(Athens) and Santorini!

I finally made it back to Greece!  Yessss!  There were two goals for this trip: (1)make Brian see how cool this place is and (2)collect sand from as many volcanic beaches as possible.  We flew directly from Berlin to Athens on a half empty Aegean Airlines flight on Friday morning.  The plane flew right over the city so we took some cool photos out the window.  After landing, we got our bags just in time to hop on the new Attika Metro (comes every half hour) to the main downtown station, Monastiraki.  Luck continued as we found an empty locker and stashed our stuff, grabbed a quick €2 gyro each, and started the short hike up the hill to the acropolis around noon.  

This is my 3rd trip up the acropolis, the first time was on a study abroad in summer 2004, after a cruise in 2007 with beloved Amy, and now in 2011 with beloved Brian.  Photos as follows: 

May 2004, Study Abroad Greece/Italy

May 2007, Graduation Cruise Turkey/Greece/Egypt, with Amy

June 2011, Berlin trip with Brian

We didn't have much time there, enough to take this photo, peruse around taking other ridiculous photos, find some acropolis cats, buy some orange icee/slurpee thingies, and head back down to try and find the jewelry shop that I had gotten jewelry from in 2004 (and fixed in 2007).  We may have found it, but I didn't recognize the two guys that were there before, so we just got back on the metro to the port for our ferry to Santorini, which was scheduled to leave at 4, but we had to get our tickets by 230pm. 

We should have wasted more time up there.  We got our tickets fine, got on the free bus for the port and told the driver "Diagoras" (the name of our boat) and got to our pier, E1, by 245pm.  We then proceeded to wait, standing in the sun, with everyone else for the next 2 hours until all the Special Olympics teams and their busses were unloaded from our boat.  We eventually squeezed in the shade and sat on the ground amidst some very angry Greek ladies, yelling at each other, presumably about the delay and lack of food/water/organization.  It wasn't so bad, since we were passing the time talking to Eva, a Chinese girl who was on vacation after spending a year in Munich studying German.  She was kind enough to let me know that the "knocking" on the table (mentioned in an earlier post) after a lecture is very common in Germany and went on to say that she has been to movies and other places where people knock wildly on anything hard anytime they see something they like.  

The Diagoras at Pireaus, well before we boarded

Eva and me waiting to get on the boat

We did finally get on the boat around 530pm, but the boat itself didn't actually leave the pier until 6ish, and food didn't actually start until 630pm.  By that time I was so hungry I just sat in the cafe on board for about 20 minutes until it finally opened. I suppose it could have been just because I was hungry, but the rice, salmon, tzaziki and bread I had was AMAZING.  On Greek ferries, its the cheapest to travel on deck, but we got a room, which is almost exactly like a cruise ship room, with actual twin beds, a shower, and bathroom.  After waking up at 4am and sweating all day in Athens, it was well worth it to take a shower and sleep for 7 hours without being concerned about our stuff getting stolen - and I hardly minded the delay.

We had a stop in Naxos on the way, and arrived in Santorini at 330am, instead of the 11pm that was scheduled.  Our transfer driver, George, luckily was simply waiting for us when we walked off with a "Mathios Hotel" sign - he seemed unconcerned that we were so late, but still asked what the hold up was.  He drove us to the hotel in Akrotiri Town, helped us find the keys left in the keyhole on our door, and took off.  

In the morning, we got up at 9ish to meet with Kostas (travel agent in the hotel) about what we would do while we were there.  I wanted to do a boat trip around the volcano, and he said we could do that today - but we had to leave at 10am.  He had us go eat breakfast- and during that time he set up the excursion, got us beach towels to borrow, told the driver we needed to stop for sunscreen, and started setting up a short car rental to be ready when we returned that afternoon. The driver drove right out on the pier and stopped directly in front of the boat, which was waiting for us.

The boat trip on Saturday was awesome.  Inclusive of water, beer, wine, and an extensive lunch of seafood, we were free to simply enjoy the view as we motored around the island and through the caldera.  We stopped at the hot springs to swim - which required a short swim through much colder water before arriving at the springs.  Despite being told the sulfurous water would probably stain our swimsuits, I put on my light colored rash guard, but it has yet to change color.  The lunch was great, the seas were calm, and there were three other couples our age to chat with - one couple was from DC, one from Connecticut, and one from Boston. 

A great place to lounge!

Red Beach(up close photos of this later!)

Near White Beach (only accessible by boat, but we didn't stop)

the front of the catamaran had the preferred seats

I think I could be here forever.  Well, until the wind picks up...

 And did it ever.  This first day was the only day where the wind didn't howl.  We still had Saturday evening to drive up to the town of Fira, the only part of Santorini (other than the Volcano Hiking) that I saw with Amy in 2007.  Fira is probably my favorite of the two "towns" on Santorini, the other being Oia.  Fira town is a myriad of winding streets, lined with shops, restaurants, and hotels - all perched on the side of a cliff. Oia is essentially the same but replace some of the shops and restaurants with private apartments.

Fira town streets

Fira town on the side of the cliff

View of the caldera island, Nea Kameni (essentially the same from anywhere on the cliffs)

And with those enticing photos to give you an idea about what everything looks like, I will now follow up with the 10 peso geologic history of the island.  Santorini's islands are all part of the same structure. It used to look like a regular island with a small bay to the southwest, but 3,600 years ago during the Bronze Age (1630 BC) when the Minoan culture inhabited Greece, Santorini blew its top. The caldera collapsed below the water surface, producing the steep cliffs on the inside edges of the island.  The Mediterranean Sea rushed in to fill the caldera, and that deep blue area in the center is about 900 feet deep. There have been multiple eruptions since the large one during the Bronze age, including a small one in 1956 (a grainy BW photo of which can be found at the airport).

Needless to say, this volcano has some dramatic views that attract visitors from all over the world.  It attracts me, of course, for volcanic sand.  The car we rented was a means to beach hop on our own schedule, so Brian could snorkel and I could collect sand. The best beach by far was the Red Beach, just a mile or so from Akrotiri to the south. We drove there, parked, hiked over the hill, and down a treacherous gravelly trail to the beach. 

Brian on the short hike to Red Beach

Admiring the poorly sorted volcanic grains

Brian savoring the last of our shade, which was more plentiful before noon

This Red Beach sand is coarse to very coarse sand, poorly sorted, and very red!  Among the other beaches where I collected Santorini sand were: Perissa, Kamari, and Crater beaches.  I'm in the process of cleaning, drying, photographing, and describing the sands at the Freie University Berlin, with the Sedimentology professor Christoph Heubeck ("Hoy-beck").  He has a Sand Wiki with lots of beach sands from around the world, but hasn't been to Santorini, so we are each going to trade for some new ones.  

Crater beach was also a bit of a hike, but that was mostly because I was too afraid to drive down the steep switchbacks.  It is located on the other side of the road from our hotel in Akrotiri (but don't forget the 300 foot drop).  Its not that I'm afraid of heights, just afraid of launching a manual transmission car off a skinny, steep, paved but gravel covered road with no guardrails.  Halfway down the paved switchbacks, we found a little trail that traipsed across an outcrop, seen below: 

Brian heading out on the outcrop

sitting with the Nea Kameni and caldera in the background

Caldera beach, our outcrop is just to the left of the trees in the center

We should have remembered our snorkels here, as we were told later that this place is pretty decent for snorkeling/diving.  

We did go watch the sunset in Oia on Sunday night, but it was windy, cold, and crowded.  I already mentioned that I much preferred Fira to Oia, but we couldn't know that until we went at least once.  It was actually pretty entertaining driving there, thanks to my nightmare laced efforts on the steep hills and narrow streets and not having driven a manual car since last September.  Though its only about 45 minutes driving 25 miles/hour from Akrotiri to Oia, we were still being Greek and driving on empty the whole way.  Gas stations were closed, and we didn't really want to spend much on gas anyways- we got the car empty and could return it empty.  Luckily there were no incidents; we really only drove a total of 8 miles to get there.

Kostas had arranged for us to be able to just leave the car at the airport, so Monday morning, we drove off to Kamari, which is right by the airport.  After I collected my sand sample there and the both of us deciding that we had to stay in the Hotel Kamari Beach at some point in the future, we looked for another cheap gyros stand for a €4 lunch.  One "sit-down" restaurant owner told us that his brother had a cheap gyros stand down the street and then ripped off a leaf from one of his plants, gave it to us, and told us to tell his brother that "this is from Amir".  So of course we presented the leaf to "Amir's brother", who smiled, saying, "I'd rather he give me 500 euros" - and proceeded to make a flower out of a napkin.  He pulled Brian around the counter and I took a photo: 

Brian and "Amir's brother" at his gyro stop

Gyros, greek style with paprika and french fries. 
Notice the leaf from Amir and the napkin flower.

 We made our way to the airport, which has a wonderful little open air shaded balcony that overlooks the six gates and the runway - all cleverly located AFTER security.  Our first item of business once back in Germany? Pretzels. 

Nuremberg pretzels

For more photos of the trip please visit my Santorini photo album on Picasa.

University in Germany

I have now sit-in on to two meeting of a geology class at the Freie University Berlin, on the subject of Sedimentary Petrology.  I'm quite excited to have been able to do this, since the class I am taking later this summer at Humboldt University is going to be a different experience - most of the students are going to be international students. I had wanted to do some work with the Sand Wiki, but I didn't realize how expensive transit was going to be, and my list of "fun" projects that I came up with seemed to be too long to include that too.

About the subject: The subject is well within "related" to my degrees, though kind of an extension. I have learned a lot about streams and water on time scales of 100 years or so, but this class' concepts are much longer in history.  For example, many sedimentary rocks that contain marine fossils are the product of thousands of years of accumulation and compaction on continental shelves that probably are not there today.  Fossil beds in Colorado are the result of deposition of shells of marine organisms in the Jurassic/Cretaceous shallow seas in the western USA, but have since been uplifted more than a mile thanks to the subduction zone on the western coast of the USA.  They are no longer located in the environment in which they are deposited, which looked more like the Bahamas.

At any rate, when these sedimentary rocks are sliced very thinly (30 microns) and viewed under a microscope, the results can be very pretty (and also helpful in decoding earth's past, but I know most of you don't care!)

Ooids (calcium carbonate rolled into spheres via turbulent shoreline wave action)

Radial ooid at higher magnification

Foraminifera

Algae-coated brachiopod shell fragments

 About the people: They are supposed to know English, and many of them do.  They seem to not use it all the time (which is more than I can say for most of my fellow Americans and any other language). However, the professor seemed very entertained when he announced during the first class in which I was present that "today, this lecture will be in English.  Does anyone have a problem with English?" - to which, some people sat up quickly with an, "Oh...!"  Everyone seemed to find the lecture comprehensible (the professor did his Masters at UTexas in Austin, and is very comfortable with German, Spanish, and English) and at least at the beginning I felt a little bit guilty, though reassuring myself that I could probably understand if it were in Spanish.  At the end of the lecture, showed thanks in the most unusual way.  Imagine "knocking on wood" but for the length of an applause at the end of a concert.  This is commonplace, and seems to have the same effect as clapping, though I didn't remember to ask anyone about it. 

In between the lecture and lab, the group of three I approached didn't engage talking to me first, but were quick to include me in a new conversation in English when I said "Hi".  I just asked them about where they were from, where they had been in the world, and where they like to go in Berlin.  They were your standard Geology nerds, and I felt like I was in the company of people I identified with. 

Lichens, climate change, and what is optional

I'm still reading "A Short History of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson (about halfway now) and this section of the book is talking about lichens.  Yes, lichens, like those little green mossy things on rocks in harsh arctic tundras and open deserts.  "It make take a lichen more than half a century to attain the dimensions of a shirt button... they simply exist, testifying... that life even at its simplest level occurs, apparently, just for its own sake."

I'm sure many of you have heard of that metaphor for the Earth's existence crammed into one day, but here's the gist of it: single celled organisms show up around 4am and do nothing for the next 16 hours.  At 8:30pm, sea plants, and other marine organisms appear on stage, trilobites at 9pm, first land animals at 10pm, dinosaurs at 11pm, the first mammals at 11:40, humans at 11:58 and 43 seconds.

The point Mr. Bryson is making here is that life quickly existed "to be", but doesn't seem to want to "be much".  "Its easy to overlook the thought that life just is.  As humans we are inclined to feel that life must have a point... we want to take constant advantage of all the intoxicating existence we've been endowed with.  But what's life to a lichen? Yet its impulse to exist, to be, is every bit as strong as ours - arguably stronger.  If I were told that I had to spend decades being a furry growth on a rock inthe woods, I believe I would lose the will to go on.  Lichens don't.  Like virtually all living things, they will suffer any hardship, endure any insult, for a moment's additional existence."

Now I'm not suggesting that we just quit our busy schedules.  Without the determination and long strides of the geologists on the idea of Uranium-Lead dating, we'd not have any idea about the length of Geologic Time, and therefore wouldn't have much perspective on which to ponder this thought that lichens have existed for much longer than we have.  I'm also not suggesting that we all just be lazy, but there is some benefit to trying to find peace within yourself in "just being".  Take a step out of your schedule, what other people have told you that you have to do, and think about what you are.  A human lifetime, as important as it seems now, is so short in comparison to anything else; it is easy to forget that what exists now, is not all there ever will be, and not all that ever was.  What you are a part of, is a species that has managed to eek out a niche for itself in the present organization of life on earth. 

And what are we doing to our niche?  We are changing the variables that allowed our species to flourish in the first place.  All this debate about climate change is not a debate that we are "destroying the environment" - though many people still write this. We are simply changing the variables that allow 6 billion of us to live on it. An environment on Mars or Venus is still an environment - just a kind of environment that makes it very hard for humans to continue to live in the manner that we live now. An environment with epic droughts will destroy our large and complex food supply.  Of course, food will still exist, but not in the quantities necessary to feed 6 billion people - and the transition will let some of us starve in the meantime.  An environment with higher sea levels will leave large amounts of the continents still above land, and certainly habitable, but by flooding coastal cities, especially large ones like Miami and New York, will produce millions of refugees for the time it takes those people to get their lives back in order in a new location. 

Plenty of humans will probably still be able to exist even if sea level rises 100 feet, but the problem with this from a governmental policy standpoint is that you can't rally behind policies that will eventually produce enormous hardship for a large chunk of your citizens. The rich will probably still have the ability to provide for themselves, even in the face of large catastrophes, simply because they have better access to resources.  (Remember house/senate congressmen and women make $174K per year, much more than many city-averages of $40K/year). 

It seems that the easiest way around trying to anticipate impacts to our current way of life is simply denial.  If you don't think that greenhouse gases might melt ice caps and flood our coastal cities, then its a potential problem you don't have to waste energy worrying about.  If you don't think you are ever going to be robbed at gunpoint, then you probably have never considered learning self-defense.  Its easier, in this sense, to put up some effort in saying that it won't happen.  And Al Gore thinks its not your fault, citing human nature in his current article in Rolling Stone Climate of Denial - "...since human nature makes us vulnerable to confusing the unprecedented with the improbable, it naturally seems difficult to accept."

If we as humans are to model the lichens and "just be" in whatever capacity for years to come we have to consider the idea that our endless quest for wealth and prosperity might eventually get us in the end. The denial of climate change is fueled in a large part by oil companies that have the money to support their own special interests.  Their goal is short term and incredibly self serving- make as much money as possible before they retire, so they can retire to some tropical island... and... just be? 

In the words of whoever writes the script for the TV show "The Big Bang Theory" Sheldon says, "we don't HAVE to do anything.  We have to take in nourishment, expel waste, and inhale enough oxygen to keep our cells from dying. Everything else is optional."  Clearly, this is all what lichens do (though, as photosynthesizing algae or cyanobacteria, they inhale CO2 and not oxygen).  As humans, we do more than that. We have the imaginations that are able to consider what happened before we were born, what happens when we die, and what might happen to our childrens' childrens' children.  All of our actions, both greedy and generous from our birth to our death, influence the future outcome of our species.  Whatever else your "optional" is, take a moment to consider its place in the world. Does it align with larger goals that allow our species continue to exist? Or will the lichens continue to out-live us?

And don't forget the power of the average person - large national and world problems may seem daunting, but again here is a reminder from Al Gore's article (which is concerning climate change, but is also applicable to other issues):

• "You can start with something simple: Speak up whenever the subject of climate arises. When a friend or acquaintance expresses doubt that the crisis is real, or that it's some sort of hoax, don't let the opportunity pass to put down your personal marker. The civil rights revolution may have been driven by activists who put their lives on the line, but it was partly won by average Americans who began to challenge racist comments in everyday conversations."

X-men movie

Yesterday evening, Brian, Max and I went to see X-men first class at the Sony Center.  Thanks to my brother's obsession with the animated show when we were kids (we watched it every Saturday at 10am) I'm familiar with the characters and have my favorites.  I was, however, unclear as to the beginnings of the X-men, and this story was rather interesting to me. 

the characters of X-men, First Class movie

Some notes about having seen this movie in Berlin as opposed to America:

• First, the backstory of Magneto(then, the polish Jew Erik, about 10 years old) begins as his family is separated as they enter a concentration camp in Poland in 1943.  For starters, Poland is currently less than 100 miles away from our location.  Also, the plight of Jews and other Holocaust victims in the early 1940s as documented by the many history museums in Berlin is fresh on my mind.  Brian later likened it to a Berliner watching an old American Western in Colorado (omg this is where that happened!) or my Yankee self watching "Gone with the Wind" in Atlanta.  At any rate, since I was unaware of Magneto's beginnings, a surprisingly thick layer of relevancy was depicted in this scene that I probably wouldn't have noticed as much had I seen it back home.
• When Shaw begins talking in this scene, it is in German with English subtitles.  This is met with roars of laughter by the mostly bilingual Berlin crowd (something that probably doesn't happen in America since nobody laughed at the English subtitles when the few French and Spanish conversations came on later).  At the end of the scene, Shaw ends up shooting Erik's mother to get him to use his power (which we now know is fueled through anger).  Though Shaw "works" for the Nazis, he doesn't really support their "stupid blond hair, blue eyes" values and simply uses their maniacal tactics to get results and find more mutants.
• In 1963, when the angry Erik, having survived the concentration camp, vengefully hunts down his mother's murderer, Shaw, who is hiding in Argentina.  He orders a beer at a restaurant that Shaw supposedly owns.  The beer is of German origin, and another roar of laughter from the moviegoing crowd erupts when the owners that are present tell him its "Bitburger" (kind of like a Budweiser or Miller in America). 

I enjoyed the movie, especially how they wove the story into more real events in history (though clearly a nearby parallel universe!) - the movie ends with the X-men involvement in quelling the Cuban Missile Crisis.  I imagine that these extra reactions from the crowd would not have occurred, had we seen this movie in America. 

Belgium!

The first of our weekend trips to take advantage of our proximity to a variety of cultures in the European continent was to Belgium, though less devoted to sightseeing and almost wholly focused on going to the deepest swimming pool in the world to scuba dive.

Nemo33 is located in Brussels, Belgium and is 112 feet(34 meters) deep.  Yes, its a pool, not a spring, or ocean shelf - and cleverly heated by solar panels on the roof to a balmy temperature of 33 degrees celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). The entire pool is not 112 feet deep, just a deep well - which you can see in this quick sketchup model:  Most of the pool is contained within 2 stories of a buidling, and then the deep well is set in the ground.

Here is Brian in the shallower part (the middle platform in the pool foreground, about 15 feet)
Brian's head is probably around 6 feet

And the deep well (on the right foreground of skp model, total depth 112')

There are also caverns (under the middle platform) that are about 33 feet deep

The other cool thing about this place is that there is a restaurant immediately adjacent to the pool, with windows through which to see divers.

Here is the glam photo from the Nemo33 website: 

If you are a scuba diver and want to dive in an interesting environment (though devoid of fish) and test out your nerves for DEEP water, this is a great place to go.  Its high season is the winter, when most northern hemisphere dive spots are too cold for even wetsuits - and during winter they have a dive session every hour.  Each session is about $30 US dollars, and you can go every two hours.  All gear is included, so you just have to bring a certification card and a swimsuit. We spent the day there and ate at the restaurant.  I would have like to have more time to simply swim, but you only get the first 10 minutes of any dive for that activity.
More photos are available on my Picasa Album for Belgium

Here is our dive profile:

We did see some other things in Brussels, namely Belgian lace (of which I took photos for my mom) and the Grand Palace, which is a square with every facade being a beautifully ornate building - designated a World Heritage site.

We also ate some excellent food - a bucket of 50 mussels, a bottle of wine, and the best chocolate mousse and tiramisu I've ever imagined.

Imagine what you'll know, tomorrow... (Maps)

I start today with a quote from the 1997 movie, "Men in Black". At this point in the movie, Will Smith's character has just learned about the aliens that are living on earth and deciding whether to join the ranks of managing them.

Jay (Will Smith): Why the big secret? People are smart, they can handle it.

Kay(Tommy Lee Jones):  A person is smart.  People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.

Fifteen hundred years ago, everybody knew... the Earth was the center of the universe.

Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat.

And fifteen minutes ago, you knew that people were alone on this planet.

Imagine what you'll know... tomorrow.

I thought of this part of the movie while at the German Historical Museum with Jason and Sara.  The German Historical Museum is probably the most comprehensive history museums in Berlin.  Here is a rough outline of the past 2500 years in the area that is Germany and on the European Continent as described with text and artifacts in this museum: 

•  Celtic people existed in Germany in BC times
•  Romans (including the emporors like Claudius, Marcus Aurelius, Nero, etc) have a complex and tight history of the first 200 or so years after the birth of Jesus
•  Around 500, Christianity was no longer a crime (though many other religions then became crimes - sigh...) and Constantinople (Istanbul) was the center of the Greek/Roman culture that dominated the continent. 
•  Around 800 AD, it was the heyday of the French, with Charlemagne as their leader.
• 1050-1400s was the Middle ages, characteristics include feudal society, religious crusades, the black plague, and aristocracy
•  1400-1500s saw a Renaissance of science, questioning religion, exploration of the world - which is my favorite part (and tie to the movie script above) because at this point the maps of the world seem to begin to be filled in, see below:   

Globe (1492) with no American continent on it: 

1537 Painting of Christ with a Globe (I guess now globes are Ok):

Map with the first corner of the American continent on it (date?)

After much exploring the continent is much better represented:

These maps are SO intriguing to me because they show a progression of our understanding of our world.  Certainly, we take for granted our google maps now - thanks to the space program and satellite imagery - and you can wistfully dream about going to Hawaii without having to go to the trouble of discovering it.  However, for quite a long time, people only had maps for where they had been, and "hearsay" in the form of the descriptions and drawings (not digital cameras) from the people who had been anywhere else.  We are more willing to take a 5 week voyage to Hawaii if we knew it was there in the first place - and that tripadvisor could recommend a cheap but comfortable hotel and restaurant.   

Take this relative enthusiasm for exploring and mapping our planet and apply it to the 2010s and you get our cosmology and astrophysics fields of science.  These bright people are mapping well beyond our solar system, pondering how it works in an effort to get to new places more quickly.  Instead of figuring out how to tack against trade winds amidst a gigantic and unforgiving ocean, they are contemplating how to bend space-time against the nothingness that is space itself.  

Looking deep into space, going to the moon or to mars may seem like a stupid, expensive idea now... but what if the Monarchs of Catholic Spain had told that to Christopher Columbus or to Amerigo Vespucci?  We Americans simply wouldn't exist.  The world as we know it now would be wholly different, and likely more primitive.  The whole Middle ages was (to quote Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG-1) "a huge setback for Earth's civilization".  As advanced as we humans consider ourselves now, people even 200 years from now will think us to be stupid and ignorant.  

I'm slowly reading "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson on my [graduation present from Brian] Kindle, and I really like this quote: 

• "We may be only one of millions of advanced civilizations. Unfortunately, space being spacious, the average distance between any two of these civilizations is reckoned to be at least two hundred light-years, which is a great deal more than merely saying it makes it sound. It means for a start that even if these beings know we are here and are somehow able to see us in their telescopes, they’re watching light that left Earth two hundred years ago.
• So, they’re not seeing you and me. They’re watching the French Revolution and Thomas Jefferson and people in silk stockings and powdered wigs—people who don’t know what an atom is, or a gene, and who make their electricity by rubbing a rod of amber with a piece of fur and think that’s quite a trick.
• Any message we receive from them is likely to begin “Dear Sire,” and congratulate us on the handsomeness of our horses and our mastery of whale oil. Two hundred light-years is a distance so far beyond us as to be, well, just beyond us."

In the short period of 200 years, the society that would be presented is so foreign to anyone living now, to the point of being ridiculous and embarrassing.  I'm pretty sure being complimented on my primary mode of transportation, horses, (bicycles? cars?) and my "mastery of whale oil" (helloooo, electricity?) would embarrass me and my belonging to the civilization.  Heck, I'm embarrassed for the human race when they think that bulldozing forests for suburbs won't have any effect on our drinking water... but that's a problem of today; and a behavior to be scoffed at by people in 2200.

A person is smart, but people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it.
Imagine what you'll know, tomorrow...

Five European peculiarities

I have noticed quite a few striking differences about life in general here over the past few weeks (as compared to life in suburban North Carolina): 

1. Laundry consumes your life and requires much advanced planning, not because the washers are odd, but because you dry everything on a drying rack.  I have been told that this does make your clothing last longer since it is not continually shrunk and tumbled by a dryer, and I do believe that.  My jeans fit the same way before and after washing when they are air dried.  However, my all cotton shirts are entirely too big now.  I find myself avoiding my cotton clothing and preferring my quick-dry REI brand stuff.  I also lament the towel situation - if anyone has any advice on how to get towels to have that fluffy dryer feel via air-drying, please let me know!

2. Water.  I have been studying water resources and contamination for the past 2.5 years in grad school, harping about how precious freshwater is and how we need to manage its consumption. Our Charlotte water is great - I hardly think about when and where I would prefer to get it while at home.  I'm still a little wary about drinking the tap water in our apartment in Berlin since new places can be hard on new people (although I have been brushing my teeth and cooking with it).  Its not so expensive to just buy those giant bottled waters for 1 euro every day and keep them on the kitchen counter, fill my daily water bottle with it, etc... but out at a restaurant, "water", even when we say "ohne gas"(without gas) sometimes is still seltzer water and I only managed to get through about a cup of it, even though it cost me 3 euros (almost 5 dollars) and I was trying my darnedest to drink it all out of principle alone.  (This contest between me and my bubbly water was thwarted by a sudden sideways rainstorm, forcing all those eating outside to run for cover inside the restaurant). Paying for plain water at a restaurant just doesn't compute when you are used to the restaurants in America - its a way to cut costs when eating out - though here, you might as well buy a beer.  Its cheaper, tastes better, and if you don't finish it, well just walk home with it :)

3. History.  This essentially can be summed up with a quote from our Berlin bike tour guide, who, upon showing us a church built in the 1300s, told us, "now, that might be impressive to you Americans and Australians - but to you Italians, not so much".  America in the 1300s... the Mayflower landed in 1600 something...

Also, very recent tumultuous history occurred right here in Berlin and seems to be divided into two major events in the last 100 years, the first being anything Nazi related and the second anything Cold War or Berlin Wall related (I was 5 when the wall fell but don't remember anything firsthand).  Here's me emphasizing temporal variability in a single location - the 12 foot tall wall is now remembered in the brick paving pattern under my feet: 

Certain tourist locations like the "Topography of Terror" are mildly confusing since it contains relics of both major events.  The site is former Gestapo headquarters where Nazi forces planned many of their atrocities, yet it is also immediately adjacent to a 100m long section of the Berlin Wall.  The information panels run parallel to the entire length of the wall, but chronicle Nazi control over citizens of Berlin from 1933 to 1945. The history of downtown Charlotte used to be... uh... a forest??

4. Weather.  Now this is probably such a contrast due to relative urbanization and relative climate alone.  Charlotte probably has more than 300 sunny days a year - its blazing hot enough in the summer to the point of I don't understand how people used to live there before air conditioning and not melt, much less get anything done. Berlin's climate resembles more of where I grew up in Michigan, much more rainy days, summer tops out at 85 degrees, it still gets very cool at night, etc.  However, in the urban setting of Berlin (which I love so much) even though the weather is so much cooler, I find myself sweating so much more on a daily basis.  Since I can't use my car as a repository of all things useful for a day, I really have to think about what I bring with me when I leave the house, and whether it should include a raincoat or umbrella, since I will have to carry it all day (all the while wishing I had broader shoulders).  I think about how much walking vs. subway riding I will be doing, and whether or not I will be taking a bus (read: oven).  Despite the lack of air conditioning in general in Germany, at least our particular apartment seems to be about 15 degrees cooler than the outside temperature, probably due to the lack of direct sunlight since we are in the middle of a courtyard on the 2nd floor (of five). 

5. Suburban vs. Urban:  Most people know that in general, America's public transit is doesn't even compare to anywhere in Europe.  Berlin is about the same size as Atlanta, and, ironically, Charlotte depending on what stats you compare.  Let me explain: (US data from 2010 US census via Wikipedia)...

• Berlin and Atlanta have similar urban populations (3.4 and 3.5 million people)
• Berlin and Charlotte have the same city area (344 and 300 square miles)
• Population density decreases dramatically: Berlin (10,000 people/sq mi), Atlanta (4,000 people/sq mi), Charlotte (2,400 people/sq mi)
• This means that if you doubled the population of Atlanta, squeezed it into the area of Charlotte, you would essentially have Berlin.

In order to do this, you would probably have to remove half of the cars that exist in Atlanta, shrink all the SUVs down to Corollas, and shrink all the Corollas to Smart Cars.  You'd also have to convert all the single family houses to mixed use buildings with daily commercial needs (like drugstores, groceries, restaurants, hardware stores, electronics stores, beer stores, etc.) on the first floor and 3-5 stories of residential apartments on top.  Then add a magical network of underground subways(U-bahns) and above ground subways (S-bahns), which I prefer since they smell nicer and have more airflow.  Also, add busses that are actually on time and have little signs that accurately predict their arrival (though any US bus in the southeast would REQUIRE climate control).  Also, you'd have to add bike lanes at the very least on major roads or on sidewalks to major roads (even though the hilly terrain and hot summers would be brutal).  Here is an electric charging station (which appeared to be free) and a smart car using it - my brother's comment was that in Philadelphia, a unsupervised cable would be stolen in an instant, even if it wasn't the least bit useful to the thief.

One of my goals of this trip is to physically measure and draw some street sections to see how exactly this environment is accomplished and to see which elements may be extrapolated to improve America's urban centers, and use my experience to help decide what elements are great and which elements just suck (like the absence of air conditioning part). Evidence of that project to come in future posts...

The part of this urban environment that is simply wonderful is the active street zone - and thus eating outside (this has become so quickly one of my favorite things about my life right now that I'm typically majorly disappointed when outside seats are full or it happens to be raining).  When you live in an apartment above a mixed use setting, you descend your stairs (lazy Americans could just install elevators), exit your building directly into this area.  You can usually walk less than a block to a coffee shop.  You can walk less than 5 minutes to a multitude of restaurants.  You can walk 5-10 minutes to your favorite restaurant.  We walked less than 2 minutes to the hotel where our guests have been staying.  We walk 5 minutes to the train to anywhere (two choices of stops) - which, when you know where you are going, the walking only accounts for 10% of your trip.  Even so, all this walking adds up - I have noticed that I eat less and exercise more here, simply because of the lifestyle.  This is the sad reality of my "fat happy American" upbringing, which I quote from graffiti a friend of mine saw in either Greece or Italy in 2004 (though some people counter that it should read "fat depressed Americans", citing our dependence on prozac and subsequent laziness:

 This lifestyle is very American and probably a product of our cheap food and our expansive country.  I won't eat as much because the food here is expensive and I know I have to walk/ride a train home - whereas if the food is cheap and I'm in a car I tend to overeat.  We may pay the same for a night out in America, but so much more is included: water is free, refills of many drinks are free, portions are huge, tortilla chips are bottomless...

I came across a forum post on Toytown Germany (Germany's english speaking crowd) and found this post about running road races in Spain... and what is "included":

• AmandaUSCS:  Also, I'm just saying this because in some countries it seems much more common to provide gels and/or electrolyte drinks for races over 10K. 
• AlohaBerlin: Sports drink along the course? Girl we're in Germany - They serve beer! 
• AmandaUSCS: Well, they even had sports drink at the races I've done in Spain... not at the finish though. Afterwards it was just espresso, wine, tapas and condoms. 

Its funny what countries define as normal... expected... and relevant :)
I love this quote (though I don't remember who said it): "The world is a book; people who do not travel only read one page"

First visitors!

 Our first week long visitors were my brother, Jason, and my new future sister in law, Sara.  We took them to all the Berlin sights including a very old sight, the Brandenburg gate, which was one of the gates to the Prussian city in 1791 and then later part of the old Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin in 1961-1989:

 

Other newer Berlin sights like the Holocaust memorial, built in 2005 to commemorate specifically the murdered Jews of Europe by the Nazis in the 1940s (there are other memorials planned for other targeted groups of the Nazi regime): 

 

And, of course, the oldest beergarden in Berlin, the Cafe am Neuen See:

  

And the beergarden that sells "one meter beer": 

 

And, most importantly, the Potsdam Abenteuerpark.