At the time we went, Iceland was one of the few countries in the world that allowed vaccinated foreign visitors. All that was needed was proof of vaccination – not even a pre-entry COVID test. The fact that most people were vaccinated meant that most people were not wearing masks in the city, but this was before even the Delta variant – it seems like so long ago now.

I had been itching to go travel somewhere since the pandemic began, and this was a very welcome nudge towards normalcy. Flying with Icelandair was the same as before: the seat and leg room is pretty comfortable, but there’s no food included with the airfare. The only difference is the extra bureacracy related to COVID, which increased how long it took each person to get through immigration, resulting in long lines after the plane. It didn’t help that we arrived so early in the morning that the food places weren’t even open yet and we had to wait in line while hungry. Eventually, we picked up the rental car and drove into Reykjavik for breakfast. We took the day easy by just exploring Reykjavik on foot, and took a nap in the afternoon when the jet lag caught up to us.

That night, we had probably the most memorable meal we’ve ever had at Tapas Barinn. The great thing about tapas is that as tourists, we get to try a little bit of everything as opposed to ordering entrées.

I even got to try some Flóki single malt whiskey. The smokiness from the whiskey actually comes from the barley smoked using sheep dung, a traditional cooking method. I also got to try some more brennivin like my last trip to Iceland – it’s essentially a grain alcohol (40%) and flavoured with caraway seeds, which gives it a sweeter flavour than something like vodka.

I had visited Iceland a couple years ago, but it was in the winter where there was only 4 hours of light per day, and even then the sky looked like dusk.

This time, travelling there in the summer, I didn’t see the night sky the entire time I was there. I could more clearly see and appreciate the nature around me, like the endless fields of moss growing on the rocks, and sheep freely roaming the fields.

It is thought that the Icelandic sheep were introduced to Iceland by the Viking settlers. Farmers allow them to freely roam around in the summer months, and as winter comes, they round them all back up again.

Like my previous trip to Iceland, we travelled along the Ring Road to see the waterfalls, and the volcanic beaches.

This is what the view at Seljalandsfoss looks like in the summer versus the view I saw in the winter. I had no idea Iceland could be so green. In the summer, people can even walk behind the waterfall, between the rock and the falls itself, but in the winter, the trail is closed because of ice.

Skógafoss looks about the same between summer and winter, except the vegetation is greener in summer.

A kitty even came out to hang out with us! As we were walking, the cat just walked up to us and stopped, expecting pets as a payment to pass through. After that, off it went.

Unlike travelling to Iceland in the winter, there were no restrictions (4WD) to drive up to Dyrhólaey in the summer. As we drove up, I could see why. The road was a set of steep switchbacks on gravel roads that were only a little more than two cars width – and there were no guardrails.

From the top, one can see the endless mountains, or watch the waves crash against the beaches of volanic sand.

The next day, we took a Superjeep tour to see ice caves on an active volcano known as Katla. The reason why it’s called Superjeep is because it can deflate its tires (for icy roads), and inflate them back up again depending on the terrain, but otherwise it looks like your typical Ford Excursion but with big tires.

The ice caves were located a ways in from the glacier. In summer, a lot of the ice had melted, revealing the volanic sand and rock underneath.

Only just now as I was writing this, did I realize we were travelling on a literal volcano, but I suppose it’s safe.

As we headed up the volcano, the lush, green vegetation quickly disappeared, revealing a rocky landscape with a mix of ice and black volcanic rock. Grey clouds covered the sky and it began to rain.

Eventually, the tour guide parked the truck, and we began our volcano hike. He brought his ice pick with him and used it several times to cut steps in the ice.

Despite the summer season, the temperature still felt like a mild winter. But it still meant the ice caves would not be as fully developed as in the winter season, and this could clearly be seen when comparing the ice caves from this trip versus the previous one. In fact, the winter ice cave was really more of a tunnel, while the picture of the summer ice cave was taken from the end of the cave with the camera pointing out.

The ice on top of the volcanic rock looked so alien that several movies used this place as a location for another planet. Rogue One was filmed in the area for the opening scene where young Jyn Erso hides from the stormtroopers. The movie doesn’t show the whole cave, but the similiarity is clear. If the movie had shown the whole cave, one would see why people call it the “Yoda Cave”.

It was nice staying in the cave for a bit as a brief respite from the rain. We made the mistake of wearing jeans for a multi-hour hike in the rain, and our wet clothes just made us even colder. We also got the chance to chat a bit with others on the tour. We met an orthodonist who practised in Greece by the name of Thanos (I wonder if he was aware of the MCU), and another who claimed to be a “voodoo priestess”, whatever that means.

The next morning, the plan was whale and puffin watching. It turned out to be an incredibly bad idea because I apparently get seasick, and didn’t get to see a lot. Even those who did see whales could really only see a small fin barely capturable on camera. Only a small percentage of people get to see the whale flying out of the water and crashing back down. Good thing the puffin watching was on a separate tour so I got to recover from the seasickness, but we decided not to go and instead gave the tickets away to another group that we overheard looking for tickets to the same tour.

Instead, we went to go get some Icelandic hotdogs for lunch. The key things that set it apart are the condiments, and the sausage. In addition to ketchup, and sweet mustard, they also add “remoulade”, similar to mayo with added herbs. The sausage uses lamb, as opposed to chicken/pork/beef.

Next, we headed to the Reykjanes Peninsula and the Blue Lagoon. We reached the tip of the peninsula and stood on the cliff watching the waves crash against the shore. If there was such a thing as the end of the earth, this was it. Despite strong gusts of wind, thousands of birds nested on the side of the cliff. From far away they look like white specks, but one can see them clearly with a good set of binoculars.

Next, we went for a relaxing soak at the Blue Lagoon, a man-made spa fed by water used by a nearby geothermal plant.

The water forms a milky blue colour from the high silica mud, and is supposedly good for the skin. They even sell super overpriced skincare products at the gift shop.

The area is beautiful with all the steam slowly rising from the hot springs with the light cool breeze. It would have felt like a whipping biting wind if not for the hot spring. You just submerge yourself until you feel not too hot and not too cold, and then relax with their cleansing silica face masks and a drink.

After leaving Blue Lagoon, we’d learned there was an active eruption happening at the nearby Fagradalsfjall volcano, and was happening slow enough such that it was OK to go see it.

A short walk from the parking lot led us to the lava flow. The trail continued upstream of the lava flow to the mouth of the volcano.

There were warnings for people to not walk too close to the lava flow because of risks of toxic fumes, but many did it anyway (as did we). Many curious hikers threw rocks on it just to find out that the lava flow had already hardened, even though there were still visible fumes coming out.

The hike turned out to be really long, and we weren’t really prepared to do a multi-hour hike at 20:00 in the cold, wind, and rain. As we reluctantly turned around, we saw people pointing the other and when we looked, we managed to catch a glimpse of the volcano spewing lava from afar. It makes sense now why people call it the “land of ice and fire”

It was surprising to see how watery the lava looked. I expected molten rock to be more viscous. The lava just spewed out in a splash. I felt super lucky to have seen such a sight.

As we walked back, I noticed these hexagonal patterns in the ground. Maybe this is how basalt columns form? From what I’ve read, under certain conditions, the cooling magma can cool in a way that forms these hexagonal shapes.

By the time we reached the parking lot, we were wet and cold (seemed to be a recurring theme by this point). Luckily there was a food truck at the parking lot selling hot soup.

The next morning before heading out to the Golden Circle, we started the day off with a nice brunch at Sandholt.

The unexpected star of the breakfast was the bread. As an amateur baker myself, this is the bread I aspire to make – it’s soft, light and airy with a crisp crust.

Next step along the Golden Circle was Geysir. The geothermal heat creates pressure underground causing the water to explode upward every few minutes. The entire area is filled with geothermal pools, some of which are so hot they’re bubbling from the heat and pressure.

It’s cool just to just stand in anticipation of the eruption. From looking at it, there’s no indication that it’s going to explode at all, and then it just does. At one point, the wind carried the water toward us and got us all wet, but luckily by the time the water hits the ground, it’s cooled down.

From the Geysir, we drove to Gullfoss. Unlike other waterfalls, this one has a unique feature where the water does a zig zag before hitting the bottom.

There were attempts in the past to build a hydroelectric plant here, but those efforts have not succeeded, and since then, the waterfall is now under government protection.

The last destination of the Golden Circle was Kerið crater. It’s believed that the crater formed through volcanic activity. Once the magma chamber emptied, it collapsed, forming the crater. The accumulation of water is not formed by rainfall, but is actually ground water.

On our last day before we left, we got the chance to try more Icelandic dishes. This time we had some lamb soup, dried fish, fermented shark, and some Einstök white ale, a local craft brew.

It’s not often that I would rave about soup, but I liked it so much I’ve been trying to recreate the flavour at home. It’s savoury soup with vegetables, lamb, and herbs/spices. I can’t say I was a huge fan of the dried fish and fermented shark though. The dried fish is served with butter and its flavour reminds me of super tough beef jerky with a light fish flavour, while the fermented shark has a texture of a ham with a soury tang. Perhaps it’s an acquired taste. The beer was great though.

That’s pretty much it for Iceland. We got the chance to try all sorts of local delicacies, and see a piece of nature we wouldn’t normally see in our part of the world. At the airport duty free, I even got to pick up some Brennivin, and a bottle of the Flóki sheep dung whiskey!

See more pictures of my trip to Iceland here

Even from the trailhead one can see Taipei 101 in all its glory. I never did make it up to the observation deck of Taipei 101 though – I’m not one to particularly enjoy those kind of sights. The thing that did pique my interest about the Taipei 101 though is its counterbalance – its system of minimizing vibrations (e.g. from wind), only because I learned about them in university.

After the hike, my appetite was so good I ate two full meals one after another. A friend told me to try this turkey rice from a stall at the Taipei 101 (apparently it’s a thing), but to be honest, I didn’t enjoy it all that much. As I walked through the food court though, I saw a Liao Fan Hawker Chan – they’re famous in Singapore for soy sauce chicken. Despite having already eaten the turkey rice, I was determined to eat this too! I missed it a lot since I went to Singapore two years back.

The food coma hit me pretty hard though after those two meals, and that was a sign for me to go back to my AirBnB and rest up for the next day.

See more of my trip to Taiwan here!

The first place to visit was the National Gallery because it was Thursday that day, and on Thursdays this museum is free. Everything is super #%!*%& expensive in Oslo, so take advantage of all the free stuff when you can. Pretty sure the only reason I went was because of this:

The artist who painted this, Edvard Munch is a big deal around here.  He’s even got a fancy grave.

I certainly didn’t go to the art museum for this. This piece of art literally looks like some little kids just scribbled on the wall.

The food, while expensive as #%&$ was delicious.  Here I had smoked salmon, some shrimp, reindeer sausage, and WHALE!!!  Another animal crossed off the list. Surprisingly it tasted super gamey.

What a beer selection.

The inside of the city hall in Oslo is pretty whack.  This is also where the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held every year.

These toilets are clearly made of libery, equality and fraternity.

This is definitely one of the most memorable pieces of architecture I’ve ever seen.  It’s an opera house built like an iceberg!  It’s so white that people must be constantly cleaning it.

There’s even Mormons! They’re everywhere telling people about their most amazing book. Which one is Elder Price and Elder Cunningham?!

Oslo has these palace guards like the ones outside Buckingham Palace too, except these ones are allowed to talk. I asked one of them how he got the position and he said that he has to specifically apply for the job and meet specific qualifications! I had previously thought that having this position to stand guard all day was a punishment as opposed to a privilege!

I paid a lot for this reindeer steak… like $70 USD… and it tasted like a steak, but gamier. And the beer glass to the right, I asked the waiter if I could buy it from the restaurant, but the guy was so chill he brought me a new one and let me keep it.

What are these guys doing here? They kept asking me if I was Chinese and I have no idea why because as a Chinese person, I’d be statistically more likely to have the same negative views towards the Falun Gong.

Vigeland Park is super cool. It’s got a bunch of sculptures representing humans at different stages of their life. This particular sculpture for some reason, is in literally every single piece of tourist info literature about Oslo.

Then there’s this guy hulk-smashing like four kids.

Everyone says this chocolate called “Kvikk Lunsj” is the best, but really it’s just a Kit Kat bar with slightly better chocolate.

The coolest part about this chocolate is that the inside of the wrapper shows off a cool ski route/hiking trail or whatever. I actually don’t even know because I can’t read Norwegian, but it is kind of similar to German though! If I took some literature and had the German and Norwegian versions side by side, I’m sure I could learn a ton of Norwegian.

On the way to visit some islands in the Oslo Fjord, Akershus Festning was in clear view in all its glory.

One of the islands has an old abandoned monastery, which was pretty cool.

Another island has these cool colourful houses and their own private docks! Must’ve been all that oil money that Norway got that made them so rich!!

That’s it for Oslo!

Photo album: Oslo

In a computer, there are various methods of storing information.  Information can be stored in the processor cache, RAM, hard disk, etc.  It can be faster to request information from a storage medium that is smaller.  However, this smaller storage medium cannot fit all the possible information that can be requested.  So the idea is to insert a portion of the data into the faster, smaller medium (the cache) and the rest into the slower, larger medium (main memory).

If a request is made and the data is not available in the faster, smaller medium first, then the data will be read from the slower, larger medium – this is what is known as a cache miss.

Given that all the data cannot possibly live in the cache, there must be a way to minimize the amount of times that the data must be read from the main memory.

Optimal Caching – Farthest-in-Future

The Algorithm

The idea is that there is an algorithm that minimizes the amount of cache misses that occur for a set of requests.  The Farthest-in-Future Algorithm evicts the item in the cache that is not requested until the farthest in the future.  For example, given the following cache with items “a” through “f”.

It is clear that “g” does not exist in the set of cache items and so when “g” is requested, a cache miss will result. An item will be evicted because “g” is not in the cache.  According to the Farthest-in-Future Algorithm, element “f” will be evicted since it is the one that will be used furthest in the future.

Definitions

Cache Miss – Occurs when it is necessary to bring in an item from the main memory into the cache

Schedule – A list that contains, for each, request, which item is brought into the cache, and which item is evicted

Reduced Schedule – a schedule that only brings in an item when there is a request for that item – so a non-reduced schedule would bring an item into the cache outside of a request for that item

Theorem

To be shown:

Farthest-in-Future is the optimal algorithm that minimizes the number of cache misses.

To prove this, let’s say there is a schedule SFF that follows the Farthest-in-Future Algorithm and that there is a schedule optimal S that has a minimum number of cache misses. It can be shown that it is possible to transform S into SFF by performing a series of evictions without increasing the number of cache misses.  Since S^* is already optimal, and the number of cache misses did not increase, then SFF must be optimal.

To perform one transformation, the statement below can be used.  Right now, it isn’t all that clear why this is necessary, but it should become clearer further on.

Let S be a reduced schedule that is the same as SFF for the first j requests, then there is a reduced schedule S’ that is the same as SFF for the first j+1 requests, and incurs no more misses than S

Proof

Let’s say the cache at the start looks like this.  S and SFF have the exact same contents (this is what was defined in the previous section).

Given a schedule S, it can be shown that any request can be made, and the resulting schedule would be equal to the ideal algorithm and does not increase the number of cache misses.  Essentially, we want S = S’ = SFF after a request is made and that the number of cache misses have not increased.  If this can be shown for all different scenarios that items are requested, then Farthest-in-Future is the ideal algorithm.

Case 1: Item Is Already in the Cache

Now let’s say the next item to be requested is item “d”.  It is clear that this item exists in both caches and no evictions are necessary.  Since no evictions are necessary, SFF does not change.  It was specified in a prior section that there is a schedule S’ that equals SFF, which incurs no more misses than S.

Here, S = S’ because no changes had to be made to the cache and there were no cache misses.  After the request for item “d”, S = S’, each with zero cache misses, which is a valid outcome.

Case 2: Item Is Not in the Cache, S and SFF Evict the Same Item

Let’s say the next item to be requested is item “e”.  Neither cache has this item, so an eviction will have to be made.  Let’s also say SFF and S both choose to evict item “a” to make room for “e”.  It was specified in a prior section that there is a schedule S’ that equals SFF, which incurs no more misses than S.

Here S = S’ because S and SFF both evicted the same item.  Both S and S’ each have one cache miss (no increase relative to one another), which is a valid outcome.

Case 3: Item Is Not in the Cache, S and SFF Each Evict A Different Item

This is where the proof can become more confusing (as if it isn’t already).  Let’s say the next item to be requested is “e”.  Let’s also say that the ideal algorithm, SFF, evicts “a” and S evicts “b”. It was specified in a prior section that there is a schedule S’ that equals SFF, which incurs no more misses than S. This means that in order to get S’ = SFF, S’ should evict “a” in order to match with SFF.

Here, S does not agree with S’ = SFF.  Essentially, these two schedules behave the same, so long as future requests do not request items “a” or “b”.  This shows that there is a schedule S’ that equals SFF, but it is not known whether or not S’ has no more cache misses than S, since “a” or “b” can be requested in the future, which can determine whether S or S’ has more cache misses.  From this point onward, S and S’ behave the same until one of the following happens:

Case 3a: Item Is in SFF, But Not S; S Evicts “a”

Let’s say eventually item “b” gets requested.  In this case, S’ and SFF do not need to change.  All S has to do is evict “a” to make room for “b”.  In this case, S has two total cache misses (from request “e” and “b”), while SFF and S’ each have only one cache miss, thus fulfilling the cache miss requirement.

Case 3b: Item Is Neither in SFF Nor S

Let’s say eventually item “f” gets requested.  S’, SFF, and S all need to make an eviction. S’ and SFF can evict “b” to make room for “f”, and S can evict “a” to make room for “f”.  In this case, each schedule as two cache misses, thus fulfilling the cache miss requirement.

Case 3c: Item Is in SFF, But Not S; S Evicts Item Not Equal to “a”

Let’s say eventually item “b” gets requested and S evicts an item that isn’t “a”, say “c”.  Now, SFF and S’ both already have “b” in the cache.  In order to synchronize S and S’ to make them comparable to see how many cache misses each have, S’ and SFF will evict “c” to make room for “a”.

Since “a” is being brought into the cache without a request for “a”, this makes S’ and SFF no longer a reduced schedule.  However, the proof calls for S’ and SFF being a reduced schedule.  Fortunately, it is possible to transform an unreduced schedule into a reduced one.  In this case, each schedule has two cache misses, thus fulfilling the cache miss requirement.

Case 3d: Item Is Not in SFF, But in S

The only item that is in S and not SFF is item “a”.  SFF had evicted it initially at the beginning of Case 3.  Since SFF had evicted it, it must have been the item that would be requested furthest into the future.  Therefore, it is not possible for item “a” to be requested before other items.

After going through all possible eviction decisions that the schedules can do, it was shown that for each scenario, there was indeed a schedule S’ = SFF, where the cache misses incurred in S’ no more than S.

Chinatown

My impression of a “Chinatown” in any western place has always seemed to me that the district was full of buildings that look to needing some good cleaning and maintenance or maybe even downright dirty (like gum stains all over the concrete) compared to more modern and nicer looking Asian districts like Richmond in Vancouver or Markham in Toronto.  The vibe in the Montreal Chinatown was kind of the same, but a bit better (see Wiki photo below).

They also have a fancy entrance sign.

The nice thing about Chinatown was the food.  For the past couple days, we had been eating a lot of random fast food (McDonalds, Tim Horton’s etc.) and so eating here was a welcome treat.  The restaurant even had shark fins on display at the entrance.  Looks amazing, but I suppose people shouldn’t be eating that anymore.

Complexe Desjardins

Because Montreal is so cold in the winter, there are some underground tunnels that take people around downtown.  One of the tunnels took us to the Complexe Desjardins.  From what I could tell, this place was just a mall, except, they had a really cool sculpture in the main atrium area.

Each of the little water droplets go up and down individually and seemingly randomly (I have no idea how it works).  Here’s a video of it in action though (kind of shaky because I’m terrible at recording videos).

International Jazz Festival

I’m not exactly a Jazz person, but it was good checking out the atmosphere at the Jazz Festival.  Bands were playing on the concert stage (I didn’t know any of the songs), but the crowd seemed into it.

We probably only walked around for about an hour and a bit, and afterward, we headed home.  We would need good rest for the trip to Quebec City the next day.  I’m told it is about a three-hour drive.

More photos here

Flying to Mexico City

When we got to Dallas Airport, we had a stopover of few hours, so we decided to have some Texan steak – or at least as Texan as we tried to get without leaving the airport.  We ended up at TGI Fridays.  It was the first steak that I’ve had in a long time, and I definitely could use another one.  The steak even came with “Jack Daniel’s Sauce”, which made it that much better.

After eating, we met up with two others on the team who had flown from San Jose and Toronto.  After a four hour flight to Dallas, and other few hours of stopover there, we had to fly for another two and a half hours to get to Mexico City.

As my friend said, “it’s like China happened”.  The Benito Juárez International Airport was probably the most disorganized airport I’ve ever seen.  It’s as if every single flight landed at the same time.  The lineup to grow through customs took at least forty-five minutes.  During this whole time, everyone was tired and wanted get their sleep.  A lot of the people on the team hadn’t slept the night before (rather than sleep 2 or 3 hours to wake up early for the flight right?).  While in this lineup, we saw a couple of other RoboCup teams landing as well (Skuba, MRL, among others).  After finally getting through customs and a security check, we got a ride to our hostel via transportation that we organized with the hostel prior to our departure.

Hostel Mundo Joven Catedral

The hostel we stayed had very nice staff that really cared about making its guests feel safe there.  It’s a common feeling among travelers to think that Mexico City is definitely not one of the safer places to travel to.  To combat that, the hostel had its own security guards, security cameras, and they even called legitimate taxi’s for its guests.  They even told us which direction to walk when leaving the hostel to avoid going to the shadier parts of town.  Furthermore, it was situated in the historic center of Mexico City, within walking distance of the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary of Mexico City and the Plaza de la Constitución.  From some of the rooms at the hostel, there was a nice view of the cathedral.

Work Day

We spent the next day working on the robots to make sure none of the mechanical parts had been affected during the flight from Vancouver.  We had packed all the robots in a regular suitcase with packing foam all around it to protect it.  Looking over the mechanical parts, everything was in order.  The main things we had to fix were tightening screws, adjusting the wiring etc.  The software team had very little to do because they’ve written all the code they could, and just needed robots to test with.  The electrical team on the other hand, toiled tirelessly to troubleshoot all the boards and make sure they were all functioning properly.

RoboCup Begins!

We arrived at the competition venue, the World Trade Center at 8 AM to find a slew of other teams patiently waiting to register.  After probably an hour long wait, we all finally moved in and set up our work places.  When we looked at the field the robots would be playing on, we noticed that the organizers hadn’t yet set up the cameras yet (required for the robots to “see” where they’re going).  This meant that no teams could test.  Teams that were ready could only wait until the organizers got those set up.  Because of this delay, the games had to be delayed as well.  This gave us more time to get the robots ready.  For the next little while, we were the first team to arrive and the last team to leave everyday.  The electrical team needed all the time they could get to finish everything.

Because we had already finished most our maintenance work the day before, there wasn’t a whole lot we could do.  The electrical team had to continue working on their stuff to get as many robots ready as possible.  For the next day and a half, we let the electrical team do their work and we’d help them along the way by replacing parts that were broken (encoders and such).  Otherwise, there wasn’t much we could help with.

Food for the next Week

When we got hungry during the competition, we did a little bit of exploration to find food.  Eventually, all the teams wound up at the same shopping mall for food.  There was a supermarket downstairs to buy water and a food court upstairs with a variety of foods.  We went to this mall pretty much everyday for as long as we were at the World Trade Center.  One day we’d try Mexican food, other days we’d try plain-old hamburgers and other days we’d try even Chinese food (at least the white person’s interpretation of it).  It wasn’t really healthy for us, but we figured it was only for a week.

For dinner, most teams ended up ordering pizza from the nearby Domino’s.  We ate it so much that everybody got sick of having pizza.  Sometimes, we’d have dinner with other teams at our hostel restaurant so we could get to know them a little bit better.  After all, the competition is more about mutual learning and robotics advancement rather than about winning.

Let the Games Begin

Because our team wasn’t that ready to begin with, we had to forfeit our first game against the Immortals from Iran.  By the time we got three robots up and running, we played against the RoboJackets from Georgia Tech.  They only fielded five robots out of the total six.  For most of the game, both teams played pretty evenly, despite their two-robot advantage.  All was going well until one of the opponent’s robots chipped the ball that hit the top of one of our robots, bounced off and rolled into the goal.  In that particular situation, the referee had called an “indirect free kick”, meaning the shot, even if it went in the net, would not count.  But unfortunately, that rule was not applicable because it hit off of another robot.  It was an unlucky goal for us, and we definitely could not score a goal to tie up the game.  We ended up losing one-nil.  For the next few days, we kept complaining about that goal.

In our third game, we played against RoboFEI from Brazil.  There were so many good scoring chances in this game from both our teams that made this game so intense.  Even though we were only watching machines play, everybody cheered them on.  We had four robots on the field this game and they all worked like a charm.  The mechanical system, electrical system, and the artificial intelligence worked so well together.  It was a great feeling for everyone on our team – to see our design work.  After almost a year of hard work, this was it.  We saw our robots move, intercept balls, shoot on the goal, etc.  A lot of the robot shortcomings from the North American Open were also dealt with, such as the problem of the break beam sensors not working, and the robot not moving accurately on the field.  When we scored, we cheered so loud that every single person in the room could hear us (there were probably about 1000 people in that room).  We all got an immense feeling of satisfaction in seeing our working robots score their first goal.  A few minutes later, the other team scored a goal.  It didn’t matter to us, we were still high in the clouds in terms of our mood.  The game ended 1-1.  Despite the tie game, everyone on the team was so happy in seeing our robots work, it didn’t matter what the result was.

This was a great morale boost for the team because for our forth and last game, we played against BRocks from Turkey.  This time, we had our full fleet of robots.  We played our first six on six game.  Yet again, we saw our robots work.  Nothing broke down during the game and everything just worked.  It was quite rare for us to just put our robots on the field and have nothing go wrong.  At one point, our robot shot the ball into the opposing robot and a piece fell off of it.  We knew our design worked when stuff like this happens.  This game was less intense for us than our previous game, but we did end up winning.  That put our record at 1 win, 1 tie, and 2 losses – a total of 4 points.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough for us to advance to the next round of the competition and as a result we finished 13th out of 20 teams in the league.  Not so bad for having zero working robots when we got to Mexico.

After the official games, we played a couple friendly games with other teams.  The first game we played was against the Mannheim Tigers.  The game was going well, until we found problems where some of the screws on the robot weren’t tightened sufficiently.  As a result, things well off the robot when we played.  It was quite embarrassing to see.  At least it was only  something minor like putting in a screw, and not something major like a design problem.  In our second friendly game, this time against ER-Force from Erlangen, we found some electrical parts frying randomly on the board, which wasn’t good either.  Out of six working robots, we now had three – still a net gain I guess.

After we were done playing, we watched the other teams play for first place.  From watching their games, it was clear that they played on a way higher level than we did.  Everything that their robots did were way better than ours.  Shooting was faster, chipping went further, robots moved faster, kicks were more accurate, etc.  Everything about their robots was just better.  There is definitely a lot we could learn from these teams.  The final winner of this year’s competition ended up being Skuba from Thailand, who beat ZJUNLict from China.  Both teams analyzed each others strategies for days, but only one team could come out on top.  And now for the fourth year in a row, Skuba remains the undefeated winner of the competition.

Other Leagues in RoboCup

During our idle time, we walked around the other rooms to see how the other teams were working.  RoboCup has many different competitions under its name, while our Small Size League competition is only one small part of it.  Leagues range from soccer robots, rescue, simulation, to even home care robotics.  In the home care robotics league, the competition involved a robotic navigating through a mock house to perform certain chores such as picking up objects to hand to people, speaking and hearing instructions, etc.  It was an admittedly difficult task to do for these robots, but many teams were quite successful at it.

Accidents Happen

Just like in the North American Open, there was yet again another accident involving batteries.  Except this time, nobody noticed and the whole battery lit up in flames.  Somebody just yelled “fire, fire!” and started trying to pat it down with something.  Knowing that I was too far away to do anything, I just took out my camera and snapped a picture of the whole thing.  Eventually, someone just poured lots of water over it to put our the fire.  In retrospect, that might not have been a good idea since water in an electrical fire is not really a good thing.  Nobody got hurt though, which is good.  Afterward, the organizers didn’t let us charge batteries nearby our work space anymore.

Some Design Shortcomings

Knowing that our ball kicker would be able to withstand impacts of the ball, what we had forgotten to analyze was how well the kicker would hold up if it hit a object fixed to the ground.  We found out the hard way at the competition after a few games when we discovered that our robot kicker head was bent out of shape.  We also had a lot of turf buildup inside the robot that was enough to slow down the wheel during the game.  This turf had to be cleaned out after every match.

For the kicking mechanism, the robot uses a solenoid/plunger mechanism.  Activating the coil would cause the plunger inside the core to move quickly to hit the ball.  A rubber band secured to the end of it would allow the plunger to return to its initial position.  The problem with this setup was that the rubber band would easily break and had to be replaced after every game.  When we took out the rubber band, we could always see cut marks along it.  In another instance, a chipper solenoid on a robot almost popped out.  It’s not really clear why this happened at all, but it could have been a screw that was not very tight to begin with.

RoboCup Closing

To close the competition, there was a soccer game where humans played against the middle size league robots.  It was pretty funny to see the robots struggle to take the ball away from people who could handle the ball way better.  At the same time, the humans were really scared of the robots since if a human ever got hit by the kicker head from the robot, it would break bones.  The robot goalie however, proved quite competent in blocking shots – better than the human goal from what I saw.  Or maybe the human goalie wasn’t trying very hard.  I’m not sure who won the game since I didn’t watch the whole thing, but it was still really interesting to see.

Afterward, all the teams packed up their things and waited for the closing banquet.  At the closing banquet, they served a standard meal for everyone.  It was a really good chance for teams to celebrate their achievements and finally relax a little bit after the competition.  Everyone deserved a rest after all of that.

First Real Tour of Mexico – Teotihuacan

After the competitions ended, most teams stayed an extra day or two to see the sights in Mexico City.  The organizers of the Small Size League were nice enough to organize a tour for everyone the day after the competition ended.  Most of the SSL teams went with us to the Aztec pyramids in Teotihuacan.  The tour first showed us how their predecessors used different plants and minerals to make tools such as knives and sewing thread.  That part was interesting at first, but I think what a lot of us really wanted to see were the pyramids.  Afterward, the tour guide led us to the gift shop.  For some reason, most of the people were so interested there, it took about an hour for everyone to finish so that we could move on with the tour.  After the gift shop, we finally made it to the pyramids.

After walking up and down the pyramids, we had lunch and went back to Mexico City to see the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  This was one of the most visited Catholic shrines in the world.  But because I had already visited so many churchs and cathedrals from my tour around Europe, this part of the tour was less interesting for me.

Historic City Center

The team would fly back to Vancouver on the day after visiting the pyramids.  But before leaving, we made sure to visit the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary of Mexico City and the Plaza de la Constitución.  In the plaza, hung a giant flag of Mexico.  This is where the city center used to be, at least during the 19th century.

Going Home

After 10 days in Mexico, we all longed to go home.  It had been a long week – full of stress, adrenaline pumping excitement and overall a good experience.  But after all that, we were ready to go.  We flew out in the afternoon from Mexico City.  Apparently, at around the same time that we were at the airport in Mexico City, three cops had been shot to death.  While we were there though, we didn’t hear anything of it.  We safely arrived in Dallas for a brief stopover and arrived back in Vancouver at about 8:30 PM, just in time to go home, wash up and go to bed.

More photos here

From watching the TV show Band of Brothers, I learned of the Eagle’s Nest, a surprise birthday gift for Adolf Hitler for his 50th birthday.  Situated on the ridge on the Hoher Göll (or Kehlstein Mountain) at an elevation of over 1800m in Obersalzburg, Berchtesgaden, the house served as a private retreat for Hitler.

Because this area was so remote and hard to access by train, we chose to rent a car to drive there for a day trip that Saturday.  In our group of three, only one person could legally drive.  I had lost my driver’s license and my other friend only had a learner’s license.  Our car reservation said we were supposed to get a Mercedes A Class (the cheapest car they had with automatic transmission), but we got a Renault Megane instead.  I think that worked out better for us though because I think that car was a little bit roomier.

Originally, we were supposed to leave at 9 in the morning, but we had to make a stop at our friend’s house to pick up someone, because he apparently partied too hard and crashed at another friend’s place.  He was quite hungover when he got in the car and he stayed that way for pretty much the whole trip.  I was invited to that party too, but I didn’t go precisely because I didn’t want to end up like the way he did.

I set a course to the Eagle’s Nest on the GPS and off we went.  Originally, our route involved going through Austria, but I had to modify the route such that we stayed in Germany because we didn’t want to have to purchase a vignette (it’s an identifier on the car you pay for that lets you drive in that country if the car isn’t from there). 

We all knew that some parts of the Autobahn had no speed limit, but we had yet to see this for ourselves.  Near the outskirts of the city, there were still speed limits, but as we got further, those limits disappeared.  Although for a lot of the journey there, we couldn’t really make use of that since there were traffic jams all over the place.

The drive ended up taking nearly six hours rather than the four hours that Google Maps told me.  And for the whole journey, my hungover friend slept in the back on his side while I chatted with the driver so that he wouldn’t get so bored.

When we arrived, we parked the car near the Berchtesgaden railway station and proceeded to take the bus up (the house itself is only accessible by bus).  We left Stuttgart at around 10, and reached the top of the Eagle’s Nest at around 4:30 in the evening.

As the bus went up the mountain, we began to see the view getting nicer and nicer.  I guess it was kind of like seeing an airplane lift off and watching the houses below getting smaller and smaller.

The bus dropped us off at the entrance to the elevator up to the main building and when we got out of the bus, we all felt the chilling rain that started.  I don’t know what the temperature was at the time, but it felt like it was less than five degrees.  Before leaving the house in the morning, I knew it’d be cold up there, but apparently it was colder than I thought.  For the whole time that I was up there, my extremities were super cold, but at least the rest of my body was warm enough.  Luckily the rain had stopped when we took the gold-plated elevator up to the house itself. 

After the end of the war, the house was denazified, and converted into a restaurant.  All that remains is the architecture.  The house itself isn’t really that amazing looking, but it has historical significance.  Also, the view from up there is amazing.  What surprised me was how accurate Band of Brother’s portrayed the house.  They pretty much built a set that looks exactly like the real thing and even had scenes where they tried to get up the mountain (and that mountain looked really similar too).

There was nothing on the mountain except for this one house.  And from there, we could see Salzburg (about 35 km away) and other nearby towns.  We could also see the Königssee and other mountains in the Bavarian Alps.  Because of the rain earlier, there were still some rainclouds hovering around, and with the rain, we also got to see a rainbow.  The best part about that was that we were at so high of an elevation, we got to look down at the rainbow.

We only stayed up there for less than an hour because we had to take the last bus back down, but that was okay though.  It was nice for me to be able to visit the Eagle’s Nest and enjoy the view from the mountain (even if it was damn cold).  It’s also a place where most North American tourists won’t be able to go because it’s so remote and that there are so many more popular places to go for them.

On the way home, the roads had a lot less traffic than earlier, which let us really try out the Autobahn.  My friend had reached the car’s top speed of around 190 to 195 km/h (perfectly legal by the way).  The whole time he drove, I had a really strong urge to have a try myself, but I didn’t have my driver’s license.  After we gassed up the car, I couldn’t resist the urge anymore and so I drove.  We all knew that if anything happened, we’d be pretty screwed.  Because of that, I didn’t drive for very long.  I probably only drove for about 20 minutes. 

Even though there was no speed limit, I felt quite uneasy driving at 190 km/h and it just didn’t feel right.  I didn’t really feel that I had control of the car, but that might have been because I hadn’t driven for six months.  It was fun while it lasted I guess.  Even though our car was going pretty fast, we saw a few Benz’s and Porsches go by at speeds of over 200 km/h.  They just zoomed right past us.

After three and a half hours of driving, we safely arrived back in Stuttgart.  It was great being able to see the Eagle’s Nest (even if for such a short time).  It was one of those places that I had to see before I left Europe.  Driving on the Autobahn was great too and now I can say that I’ve done that.  It was a great trip.

More photos here

Here is my next travel blog entry about my visit to Berlin. In a short three days, we managed hit up quite a few places in the city, especially the historical areas about the Cold War and the Second World War. I would have liked to have posted this sooner, but my computer refused to cooperate.

Massive Train Delay

I was always under the impression that the Deutsche Bahn was always on time, but I guess that’s not true anymore. The City Night Line was supposed to leave at 12 AM from Mannheim and arrive in Berlin at around 7:30, but due to a train crash causing a chemical spill in Switzerland, our train took a detour. It arrived three and a half hours late. At first it was supposed to only be a 170 minute delay, but as time went on, the delay went longer and longer. To pass the time, we walked around Mannheim late at night, and pretty much saw the entire city, AKA the schloss, in about an hour. We spent the rest of the time just moping around the station. It was cold at night too and I never expected to be waiting so long so I ended up freezing when I was outside. I tried sleeping on the benches, but that didn’t really work for me, and instead ended up sitting there eating snacks until the train came. Maybe we should have chilled at a bar instead. Because of the long wait for the train, I didn’t sleep too well. It also didn’t help that I forgot to reserve a spot that had a bed, and I instead reserved a reclining seat instead. Because of the late train, the conductors handed out a giant form in pure German for people to fill out to get part of their money back.

Berlin Hauptbahnhof

We arrived in Berlin at about 10:30 in the morning, 3 hours later than scheduled. We all got off the train, still super tired, and started our journey in Berlin. The Berlin main station was the biggest station I’d seen so far. It had a really modern look using glass everywhere they could. Its sheer size allowed for a lot of businesses to open inside the station. The station had three floors with two floors used as train platforms. Coincidentally, it was also the station’s fifth birthday. When we got outside, we could see the German Reichstag within a walkable distance.

German Reichstag

Seeing that we could already see the Reichstag when we walked out of the Hauptbahnhof, we proceeded there first. Since I played so many World War II games, I already knew what the Reichstag looked like. Over the years, the Reichstag underwent a few renovations such as the glass dome that was added after the war. The rest of the building looked so similar to what I had seen in video games and historical photos that as I walked up the stairs, it briefly reminded of me of the guy with the flamethrower in the cut-scene in Call of Duty 5. I also remembered some of the iconic photographs I’d seen such as the soldier waving the flag of the Soviet Union on the roof.

Prior to going to Berlin, I had reserved spots for the roof terrace and the dome (according to their website, people couldn’t go up there without a reservation). Before going in, I had to put my stuff through their X-Ray machine (maybe they’re afraid of terrorists or something). They had confiscated my Swiss Army Knife for the duration that I was up there. At the roof terrace, the staff issued audio guides to every guest. While walking to different areas of the dome, the audio guide would automatically begin talking about parts of the city that one could see from that part of the dome. I didn’t really pay attention to the boring voice of the audio guide and the information that it had wasn’t all that interesting (it really didn’t matter to me if I knew how many rooms were in a particular building or the land area it took up).

Brandenburg Gate

From the top of the Reichstag, we could see the one of the symbols of Germany, the Brandenburg Gate. It is located at one end of the street Unter den Linden, and was used as a sign of peace during the Prussian Empire. Since it is also one of the most famous landmarks in Europe, there were naturally a lot of tourists here. So much so that there were people dressed up in weird costumes to earn money from people taking pictures with them. There were a few people holding American and USSR flags and even people dressed up as Star Wars characters. Near the gate were also a embassies of various countries such as France and the United States. One of the buildings even proudly waved the flag of Quebec (I don’t know why and it wasn’t the Canadian embassy either).

Eastener Hostel

By now, we were already super tired from the lack of sleep and from carrying our bags around all day. We took the city train to our hostel for a quick rest and to drop off some of our stuff. The man at the hostel was super thorough in explaining the rules of the hostel (with his East German accent) and even took the time to give us a map and point of the major tourist destinations on it. Using this map, we were able to find all the places we wanted to go to. By the end of the trip, the map had tears in several places and random folds here and there, clearly showing how intensely I used it.

Ampelmann

While walking around the city, I noticed that the pedestrian traffic light signals had a different design than the rest of Germany. Apparently, the traffic light man used in some places in Berlin were based off of the design used in former East Germany. I thought this Ampelmann guy was pretty cool.

The Remains of the Berlin Wall near Nordbahnhof

One of the locations that the map pointed us to were to some of the remnants of the Berlin Wall. Before coming to Berlin, I had a thought of posing at the wall with a hammer, but I never got one and I don’t think the people would have been very happy with me doing that. The segments of the wall here showed a lot of graffiti along its entire length. The city also preserved the guard tower and showed some of the methods of preventing escapes. Also in the area was a memorial for those who died while trying to flee to West Germany.

East German Cars

One of the peculiar things about Berlin was the fact that tourists can still take rides in cars (known as a Trabant or Trabi for short) that the GDR once used. I looked inside one of them and it just seemed so old and run down. I figure the only reason that these cars are still around are because of their historical/moneymaking value.

Really Cool Old-Style German Font

When I walked through some of the old train stations, I came across a really cool looking vintage font that I felt was so characteristic of Germany. Maybe I watched too many documentaries or something.

Checkpoint Charlie

Taking the train from Nordbahnhof, we made our way to Checkpoint Charlie, one of the border crossings once used before the unification of East and West Germany. The old border crossing booth and the sign telling people they’re leaving the American Sector still remains today. Standing outside are also two people holding American flags. Near the border booth, there is a giant sign with an American soldier on it and on the reverse side, there is a Soviet soldier. On the street, street vendors sold random things like fur hats with the logo of the Soviet Union on it, gas masks, and flags of the GDR and USSR.

Haus am Checkpoint Charlie

Adjacent to the border crossing, there was a museum dedicated to the documenting the border security between East and West Germany. The museum documented various methods of escape such as hiding people inside the hood of a car and using a hot air balloon. Also displayed were tools that people used to escape like special wall climbing footwear and stories of escapes. Seeing all these different methods made me realize how smart these people were. I would have never thought of something like that. Sadly, I was already super tired while walking through this museum and I was ready to just go back to the hostel and sleep. It was still light out at the time. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take photographs in this museum.

DFB Cup Final

While in Berlin, we saw a lot of people walking around wearing stuff from football teams and apparently the DFB Cup Final was to be played in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. To catch the football game, we went to a bar to tune in. While at this bar, I got to try Berlin-style wheat beer. Theirs was different than the wheat beer I usually drink because here, they had beer cocktails. I tried the red and green Berliner wheat beer. The red one had a raspberry flavour while the green one had a woodruff flavour.

The Fernsehturm

The Fernsehturm is the TV tower where people can go up to see a view of the city. It is also one of the tallest buildings in the European Union. We didn’t go here since we didn’t really care so much about the view and we went to see other landmarks instead.

Potsdamer Platz at Night

According to my boss at work, Potsdamer Platz was a must see at night, and after seeing it for myself, I totally agree with him. The beauty of this place was the architecture that looked so beautiful in the night, especially the Sony Center. The roof of the Sony Center was shaped like an umbrella and its color would gradually change between blue and purple.

Französische Straße

Located on this street were the Französischer Dom, Berlin Concert House, and Deutscher Dom. Each of these three buildings have quite a bit of history and are all have amazing architecture. This place is definitely the place to be to see old-style architecture in Berlin.

Fassbender & Rausch Chocolatiers

This chocolatier is quite well known and their store is frequently visited by tourists. What makes it so special is that they built many of the landmarks in Berlin out of chocolate. Anything made of chocolate is cool. The longer I stayed in this store, the bigger craving for chocolate I had.

Führerbunker

During the Battle of Berlin, Hitler stayed in his bunker beneath his New Reich Chancellery. I went to the location of where the bunker once was only to find the area replaced by pretty regular things like shops and apartments. The side of the street here had plaques explaining the history of this area and its use for Hitler’s Bunker.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Near Hitler’s Bunker was a memorial for the Jewish victims of the holocaust. The memorial had thousands of concrete blocks, or stelae, of varying heights arranged in a grid pattern. According to one of the designers of the memorial, Peter Eisenman, he stated that “the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason.” Walking through the memorial reminded me so much of Bomberman. The memorial had the grid pattern just like in the game. It would probably also be really fun jumping from one block to the next, but it would have been really disrespectful.

Potsdamer Platz during the Day

To take a break and relax during the day, we went back to Potsdamer Platz for a beer. Now I understand why my boss told me to come here at night instead of during the day. It doesn’t look as nice at this hour.

Victory Column

Similar to the Arc de Triomphe on Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Victory column stands in the end of the street Unter den Linden and is similarly surrounded by a giant roundabout. The column serves to commemorate the Prussian victories in the Danish-Prussian War, Austro-Prussian War, and the Franco-Prussian War. Surrounding the column are other smaller statues. One of the statues, I thought I saw my last name on it, but looking more closely, I realized it said “Roon” instead of “Poon”. What a bummer.

Schloss Bellevue

Located in the Tiergarten District of Berlin is the official residence of the President of Germany. We sat on the grass outside the residence to take a rest and to admire the beauty of the schloss and to watch the bike race that was happening just on the adjacent road.

Soviet War Memorial

Built using stone from the Reich Chancellery not long after the end of the Second World War, this memorial remembers the war dead of the Soviet Union, particularly the 80 000 soldiers who died in the Battle of Berlin. The memorial is of a statue of a Soviet soldier and on its left and right sides are two 152 mm Howitzer artillery pieces and two T-34 tanks (for some reason, birds like to go inside the barrel of the tank’s main gun). When I looked at the artillery piece, I tried to open the chamber for where the rounds go and tried to change the angle of the gun, but none of that worked. I’m pretty sure they didn’t want people messing with it. Behind the building is a small museum documenting the memorial’s construction and the Battle of Berlin. The memorial used to be guarded by Soviet troops during the Cold War even though it was in the British zone of occupation and now it is managed by the city.

Hackesche Höfe

One of my friends suggested that we go here since this place is known for its beautiful courtyards. It had eight interconnected courtyards, each with its own unique design. Some of the courtyards had tables for people to relax with coffee or beer while others had gardens.

Berliner Dom

Located on Museum Island, the Berliner Dom is a cathedral that belongs to the Evangelical Church. What was weird was that when we arrived there, we saw a group of people there having a cosplay party. There was one guy waving around a flag of the Empire of Japan. I never knew Anime was that big in Germany. Even weirder is that some of these kids were frolicking in the fountain in front of the Dom.

Museum Island

Another well known landmark in Berlin is Museum Island, which is an area with five internationally well known museums. They are the Altes Museum, Neues Museum, Alte Nationalgalerie, Bode Museum, and Pergamon Museum. We didn’t go in any of these museums since none of us were that interested in what the museums had to offer. The Alte Nationalgalerie had a look that seemed to have been inspired by the Greek Parthenon (but I’m not sure). While we were there, the sky started raining for about 15 minutes. It was quite refreshing since it was really hot earlier in the day.

Food

Although we didn’t try any food that were unique to Berlin (such as currywurst), we did splurge for one of our meals, and I found the food we had to be really delicious. Since Berlin is a lot closer to the coast than Stuttgart, I got to enjoy better quality seafood.

New Synagogue

Prior to the Second World War, the synagogue was badly damaged during Kristallnacht and the synagogue could no longer hold any services. Since the war, the synagogue was reconstruct and it is now the main synagogue for the Jewish community in Berlin.

Olympic Stadium

The current stadium was originally built for the 1936 Summer Olympics. Since the stadium was built during the Nazi period, the architecture of the building follows the Nazi style. Apparently, it was at these Olympic games that the tradition of the torch marathon began.

Potsdamer Platz for the Third Time

On our second night in Berlin, we went back to the Sony Center to relax for a little bit again. This time I got to try new kinds of beer such as mango and passion fruit flavoured wheat beer. It had an interesting flavour, but I thought the regular kind tasted a little better.

The Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag at Night

When we arrived here at night, we found this place to be deserted even though the landmarks here looked amazing in the night. It was a good thing for us since there weren’t any tourists around. It allowed me to get really clear shots of these places.

The East Side Gallery

This area contains a continuous segment of the Berlin Wall that is 1.3 km in length. Along the wall are paintings from artists around the world to promote freedom in the world. The gallery also features the iconic political painting of Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker kissing during the days of the GDR. There was also a souvenir shop here that stamped people’s passports with the GDR stamp for one euro. I thought that was a cool gimmick.

The Topography of Terror

To document the terrible deeds that the Nazi regime and the SS perpetrated between 1933 and 1945, an open-air museum was set up at the site of an old SS installation. It talked about how the Nazi’s transported people from conquered areas to the concentration and extermination camps set up across the continent. There was even a special exhibit just on the war crimes perpetrated by Adolf Eichmann. Near the museum were also SS buildings that have been converted to government offices.

Going Home

After three days of travelling in Berlin, we were all very tired and we were ready to go home. We went to our train platform for the ICE Sprinter about five minutes before the departure to find out that our train wasn’t there. We had no idea were it was and we didn’t want to miss the train. Apparently, some arsonists damaged some parts of the railway so the train ended up stopping on a different platform. Luckily, we found out in time and we managed to get on before it left. On the way back, I got to see some fantastic scenery of the German country side.

Souvenirs

I found that it was this trip that I spent the most money on souvenirs. I ended up buying Ampelmann themed cell phone accessories and a full sized flag of the USSR (not that I’m a communist or anything).

More photos here

I gotta say, I was pretty spoiled before.  Not in the way of material things, but more the fact that my parents did all the cooking, laundry and pretty much all the other house cleaning chores.  I don’t think I ever had to set foot in a grocery store either.  All the food my mom bought and cooked, I ate.  She even took the time to make the food that I liked to eat.  That all changed when I came to Germany.  Well, it’s been a time of firsts.

Cooking

To state this bluntly, I can’t cook.  I came here without knowing one of the most critical things to keep myself alive.  In order to avert the crisis of me starving to death, I had to learn this crucial skill.  I already know how to cook like eggs, bacon, and pasta (but not the sauce, unfortunately), but it’s not like I really know how to cook.  I can’t eat that stuff everyday either.  I remember during my first few weeks here, I researched online for different recipes.  I sucked so much at cooking that I didn’t even understand what I was reading.  Marinate? Sautee? What?  Instead of following recipes, I took a different approach.  I started with the easy stuff.  Potatoes.  I was so bad that I even cut myself the first time I tried cooking potatoes.  I think I’ve gone a long way since then.  Now I know how to marinate my meat (thanks to my mom for teaching me that over VOIP), and how to make sauces like curry.  It doesn’t sound like much, but I probably quadrupled, if not tripled my cooking knowledge.  I want to learn some more like how to steam my own fish and cook rice with a stove (too bad I don’t have a rice cooker).  I am by no means a decent chef at all, but it’s a start.

Grocery Shopping

I wasn’t so clueless in this regard, but it didn’t help when I couldn’t read any of the food labels in the supermarket.  Luckily I installed an English-Deutsch dictionary app on my phone before I left Vancouver.  The app saved me so many times already.  It was kind of like, “What the hell does this mean?”, type type type, and then “oh, so that’s what it is”.  I think I ended up eating nothing by sandwiches for almost a whole week.  I mean, I can buy eggs, sausages, bacon and all that, but I had no idea what canola oil was called.  The dictionary didn’t help here, unfortunately, since they used a different word altogether.  Eventually, I figured out everything, and now I’m buying all the food I can eat and more.

Laundry

My flat doesn’t have a washing machine, and I wasn’t about to pay to go to the Laundromat.  I didn’t even know where it was either.  I knew that my mom occasionally washed some clothes by hand and so I consulted her on how to do it.  Her instructions sounded simple enough, but I needed to go out to buy laundry detergent.  Problem: I didn’t know what that was called in German.  I looked it up on my phone and found out.  I thought it’d be pretty straight forward after knowing what laundry detergent was called, but I was so wrong.  I went to the laundry section in the store and saw about fifteen different brands/kinds of detergent.  I had no idea which was which.  I stared at the wall of items for about twenty minutes while looking up various words on my phone before I knew which one to get.

Planning Trips

Since I’m here, I must take the time to travel around Germany and its nearby countries.  Before doing that however, I had to look up the places I wanted to go.  How do I get there?  How much will it cost?  Where will I stay?  Only two methods really exist for transportation: train or plane.  To book a ticket for travelling, I had to use the Deutsche Bahn website and that site confused the hell out of me for the first little while.  But now I know.  Booking flights should have been quite simple, except for the fact that the discount airlines don’t fly out of the major airports.  Now I had to think about how to get myself to one of these airports.  Seeing that I’m not made of money, I try to optimize costs everywhere.  50 euro a night for a hostel?  No way, time to look for something cheaper.  30 euro?  That’s a good deal.  Despite all this planning, I’ve gone to so many places already, and I still have not exhausted my list of places to go.

Drinking

Stereotypes say that Germans like to drink, and it’s totally true.  Although, it’s not really my first time drinking, it is my first time making a habit of it.  Every Thursday is my drinking day.  Sometimes Saturdays too.  I’m never looking to get hammered, but I find that drinking beer and socializing is just super relaxing.  Typically, I try a new beer every week, but a lot of times I just order my favorite beer, Hefeweizen.

Living in Another Country

This is the first time I’ve ever left home for longer than a week.  I used to live on residence at the university, but I went home every weekend.  I could go home every weekend and enjoy my mom’s wonderful cooking.  I have no such luxury here.  I often find myself craving the things I’ve temporarily given up in order to be here.  Besides missing family and friends while over here, I started appreciating the little things.  It’s just things like sleeping in my own bed, sitting in my own computer chair, and eating Chinese food.

Dealing with A Landlord

I always thought a landlord was just someone you pay so you can live in their house, but I learned to realize that it’s not only that.  A landlord is analogous to a dictator (but obviously not as bad).  They pretty much have total control over how I like to live in their space.  If they’ve got a problem with something I’m doing, they’ll tell me and I have to change my habits for them.  Just like the time where I showered too long.  Luckily, my landlords are pretty nice people, but I could have been really unlucky and gotten some mean ones.  Maybe the mean ones might even try to kick out their tenants if they didn’t like the way their lifestyle.

When I first arrived in Germany, I was informed that every year in Cologne, a carnival would take place where people partied from dusk till dawn. I was even told that “people are drunk before 12”. I’ve never heard of anything like that before. The carnival attracted people from all walks of life. Whether they were people from England, France, America, China or any other country. Tradition has it that everyone is supposed to dress up in a costume for the carnival. I didn’t do it do it though. My excuse: I’m a foreigner. The carnival festivals would have already begun by the time I arrive, but I’ll be in time for Rosenmontag, when the parade is held.

To get to Cologne, my friend and I took the InterCity train. It goes a lot faster than the RB and RE trains that we took before. We reached Heidelberg in 45 minutes instead of the hour and a half it took us before. Every time the train goes through a tunnel my ears went crazy similar to how it feels when a plane takes off. As should have been expected, the train to Cologne was super packed and we spent the better part of half an hour standing until the conductor came by and informed us that there were empty seats near the back of the train. I sat down with a group of Chinese and Taiwanese exchange students. Probably because I’m used to seeing Asians everywhere like in Vancouver, it seemed a lot more normal to me when I sat down with the Asian crowd.

I started a conversation with them in Mandarin since I’ve barely spoken a word of Chinese to anybody except to my parents and asked them where they were from. We all ended up talking until the end of the train ride. I tried my best to speak in Mandarin, but seeing that I barely know the language I often couldn’t understand what was being said and couldn’t express myself. Luckily one of the people in their group spoke Cantonese and was able to translate. Ironically, this was the most Mandarin I ever spoke in my life in a single day. Eventually, we all just ended up speaking English. I suppose thats the way it works when a group of Asians all speak different dialects of Chinese.

One of the girls had a habit of keeping a list of names of everyone she has met with where and when they met. Interesting hobby. In a way, it’s like signing someone’s yearbook at the end of the school year. Before the train ride ended, we all took a picture together even though we had just met. My friend and I thought that was really funny since we and the group of interns always talked about the stereotype where Asians really like to take pictures.

We went our separate ways not long after we arrived at the Koln Hauptbahnhof. When we exited the station, we saw huge crowds of people dressed up in costumes and some were dancing to carnival music with beers in their hands. Groups of people gathered around street performers playing carnival music and looked like they were having a great time. Looking further into the distance, the sight of the Koln Dom struck us. This cathedral totally sets the first impressions for every single person who visits this city. It was taller and bigger than all the churches and cathedrals I saw in the past. I stood about 50 m away from it and still couldn’t get a complete shot of it. My next thought was, “We have to go inside.” Unfortunately, the church was closed because of the carnival. I hoped that maybe we could visit it the next day, Sunday, when people go to church.

According to the tourist info center, almost all of the city’s tourist attractions would be closed for the carnival, which meant there was nothing to see except the carnival. We walked around the plaza where the cathedral was and saw the most unique costumes ever. Even hobos on the street had a costume. Apart from the usual ones like schoolgirls, policemen, and suits of various animals, by far the best one was a group of people dressed up as bulls and Spaniards to reenact the bull festival. Unfortunately, they ran by too fast for me to be able to get a picture of it. The ones dressed up as the bulls literally ran after the others down the street. Everyone heard their yelling and screaming and they definitely attracted a lot of attention.

Prior to coming to Cologne, we organized the trip with other interns at UBC that currently work in Hanover. While we waited for the others to arrive, the only thing to do was to go to our hotel and drop off our things and walk around the city center. As expected, all the shops on the street were closed, except for restaurants, souvenir stores and street vendors. Since we planned the trip late, all of the hotels/hostels close to the city center were either booked way in advance or costed an arm and a leg. We ended up staying at a hotel in a suburb called Wahn, and it took a bus and a train ride to get to the city center.

The hotel gave off a Chinese vibe the moment we went in because the hotel’s restaurant served Chinese food and they hung up Chinese paintings everywhere. I even overheard one of the chef’s speaking in Mandarin to someone else over the phone. The reason I even mention this is because I didn’t think Germany’s Asian community was that large so I didn’t expect something like this. Almost all the Asians I see come to Germany as tourists.

After dropping off our things at the hotel we walked to the train station since we never figured out the location of the bus stop. Along the way, we found the townspeople in the suburb had their own carnival parade. As usual, almost every adult held a beer in their hand. It was nowhere as massive as the celebration in the city center, but the streets were crowded enough such that it took us at least half an hour to walk to the station when it should have taken only twenty minutes. Everywhere I went, I’d always step on glass from people just smashing the shot bottles on the ground when they were done with them. These were everywhere in the city center.

After arriving at the main station again, we met up with the others from UBC. The party began at that point. After all, the Cologne Carnival gives people good reason to party even harder than usual. After buying the local beer, the ten of us went to one of the rooms they stayed at and got our drink on. Before long, a lot of us were tipsy, if not drunk. Good thing for me though, is that I only had 2 beers. I didn’t quite like the taste of Koelsch. Before going outside, we carried as much beer as we could. While outside, we looked for a bar or club. Cologne at night became a totally different place. Everyone outside at night were pretty much people who probably had too much to drink. I know this happens in big cities, but during the carnival, there are just more drunks out than usual. A lot of the drunkards broke out in carnival folk songs, while we as Canadians sang the Canadian national anthem. The people there probably didn’t even know what we were singing about.

Even in our intoxicated state, we still looked at the Cologne Dom in amazement. I couldn’t stop looking at it. I even managed to get some nighttime photos of it. Looking at those pictures, a lot of them were quite blurry. Around the church plaza, we’d hear a group of people just randomly yelling every now and then.

When we got to the old town, there were a lot more people than at the cathedral, and like us, they too wandered around the town looking for a good time. And almost right away, our group separated. It’s quite difficult to keep a bunch of drunk people together I guess. We ended up in several different bars and not really staying in one place for over ten minutes. Nothing super crazy happened anyway. My friend and I stayed out late enough to miss our last bus back to our hotel, so we ended up speedwalking our way back in the freezing cold. That was a very long fifteen minutes. At the time, everything felt great, but once I sobered up the next day, I realized everything I did at the time was completely pointless.

The next morning, we went back into town and went to the tourist information center to see what was open today. While there, I saw two of the Asian girls we met on the train here and they told us the cathedral was open and that they went there already. I was very eager to go inside the cathedral. It’s one of the most amazing works of architecture and civil engineering of the olden times I’ve ever seen. The inside of the cathedral didn’t disappoint either. When I walked in, a sermon was going on so none of the tourists were allowed to freely wander around. But since a sermon was happening, we heard the church organs. The music filled the entire cathedral and everyone probably thought that was the most beautiful church music they’ve ever heard in their life.

I noticed that all the churches and cathedrals I’ve visited follow a similar pattern in their construction. Above the entrance is always the church tower with the bells and the left and right sides of the entrance are usually statues set up to illustrated Jesus’ sacrifice in some way. The windows there always face east west, probably to allow the suns rays to illuminate the entire scene.

The agenda today for the carnival was that there would be a parade featuring the children of Cologne. No offense to the children, but the parade really wasn’t all that interesting or maybe I’m just not a fan of parades. The best thing about it though was that they gave out candy. They grabbed handfuls and handfuls of candy and just threw it at the crowds. At one point they even brought out a catapult. The more candy they threw out, the more candy wrappers ended up on the street. But since the city has been doing the carnival for years, they were quite prepared. The fact that the garbage crews cleaned up the town overnight amazed me. There was almost no more broken glass everywhere, but that all changed as the day went on.

The best part of today was visiting the Rhine River that goes through Cologne. On such a sunny day, the view was amazing. While walking across the bridge to the other side of the Rhine we saw that on the entire length of the bridge couples that just got married would place locks on the fence stating their names and their date of marriage. There were easily at least a hundred thousand locks. We met up with our friends from UBC and together we chilled at a spot overlooking the Rhine, and watched as the sun slowly set.

Almost everywhere we went, we could hear carnival music, either from marching bands, street performers or giant speakers. It really set the mood for the whole celebration.

For dinner, I had a very unique steak sandwich. The steak itself was probably three times the size of the bread. It was about half an inch thick at least six inches in length and width. It costed six euros, but it was definitely worth it.

At night, the same routine as last night happened, but while we were drinking, we heard stories of the night before. All the stories just sounded super outrageous. I heard stories about people randomly smashing a baby carriage, high on weed, falling asleep on the street, eating breakfast with a bunch of probably homosexual Austrians dressed up as band members from KISS, and partying at a gay club. None of that happened to me (which is good), but those stories were definitely fun to hear. Since it was Sunday, the parties were not as crazy as the night before. There were a lot less people out. But we did see a really drunk French person on the street. What was so funny about him was that he kept taking our beer bottles and doing tricks with them like walking around with a bottle balanced on his head. The scary part was that he was really good at it. But like the night before, everything we did seemed pointless the next morning.

The monday of the carnival, known as Rosenmontag, featured the biggest parade of the carnival and is probably attracted more visitors than any other day of the carnival. When the parade started, we were walking on the parade route for some reason, which was kind of strange. Luckily, we weren’t the only ones so it wasn’t as awkward as it was supposed to be. The parade was similar to the previous days’ parade, but there a lot more marching bands that played and larger parade floats. They gave out more candy too. People would call out “kamelle!”, which means “sweets” in order to get the people in the parade to throw candy to them. Some of the floats had political messages about Facebook and Google Streetview denying people of their privacy. On four separate occasions, a chocolate bar hit me directly in the head. One of them impacted directly on my sunglasses and protected me. I ate so much candy that after watching the parade for over four hours that my stomach told me it had enough. I didn’t even eat dinner. In the beginning, we were all excited about catching the candy they threw at us, but four hours later, we thought, “when does the parade end?” At one point we began to dodge the candy thrown at us. We had way too much. Seeing that the parade hadn’t ended for so long, and that we stood in the cold for all that time, we left prematurely before taking the train back to Stuttgart. While walking back, we came across someone throwing confetti and I somehow managed to walk right into a cluster of flying confetti. During the course of the parade, the city turned from something beautiful into a city with garbage laden streets. Most people never took the time to throw their candy wrappers in the garbage. And also like the other nights, broken beer bottles filled the streets. It also didn’t help when people kept throwing confetti into the air.

Before leaving, I took a few more pictures of the cathedral. I kept thinking I needed more and more pictures of it. The architecture just amazed me so much.

On the way back, our IC train was delayed so we got to ride the faster ICE train in order to make our connecting train on time. We didn’t get a seat since there was basically two trains ful of people jam packed into one train. We ended up at Frankfurt Airport as part of the slight detour. The trains that we took were all full of people who had just come from the carnival and were probably still super drunk. They stayed on the train that way and ended up yelling, screaming and banging on the walls for the whole duration of the ride. Public intoxication is a very common thing in Germany, and it’s not only on special occasions like these. After four hours of train rides, we finally got home, and just in time to sleep and go back to work the next day…

My photo album for Cologne