astraykate

The Last Train out of Faro: Portugal pt. 1

April 26, 2017April 26, 2017 astraykate2 Comments

This is most likely going to be a four-part series on my four-day hike in Portugal, due to the ridiculous amount of a photos I took. So strap in guys, I’m about to take you on a trip up 77 km of the coast of the beautiful country known as Portugal.

So, we began with a Flixbus to Stuttgart…

Then got on a plane to Faro, which was delayed, causing us to barely catch the last train out of Faro…

Which took us to Lagos…

Where we spent the night, and then took a bus to Odeceixe

Where the hike began! Leg one of the Fishermen’s Trail (Rota Vicentina) headed South, 18 km. Though it ended up being a few more in my opinion!

We applied sunscreen every few hours (guess who didn’t get burnt!!)

We began in this little coastal town, and headed to Zambujeira do Mar

The flowers we all just beginning to bloom

Our first official injury was a barefoot hiking accident, which coined Garret’s new nickname: Toe-Flap, for the remainder of the trip. Anna was our savior with her handy first aid kit.

We stopped about half way for lunch, and then hit the road again.

First group photo!

We took a “shortcut” which ended up just being through a field, ad we forced to climbed over a barbed wire fence. This detour brought us back to essentially where we’d started, teaching us our first lesson: Do NOT wander off the trail!

We happened upon a safari of sorts toward the end of the trail…

We then stopped at the beach before entering town!

Amazing food was had, and I ate snails for the first time (delicious by the way)

And we watched the sunset over Portugal before heading to our Air B&B, which was on a Bio-Farm, and perfect in every way.

So there is day one! I didn’t really bother with captions, because there is really only so much one can say about pictures like these. Every corner we turned presented us with an even more impressive vista than the one before. I could have spent hours at every spot in each one of those photos. It was clear from the very first day that the 7 of us were in for the hike of a lifetime.

Berlin, The Alps, and a Whole Lot of Walking

April 14, 2017 astraykateLeave a comment

Sorry this is so delayed! I went to Berlin two weeks ago, and since then have been busy non stop with my Swiss Alps class. The field trip to the Alps was this Monday through Wednesday, and my final was yesterday. Tomorrow I leave for Portugal, where I will be hiking up the coast until Thursday, and then on to Spain! I” be back to Freiburg on the 24th, missing the first day of my next class, Ethics and Sustainability. Ok, enough of the travel details, let’s move on to Berlin! (Sorry about the fewer captions this time btw, I have an early flight tomorrow!)

Monument to the Jews killed in the Holocaust

The hotel where Michael Jackson held his kid out over the balcony! (left side, second window up)

Every block is a slightly different size, the inside is like a maze

A parking lot, previously Hitler’s Bunker

The site where Hitler’s body was burned, now a sandbox…

A note here: the site of the bunker is now unmarked to dissuade any Neo-Nazis from coming to pay respects and other horrific things. Very smart on the part of the Germans.

Monument to Georg Elser, the man who missed blowing Hitler up before WWII by 13 minutes

The only remaining Nazi building standing, the former Air Force building

Berlin Wall, outside the “topography of Terror” a museum about the Gestapo

“Checkpoint Charlie” except not really, the actual site is a block away

Monument to the book burnings outside the University

Berlin was amazing! A 3 day weekend was enough time to see the city and for a day trip to Potsdam, but I think I need to go again so I can see all of the amazing museums.

Ok, on to my class field trips! I thought I’d throw in some pictures of our excursions to prove that I actually go to class, even if that class involves walking around nature preserves and vineyards that are growing on an old volcano…

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DSCN1586 — Look at how these trees grew around this rock!

DSCN1588 — A natural “ice-hole”, the microclimate allows for snow and ice!

DSCN1590 — My prof measuring the surface temp

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DSCN1607 — Kaiserstuhl, “The Kaiser’s Seat”

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And then we went to the Alps!

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DSCN1647 — The Bissen System! It takes water from the mountains to irrigate the valley

DSCN1651 — The cold water changes the soil environment of irrigated meadows

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DSCN1667 — The inside of this church had some very old, very odd murals

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DSCN1680 — Not so-organic vineyard. They spray! That’s why the plants are so different underneath the vines

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DSCN1704 — My typical peace sign pic, mom hates it because she says it looks like Nixon but I wasn’t alive for that soooo

DSCN1705 — Alex stopping to smell the flowers

DSCN1709 — Skulls from the Black Death, they just had them piled up inside an old church

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DSCN1747 — They use these pens to sort out sheep by size!

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DSCN1758 — The Alps largest glacier! (It’s receding, of course)

So there we have it! I wrote a 5 page single spaced report about 2 days of field study so I’d say we learned a lot. Look forward to another VERY large post in 2 weeks, all about Portugal and Spain!

Basel, Titisee, Strasbourg, and a vineyard

March 29, 2017 astraykate2 Comments

Hello everyone! It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, so get ready for a bunch of pictures from my travels! Last week, exactly a week from today, I went to Basel, Switzerland with the language institute. There was an art museum there that was doing an exhibition on Monet, and the plan was to see that and the travel around the city for a bit and then head home. Our train/bus/tram passes take us to Basel, and it’s only about an hour train ride out of the city.

So, here is Basel!

DSCN1489 — The Foundation Beyeler, where the Monet exhibit is housed

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unnamed-2 — They had several of his famous Water Lilies paintings!

DSCN1512 — In case you were wondering whether we were actually in Switzerland

In case you were wondering if I was actually in Switzerland (all pics of me courtesy of the wonderful Fiona)

DSCN1506 — The view from the Mittlere Brücke

The are tons of public drinking fountains around Basel, I drank from them and felt fine so I guess it’s safe!

DSCN1518 — Lots of them are ornate, like this one

DSCN1524 — The architecture in Basel is beautiful

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DSCN1540 — We could hear singing from the building behind this door, across from the Münster. It sounded like a church choir of some sort

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DSCN1519 — One of the courtyards had words relating to the natural world on the sidewalk. “Die Sonne” means “The Sun”, “Der Mond” is “the Moon”, etc.

DSCN1558 — The Rathaus is the 500-year-old Town Hall, and is in the Marktplatz

DSCN1562 — It also had the creepiest fountain I’d seen all day inside it

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I’d love to see Basel when everything is in bloom! I think a day trip is in order later in the semester! We’ll have to pack a lunch and eat it on the Münsterplatz, Switzerland is very expensive…

Ok, and then I took a hike in the Schwartzwald to Titisee, a spa town located on a lake with the same name. There were several hiking trails along it, and I got some cool pics!

Andrew, he’s from Sydney, Australia and gave me some great photography tips

Close up of a duck that I decided was my favorite

A lodge we found on our hike into the woods that I SWEAR looks like the German version of the Shining lodge

Nothing like a bretzel at the end of a long hike!

So there is that day trip. We then had a BBQ on Friday night where I learned how to slackline. Unfortunately (or fortunately I don’t really have pictures of that, but I do have LOTS from France. So without further ado, Strasbourg:

Only an hour away by bus, Strasbourg is a French town in the Alsace region (known for their white wine, a kinda mixture between French and German styles)

There was a little market when we arrived with lots of cool stuff

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, built 1015-1439

I can tell you that it is positively unreal up close, so detailed and massive

It was the world’s tallest building from 1647 to 1874 (227 years) at 142 meters (466 feet)

The Cathedral wasn’t open yet so we went for a walk!

Holland trying to locate our friend Nick (it’s not truly travel until we’ve lost at least one member of the group)

The military around here is NOT messing around, they all had some rather large weaponry

The Astronomical Clock, the third clock on this spot, the first dating back to the 14th century

This clock has a perpetual calendar, a computus, a planetary dial, a display of the sun/moon and of solar and lunar eclipses. Try and fit that on your wrist

We wandered into a palace and straight into a Jane Austen novel. I think I’d be very comfortable there

And then, my favorite part: Petite France!

I swear the lens flare was unintentional

As was Emily, and happy to finally be able to use her high school French to order macaroons

Because I am unable to get over how cool remuage/riddling is, here’s another riddling rack

And as the sun set on Strasbourg, we headed back to the bus station

But not before Sarah and Emily did their best Jack and Rose impression with Holland as the iceberg

And, as if that’s not enough, I had a vineyard tour on Sunday! My camera died so I don’t have many pictures but essentially a husband and wife hosted us. The wife took us on a walking tour of Tuniberg, Freiburg’s local vineyard, and then her husband grilled for us and we had the most delicious food I think I’ve had while in Freiburg. It was absolutely amazing, and a great end to the week.

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Alrighty, that was the past week! I’m leaving for Berlin tomorrow night and getting there in the morning on Friday, so expect a post about that sometime next week! Sarah and I are going via overnight bus and then meeting her friend there, I found a self-led walking tour for the day on Friday and then I think we’ll do museums on Saturday. Tchüss!

A Long Bath and an Even Longer Walk

March 20, 2017April 3, 2017 astraykateLeave a comment

This weekend was full of pleasant surprises. I slept in for the first time since I’ve been here, and got on the train to Mülheim with Nick, Halsey, and Emily. They wanted to have a relaxing day, so we decided to go to the Cassiopeia Therme. From the train station we caught a bus to Badenweiler, where we disembarked and climbed up a hill and immediately encountered the ruins of an Roman bathhouse, dating from 150 AD.

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DSCN1416 — Another thermal pool, it would likely be a different temperature

DSCN1417 — A cold water pool, they had these in the Roman-Irish bath that I did in the modern-day facility!

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These are the first Roman ruins I’ve ever seen in person, which is very exciting as a Classical Humanities minor. We then went from the ruins to a castle that was built in 1080, and had an amazing view of the surrounding area. Unfortunately my camera dies so all I have left are iPhone pictures!

unnamed-12 — Here are Nick, Halsey, and Emily!

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The thermal baths are crazy, I definitely want to go again. We got the combined pass so we could do the regular thermal baths, of which there were 3, the sauna (that had 3 different types of saunas) and the Roman-Irish baths. That was by far my favorite. You go through 3 separate steps which include a tepidarium and a caldarium, a room that is moist and where we rubbed salt on our skin, a hot tub like pool, a cold bath, and a room for relaxation with couches for laying. It was super cool.

We missed the last bus to the train station, but got a cab and made it to the last train to Freiburg. I wrote all of the times down right then and there, that way I know better for next time when to leave the bathhouse. We were just having so much fun eating and talking in the bistro that we lost track of time. I really need to get a watch… Europeans use them far more than we do in the States.

Sunday started at 9 AM, when Race, Sarah, Holland, and I caught a train to Bad Krozingen and then a connection to Staufen. There we tried (and failed) to find the beginning of a hiking trail that Race had found in a guide-book, and thus gave up and made our own way around the black forest. This resulted in us beginning up on Staufen Burg, a castle built in 1100 surrounded by modern-day vineyards, and ending at the Landgasthaus in Etzenbach for a pint and a glass of Honig Likör. Just what one needs after a 20 km hike in the mountains.

DSCN1425 — The vineyards surrounding the Burg in Staufen. Apparently Dr. Johann Georg Faust lived here, who knew!

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unnamed-4 — The view from one of the arrow slits, I presume

DSCN1457 — We then walked through the town and picked up a trail, look at the view of the castle!

DSCN1466 — Race climbed a questionable buddy stand

unnamed-11 — But took this cute picture so I forgive him for making me nervous

DSCN1484 — We then found the highlight of this trip, a old path following the crest of the mountain

DSCN1470 — COVERED IN BEAUTIFUL BRYOPHYTES

DSCN1471 — With very cool stone markers, surrounded with what looked to be stone rubble. Ruins perhaps?

DSCN1476 — Holland after I told her that the last picture made her look super pale

DSCN1482 — Me, very happy about this Lord of the Rings-esque path we found

Not quite the Fellowship but certainly a great trio!

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DSCN1481 — Race, very happy about nature in general

DSCN1474 — A more normal picture of me, yes I am wearing a fanny pack

unnamed-7 — The golden-colored liquor at the end of the tunnel

So, what a day. We ended up in Etzenbach and walked back to Staufen on a path alongside the train tracks. That hike is by far one of my favorites. It just supports a quote that I used to think that I understood, but I feel I am grasping better and better each day here. So I leave you with that, and with my favorite picture of my time in Germany thus far:

IMG_5989.JPG.jpeg — “Not all those who wander(n)* are lost”

*Wandern in German means “to hike”. Gotta love Deutsch.

MÜNCHEN

March 18, 2017 astraykate4 Comments

Sorry this is so late!! It has been quite a week, my birthday, my last GBD, and St. Patrick’s Day all in the space of 5 days! Yikes! So, München (or Munich to everyone in the US and me a week ago) is absolutely amazing. We took a Flixbus right after class on Friday (I don’t want to scare anyone but NEVER GET OFF A FLIXBUS AT STOPS JUST DON’T DO IT OK) and arrived in Munich (all 6 despite the near Flixbus incident) in time for an amazing dinner of mashed potatoes and sausage! I stayed in a hostel in a room full of Italian students (I clocked it in as about 20 minutes before they asked me about Trump) where I was the only American. My friend Jacob stayed on the floor below me, and the rest of the group had an Air B&B in the more happening part of town. The next morning, we followed a walking tour that I had ripped out of a travel book and saw some sites.

The view of the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) built in 1874, from the Marienplatz, which has been München’s main plaza since 1158

In this white building is a museum of toys and leads to the famous Viktualienmarkt

Here is the Mariensäule, or Mary’s Colum, which was erected in 1638 to celebrate the end of Swedish occupation after the 30 Years’ War

So, as it turns out, the sister city of München in the US is none other than…

Beer garden at the Viktualienmarkt (Victuals Market) which is a huge market in the middle of München!

Nick with a cool fountain. They put out fresh flowers every day.

Holland, Sarah, and Emily got roses on Sendlinger Straße

Proof that I was actually there. New Town Hall behind me!

Die Asamkirche (St. Johann Nepomuk Kirche), built between 1733 and 1746

Another church! St. Micheal’s, a Jesuit church consecrated in 1597

A cute map of the city outside the church. This is the Marienplatz with a tiny little column in the middle!

It was impossible to capture the scale of the place

I lit a candle for Lily. Mine is the fresh one in the middle!

River surfering at the Eisbach outside the gardens

The Chinesischer Turm, or Chinese Tower, built 1789-1790

And that is where we ended the city tour of day one! We has potatoes and sausage and beer and then all took a very long nap to recover from the 9 mile walk. The next day I went to the Residenz museum, the former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs of the House of Wittelsbach.

This would make for quite the dinner party

Jacob and I then met up with the rest of group for lunch and I had the most amazing soup of my young life. Ginger makes all the difference my friends

We climbed the sketchiest tower to get the clearest view of München. There is Frauenkirshe!

We randomly happened upon Hofbräuhaus while looking for a pastry for Holland

And then we caught our bus home! We did and saw so much but by the end of the trip we all were saying that we wanted to go again. München is an amazing city and I feel like we just got our bearings at the very end so I know I would be down for another trip! As I write this I realize that I’ve had a week of activity and a day trip today that require a post, so you all might be getting a double dose this weekend. For now, it’s midnight here, and I have a 10 km hike at 9 tomorrow so to bed I go! Gute Nacht!

Freiburg Through Tours

March 9, 2017June 4, 2025 astraykate1 Comment

Hello everyone! Just a quick photo dump before I’m off to München for the weekend and I go off the radar for a bit until after my birthday on Monday! Yesterday I went with a group to the Augustinermuseum, which had a special exhibit on National Socialism in Freiburg, and then the Archeological museum. Today we had a tour at Badischen Winzerkeller, Germany’s largest wine bottling facility, and I was over the moon. So, without further ado, the pictures of said tours!

DSCN1279 — The Augustinermuseum houses many of the original sandstone statues from the Freiburger Münster that have been removed and replaced by copies due to weather damage

DSCN1319 — The gargoyles, as you can see, are extremely disturbing, and they were meant to be. They are supposed to represent the seven deadly sins

DSCN1320 — I frankly think they look hilarious but I’m not a peasant from the Middle Ages so what do I know

According to the tour, when the museum wanted to celebrate the dedication of this new organ (1935) in the historic facade, the Nazi Party intervened and the ceremony was completely under the influence of the swastika

It is really hard to imagine that something so vivid is hundreds of years old

It is not as hard to believe that mothers have been giving their kids this exact look for hundreds of years

Ok, so here come the pictures of the National Socialist exhibit. I didn’t take many, but I did take a few of things that really made the reality of the matter clearer to me.

National Socialist propaganda from Freiburg

A sign announcing a speech to be made by Hilter in Freiburg on July 29, 1932

A lot of Freiburg was damaged during the war, the Münster is the only building that survived intact

It’s one thing to read about atrocities, or to see them acted out on-screen. It is something completely different to see something like this in person

I have to say, Freiburg makes no attempt to smooth over their rough history during WWII. To have a complete exhibit dedicated to showing exactly what happened and what led up to the war is something from which I believe every country could learn. I am very interested in seeing through my travels how other German cities handle their history.

So, the archeological museum!

There was chain mail you could put on, what more can I say

Halsey rocked it pretty well (He’s in my program)

Ok, on to the wine! Sorry in advance for all the photos!

I don’t understand much German, but I know a wine processing chart when I see one!

Our guide explaining how riddling and manual remuage is done. I couldn’t tell from the German but I’d know those riddling racks anywhere

We ended our tour with a wine tasting in a cool room that looked like something out of a Medieval movie

And I got to live out my dream of being at the head of the table in a great hall

And that’s all! It was a very busy few days, and it’s about to be even busier! I’m off to pack for München, tschüss!

Wanderschuhe

March 6, 2017June 4, 2025 astraykate3 Comments

Hallo! Wie geht’s? It’s been a rainy few days here in the famously sunny Freiburg. That has not deterred me from doing a great deal of things, however. Here’s a brief overview in what I’m sure everyone is really here for, pictures:

We went up the hill Schlossberg for a great view of the city (note the vineyard on the bottom left!!)

DSCN1261 — The famous Freiburger Münster

A close up of the Münster. There is a market in the plaza underneath the cathedral each day

We snagged lunch at the Mensa (student cafeteria) for about 3 euros. Super cheap and really good, there are 2 options every day for the cheaper meals, vegetarian and normal.

DSCN1270 — We went on a hike yesterday! 9 miles and 95 flights of stairs…

Lunch halfway through the hike was at Walderstaurant St. Ottilien, right by a church in the woods.

So, as you’ve gathered from my picture tour, I have walked a good deal, and eaten about enough to make up for it all. The food here is beyond amazing, and I’m starting to pick up some words here and there (Wanderschuhe means hiking shoes, adorably enough) thanks to exposure and my German intensive course that just started on Friday. I’ve done laundry, hung stuff up on my walls, and booked a bus and a hostel for a trip to München this weekend. It may be supposed to rain all week, but that’s not going to stop me from doing as much as possible! My roommate already signed me up for a winery tour on Thursday without even needing to ask me, so that’s a good sign in my books. Tschüss for now!

Two planes (zwei Flugzeuge), a train (eine Bahn), and two Taxis later…

March 1, 2017June 4, 2025 astraykate2 Comments

And here I am! Hallo aus Deutschland! It is a grey morning in Freiburg, but the sunrise from my bedroom around 7 was pretty fabulous (1 to you guys in the states)

If any of you want to send me mail, I just learned that this is how addresses are formatted:

Katherine Lloyd

Engelbergerstraße 41E/03/34

79106, Freiburg

GERMANY

41E is the building, 03 the floor, and 34 the room. So there you have it. Now you all know where to find me!

The two planes I took to Frankfurt were relatively uneventful, it was the train ride that really got me. To any one that’s never been to Europe (me at the time) and grew up in the US (and not in a big city) the European railway system is a real challenge. I cleared customs and followed the instructions from IES to a ticket machine to purchase an ICE (high-speed railway) ticket to Freiburg. A nice old German couple even offered to help me figure out the steps on the screen. The problem was, they did it all in German. So, 5 minutes later I was holding a ticket that I couldn’t read, and with no way to translate it because for the first time in years I didn’t have a functioning cell phone. First world problems, am I right? So, I lugged my bags to the station and stood around trying to figure out the schedule. It was about as clear as mud so I asked a woman at the info kiosk when the next train left for Freiburg. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but lets just say that 2 hours and several other mix ups later I was on a train that I was positive was stopping in Freiburg. I might have been sitting in a seat that was apparently “reserved” (for whom, I don’t know, because I couldn’t read my ticket to see if I had an assigned seat or not) but no one seemed to care because the woman who checked my ticket just punched it and moved on. So, first “crisis” averted.

The first thing I noticed were the solar panels. They were everywhere. On houses, major buildings, car enclosures, you name it. Shoutout to the incentives the German government put in place for that. There were also community gardens in every town I passed by on the ICE train. It’s wild. When I landed, I noticed a few things that just seemed “off”. Being to Europe for the fist time is kind of like seeing everything through a slightly distorted mirror. There are street signs, but they’re different, people are driving on the highway, but they’re going just fast enough that it catches your eye (I hate to stereotype but… yeah), cities are sprawling puddles of lights, but they are set up differently, and from what I can tell, are less grid-like than cities in the US.

When I arrived in Freiburg, I grabbed a taxi to the IES center, where I met my fellow students. From there I moved into my “flat” that I share with 6 other students (one of whom is in my program, Anna, who I can already tell is going to be an amazing travel buddy). My bedroom is massive, and the kitchen and bathrooms are nice as well. We have wifi (!!!) and the chores are all shared. I’ve only met one of our other roommates, but I’m looking forward to meeting the rest. From there I passed out for an hour and then went to dinner with the group at an Italian restaurant. Our tutor Joel, kind of like an RA in the US, showed us around the city and we basically had a blast.

img_5650-1 — One of the cute as heck streets in Freiburg. Look at those buildings!!

I don’t want to ramble too much, but I can tell that this is going to be a really cool group of students to hang out with. We have breakfast at 9:30, in about an hour, and then orientation/city tour/buying a SIM card and all that jazz. Classes start on Friday so it looks like we’re just getting to know each other and the city until then. Auf Wiedersehen!

Inaugural Post

February 23, 2017June 4, 2025 astraykateLeave a comment

Welp, here it is, my travel blog. It took me an embarrassingly long time to come up with the name, so if you hate it kindly keep your dislike of a good play on words to yourself (honestly, it could have been planetrover, ick). I depart from Cleveland Hopkins Airport at 1:41 pm on Monday, make a short stop in Charlotte, NC, and then head to Frankfurt International Airport, where I will arrive around 7:30 AM on Tuesday. I have a packing list written up that is worrisome in length, and a laundry list of tasks I have yet to accomplish. Things need to be scanned and laminated, Euros have yet to be ordered, let alone acquired, and I still don’t know whether or not I should bring my Docs AND my hiking boots. Yet none of this really matters, because I’m going to be in Germany in 5 days, FINALLY, and things will come together as they always do. So there we are, the blog is made (sort of, I can’t figure out how to customize it) and we’re in business. Expect an update upon arrival or while I am en-route to my home away from home for four months, bis bald!