Drunken Car Post

Do do do. Drunken post time. It's been a while, and yeah, I've been slacking on the posts, but really all we are doing is working really hard and doing some CFD shit and that is all. It is interesting, but not to you guys, so I don't write about it. Until the average person figures out how cool we are I am stuck talking about castles and beer. Almost typed bee there, bees are cool too, bzzzzzzz, but I am allergic to some bees, so they are not cool.

I downloaded the pictures from Sean's camera. He is a douche and does not know how to push buttons. This is a man who will be receiving his PhD in a month. He had supposedly taken a great video of some German rice burners, but ney, he can't push a button. Hmmm, sorry pal, I am drunk, no mercy.

(random pictures from Seans camera. Me by the donkeys near the castle. Sorry, no donkeys in the photo.)

So, we just had some trick or treaters come to our place! We had no candy! F@%#! We thought that the Germans didn't do Halloween, otherwise we would have been prepared. Scared the shit out of me when they rang the doorbell. Geez. Honestly, in this state of mind their ghost costumes were a little creepy.

We are going to Cologne in two weeks for Karnival. That will be our Halloween. We need to teach them how to make costumes. Guys: anything is fine. Girls: slutty nurse, slutty cop, slutty cat, sluts, and my all time favorite - slutty Disney characters. They have so much to learn here. Also, they need good Mexican food and maybe a few spices here and there.

I told you we went to a car museum. Cars are not as exciting as planes or rockets, but they are still cool.

So yeah. I am going to hit the hay. See ya all later. -Eric

Wartburg Castle

When I was a kid I was obsessed with castles. I loved the design and construction of them, as well as the devices used to destroy them. I would always go to the library and look up books on castles and castle construction and intently look through them. It is the engineer in me. So after all these years it was nice to finally see a castle (the Disney castle doesn't count.)

Sunday morning we drove down to Eisenach. It is about 100km south of here. The weather was pretty nice and it was a pleasant drive. We found the castle and parked at the bottom of the hill which it is on. It was quite a walk to get up to the castle, we were struggling. If I was a soldier I would not want to lay siege upon this castle.

At the foot of the castle there was a stand to ride a donkey the rest of the way. Sean wouldn't do it. Instead we stopped and ate a bratwurst and drank a Coke. There was a short walk up the rest of the hill to the castle.

And then we were there. The second reason it would be difficult to battle a castle is that the view is just too good from up there, you would be distracted and then axed.

A bit of history: The Wartburg castle was the residence of St. Elisabeth and it is where Martin Luther translated the New Testament to German.

(A genuine drawbridge. I was disappointed that there were no giant spikes at the bottom of the pit.)

We made our way into the castle and tried to find where the tours are. Well, we found out there are no tours. They had an exhibition there on St. Elisabeth so we went through that. We couldn't take pictures in there, so I have none.

( There were these goofy looking turkey/dove birds in the castle.)

Upon entering the exhibition the girl checking tickets asked us if there is any of us who don't speak German. (We had been talking in English walking up to her.) She asked us that in German. What if none of us spoke German? Hmmm, anyways, Banuti explained to her that Sean and I don't speak German. She then told Banuti that he speaks very good German. Heh. People get so confused. We didn't correct the girl, she was too cute.

We saw a bunch of parchments with writing about St. Elisabeth and other St. Elisabeth related items. We also saw the room in which Martin Luther translated the Bible. Pretty interesting.

So after we had seen the whole castle we made our way back down the hill. After the castle we went to a local car museum. I'll post some stuff from that next time. So in summary. I like castles, castles are cool, we saw a castle, it was cool, I am happy:) -Eric

Some Random Photos

This pictures is funny for a couple reasons. First, Daniel is trying to get in on the photo on the right side. Secondly, I told Sean to take a picture of me (his camera battery had died,) so he takes it and says, "this isn't going to work, the Sun is right there." I snapped back, "Well...then don't take the picture into the Sun!" Next is a photo of Sean flicking me off because of my smart ass remark.

And now me laughing.

That's better.

Our makeshift kitchen.

Banuti, Me and Sean under the Dom in Cologne. I like this one. Mira took it.

I don't know when this is from, but it is Banuti drunk.

And this is all of us in front of the Dom. Another great pic. I especially like it because when I stand next to Sean makes me look taller and makes him look like a midget. (Sean likes to point out that he is stronger.)

We just worked today. Same ol'. I had some Haxentag for lunch yesterday, mmmmm, so good. It came with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut, which I am madly in love with. We are going to get some drinks tonight and on Sunday we are going to see a castle. Yes! -Eric

You Work All Day

Wha' da ya get - another day older and the god damned exchange rate is killing us. :) Ok, that doesn't rhyme.

(Sean 'working')

We've been work the past few days. Long hard days. Engineering is tough. I've been working on my CFD code and I made some really great progress yesterday. I finally got the 1-D finite volume code working for the shock tube case. Now that that is done I can move on to some more advanced topics and add more detail to the code.

(The Mac Dr. Flandro lent to me, it is a fun machine.)

For the non-engineers, we are taking a set of equations which approximate the motions of fluids (air, water, etc.) and we break them up into small pieces which the computer can then, er - compute. By breaking the equations up we loose some accuracy and introduce errors. However, since the computer can do calculations really fast, we can still get accurate results on the motions of the fluid. It allows us to do some pretty fancy stuff. Of course, it is just an approximation, so you have to be really careful to check your results and see if they are correct. This is not what Sean and I normally work on. Usually we work on analytical problems, or different numerical problems, or I might do some experimental work. That makes this a good opportunity for us to learn something new.

Here are a bunch of equations. It is a little blurry, but that is ok. It is all top secret stuff and if you could read it I would have to kill you :)

So work is going well. We are going to eat now. See ya later, alligators. -Eric

We Need More Cuddly Germans

Do you know the adage about drinking which goes - liquor then beer and you're in the clear, beer then liquor and you've never been sicker. I don't know if it is true, the order might be irrelevant. Well, last night we did wine then beer then liquor then hard cider then beer and then feel like crap the next day. It is not as clever of a phrase, but I am not in a clever mood.

Yesteday, before the bar, we walked around and did a little shopping, which is very unusual for us. I needed a winter hat since I forgot mine and Sean wanted some more winter clothes. We went into a bunch of stores in town. It was Saturday, so it was busy everywhere.

While walking to town there was some large protest going on with police in riot gear and the whole nine yards. The police had cool shin guards. It was all very peaceful and such. I suppose they were just there in case. We walked through the protesters at one point, Sean and I were wearing black jackets, so we felt that we fit in. Except we wear black because it looks good, they wear it to be morose. They had someone shouting things over some speakers. We didn't know what they were saying, which was probably good because it would have likely just pissed us off. I had part of their chant stuck in my head for the rest of the day. "Revolution, da da, da da da, Revolution." Do they really need to revolt? It is such a strong word, they need to be careful or it will loose its meaning.

After that entertainment we went to the stores. I picked up a winter cap and a Kashmir scarf (ooooh fancy.) Sean got a scarf too and a sweater. After shopping we went back to our place, made some dinner, watched some Curb Your Enthusiasm and then went to the bar. We went to the Irish bar because I was in the mood for some Newcastle. There was a live band playing. The guy was from San Francisco and was pretty good. We got hammered as I detailed above. The waitress told me that I was too cuddlish (my new favorite word) and that she was selling beer, not hips. Heh, honestly, all I did was put my arm around her. Oh well, shot down. I am cuddlish though, I like that. Germans need to be more cuddly.

Sean bought a round of drinks for the band, they appreciated that. He told the waitress not to tell them who it was from, but she did anyways. That was fine, we got to chat with the dude from San Fran.

Yeah, so we got back home and passed out and now today is a very blah day. We watched Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which is one of my all time favorite movies. Otherwise, it was a recovery day. Tomorrow we go back to work. -Eric

A Little More Cologne

Sunday: We woke up at the crack of noon. We wanted to get something to eat, but all the places had expensive brunch buffets for students. We didn't want that, we weren't that hungry anyways. We got a cup of coffee and grabbed some pastries. This is me eating a bread dude (I am at a loss for words.)

We took our bags with us and walked back towards the Dom. The main train station is right next to it, so that is where we needed to go anyways. All the shops are closed on Sundays (except bakeries and such) so it was a lot quieter. We got to the Dom again and took some more photos while Mira and Daniel looked at the train schedule. We just needed to get to Mira's home to get back Banuti's car.

It was about a half hour ride. We took a slight detour so we could ride the 'Schwebebahn Wuppertal.' It is a suspension train which rides over the Wupper river in Wuppertal (made in 1900.)

We got off at the last station and then walked to Mira's home. We ordered some pizza and ate it on her back patio.

After eating we gathered our things and drove back to Gottingen. It was a very pleasant weekend. Cologne is a great city. -Eric

Banuti's New Car

Banuti's new car - A 1988 BMW 3 series convertible. (I hope that is right) Leather interior. Drives like a dream. Nice, very nice. I was afraid to take pictures of it in case we would crash again. Damn cursed camera. -Eric

The Rest of Cologne

Saturday we woke up nice and late. Daniel and Mira came to her apartment by train. We left to walk into town and got a bite to eat. We ate at a nearby Greek place that Banuti is fond of. After that we walked through the shopping pedestrian area. There were some really good street performers around there. I always enjoy that. Eventually we made it to our destination - the Dom.

It is really huge. Really very huge and impressive and generally just really cool and huge. This is it from the inside.

The weather was perfect out. We climbed up the tower and got a great view of the city. This is a photo of the Rhine river.

And the peak of the towers nearby.

After the tower we walked around town and got some ice cream and something to drink. We walked to the other side of the river, since the sun was shining over there, and relaxed.


After walking around we went back to Mira's apartment and sat for a moment and then went into town. We found a decent bar (with a totally cute blond waitress) and had many beers there.

This is a picture I took of Sean. I am just going to let you wonder what the hell is going on, it is more fun that way.

They have their Cologne style beer. Which I would say is generally pretty crappy. Also, it comes in a .2 liter glass, a far cry from the 1 liter glasses in Bavaria. They are so small that combined with the slow service in Germany it is hard to get drunk off of them. We had some food after drinking and went back and slept. Another long night. These weekend trips are exhausting. -Eric

Cologne: Friday

We left work early on Friday to try to make it to Cologne early. Daniel and Mira had tickets to a rock concert in town. Sean and I were going right to Mira's apartment. After a good drive from Gottingen to Cologne with a couple stops and a car change we were in town. We were in a bit of a hurry so we ate at Burger King. Daniel dropped Sean and I off near a train station and we rode into town. Mira and Daniel went to the concert, afterwards, they drove back to Mira's fathers house since that was going to be easier. They met up with us the following morning.

This picture is blurry (it is like a Bigfoot sighting,) but that guy on the right had an amazing mullet. I felt like I was back in Tennessee.

We took the train right into the heart of Cologne. We found our way out of the train station and discovered ourselves to be right under the Cologne Dom. It is a very impressive building. We have more pictures of it from the following days.

We were pretty sick of carrying our bags so we walked south towards Mira's apartment. Going from the Dom to Mira's takes you through a long stretch of stores.

We made it to Mira's with minimal confusion. Mira had given us a bottle of beer earlier, so we drank that as we rested a bit at her place. Mira's apartment is in a great location a block from the stretch of college bars. We promptly left to enjoy that. It was pretty busy. We walked around a bit and went into the 'Cuba Bar.' Good place for Americans to go :) We got some seats there and ordered a beer. They had a weak beer menu and the waiter was really pushing the cocktails, so we tried a few of those. And right here I have documented proof of a cocktail purchased by Sean R. Fischbach.

A few drinks in we met a few girls. I made friends with the redhead sitting behind me. Sabine was her name (pronounced sort of like Zabina.) She was a cute gal. Gorgeous hair. She had been to America once, to San Diego, and she spoke English pretty well.

Sean talked to her friend, Annita was her name - I think. She was nice.

We walked the ladies to the train station. Sabine had her bike with her. She was lost once and far from her home and she 'found' this bike somewhere. Hmmmm.

They have a website here in Germany: http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/ People post when they are driving somewhere and you can get a ride with them. She was leaving the next morning to go to Paris. It was pretty late at this point, Sean and I went back to Mira's and crashed. It was a good night. Cologne is a nice city :) -Eric