Trabi Stunt

This movie gets a lot of play 'round these parts ("East overtakes West"), I would just like to point out that the stunt driver there is yours truly.

Old roads

I like it when old cobblestones peek through the asphault, as if somebody someday is going to look at it and say, "Oh my goodness, look at this old beautiful cobblestone road underneath this asphault" and then rip it all off like carpet over a long-lost hardwood floor.

Spain

At the end of last year I took a short but memorable trip to Spain and am finally trying to find the time to post about it. I figured I should get it done before I head back there in a couple weeks. The whole motivation for the trip came when Elena (a native of Sevilla) found a beach ultimate frisbee tournament not far from there. She managed to convice 4 of us to join, not in little part due to the promise of food, food and more food like we would not forget. Fortunuately, that promise was met, and more than my expectations. Conveniently, the best flights worked out that we would really have to spend an extra 3 days before the tourney for it to make sense, a tough sell for the typical grad student and postdoc labrat workaholics afraid to leave for more than a weekend.

I had just got my new camera the week before so was able to grab some good pictures. As soon as we arrived in Sevilla we were treated to a giant home-cooked meal by Elena's entire family. This photo captures the evening, where doting hosts were continually throwing food at us.

It was all. good. And when we thought we were full, we would have a small argument about finishing the last few pieces of whatever on the plate, which we would always lose. And when said plate was finished, it meant it was time to bring out the next 3 plates. And it went on. Lots of traditional goodness that Elena had been telling us about.

Elena was basically our tour guide for the whole time, with the local tips. This not only meant the best eats, but between feedings we were able to get some good sight-seeing in. Here are some photos I have that don't involve food:

The largest Gothic Cathedral in the world only uses "Clock-O-Matic" brand clock motors.

After visiting the Cathedral we went for fried seafood. And as Per illustrates, we stuffed our faces. It was as good and as greasy as it looks

The only photo with me in it

After finishing off the fried seafood and sweet wine, we worked it off with a stroll, about 10 meters north, where we found a great place to sit down and have a glass of red wine and some sausage and cheese

here you see the proximty of the two establishments

A trip to the park, and then another break for some beverages

That evening we sampled some nice rum while listening to impromptu erotic poetry in Spanish, and then went to meet some of Elena's friends at one of their favorite places for eats:

Later on we went for more rum and I took some movies. Here is the first and tamest, to spare the viewer and those in the videos some laughs and awkwardness (and if any of you guys wanna complain about putting movies of you on the internet, well, you'll have to admit to reading my blog. HA!)

The next night we were treated AGAIN by Elena's parents, this time in a nice restaurant. And this was one of the best meals I've probably ever had. I mean, we just had lots and lots shared dishes and tapas. And everything was great. And everybody was in a great mood. We also hit the market to get some of the best Jamon in Spain to bring back home. Everybody got some, and while the idea was to also share some with friends back in Dresden, we seem to keep meeting up and just sharing it among ourselves....

...And finally it was time for the "main reason" for going, the beach ultimate tournament.
I risked bringing out my brand new camera in the salt and sand to try to get some fun action shots:

and I made it into a couple courtesy friends:

Dohna

(click to enlarge)

Beauty in Science





DNA (Blue) and two microtubule-associated proteins, tagged with red and green fluorescent constructs.
About 10x real time.

Cell Phone Camera Dump

...all taken with my phone...What kicked it off was that today there were two new flavors of yogurt at Konsum. All I can say is...WTF? no no no no no.



Sticker on the door of one of my regular cafes:


"Stop! Stupidity won't be served here! ...for a Nazi-free and non-violent Dresden Neustadt."
Always there, but a reminder that Feb13th is coming up and the annual Nazi convergence.


Here's two shots of my bike in it's natural habitat(s)(Neustadt and nostadt):





I get a healthy dose of "German" dishes in the institute canteen:

How else could I have possibly known that I actually like something called "Leberkäse" ("Liver-cheese")??? Look at that. With a fried egg, sauerkraut AND rotkohl. (Leberkäse is a type of meatloaf and tastes something like a hotdog.)


Old and New


And lastly....Hard evidence that that Trabi can push 100! (km/h)

Snowy Evenings in Dresden

Some shots I've got with my new "toy", a Nikon D300s
...and of course a big tripod and this fun little guy.

This is the intersection just north of where I live, looking East on Böhmischestr.
Haberland, Hebeda's, and Catapult all quality establishments that I'm fortunate to be so close to... (click to enlarge)


If you walk straight down the little alley in the photo above you come to this:
Martin-Luther-Kirche. My favorite platz in Dresden. It's just so.....European.


If I just walk a few blocks north towards the river from the institute where I work, you come upon this. I actually took this photo during an incubation time..... Schloss Albrechtsberg.


There's actually three castles right in a row there, lit up at night:

Little Green Footballs

This is an interesting blog. It's become the blog I probably currently read the most often, and for completely different reasons than I started reading it. I first came across Little Green Footballs (LGF) a few years ago. When I started reading it, it was to more or less to keep up with the thinking of the crazy right, politically. But it wasn't really the CRAZY right, as this blog was rated as one the most popular political blogs in the country sometime around 2007. Seemed like a good place to keep in touch with the thinking, and see where these folks were coming from. A single fellow is basically responsible for all of its content. Around this time (2007ish) the majority of posts on LGF seemed to be concerning the conflicts between Israel and Palestine and Lebanon/Hezbollah, and with an obvious and hard bias towards the Israel side. So much so that it would not be pushing it to say that Israel was characterized as being a horrible victim that could do no wrong and Palestine as only terrorists and heathens who were only trying to cheat and dupe the rest of the world, while too stupid to realize how they could solve the whole problem. If you had the time to read LGF through 2007 you would see this is only somewhat exaggerated. Much of the other posts dealt with a concern about the Muslims and Islam in the United States, concerned that they were somehow abusing political-correctness that had occurred post-9/11 and were up to some devious plots.

So it made for an interesting read at the time. I linked to it in a couple of posts about people taking things a little too far. The comments in this blog were also always interesting. They generally reflected the views of the blog poster. Although often with less style, harsher and poorly chosen words, and more slant to the right. But it was clear this blog had a big following.

As the presidential election heated up I continued reading as the country became polarized. And something happened at LGF, near the end of the election and Obama's inauguration. The substance of the posts changed. Then and afterwards, many of the postings turned to science, with a particular emphasis on evolution vs. creationism at first, and then global warming and climate change deniers. There are a number of good posts on this topic, including the most recent. And then after the election when the right wing and right-leaning bloggers and commentators began going completely nuts, the creator, Charles Johnson, began to seem to be having a change of heart. It was as if the ridiculousness, including the racism and anti-science sentiments, that was abound was just too much. This eventually culminated with a post "Why I Parted Ways with the Right". I believe he is still somewhat of a war-hawk, and still clearly very pro-Israel, but the posts rarely reflect this anymore. I now enjoy many of the science posts, there's some really good stuff. And now many posts concern pointing out the crazies on the right, like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, but also conservative bloggers and politicians. Now he has become a target of the far right as he has changed his views, being a high-profile blogger. It was almost as if the guy had a plan, to form the most popular blog on the right, get thousands of loyal followers, many of which seemed to idolize they guy and kiss his ass like bunch of yes-men, and then to slowly, slowly, turn this mass of people with his powers gradually away from the right. No doubt he has lost some followers, but I bet he has taken many with him.

Weihnachtsmärkte in Dresden

This year I stayed in Dresden for Christmas. I used the opportunity to get in as many Weihnachtsmarkt trips as possible. I also got a new camera very recently, just in time to take lots and lots of photos of these Chistmas markets. It even snowed the week before Christmas, to make the little markets even more fairytale-like....

Here's some photos of most of the ones in the region around Dresden

Striezelmarkt

Have to start with the Striezelmarkt because it's the largest in Dresden and oldest Christmas market in Germany. It started in 1434, which makes this year's market the 575th version (!!).

However, being large and old is about the most this market has going for it. It generally has the feel of an overpacked outdoor shopping mall, so if you're not in the right mood it can loose any charm real quick. I have to say, though, that every single year I've come to this market to buy a Stollen and a Räuchermann (smoking incense man) or two, because you get the best selection with the hundreds of stalls. I went down this year on Christmas eve and it was still completely packed right up until closing, lots of families were down there having Glühwein. I should also point out that there was actually a considerable effort by the city/organizers to change up this years market. The stalls were no longer arranged in rows, but more random, with occasional small platz areas, which gave it a less commercial feel and more room for people to hang out and enjoy their hot Glühwein. There was also a pretty cool display on baking Stollen, where they had some guys making it from scratch and baking it in a woodfire oven. You could then buy the dough or the Stollen right there if you chose. It was quite nicely done and the guys were very friendly and funny and full of history of the Stollen.

Stallhof Weihnachtsmarkt

In the past this has been my favorite Chrsitmas market. It has a medieval theme, and was always quite cozy and unique, even down to the mugs the Glühwein, or Met (mead), came in. And then two years ago, just after the results of a nation-wide survey labeling this the best Christmas market in Germany, there was a serious fire which damaged much of the market and the castle it was in. They got things back together for the next year, but the fire meant that they chnaged a lot, and it's just not the same. It's much less cozy with more open spaces. There is no longer a large fire to sit around. And this year there appears to be new management, because the food and drink offerings have even changed (including the beloved mugs), and the vibe just isn't the same. Nevertheless, a nice time.








Neumarkt Weihnachtsmarkt

While the Stallhof market was a bit of a let down, the new market just around the corner on the Neumarkt in front of the Frauenkirche was a fun surprise. It also has somewhat of a medieval theme, but nothing forced, so that it's just more like a nice market without any obnoxious stands selling horrible crap or with large flashing lights. And it makes sense that they should actually finally have a market on "Neumarkt", where you envision markets having stood hundreds of years ago.

Elbhangfest-Weihnachtsmarkt am Körnerplatz

I only discovered this market a couple of years ago. It's pretty small, but very cute, settled among some shop buildings with very nice traditional architecture.

Meissener Weihnachtsmarkt

I was really excited to check out the Weihnachtsmarkt in Meissen for the first time. The old town Meissen is such a beautiful little city with little alleys and old buildings - it seemed like a nice Christmas market location. Also, this photo from the webpage is really really nice and cozy:

In the end it was a bit of a disappointment, mostly just because I had already been to so many Christmas markets and without any theme or anything this one just kind of did not stand out. It was also very cold that evening. And it was rather small. On the other hand, I did try for the first time get to try Weißer Glühwein, made from the local Meissen wines.

Hauptstrasse Weihnachtsmarkt

This market, closest to my house, is nice as well, but also does not particularly stand out for any reason. They did have a giant Stollen on top of a Trabi, which was impressive:

Königstein Weihnachtsmarkt

Along with Meißen, I was excited to check out for the first time the market in Königstein. Festung Königstein is an old impressive fortress built a ways upstream from Dresden on the Elbe. It appears very cold, scary, and uninviting from the outside, particualry in a dark snowstorm.

I really enjoyed this market. It also had somewhat of a medieval theme, which fit. And maybe it was because we hiked up through the snow on unlit trails for 30 minutes to get there, but it was quite cozy inside with a hot Glühwein:

And of course the snowfall was a nice touch