Diary on My Static Blog

Tue Apr 16 2024

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I just replaced the charging port of my phone. Felt so empowering. Just for 8€ and half an hour of work. No more loose contacts. The interesting thing is that some cables were still okay to charge with but with some it was outright impossible.

Attached is a photo of the old part I’ve replaced.

Valley of the queen's

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Watch out where you are going. Getting knocked out cold Mummification museum Crocodile and mini crocodile 🐊 Head Tomb Finally something green Let’s go to the valley of the queen’s

People used to be smaller. Vibrant colors Mirrored drawings Lots of stories Devoid of tourists. Is it too hot? Arched feathers before entrances Why are the side nipples visible for every women even when she wars clothes? Side nipples Next day: 2025-08-02

Luxor

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Luxor is a tourist city. It’s clean and there are even traffic lights.

Jeremy is a crazy Ultramarathon runner. He Jan 55k and talks about running 80k in a desert 🏜️. So naturally we walked a lot in the sun.

There are usually Nile tours but not in summer it’s too hot. The boats are maintained in that time.

Very touristic and clean city River crossing is 50p per person

Rest day

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Today would be a chill day. Today I take the plane from Cairo to Luxor at 6:50pm.

Most of the day I chilled by the pool in the water. Pool

On an unrelated note I’ve seen some dead animals next to the usual trash in the streets. Today I’ve seen a dead baby kitten with insects crawling through the eyes. Cats that live in the villa

The house was a French style villa. Super height ceilings and nice decor like swings sofas… Mirrors were used quite often

Military Museum/Palace

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Harassment today: Pulling out hair. Some kid ran along the street and touched my hair. In the process he took some hair with him. I believe he didn’t mean to take any.

Snatching a bottle. Some girl said something in Arabic to me. She snatched my bottle of water. She wasn’t asking me for money or food in Arabic I believe. She only said one sentence and snatched the bottle away.

Pyramids

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Let’s go to the pyramids. Start the day with early breakfast and visualize the goal. Pyramids in the top right

The minibus is 7 pounds but it’s far from the destination. Uber is super convenient to use in Cairo and it’s fairly cheap (100 to 250 pounds). Entrance fee for the pyramids is 700EGP (12.5€) for foreigners.

Next two photos are just stray cats 😺😸

Society is the pyramid scheme 🔼

Grand Egyptian Museum

Sun, 27 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Going to the Egypt main museum with Hisham. The building itself is a modern artistic miniature pyramid. If you want to read more about it see https://the-past.com/review/travel/the-grand-egyptian-museum-visiting-the-main-galleries/ . Of course there where more tourist than in the crowded city center. The locals have an opportunity to go in with a lower fee (4 instead of 20€). A big staricase has to be scaled to enter.

Statue in the voyeur

Seeing human made arrowheads that are made 700,000bc is impressive. The stones looked like obsidian and flint that where carefully hit to form the desired shape/edge. The details of most statues isn’t impressive. Considering the age of 6000years it’s not too bad. The stance of the statues is also not natural at all. It almost seemed that the artists chose the easiest portion to make the statue. Limbs where connected and pressed against the body. Sometimes the statue would be in squatting position so the whole bodies where represented by a block. Hair is crudely made by drawing ripples on elevated surfaces. Toes and hand appear elongated. Knees seem wird and faces are expressionless. The statues are usually not polished marble so they inherently lack some details. There are some statues that depict gods and tell stories. Mixing animals with human bodies is exciting. The statues depict standing humans with hats and clothes and wands marking them as rulers or gods. They don’t show the human being in their pure nude form going through some natural action.

Travel to Cairo

Sat, 26 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Travel to Egypt with Hisham. We did fly to the tourist city called Sharm El-Sheikh. The Flight was only 60€ (origin venice). So we’d take the bus to Cairo. The mandatory visa can be acquired on arrival for 25$. The bus to Cairo wasn’t too bad. The ac was somewhat strong enough to keep it a bit chill. Let’s give you a rough overview on the time spent traveling to Cairo in this way.

Halloween 2024

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Making the Pizza after for the gang but nobody was showing up at my place. Going out as Jesus for halloween. it was super fun. I was going with: Hashim and his fiance, Andrea Frederico Lilet Noyan and even Johnny in the beginning. Noyan was the devil. Bringing Pizza on the cross. Nearly dropped during the ride :|.

Death to the witches.

Burning the witches in public Drinking the blood of Jesus 🩸 .

Hockey in Paris

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The french getting drenched. Playing lots of hockey. Agnes and Mohamed that we met on 2024-06-13 visited us.

prepparing to drink

camping at the side of the pitch. Putting a sticker on the ceiling. singing the french and the german anthem respectively. what a nice team

Impressions of Paris

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The first thing in the morning we did is go to the bakery to get some croissant 🥐. I made the suggestion to rent bikes to tour around in Paris. Bike renting Chen has an IPhone and she couldn’t get it to work properly. She could not rent a bike. She went with the tram while Cedric and me drove with the bikes. The bikes were very cheap. Only 1€/Day. The good part is that you can get a bike at one station and park it somewhere and get another at another station. There are lots of stations and you are always just one corner away it seems. This is my first time really seeing a #EUC and an #Onewheel . Here driving with an euc is allowed.

Welcome in Paris

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Driving with Chen to Paris to partake in a friendly Hockey tournament. She asked strangers for help. She wanted to pee and to know where you are allowed to park. The ended up inviting us home to their house and gave us something to drink. I was too embarrassed to accept their offers. They turned out to be a nice couple. Agnes could speak German and English. So we could communicate rather well. The husband Mohamed is from Tunesia and could not speak any German nor English. He was very kind and tried to invite us to dinner. I declined but he insisted us to drive us to the nearest metro station. We ended up driving with both of them to the metro station and the daughter called. It was very sweet and it seems that the couple was excited and proud to have us and help us.

My custom Keymap

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There are far superior keymaps and key layout to the conventional row staggered QWERTY. Due to technical limitations QWERTY got created and spread as a standard. But does it really make sense?

History

[[buzing2003keyboards.pdf#page=4&rect=79,404,545,748|buzing2003keyboards, page 4]]

([[buzing2003keyboards.pdf#page=4&selection=22,0,28,21|buzing2003keyboards, page 4]]) A problem with the printing mechanism was that the key slugs would easily get jammed when a key was pressed before the previous one had returned. Sholes solved this problem by experimenting with the most common English two-letter sequences and assigning the most frequent couples to opposite sides of the keyboard. This resulted in the QWERTY layout, which was optimal in avoiding key jamming.

My keyboard journey

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Keymap is constantly changing, so is my keyboard.


timeline
    title Keyrboards used per Year
    2019 : KBD60
		 : Planck
		 : Dactyl
    2020 : Let's split
	     : Corne 3x6
    2021 : Corne 3x6
		 : Corne 3x5
		 : Sofle
    2022 : Cradio 
	     : W3
	     : Tipper TF
    2023 : Sweep 
	     : Unibodysweep 
    2024 : Unibodysweep V2

Graphic done with Mermaid 🧜‍♀️.

Leaving bulgaria

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On the day before we cleaned the house and packed our stuff. The gypsy started to play music in the morning already. Can that even be? I must still be sleeping

Getting up at 2:20 AM.

Traveling to Sofia. This closes the circle to the 2024-05-28|first day in Sofia. We had some time in Sofia and decided to go to the city. I got kicked out for wearing shorts in the church. #Religion

Communist Monument

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Like 2024-06-02|yesterday we went to Kazanluk again. We went to a museum

“Sometimes we have to see that a deer is closer to us than all the computers we surround us with.” Dimi.

getting food 2€ Gyros. Similar to Döner Let’s go to the Communist Monument. The round UFO-like structure is the Buzludzha Monument, situated atop the Buzludzha Peak in the Central Balkan Mountains of Bulgaria. This imposing structure was built by the Bulgarian communist regime in the 1970s as a memorial to commemorate the founding of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party. It served as a meeting place for the Bulgarian Communist Party until the fall of communism in 1989. Today, the monument stands abandoned, yet it remains a striking and somewhat eerie reminder of Bulgaria’s communist past, attracting curious visitors and photographers from around the world.

Rose Parade

Sun, 02 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On this day like the day before we would go kazanlak. Today there would be the rose parade. French Theo says “En guard” The Rose Parade in Kazanlak, Bulgaria, is a vibrant celebration that honors the region’s rich tradition of rose cultivation and production. Each year, locals and visitors alike come together to witness the breathtaking display of floral floats, traditional dances, and cultural performances amidst the fragrant sea of blooming roses.

Rose Festival

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Now the day finally came. We came to a museum called Damascena ethnographic complex. Because of yesterdays day fishing I was avoiding the sun as much as possible. We were here to see a traditional Rose dance. 🐕🌹 All the dancers are from highschool. Tanya used to be the substitute Rose queen🏵👑. She also used to dance and sing. The dance is usually accompanied by music, which may range from traditional folk music to contemporary songs celebrating the beauty of roses. The live band was good. The tourists were very annoying though. traditional clothing Together Picking roses in the fields The #USA pisses on the world.

Going Fishing

Fri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday we stayed up late, that is why we had a very chill morning today.

We’d be going #Fishing 🎣 with Theo Chen and Junning. Getting lost because the location was not precisely the correct one. The cousin of Tanya gave us the fishing rod and equipment needed for fishing. We even had chairs and an umbrella. He showed us how to do it. He left and we had two fishing rods on our own. After 10 minutes we decided to lure in the line and throw the bait again. It was my turn so exiting. I did not hold the line with one finger and the line was stuck to the mechanism. The line ripped. I yeeted the bait 30m far away into the lake. A bit stupid from me 😐. Nevertheless it was very relaxing going fishing. Chen unscrewed the sieve in the water and lost it in the water. I had to retrieve it. We almost didn’t move that day. We only went out of town to go to the nearby lake (artificial) that is just 3km away. In the evening some friends of Tanya and Dimi came by.

Seaside

Thu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Today we drove across half of Bulgaria for two hours from Kazanlank to Nessebar in Burgas Province, the town locates on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast. We visited the Nesebar Archaeological Museum. On the way to Nessebar we saw some water parks, resort and fish restaurants.

Finally seeing the seaside 🏖️. Though we smelled the sea from wind first than seeing it.

new day starts with weird flex with crocodile of the boys 😎🌞. croc 🐊

First day in Bulgaria

Wed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Dimi played a song very loud to wake us up at 7am.

Theo clogged the sink in the 2024-05-28|yesterday night. He and Chen took on the challenge to fix it. Eventually Junning came to the rescue and helped him with his engineering skills. The mechanical closing mechanism broke and thus the water was not flowing. After disassembling everything and readjusting the sealing ring the sink worked fine ⚒️👨‍🔧

Arriving in Bulgaria

Tue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Going to the rose Festival in #Bulgaria . Theo is missing in this picture. He was already in Sofia to visit a laboratory and give a speech. We met him in Sofia train station. Sofia is the third oldest Capitol behind Rome and Athens. In the subway of Sofia. I was with Dimi and Theo and Chen In a cabin in the train from Sofia to Dimis home town. We’ve talked a lot about different cultures work business and life on the three hour train ride.

Sat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

rowing with Max M as the cox. Positions where the following: 1. Hendrik 2. Bowen 3. Chen 4. Me The final time for ‘Rundum’ was 2:33:18. From the scores published in RNC we can see that our team was the second slowest out of 32 boats competing in this bracket. Score wise we were last.

Rowing Regatta

Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’m competing in a rowing competition. On the My team will be:

Marko R
Max M
Vahid Trainer: Demir T Our time for 6km was 26:56 this is approximately $4:29\frac{min}{km}$. On some portions of the race our speed even faster than 4 minutes on the kilometer.

Here are some photos📷

arriving checking out the finish line 🏁 sunny helping the other team to retrieve the boat to the trailer old but gold🥇 repositioning the footstretchers vibe We have the number 17 and we’ll be starting with “Mittwoch 2”🚣‍♂️ going to the pier waiting at the pier for the others to make way let’s go

My first Onewheel

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

[!question] What is a Onewheel and why would you build a one? If you build it yourself it is a learning process and custom.

Before we start to build we need to source the parts..

Parts

Hub Motor 🛞

I’m going for a 10x5.5 6 Hub motor with a power of 1000W.

VESC 🎮

In the beginning I wanted to build everything myself. Make the control engineering myself. This would be very hard and there are not the right components on the market. Because of a kind stranger I met on reddit I understood that it is easier to just buy a cheap VESC.

Supermini nrf52840

Sun, 18 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The supermini has a nrf52840 soc with 1MB of flash on board. It cost roughly 10€. The table below was just there to test the power draw of different hardware configurations.

Power draw ua	psu	Resistor	state	side
3500	stock	stock	normal	left
2500	custom	stock	normal	left
605	stock	stock	deepsleep	left
665	custom	stock	deepsleep	left
260	stock	stock	normal	right
570	stock	stock	deepsleep	right
120	stock	custom	normal/typing	right
100	stock	custom	normal	right
2.5	stock	custom	deepsleep	right
2500	custom	custom	normal	left
54	custom	custom	deepsleep	left
100	custom	custom	normal	right
330	custom	custom	normal	left

Vcc battery 3.46V

Unibodysweep V2

Sun, 18 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My last try designing a unibody keyboard based on the Ferris layout were not that good. It was called unibodysweep. Now I’ll be using ergogen to generate my keyboard. I got inspired by this: GitHub - Riccardo-merli94/Unicorny: Unibody ergonomic keyboard inspired by ferris-sweep.

This keyboard has the same layout as the GitHub - smores56/osprette: 34-key keyboard.

My Ergogen Code

This is the code I tailored in order to generate my keyboard.

units:
  kx: cx
  ky: cy

  px: kx + 2
  py: ky + 2

points:
  zones:
    matrix:
      anchor:
        shift: [100, -100]
      key: 
        padding: 1ky
        spread: 1kx
      columns:
        pinky:
          key:
            column_net: P19
        ring:
          key:
            stagger: 0.66ky
            column_net: P20
        middle:
          key:
            stagger: 0.25ky
            column_net: P21
        index:
          key:
            stagger: -0.25ky
            column_net: P0
        inner:
          key:
            stagger: -0.15ky
            column_net: P1
      rows:
        bottom:
          padding: ky
          row_net: P14
          mirror.row_net: P8
        home:
          padding: ky
          row_net: P15
          mirror.row_net: P7
        top:
          padding: ky
          row_net: P18
          mirror.row_net: P6
    thumb:
      anchor:
        ref: matrix_index_bottom
        shift: [0.66U, -1.25U]
        rotate: -10
      columns:
        tucky:
          key:
            name: thumb_tucky
            column_net: P0
        reachy:
          key:
            spread: U
            splay: -15
            origin: [-0.5U, -0.5U]
            name: thumb_reachy
            column_net: P1
      rows:
        fan:
          row_net: P16
  rotate: -30
  mirror: &mirror
    ref: matrix_inner_top
    distance: 2kx
outlines:

  raw:
    - what: rectangle
      where: true
      size: [px+2, py+2]

  keys:
    - what: rectangle
      where: true
      size: [kx-0.5,ky-0.5]

  circle_left_main:
    - what: circle
      operation: stack
      where: 
        - ref: matrix_middle_bottom
          shift: [ -1.1px,-6.53py]
      radius: 5.15py
  circle_left_sub:
    - what: circle
      operation: stack
      where: 
        - ref: matrix_middle_bottom
          shift: [ 8,-7py]
      radius: 5.15py
  circle_left:
    - name: circle_left_main
    - operation: 
      name: circle_left_sub



  circle_right_main:
    - what: circle
      operation: stack
      where: 
        - ref: mirror_matrix_middle_bottom
          shift: [ -1.1px,-6.53py]
      radius: 5.15py
  circle_right_sub:
    - what: circle
      operation: stack
      where: 
        - ref: mirror_matrix_middle_bottom
          shift: [ 8,-7py]
      radius: 5.15py
  circle_right:
    - name: circle_right_main
    - operation: 
      name: circle_right_sub


  circle_complete:
    - name: circle_left
    - operation: 
      name: circle_right


  curve_left:
    - what: polygon
      operation: stack
      points:
        - ref: matrix_pinky_bottom
          shift: [-0.4px,0.5py]
        - ref: thumb_tucky
          shift: [-0.4px,0.8py]
        - ref: thumb_tucky
          shift: [-0.4px,-0.55py]
        - ref: matrix_pinky_bottom
          shift: [-0.4px,-0.4py] 
  curve_right:
    - what: polygon
      operation: stack
      points:
        - ref: mirror_matrix_pinky_bottom
          shift: [-0.4px,0.5py]
        - ref: mirror_thumb_tucky
          shift: [-0.4px,0.8py]
        - ref: mirror_thumb_tucky
          shift: [-0.4px,-0.55py]
        - ref: mirror_matrix_pinky_bottom
          shift: [-0.4px,-0.4py] 
  curve:
    - name: curve_left
    - operation: 
      name: curve_right    
  board:
    - what: polygon
      operation: stack
      points:
        - ref: matrix_middle_top
          shift: [-1.8px,-0.6py]
        - ref: mirror_matrix_middle_top
          shift: [-1.8px,-0.6py]
        - ref: mirror_thumb_reachy
          shift: [-0.04px,-0.5py]
        - ref: thumb_reachy
          shift: [-0.04px,-0.5py]
  edges:
    - what: polygon
      operation: stack
      points:
        - ref: matrix_pinky_top
          shift: [-0.4px,0.6py]
        - ref: matrix_inner_top
          shift: [0.6px,0.6py]
        - ref: mirror_matrix_inner_top
          shift: [0.6px,0.6py]
        - ref: mirror_matrix_inner_top
          shift: [-0.4px,0.6py]
        - ref: mirror_thumb_reachy
          shift: [-0.04px,-0.5py]
        - ref: thumb_reachy
          shift: [-0.04px,-0.5py]

  step1:
    - name: raw
    - operation:
      name: curve
  cut_circle:
    - name: step1
    - operation: subtract
      name: circle_complete
  step2:
    - name: cut_circle
    - operation: 
      name: board
      fillet: 1
  combo:
    - name: step2
    - operation: subtract
      name: keys
        

pcbs:
  oled_unisweep:
    outlines:
       main:
        outline: step2
    footprints:
      choc_hotswap:
        what: choc
        where: true
        params:
          keycaps: true
          reverse: false
          hotswap: false
          from: "{{column_net}}"
          to: "{{colrow}}"
      diode:
        what: diode
        where: true
        params:
          from: "{{colrow}}"
          to: "{{row_net}}"
        adjust:
          shift: [0, -5]
      slider_back:
        what: slider
        where:
          ref.aggregate.parts: [thumb_reachy, mirror_thumb_reachy]
          shift: [0,8.5]
          rotate: 180 
        params:
          side: B
          from: RAW
          to: B+
      pad_vcc:
        what: pad
        where:
          ref.aggregate.parts: [thumb_reachy, mirror_thumb_reachy]
          shift: [-2.5,52]
          rotate: 0
        params:
          width: 2
          height: 2
          net: B+
          text: B+
          front: true
      pad_gnd:
        what: pad
        where:
          ref.aggregate.parts: [thumb_reachy, mirror_thumb_reachy]
          shift: [2.5,52]
          rotate: 0
        params:
          width: 2
          height: 2
          net: GND
          text: GND
          front: true
          align: right
      oled:
        what: oled
        params:
          side: "F"
          SDA: P2
          SCL: P3
        where:
          ref.aggregate.parts: [matrix_inner_bottom, mirror_matrix_inner_bottom]
          shift: [-6,-13]
          rotate: 90       
      promicro:
        what: promicro
        params:
          orientation: "down"
        where:
          ref.aggregate.parts: [matrix_inner_home, mirror_matrix_inner_home]
          shift: [0,-10]
          rotate: 90

First Trip to Verona

Sun, 11 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Going to Verona almost with the same group as I went out on 2024-10-31|Halloween 2024 👻.

Most drawing from medieval times have a lack of perspective. I feel like Federico explained a lot. The market👍 The balcony of Julia from Romeo and Julia. Not worth it at all XD.

We decided to watch the sunset.

gps tracker sport

The city is surrounded by a winding river. On the north of it there is a vantage point (Castle San Pedro) which we climbed to see the sunset.

Woodwork

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Winter Hike in Montafon

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

It’s the beginning of the year 2024. My family and my brothers girlfriend go on Skiing vacation. The weather was bad on the first full day so I decided to go on Hiking . I only went hiking with my sneakers and sweatpants.

I went alone. Last year I went skiing in the same area (Montafon) with my parents and Lena. She would’ve enjoyed a hike like this I believe.

Krakow

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The winter is coming but there isn’t any snow so far in Darmstadt.

Visiting my sister in Kraków (de: Krakau). Accompony me in my #Travel to Krakow.

Frankfurt

We were greeted with melting cold air and melting snow.

Museum

We checked into the hotel and went to the Christmas market

St. Mary’s Basilica

Calculate population in area

As you can see the inner city is surrounded with a green belt.

Keyboard Build Guide ⌨️

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This is a small #Keyboard build guide. I hope it helps. Please let me know what is missing.

Prerequisites

#Switches #Keycaps #PCB #Case #MCU

Why Build a Keyboard

Keyboards come in different sizes. When you talk about keyboard sizes you talk about the number of keys. Most normal consumer keyboards are 104% (104 keys, it is common to add the %). Choosing another uncommon Keyboard size and customizing it to your needs can be great.

Collabothon

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The first day

With the purpose of experiencing the event organized by Commerzbank and sponsored by Google, Neosfer and Red Hat. Chen and I enrolled in the Collabothon. It was located on the 7th floor in the neosfer company with a great view of Frankfurt skyline. Check out their website here.

Frankfurt skyline from the 7th floor

very nice weather 🏰

What is the Collabothon and what can you do there? It is a place to collaborate in a team of 3-6 people with different expertises in different fields. Not all people have the same skill set and excel in their respective task.

Portfolio

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Name: Luca Cordes

Alter: 24 Jahre

Studium: Mechatronik

Universität: Darmstadt

Über mich: Ich bin ein begeisterter und engagierter Mechatronik-Student mit einer Leidenschaft für Technik und kreatives Basteln. Mein Ziel ist es, innovative Lösungen zu entwickeln und die Schnittstelle zwischen Mechanik, Elektronik und Informatik zu erkunden. Mit meinem breiten Interesse an Kultur und Leben habe ich während meines Studiums und meines Freiwilligen Sozialen Jahres (FSJ) in Mittelamerika wertvolle Erfahrungen gesammelt und meine Fähigkeiten weiterentwickelt.

Hiking

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I got lucky enough that Yannick invited me and 2 other boys form my hometown to a hiking trip. We were planning to visit Fynn, who is working as a bartender in the Alps in Tirol.

I’m not a hiker and didn’t do it often before. I bought some cheap used hiking shoes for 20 Euro. Unfortunately I forgot to bring some basic necessities for the trip.

My wallet, camping chair, hat and sleeping bag when I would begin to go up the mountain.

Impressions of Riga

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Riga is a beautiful city in Latvia.

On the 13th of October I felw from FRA to RIX.

The plane was very empty

The weather was very good in Riga.

sunny

I was visiting a friend Alberts. He was studing as a international student in Darmstadt.

He gave me one of his bikes. The freedom to travel around in the city is nice to have.

The city of Riga is pretty old and has some hidden gems.

Taking Drugs in Las Vegas

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Today we went from LA to LV (Las Vegas).

I was sad to leave our house in LA it was so nice.

central house we stayed in

In the middle between LA and LV is a ghosttown. We visited the “Ghosttown”, which is just an abandoned mining village. People used to live there to mine silver by hand during the 17th and 18th century.

It is called Calico Ghosttown.

Experiencing Crime and Beauty

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Occasionally it is possible to see the Hollywood sign when you ’re in the city. From our apartment we could see the “Hollywood” sign up on the hills.

Hollywood

We decided to walk up to the hill and enjoy the view.

Hollywood sign close up

We also went to Griffith observatory that is really close to the Hollywood sign. One the one side you could see the mountains with the Hollywood sign and on the other you can see the whole city of LA.

Culture day in LA

Sun, 20 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Due to the heavy rainfall we had to change our plan.

We went to the Getty Museum.

Getty Museum

“The Getty” is located on the north side of LA in the mountains.

Population Estimator map

We parked our car for 20$ in the parking building and drove with a sweet monorail on top of a mountain. The entrance was free.

The Museum was spacious and we started in the north building and got into the east building.

Floodings in the desert

Sat, 19 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

After being sick the past day I woke up pretty fit. First day of the #USA #Travel. Gas prices are 50% higher in CA than in AZ.

The Gas price in Arizona (AZ) is $3.5\frac{$}{Gallon}$ And $5.5\frac{$}{Gallon}$ in CA right on the border. I did not understand why they would build gas stations near the border on the CA side. After we realized that we drove from the Californian side back to Arizona to fill up on gas.

Hiking in the Grand Canyon

Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I woke up at 8am and started on the beginning of the Bright Angle trail at 9am. I was walking alone. My mom went too early for me and my sister and her boyfriend wanted to walk alone. I passed them before the three mile point. My mother was already coming back.

I was in a hurry to make my hike. We’d leave at 1:30pm with the car. So only 3.5h to hike.

Grand Canyon

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We left the cozy Hotel in Mexican Hat and headed west out of the desert to the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon is vast. I thought the Grand Canyon was one big canyon with only one trench in the middle. I was wrong, there are really big mountains in the middle.

Grand Canyon

Here an embedded YouTube Video on how the Grand Canyon formed.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/t6IBg4Srb6E

How did the Grand Canyon form?

Monument Valley

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We went east.

First stop was Gooseneck bend. It was super hot.

Gooseneck bend

You might know the film Forrest Gump film. Here is a scene they used in the film.

Forrest Gump background

What you can see in the picture above is the Monument Valley. It is very beautiful and there are huge “Mesas” in the middle of the desert

It rained heavily when we got there.

Bryce Canyon

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We started out in Penguish (Henries Hideout) and on this day we would go southeast to Bryce Canyon.

We drove only 1h to Bryce Canyon. The entrance fee for all national parks is 80$ per car.

I was hyped for the day when I first saw the canyon. There are some walking tracks in the Bryce Canyon. We went down the canyon tho my father was really terrified of heights and thus could not walk down with us. He walked down a shallower path. Eventually we met him at a junction.

Beginning of the roadtrip

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The hotel we stayed in was magnificent and had a nice pool as shown below.

We went shopping. I think there are more products available here than there are in Germany. The user has so many options.

international supermarket

The end user can get anything in the US. I think it is harder to get all the variety shown here in Germany than it is here.

We drove through the Las Vegas strip on broad daylight.

Las Vegas

Sun, 13 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Today we flew to Las Vegas. There were some troubles with the luggage. We had to pay extra for all our luggage. It was in expensive flight for flying from STL to LAS.

Shaun drove us to the airport. He was so kind to drive two times because we wouldn’t have fit into the car all at once.

Se being cute

Arrival at the LAS airport

The airport is huge. We drove with the airport-train to the shuttle station from which we took a free bus to the car renting center. This experience was seamless and we didn’t wait or pay anything for transportation. We waited a little at the at the car rental center.

Arrival of the younglings

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

View form the front porch.

looking onto the street

I helped Berette (Shaun’s partner) moving out her stuff from her office. She retired one week ago. She booked a truck to move her stuff from the office to her home.

Under her office the was a shop for fancy carpets.

hand knotted carpet for 15.000$

50$

After helping her she insisted to give me money. I declined the 100$ and got 50$. She is so funny and young spirited.

Music scene

Fri, 11 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The day began slow. We went to the mall to fix something regarding the sim card. After that we went shopping.

Schnucks supermarket

The houses really look good and all have some ornament. In Germany the buildings of a supermarket would be boring and square. There are so many options to choose from in the supermarket no matter what category.

We went to the Broadway Oyster Bar and listened to music. There was no entrance fee.

Kayaking

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

After having a lazy day yesterday it was time to do some activities. We went kayaking in the Meramec park.

We went down the Meramec river with aluminum Kayaks in the Meramec State Park.

Before that we went to a gas station. Everything that is bigger is better.

Gas station sausage and drink section

going downstream

break on a riverbank

lots of turtles

The temperature was very hot and it was humid.

Exploring St. Louis

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I woke up at 1pm and thus slept for 13h. This day would be a lazy day to regenerate strength.

Our host Shaun has some extraordinary stuff. He owns lots of historical objects and nice handmade everyday objects. He is a deformable body dynamics and thermodynamic professor at Washington University.

Here are some of the many interesting objects he has scattered in his home.

Butter with fermented milk

Botanical Garden

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In the morning around 9:40am we reached St. Louis.🎉🎊 Finally. Shawn the friend of my parents picked us up. We didn’t even have to wait. We got to his house and ate a bit for breakfast. He is educated and is not at all a typical american citizen.

Shawns house

Today we would go the botanical garden in St. Louis. At noon he drove us on the broad streets through the city to the botanical garden. We passed lost of Universities, hospitals and a really big park (second biggest in the US).

Ups and Downs of Traveling

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

On the 6th of august we left the airport in Frankfurt and thought we would arrive in St. Louis on the 6.8 with just one stop in Atlanta. It came worse. The last post explains why we spent a day in Atlanta. The post hinted to a positive ending and that we would at last arrive in St. Louis. This did not happen. Let me explain how and why it did not happen.

Atlanta

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Flight

It starts on the 6.8.23. My sister Sarah drove us to the airport in Frankfurt at 8am. Since I had been canoeing the day before and I was awake until very late in the evening the day before, I was a bit exhausted. At the airport, my mother was recognized by a former student. She was in my mother’s German course 17 years ago (2006/2007). She remembered my mother’s last name. I used to play on the floor as a kid while she was teaching. She even came to us and got in touch again. Cordially. My mother used to utilize playing games with the students. The former student praised her teaching style.