Saturday, September 16, 2006
Well, wir sprechen Deutsch nicht, but we've made it here to Deutschland and are having a great time, although we're in the midst of fending off attacks jet-lag. We took 3 different airplanes - Minneapolis to Chicago, Chicago to Stockholm, Stockholm to Hamburg - so Thursday into Friday was a lengthy, crazy day, filled with not near enough sleep, but it was obviously quite worth it since we're now happily across the pond. We'd highly recommend Scandinavian Airlines if you have the chance, it's part of the United network, but unlike United their planes are extremely pimped out. How can a plane be "pimped out" one might ask? Well, each seat has its own retractable TV screen, with over 10 different selectable movie channels, plus the usual music selections, as well as a video game controller built in so that you can play arcade games if you so desire. Since it was an international flight adequate legroom was available of course, and the food was arguably the best airline food we've ever had. Dinner was salmon pasta, with a salad that was actually tasty, and a delicious dessert - a frosting-coated brownie. And dinner was actually served by chefs. All the staff was very nice, and unlimited alcoholic beverages has never hurt anyone - well, it has, but it didn't hurt us...
They even had a documentary channel, which was great accept that it kept Anderson up much later than initially intended.
Even though we only saw the Stockholm airport, we definitely intend to return to Sweden since the country looked absolutely gorgeous, and the residents weren't too hard on the eyes either! We'd highly recommend Thursday travel, as none of the airports were really very busy at all, particularly the Stockholm airport at 8 a.m. local time Friday morning. It's a seven hour time difference between US Central Time and whichever European time zone we are currently in (Greenwich +1 possibly).
We arrived in Hamburg at around 10:30 a.m. and Tom was nicely there to pick us up from the airport, so we didn't have to wander around like the sleep-deprived tourists we were, which was fabulous.
We then drove to Tom's apartment, which is a quite nice, particularly for a self-described bachelor pad :-)
Tom is here in Hamburg doing PhD research at the particle accelerator (through a UW-Madison program), and is into his 3rd year living in Germany, so he is pretty well-informed as well as almost fluent in German. So we've got it real rough!
We had a nice lunch at a nearby cafe, Liz had a tasty panini sandwich with pesto, tomato, and ham, while Anderson had a pasta dish with ham and four types of mushrooms. After suffering through water with gas on one of the airplane rides, we are now being diligent about requesting no gas - who honestly wants to quench their thirst with seltzer water... Europeans evidently!
Things then worked out well, as Tom had to go to work for a weekly video conference, which enabled us to get some much needed sleep in the form of a five-hour post-shower nap. After that recuperation, we were ready to experience some of the Hamburg nightlife, and with Tom's friend/coworker Anna (who's from Spain) joining us, we had an excellent seafood dinner at a La Sepia, a Portuguese restaurant. Anna informed us that the seafood itself (Anderson had salmon, Liz red snapper, Tom crab, and Anna mussels) was authentically Portuguese, while the side-dishes of potatoes and beans and such were very German. Obviously the "grosse pils" was German as well, but all the beer we have had thus far, and all those to come we're sure, are quite good. After our European-paced dinner (in America we'd call it bad service, but here slow service is the culturally-expected norm and a 15% tip is not only not expected, but would almost be inappropriate since the workers receive livable wages) we then headed to a pub near Tom's house, where we met several of his friends, all coworkers at the physics lab as well. One of his friends is actually from Iowa, oddly enough, and she lived in Iowa City about 15 years ago, so that was an unexpected coincidence.
We had some Astra beers, which at 2 euros each (about $2.60) on a Friday night for bottles was a pretty great deal. Given our lengthy days preceding, we kept the night relatively short, but we plan on making up for that this evening.
All in all our journey to Germany went off without a hitch, we are very excited to be here, and very appreciative of Tom's hospitality. We plan on being in Hamburg until mid-week, at which time we will head, most likely by train, to Nijmegen, Holland, where our friend Nicole is studying.
It should be mentioned that our photo website will be suffering for a while, since Anderson accidentally dropped our camera the Tuesday before we left, which means it is currently at Kodak getting fixed, though we will hopefully have it back within a week or two (most likely two since it must get shipped by Anderson's parents to us over here). But life goes on, we've purchased several disposable cameras to tide our photographic side over, and we'll get them developed to photo CDs in order to post them on our website.
Until we post again, Frieden auf Wiedersehen!
They even had a documentary channel, which was great accept that it kept Anderson up much later than initially intended.
Even though we only saw the Stockholm airport, we definitely intend to return to Sweden since the country looked absolutely gorgeous, and the residents weren't too hard on the eyes either! We'd highly recommend Thursday travel, as none of the airports were really very busy at all, particularly the Stockholm airport at 8 a.m. local time Friday morning. It's a seven hour time difference between US Central Time and whichever European time zone we are currently in (Greenwich +1 possibly).
We arrived in Hamburg at around 10:30 a.m. and Tom was nicely there to pick us up from the airport, so we didn't have to wander around like the sleep-deprived tourists we were, which was fabulous.
We then drove to Tom's apartment, which is a quite nice, particularly for a self-described bachelor pad :-)
Tom is here in Hamburg doing PhD research at the particle accelerator (through a UW-Madison program), and is into his 3rd year living in Germany, so he is pretty well-informed as well as almost fluent in German. So we've got it real rough!
We had a nice lunch at a nearby cafe, Liz had a tasty panini sandwich with pesto, tomato, and ham, while Anderson had a pasta dish with ham and four types of mushrooms. After suffering through water with gas on one of the airplane rides, we are now being diligent about requesting no gas - who honestly wants to quench their thirst with seltzer water... Europeans evidently!
Things then worked out well, as Tom had to go to work for a weekly video conference, which enabled us to get some much needed sleep in the form of a five-hour post-shower nap. After that recuperation, we were ready to experience some of the Hamburg nightlife, and with Tom's friend/coworker Anna (who's from Spain) joining us, we had an excellent seafood dinner at a La Sepia, a Portuguese restaurant. Anna informed us that the seafood itself (Anderson had salmon, Liz red snapper, Tom crab, and Anna mussels) was authentically Portuguese, while the side-dishes of potatoes and beans and such were very German. Obviously the "grosse pils" was German as well, but all the beer we have had thus far, and all those to come we're sure, are quite good. After our European-paced dinner (in America we'd call it bad service, but here slow service is the culturally-expected norm and a 15% tip is not only not expected, but would almost be inappropriate since the workers receive livable wages) we then headed to a pub near Tom's house, where we met several of his friends, all coworkers at the physics lab as well. One of his friends is actually from Iowa, oddly enough, and she lived in Iowa City about 15 years ago, so that was an unexpected coincidence.
We had some Astra beers, which at 2 euros each (about $2.60) on a Friday night for bottles was a pretty great deal. Given our lengthy days preceding, we kept the night relatively short, but we plan on making up for that this evening.
All in all our journey to Germany went off without a hitch, we are very excited to be here, and very appreciative of Tom's hospitality. We plan on being in Hamburg until mid-week, at which time we will head, most likely by train, to Nijmegen, Holland, where our friend Nicole is studying.
It should be mentioned that our photo website will be suffering for a while, since Anderson accidentally dropped our camera the Tuesday before we left, which means it is currently at Kodak getting fixed, though we will hopefully have it back within a week or two (most likely two since it must get shipped by Anderson's parents to us over here). But life goes on, we've purchased several disposable cameras to tide our photographic side over, and we'll get them developed to photo CDs in order to post them on our website.
Until we post again, Frieden auf Wiedersehen!
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Sorry about the delay in posting faithful reader, but we've been quite busy getting ready for our trip (imagine that). We have been outside of Rice Lake, Wisconsin, staying with Liz's parents since August 29, with the exception of September 7-10, when we swung down to Iowa for a night (and a Hunab Ku show), and then headed north to attend Harvest Fest at Harmony Park in far southern Minnesota. We have a generally relaxing time up here in Wisconsin, and have done all sorts of fun stuff with Liz's family. We all went camping for Labor Day weekend, at nearby Veteran's Memorial Park, so we were surrounded by energetic nieces and nephews while we weren't going boating/tubing, grilling out, playing football and soccer, going on walks around the campground, and riding Liz's grandfather's new scooter. We recently saw "Beerfest" with Liz's brother Zach, after much anticipation, and although it is no "Super Troopers" it is still an excellent movie. We've enjoyed numerous excellent meals by Liz's mom Jane, including a fun family fish fry the night before we returned to Iowa. All the fish had been caught by Jane & Brad earlier in the season, so it was deliciously tasty. Other culinary highlights have included tater-tot hot dish, spaghetti-and-(huge)-meatballs, slow-cooked BBQ chicken, and other stuff that would make you drool. Yesterday Liz attended a "Ladies Lunch" with around 10 of her female relatives while Anderson suffered from being sexually discriminated against.
We also took Sarah, Isaiah, and Malikhi (our 3 oldest niece & nephews) for one afternoon each in order to spoil them a bit before we leave. Liz took 11-year-old Sarah shopping in Eau Claire, which everyone involved thought Anderson should skip, and he was all too happy to oblige. Isaiah got an afternoon at the skate park, which included some necessary skateboarding equipment (8-year-olds definitely need pads before they ride the half pipe), and we took Malikhi to the bowling alley and Dairy Queen for a 5-year-old's dream day (he wore himself out so much that he fell asleep during the 20-minute ride home).
Anderson also played (and lost at) poker with Zach and his friends during their weekly Sunday night poker game, and tonight we are going to see him play flag football. We've also hung out a lot with his girlfriend, Nikki, and her 2.5-year-old son Logan. Last night we witnessed an intense Logan v. Malikhi battle, which Isaiah was all too happy to help "break up." After the football game and one last family dinner tonight, we'll leave early tomorrow morning to drive to the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, one of four we'll see in the 24 hours or so. We have a quick flight to Chicago, followed by the long trans-Atlantic voyage to Stockholm, Sweden, where we'll pick up a 2nd short flight to fly us to Hamburg, Germany. Fortunately Anderson's old friend Tom will be picking us up at the airport, so at least once we arrive we don't have much to worry about!
Now, here's the details on our Iowa/Minnesota-Hunab Ku/Harvest Fest four-day weekend:
We spent most of Thursday the 7th in the car, although we actually got to Iowa City in just about 6 hours, one of our fastest times ever, since several new bypasses in Wisconsin enabled us to avoid unnecessary stops and traffic. So we ate our last Oasis falafel for a while when we got to town, and then met Luke's roommate Kat's new dog Madison (she's a basset hound) and hung out with him for a bit, before heading over to the Hunab Ku house. After helping them get some promo CDs ready for their show (opening up for The Pnuma Trio), we then caught a ride downtown with our friends Stephanie & Jeremy once the show was about to start. As usual Hunab Ku played really well, and there was a good crowd (well over 100 people) in attendance, mostly for them since when the headliner came on later things had thinned out at least a little bit. It was really nice to see all of our friends one last time, and thanks should go to Luke, Chad, Stephanie, & Mike Stone (and anyone else, if we're forgetting you - it was a pretty crazy evening) for their generosity in the alcoholic beverage department! The Pnuma Trio played well, although their decision to play a short first set was a little unexpected, but they did pick up the intensity for the second set, much to everyone's delight. We got some Pizza Pit pizza (good times indeed - thanks for staying open late for us Tim!), and then hung out at the Hunab Ku house for a few more hours, until the great pass-out competition began (Luke certainly won, though there were many runner-ups...).
The next day departing for Harvest Fest seemed to take forever, as we had various errands to run; somehow getting food, costumes, glow-sticks, alcohol, and one's act together seems to take forever. So rather than leaving in the early afternoon like we'd initially anticipated, it was around 7 by the time we finally got out of Iowa City, which meant is was around 10 before we arrived at Harmony Park.
But the main attraction is Saturday night, when Wookiefoot plays. So we heard Arrested Development (yes, that Arrested Development) from the parking lot, and we managed to get a pretty decent camping site saved for us by our friends Jeremy, Zech, & Courtney who had arrived much earlier in the day, and we ended up just hanging out and chatting at our campsite for the remainder of the night, taking full advantage of the massive air mattress we spoiled ourselves with purchasing earlier in the day. Saturday by comparison was anything but low-key, as we got into our costumes in the early afternoon, in time to go see Fat Maw Rooney, a Wisconsin band we've seen several times before. Anderson dressed as a hobo-clown, Liz as a sexy tigress, Brian as Leonardo (the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle), Scott as a prisoner/robber (or the Hamburgler as he got called later in the night), Luke as an international table tennis player (though he looked more like a Scottish golfer due to his knickers), and Jeremy was a fabulous hippie-zombie. We've been uploading some random videos we have shot onto youtube.com; here is one of mostly Anderson dancing (in costume of course) at the Fat Maw Rooney show.
All the bands that we saw played great, others of note include Unity: The Band, Balkan Beat Box, The All Mighty Senators, and God Johnson. Harvest Fest has a definite family vibe, given that a group of friends of Wookiefoot (primarily the band themselves) puts on the festival, so it's a real chill environment versus many of the larger festivals that we go to (Summer Camp, Wakarusa, & Bonnaroo earlier in the summer, for example). Wookiefoot pride themselves on the sound and lighting, and this year's 3-D blacklight show was pretty amazing. Somewhat a "had-to-be-there-to-believe-it" experience, but fortunately there will be one next year, so you've got a little while to get yourself organized. If you do go, wear a costume, you won't regret it! We did somewhat regret signing up for cleanup on Sunday (in exchange for free admission), not because the trash removal was hard (we've done it previously), but because the sun did not appear all day, only a constant drizzle that sometimes turned into rain. So Sunday was a dreary day, but most people there that we knew were volunteering, so we still had a fun time cruising around with a local guy named Jake whose truck and trailer we were filling with trash. After a long day of hauling sweet-smelling hippie trash, we said goodbye to all our friends (Luke & Scott in particular - we're going to miss you guys so much!), and then had a last meal with Brian at some place called The Green Mill in Albert Lea, MN, that was really good, though we were so exhausted even menu reading was somewhat taxing. That was an appropriate closure for our time in Iowa, since Brian was Anderson's randomly assigned freshman roommate at Cornell, and somehow they don't hate each other!
After a 3-hour drive back to Liz's parents' house, a bed never felt so good - the post-festival sleep is something well worth festival-ing to experience!
So now we're at the Rice Lake Public Library, taking advantage of their Wi-Fi, and we're awaiting food from Liz's former employer, Kids Korner Pizza, which will hopefully silent our grumbling stomachs.
Next time you hear from us, we'll be in Europe! We love you all and cannot wait until our paths cross again!
We also took Sarah, Isaiah, and Malikhi (our 3 oldest niece & nephews) for one afternoon each in order to spoil them a bit before we leave. Liz took 11-year-old Sarah shopping in Eau Claire, which everyone involved thought Anderson should skip, and he was all too happy to oblige. Isaiah got an afternoon at the skate park, which included some necessary skateboarding equipment (8-year-olds definitely need pads before they ride the half pipe), and we took Malikhi to the bowling alley and Dairy Queen for a 5-year-old's dream day (he wore himself out so much that he fell asleep during the 20-minute ride home).
Anderson also played (and lost at) poker with Zach and his friends during their weekly Sunday night poker game, and tonight we are going to see him play flag football. We've also hung out a lot with his girlfriend, Nikki, and her 2.5-year-old son Logan. Last night we witnessed an intense Logan v. Malikhi battle, which Isaiah was all too happy to help "break up." After the football game and one last family dinner tonight, we'll leave early tomorrow morning to drive to the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, one of four we'll see in the 24 hours or so. We have a quick flight to Chicago, followed by the long trans-Atlantic voyage to Stockholm, Sweden, where we'll pick up a 2nd short flight to fly us to Hamburg, Germany. Fortunately Anderson's old friend Tom will be picking us up at the airport, so at least once we arrive we don't have much to worry about!
Now, here's the details on our Iowa/Minnesota-Hunab Ku/Harvest Fest four-day weekend:
We spent most of Thursday the 7th in the car, although we actually got to Iowa City in just about 6 hours, one of our fastest times ever, since several new bypasses in Wisconsin enabled us to avoid unnecessary stops and traffic. So we ate our last Oasis falafel for a while when we got to town, and then met Luke's roommate Kat's new dog Madison (she's a basset hound) and hung out with him for a bit, before heading over to the Hunab Ku house. After helping them get some promo CDs ready for their show (opening up for The Pnuma Trio), we then caught a ride downtown with our friends Stephanie & Jeremy once the show was about to start. As usual Hunab Ku played really well, and there was a good crowd (well over 100 people) in attendance, mostly for them since when the headliner came on later things had thinned out at least a little bit. It was really nice to see all of our friends one last time, and thanks should go to Luke, Chad, Stephanie, & Mike Stone (and anyone else, if we're forgetting you - it was a pretty crazy evening) for their generosity in the alcoholic beverage department! The Pnuma Trio played well, although their decision to play a short first set was a little unexpected, but they did pick up the intensity for the second set, much to everyone's delight. We got some Pizza Pit pizza (good times indeed - thanks for staying open late for us Tim!), and then hung out at the Hunab Ku house for a few more hours, until the great pass-out competition began (Luke certainly won, though there were many runner-ups...).
The next day departing for Harvest Fest seemed to take forever, as we had various errands to run; somehow getting food, costumes, glow-sticks, alcohol, and one's act together seems to take forever. So rather than leaving in the early afternoon like we'd initially anticipated, it was around 7 by the time we finally got out of Iowa City, which meant is was around 10 before we arrived at Harmony Park.
But the main attraction is Saturday night, when Wookiefoot plays. So we heard Arrested Development (yes, that Arrested Development) from the parking lot, and we managed to get a pretty decent camping site saved for us by our friends Jeremy, Zech, & Courtney who had arrived much earlier in the day, and we ended up just hanging out and chatting at our campsite for the remainder of the night, taking full advantage of the massive air mattress we spoiled ourselves with purchasing earlier in the day. Saturday by comparison was anything but low-key, as we got into our costumes in the early afternoon, in time to go see Fat Maw Rooney, a Wisconsin band we've seen several times before. Anderson dressed as a hobo-clown, Liz as a sexy tigress, Brian as Leonardo (the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle), Scott as a prisoner/robber (or the Hamburgler as he got called later in the night), Luke as an international table tennis player (though he looked more like a Scottish golfer due to his knickers), and Jeremy was a fabulous hippie-zombie. We've been uploading some random videos we have shot onto youtube.com; here is one of mostly Anderson dancing (in costume of course) at the Fat Maw Rooney show.
All the bands that we saw played great, others of note include Unity: The Band, Balkan Beat Box, The All Mighty Senators, and God Johnson. Harvest Fest has a definite family vibe, given that a group of friends of Wookiefoot (primarily the band themselves) puts on the festival, so it's a real chill environment versus many of the larger festivals that we go to (Summer Camp, Wakarusa, & Bonnaroo earlier in the summer, for example). Wookiefoot pride themselves on the sound and lighting, and this year's 3-D blacklight show was pretty amazing. Somewhat a "had-to-be-there-to-believe-it" experience, but fortunately there will be one next year, so you've got a little while to get yourself organized. If you do go, wear a costume, you won't regret it! We did somewhat regret signing up for cleanup on Sunday (in exchange for free admission), not because the trash removal was hard (we've done it previously), but because the sun did not appear all day, only a constant drizzle that sometimes turned into rain. So Sunday was a dreary day, but most people there that we knew were volunteering, so we still had a fun time cruising around with a local guy named Jake whose truck and trailer we were filling with trash. After a long day of hauling sweet-smelling hippie trash, we said goodbye to all our friends (Luke & Scott in particular - we're going to miss you guys so much!), and then had a last meal with Brian at some place called The Green Mill in Albert Lea, MN, that was really good, though we were so exhausted even menu reading was somewhat taxing. That was an appropriate closure for our time in Iowa, since Brian was Anderson's randomly assigned freshman roommate at Cornell, and somehow they don't hate each other!
After a 3-hour drive back to Liz's parents' house, a bed never felt so good - the post-festival sleep is something well worth festival-ing to experience!
So now we're at the Rice Lake Public Library, taking advantage of their Wi-Fi, and we're awaiting food from Liz's former employer, Kids Korner Pizza, which will hopefully silent our grumbling stomachs.
Next time you hear from us, we'll be in Europe! We love you all and cannot wait until our paths cross again!
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