Barcelona

I'm finally home, but I'm still two weeks behind on these posts!

I got to Barcelona on Thursday after my flight. I stowed my luggage in the train station. I tried to buy my train tickets for the trip to Madrid the following day, but there was too much of a line. I left for the hostel intending to return to purchase tickets on Friday.

After checking in, I headed towards the southern part of the city, between the old town and the coast. I got off and wandered towards the beach. I've never seen a more crowded beach. There were way too many people there.



I continued walking and made it to their Arc de Triomf. There were also lots of people here doing tricks while bicycling, skateboarding, or rollerblading.



I walked around the old town more and then took a long walk back to the hostel.

I was hoping to meet up with my friend the next morning. She was supposed to call me but it never came in. I was thinking my phone had quit working. It turns out she lost my phone number and couldn't get it back. I still had fun going around alone.

I first headed to the train station to stow my luggage and secure tickets to Madrid. The station was once again packed in the morning. I waited in line for the same-day-departures, to find out there was only one ticket left in business for the overnight train to Madrid. I would be paying more and only getting a seat. I decided a bus would be better, so I headed out for the bus office. I waited in line for the national departures, to have the sales person tell me to goto the next building. There wasn't a next building, so I went back and stood in line for the international bus departures, but he said I had to buy it from the other line. Finally I waited once more and got my bus ticket to Madrid. This was all a bit frustrating.

I headed back to the train station to wait in line for the future-departures to go ahead and secure a train ticket from Madrid to Lisbon. I didn't want to be stuck for this trip. The guy didn't speak much English, so I wasn't sure exactly what I was getting (I asked for a bed in the overnight train. It ends up just being a seat, but more on that on the next post).

With all of my travel arrangements made, I headed back out to wander the city.

I walked up and down La Rambla. The famous tree lined streets full of street performers and shops. Lots of people just dress up and sit there. They get money from donations and people taking photos with them. I didn't see this statue, but I wish I would have: http://urbanprankster.com/2008/07/the-golden-ass/




An open air market that I really enjoyed walking around:


I rented a bicycle and went around the city. I went around and tried to get a view of some of the Catalan architecture designed by Antoni Gaudí.



Saint Paul's Hospital:



It ended up being a long and terribly uphill journey to the Güell Park overlooking the city.



And Gaudi's masterpiece: Sagrada Familia. It's still under construction. I didn't realize when I went in I'd mostly be seeing a construction area. It's still pretty though.


Finally I headed out to the bus terminal to catch my overnight bus to Madrid.

The bus ride in itself was okay. I can sleep anywhere, though it's not as restful sitting up. I was asleep right away. However, sometime around 2AM, we stopped at a gas station. The driver made everyone get off the bus for about 20-30 minutes while I guess he fueled the bus. I was really tired and afraid I'd fall asleep at the gas station and get left. This made the trip terrible, and I was a bit exhausted when I arrived in Madrid.

Overall I really liked Barcelona. It's a very pretty city. Though I kind of think there are too many people and tourists there. I still enjoyed it.

All pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/Barcelona

End of the Research

After Cologne, I had two days to finish all of my research and turn in my paper. It was a lot of work and I stayed very busy for those two days, but I finished the paper. It was not as long or full as I had hoped, but I finished.

Wednesday night was my last night in Belgium. So like every Wednesday night, I went rock climbing! I never ended up taking pictures of the rock climbing gym, but it was very nice, and I really enjoyed my time spent there.

I got back to my apartment that night to have a small going away party with my apartment-mates (Javier and Marc), Kan, Emanuel, and Vagelis. It was a lot of fun to hang out one last time. I wish we could have spent more time after work hanging out like that.

I stayed up super late packing and organizing and woke up in the morning. My landlord kindly drove me to the airport and I was off! To Barcelona! (and home...)

Cologne

I'm having a wonderful end of my summer. There are so many things I want to write about. I want to do them all justice, and time is not my friend right now, so you'll just have to wait. (I'm currently in Madrid, about to head to the train station to catch an overnight train to Lisbon, Portugal).

So two weekends ago was Belgium's national holiday on Monday. To celebrate, Wassim and I left for Germany to visit the nearby Cologne.

It was a really fun trip. We didn't "do" all that much. Our train left very early on Sunday (so we didn't have much sleep because we got back late from Ghent). It took about 3 hours to get to Cologne. The first day we walked around the city. We went to a chocolate museum that was really nice and informative. We then headed back to the hostel to take a nice afternoon nap. We went back out to walk around a bit and eat a bit of dinner.



That night we hung out at the hostel talking to folks. We met a nice girl from London who was going to tour the cathedral the following morning.

I should of course mention the Cologne Cathedral! It's massive! Definitely the first and most memorable thing to notice in Cologne. As my guide suggested, we walked past it at first because it really takes a few hours to do it justice. We headed back the following Monday morning with our London friend and another Canadian backpacker we met. We had a full tour which was nice. It's famous for having the bones of the three magi. It was my first tour of a cathedral. It's kind of neat to get the history behind things. It was worth the money, but I probably won't take one again.





The afternoon was spent walking around the other, newer, part of the city. It was raining which is no fun! I wish we had had more time to explore some of the surrounding German areas such as Aachen or Bonn.

Overall I had fun. Unfortunately, I think Cologne is the most "American" city I visited. There were tons of American restaurants and stores. I think this is mostly due to the bombing it withstood during WWII. Most everything there is new and modern.

All pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/Cologne
Time to jet! I've got a train to catch :-)

Ghent Summer Festival

This past Saturday I returned to Ghent for the day. It was the first day of the 10-day street festival, Ghent Fests. It was a lot of fun to walk around the city. They had parades and music. I think Ghent may be one of my favorite cities in Belgium.

I went with Wassim. He's a stagiaire from France, originally from Algeria.



I didn't take very many photos. You can see them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/GhentFestival

Stagiaire Party

So this past Thursday, July 17, 2008 was a very important day (in case you weren't aware, that was the day I turned 21). To celebrate, I threw a party for all of the interns here at the VKI.

It was a potluck party, where everyone had to bring a dish. At first no one seemed interested, but as the date got closer, more and more people began talking about it during the breaks. We ended up with 25 or so people there (and we have about 30-35 interns), so it was a great turnout.

It was a nice opportunity to sample some different dishes from everyone's region.

I didn't think to take photos until after the food was all eaten. Here's the damage:


My few photos from the evening here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/StagiaireParty

Paris!

Last weekend I went to Paris! It was an awesome trip. I left Friday after work with Javier, my Spanish roommate. We got off the train and his friend from Madrid picked us up. We drove around through the city a bit on our way to the other side of Paris. We stopped, walked a bit, and then ate dinner at a nice fondue restaurant. Afterwards we walked around for a while and tried to go into a club, but we were not adequately dressed. Finally we drove out to stay in the dorm of Javier's friend at Ecole Polytechnique.

The next day we woke up late, took the train into the city and dropped our bags at the hostel. We walked around the city a bit. We walked by the Place de la Concorde, and saw where President Sarkozy was going to be for the Bastille Day parade. I went up in the Arc de Triomphe for spectacular views of the area.



Afterwards we walked a bit more and made our way to the Eiffel Tower. I went up to the top, by way of stairs. It was a nice journey and it offered great views of the city. I went up at sunset, which is definitely a great time to go.



The next day, Sunday, we woke up and walked to Sacre-Coeur. It is a beautiful church, and it's on the highest part of Paris so it overlooks the city with more spectacular views.



We walked down from there and across town to Place de la Bastille, the site of the beginning of the French Revolution. After meeting up with Javier's friend and walking a bit more, I split up for the evening. Javier went to meet his father and spend time elsewhere, while I took the train out to the Palace of Versaille.

I got there a bit late in the afternoon. I did not get a chance to go inside, but I walked around outside and in the gardens for quite a while and they are beautiful. I had fun watching some children feed ice cream to some of the fish for a while too.



The next morning, Monday, July 14th (the national holiday), I woke up and began walking around the city. I went to the Opera de Paris which is a beautiful building. Definitely made me think of Phantom of the Opera. Next I walked around and watched the parade a bit. They had a lot of military marching in one area, but I found another section of parade where every few minutes they'd have about six military vehicles come through: tanks, supply vehicles, hum-vee's, camouflaged construction vehicles, and lots more. That was kind of cool to watch. It's quite intimidating how loud and fast a tank can fly down the street.



The afternoon was spent in the Louvre. It was free as part of the national holiday. I walked around for quite a long time, and I think I made it into almost every room. Mind you I didn't spend very much time in any of the rooms. I found it interesting that most everyone is there just to see the Mona Lisa. There are signs throughout the museum directing you to that picture. Of course, I did go and see it.



Overall I had a lot of fun. This was a great weekend!

All pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/Paris

Leuven

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been a bit distracted! (It's a good thing ;-). )

When I last left you readers, I had just returned from the gliding week. On Tuesday of my week back, I went to Leuven with Javier, my roommate.

We met up with two of his friends from Madrid. They are spending next year at the university there for their ERASMUS. They were in the town to rent their apartment.

Gliding Week

Last week I took off a week of work to participate in the summer VKI gliding week. It was an incredible experience!

All pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/GlidingWeek

On Sunday we left the VKI at noon and began the drive to the middle of Germany, with Michaelangelo driving and Rosario navigating. Destination: Laucha



As soon as we crossed into German borders, the weather became very pretty. The countryside was filled with wind turbines. Also, it was very common to look up and spot one or two gliders in the air. I later asked about this, and was told that gliding is a very popular sport in Germany. Similar to the popularity of golf in the U.S.



We got there Sunday night (after ~7 hours of driving), just in time to watch the Eurocup final game: Germany vs. Spain. Spain went on to win the match.

The next morning we woke up and headed to the hanger, to discover it was completely packed with gliders. They had a LOT!



They didn't crash in there, that's just how they pack them in so that they can store so many. (The picture is actually after we've taken one or two out).

It wasn't long before we began flying. When I fly in the US, it's always done with aerotow: an airplane carries the glider up to ~1500-4000 feet and you can begin gliding. However, this is more expensive (aviation gasoline). The very common way in Germany is a tow using a winch.



It is an incredible ride up. It lasts for 10-15 seconds and you disconnect at ~250-400m.

In the ASK13 glider, getting ready for departure:



Most of my flights were in the ASK21, which is very similar to the PW-6 that I fly in Starkville.

The winch cable is 800-1200 m long, so it's quite the operation to launch. There is a vehicle which two cables get attached to and are driven to the flight line.



One cable is set to the side, the other attached to the plane. After the launch, another plane is made ready and launched with the second cable. They also had cars for ground towing of the planes from the landing site to the flight line. It was all very fast and efficient, when things worked.

Unfortunately, because of various circumstances (winch broken, too hot, wind awkward, etc), the number of flights was less than ideal. Even still, I had a lot of fun and managed to take a total of 15 flights. I began flying at MSU in October and had 18 flights before the week. It was very nice to nearly double my number of flights in one week. I am now able to control the plane nicely during all aspects of flight: take-off, turns, thermal-ing (using natural thermals of the hot air rising to stay up longer), and landing.

On Thursday we woke up at 4am in order to have sunrise flights at 5am. It was a lot of fun! The afternoon was too hot so we went kayaking on a nearby river.



Wednesday afternoon I took an aerobatic demo with the aerobatic flight instructor. As soon as we came off the winch, he dove to gain speed and started doing aerobatics: loops, rolls, clover leafs, humpties, and everything else that I could imagine.

My last and longest flight (on Sunday) was one hour and thirteen minutes and we reached a peak altitude of 1100m. My instructor helped with the thermal-ing. Also, after we had reached the peak altitude, I asked the instructor if I could try flying a loop. I had the aerobatic instructor with me again and he is a fantastic pilot. He said the loop was the simplest pattern to fly and let me do it: you push forward, gain speed to 200km/h and then just pull back. The trick is you have to commit to it and keep pulling back so you don't get stuck part of the way through. It was really easy and very cool. The rest of the flight was spent with us discussing aerobatics and him demoing them for me. (We had to tighten our seat belts super tight in the air because of the maneuvers). We did one, a negative loop, that was quite painful. Normaly for a loop, you dive and then pull back. I asked him if we could dive first into the loop. He said it was painful but he would show me. We dove down and you are pulled out of your seat, with all of the blood going up to your head. I could feel it for the next hour or so. During this flight, everytime we went in and got ready to land (around 250m), we ran into another thermal and went back up into the air. It was incredible.

All pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/GlidingWeek

Brussels, Antwerp

This past weekend was fun. I spent Friday going into Brussels and walking around with my roommate Javier. He was meeting a German friend who is an Au Pair in Paris. We walked around, ate dinner, and I practiced a bit of French.

Saturday I woke up and went to Antwerp with Vagelis and one of his Greek friends. I really enjoyed the city. We walked around a lot. They seemed to have a lot of festivals going on. I'm not really sure what most of them were about. One was an Indian festival with people dressed up and things for sale. It was pretty cool to see.

We also went to a naval museum that explained how Anterwerpen was the departure point for many Europeans leaving for America. The museum was pretty cool.

A few photos from Antwerp: http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/Antwerp

Sunday I woke up, packed, and headed to the VKI. We departed for Germany at noon. More to come on that!! :-)

week five

It's hard to believe that I've been here for five weeks. I just have four more after this one.

The students at VKI (the more permanent ones) are taking a trip next week for Laucha, Germany to go soaring. My first supervisor didn't like the idea of me going and missing a week. However, my new supervisor is a lot more laid back and thinks it will be a good opportunity to meet people and have fun. So next week I'm going to be gone from work and will be soaring every day. I'm quite excited. It'll be similar to what I've been doing in the US (me and an instructor flying around), but different in that they use a winch launch. I'll post more about these things when I get back. The trip lasts from Sunday to Sunday.

Because the trip leaves Sunday, it doesn't really make sense to goto Paris this weekend. Also, no one else was really interested in going. There are some students from Paris that say they'll be driving home on a weekend soon so I think I'll go with them sometime soon.

This week has been fun. Tuesday was spent rock climbing at the gym. Wednesday we went to Brussells to watch the Turkey vs. Germany soccer match (Germany won). Thursday I worked on my landlord's bikes and then rode around. Afterwards I watched Spain vs. Russia with my roommate (Spain won). Soccer is a lot of fun to watch with other people. I'll probably goto some of the MSU games next year.

This week I've worked on creating a photo album that depicts the typical day-to-day life for me. I started when I woke up, taking pictures of the apartment, the trip to the VKI, going around work, and the night watching the soccer game. You can see the album here (with comments on the photos): http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/DailyLife

Amsterdam

Last weekend Kan and I went to Amsterdam on Saturday. We left at the crack of dawn for the first train (at 6:30). It took about 3 hours or so until we got there. We walked around the city a bit and decided to take a canal ride trip.



After the canal trip, we wandered the city some more. We went by a few sites, such as the Anne Frank house where she stayed. The prices were high and the line was extraordinarily long, so we decided that an outside view of the house was sufficient. Next we headed back to the train station to goto the nearby town of Zaandijk. No, I don't know how to properly pronounce that.

Zaandijk is an area that feels like it was built up or preserved at least just for tourists. It was still really cool to see though. It is a village with a lot of windmills and some little exhibits. There are several tourist shops around. The interesting ones were a cheese shop where they have people making cheese that you can watch. They had about 20 different types of cheese for sale, so I enjoyed having the samplers. Every one of them was good. They also had a wooden shoe making place. I tried some on and they aren't too bad.





We went back to Amsterdam, walked around, and then ate dinner. We watched the Eurocup game (Holland vs. Russia). The streets were decorated for the game and tons of fans were around all day. It was loud of packed for the game. Unfortunately Holland lost.



The red light district has these lights all around it so that's probably where it gets the name...



Okay, not really. It comes from the red lights that are lighting up the windows that the prostitutes are standing in. There "coffeeshops" (shops where you can buy small amounts of marijuna), sex shops, and bars everywhere. It was quite unreal.

Overall I'd say it was an interesting experience. It was a bit too extreme for me. Definitely worth a visit so you know what people are talking about.

All images here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/Amsterdam

week four

This has been a great fourth week for sure!

Sunday after returning from my mediocre weekend, I met Javier. He's my new roommate from Madrid, Spain. First impression was that he was very inquisitive about everything, trying to learn as much as he could about the VKI before starting work the following day. He is also a stagiaire in the short training program.

Monday after work we walked around the city, checking out the sites. Javier had never been. We went through some highlights like Manequin Pis and the Grand Place. We also went through the business district where they do a lot of EU business. Kan (from D.C. area) says it looks a lot like D.C., and I would have to agree.

My work project completed changed on Tuesday. The professor decided that since the part still hadn't come in from the chemical company that I should change projects to do something more useful. I am now looking at sensor data from an area to see if a power plant affects the area's temperature. It's a local warming issue. I get to study wind and the atmosphere. I will work to do mostly post-processing of the data, but at least the data is interesting to me. The answer is supposed to be "no, plant does not affect the area locally" according to my professor.

Wednesday I went into Brussels for another night of rock climbing. I think this will be a good weekly habit. It was a lot of fun once again! I looked at buying some gear (shoes and harness) so that I wouldn't have to rent while I was here. That was a fun interaction as the sales clerk didn't really speak English and my friend didn't speak French. I was able to communicate with my little knowledge of French and a lot of pointing. I didn't like any of the gear they had, so I'll be renting for the summer :-).

Thursday was spent fixing my landlord's bicycle. He told me if I fixed it I could use it. So I fixed it!

I really like my landlord. He really likes America and Americans. He is appreciative for what we did for his family during WW2. He loves American WW2 memorabilia and has lots of things in his collection. I asked him where I could buy stamps to mail some postcards. He offered to pick some up for me, and gave them to me as a thanks for fixing the bikes.

This weekend: Amsterdam / The Netherlands!

My original plan was to leave after work and goto Den Haag, but no one else was up for going. My mediocre Luxembourg trip was partially due to going alone. Also, I'm more interested in meeting people and interacting with them than I am to see a new place and check it off a list. My roommate is staying in town this weekend, so I am going to go to Brussels with him tonight.

Tomorrow I'm getting up first thing and going to Amsterdam! Woo, I'm excited :-)

namur and luxembourg

Last weekend I went to Luxembourg as planned. The hostels were full in Luxembourg, and I wanted to see more of southern Belgium, so I first went to Namur, Belgium.

I got there Saturday and explored the city. It was an important one for various historical reasons. It sits on the edge of two rivers, and has a large citadel. It was a powerful city.

There wasn't too much going on in Namur, but it was an interesting city to walk around. I went through the streets and walked all of the paths around the citadel. I went to sleep and got up early for the train to Luxembourg on Sunday.

Luxembourg City really didn't have too much to offer. I walked around and explored the city. It was fun seeing it, but I wouldn't really recommend going there.

Pictures from my trip are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland/NamurAndLuxembourg

week three

This past week nothing too much new has happened. We are waiting on a part before the experimental work can start for my project. It has been really cold here. I didn't realize how far north I was.

Buying produce at the grocery store this week was interesting. I got in trouble for getting my own produce. Apparently they're supposed to get it for you, and they didn't like when I bagged my own potatoes and was weighing them for a label. A bit odd I think.

I had been wanting to go to one of the rock climbing gyms in Brussels. I found some people here at the VKI that go once or twice a week, so I went with them Wednesday. It was a lot of fun and a really good workout. It is one of the oldest (if not the oldest) rock gym in the world. It started in 1987. It was a bit crowded, but a lot of fun and very challenging.

I've got a rough idea of my future weekends:
june 13 - luxembourg
june 20 - amsterdam
june 27 (3 day weekend) - paris
july 4 - vki soaring trip
july 11 (bastille day weekend) - paris
july 18 (3 day weekend) - cologne

I will leave the following weekend (july 25 is my last day). I'm not sure where I will go exactly (I'm thinking about Spain or Greece). Spend a few days wherever, and then fly to Greenbay, WI where I will take a shuttle to Oshkosh for the EAA airventure show. The world's largest airshow.

Ghent and Bruges

Last weekend was a lot of fun! Vagelis (the Greek Stagiaire), Kan (other American), and I went to Ghent and Bruges. We had a lot of fun! Picture gallery here.


Kan (left) and Vagelis (right)


We got to Ghent Friday after work. We wandered around in the rain and explored the city a bit. It was one of the richest cities during the middle ages.

We went to an authentic frietkoten (fries barracks) for some Belgian fries. The popular way in Belgian means putting mayonaise on them, so I had to try it at least once. The mayonaise is better then American mayonaise, but I still think I might stick to ketchup. The fries themselves were amazing though!





The scenic picture showing Ghent:


We went to a restaurant that claims to have invented the Belgian waffle. They served it the authentic way, square with a bit of powdered sugar on top. It was good, but I think I prefer the American way of doing things.



Saturday we left for Bruges. After putting our stuff in the hostel, we headed out for dinner where we met two Australian girls who were a lot of fun!



We walked around Bruges on Sunday. Their belfry was really cool with good views. We got up there at noon as they were playing a song, so it was cool to see the bells being hit.



After walking around Bruges for a while, we took the train north to Ostend unplanned. We knew it was very close and I wanted to see it. Ostend is a big city on the North Sea.

Me and the North Sea.



No one was swimming, but it was a bit cold.

All in all it was a great weekend!

lots of photos

Thanks to google and their picasa and its onine web albums, my photos are now online!

You can view them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wcleveland

And some more highlights:

Florence:

View from the Florence Cathedral's Roof

David (the copy out where he used to be)

Pisa:

Leaning city of Pisa (the tower is straight in this shot)

Milan:

Armani in the streets

Weird Building (viewed from Milan cathedral)

Lake Como:

Cinque Terre:

Beautiful beach shot with great friends! (Addie, Laura Beth, Caitlin)

From the boat ride (In the background you can see Manarola, the city where we stayed)

Brussels:

Icon of Brussels: Manneken Pis

The Atomium

I hope you guys enjoy!