Tag Archives: Traveling

Last Call to Passenger Sinnesrausch

The last three days were marked by the visit of my good friend Christoph Bauer. I know him trough “Pro Scientia” (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Scientia) and we’ve stayed in contact since we first met at the Pro Scientia summer convention about a year ago.

I really enjoyed his visit. Even tough I can not come up with any reasonable explanation, of how anybody his age can have such a broad and mature cultural, political, scientific, you name-it, knowledge, I can say that having conversations with him is one of the greatest delights one can get!

Apart from talking, listening to Bach, Mozart, Wagner, tasting great spirits we also explored some of the cultural highlights Linz has to offer. We managed to get hold of some of the last tickets to the exhibition “Sinnesrausch”, which hosts a couple of installations centered around the common theme “Sensory Sensation” and leads over the rooftops of Linz. Most of the installations are interactive, here’s a photo of Christoph trying the “super-lense-chair”.

If you think that exploring Linz and its wonders is for you too, just drop me a line. I am always happy to welcome my friends to Linz!

A Sad Certainty

So I had this setup where I would get these occasional top-news messages from CNN. Like ten years ago, on the first day of my last year of high school, the phone would not stop ringing until the last byte of its memory was filled. A sad certainty began to besiege us all.

New York is “far away” from a European perspective. If it is too remote for you to empathize, take the 9/11 memorial tour, which is what I did a year ago. A married couple with very close connections to the events of September 11, 2001 shared some historical facts as well as their personal story. A very emotional trip. Ever since I am in awe of how gracefully many people have tried to deal with the mean hand they had been dealt. Today is a day to feel sad and a day to understand our duty to learn from what has happend.

Baltimore / Washington DC

Actually I’ve been back for over a week now, but there was so much to do – I just couldn’t find the time to blog about what turned out to be a really great trip! What was it all about?

1 week of work at the IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium 2011 in Baltimore. It totally overwhelmed me. Waaaay too much information. While I usually tend to end up in a deadlock when there’s too much to do I’m glad I was there. One of the greatest parts was seeing my old UCLA friend Darren again! It’s always good to see him and I really enjoy his company having a talk over some coffee or at the free-beer-industry-reception.

My talk went well I guess, another highlight was that Reinhard, on of my closes colleagues here in Austria got the Microwave Prize 2o11, which really is an amazing thing and one of the highest honors the IEEE MTT-S has to offer! Congrats Reini!

Apart from that it was aaaalll crazy. I was a student volunteer guarding doors and helping people wherever I could for two days, I was hopping sessions, raiding the exhibition, talking to old friends, meeting new ones … … Too much information for a small man like myself.

The 4-days Washington trip that followed Baltimore was the necessary vacation I needed. The great thing: We were a group of three EEs from my university and one from the company that we work with. As for Florian, I already knew that he would be great company from our trip to Singapore, but Herbert’s and Reini’s company turned out to be just as enjoyable! What a great trip.

Apart from all the things that you certainly have to do and see when you’re in DC I enjoyed the Smithsonian Air and Space the most. Actually Becca, a cool-all-crazy nerd girl I met at the IMS told me we would have to go there! I can still feel the goose bumps that I got when I was standing right next to the command module of the Apollo 11 mission. – I could not help it, I was just awestruck.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

Wind Power and Mailüfterl

Another visit to Vienna. Apart from the IEEE Officiers meeting, which was quite interesting, I have two other interesting findings to share! It was a really great day with lots of sunshine, so driving was fun. What I came to realize is that we have a lot of wind power plants in Austria:

Whatever this means, I think I like it ;) Secondly, while on a short break from the meeting, I realized that we had the meeting right next to Heinz Zemaneks office (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Zemanek)!!!! Yes, the famous Mailüfterl (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail%C3%BCfterl) Zemanek ;)

All in all it was a great day!

We Send You Pickles!

Johanna and Monika, two sisters of Andrea are in Mexiko right now. They really seem to enjoy it. However despite all the fun, new experiences, beaches, sun … Johanna misses one thing: Pickles! It sounds crazy, but that is what she seems to miss the most. So Andrea and me, we use the web to send them this virtual pickle:

Just make sure you don’t eat it all at once ;)

Vienna …

Yesterday we had the IEEE Austrian Section general assembly. I managed to be in Vienna two hours before the meeting(s) got started. So I had like 1 1/2 hours to walk the city. It was a wonderfull, chilly day in fall. Here’s a pic of the opera in Vienna

Wennst in Wien bist musst in Steffl besuchn – When you are in Vienna you have to visit St. Stephan’s Cathedral. And I did it:

After paying my dues to the Steffl i went to Karlskirche, which is right next to the Technical University of Vienna.

Later I met wonderful friends from Graz and Vienna that I acutually had met in Belgium for the first time. The general assembly itself was a very unorganized event and not really exciting.

But I met a lot of new people and so it was worth it. I arrived back home in Linz at 12:00 pm with Andrea already waiting for me.


Don’t forget your …

A very practical thing: A “Don’t forge your …” list before going on a journey! I prepared one for my Hawaii-LA-NYC trip. And as I did actually not miss a thing I guess it is pretty solid ;) (No legal liability here, use at your own risk!!!)

I will definitely come back here next time before any trip.  But no more waiting for now, ladies and gentlemen let me introduce to you: THE LIST:

The original list was in German, so here’s a translation for the English-speaking folks out there:

Clothing:
– Undergarments
– Socks
– Shorts
– Trousers
– Evening Attire
– Swimming
– Bathing Suit
– Boggles
– Ear plugs
– Towels
– Jacket
– Lit
– Gloves
Shoes:
– Black shoes
– Sporty shoes
– Running Shoes
– Thongs
– Flip Flops
Wallet:
– Money
– ATM card
– Credit Card
– E-Card
Toiletries
– Teeth brush
– Toothpaste
– Shaver
– Shaving Cream
– After Shave
– Floss
– Shower Gel
– Deo
– Swiss Army Knife
– Towels
– Sun Screen
– Electric Hair Trimmer
Drugs:
– Imodium
– Mexalen
– Paspertine
Electronics:
– Power Adapter
– Mobile Phone
– Charger
– Camera
– Memory Card
– Battery
– Charger
– Laptop
– Charger
– Flash Drive
– Card Reader
– GPS
– mp3 Player
Misc:
– Passport
– Guide
– Business Card
– Maps
– Infos: Flight, Hotel, Visa
– Presents
– Sun Glasses
– Book (Flight)
– Geocaching
Double-Check:
– Passport
– Infos: Flight, Hotel, Visa
– Wallet
– Mobile Phone
– Camera
– mp3 Player
– Sun Glasses

Going Home …

The last days in New York were just great. Pictures say more than thousand words

The last one was from the great off-broadway show that we saw: Fuerzabruta

Now I am back home with a host of wonderful memories and the wish to go out into the world again soon …

New York, New York

A lot has happend since my last post! New York is an exciting experience. It impossible to compress all the impressions into one blog entry.

Central Park and geocaching therein, the museum of modern arts, Brooklyn bridge, a boat trip around Manhattan island, sun set from the Empire state building, the Metropolitan museum of art, the american museum of natural history, the museum of modern arts, SoHo, little Italy, Chinatown, and so much more, just unbelievable …

On thing I am especially thankful for and that I could appreciate more than any other visitor is having seen the Cristofori piano. It was shocking to see all the people just walk by. This my friends is THE OLDEST PIANO that we know of, created by the inventor of the piano Bartolomeo Cristofori himself!!!!

Hello New York!

On Saturday evening I arrived in New York. The flight from LA was even an hour early, so I had plenty of time to get to the terminal where Andrea arrived. I prepared a “Andrea Leb” sign, and so she could not miss me. What a cheerful reunion! That night we just got to the hotel and got to sleep.

Sunday was different. We were going to Times Square where we happened to stumble into the “Broadway on Broadway” show which is essentially a free medley concert of all Broadway shows! For the big finale they didn’t spare the effects and so this is the wonderful first impression that Andrea and me were able to get from Time Square.

Still a little bit tired of the jet lag we got to bed early, only to start exploring the city today with all our batteries fully recharged. We took the Staten Island Ferry trip for a close-up with the Statue of Liberty and wandered lower Manhatten

Manhattan

We also visited Ground Zero, where we were fortunate to be part of a very intimate guided tour. A married couple that has very close connections to the events of September 11th 2001 shared some historical facts as well as their personal story. Also a very emotional trip. It is amazing how they deal with it, I don’t know how I would. You can already see new buildings rise at Ground Zero!

After some late lunch / dinner we decided to visit Brooklyn Bridge, where I got this beautiful photo of Andrea, the Brooklyn Bridge and the skyline of Manhatten

Thank you New York and its people, it was a great day!