. In the middle of the tower you can see the Glockenspiel in green. Throughout the day old anamatronics perform a show for everyone in the plaza. We, however, were never around for these shows, bummer. Next we traveled to:

Frauenkirche. This cathedral is massive, and I would not want to have been one of the bricklayers for this place. There are two towers that extend to the heavens however one of them was being restored as can be seen by the scaffolding on the right edge of the picture. It actually if very difficult to visit a city in Europe and not run into something that is being restored. We ran into the same thing in Brugge where one of the most ornate churches in all of Belgium was being restored so it became one of the biggest tents in Belgium. Anyway, this church is huge, you can grasp how big it is by this photo I took while standing at the bottom of one of the towers:

One of my favorite pictures. I would take a front picture of the entire church but it wouldn't all fit in the frame. Despite its majestic size, the inside of the church is actually quite plain and boring.

Peterskirche is the oldest church in Munich. It was built in 1180 and is so old that for awhile it was the only church in Munich. It has since had a bit more competition.

The Viktualienmarkt was closed since it was a Sunday, even though it was going to be our lunch. So we strolled to:

I'll be back for you, later

Max-Joseph-Platz. From here you can enter the south end of the Residenz, which was the old palace of the rulers of Bavaria. Inside you will find one of the best museums in Munich and one sweeeeeet treasury.

This is a gilded St. George Slaying the Dragon statue. It's much smaller than I originally envisioned but none the less extremely elaborate.

Crown jewels

Medals of Honor, not ladies jewelry, so no you can't have one for Christmas.

The Westside of the Residenz. The Residenz is definitely a great site and given more time and money we would have explored the whole thing because it looked pretty awesome. There are little lion statues lined along the side of the building and you can rub their noses and it must be a sign of good luck. I know this because some lady walked by and rubbed the statues but she wasn't the only one because there was some obvious wear on the noses of all the lions. Next to the Residenz is:

 

The Felherrnhalle, built by King Ludwig I as a tribute to the Bavarian army. The Bronze statues are honoring Bavarian generals Tilly (1559-1632) and Wrede (1767-1838). Next to this is:

The Theatinerkirche is actually the crypt of many of the Wittelsbachs who were the ruling family of Bavaria.

These pictures are of the area to the North of the Residenz known as the Hofgarten. It's a beautiful area that was luckily opened to the public in 1780.

After wandering through Maximilliansplatz, which is a park located inbetween two of the most prestigious shopping streets in Munich, we came across this fountain. It is the Wittelsbach Fountain and one of the most famous in the city. From the fountain we traveled a little further south to the train station on our way to:

Schloss Nymphenburg, the summer palace for the Wittelsbachs. A massive complex which according to Alyssa was about the size of Versailles.

The gardens of the palace are 180 hectacres. This picture barely grasps how far these gardens go. By looking at a map its amazing how much land these people had to cover.

We then hopped a train and headed towards the Olympic grounds:

These are the Olympic grounds in Munich. You can see the Gymnasium and Natatorium (the tent things) and the communications tower. We came to realize something at the Olympic grounds. When you take a walking tour around a city, you tend to do a lot of walking, which in turn wears you out. So with our dogs barkin and us hungry we went on our way back to the Hofbrauhaus.

So I know you may be thinking, "you just went to Oktoberfest" but the Hofbrauhaus was a great dining experience. As one of the oldest beer gardens in town they had an execellent atmosphere, meal and service. If you need a place to dine for dinner I would recommend here. They had all the things you'd be looking for at Oktoberfest: beer steins, beer maidens, giant pretzels, oompa bands, but none of the hassle. We had one of the fastest waiters I've ever seen and his English was excellent as well. It was a great way to wind down our trip to Munich.

After a wonderful dinner it was back to the campsite for us as we prepared to leave back to Rotterdam. That concludes our Oktoberfest trip. What a great trip it was.

Prost!

Op de fiets: A bike tour of Rotterdam

A few weeks ago I got dressed in my workout attire for the cold here, hopped on my bike, and pedaled my way to the center of Rotterdam.

Rotterdam, despite being one of the largest cities in the Netherlands, is actually quite bikable. It takes longer to bike than drive in a car but it doesn't seem like youve biking forever like some cities in the U.S. All in all it took about 3 hours to go from our apartment on the eastside of Rotterdam to the edge of the harbor on the westside and back again.

The tour consists of items located near the Nieuwe Maas, the river that forms the heart of the harbor.

These are the world-famous Cube Houses. As of this year you can actually pay to live in one of them. They are designed in the shape of a cube on one of its points. These are located right next to the Blaak train station.

This is a ship docked in the area known as the Oudehaven, or Old Harbor. The Oudehaven is now a cosmopolitan eating, drinking and shopping area.

These are ships located in the Oudehaven but they are part of the Maritime Museum where you can learn about all things Dutch and Nautical.

This statue is named Stad zonder hart (City without a heart) done by Ossip Zadkine. When Germany attempted to take over the Netherlands in WWII they met more resistance than they thought from the Dutch. In order to take control back the Germans bombed the city center of Rotterdam. They destroyed most of the historic heart of the city and left a gaping whole that caused high winds until the city councils in the 1980s began actively modernizing and building up in the center. This is one of my favorite statues in town because of the deep meaing it has. I tried to capture an image of it with the sun beaming through the heart.

These pictures are of the Erasmusbrug, or Erasmus Bridge. This bridge is named after Desiderius Erasmus. He was a famous Dutch Renaissance humanist and theologian. He aslo just so happens to be the name sake of the university where I will be doing my masters. This bridge is referred to as "the swan" because of its long slender shape and white color.

 You may recognize the name on this one. This is as far west as I went on my tour and the very eastern edge of the modern harbor. It is located in what used to be the town of Delfshaven before it was absorbed by the city of Rotterdam. Delfshaven used to be home to the Pilgrims while they were fleeing persecution in England. They didn't want to lose too much of their cultural identity so they left Delfshaven, worked out a deal with some English investors and headed to America. That is how Plymouth Rock came to be.

This concludes our tour for the day. There is much, much more to be seen in Rotterdam and, if I had taken the good camera or at least deleted some pictures off the old one, will be much more posted.

Oktoberfest: The Blog

Seeing as not all my family members (but just about all of them) have facebook I believe its best for me to blog our Oktoberfest trip to give people a view from our eyes. To see our story.

Well our tale begins at 8 am on a Friday morning. Alyssa, me and her brother all grab our things and hop a bus ride to the bus station where we can then catch our "party bus" to Munich. We arrive and meet a girl from England and a Dutch girl who we have met through couch surfing. We all get to know each other real well because our bus trip takes 15 hours to get to Munich! I know I have been on longer bus rides but that one felt like an eternity. We did receive a free beer upon crossing the German border but as can be viewed by this picture:
You need a few more to make that time travel by faster









There were a few people whom time itself must have whirred by like some stunt jet from the Blue Angels. A group of Dutchmen dressed in what we were told is traditional Dutch farmer clothes managed to drink their one free beer... and then some. With each additional beer being 1.5€ these 4 men were able to consume almost 90€ of Heineken or 58 cans. They would've had more if we had not run out around 2 hrs before Munich. We even restocked twice on the trip, but alas it was to no avail.

We finally arrived in Munich at our Wies'n Camp around 10 o'clock. Once there, we set our bags in a safe area, I grabbed our beer, Alyssa grabbed our food, and we were merry. Well maybe not Alyssa. One of the German's had screwed up our order and when she tried to explain it to the other German he began shouting at her in a language that already sounds like you're being shouted at. Our food was straightened out though and our beer was still cold because of the chilly Bavarian air, so all was better. From there, we lugged our luggage to our oh so organized tent rows and placed our things inside before heading back to the beertent to join in on the celebration.

After a decent rest on an equestrian field, we braved the dewy morning and ventured to our goal: Oktoberfest!

***TRAVEL RECOMMENDATION***
For anyone looking to make the trip to Oktoberfest there are a few things to be stressed:
1. Get there early, before 10 early. I would even go so far as to say get there between 8 and 9. There are tons of people that are here and despite the tents being the size of Pantheons, seating is limited. So get it while the gettins good.
2. Pick one tent and one tent alone. You will not "tent hop". This is not some cheap drinks, the fun is in the journey type of thing. This is a job. You come in get your work done then you leave when you are finished. You can't transfer to another company randomly throughout the day, you are not a consultant. This is the occupation you chose and you can't transfer in a day. If you try to transfer you will most likely be unemployed (wandering the fair grounds) and unable to get inside again.
3. As for which tent to choose, it is really a matter of opinion. Some people will recognize the names on the tents and base their decision on that. You must remember that the steins are 1 L. That is almost 34 oz of fluid or a little over two pints. So if you're going to drink that much, you better LOVE the stuff. We chose the Augustiner tent and, according to some sources, it is the best tent. I fully support this opinion. Great beer and easily drinkable.
4. GET A TABLE. No table, no beer, no food, no nothin. If your group cant get a table right away, split up and know where each other is. Once people begin to leave then snatch up their seats.
5. Know a little German or meet a friendly one to assist you in ordering.

Following these steps can help you have an experience similar to this:

Good times, good times.

That's Oktoberfest in a nutshell. I will be updating with pictures of our tour around Munich later.

 

 Cheers!