Rolling east from NL into Germany my very first impression is that on the NL side the plants around the railroad tracks are neatly manicured, while in Germany they grow wild. By Hannover the skies are clear and blue, framing the tall modern windmillls which have replaced the smaller wood and stone Dutch icons. This is my 3rd time in Berlin, and I've got a reasonable sense of how the trains work, and how to reach my destination --
Comebackpackers in Kottibusser Tor. The neighborhood is ethnic, open late, full of cheap
döner kebab shops, bars and clubs. Turkish, German, and English are only the most common tongues I hear from passersby, many of whom are riding bicycles on the sidewalks causing me to occasionally jump a bit as they swerve past me. So Bike lanes become the first thing I miss from NL. Over a fence I see a lively bar with someone twirling fire, and another bar appears to be a white schoolbus hopeless mired at the bottom of a deep ditch. The streets are dimly lit, lined with trees, greenspaces, and people. All night long they'll linger at tables outside restaurants finishing one more beer, one more smoke, and one more joke.
I'm sharing my room with
Jeroen De Dauw, and
Samuel Lampa. They're also here to attend the
Semantic MediaWiki conference. Jeroen in particular is just 20, with nearly that many popular Mediawiki extesions to his name, while Samuel is a student under Egon Willighagen a prolific
science blogger. The conference was enjoyable, if perhaps a bit less crowded than I might have hoped for. Each day of the conference ends at a restaurant, and then smaller groups wander off to the bars of the choice. My favorites were a large
punk bar named after '
The Clash' which was new to me, and
c-base the bar/clubhouse/garage which I'd previously visited after a Chaos Computer Congress over xmas 2 years ago. Even 2 years later, that first visit to Berlin and c-base standout as one of the great memories of my life. This trip was nice, but cannot hope to compare. More work than pleasure, it's merely the familiar front porch as I leave home. The adventure is just beyond.
To get to the other side. Why did the neutrino cross the road
? Click to view