Berlin Trip Part III
Saturday was a full day of sightseeing with Boon and Yanlei. We started with a quick breakfast of pastries and headed to the S-Bahn.
Our first stop was the remains of the Berlin Wall. The only part remaining was the outer wall on the East side. The wall was beautifully painted with images of love, peace, friendship, and happiness. Looking around the area it was hard to tell that this was a wall dividing a city.
Following that we headed into the middle of city for some shopping. We went to Kurfürstendamm for some souvenir shopping. Following that we visited a number of tourist locations, including Siegessäule, the Reichstag, Brandenburger Tor, Pariser Platz, and Museumsinsel.
Our final stop for the evening was the Fernsehturm (a.k.a the TV Tower). For a few Euros you can ride up an elevator up to the viewing platform 203 meters high. The tower is the tallest building the Berlin and gives a wonderful view the city. You can see the different style of buildings on the East and West sides of the city, although its hard to see where the wall was. Berlin has a lot of active construction especially where the wall was, and there is an obvious effort to make the transition seemless.
Finally, it was time to find dinner. We searched all around for some food, but every corner turned up nothing. I really wanted an authentic German meal, as everything I've had to this point was nothing I couldn't get back in the US. However as we continued to search we got tired. We found one place that looked promising. They said the wait would be thirty minutes. We were not going to make it, so we went to the other side of the complex and had McDonalds. Yeah, McDonalds in Germany. I can try to give this a good spin, but there is none.
We went back to the hotel and called it an evening. Earlier in the week the other fellas, Boon and Sailesh had both had ‘incidents' while using the shower. The first night Sailesh grabbed the shower curtain, and found out it was not bolted to the wall, it was only supported by two suction cups. Luckily in the fall he didn't injury himself, but with no shower curtain, the bathroom quickly flooded. A small pond formed outside the door to the bathroom. At first he didn't see this as a big problem. A day later when Boon and I arrived, it began to smell, but was finally drying up. Boon just about had issues with the shower every evening. The first evening it was an ocean outside the bathroom, by the end of the week it was just a small river. I have no idea what he did (or didn't do) but it was getting very annoying and smelly. I was afraid we were going to be billed for it, so Boon used the hair drying to dry up the carpet the night before. Of course on the last evening both Boon and Yanlei had ‘issues'. There was no time to clean it up, and I just gave up caring. I was tired and wanted to return home.
The flights home started rather peacefully. Our flight from Berlin to Frankfurt was delayed on the ground for about an hour due to security reasons. They were unable to elaborate on what those reason where. I was starting to get a little worried about catching the second plane, but the flight was quick and we landed with a full forty minutes to switch. However, after we got off the plan we realized it was not going to be a simple as that. We had to run to the gate, but before that pass through passport control, security again, and finally to our gate. When we arrived they were finished boarding but had not yet closed the door. We got the last seats on the plane. At first I was glad to have a seat at all, but I was surrounded by two men who snored. Alas, I was able to get some reading done and watch a couple of movies during the flight.
After eleven hours we landed at SFO. Home at last! Of course something had to go wrong. All of luggage didn't make it. In fact everyone who had come from Berlin didn't get their luggage. Boon was lucky and got his the next morning. Yanlei got hers the next day, and finally three days after landing I got mine. One thing that I was rather concerned about was I went through customs without a single person asking to see what was in my backpack. I could have smuggled anything (maybe even a cute German) and no one would have known.
Well, that was my trip to Germany and my first time leaving the US. Pictures will be posted later. To sum it up, before my talk nothing happened because I was too worried, my talk went well, and a day or so of sightseeing was great. Tentatively my next international adventure will be next June when I will probably going to Paris for SIGMOD to present a demo of my stuff.
Our first stop was the remains of the Berlin Wall. The only part remaining was the outer wall on the East side. The wall was beautifully painted with images of love, peace, friendship, and happiness. Looking around the area it was hard to tell that this was a wall dividing a city.
Following that we headed into the middle of city for some shopping. We went to Kurfürstendamm for some souvenir shopping. Following that we visited a number of tourist locations, including Siegessäule, the Reichstag, Brandenburger Tor, Pariser Platz, and Museumsinsel.
Our final stop for the evening was the Fernsehturm (a.k.a the TV Tower). For a few Euros you can ride up an elevator up to the viewing platform 203 meters high. The tower is the tallest building the Berlin and gives a wonderful view the city. You can see the different style of buildings on the East and West sides of the city, although its hard to see where the wall was. Berlin has a lot of active construction especially where the wall was, and there is an obvious effort to make the transition seemless.
Finally, it was time to find dinner. We searched all around for some food, but every corner turned up nothing. I really wanted an authentic German meal, as everything I've had to this point was nothing I couldn't get back in the US. However as we continued to search we got tired. We found one place that looked promising. They said the wait would be thirty minutes. We were not going to make it, so we went to the other side of the complex and had McDonalds. Yeah, McDonalds in Germany. I can try to give this a good spin, but there is none.
We went back to the hotel and called it an evening. Earlier in the week the other fellas, Boon and Sailesh had both had ‘incidents' while using the shower. The first night Sailesh grabbed the shower curtain, and found out it was not bolted to the wall, it was only supported by two suction cups. Luckily in the fall he didn't injury himself, but with no shower curtain, the bathroom quickly flooded. A small pond formed outside the door to the bathroom. At first he didn't see this as a big problem. A day later when Boon and I arrived, it began to smell, but was finally drying up. Boon just about had issues with the shower every evening. The first evening it was an ocean outside the bathroom, by the end of the week it was just a small river. I have no idea what he did (or didn't do) but it was getting very annoying and smelly. I was afraid we were going to be billed for it, so Boon used the hair drying to dry up the carpet the night before. Of course on the last evening both Boon and Yanlei had ‘issues'. There was no time to clean it up, and I just gave up caring. I was tired and wanted to return home.
The flights home started rather peacefully. Our flight from Berlin to Frankfurt was delayed on the ground for about an hour due to security reasons. They were unable to elaborate on what those reason where. I was starting to get a little worried about catching the second plane, but the flight was quick and we landed with a full forty minutes to switch. However, after we got off the plan we realized it was not going to be a simple as that. We had to run to the gate, but before that pass through passport control, security again, and finally to our gate. When we arrived they were finished boarding but had not yet closed the door. We got the last seats on the plane. At first I was glad to have a seat at all, but I was surrounded by two men who snored. Alas, I was able to get some reading done and watch a couple of movies during the flight.
After eleven hours we landed at SFO. Home at last! Of course something had to go wrong. All of luggage didn't make it. In fact everyone who had come from Berlin didn't get their luggage. Boon was lucky and got his the next morning. Yanlei got hers the next day, and finally three days after landing I got mine. One thing that I was rather concerned about was I went through customs without a single person asking to see what was in my backpack. I could have smuggled anything (maybe even a cute German) and no one would have known.
Well, that was my trip to Germany and my first time leaving the US. Pictures will be posted later. To sum it up, before my talk nothing happened because I was too worried, my talk went well, and a day or so of sightseeing was great. Tentatively my next international adventure will be next June when I will probably going to Paris for SIGMOD to present a demo of my stuff.