Saturday, July 18, 2015

I will miss you Leuven :'(

Hello Copenhaguen! I've missed you!

Beautiful Copenhagen on a Saturday afternoon.

 I have made it to Copenhagen. After 2 years I'm back! I like this city a lot, and the trip was very smooth. I'm now staying in Norrebro for a week and afterwards I'm headed back to Baltimore.

I loved Leuven! My time in Belgium was great. It is a European college town. I had a great time at the conference with many of my friends and colleagues who I hadn't seen in a long time. Then I also joined the salsa scene for a week, which to my surprise was very good! I also rented a bike for a week for $16. They would only rent it for a month, but its only that for a month so it was totally worth it. It was a terrible bike, of course, but nevertheless, there was a certain charm to it! haha My airbnb hosts joined me one day for the salsa party, and there's evidence! In the Brussels airport I saw a fun charging station meant for charging your electronics. I tried it for like 5 minutes and then went to the standard plugs on the airport seats.

Having a beer with the crew!

Biking along the crops with Carl!

Lisa and Egwin salsa dancing.

A charging station at the airport.

My bike, for a week!

Monday, July 13, 2015

Belgium!

I came to Belgium on Tuesday July 7, 2015. There was the Wind Farms 2015 conference in Leuven. The conference was great and I got to see many of my friends and collaborators within the wind energy community. I also got to give a presentation. It was the second to last presentation on Friday. I will now stay in Leuven visiting a collaborator until next week.

Belgium is great! The beer here is amazing and the prices are great too! As soon as I got off the train in Leuven I loved the city! There's something about it that makes it a nice and inviting city. I went to get a beer and then I went to my place. Afterwards I met with my friends and collaborators and we went out for dinner. The next 3 days were packed with great talks on wind energy and interacting with my colleagues.

The crew.

The crew again.

Me giving a talk at the conference.

Saturday we went to Bruge and then Ghent. Bruge was a very nice city and we spent most of the day there. We went on a great tour to a brewery were we saw how the Belgian beer is made. Joel and I later stopped at Ghent on the way back but we were disappointed and didn't stay too long.

I am now staying in Leuven working with a collaborator for an extra week!

Welcome to Leuven!

My first beer in Belgium!

A nice castle nearby.

Thumbs up in Brugge.

A beer after the tour.

Thumbs up!

Sunday, July 5, 2015

The Bucket List!

As many of you know, I have a bucket list!
Now one of the coolest things on my bucket list was bungy jumping!
And after many years waiting, it finally happened!

Here is the picture of me with (of course) thumbs up!

Thumbs up!
Going down!

Bouncing!


This week was a lot of fun. Julito visited me in Lausanne and then we went and spent the weekend in Interlaken. It is a town in the mountains where there's a lot of outdoors. When we got there we signed in at the hostel and asked about bungy jumping, they called, signed us up, and in 30 minutes we were on our way to bungy jump! haha That's when I updated my FB status, and yes it was an awesome day! Here are some pictures from the jump and the group of people we met. We ended up making some friends that we saw later during the next days.

Everyone said they were going to visit me in Europe this summer...
Julito is the only true one! haha
We had a great group of jumpers. Here we are!
On our way to Interlaken we stopped by Bern. Einstein used to live in this city, so we visited his place. Next day we went hiking for about ~20 miles. We saw some interesting towns and some funny things. One of them was a store based on Honesty. They have things and if you wanna buy them you just get it and leave the money. This can only work in Switzerland, haha. We went out after the hike to celebrate fourth of July. The we ran into our new friends Ted and Kristin. She is a marathon runner and here I quote her "seven minute pace". We had a fun night and celebrated the 4th although we missed the fireworks.

This is where Einstein used to live.

Amazing views all over.


A cold lake.




I almost fell but survived.

A nice view.

An honesty store.
"Don't quote me on this"

After a long and fun weekend in Interlaken I went to Geneva and met Carlos. A friend from high school who I hadn't seen in a very long time. We went to grab lunch at Holy Cow, the best burger place around here. And then we went to the river for a swim. We jumped from the bridge and it was awesome! The river is very nice and its a popular spot during the summer. It was great seeing him after so many years in Switzerland!

The bridge we jumped from.

Carlos and a vending machine for squeezed orange juice!
 Now the vending machines around here don't stop to amaze me. I saw this one which squeezes oranges and fresh juice comes out. But I think the weirdest thing I've seen so far is a pregnancy test kit on a vending machine.

Yes, that is a pregnancy test kit next to the cigarettes.