Two weeks in, trip to Prague

Just over 2 weeks after starting work, I took a weekend trip to Prague. But I'll start with an update on those two weeks before getting into details about my Prague trip. My Prague Flickr album is here.

Dublin - Croke Park Classic 2014

When I was still in the US planning my move to Europe, I decided to fit in the UCF game in Dublin into my plans. It would have cost too much to just visit Dublin from the US, but flights from Europe are much cheaper. With my job lined up, I had my start date set for the week just after the game, on a Wednesday to give me time to get back and have a day to get ready for the start of work. As usual, I have a Flickr album with pictures I took while I was in Dublin.

Brussels for the move to Berlin

In my last two posts, I talked about getting my apartment in Berlin and the trip back to Brussels. When I returned to Brussels, I spent my time there pretty much getting my stuff in order. I did some light grocery shopping for some Belgian food snacks to bring with me to Berlin. When I went out to the store, I saw an interesting truck parked along the street.

Diplomatic Cargo outside my grandmother's apartment building.

Being a tourist in Berlin for the last time

In my previous post, I talked about being in Berlin and flat-hunting. When I wasn't actively looking at flats or researching places online (which wasn't very much time), I wandered around a bit.

At Alexanderplatz, I noticed they were setting up for some gelato expo? More about this below.

Flat hunting in Berlin

After the weekend in Brussels, I returned to Berlin to embark on the tedious process of finding a flat. While in Brussels I had already started lining up places, mainly finding ones on wg-gesucht.de. Worried that I might not be able to get my own place at a decent price, I also included some flatshares in my search, but tried to keep it at most one or two other people. The trip back to Berlin was, again, uneventful. The only problem was there was about 30 minutes delay, and it meant I'd miss the first flat viewing (which wasn't high on my list, I mainly just liked the location and street name: Buttmannstr.)

A TGV on another platform in Brussels

Waiting for the train. Was actually going to Berlin Ostbahnhof since my hostel was near that station

Brussels in August

After weeks of traveling around northern Europe, I finally returned to Brussels. I planned to return that weekend to not only swap out clothes and drop off stuff I'd acquired over the past days, but to catch the Flower Carpet in Brussels. The Flower Carpet occurs every two years and they carpet the "Grand Place" with begonia flowers. It lasts just for a weekend (because it's real flowers), and I had never seen it. Here's the link to the Flickr album with all the pictures from the weekend.

The trip from Berlin to Brussels (via Cologne) went smoothly. I was at the station early, got myself lunch and enjoyed the view. I was already excited to come back and I hadn't even left!

From the Dunkin Donuts in the train station. Nice view of the Reichstag building

Hamburg and a few days in Berlin

This blog post is about a month late. After Gothenburg I essentially switched to "find a flat" mode and focused on my apartment search, getting ready for work, and settling in.

The trip from Gothenburg to Berlin would be broken up in Hamburg, where I'd spent the night before taking a train to Berlin. From Gothenburg I took a train to Copenhagen and went back to Germany over the same railway and ferry that I took going to Scandinavia. This time I took more pictures on the ferry and posted the pictures to Flickr.

Train from Copenhagen to Hamburg!

Gothenburg

For the trip from Oslo to Gothenburg, there was some rail work going on which meant I'd have to take a bus from Oslo to Moss, and from Moss we'd take the train to Gothenburg. The bus ride was a nice change of pace, seeing the highways and tunnels of Scandinavia. The train ride was nicer, I was in the quiet car (didn't stop a guy from taking a phone call, sigh) and was reading on my Kindle. I looked up while reading and smiled at the amazing view of the countryside rolling by.

"Auto Awesome" picture of the view

Oslo, not quite like Epcot

I'm quite late with this post, as I was in Oslo about a week ago. Usually I try to post when I arrive in the next city, but between short stays in the cities I was in following Oslo and ramping up my apartment search in Berlin, I didn't have the time to post. Now that I have free time this weekend, I'll catch up on my blog. And without further delay...

Stockholm - Log Islet

My next stop after Copenhagen was Stockholm, where I'd spend 4 nights. Follow along on with pictures in the Flickr album.

To get to Stockholm, I took a high-speed train from Copenhagen. It's a reservation-required train, but reservations are relatively cheap, and I booked a meal for the ride (which went through lunch) to get a discount. I was supposed to print the ticket but I hadn't gotten around to it in Berlin, and I didn't have access to a printer in Copenhagen. Luckily they accepted the PDF of it on my phone.

Copenhagen station

Copenhagen/København

As always, if you're impatient and want to see the photos I have on Flickr, here's the link for Copenhagen.

On Friday morning I had breakfast and left to go to the central station. I had booked a seat a few days before so I wasn't too stressed. Nothing much to report for that morning, it was a nice day and 

"Train ends here" "Please do not board"

Berlin (Part 2)

I'll start by re-posting the link to the Flickr album from Part 1.

To recap, had my interviews on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday I switched hotels and did some visiting/shopping, but the weather wasn't great. Thursday was then a fully free day before traveling to Copenhagen on Friday. Since the weather promised to be nice on Thursday, I planned to go to Tempelhof Airport to see the abandoned airport that's now a park. Tempelhof is known for being the site of the Berlin Airlift. The airport closed in 2008. The city opened the airfield as a park in 2010. I took a panoramic picture from the runway, which you can see here.

Berlin (Part 1)

As in my previous post, here's the Flickr link for all the other pictures I took.

Berlin is a great city. I absolutely love how it has the mix of old and new, the history behind everything, and a very safe feel to it all. In my last post, I mentioned the interviews I had coming up. The first one was Monday with BlackBridge, second was Tuesday with Pixformance. I really liked what I saw at Blackbridge and was really happy when they offered me a job! So it looks like I'll be working there starting in September (so excited!).

Brussels to Berlin via Cologne

Before I begin, I'd like to link to a photo album with pictures relating to this post on Flickr. I've captioned those photos there, but most of them are in Cologne.

With my bags packed, my uncle drove me to the Brussels South train station. I went and activated my pass and went to board the first train to Köln (Cologne). I got there relatively early, and the train was originating from that Brussels station so it was also there early. It was interesting because it wouldn't let us board until 20 minutes before departure, so I got to stare at the train for a while.

Initially, the sign at the station said not to board

Belgian Palace

Every summer, Belgium's Royal Palace opens up for visitors with free tours. On Friday, I went over there for a tour and took a lot of pictures. I put the pictures on Flickr, so head over there to see all of them.

While waiting for the bus to bring me into town, I snapped some pictures of the newer trams in Brussels.

Tram in the opposite direction

Arrived in Belgium

I got in to Belgium on Wednesday (today is Friday). My last post was at London Heathrow where I was waiting in the lounge for my next flight. After that post, I had lunch, the massage, and then went to the gate for my flight to Brussels.

Lunch was some tasty pasta

Plane for my flight to Brussels

Left America

Several months ago, I decided I wanted to try and see what it's like to live and work in Europe. Having dual citizenship with Belgium and USA means I don't need any sort of visa to come and live/work in Europe. Long story short, I quit my job, packed my bags, and bought my flight for Brussels.