Heidelberg - November 2015

Heidelberg, Germany

Here are some impressions from our trip to Heidelberg in November 2015. We had a weekend there, with one night which we spent at the Schlosskommers (a kind of student festivity) in the ancient Heidelberg castle overlooking the city. The day before that we spent wandering the city and its Christmas market, and hiked the mountain behind the city center. I only took my trusty X100 and, as always, it did not let me down one bit. Enjoy the photos!

Heidelberg, Germany
Heidelberg, Germany Heidelberg, Germany
Heidelberg, Germany
Heidelberg, Germany

For me, one of the must-sees of Heidelberg was the Studentenkarzer (Karzer meaning "prison"), where students would be locked up for various durations for all kinds of infractions. As you can imagine, this quickly developed into a rite of passage, especially among the many fraternity members who would go out and try to get arrested as creatively as possible. Their tales of how and why they were ultimately arrested adorn the walls of the prisons, along with the insignia, colors and various other drawings.

Heidelberg, Germany
Heidelberg, Germany Heidelberg, Germany
Heidelberg, Germany

On Sunday, before leaving, we walked across the river Neckar and up the hills to the Philosophenweg. This trail snakes along the hills north of the city center and offers a few beautiful vistas, including the castle.

Heidelberg, Germany Heidelberg, Germany Heidelberg, Germany Heidelberg, Germany Heidelberg, Germany

Brussels & Gent - 2015

Gent, Belgium

Living in the border region between Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium means that some of the closest cities are in fact not German. From Aachen, it’s only a 30-minute drive to Maastricht (NL) or a 45-minute drive to Liege (BE). Sadly, most people who come here to study never use the chance to explore those countries. This is especially tragic if you realize that the part of Belgium bordering Germany has a lot to offer in terms of nature. I wrote a couple of blog posts before on Belgium: Vacationing, Liege, Hiking.

Gent, Belgium

I had never been to Brussels though, which is inexcusable since it’s only a 90-minute drive from Aachen. So last year I ran out of excuses and Katrin and I drove to Brussels for an extended weekend. There we met an old friend who was in Belgium for a conference, who also wanted to see some of the country.

Brussels, BE

Brussels was very much like I imagined it would be. The huge and serious district which houses all of the EU administration and the rest of the city, which is distinctly Belgian. The only thing that really surprised me was the choice of supreme restaurants. Up until then I had never thought of Belgium as the home to a lot of high end restaurants, but our guidebook pointed out that Belgium has the largest amount of star-adorned restaurants per capita.

Brussels, BE
Brussels, BE Brussels, BE
Brussels, BE

After Brussels we got into the car for the short drive to Gent/Ghent, the second biggest city in Flanders. Up until then I had mainly seen cities in the Wallonie, the French-speaking part of Belgium. When we crossed into Flanders we could immediately make out some of the subtle differences between the two parts of the country.

Gent, Belgium

Gent itself is absolutely lovely and must-see. I’d describe it as a mixture of cities like Amsterdam, Aachen, with a unique Belgian touch. The city center is small enough to explore on foot, and it has a good supply of impressive churches and small canals. Gent is also home to a large university which adds a lot of life to the city center and the main river crossing it. Without using too many words, Gent is the most beautiful city in Belgium I have seen so far and definitely worth visiting. I am fully aware that some day I will still have to see some other places like Bruges and Antwerp to complete the picture.

Gent, Belgium
Gent, Belgium Gent, Belgium
Gent, Belgium Gent, Belgium
Gent, Belgium
Gent, Belgium
Gent, Belgium

Las Vegas 2015

In August of this year I had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas. A colleague and I had submitted a talk to the BlackHat hackers conference and were accepted, so we went to Las Vegas and stayed there for almost a whole week.

Las Vegas, NV

I had never been to Las Vegas, and if it hadn’t been for this conference I probably wouldn’t have gone there by myself. But this way I was able to kill two birds with one stone: Present at an awesome conference and experience the unique city of Vegas. Meeting a lot of cool people and linking up with some of my co-workers was the cherry on top.

Newark, NJ

My trip there was a little arduous. Having booked a little late, I had only found a flight with one layover in Newark, New Jersey. But at least I got a great shot of the Manhattan skyline on the approach to the airport. The airport in New Jersey was chaotic and crowded, and it didn’t help that my connecting flight was five hours late (and another five hours to actually fly to Vegas). Still, it was amazing to fly into Las Vegas at night, first over miles and miles of pitch-black desert and then suddenly past the bright lit Hoover Dam and the screaming street lights of the city.

Las Vegas, NV

From the airport I took a cab to my hotel, the pyramid-shaped egyptian-themed Luxor hotel. Once you enter any of the hotels, the line between day and night quickly blurs, as there is a line for the reception desk no matter the time of day, and the gambling tables and machines create an incessant noise level.

Las Vegas, NV

The following days can hardly be described in any coherent story. I spent all day going to and from different hotels, meeting people for lunch and dinner, going to some of the many vendor-sponsored parties and in general just trying to take in the sheer madness that is the sensory overload of Vegas. Fortunately I had two days to acclimate myself before our actual talk, but still it was more than exhausting to cram this much into such a short time frame.

Our talk went well, we got some great feedback and gave a couple of follow-up interviews. After the stress of preparing for the talk had passed I was able to enjoy myself a little bit. Flo had also flown into Vegas as we wanted to visit another hacker conference (Defcon) that takes place at the same time, just a little bit further down the strip. After the days we’d try to get to the cool parties, which often meant queueing up in the long lines for the taxis and aimlessly running through the Casino floors to find the exits that would lead us to the street. I even found the time to visit the old Vegas strip with a friend, which was a lot smaller and not as loud and stressful as the modern strip.

Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas, NV Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas, NV

The photos in this post will certainly show some of the craziness that is Las Vegas, but this is really just scratching the surface. Vegas is, without a doubt, the most unapologetic and over-the-top location you could think of. You marvel and laugh at things every instant you’re there, and you can just as easily be annoyed by the blatant money-making machine that is the whole city.

Las Vegas, NV

After a week of Vegas I was completely burned out and happy to go home. It was an absolutely unique and new experience, most of all because of the people I met there. People have a love-hate relationship with this city, as everyone I met confirmed to me readily. Happy to go there once year, but just as happy to be back after a week.

Greece 2015 – Nafplio

The Peloponnese city of Nafplio was to be our last stop on our way through Greece. We heard many great things about Nafplio both from friends as well as locals. They told us that Nafplio was one of the prettiest cities and it was often described as romantic.

Nafplio, Greece

The old center of Nafplio is located on the tip of a bay, wedged between the harbor and some hills. As a result, the streets are narrow and steep and there are only a few places to go to by car. We weren’t completely sure about the location of our hotel, so we had to do some driving, search, Googling and cursing. Eventually we found a hotel by the right name, only to realize that it was only part of the hotel we were looking for and that the other (prettier) part of it was run by the brother of the owner, further up the hill.

Nafplio, Greece
Nafplio, Greece Nafplio, Greece
Nafplio, Greece

Eventually we found our hotel which had a grand view of Nafplio and the harbor, and could only be reached on foot. From there it was possible to take one of the many stairways down into the city, past the many stray dogs and cats and beautiful houses.

Nafplio was the capital of Greece from 1821 until 1834, and it still radiates some of its grandeur. There is Palamidi castle, towering high above the city, and there is Plateia Syntagmatos (Syntagma Square) in the city-centre. The streets and houses in Nafplio are incredibly well preserved and cared for. While there are a few of the mandatory tourist shops, the rest of the store-fronts are either really good restaurants or tasteful local shops. We were especially taken over by the myriad of absolutely sublime Tavernas we encountered, making us wish we could dinner three times a day.

Nafplio, Greece Nafplio, Greece

From our hotel it was only a short walk down on the opposite side of the hill to a tiny and crowded beach. Once we saw the pre-arranged sun loungers, the busy waiters (!) and the constant stream of music we decided to skip it and head for another beach a little further away. Not wanting to take our car (and lose our parking spot) we actually walked there on our first day. This was a rare instance where we regretted our decision to do something during this holiday. The gravel walkway to the second beach was cared for and gave us some beautiful views of the coast, but it was also without any shade and took us almost an hour. When we arrived we had already been burnt by the sun, so there was not a whole lot swimming we could still do. The next day we took our car, but by then we could only sit in the shade, shirts and everything, and I still looked like a lobster the next day. But we still had a great time, the city and the food made up for any inconvenience.

Epidaurus, Greece
Epidaurus, Greece Epidaurus, Greece

We also found time to visit the ancient Greek city of Epidaurus, not far from Nafplio. Since the sun promised to become unbearable on that day, we had driven there earlier than usual. The huge amphitheatre of Epidaurus was another childhood memory I could recall, and I was glad that we went there again. Apart from the theatre, the stadium and a lot of columns, there really isn’t too much to say about the site except what I had already critised about Olympia.

On our last day we left Nafplio to drive to Athens airport directly. The only stop we had planned on that drive was at the canal of Corinth. I distinctly remember visiting Corinth as a child, but seeing the narrow and steep canal driven into the sheer rock was nevertheless an impressive sight. Since we weren’t in a hurry, we didn’t immediately get back onto the highway to Athens but instead took the small old national road going the same direction. This way we saw the small bridge at the far end of the canal, an interesting and fitting way to end our vacation.

Corinth, Greece
Corinth, Greece Corinth, Greece
Corinth, Greece

Greece has been an absolutely awesome vacation in every way. The weather, the landscape, the food, and the people all make this one of the top destinations to go to to relax. In hindsight, it would certainly help to read up on ancient Greek history and mythology to be able to take in the wealth of historic sites. Also it really pays of to be able to read (and pronounce) the Greek alphabet fluently (lower- and uppercase), this will help a lot when navigating the roads. I was particularly impressed with the diversity of the Greek countryside, going from flat, arid Olive plantations to mountainous dense forests within an hour of driving. Last but not least, we didn’t notice the Euro crisis that everyone was talking about back home, and we were always warmly received by our hosts.

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