Sorry for not posting anything lately, I still don't have internet in my apartment so it is much more difficult to for me to update. I've been doing well, but I really don't like not being able to log on at will, especially when it is so expensive to call back home on my cell phone. I've watched a lot of movies, and taken a lot of online training, had numerous immunizations last week, and finished up my medical preparation for deployment. Other than that, I've been pretty bored here. I am supposed to leave at some point in the next two weeks, but I still haven't heard a firm date yet. I'll be sure to let everyone know when I do finally head out.
This past weekend I went to Prague. It was awesome! It's a beautiful city full of good times and people and food. I had sushi, traditional Czech food, and KFC all in the same weekend, so I definitely went to different extremes as my stomach started to rumble. I saw a lot of the city, went on two tours on Saturday and a pub crawl on Friday, although I did get lost from the pub crawl when they left one club...oh well, I still had a great night anyway. Saturday I was up and about from around 9 am until 5 am the next morning, so I was pretty tired when I had to check out at 10 am. There was no rest for the wicked, though, so I kept going and walked around the city for a few final hours before heading back to Sulzbach.
I'm not sure exactly where I'll end up this weekend, but right now my plans are for Luxembourg, Brussels, and Amsterdam, but we'll see what happens.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Munich and Training and England and Apartment
I had a great weekend...but I have no pictures to show for it. I forgot my camera again, I don't know what it is, but it seems to be the one item that continually escapes me as I pack for my weekend trips. I hung out with two classmates of mine on Friday night, we went to Weiden, a bigger town nearby, and wandered around until we found a Gasthaus (Guesthouse) that looked good. It was nice to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in a while, and good to know that I have more friends here than I thought. Most of the guys that I know that are stationed here I thought were in Afghanistan, so we will all deploy at pretty much the same time.
Saturday morning I woke up and caught the train to Munich and got there sometime shortly after noon. I walked around the downtown area and visited several ancient churches and the old palace (Residenz) of the Bavarian Kings. All of the old cathedrals and large churches are decorated with so many beautiful pieces of art and gold and silver that it gives easy understanding to just how powerful the Catholic Church used to be. The Palace was enormous, old, and absolutely stunning. Room after room and hall after hall of more and more opulance. I couldn't help but wonder at how quickly the old royalty and nobility must have lost sight of the grandness of their surroundings. I noticed a similar experience while still at West Point. Without stepping back and really looking at how beautiful the Hudson Valley truly was, I could have easily gone weeks stuck in a dream of endless class, homework, and the countless other minutae that occupied my time at the Point. I finished up Saturday evening going on a beer tour of Munich and making several new friends, so maybe some photos will surface of me eventually.
Sunday was a much more sombre day for me. I chose to visit the Holocaust memorial site of Dachau, only a short distance from Munich. In a weird twist that shows just how small the world truly is, when I went to Starbucks before meeting up with the tour group, I ran into some people I had met the night before, and they were headed to Dachau as well, so it was nice to have several people to talk to when the mood struck me to do so. The whole visit really made me think about what it means to be a warrior and the nature of mankind. Michael Shaara in his book The Killer Angels described how in every soul lay the seeds of both a devil and an angel, and it is up to us to decide the aspect that guides our actions and behavior. I will leave it at that with one final thought: never again.
I'll go into my training briefly, because although it was surprisingly good, less is more in describing it. We had a very busy week and I only made it home before dark one day. Our time was not wasted at all and much of the training served as a good refresher for things that I have done in the past. We went into greater depth about how to combat IEDs and deal with the population and did a good review of heavy weapons and personal firearms.
Last weekend I went to visit a friend that lives in Lakenheath, England. We had a really great time and I was able to see two castles and a huge cathedral in the short time that I was there. Driving on the left side of the road made for an interesting experience, even if I wasn't the one driving. I did remember my camera this time, so I'll eventually get pictures posted on facebook. We even found good food while we were there, so it was a nice change from a typical British experience!
This week I've been getting settled into my new apartment in Sulzbach-Rosenberg. It's a really nice apartment, and downtown Sulzbach is only a ten minute walk away, so there is really no need to drive in the evenings. Additionally, I signed up for an internet plan, although it is going to take at least 12 days for it to get set up. For now, I am using the internet wherever I can, currently at the store where I signed the internet contract. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do this long weekend, but I'll go somewhere fun and have a great weekend.
Saturday morning I woke up and caught the train to Munich and got there sometime shortly after noon. I walked around the downtown area and visited several ancient churches and the old palace (Residenz) of the Bavarian Kings. All of the old cathedrals and large churches are decorated with so many beautiful pieces of art and gold and silver that it gives easy understanding to just how powerful the Catholic Church used to be. The Palace was enormous, old, and absolutely stunning. Room after room and hall after hall of more and more opulance. I couldn't help but wonder at how quickly the old royalty and nobility must have lost sight of the grandness of their surroundings. I noticed a similar experience while still at West Point. Without stepping back and really looking at how beautiful the Hudson Valley truly was, I could have easily gone weeks stuck in a dream of endless class, homework, and the countless other minutae that occupied my time at the Point. I finished up Saturday evening going on a beer tour of Munich and making several new friends, so maybe some photos will surface of me eventually.
Sunday was a much more sombre day for me. I chose to visit the Holocaust memorial site of Dachau, only a short distance from Munich. In a weird twist that shows just how small the world truly is, when I went to Starbucks before meeting up with the tour group, I ran into some people I had met the night before, and they were headed to Dachau as well, so it was nice to have several people to talk to when the mood struck me to do so. The whole visit really made me think about what it means to be a warrior and the nature of mankind. Michael Shaara in his book The Killer Angels described how in every soul lay the seeds of both a devil and an angel, and it is up to us to decide the aspect that guides our actions and behavior. I will leave it at that with one final thought: never again.
I'll go into my training briefly, because although it was surprisingly good, less is more in describing it. We had a very busy week and I only made it home before dark one day. Our time was not wasted at all and much of the training served as a good refresher for things that I have done in the past. We went into greater depth about how to combat IEDs and deal with the population and did a good review of heavy weapons and personal firearms.
Last weekend I went to visit a friend that lives in Lakenheath, England. We had a really great time and I was able to see two castles and a huge cathedral in the short time that I was there. Driving on the left side of the road made for an interesting experience, even if I wasn't the one driving. I did remember my camera this time, so I'll eventually get pictures posted on facebook. We even found good food while we were there, so it was a nice change from a typical British experience!
This week I've been getting settled into my new apartment in Sulzbach-Rosenberg. It's a really nice apartment, and downtown Sulzbach is only a ten minute walk away, so there is really no need to drive in the evenings. Additionally, I signed up for an internet plan, although it is going to take at least 12 days for it to get set up. For now, I am using the internet wherever I can, currently at the store where I signed the internet contract. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do this long weekend, but I'll go somewhere fun and have a great weekend.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Afghanistan
Slideshow
