Techies Roving Internationally

Le Tour de France…and “de Europe” for that matter!!! July 26, 2011

Hello hello,

Seems like just yesterday I was in Barcelona, eating tapas and speaking Spanish. But no, that was actually a week ago – how time flies when you’re nearing the end of a long journey, I’m convinced!

This past weekend (a 2-day) was my last official travel weekend, and I went with a group of friends to watch the very last stage of the Tour de France – an experience that involved little sleep, a lot of pushing and shoving, some arguing, and quite a bit of excitement…in other words, a helluva time!!

We arrived to Paris on Saturday morning and knowing the metro system like the back of our hands, proceeded directly to Le Musee d’ Orsay where we saw some amazing artwork; unfortunately, cameras weren’t allowed So you’ll have to take my word for it!

After we were done with the museum, we went and picked up some lunch (one of my last baguette sandwiches in Paris) and then proceeded to go on a mad shopping spree, well sorta, because we spent like most of the time trying to find this Puma store on the Champs-Elysees, and since that one street is like forever-miles long it took a while, but we eventually found it!! We also took the time to scout out that same street for good viewing spots for Sunday for when the cyclists would come into Paris, and we actually ended up standing in a place that we didn’t even see on Saturday, but that was a good thing. I was insistent that we go to Mass at Notre Dame, so we did at 6:30 and then enjoyed a wonderful dinner at a small restaurant shortly afterward and then finally met up with the rest of the group at the hostel to get some good rest in preparation for Sunday.

Speaking of a good night’s sleep, it so happened that my room slept through our alarm and sure enough the other room didn’t, so I got ready in all of 3 minutes and was promptly out the door on Sunday morning at about 5:55 AM – yes, a beautiful time to be awake, indeed! Here’s what happens when I’m sleep deprived:

What I do at 5:55 AM on the Paris metro!

Once we made it to the Champs, we went straight for breakfast, and let me tell you, someone was hungry!! See for yourself:

He likes Egg McMuffins

As we walked in the wee hours of the morning, we found many shops with Tour stuff, it was like super-uber cool:

They sold a 20 euro package of goods!

The winner, the sprinter, the climber, and the spirit of youth!

And I was able to take great pictures of actual Paris monuments and the Champs itself before the inception of the last stage; take a look:

Yeah, I'm excited

Before the race = not crowded

And finally, after almost 10 hours of waiting…we saw a square car, like no joke:

One of the cars at the parade before the race - pretty boxy!

Haha, okay, so maybe we saw some AWESOME cyclists as well – and they were going super-duper fast!!! Imagine them in motion:

They're so close!!

And the rest of them!

And finally, the guy in first place on the last lap – a pretty impressive feat if you ask me! Just look at him:

And he was in first place on the last lap!!!

And thus, our travels in Europe ended on a “winning” note and I can truly say that it has felt like a “Tour de Europe” if I may say so myself, and you know, I think I might have won the race!!!

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom…”

Au revoir amigos – until the next time,

Andy

Sweden FTW July 1, 2011

Hey guys,

So if I remember correctly, the last time we met, I  had just come back from Munich convinced that the Bavarians had it right – well, that’s until I arrived to Sweden!

I chose to go to Sweden for my one and only 5-day weekend (yes, I know, can you even call that a weekend?) since my cousin just married a Swedish guy two years ago and they live in Gothenburg, the second largest city after Stockholm. Thus, not only did I have a free hostel, but I had very welcoming hosts, which kind of reminded me of home as well – so that was good.

I arrived very late on Thursday night and went straight to sleep, and didn’t wake up until about noon on Friday, not because I was being lazy, but because I was preparing for the party that was to come – Midsummer Festival!!! Turns out that the official day for Midsummer was on Tuesday, June 21st, but since no one likes to party on Tuesday, they moved the national holiday to Friday, just in time for me to arrive. We went to one of their friend’s house around 1 PM and didn’t stop eating food until about 11 PM – a VERY good thing, indeed! I was not only able to connect with the wife of the household (she was from South Carolina and her father graduated from Georgia Tech), but I was also able to taste the many unique dishes Sweden has to offer. In a nutshell, we had a lot of fish for lunch, went for a walk afterward (which apparently is typical for Midsummer), and had a lot of meat for dinner. My conclusion? Yes, the Swedish have got it right when it comes to national holidays and the celebrations that go along with them.

On Saturday I ventured out into the city of Gothenburg with my cousin and her husband, Per, and walked around for what seemed like 6 hours. We got to see a little bit of everything, including moose!!! Check it out:

Gotta shave!

And here’s one of the three of us with the city in the background:

One big, happy, family

On Sunday my new parents took me to an island located about an hour away from Gothenburg and we had a wonderful picnic on the rocks with some incredible views. Check it out:

Scenic.

And of course you can’t go to Sweden and NOT go to an IKEA, thus, we ended the day eating cinnamon rolls at the IKEA cafeteria:

Cinnamon rolls, mmmmmm!!!

For my final full day, I took a day trip to Stockholm and basically toured the city via a “hop on and off” tour, and met up with a friend of mine in the afternoon to learn about the city from a true local. The city itself is beautiful, and the Royal Palace was very impressive. Here are some pictures:

My new house!

He was quite friendly.

I returned to Metz on Tuesday, and thus my excursion and experience in Sweden was over, but my memories of that fun-loving country will never leave me. I’ll probably return in the future if I have a chance!

As for now, I must prepare for my departure to Mont Blanc for my next 2-day weekend…stay posted for new updates.

May your days be filled with “Midsummer joy”,

Andy

Munich – “Where they put out fires with beer…or at least try to.” June 14, 2011

Hallo!

So yes, this past weekend (a 3-day) I visited the wonderful city of Munich, Germany and had a good amount of fun, as well as other things

I am fortunate enough to have relatives that live in Munich, so the group was able to save some euros on the housing, which was pretty cool, and which definitely allowed us to splurge in some other areas. We took an overnight CNL train to Munich, and it seemed that all of GTL was in the couchette car – I think we might have been kind of loud, oops! We arrived early into the main train station, otherwise known as the “Hauptbahnhof”, and made our way to Solln, where my uncle lives, to drop off our stuff.

Our home.

Having left our belongings in a safe and known location, we had breakfast at a typical German bakery in Solln and then took a subway train to BMW Welt and BMW Museum – in other words, BMW Heaven We did the BMW Museum first, which basically showed the progression of the brand and the cars from the creation of BMW up to the present, and then we did the BMW Welt, which was more of an interactive, technology-informative, display of new cars and quite frankly a BMW Heaven for car enthusiasts! We took a tour of the place, and the guide even took us underground to see where they deliver the BMWs for pick-up…it was pretty cool.

That's a tiny BMW!

Having seen many beautiful cars and bikes, I proceeded to find a church in Munich to go to Mass and ended up at St. Peter’s Church, the most famous and the oldest in Munich. Shortly after Mass ended, I met up with my group to enjoy a savory dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (across from Hofbrahaus) and we had a delicious, over-priced, American burger…so worth it!

Because we're real good tourists

On Sunday we went on a bike tour with Mike’s Bike Tours, and not only did we ride around Munich on bikes (almost running over a few innocent souls in the process) but we also learned a lot of interesting information about the history of the city, like for example: there once was a fire that took hold of one of the government buildings, and when the German-engineered sprinkler system failed the next best idea was to try to douse the fire with beer; perfectly sensible, right? Well, the way this idea was implemented was by passing buckets filled with beer from the nearby Hofbrauhaus to the burning building, but on the way some of the beer mysteriously evaporated, so lo and behold, the building burned down – but not to worry, because the head honcho called it good and even and simply rebuilt the entire building, and no one was to blame. That’s how they do it in Munich!

Our awesome tour guide: Rob

After the bike tour we went to Allianz Arena, one of the world’s top soccer stadiums where the FIFA World Cup was held in 2006. Afterward, we met up with some other GTLers for dinner and this time had legitimate German food:

Eating legit schnitzel.

On Monday (day 3) we ended the trip in a more serious fashion by visiting the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, which was both impressive and a cause for reflection – never forget the lives that were lost in WWII! But on a happier note, day 3:

Ready for action!

And thus, our Munich trip ended and we successfully made it back home Hope you had fun reading about my Munich adventures – come back in a few weeks time and read about my trip to Sweden, because it’s going to be as epic as IKEA itself!

Lebewohl amigos,

Andy