Eating Solo

As some of you may or may not know, I've got this semi-phobia, or rather just strong aversion to eating in public by myself - it just feels weird and I think people would look at me funny, like "what's wrong with this guy - he doesn't have any friends who would eat with him?" or something like that... Well, while I was in Germany, the hotel I stayed at had a full breakfast every morning, and most mornings I'd meet Yuen down there, so I had someone to eat with, but some mornings I was late and he'd already have left, but I managed to fool myself into eating alone, kinda thinking that he'd eventually show up. So baby steps. And I just managed to convince myself to eat some Popeye's in the Atlanta airport, as I had a 4 hour layover and was really hungry. So another baby step...just thought I'd share my small personal triumph.

Castles, Cars, and Beer

9/23 - Late night at work since it was my last workday here in Germany, so Joerg-Stephan and I tried to make the most of it. Dean and I met Yuen for a late dinner at a fancy restaurant where we all had lamb chops with a yummy pepper sauce. That's about it for today...

9/24 - I woke up at the butcrack of dawn (4:45am!) to bring Yuen to the airport - he was catching a flight to Vienna to meet a group of friends for a long weekend - they were taking a tour of Europe and he was meeting up with them for Austria and then Venice. I actually decided to stay awake and get an early start for the day - that doesn't happen often! :) Anyway, Dean and I headed to the famous Neuschwanstein castle (the one Disney based their castle in the Magic Kingdom) and Hohenschwangau castle. Neuschwanstein is amazing - just hard to believe that its real, even walking inside of it - and the countryside is so picturesque - just amazing. Supposedly Ludwig II wanted to live in his own little fantasyland, well, he created one hell of a place! Hohenschwangau was Ludwig's father's castle just about a mile away and was pretty impressive too. Oh, and that hike from Hohenschwangau up to Neuschwanstein was pretty intense - felt like we were climbing up at a 45 degree angle! - and I'm sure it didn't help we took the "short" way up - a small gravel path that said it would take 10 minutes less to get to the top - what were we thinking? (or should I say, what was Dean thinking, and why'd I let him think it! :) Dean and I had a nice late lunch in the town in the valley between the two castles, then headed back to Boeblingen. What should have been a two hour trip back turned into almost 4 because they were doing contruction on the autobahn. I mention this because two things were equally impressive about this, in opposite ways. The bad - the autobahn went from two to one lanes and they didn't give much warning - just a big truck with a blinking arrow parked in the right lane that you couldn't see until you were about 50 feet away from it - caused slight merging problems and bumper to bumper traffic for 10+ kilometers. The impressive - they were literally tearing up the lane about 2 feet deep with one machine, and a couple hundred meters behind it they were laying down the new asphalt, and a few meters behind that they were steamrolling it and putting the top layer on! Now, I think about how long it took in the US to complete a few miles of resurfacing of I-10 - it seems to take us years, and over in Germany, it seems like they'd have several kilometers done by morning! ok, maybe I was just going crazy from sitting in traffic for 2 hours...guess ya had to be there...

9/25 - I ask you, would my trip to Germany been complete if I found out that one of the largest car shows in the world was taking place about two hours from me, and I didn't go? I didn't think so either! I took off on my own Sunday morning to Frankfurt to attend the Frankfurt IAA show. Here's a mental image for you from my trip there - me blasting down the autobahn at 140mph in my Beemer with Mozart blaring on the radio - just made me smile. Anyway, the auto show was huge - I walked through most of the 10 buildings of the convention center pretty much non-stop for 5 hours - and I still think I only saw about 2/3 of what was there. It was an eye opener to see all of the cars that just never make it to America - cars I had only seen in Gran Tourismo before now :) Anyway, I high-tailed it back to Boeblingen and Dean and I hopped on the train to Stuttgart for the Volksfest - like a mini-Oktoberfest, but still frickin' huge! Anyway, I had the worlds largest wienerschnitzel and another 3 liters of beer - good times. Gonna miss the hefeweizens over here... Chad, guess I'll be joining ya ordering those weizens when we go out! That's about it - signing off from Germany.

...Through the woods...

9/22 - I went with the department I'm working for while I'm over here on their annual Department Hike. The entire department took off at 1pm and met in the small town of Unterjesingen, about 30 minutes away and we proceeded to hike about 4 miles through the hills/mountains to a small castle that has a biergarten in its courtyard. Pretty intense uphill hike for my out of shape ass. Now, I was originally told we would hike there, then walk a short distance to the next town and take the train back to our cars - guess that got lost in translation somewhere. So after 3 beers, a nice lunch, and sitting there for 3+ hours in the sun (beautiful day, btw - clear, sunny, in the high 50's), we hiked back a different way, where we descended very steeply at first, then the rest was uphill, which meant we basically hiked uphill, both ways. And now as I write this, I think I hurt myself somehow - my left calf muscle hurts like a !@#$&. Anyway, enough whining - today just really made me realize I need to get back into a regular exercise routine. Later tonight, Yuen and I went to this little Italian Pizza place, where I ate quite possibly the best calzone of my life, and the one interesting ingredient worth mentioning was a sliced boiled egg.

Schokolade

9/21 - We hit the Ritter Sport chocolate factory today after work - stocked up on all kinds of chocolate for everyone back home - I think I bought about 25 lbs of chocolate - it was so cheap! I'll have to have a chocolate eating party when I get back. Anyway, other than that, had some Thai food for dinner and then had to go back and call into a 3 hour meeting back in Austin (from 9-midnight German time) - joy.

Centanni House, post Katrina

My buddy Keith, who lives around the corner from my parents's house, was somehow able to back to the city yesterday and take some pictures of my parents house from the outside. Other than the fallen trees, the house looks like its in ok shape, but you can see the waterline halfway up the windows, which means probably about 5 feet of water in the house for at least a week or two. I'm sure getting to see the inside will be the truly overwhelming part, but at least this puts to rest a few of the questions we've had bouncing around our minds...

Hair Salon

9/20 - I got a haircut today at an actual Salon - weird for me - and the lady didn't speak English, so that was fun - I had to point to a picture in a book she brought me! Anyway, I had my hair cut/styled, shampoo'd, and scalp massaged - man I could get used to that! Had another late day at work, so Yuen, Dean and I just went and grabbed some food at a little Italian restaurant around the corner, took a short walk around town, had schnappi time, then hit the sack.

Codon Bleu

9/19 - Not much to note - got out of work a bit late and went to dinner at the Palladium with Yuen and Dean. Dinner consisted of a huge salad and then some Swabian Chicken Cordon Bleu Ravioli things that were scrumptious - I'm a fan of anything Cordon Bleu! Other than that I've been trying to keep up with the WWL Katrina Blog http://www.wwltv.com/ and am a bit concerned about hurricane Rita, but also glad it pushed Nagin to delay the reopening of the city... I didn't think it was such a hot idea to start letting people back in so soon - Algiers and Metairie, fine - but places without water and electrical services, not so much...

OKTOBERFEST and other stuff...

9/16 - Not much to note today - went to dinner with Yuen, Dean, and Kirill (the Russian guy who I couldn't remember his name last time I mentioned him) to this little Greek resturant down the street and had a tasty meal and some sweet Greek wine in the basement of this place - kinda cool. Though the dinner got off to a bad start when they gave us a shot of "schapps" before we sat down - it was actually Ouzo, the licorice flavored liquer from Greece - and as many of you know, licorice anything and me just don't mix!! Anyway, after dinner we went to the trusty old Schonbuch Biergarten for a few beers.

9/17 - We woke up at the crack of dawn and headed to Munich with Yuen, Dean, and Chris in Dean's BMW 116i - weird little One Series BMW. After realizing that Munich was a huge city and we had no idea where Oktoberfest actually took place, we decided to just park somewhere downtown and ask someone in the trian station. We made it there about 30 minutes before the kickoff - the official tapping of the first barrell in the Lowenbrau Tent at noon. Pretty crazy... And now when I say tent, I think of either something you go camping in, or a bigger thing that you can have a picnic under - these German's have a slightly different definition. These "Tents" are massive buildings with a canvas roof - I guess the canvas roof allows them to technically be called a tent! Anyway, it was standing room only, and you can't get a drink unless you're sitting, so we stood and watched for a while, then went around the grounds and took in the sights. There are these huge tents everywhere, but its also like a giant carnival with rides and bumper cars and street venders everywhere. Lunch ended up being a brat on a bun with some mustard in the rain. Oh, I didn't mention that it was freaking COLD and rainy - 7C which is in the low 40F's. So needless to say, we weren't gonna stroll around that for long, so we decided to head over to the Deutsches Museum. This Museum is insanely huge and full of all kinds of technology, etc from the past. We were there only for about two hours, and I had to basically run through it and I don't think I saw half of it...and you know I was moving fast because I only took a few pictures in the beginning before I realized how huge it was. After the museum, we headed over to the Hofbrauhaus and sat out in the biegarten in the cold (at least it had stopped raining) and had dinner and three liters of beer...each (except Yuen since he was driving back). Yes that's right, 3 liters of beer in about 3 hours - as you can imagine, we weren't really feeling the cold much after that! The trip back to Boeblingen wasn't without incident...about halfway home, Dean, being the lightweight, ended up yakking all over himself in the car before Yuen could pull over - good times. Man, this was the first time I've had someone do that in a car I was in (another arguement for the fact that I didn't really get the college experience!). Anyway, pics from the Oktoberfest and Hofbrauhaus here.

9/18 - Yuen and I got a late start and headed to Stuttgart to check out the Mercedes and Porsche Museums - Mercedes was very in depth and well done, but both were pretty cool. And of course, being a car thing, I took pictures of everything (Mercedes here, Porsche here). We just drove around Stuttgart the rest of the afternoon with the top down, taking in the city. Dinner was at this very trendy little Thai restaurant Yuen had found last month - had some yummy chicken curry dish. Laid back day after a loooong day in Munich!

'68 Mustang

With all of the commotion surrounding Katrina and my trip back to Germany taking precedence in my life, I forgot to mention another major goings on in my life. I traded the '79 Vette for a '68 Mustang. The Mustang is in much better shape than the Vette - having been mostly restored! I know, Jerry without a Corvette...but I like most cars, and this still doesn't rule out me getting an old Vette too :)

Beer in the Lab

9/15 - Today was productive at work - learned a good bit of useful stuff. From 5-7pm we had a little celebration in the lab with beer and other tasty beverages, and some German equivalent of spam burgers, but much bigger and better and on pretzel buns. I ended up staying at work pretty late, but drove home with the top down and then just drove around town taking in the sights at night. Weather has been kinda gloomy lately - overcast and rainy/drizzly alot, but tonight was clear and cool and the air was crisp - felt like December back home.

Thanks Greg for Oktoberfest advice - I'll at least try to heed the one water for each beer I drink!

Oktober Plans...

9/14 - Not much went on today - had some Swabian Ravioli for dinner - good stuff. Worked out at the gym in the hotel before dinner. We started discussing plans for the weekend already - Oktober fest starts Saturday in Munich - anyone been there before and have suggestions?

O'Donavan's

9/13 - Dean, a guy from Rochester who I've worked with before, showed up here yesterday and joined us for a nice steak dinner at Lago's and then Trivia night at the local Irish Pub, O'Donavan's. We came in 3rd, and I think we would have done better if we could have understood the Scottish guy reading the damn questions - think Brad Pit in Snatch. I added a few more pics to my Boeblingen Album.

Mercedes

9/12 - This morning we showed up to work a little late because we went to the Mecedes Benz Factory Tour in the adjoining town of Sindelfingen. Pretty sweet to see the 200+ km's of assembly line and all the quality control and precision that goes into making Mercedes. We weren't allowed to take pics in the factory, but here are a few from the Customer Center. Had some Gnocchi Bolagnase at a local Italian resturant for dinner - felt like I was back in Italy - everyone in there was speaking Italian! That's it for today...

Weekend = European Vacation

9/9 - Not much exciting at work today - met up with Yuen, Joern, and this Russian guy who I can't remember his name who's working here at the Schonbuch Biergarten for drinks after work. I decided to try some rather interesting drink combinations after my normal Hefeweizen - I had a Bannana-Weizen, a Radler (half beer, half lemon soda), a Radler-Weizen, and a Cola-Weizen. I ended the night with a shot of peach schnapps. All tasty - and laid the path for a wonderful night's sleep! Pics here. (login:jerrycentanni pw:jerry)

9/10 - Yuen and I hit the road to Nuremberg, famous for the Nazi trials after WWII, but the building where the trials were held was basically non-descript - we weren't even sure we were at the right place, but the GPS told us we had arrived. The Kaiserurg Castle, however, was pretty cool. We wandered around in the rain, went in the castle's museum, had some pretzles and Nuremberg-style bratworst for lunch, walked around the city, then headed home. We ate dinner back in Boeblingen at the Schiller, where I had a Argentinian Steak, a glass or Rotwein (red wine), and some apple strudel with vanilla ice cream for desert - yummy. Pics here.

9/11 - Another day trip in the BMW - did I mention I have a BMW convertible as my rental car this time? Man is it sweet - that little diesel engine was still pulling at 225kmph when I had to slow down for traffic (yes thats 140mph! - officially faster than I ever went in my Corvette!) Anywho, we headed to a very cool town a little less than 2 hours away called Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Its known as the best preserved midieval city in Germany. Yuen and I walked around entire city on the fortification wall - arrow slits and all! We went to the KriminalMuseum where they had many remains of medieval torture devices as well as law and order documents, etc - kinda scary, but cool at the same time. We climed to the top of the tower in the Rothaus (Town Hall), for a great view of the city and coutryside - they used to lookout from here for enemies approaching. This is also the city where you can find Christmas stuff year round at the Weihnachtsmuseum (Christmas store/museum) - pretty crazy. Pics here.

We headed back to Stuttgart around dinnertime for the annual Stuttgart Wine Festival and had several glasses of wine (one red, one rose, and one white), along with a brat-on-a-bun, a waffle, apple strudel, and a pretzel - healthy evening. Pics here.

Away from Home

9/8 - Tuesday when I left Austin, I left with some of the first good news I had heard in a week - my parents and sister had gone to Texas A&M and were able to enroll her in classes and get a dorm room - she was going to get to start her college career after all! I was so proud of my little sis! Only to find out the next day when I talked to my parents that she was miserable there and it was just too big, and too much to handle right now with all the other emotional stress going on with the Katrina disaster - she wanted to be closer to her family. I can't blame her, but I still think it would be the best thing for her right now to try to stick it out. My parents were an emotional wreck because they felt they had abandoned her, so they're ready to go right back and pick her up. I tried to convince my mother to give it time, and these were normal feelings of letting go of a child as they go off to college (something they never had to go through with me), and that everything was compounded with the emotional stress of losing our house, belongings, etc. But the long and short of it is I'm not her parents and I'm not her - I just wanted what I think is best for her. So frustrating. And Sorry Mom, Dad and Donna if you didn't want all this broadcast to everyone, but I'm over here in Germany without the means to really talk to anyone about this, so this is my outlet.

Beemer

9/7 - On a happier note, I upgraded myself to a Silver BMW 320id Convertible 6spd - it was about $300 more for the 3 weeks I'll be here and it has the GPS system, so even if I have to pay for it, its worth it! Top down on the way home from work today :)

Back to Germany, but with a Heavy Heart...

9/6 - I write this on the airplane from Austin to Atlanta on my way back to Germany for another 3 week stint. I was listening to iTunes on my laptop while reading through some work email when it started playing the song "Second Line" (the uniquely New Orleans song that you always hear around Mardi Gras or at any wedding reception in New Orleans) - I'm still fighting back tears as I write this - will there be another Mardi Gras as we knew it? The City I grew up in has been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The only good thing so far is that everyone I know had made it out of the city alive. My parents are living with me now, my dad will be able to work with the same company in Austin, and my sister was just able to enroll at Texas A&M this morning, so life is moving on. Questions of rebuilding and whether to ever go back are still up in the air. Many of my friends from back in New Orleans are spread across the country now - its just crazy. New Orleans will never be the same.