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:: D R. K E R S T I N K U N Z E ::
:: curriculum vitae ::
research :: |
:: TRAVEL USA::
:: HA - DEN ::
DEN - SF ::
SF - LA ::
GC & LV ::
LA - NOL ::
NOL - CHI ::
CHI - HA ::
6.02.02At 8 am I'm going to the airport in Dortmund and I'm much to early, I have to wait more than one hour before boarding. At the check in the woman ensures me, that I will have a seat at the window on both of my flights: Dortmund - Frankfurt and Frankfurt - Denver: seat F.The checkings at the security are stronger than before. I had to take a biro out of my bag, because they cannot distinguish between the pen and a nail file. But after x-raying my backpack again everything is alright. My flight is landing in Frankfurt right in time and the way to my next gate is quiet short. In Frankfurt I learn what means real security checkings. First there is a checkpoint at wich you have to show the boarding pass, at the next one, my day pack is x-rayed (but this time without asking about the biro!), then I'm passing a metall detector. At that moment I thought I already pass all security, but I was wrong, I was not yet at my gate. Here the Bundesgrenzschutz (the german border police) was checking. Another time they x-rayed my bag and they checked for any metalls. I didn't had any problem, but the man next to me had to x-ray also his shoes. I don't know, what was the difference between our shoes, maybe he had a flight ticket of United airlines and I one of Lufthansa... But both we were boarding the same plane;-) In front of my gate, there was a huge group of people waiting, the flight was booked completly. This might have been due to the olympics, wich were starting few days later. A lot of german team members were sitting among the economy passengers. The departure is a little bit delayed, because they found a strange liquid on one wing wich had to be removed. My assigned "window seat" F was exactly in the middle of the plane. The lady in Dortmund probably didn't thought about the fact, that the plane to US might be a little bit bigger than the small maschine to Frankfurt. Therefore I didn't saw too much of the surrounding and watched the TV. The arrival in Denver was right in time, but the luggage was a bit delayed. So all passengers proceeding to Salt Lake City already starts to get nervous. I myself was lucky and get the first possible bus to Boulder. In the bus somebody adressed me in german. He might have seen the sign on my back. After I told, where I want to go to, some persons start to discuss about the best bus stop for me. They even offer me to give me a lift to my motel from the bus station... But the helpness of the people is great, so I was leaving the bus at excatly the closest station to the motel and it was just a walk of another 10 min. I register myself at the conference and went shopping in a supermarket. I was completly shocked. First of all the prices much higher, better not to calculate the prize in euro.. But than the cashier suddenly was speaking and speaking: "Hello, how are, did you find everything the the supermarktet. Did you had any problem today? ..." I just wanted to pay. I see, I will have to adapted myself to the american smalltalks. 7.02.02I wake up the first time at 2 am and than at 4 am I cannot sleep anymore, in germany it's already lunchtime. Outside it's still dark, so my only opportunity is to switch on the TV and look for a news magazine, but I gave up very fast. There was not interesting channel, so I end up looking the end of "Free Willy".At 7 am I went to breakfast and again I had to get used to the american behaviour. It was a continental breakfast, served on paper plates with cups of styrofoam and plastic knives. You have a lot of trash after your meal. I will skip the hours at the conference, you can find everything at http://www.osa.org/lacea/. In the evening we went to an irish pub in downtown. We were wondering how the americans can afford to spend the evening there, a sandwich (a huge portion) and a beer costs 17 Dollars. I hope the rest of my trip will be a little bit cheaper.. 8.02.02A day without any interesting to write about.9.02.02The afternoon is free, so first of all we were visiting two labs at JILA. But this only took one hour, so afterwards we did a walk. At the outskirt of the town are the red rocks, a nice viewpoint.
10.02.02We were leaving the conference before lunchtime (so we missed the last talks;-). At 12 am I was in Denver downtown. At the beginning it was a strange feeling, being alone in a huge town, a huge country, only surrounded by skyscrapers. Especially because at that sunday afternoon nobody else than me seems to walk around on the streets...So I took a break in one of the small parks and studied the map in my travel guide. I was not too successfull, I was going in the wrong direction first. But it didn't matter, because I wanted to see the town. So I was walking the main street up and down up to the moment I found the union station. It was the first american train station I saw and it was impressing, a big old hall without any person, there are only two trains leaving a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. Even though the tickt counter was open and so I got my tickets after showing my passport and my reservation number. The officer even point out, that my bus would leave Las Vegas 3 min earlier than I was told in germany. After I prepared everything for the next day I was going to the closest hostel, because my train was leaving at 9 am and I was be told to be one hour before at the station. So I didn't want to walk to long before. And missing the first of my trains would not be a good idea. On my way to the hostel I was passing a huge amout of parking areas, direct behind all the scyscrapers. Sure, somewhere the people had to park their car, if there is not public transport. Today the areas are almost empty, probably not due to the price (some dollars an hour!), but due to the sunday as I recognize the next morning.
Behind the door a steep stairs (I think stairs in america are generally steeper than in germany) leads up. The style was like in a cinema film, huge ventilators were hanging on the ceiling only the smoke of the cigarettes was missing. I let my luggage in my room and did again a tour through the town. Now I saw, that in the center there are really some persons walking around, shopping etc. I even get a hotdog on the street for 75 Cents, it was the cheapest meal I got at all. I already saw in Boulder a lot of homeless people strolling around, but here in Denver they were even more. Everywhere they were searching for cans in the the garbage, asking for a dollar or just sitting or lying around. A lot of them I found in a small park in front of the Civic Center. The park was surrounded by broad streets with several lanes. Even though or maybe that's why there were a lot of squirells. Due to the fact that people were feeding the animals were so tame, that they were almost running on your shoes. Back in the hostel I recognize, that the hostel was not used by real travellers but was more a cheap place for spanish (?) people of middle age. It seems, that a bus company was serving here and the washing room was the waiting room. Some of the people even didn't greet when you meet them. Ok, but I stay only one night.
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