November 24th, 2009
Just 24 hours after we had returned from Berlin, I went back to the airport and left for Copenhagen and London. Emily had to go to London for work, and since I am currently unemployed, I decided to tag along. I used up some of my frequent flier miles to get an (almost) free flight. Since I was using a reward ticket, I couldn’t get a direct flight and had to connect in Copenhagen. And since I had never been to Copenhagen, I decided to stop there for a free 24 hour layover on the way to London.
Copenhagen, Denmark
I only had one day to explore Copenhagen so I obviously couldn’t see or do everything. I stayed in a hotel just south of the train station and spent the majority of the day walking from there all the way across town up to the Little Mermaid statue and back. I really liked all of the pedestrian areas in the city center, especially Strøget which is supposedly the longest pedestrian street in the world. Copenhagen also seemed very bike friendly, and I thought the bike infrastructure was even better than Amsterdam (although I admittedly didn’t ride a bike in either city). One other thing that I noticed was the city’s obsession with climate change (it was hard to miss). There were exhibits in the airport and all over the city about climate change. After I left I found out that the UN Climate Change Conference was taking place in Copenhagen a few weeks after I left.
Unfortunately, though, it was not the ideal time to visit Denmark. The weather was cold and lightly raining the whole time I was there. Also, the Tivoli Gardens were closed (they reopened with Xmas lights a week later), the quaint Nyhavn harbor was deserted, and the sun set at 4 pm. After visiting Norway when there was still snow on the ground in March and Copenhagen when it was cold and rainy in November, I’m going to implement a new policy of only visiting Scandinavia in the summer from now on. Lesson learned.
Pictures from Copenhagen on Flickr
London, UK
From Copenhagen I flew to London and met Emily there. We spent the first night in Richmond, near her office, and then spent the next 2 nights at a friend’s apartment near Earl’s Court. CK somehow managed to be a great host and take us all over the city despite getting steadily more and more sick as the weekend progressed. Thanks again, CK!
On Friday night we met up with some people on Carnaby Street, which was a part of London that I had never seen before. The Christmas lights were already up and it seemed like a nice area. We all ate dinner at Cha Cha Moon, which was very good and a similar style to Wagamamas. On Saturday we went to the Borough Market, which was amazing. It is probably my favorite place in London. There is a ton of great food to eat there: our favorites were the scallops, the raclette grilled cheese, fresh ravioli, and oysters (according to Emily). The ribeye sandwich, chorizo sandwich, brownies, and turkish delight were also quite good (did I mention that we ate a lot that day?). If anyone is ever visiting London, I would highly recommend the Borough Market.
November 21st, 2009
A couple of weeks ago Emily and I went to Berlin for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The wall fell on November 9th, 1989; I was only 8 years old at the time so I don’t really remember much from when it happened. This trip to Berlin was very interesting and educational for me. I felt like a bit of an ignorant American when I first got there, but I learned a lot about the history of Berlin and the significance of all of it. Hopefully, I am now a slightly less ignorant American.
This was my first time visiting Berlin (Emily had been here once earlier this year). On first impression, I really like the city. It has a very artsy / creative / alternative vibe which I really enjoyed. I think it might have reminded me of San Francisco in some ways. I was somewhat surprised by how big of a city Berlin is (probably felt even bigger coming from Zürich), but it was easy to get around with the U-Bahn and our budding German skills. While we were there, we played tourist and saw most of the famous sites of the city including the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, Deutscher Reichstag (German Parliament), Berlin Cathedral, TV Tower, and the Holocaust memorial.
We met up with a few of our friends from Zürich while we were in Berlin too. It was actually our friend Mieke who gave us the idea to come to Berlin in the first place. We also went out to dinner one night with Katrin and Toby, who gave us the insider tips on Berlin. Finally, we were lucky enough to stay with our friend Nikolai and his girlfriend, who are both Russian. I know this might sound a bit cheesy, but I do think there is something symbolic about two Americans staying with two Russians for the celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Nikolai and Marina were really amazing hosts, and I hope that they make it to Zürich sometime soon so we can return the favor.
The big celebration for the fall of the wall (20 Jahre Mauerfall) was on Monday night, November 9th. They had set up 1000 giant dominos along 1.5 km of where the wall used to stand. This actually made it somewhat difficult to get around the city at times (although obviously nothing compared to what it used to be like 20+ years ago, so I can’t complain). The ceremony took place at the Brandenburg Gate, but there were huge video monitors set up along the domino wall. We ended up watching from a spot between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate that night. It was raining most of the time, which made it difficult to see past all the umbrellas. There were speeches from the leaders of Germany, Russia, France, Great Britain, and the USA (Hillary Clinton, plus Obama via satellite). There were also some musical performances including Bon Jovi, which seemed a bit strange to me. But after dragging it out as long as possible, they finally knocked over all of the dominoes and symbolically knocked down the wall for a second time. They even had some fireworks to finish it off. It was a neat experience and I’m glad that I went.
Random fact – You can tell you when you are in East Berlin by the pedestrian crossing lights at intersections. The “Ampelmann” is very distinct and much different than any other city I have ever visited.
Berlin pics on Flickr
November 8th, 2009
I have been unemployed for over two and a half months now. The startup where I had been working for the last year was unable to secure its second round of funding (fell through at the last minute), so the company was forced to dissolve and now I am on my own. It was very unfortunate but completely out of my control, so “que sera sera”.
Some people ask me how I am “coping” with being unemployed, and the truth is that I am really enjoying myself. Luckily I had planned ahead and saved up some money so I can support myself for awhile without having to desperately grab the first job I find. I am trying to take full advantage of this opportunity and often find myself just as busy as when I had a job. It’s funny how when you have a job, you have plenty of money but lack the time to enjoy it, but when you have no job, you have plenty of time but lack the money to take advantage of it. I have been trying find the right balance between utilizing my time and trying to conserve my savings.
Here is what has been keeping me busy lately:
- Working on Personal Web Projects – I have been spending a lot of time learning Python and Django to create a new site to help developers find cheat sheets (I will write more about this soon). Over the past few years, I have accumulated lots of ideas for websites and have started to horde domain names for these projects. I think that being unemployed has finally given me the push I needed to start developing these ideas. I’m really excited about my new site and can’t wait to start working on some of my other ideas as well.
- Intensive German Course – I finally signed up for an intensive German class at Allegra! language school that meets 5 days a week for 2 hours each day. I just finished week 9 of the course (beginner level A1). I feel like I have made a lot of progress, although I am still very much in the beginner category. However, I definitely notice a difference already in being able to understand a little more of what people say and what signs mean, which is an important step in the transition to living abroad.
- Travel – After my crazy summer of traveling, I was ready to stay put in Zürich for awhile…but that didn’t last too long. In the past 2.5 months, I have been to the Black Forest, Prague, Munich, and Amsterdam. Plus I am currently in Berlin and have plans to go to Copenhagen and London later this week. Have I mentioned that I love to travel?
- Job Search – Looking for a job is basically a job itself. I have been working with a local company in Zürich, Spouse Career Centre, to help me prepare a Swiss-style version of my resume and to help me in my job search. Looking for a job actually does consume a lot of time between revising my resume, searching job listings, reviewing technical skills, preparing for interviews, and then attending the interviews themselves.
All that being said, I am looking forward to finding a job in Zürich. I have a few good leads so hopefully one of them will work out. But in the meantime if anyone knows a company that is looking for an English-speaking programmer/developer/software engineer in Zürich, let me know!
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