BBQ and the beginning of school

Yup, schools back in action. for better or worse.

classes just started yesterday, so I dont really have a feel yet for how this semester will turn out. But I have a feeling it will be similar to the last.

But BBQ season has officially begun, I organized a nice chill session on Sunday outside my place. Theres a nice big old school grill and picnic tables so we had around 15-20 people and cooked like maniacs. I think Im gonna try and hook it up for every nice Sunday. the BBQ culture is just too sweet to pass up.

Besides that, nothing too out of the ordinary here, life is settling back to normal.

The End of Stairs

I was told of this service that will let me upload and share files here. Its free, but of course theres advertising involved. Anyways, I uploaded a few tunes that I recorded with my jamming partners Bongz and Hans-Peter. Bongz is the one with the killer voice.

Killing me Softly

and

Collide

Again, just deal with the advertising, and download the file. I found it a little confusing my first time trying to download, but I got it to work. So let me know how you like this, or if you know of any better service similar to this.

...

On a different note, Ive been having a good couple days here. The weather has been warming up, and another festival is going on here, Frühlingsfest. Essentially, its a small scale Oktoberfest with lots of beer and fun times. I went last night with some dudes from school and well, we got schlammered. Im recovering today, gonna take it easy.

My next semester starts on Monday, it should be pretty similar to the last term. I have to give a presentation May 2 on the PN junction and solar cells, I volunteered for this one, cause well, I didnt need to do any research as I am a transistor nerd.

I also signed on to this awesome idea, couchsurfing.com . If you have the time, be sure to check it out. Im planning on using it for all my travels from now on. Hotels were replaced by hostels, which have now been replaced by friendly locals' couches. Awesome.

Paris and Amsterdam Pics

Here are some pics I snapped from Paris and Amsterdam.

Notre Dam Cathedral

Paris Opera House

One of the truly impressive pieces at the Louvre

Rather Phallic Architecture?

This is why you dont park a car in Paris

Arc de Triomphe

I tried to capture the madness of this roundabout. There were at least 8 lanes of traffic, 8 exit points, and not a single traffic signal. The chaos was insane.

Napoleon I's tomb

Les Invalides

Dome of Les Invalides

Amsterdam

I love the smell of alternative energy in the morning

Heineken Brewery

If only I had brought my sticks

Pics

Here are some pictures from England and Tunisia that I cleaned up and picked out. I will put them on my Yahoo Photos Page, in the links section of the sidebar.

London National Gallery

Riding a Sphinx

Westminster Abby

Trafalgar Square

The London Eye

Stonehenge

Brook in Salisbury

Camelback in the Saharah

A vey typical Tunisian door

A flower that we found in the desert.

Moseying along

Tunis

Roman Ruins in Carthage, part of the Natual Museum

Mosque in Tunis. Note the speakers. These start blaring morning prayer at 5 am EVERY morning!

Government buildings in Tunis

Byzantine Fort in Sousse

Enjoying Paris

Well, they werent lying. Paris really is a beautiful city.

Ive been here for a couple days now. I tried to post yesterday only to have the internet crap out on me. So, Ive done all the big tourist traps here, with spending as little as I could (they also werent lying when they said it was expensive, 2€ for an expresso, 7€ for a pint of beer!!!)

Saw the Louvre today; which was really cool, the Eiffel tower was overrun with tourists, so we didnt get a chance to climb the stairs as we had hoped, and I checked out the Science and Tech. museum here, cause, well, Im a geek.

checked out Notre Dame cathedral, as well as les Invalides, and a whole slew of other stuff. I leave for good ol Stuttgart tomorrow, and am looking forward to going home, it will be nice. Its been almost a month on the road, and Ive gotten my fix of travelling for a while now. In fact, school starts up soon, and I have to work at my new job until then; so life will be definitely slowing down soon, but Im ready for it.

Anyways, i will be posting lots of pics, a few movies, and overall impressions and thoughts of the places Ive been in a day or two, once i get my ass settled down.

Off to Paris

its 7:45 am and were waiting on breakfast in Amsterdam, were catching a bus to Paris for 9.

The Heineken brewery was awesome. Total multimedia tech paradise. They have 'rides'and everything, all about Beer. I couldnt help make the connection to Duffworld. We got 3 half pints and a 'gift' of a heineken beer glass. Good stuff.

The girls checked out the van Gogh museum, which i passed on, making time for some free time for me. the weekend has been me leading around the group, mostly as I have been here before and know how to get around. But travelling with females is definitely much more difficult than with guys. I wont say anymore, but its been very obvious to me.

Looking forward to Paris, it will be a great time there. And looking forward to getting back to Stuttgart. I feel like Ive gotten the latest travel dose well in my system, and can chill for a bit.

When Pigs Fly

Weve had a good time in Amsterdam so far. We did alot yesterday, Anne Frank Haus, Waterlooplein market, and a general bike tour of the city. We made a long trek with all our bags and stuff on the bikes to a different hostel. Were now at the Flying Pig downtown, which is one of the best hostels Ive ever stayed at. Ive been here before and had to stay here, even if just for one night.

Today were gonna see the Heineken Brewery/Museum, Its Dionnes birthday so it feels right for a brewery tour with samples. Should be a good time, for now, Im relaxing at the Pig for a few hours, its always a good atmosphere here.

As a free promotion for this place, they really take care of everything that a good hostel should have. From the bar in the lobby, to the included breakfast, to even providing a kitchen for tenants to use, its great. If you are ever in Amsterdam, it is worth the extra 5€ that youd spend at any other place.

Off to Paris tomorrow, then Stuttgart on Wednesday. Ive been away for about 3 weeks, and will feel good going back 'home'.

and here we go again...

so Im in Amsterdam. in a cozy hostel on the south end of town. Like every other time ive been here, the city never ceases to entertain me. I took Dionne, Sarah, and Sarahs cousin Anne-Marie to the main tourist Amsterdam pillars: food, drugs, and prostitution. We ate some great food, frequented some coffeeshops, and took a quick tour of a red light district.

We were all extremely tired throughout the day. We celebrated Dionnes birthday in London, before getting more of a nap, until heading off on a train, a HOVERCRAFT!, and another train into Amsterdam. (The hovercraft was cool).

We will be getting some bikes today in real Amsterdam fashion, and take a bike tour of the city. Im excited for that, it will be nice and relaxing. Well relaxing is a relative term, there is still the constant fear of being hit by a person, another bike, or a car, as this city is one of many close calls, and very few accidents.

This computer cant take my pictures, so this one will have to be pure text. Were on a bus to Paris on Monday. For now, Im making sure to enjoy the first world comforts again, in a great party and relaxing city.

More Pics

The internet is slow, so I will only put a few up here.

My Camel guide, Jamil, and I. Good man, this bedouin knows the desert.

Sea at Carthage

Musee National de Carthage

I will post some more in time, but this has taken me longer than I thought. Blogger sucks bad for pictures, if anyone from blogger is reading, please get your stuff together. I also have some general comments on the entire trip (included with some pretty funny, yet somewhat terrifying stories), but I slept about 2 hours in the Airport in tunis last night to the lullabye of jackhammers and construction, so that will have to wait until I have my wits about me. But I am glad to have gone, and I am glad to be back.

enjoy

Finally some pics

Here are some pics from my trip, I have a few more that i will post right after. Blogger is being bitchy.

Capital City, Tunis

Tunis

Place de la Victoire, Tunis

Byzantine Fort, Sousse

Sunset from Bus on Edge of Saharah

I would make a sexy muslim

Me and My Camel.

This is my favourite pic

He looks cute, but dont be decieved, they are nasty little buggers

Sleeping, literally, in the middle of nowhere

I'll never forget the Saharah Sunset

Can you spot the Canadian?

Stars above the Sararah

Im back in the capital city, Tunis, as there are a few more things I wanna see in the North, namely Sidi Bou Said, that some nice Tunisian commented on. Ive heard about it from almost every Tunisian here, so it seems worth the effort to see (plus its only 20 km away)

I dont really think words can express the beauty of the saharah. its a desolate area of nothingness. The silence is deafening, and the sun is blazing. I cant wait to be able to post some pics in a few days, it really was stunning.

It turned out that the other people who were supposed to come with us backed out, so it was just me and the guide, Jamil, for the day. Communication was at an all time low, as my french is terrible and broken, as was his english, but we ended up having a good time and sharing some laughs. We headed out on Camel for about 10 km, most of the afternoon, camped out for the night and came back in the morning, so it was a bit shorter than i would have liked, buyt i didnt have the time or money for a longer trip. but even though i was out there for only 1 day, I understood the harshness and beauty that is the Great Desert. I was amazed to see a fair bit of life out there, even a huge flowering plant, which Jamil explained is used for fever "medicine of the saharah" as he put it.

in fact, everything there had a synonym ending with "...of the saharah", camels were the "boats...", these huge insects that whizzed across the sands were the "4x4's ..." etc. We made a fire, cooked some Couscous, and sang until the stars came out. Now, the one thing that really blew me away were the stars, not only were they so numerous, you could actually see EVERY constellation, but they were very very bright. I found myself in a daze just stqring at them. Truly unforgettable.

And it really does hit extremes in the desert, temperatures around 40 C during the day and plummiting to near freezing at night, I had 3 or 4 thick wooly blankets that they provided and found myself still chilly. Of all the places ive seen here, with all the culture of the Roman Ruins, and the arab lifestyle, nothing compares to the saharah. It was worth the entire trip, and I encourage anyone out in this part of the world to see it for yourself, it will not be in vain.

so, all in all, it was unbelieveable. haha, and as a perfect way to contrast a night in the desert, I stayed in, without a doubt, the worst hotel on this planet last night. granted, it was cheap (like 5 bucks), but it had all the markings of a shithole. From the cigarette butts on the floor of the room, to the nonexistent mattress, to the shared toilets with logs of deuce floating in them, to the complete absence of hot water, to the complete lack of windows; it was another "unforgetable" experience. I mean, Ive seen some bad places, and am really not picky when it comes to where i sleep, but this took the cake.

ok, im off to see some more culture, I think I will try to sleep in the airport Tuesday night as my flight leaves early and I do not want to miss it, plus i can save 10 dinars, which means I can splurge on a good dinner the night before!

I will definitely post when i get back to London, and will pick my favourite pictures from my trip, Ive looked through them and I got some good ones. Im out.

Douz, at the edge of the Great Saharah

well, i was lucky enough to find internet here so i owe it to anyone reading to post.

I must say Im falling in love with the desert. ive never seen anything really like it. Tonight Im heading out on camel for a day and night over the Great Sand Dunes. I cant wait, although pictures zill have to wait until I get back to London.

getting here brought me back to my month in China. Me and 30 locals crammed on a bus for 10 hours with no AC. haha, my buddy Alex said it best. When travelling in far off and remote places, life is definitnely hard and everybody has moments of near collapse. The only choice you have is to either laugh the fear and frustration away or just break down crying. I normally choose the former...haha, normally

Im getting used to the climate here (its bloody hot for me) and i even got myself a turban to starve the sun off my head. they work remarkably well and i must say, im a sexy bitch in it.

Im also getting a feel very quickly for saving ALOT of money. Im so far underbudget and would like to keep it that way, England kinda nhurt the wallet and I got a free floor to sleep on! I finally met my first fellow traveller here (all foreigners are tourists, in every sense of the word) a nice German lady from Bavaria. she was all alone which is brave for a woman in a Muslim country, even though Tunisia is definitely the most tolerant Muslim country towards women. In general, the locals are very nice, warm and happy people, although it is clear that real life here is very difficult and trying. Some of the housing is near appalling but they get on and many have constantly told me that they thank God everyday for what they have, which is very uplifting and surprising.

k, gotta run. my camel awaits. my next couple days will be Camel rides and long train rides (its a 10 hour train ride back to Tunis; but for 20 dinars, I cant say no)