From Pivo to Bier and Back

Hi All! I'm back in lovely (but windy/rainy) Edinburgh after a fantastic week in Prague. In my last post, I promised I'd write a bit about our day-trip to Dresden. For those of you who don't know where Dresden is (it's OK, I had to look on a map too), it's almost directly south of Berlin, but right on Germany's border with the Czech Republic. More importantly, it's only about 400km from the best place in Germany: Usbeckstraße, Niederzwehren (that's Usbeck St.)!



It was about a 2-hour train ride from Prague to Dresden with Cody and Chris. We shared a cabin with a really nice (and very pretty) Czech girl, Petra, who was on her way to the Dominican Republic.



On the train, I took a bunch of pictures of the towns we passed through. There are some really nice houses buried out in the middle-of-nowhere, CZ. The leaves are changing color now too, so there weren't a shortage of nice views.



Quick history lesson: Dresden was almost completely destroyed in WWII and has since been rebuilt. The architecture there seems very similar to that of Prague (to the untrained eye). The buildings are all very elaborate and the landscaping is really nice.



A river, whose German name I won't even attempt, runs through the North part of the city. We saw a lot of the attractions to the South of the river, but I'll admit, we definitely were lost for a decently long time.




After getting our bearings, we found the old city and went around to each of the buildings in the square. We also saw a group of old German guys singing in the middle of the square - they were pretty great.



We took a break from all our strenuous sight-seeing at a beer garden (you can see it in the above picture with the yellow umbrellas). The local beer-of-choice in Dresden is Feldschlösschen Pilsner which I enjoyed even more than the Pilsner Urquelle of Prague, but it's not quite as good as Kozel (from Prague).

I suppose I should explain the title of this post (via a 3-part analogy):

Pivo : Czech :: Bier : German :: Beer : English




One of my favorite places in Dresden was the Zwinger. The name 'zwinger' means 'interspace' and originates from its location between the city forts. It's now a museum and the large courtyard is really nice to walk around.



The Zwinger courtyard has some very elaborate patterns in the ground, and some really cool passages between the buildings that compose the walls of the courtyard.



All-in-all, it was a really great day-trip and I highly recommend it. The food was delicious - the beer was fantastic - the people were nice - the city was interesting. We were able to use credit cards everywhere, so we didn't have to worry about getting euro, and my mastery of the German language came in very handy (I successfully communicated with a German via pointing and shrieking "CITY??").

My academic advisor, Bill Regli, is in Edinburgh this weekend, so I've been spending some time with him. Maybe my next post will be about Drexel CS overseas. I'm open for suggestions... is there anything you guys would like to know about?

Czech Please

Hey Everyone! I'm in Prague this week to visit my friends Chris & Cody and do some work at Czech Tech University (CTU). I got here on Saturday Oct 18 at 10:50am (meaning I woke up at 4:30am to catch the plane), and the guys took me around the city.



The architecture is so amazingly elaborate and everything is so well maintained. But what I found out is that Prague is really a "commuter city." On the weekends, a lot of the locals go elsewhere because it gets packed with tourists and all the shops and restaurants hike up their prices. That means fewer struggles trying to communicate with sole-Czech speakers, but also fewer authentic Czech experiences.



Still, we managed to find a few good local spots and snag a few pictures. We also took frequent breaks to try the local beers - and it's true, they're actually cheaper than water here. My favorite so far is a Czech lager, Kozel, which is very sweet. For the rest of the day, I caught up with Chris and Cody and heard about some of their foreign language/culture antics.



Sunday, we went to Dresden, but I'll save that for another post ;-)

Monday, the guys went to work and left me to explore the city on my own. I bee-lined right to the Prague Castle (along with every other tourist that was in the city on Monday). The castle sits on a hill, so the walk up was incredibly scenic. But it didn't end there... I went to the Cathedral and walked around for almost an hour. It reminded me a lot of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York but much larger and much more elaborate. Despite the construction that prevented me from going up to the very top and ruined a lot of otherwise-great pictures, it was a fantastic place to go.



The views from the castle show you just how similar (but great) some of the buildings in the city look. It makes it a really cool place to walk around, and a very easy place to get lost!



Then I walked into Old Town in the city center and went to the top of the clock tower. There were a lot of great views from it, and the 70 CZK (about $3) was worth just the ride up.

The food has been spectacular - it's all basically meat & potatoes, but everything is prepared so well! Also, it's considerably cheaper than the UK. $1 = about 18 CZK. Lunch everyday costs 90 CZK (about $5) and I had a pretty expensive dinner out tonight, it was 209 CZK (about $11.50).



Communication has been fun... I've gotten flustered a few times when people started talking to me in Czech and I responded in broken Spanish. I'm an idiot. But Chris & Cody & I have been managing pretty well by pointing.

...and this was way too funny for me not to post. I got a coffee from Starbucks (I know - Starbucks - I could get it anywhere, but it's really hard to say "to go" in Czech), and the girl working there spent some time in Boston and knew that the Sox blew it. Long story short, I thought it was so cool that someone here watched (or at least cared about) baseball. So I got my coffee back and this was how she spelled my name:



KCHAJL

...not bad

Prague Prep

At Pat's request, I recorded a cover of Matt Nathanson's "Church Clothes" on my new 12-string. It's a lot of fun to play, but as you'll soon see, it's different enough that I still need a lot of practice.



I gave a presentation about the work we do at Drexel yesterday. It went pretty well. People seemed interesting, and it was cool to have a group of the AI research people at University of Edinburgh in one room. These are some of the best Computer Science students/professors in the *world*. I was hoping to get some photos of the Informatics Forum (where I presented) today, but I got to walk home with one of my co-workers instead (it turns out my flat is on his way home), so it didn't happen. I will take some pictures another time - it's a really cool building, and brand new - so nice and shiny!

The weekend before last, there was a crazy random parade that went down the Royal Mile. It was basically a barrage of bagpipes and drums, but there were some creepy floats (mostly animal heads). I only caught the tail-end on video, but the volume gives you a pretty good idea of the shear number of bagpipes that actually exist in this country.



I leave for Prague this Saturday. Now that I'm finally getting settled in, I'm going to miss Edinburgh.

Climbing the Crags part Deux

Sorry you haven't heard from me in the past few days, but it's because I had a great weekend. I finally did some outdoor rock climbing on Saturday at the Salisbury Crags.



The scouting I did last week paid off, because I was able to find a place to meet my friend, Tom, for a hike. Tom is also visiting the University from the states. At the end of the hike, we ended up at a rock that was perfect for bouldering.



This was the first time I ever climbed outdoors. It's remarkably similar to climbing at the gym - maybe a little easier since your not restricted to only grabbing holds with a certain color. All I know is... it felt GREAT!



...it felt so great, in fact, that I went back again on Sunday and climbed the entire south-face of one rock.



After having climbed outdoors, I now can more fully understand some of the moves at the gym - and why people need to practice them. In the picture above, I got to employ one of my favorite techniques - and I made an *awesome* face too.



I plan on going climbing again very soon - but I'm spending next weekend in Prague with Chris and Cody (some buddies from work). I'm really looking forward to it, and my advisor, Dr. Regli, is coming to Edinburgh for a few days when I get back next week. So, rest assured, there will be some great blog posts after next week.



I gave a talk to some of the people doing similar research at University of Edinburgh today. I'll have a post later this week with some photos from the building, and possibly even a video of a parade that went down the royal mile this weekend past.

Miss you all!

Climbing the Crags

Hey Guys! On Sunday, the weather was great so I took a walk down the Royal Mile to Parliament and Arthur's Seat.



The parliament building is amazing. It's built to look like twigs and leaves from above, and to go with that theme, the sides are adorned with bamboo and leaf-shaped things. It sits right in front of Arthur's Seat.



Other sides of the parliament have a very modern feel. Opinions about this building are mixed 1) because such a modern building in a VERY old city looks slightly out-of-place, and 2) because it apparently went drastically over-budget.



There's a pretty neat little sitting area with a reflecting pond that seems to be a local hang-out (wow I sound old) for high-school kids.



I tried to do some exploration around Salisbury Crags, just west of Arthur's Seat, but for some reason, I couldn't really find any of the spots that I heard of online. It turns out that I was on the wrong side of the mountain. Apparently I'm not the only that has made this mistake because the website where I looked today is titled "What do you mean you're lost?!?! They're big enough, aren't they?"



I took a walk completely around the north-west face and back down to the south-east side. I took this photo towards the end of the walk hoping to give you some perspective about how massive this rock actually is, but it's so far in the distance here that it seems kind of small relative to the cars... o well, I tried.




Here's a video of some of the bouldering that's available on the crags. You apparently have to be careful here though, because some of the spots are "off-limits" as you'll see from the sign in the movie.

Link to video (it was trying to load it even if people didn't play it)

Tour de 'burgh

When I got home from buying my guitar, there was a guided tour right outside my door. It was a little embarrassing because I needed to excuse myself to get into the building they were talking about. But, apparently they give tours of this place pretty often and I can hear some of the guides when the flat is quiet. I learned that Scotland is home of the heart attack - it's the country where heart disease is the most prominent. not so good for me

On that same note... it may not be the case *everywhere* in Scotland, but most of the toilet seats that I've encountered here are noticeably larger than those in the US. This poses quite a problem for the... let's call them (since I'm in the UK)... bum-deficient. Should I disappear for a few days, may I suggest first searching the men's restrooms.

...and now for a virtual tour of my flat from yours truly...

My New Brunswick

Hey all! I had a very busy weekend so I have to split it up over a couple posts. The first will center around my Saturday - pretty much a trip to the guitar store...



First of all, I bought a guitar!!! I got a Brunswick 12-string. It's got a very bright timbre and it was a lot of guitar for the money. And since I'm already out of my comfort zone here, I did a little haggling too and got a small discount. I was proud of myself.



This is the place where I found the guitar - Mev Taylor's Music - it was a nice little shop - the owner helped me find exactly what I was looking for.



I got to see the Edinburgh Castle from a different angle on the way to the guitar shop. It's easy to see how this thing would be pretty much impenetrable back in the 15-16 century. The rock facade is beautiful, partially covered in moss. In contrast, the cannons point in every direction - really cool. I can't wait for friends/family to get here so I can give my world-famous (to Pat & Ursula) fake-tour of the castle. There's no factual information on my tour, but if you miss the real tour, and you have a plane to catch - it's the best you can get!



In other news, my dryer is still on a rampage... This time, it only burnt a few of my shirts, but the rest came out so wrinkly that after 15-minutes of ironing, they're still bad. Does that even look like a shirt?!?!

Dryer 1 - Kyle 0

So, I moved into my new flat on the Royal Mile! This is a picture I took from out my front window yesterday. It's a great location and has a beautiful view. However, I'll continue my trend of revealing far too much embarrassing insight into my life with a somewhat humorous anecdote about my struggle with European appliances. Has anyone else ever seen a true washer/dryer combination? I'm not talking a washing machine next-to/on-top-of a dryer... I mean 1-machine, 2-functions, washer/dryer. Well, I certainly never have. After reading some instructions provided by my landlord (I swear I actually read the instructions - first time in my life - but I did), I fired the thing up with about 1/2 of a load. Well, I neglected to change the dryer-time setting dial and a few of my shirts are actually singed and a few pairs of boxers have lost all elasticity in their waste-band. O well... win some, lose some!


Also, on Wednesday, I went to a lunchtime talk in the "School of Informatics Forum" - a new building for a lot of science-related majors. The inside is awesome, I'll get a picture eventually... but there is a roof-top courtyard that is absolutely amazing - it has a great view and is apparently really good for lunch in the summertime.




One of the buildings I pass on my way to work is simply breathtaking... It's a brown-marble exterior that almost looks like wood if you are far away. There are also some neat cat-walks that connect upper-levels to different parts of the building - you can kind of see some in this photo. I poked my head in on the way to work this morning and found out that it's the National Museum of Scotland, so I'm going to try to go back at some point and check it out. Sorry for the bus in the photo, it drove right in front of me as I was shooting the picture. But if you look closely, some of the tourist in the back are waiving - so that's nice!


I hope that everyone back home is doing well - and rooting for the Phillies for me! I'm doing another load of laundry today so hopefully the dryer and Phils won't have the same record. Also, since my favorite Flyer, Sami Kapanen, retired at the end of last year, I need a new favorite - I'm ready for suggestions.