Epic one day trip in Dresden

Before I went for Germany, the owner of my favorite coffee place in Waterloo told me I should have a look at the city Dresden, where her mother was from. She also told me about a building called "Frauenkirche", which means "Church of Our Lady".

Incidentally, the professor I'm working with has just got a professorship in Dresden, and has part of his lab moved there.

So I knew I was going to Dresden sometime during my stay in Germany, and yesterday was the time.

It was kind of a last minute decision and I was planning to just get a train ticket at the station. Interestingly the ticketing machine refused to take my cash, and I had to use another machine. This delay almost costed me missing the train...

But once I was on the train things were pretty smooth, and I got to Dresden in 2hr33min. Before that I had no idea how far Dresden was from Magdeburg. My colleagues here commute there from time to time so I assumed it was like an hour of train... and I was wrong.

The Dresden city. Top left is the central station, lower right is the Frauenkirche.

The city was quite nice. And as a capital city it had the vibe of modernism and well-planning. Right outside the central station was a long street (Prager Strasse) of shops, and a tram station. I could have taken the tram but 1)it charges 2euro for each ride, and 2)I preferred walking around the city on foot. It was quite a joyful walk.

It took me 20mins to get to the Frauenkirche, which is north of the central station. It was pretty easy to find, and along my way there were a few nice historical buildings (and a lot of tourists). I like the fact that there was a wide main street and a mixture of old (very old) and modern buildings, and all were only 4-5 stories high so I could see the sky.

The Frauenkirche was a landmark of the city. It was almost destroyed during a bomb attack during WW2, and was rebuilt around 10 years ago. It was a standalone building with 7 exits on the sides. From what I heard people tried really hard to rebuild this church as there was quite a sentimental value to it. They even catalogued the pieces of the original church and tried to use them back for the rebuild.

If you like having souvenirs, you should stop by the Frauenkirche-shop which is one block away from the exit G of the church. They have some really cool stuff and take full advantage of the rich history of the church, including selling stones that they claim to be the actual pieces from the original.

My next stop was the new academic building of my colleagues. This time I took the tram because it was 20mins of walk south of the central station.

It seems that buildings nowadays are following a similar pattern in having an open space all the way to the roof at the foyer, using a lot of glasses in the exterior, and not painting most part of the interior and instead exposing the concrete blocks. I quite like this design except the exposure of concrete blocks, giving out an unfinished feeling to the building.

The new academic building some of my colleagues are in.

Another reason of picking this day was there was a demo session of the faculty in the building. So I had a chance to see what the students were doing. It wasn't impressive but it's fun to see how many students are using Kinect as the main component of their projects.

The campus itself was really big, and the interesting thing was, like the city, it was itself a good mixture of old and new buildings. On my way I saw one that looked like it was built at least 50 years ago, and right around the corner one that was just built 5 years ago.

Overall I quite like Dresden, more than Munich I'd say. 

Haarschnitt

When you are in a place for sometime, sooner or later you'll have to deal with the haircut (Haarschnitt) problem.

I have mine cut really short before I left for Germany, but after about 3 months it had grown to a point that I couldn't stand it anymore. My hair was poking my eyes and ears, and it was especially uncomfortable during summer time. But the problem was it's very hard to find a hairdresser who are willing to speak English.

For guys like me I didn't have to describe a lot on what I want, but I certainly didn't want to have it shaved or dyed. So Martin kindly agreed to take me to his usual spot and help me describing what I want. To our surprise, however, the place was full, and even we tried another 4 places nearby they were all full.

On the next day, I decided to go on an adventure without Martin. With some help from Ricardo I got this piece of paper:

Cheat sheet for "Short haircut", with illustrative figure.

I went to the place Martin took me to, and waited in line. When my turn came, I thought I'd simply walk up and show the lady the cheat sheet. But she told me something that I'm pretty sure wasn't "please go over there" in German. The only word I understood was "moment", which means "wait".

So I waited for something I didn't really know for another 10 minutes. Turns out it was for an available spot so my hair can be washed. 

Then the rest was pretty easy, I just showed her the cheat sheet, she looked at it and grinned.

Eventually, only two words were used for the whole cutting process:

Hairdresser: OK?

Me: Perfect.

And this is how I look:

Me after haircut, with Photo Booth's effect.

It's really not bad, and with 11euro you get a hair wash and cut. So I'm happy.

O, in case you want to know, the place is called "Cutman".

Awesome PhD defense in U of Magdeburg

26 June was Mathias' PhD defense. And I can tell you this was the most awesome defense I've ever attended.

The first round was just like any other defense would look like: candidate gave a presentation, followed by comments from the defense committee. Then the Q&A and closed door discussion.

But the best part, which my colleagues told me as the unique tradition here in U of Magdeburg, began shortly after that.

To begin with, the now PhD was presented with a number of items symbolizing his responsibility. This included a gown, a heavy medal on a necklace made of heavy chains, and a custom-made hat related to his thesis topic.

Then he was put onto a barrel, which was dragged backwards all the way to the city centre. During this 20min trip, he was accompanied by the guests of his defense, his thesis committee (who were crazy enough to follow), and a few of us dressed in medieval costumes. To ensure a "smooth ride", we actually blocked the traffic for the barrel to be dragged non-stop.

Another announcement was made in the city centre in front of the Otto-von-Guerick statue, in public.

Then the PhD had to drink a special drink made by us.

And we all drank beer and champagne to congratulate him.

The new PhD, his custom-made hat had a pen and a pen on it, as he was doing pen and touch interaction research.

But that wasn't it.

In the evening Mathias invited us to a restaurant to celebrate, and we had games staring him and his supervisor. We called this "the real PhD defense".

Overall a very great experience, and thanks Mathais for graduating this time so I could get a taste of the tradition (right after a paper deadline).

From what I heard, the custom-made hat tradition has been adopted by the U of Calgary guys. We'll see what we U of Waterloo people can do.  

Your best camera is the camera you can use when you need one

I like taking photos and I have spent quite some money on equipment. To me taking photos is capturing the moment and share that with others, or some other times you see something/someone that you really want to retain on a canvas.

I was having a hard time packing for my Munich trip even though it was a rather short one. Mainly because I wanted to squeeze in all my photo-taking gears so I wouldn't miss the chance of taking that snapshot. Here is what I eventually brought:

Left: awesome DSLR - Middle: Smartphone - Right: compact DC 

Here is a little statistics:

Awesome DSLR: 8M pixels, 2 photos taken

Smartphone: 5M pixels, 67 photos taken

Compact DC: 5M pixels, 14 photos taken

The DSLR takes the highest quality of photos, supports RAW format (so I can do more post-processing without losing too much image quality), and switches on instantly. But turns out I only used it twice. Why? Simply because it's too troublesome to take it out and put it back into my bag.

In comparison, my smartphone has very few settings and has the lowest quality. But it's in arm's distance.

I did look pretty stupid and amateurish when I used my smartphone to take photos of art pieces and even food. Some people even gave me that look that I'm one of those crazy tourists that takes snapshots of everything (which I didn't). But it's "stealthy" and I can easily show my friends what I took by putting it on the table or handing it out. I can even transfer some of the photos without a single cable or card reader.

I will still take photos using my DSLR and sometimes my compact DC. But I realized most of the time a smartphone is more than enough. Who takes a DSLR when one just hangs out with some friends or does routine work? Plus the quality of the photos taken by smartphones are reasonably good if depth-of-view and amazing saturation are not required (most of the photos in this blog are from my smartphone!).

I believe my next camera will be a smartphone, really.

Tips for taking the IC or ICE trains

The IC and ICE trains are amazing.

A typical main train station (Hauptbahnhof).

They take you from city to city, state to state, country to country, and in a surprisingly frequent manner. The timing is also pretty flexible. For a long trip you can pick the night train where you can sleep through, for a short trip you can choose the day train to admire the scenery.

However there are a few tips that one should take heed of.

1. Make sure you are in the right track (gleis)

A typical main station can easily have >10 tracks. Although your ticket will tell you which track your train would be, check the overhead display to verify that. There are chances that your train will stop at some other track. The safest way would be using the train number (e.g. ICE 1234) and check it against the display. And you can double verify that on the display at the side of the train before you get on board.

2. Make sure you are in the right section of the train

Even you are at the right track, when you are taking an ICE train, there are chances that half of the train will stop or head to somewhere else before arriving at your destination. I have a friend who took a night train and went to another part of the train for washroom. But when she got out she was left in the half heading towards another place. Fortunately both halves were waiting to depart so she got back to the right half just in time.

Look for a board like this and check which part of the train you should get onto.

To make sure you don't get into that kind of trouble, look for a board shown in the photo above. It should be around the middle of the track.

3. To get out, press the button to open the door

Doors of the trains are semi-automatic. You have to press a button nearby so it opens. So I heard.

4. Rest assured there are toilets in both IC and ICE trains

I always wonder for long train trips how would people handle their "calls of nature". Will the train make frequent stops at station so people can relieve themselves and hop back it? Turns out all the trains have toilets near the door. Silly but vital information.

5. Find un-reserved seats

You can actually reserve a seat when you buy the tickets, for a few euros. This might be good if you are taking a train that is estimated to have a lot of passengers, as you might end up with just a standing place (though not likely). If you don't have a reservation, just walk along the train and check the window. If someone has reserved that seat there will be a note there. Otherwise you can seat wherever you want.

6. Get a Bahn card (in Germany) and remember to cancel it

In Germany, you can buy a Bahn card to get 25% off (or even 50%) from regular price. You can even get this online.  The best option is to get a "Probe Bahn card" which is good for 4 months of trial for 25euro. However, there are 2 catches. One, you have to take the trains shown on your ticket, it's not as flexible as regular tickets that they are good for the day. Two, you have to cancel the card 6 weeks ahead, otherwise they will automatically "upgrade" you to the regular Bahn card when it expires. You can find a template of the cancelation email online.

It's actually pretty fun to take the train, especially the ICE. It feels like taking a plane but with more leg space and you can see the scenery (mostly fields). I personally like finding a spot with a table so I can put my book and my food on.

Enjoy~

Amazing trip to München - Day 3

This was my third day in Munich, and my train was leaving at 13:16.

After checking out my room at 10am I had a few hours of free time. I didn't plan for anything and I didn't want any transportation. So I just chilled in the hostel lobby for a while and took a walk around the neighborhood.

When I was checking out I met two groups of girls, both from Hong Kong. It seemed that they didn't know each other but were all going to Berlin as their next stop. It's funny to meet so many HK people, and they were all groups of girls. I think they were a bit intimidated when a guy suddenly approached and spoke their own language.

At around 11am I walked to a church nearby and the service was about to begin. I didn't go in as I didn't know when it would end, plus I won't be understanding anything anyway.

It was the St. Paul's Church and it was quite a magnificent building. It didn't have the fancy ceiling as the St. Peter's Church I went on the previous day, but the entrance was still nice. The interior was very simple: some benches, a platform, and some color glasses. Though with the bells as the only sound around, it was quiet serene.

Just next to the church there was an interesting infrastructure, which turned out to be an elevator to the U-Bahn. Guess it's made for the convenience of the church goers.

Elevator to the U-Bahn. An unassuming infrastructure on a plain ground.

My overall impression on Munich is it is a structured city with close but clear cut of activities. In the centre part it is very busy with lot of shops and restaurants. But once you are away from that area by just 10 minutes of walk, everything suddenly becomes quiet. The streets are very long and very structured.

Very long street with buildings old and new.

Also, the price for everything is higher than other parts of Germany. There aren't much things that make Munich stand out from other frequently visited cities. But as a glimpse at a modern busy German city at the South it's worth a stop. An interesting place to stay, but you'll probably only need 2-3 days to see the most of it.

Amazing trip to München - Day 2

This was the only day that I had my entire day in Munich. Most people would do a day trip to the famous "Neuschwanstein Castle", but I didn't want to spend too much time on transportation (takes a 2hour train ride and some walking). So instead I stayed in the city and visited the museums around.

Turned out there was a "museum island" with 3 museums: Pinakothek der Moderne (Modern Art Museum), Alte Pinakothek (Old Art Museum) and Neue Pinakothek (New Art Museum).

Tip: Go to the Pinakothek der Moderne first to get a Combo ticket for 12Euro. With that you can go to the other 2 for free.

Trick: Bags larger than an A4 paper are not allowed in Pinakothek der Moderne, and you'll be asked to store it in the locker room for a small price. Use that at your advantage. Just take out your wallet, camera and a bottle of water (if you have one), and leave the rest there when you go to the other two museums. And remember to go back and claim your belongings before it closes ;)

Pinakothek der Moderne: showcasing designs of vehicles, furniture, and some installations.

My first stop was the Pinakothek der Moderne. I was having high hopes in this one as I wanted to see some architectural and industrial/product designs. However, there were only a few items for display, and the architecture section was closed for maintenance. I was quite disappointed with the exhibitions there.

There was a restriction that one could not bring in bags bigger than an A4 sheet of paper, which had to be stored in the storage for 0.7Euro. Not a big deal, and I treated it as a storage throughout the entire first half of the day =D.

Next I went to the Alte Pinakothek. This was my first time actually getting into an art museum with so many paintings. I was really impressed by the sheer size and amount of the paintings.

Before I left, I stopped by a cafe called Cafe Klenze at the ground floor of the museum for a quick lunch. The meal was just a sandwich and a coffee but was relatively expensive (~8Euro). Though the place was very nice. Since it's inside the museum building, which was itself in Victorian style, the cafe had that classic Victoria vibe all over.

Left 3: Alte Pinakothek, Right 3: Neue Pinakothek

The Neue Pinakothek, on the other hand, had a combination of paintings and sculptures. I was really fascinated by the form and details of the marble sculptures. The soft reflection of the marbles created a nice tone for the skin, and I was amazed by their creators' ability to recreate fabrics. Another interesting thing was there were 3 paintings by Van Gogh. One of which was the famous Sunflowers. I'd seen it so many times in TV or books, only till now I was really inches away from the real deal. Turned out there were a number of Sunflowers paintings and this was one of them (F.456).

I finished visiting all the museums at about 3:30pm. With no further plans, I walked towards the centre of the city: Marienplatz. It was very crowded and lively.

Marienplatz, centre of Munich.

There are a couple of things worth seeing at the Marienplatz:

The Rathaus-Glockenspiel, which is a building with a clock tower. At 11am (also 12pm and 5pm in the summer), it plays some music and has some animations with the figures in the tower for about 10 minutes. While you are waiting for those times, you can walk around the building with lots of shops.

St. Peter's Church, which is a church with a very nice looking ceiling. Not all churches in Munich have this type of paintings on the ceiling, and it's worth a look.

The market, which is just next to St. Peter's Church. There you can find fresh food and dine.

All in all, the whole Marienplatz is a tourist attraction with lots of shops (even an Apple Store) and food.

This concludes my second day in Munich. Did a lot of walking (roughly 7 hours), but it was nice.