Another adventure begins!

So looking at the calendar it has been about 11 months since my last post, and I am sure all you avid readers are so sad at the lack of updates. Well fear not! For Mariko and I have begun yet another adventure into the unknown. And a new blog will be created for the occasion. Stay tuned for more news....

Sand in your pants

Coming to Europe I had one major country that I wanted to visited more than any other, one country that I had wanted to visit since I was a child, that was Italy. It was originally the country that I planned for us to visit first... but timing and seasons were not on board with my plans. But never fear for we have experienced the majesty that is the beaches of Italy.

Isn't there supposed to be a Sea here?

One thing I've enjoyed about Germany is that long weekends that occassionaly pop up for Mariko... though she doesn't usually know about them until a week or so before hand. On once such occassion we decided that it would be fun to go visit the North Sea as we haven't had a chance to go yet.

We booked ourselves in the town of Wilhelmhaven, one of the larger ports on the North Sea.... and what we later found out probably the ugliest of them all (one of Mariko's lab mates is from that area). However we still enjoyed ourselves during the visit.

3 asians and a white guy

The Brandenburger Tor

Late in the month of April, Mariko's dad and sister were able to fly out and spend some time with us.  Of course as it was also their first time in Europe we wanted to show them as much as we could during that time. They were only going to be here for 10 days and travel restrictions were slightly limited, so we spent all of our time in Germany.

Czech it off!

Prague by night

Our next destination was Prague, capital of the Czech Republic and home to some extraordinary sites. From Berlin we took a short 4 1/2 hr train ride to Prague, and was incidentally the only time while traveling in Europe that I've needed to show our passports crossing the border. You can tell that the train staff that headed this direction didn't use English as often as some of the other routes through Germany. One noticeable (which happens to still make us laugh) is when the conductor announce a long string of German over the intercom and then when switching to English was much shorter and only gave basic information.... the best part being "And the dining car is no."

Ich bin ein Berliner... wait wha?

The trip to California was finished and I was back in Germany... good ol' Deutschland! But of course there is no rest for the weary. Only 4 short days after getting back home and we were headed off to Berlin once more. This time it was for an official Fulbright event. They were celebrating the 60th birthday of the Fulbright organization and we were all invited! And they were paying for everything too!!

Return to the land of free refills

Whew! That last post was much more serious than i usually do, but it needed to be done. Luckily the rest of my trip to California was more uplifting than the first few days. I was able to get some much needed time with my younger sisters and my dad.  During the days the girls had school so my older sister, my dad and I had some time to hang out and relax (he was off for nearly my entire visit).

My dad's neighbor has a fire truck... just because he can

3 Cities- 1 Day

Dec 31st is more commonly referred to as New Years Eve, the last day of the old year where friends and family celebrate and bring in the new. For Mariko and I its usually more of a night of relaxing and one of the few times that we go to bed before midnight.... not sure why, we just usually do. This year was different for us. We had just finished our Christmas trip to Sweden plus the extension to Baden-Baden and we we now on our way to bring in the new year with some of our Fulbright friends.

Bathing-Bathing

Baden-Baden, a small German town located in the western foothills of the Black forest just 13 mins from the French border. It is renowned for its spas and thermal springs.... and it was the next stop on Mariko and my Christmas (now more of a Holiday) Vacation.

Headed home..... maybe?

After a wonderful Christmas weekend, Mariko and I were headed back to Germany. We were dropped off in Kittilä, Finland (where we flew into) by the lodge from Sweden. We were staying overnight and flying out the next day, mainly due to price.... flights didn't go out often from Kittilä and were cheaper near the middle of the week.

Sadly there was not much to do in Kittilä, it actually reminded me of those towns out in the Midwest that mainly exist for gas stations and food for people traveling through.... one blink and its gone. We had a leisurely meal in one of the only restaurants we saw. Luckily it was pizza, which is generally easy to understand what is what. Though the Finnish must love pineapple, because out of there 25 flavors of pizza at least 5 of them had pineapple on it.

Christmas sledding

Finally it was Christmas Day!! The big day for children across the world... well those that celebrate Christmas.... and those that don't celebrate it on Christmas Eve...ehem. Any ways it was a big day for us. I was certainly looking forward to activities for the day, almost as much as I had been looking forward to seeing the Northern Lights. Because on Christmas we were going dog sledding!! Surprsingly enough I've heard some bizarre comments about how people are surprised that I would want to go and they can't imagine me doing it... well to that I say "Pbbbbbbbttttt"! <- insert preferred Raspberry sound here.

Christmas Eve with Aurora

Ice Lanterns for Christmas Eve

So with a small view of the Northern Lights from the previous day, Mariko and I awoke full of energy and vigor...... well maybe not that enthusiastic as it was still early, but we were certainly enjoying ourselves. Once again the morning started with breakfast and talking, but things were starting to quicken as it was Christmas Eve! For those of you who are not aware, Christmas Eve is when the Swedish celebrate Santa's arrival.... not Christmas morning.

The "Hunt" begins!

Our first full day (second actual day) in Junosuando (Juno to the locals) started relatively early for Mariko and I.... breakfast was at 8am every day. And of course we went downstairs and were awake (mostly) and ready for breakfast......only to find out that it was only 7am (our phones were still set for Finnish time). The hour went by quickly, as we were checking out the event board and the town map. The other guests started coming down and soon breakfast was served and finished.

Sven Puts the Hammer Down

Mariko here! It's been a while, I know. As promised, the details of our trip from Kittilä to Junosuando...

From Redlight to restful

Frankfurt.... oh Frankfurt, such an international city. Mariko had only visited briefly during one of our tours with the language course, but seeing as we were flying out for our Christmas vacation we were happy to get to see some different aspects of the city. And let me tell you we definitely saw aspects that they don't show you on city tours. Having booked a hostel near the train station (we needed an early start the next day) we knew that it was going to be a louder neighbor.

Germany in a week!

Fun Berlin Graffiti

As most of you know my dad was able to visit Mariko and I while we are here in Germany. And since it was his first visit to Europe he wanted to see as much as possible. Sadly our trips were all situated in Germany, as we only had one week and were coming and going from Braunschweig. But of course there is plenty to see in Germany, so I had planned as much as I could for him.... this is how our week went:

Gut gemacht!

Being as we are in Europe for sometime both Mariko and I wanted to make sure that we are able to visit and experience as much as possible. A group of Fulbrighters had planned to go to Heidelberg for one of the days (Friday) in our long weekend, so naturally we jumped at the chance to join them. I have been to Heidelberg before, during one of my prior trips to Germany.... many, many years ago.

There was 10 of us in the group, which meant that we could get two Schöneswochende tickets and split them for cheapest price!! We left Marburg around 9:30 and had a layover in Frankfurt (all roads lead to Frankfurt!). The nice thing about changing trains, is that you get to stretch your legs and get some food instead of having to be on the train for the entire time. We arrived in Heidelberg around noon-ish and visited the tourist info booth to get all the info we might need.

GamesCom 2011

Being in Germany is a cool enough experience in its own right, but being in Germany during GamesCom (the biggest gaming convention in Europe) makes it so much more epic. I was super excited to hear that we would be able to make it there, and doubly so that Mariko was going to put up with me for that long! There really aren't many gamers in the Fulbright group here with us, but we had one other person join us for our excursion!

We opted to use the Schönswochende (Happy weekend) ticket, which is an awesome deal if you have plenty of time to get where you are going. Our train from Marburg left at 7:26 and we were right on time! The next stop, Gießen, we had about an hour to wait for our next connection. So we decided to grab some breakfast. We grabbed some food from the only place open at that time, a small bakery, but before I could start eating my pretzel we saw McDonalds open up. Now I'm not one to usually crave McD's, but the I suddenly really wanted some. Fun little fact about train station McD's in Germany.... no breakfast menu. So at 9 in the morning I had a Double Cheeseburger for breakfast!! And it tasted amazing!

It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door.

So it has begun.... this dangerous business of going out your door! It has been a number of days since we arrived in Deutschland, however we have been without internet for most of it. But now that we have some internet occasionally, I figured that I can try to make some posts. I hope that I can remember everything, or at least as much as possible, that happened to us. And don't worry, the past week won't all be in one post!

Morning over Great Britain

So Mariko and I flew out of Denver International Airport at 10:30 on Saturday Aug 6th. It was rather fun checking all our luggage in at that time. We had 3 large rolling suitcases, a medium rolling suitcase, two backpacks, a small duffel and one purse! Yeah WAAAAYYYY too much. And it gets better! When we attempted to check in, we discovered that our large rolling suitcases were all overweight by 10 lbs. We were able to purchase another small duffel and shift around some luggage so that only one suitcase was overweight.  Getting onto the plane was rather easy after that, security went smooth and plenty of time to get to the gate. Our seats on both flights were on the side, and luckily there were only two seats near the window and we got both of them... I was nice enough to let her have the window. Our second leg of the journey left from Dallas/Ft Worth, and was much simpler than our first part.  The nine hour flight across the Atlantic was fairly standard.... some sleep, some eating, some reading and then some more sleeping.