New York City Boy

The strange thing is - walking around in NYC is not strange at all. Probably because you saw the exact same thing a zillion times befor in the movies, but it just doesn't feel completely new. The fact that it's still very unfamiliar just adds to the confusion. Central Park with joggers and bikers in the morning, tourists and locals alike crowding to pictures of some movie shoot, baggy trousers on the silver-colour trains, this is exactly what I would have expected :) It's a bit reassuring at the same time, especially combined with the fact that English is spoken a lot less muddled here than in London. Obviously I'm still a bit lost in a lot of places, one in particular is your usual Midtown deli. For one I can't seem to figure out where they keep the beer. Also I'm not entirely sure yet about the selection of pastries and sandwiches, I can't match up the names on the price list with the actual objects behind the counter. Just this morning I had something made out of too sweet, too crumbly dough dipped in sugar crystals, and I don't know the name of it to make it easier avoiding the same stuff in the future :)
The office is cool, luckily I managed to get out of the "hoteling booth", which is basically an oversized phone booth with a desk and a small single PC screen - I can use the desk of a colleague on vacation instead. There was the usual issue with the entry in the AM where the access card never works as promised but it was resolved quickly. Oh yeah, AM... the jet lag - I always forget which direction they say is worse, but I'm quite convinced it's this way around :) Yesterday I got in after 14 hours of travel still in broad daylight in the middle of the afternoon, so I strolled around the Avenues to fall asleep late enough, and still I awoke at 2AM (or 8AM per my internal clock). Maybe tomorrow will be better :) To prepare for it today I checked out Lower Manhattan, the Wall Street and NYSE with the signature bull, and also the new buildings on Ground Zero. I kinda expected the memorial to be in a more obvious place, but I only saw the arrows pointing towards it after a long walk in the opposite direction. Of course the arrows also mentioned I should pre-book so I just skipped this one. Further south was even better, not that many people at this "late" hour around 8PM. The small parks and the high houses gave that part a nice athmosphere, and I also found the street of Irish pubs for later reference.

Let's close this for tonight and log a quest for tomorrow - to find wifi to post this! (Actually in the end office internet was the Holy Grail - I'll still need the WiFi to add pictures)

M

Chinese Torture

Yay, I finally arrived! Well, I've arrived 12 hours before, but only now do I have time and the strength to write a bit. More time than strength, mind you, the time zone shift on the plane robbed me of precious hours of sleep...
The food was pretty good on the the Finnair flight, I tasted some French red wine with the main course and some port with the dessert. The port was not as good as I would have expected, but it was fine in any case. The entertainment system was also OK, I watched some newish comedy flick with Steve Carell and various episodes of The Big Bang Theory, all of which were quite good for relaxing. Sleeping was not that fine, even though it was possible to recline the seat almost perfectly horizontally, you still had some feeling of slipping down. The first rays of the sun woke me somewhere above the Mongolian plains, which ain't a lovely site, but it's nice. Flying forwards there were sooo many seemingly untouched forests to be seen, that was pretty. Then, approaching Shanghai, we got a glimpse of all the skyscrapers, and the light brownish sea... yuck!
Landing and passing immigration was easy, passing the people trying to sell their own airport transfer services less so. I was heading straight to the MagLev train, to see how those 430kmhs feel in reality. It was an amazing speed, although I would have expected a bit less racketing. Then, after the obligatory photos (shared later), I got to an official taxi, shown the destination printed in Mandarin, an my 15 minute car ride through hell started :) It seems like Chinese drivers obey two rules of the road: head where you want to, and honk! Luckily the drivers are more or less tied to the tarmac...
So, we got to the hotels, mine is now only the second highest - still, the view from the 75th floor room is not too shabby :) (Well I will have to switch to a different or get this fixed up as the bathtub leaks all over the bathroom, but that at least does not obstruct the view ;)
After settling down, I started a time run for the office to see how I would fare on Monday. So adding up all distractions, and the crowd, and the difficulties of getting a proper pass, not only a single ticket didn't do well on this run. Actually I did not even get that bloody pass, as noone spoke English to me when they should have. Probably would have been better with a younger clerk.
The city is amazing, and it's amazing hot as well. I wouldn't be able to tell from the architecture, that we are on the Far East, but all important buildings look like new. Of course if you take the wrong turn, you'll find yourselves in the shadiest of alleys, with strange things being cooked on the street, but sticking to the main routes should be a great experience :)

(I'll wrap up now and continue tomorrow - I'm falling asleep while typing. See you soon!)

M.

Welcome back my friends!

To the show that never ends :)

I'm waiting for my connection to Shanghai, chilling out in the Via Lounge in Helsinki-Vantaa Airport - how cool is that? :) Definitely not as cool as the complimentary welcome scotch ;)

The Lounge is pretty good (as if I had a comparison), nice minimalistic Nordic design, comfy reclining chairs, and a fine selection of food and drinks. And the view - an A340, docked to gate 36 I think :D Pretty fine that's for sure. The Finnair fleet is 6 years old at an average, with a 3 years average on the long haulers, so I guess the shiny white exterior of the plane is not just a cheap paint job to hide the rust.
The weather is supposed to be not particularly chilly - about the same 32C we have in Hungary. But I won't get outside the airport here in any case.
Also, I just checked and the Chinese electrical outlet standard is just the same - as the converter I have in a box, at home :P I hope the hotel is prepared for fools like me :) I might check the duty free though, maybe they have something for me as well, for a price.

I'll just cut this short now, chilling out should be about doing nothing at all, not even typing :)
Here's to hoping I'll have the time and willpower to update this regularly!

M.

(PS: Title shamelessly stolen from ELP)

Oooooh I have to sum up so much! I'll try to be quick, as I'm tired, as usual :) Tuesday... I had another training session, split up in two parts. The morning part was quite boring, just a replay of my last training with more emphasis on some parts. I wouldn't say it was completely useless, but I could have spent my time better. Luckily, it was over just it time for me to reach the loo :) Free drinks have an effect... :) The afternoon part was a lot better, we were given some useful information, which I'll probably use as well during my work. In the evening I quickly summarized my ideas in an email on how to solve a current problem - this turned out quite well in the end.
Oh, and this day I had my worst lunch so far :) It was turkey, supposedly "rosted with honey, with stuffing", and well, it was really turkey, period. No other tastes, and definitely no stuffing :) Even the potatoes were without a taste. I managed to get some very good horseradish sauce with all this, that took most of my pain away :) In the evening I went out to check out the Oxford Circus, and well, it rained :) The tube ride was strange though - this was the first time I left for the inner city right after work, and well, there were a lot of people! I could only get on the second train, which was full as well as the first, and there were people left on the platform... I can understand now why londoners complain about the tube, but my overall observation would be that the people were a lot more patient than they would be in Hungary in a similar situation. No pushing, shouting or swearing, even though I'm sure most travellers will be a lot happier if and when the Crossrail project gets another traffic line to the Wharf :)
So, the Circus was fine, a lot of shoppers everywhere, it was nice to get back home and have dinner in peace and quiet :)
Wednesday... No rain in the morning! I tried to take a photo of the Reuters building, with all the scrolling stock info on it - I think this photo does not do justice to reality, but I was in a hurry :)
Work was fine, lunch was great with a spicey cod steak in the cantine on the 12th floor of our Bank Street building :) We had a great view on the city, though the Eye definitely beats this :) I tried to find the Costa Coffee in our offices, but eventually I had to settle for Starbucks - they give a lot better latte than the free coffee machine does. It costs a quid, but in the "offical" Starbucks it would be more than 2GBP, so whatever... After work I went grocery shopping, tried out the third food store in the area, and realized that the choice in English food is quite narrow... I mean I would be able to buy a lot of things, but German salami and Spanish chorizos would blend well enough with Danish butter in just any other country... I want to eat British stuff! Even haggis, if I have to! Easier to say than do around here...
So at home, I had crab pate form the Hebrids, and then I left to try out that boat ride on the Thames I received a "Free Ride"-coupon for - and it was definitely worth it's price :) I had to go out to the O2 Dome to get on the boat, and it rained again, of course... The boat was very comfy on the inside, and very, very fast - I was told this is because it's a catamaran design. I got off near Big Ben, and tried to get home - I was quite unlucky with that, as the direct tube line was not running due to some train problems, so I had to go around town, with 2 changes and million kilometres afoot to get home eventually. The only thing to do was to write this entry, have some cheddar with crackers and a beer...And then, sleep!
Zzzzzz,
M.

London reporting in

It's almost midnight in a slightly different time zone than usual... Today in the morning I had a pair of presentations about how I should go about being a new employee, and at 2:20pm I left for the airport. There, I spent an hour in the business lounge - my first time ever :) It was not that special but they had free drinks and cookies. Afterwards I (and ~10 colleagues) boarded flight MA614 to London - my first business class travel ever :) It was quite nice, they took my coat, served nice wines and an amazingly rich meal - something I will have to make a photo of on my trip home. I had some assorted cheese, chicken with potatoes & stuff, some more spicier chicken and a tiramisu. Oh, and while I also helped the people sitting next to me to open their bag of mixed nuts (it was basically bolted shut...). They were an elderly couple, not my colleagues of course. They were visiting their son and his family in Budapest - they have a family tradition BTW, of marrying at the age of 37 and having the first child at 41 :) That would make the husband of the couple 82, and he was in a remarkably good health for his age ... he told me he learned to fly a plane before WW2 on the very same Gatwick airport we landed in London... :) They were very nice people, we had a good chat, so it was a good flight. On the airport after a loooooong walk on the corridors we got our bags and were awaited by a minibus, which took us to our apartments. It was not a quick process, and not without mistakes - I misread my address and tried to enter No.11 in a completely different building :) But eventually I got to my (really) own apartment, which is HUGE! At least as big as my flat at home... No problems so far, I have an internet connection as well, though it costs a lot of GBP... After settling I went out with 2 guys for a beer... my first pair of Guinesses in the UK! And now it's time for some pictures and a very good nights sleep :) I will get back to you very soon, so come back and read me :)

Pictures
Map


M.

Back in the World of Adventures!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It's that time of year again, I'm going for a training trip with my new employer - this time I'll haunt the streets of London for a few weeks. So fasten your seatbelts, start up your RSS-reader engines, and join me on the joyride! :)

I'll be seeing you all!
M.

Polly wants a cracker...NOT!

Well, travel and flying is always an experience. Time between my last entry and now was spent as usual, no virtual rainforests should be cut down for the reason of archiving those events. But today...I got to the airport early as always, and the gate was changed 3 times in 10 minutes, we were basically just running up and down in the airport :) And while I was waiting for boarding to begin, I was trying to phrase a polite mail of complaint to the operators of the airport, as I noted that the security checks were quite sloppy - airport personnel was checked at the gates, but they were free to go in spite of the gate *BEEP*ing. At Berlin-Tegel, for example, also the personnel is carefully checked, and well, that's the way it should be. So anyhow, I was thinking about this subject, and was interrupted by some girls who asked me if I wanted to fill out a "How satisfied are you with the airport" form :) Hell I did. So now they know :P
Then, we got on the bus that took us to our plane, which was operated by Augsburg Airways (nice historical reference :) ), and was the first turbo-prop plane I've ever flown with. It was a Dash 8 Q400, where the Q stands for "quiet due to installation of the Active Noise and Vibration Suppression (ANVS) system designed to reduce cabin noise and vibration levels to nearly those of jet airliners", which translates to "feels just like the inside of a coctail shaker". The other problem was that we did not get a sandwich for breakfast, but chocolate crackers. They were good, but too little, too late :) And the plane was of course slow like a paralyzed snail, so we were just able to catch our connecting flight. All in all, that part of the trip was pretty bad :) The other leg went just fine, got me to work, where I'll try to sleep stay awake for an hour or two more.

For dinner I will try the sandwich maker I brought with, I hope it tastes good :P Or that at least the sandwiches will.
Take care,
M.

A Hard Day's Day(s)

Catching the minibus to the airport at 4:50 am was just the beginning. The flight, which should have taken off at 7:10 was stranded at BUD for 45 minutes, because the weather was quite foggy in MUC. At least we got an extra orange juice during the wait. Our connecting flight was only 20 minutes late, at least that was written on the board, but the take off only happened like 30 minutes later, again, because of the fog. When I looked out the window while we were on the runway, I did not even see the wing of the plane. That's a reassuring sight, I must tell you :) Going a few hundred kmh with virtually no visibility is definitely a lot of fun :) The layer of fog was only like 10 meters thich though, and the weather was fine and sunny above :) Strangely enough basically only the Munich Airport (name after the late Franz Josef Strauß, minister-president of Bavaria) and it's surroundings were still covered with fog whe we were already airborne, which is either very unlucky or a very bad choice of place for an airport.
So anyhow, the journey ended well, we had a good lunch (lasagne and canelloni at the usual Italian restaurant), and a very exhausting day of bugfixing for me after. I had a good dinner, and just chilled out in the evening for a few hours watching Desperate Housewives, Dead Like Me and reading Good Omens. Terry Pratchett + Neil Gaiman = tons of fun. My colleague, who stayed here for the weekend to get visited by his family borrowed my camera for the weekend, and after work he dropped in to return it, he was quite satisfied with it. I might have convinced him to buy a Kodak :)
Today...Maybe even worse than Monday? :) Crazy bugs, crazier fixes, but it's more or less over for today. Oh yeah, and I guess I did not even mention that on Friday there was not ticket waiting for me at the airport, as promised, so it took a few minutes to sort everything out for my trip home. These last 3 days were not that good for work :)
One good thing might be that I was asked if it would be okay to work on a project in March from here...We'll see how that turns out :)

Well, enough of me for today!
M.

The weights of the world seem lighter...

...after such a great morning trip. I think today on the BUD-MUC leg our flight took a route slightly to the South compared to the usual, and thus I had great view on the Alps! There were only very light clounds, the sun was shining, the top of the mountains was covered with snow... The fog/clouds was trapped in some of the valleys, and in a turn of one river the fog was just trapped over the water and flowing with it... Amazing sights! I wish I had the equipment to make good photos of this kind of stuff! (Of course I did not even try this time with my camera...The results would have been too much of a letdown :) ) On the second leg from MUC to TXL the weather was very cloudy, not offering much to look at, and I was too occupied with solving the Sudoku in my USA Today newspaper anyhow. There was also an article about the new "No Child Is Left Behind" educational program, and it's criticism: kids have to do to much math and reading, and even have to write tests! Well, when I was in primary school, tests were quite usual, and I guess they payed enough attention to how well us kids individually improved. If I remember correctly. Strangely enough, the Hungarian primary school system is changing currently to put less emphasis on tests. As if the praised (by us :) )European education model would get substituted with the American one, and vica versa. Interesting.
So well, I woke up tired but smiling, and the day started fine. This is going to be a nice week, in spite of the rain, I'm sure :)
BTW the week has a basketball game and a Dali exhibition in store for me, I hope I can visit both! But I will definitely blog on those...

Well, time to work :)
M.

Waaay behind

I know have still alot write about a lot of stuff... But I'm very busy at work! So I will try to do that later.
One nicee thing was, from yesterday, that I got to take the flight from Budapest to Munich in the cockpit!! It was awesome :) Even though it was a small machine. We had wonderful weather, and the pilots even answered a few of my questions :) So it was a nice way to start the day :) Before I knew where I will fly, I was asked if I wanted something to read - but of course as I've found out what's going to happen, I declined the offer :)
Great trip, great day! But today... not so much :)

Back to the treadmill...
M.

Back in Berlin

Well, on Friday I had my first trip back to Hungary. Things went quite well at the airport, though it was quite unnecessary for me to be there so early, as I only got my boarding pass 10 minutes after the checkin desk was supposed to close. Of course this is because I had a so called standby ticket, which means that I can only travel if there is an unsold place on the plane or somebody cancels in the last second. Some colleagues were less lucky than I was this Friday, and had to sleep in Frankfurt in some 4* hotel :) That could be considered luck though, too, as the company pays for these nights spent in hotels :)
The weekend at home was nice, it was good not having to do everything for myself again :) But it's also good to be back. The trip back here also went good, tha landing in Berlin was a bit shaky because of the strong wind, but I liked that too :) And with this trip behind me, I can say from experience that it's better to travel on bigger planes. I was expecting a bit more form the 50 and 80 person planes I was flying to and from Budapest, I mean I kinda thought I'd be able to feel what's happening with the plane a bit more. Au contraire! It was only uncomfortable. Not only the plane is smaller, the seats are too :)
I also started my new assignment today, which should be a bit more exciting compared to the previous one. The guy who is supposed to be instructing me has no idea why and how stuff works. Ain't that fun. So I will have to do a lot of figuring out in this task too, and I hope that will make it a bit more interesting. We'll see.
This evening I'm planning to buy another dose of tea, and I tried to look for something that would suit my taste online. That is not an easy thing to do. I mean I have no idea how stuff that tasted good for the reviewer, having a taste resembling this and that and a partridge in a pear tree would taste for me... So I will have to just go by the shopkeeper lady's taste, and maybe this time she'll give some better advice. Tea-shopping reloaded.
Oh, and one of my colleagues got sent back to Budapest apparently. There seem to be no more assignments for him that would need him to stay here in Berlin. And that only after one month :| I hope I can stay a lot longer... This was quite a surprise for him too.
And I also broke my keychain today. The door here in the offices is just too heavy, and when I unlocked it and tried to pull it open holding on to the keychain, one aluminum part just broke. I will have to ask for a new one, as this would be my badge holder if I would have to wear a badge like in Hungary.

Well, no more adventures for now...my barbecue sauced dinner awaits!
M.

Ps. I also changed the template for the blog... The plain white background just did not cut it for me any more :) Feel free to tell me if you like it better or not. I'm not really ready to make my own template, so one of the defaults has to be good enough.