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180abroad · 5 years

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Days 158-160: Salzburg & Berchtesgaden

On the border between Austria and Germany is a small corner of the Alps whose fame far exceeds its size. It is German and Austrian and also not quite either at the same time. It's been settled since the Stone Age and grew fabulously wealthy thanks to the local salt deposits, a commodity as valuable in historical times as oil is now. For hundreds of years it was ruled by an eccentric system of elected prince-bishops. It is the extremely proud birthplace of Mozart--though Mozart himself hated it and moved to Vienna as soon as he could afford to.

More recently, it has earned renewed fame as a place of extraordinary beauty--both natural and architectural. And in the 20th century, it was sadly tarred with infamy as the innermost sanctum of the Nazi regime.

The train ride from Vienna to Salzburg was so easy as to be entirely forgettable aside from the verdant alpine scenery. Salzburg is right between Vienna and Munich, so there's no shortage of high-speed commuter trains to choose from.

We were staying in an Airbnb on the outskirts of town, so we took a bus out from the central station. Got to see a glimpse of the city's spectacular Baroque architecture along the way.

Much like our place in Liverpool, our place in Salzburg was a minimally furnished room in a house we'd be sharing with other guests. One improvement was that this room had a proper bunk bed. I offered to take the top bunk, but after a nervous night with me tossing and turning above her--and the fact that one of the top bunk's four support posts came out of joint during the night--Jessica kindly requested that we swap places for the next two nights.

I had to hunt downstairs for the for the wifi router, which was unplugged. Other than that, though, the home was charming if austere. We spent a fair few hours during our stay here at the windowed dining nook, jotting out plans under the gaze of epic mountains.

We had originally planned to spend the afternoon wandering around Salzburg, but neither of us was much condition to follow through. Jessica hadn’t really slept at all the previous night, and I had only done a little better. In the end, it was all we could do to have me walk down the block for food at a local grocery store.

At least the backdrop was spectacular.

Berchtesgaden is a beautiful alpine resort town just across the border into Germany. It is home to some of the rich salt mines that made Salzburg so wealthy, and in the 19th century it became a popular throughout Europe as a destination for tourists and artists.

If an American knows about Berchtesgaden, however, it is probably in relation to Hitler and the Nazis. Hitler adored Berchtesgaden and the surrounding countryside. He finished writing Mein Kampf at a cabin he rented in the area, and later he bought a home in the nearby mountainside of Obersalzberg, which was later colonized by top-ranking Nazi officials wanting to be as close to Hitler as possible. Hitler spent most of his time in office during the 1930s ruling from his home in Obersalzberg.

And the most famous building in the Nazi complex in Obersalzberg is the one Hitler spent the least time at--the Eagle's Nest.

There are plenty of other sights around Berchtesgaden that don’t have to do with that dark chapter in its history. There are the salt mines, the famously beautiful Königssee lake, and innumerable hiking opportunities. But seeing even one of those as well as the Nazi sites would have require a very long day with a very early start. So instead, we slept in and contented ourselves with exploring the town itself.

We had booked spaces on the Rick Steves-recommended Eagle’s Nest Tours, which runs daily four-hour tours from Berchtesgaden starting at 1:00 pm. After a quick breakfast at the station, we caught the #840 bus from Salzburg to Berchtesgaden. We were supposed to arrive at 11:00, giving us an hour for lunch and an hour for wandering the town.

But due to traffic, we didn’t get into town until nearly 11:30. Rather than rush ourselves and risk stressing ourselves out, we decided to just have a nice slow lunch instead. We tried Bacchus wine for the first time, and it was delicious. It is a hybrid grape varietal that was invented by crossing a Sylvaner-Riesling hybrid with a Muller-Thurgau--itself a cross of Riesling and another varietal called Madeleine Royale. It was delicious, combining the richness of Chardonnay with the refreshing fruitiness of a Pinot Grigio.

(Jessica noted the irony of enjoying a hybrid wine in countryside where much of Hitler’s plans for racial purity were conceived and written down.)

Jessica was feeling a bit under the weather, so she only ordered a sausage and a roll. I was hungrier, so I ordered some roasted chicken with French fries. Somehow, though, it took far longer for her sausage to come out than my chicken. Our waiter seemed far more distraught at the delay than we did; he brought us an extra pot of wine on the house as an apology.

The delay did cost us the time we had wanted to spend exploring the town, but it's hard to complain whilst sipping delicious wine in a sunny garden surrounded by paradisaical Alps.

The tour was everything we had hoped for, but we wished it could have gone on even longer. Four hours is really all you can afford to spend on a tour and still have time to catch the last afternoon bus back to Salzburg. We could have easily spent twice as much time there.

After a quick but interesting tour around Obersalzberg--seeing the ruins of former Nazi mansions, as well as local institutions like the Hotel Zum Turken--we stopped at the Nazi Documentation Center. The center provides a brief but chilling account of Hitler’s reign, from its promising start to its horrific reality.

Even with everything we’ve learned about Hitler and the Nazi policies, we still found more things to learn. For example, we knew that people with birth defects would be sterilized or executed. But what we didn’t know was that their entire families could also be sterilized to prevent the risk of them spreading the same inferior genes.

If such a policy had existed in the States, neither Jessica nor I might have ever been born. One of Jessica's uncles on her dad's side was born with a chromosomal disorder, and his whole family would have certainly been sterilized. And Jessica's mom was born with hip dysplasia. Not nearly as serious, but still a defect--one that could have resulted in my grandparents being sterilized and my dad never being born at all.

Also, when the Nazis invaded Eastern Europe, they fully intended from the beginning to exterminate or drive out the existing Slavic population and replace them with Aryan settlements. The mass starvation that gripped the region almost immediately after occupation began wasn’t the result of logistical failures by the German army. Hitler intentionally sent the army in with insufficient food so that they would have no choice but to take the Slavic population’s food and starve them out.

Also, Hitler presented himself as a Bavarian because he wanted to hide his Austrian heritage and most Germans couldn’t tell the difference between a Bavarian accent and an Austrian accent.

Also, the Nazi government awarded women with medals according to how many pure Aryan children they could give birth to.

There were also plenty of examples of anti-Semitic propaganda and a wall of infamy highlighting the life and crimes of all the top-ranking Nazi officials. High among them was Reinhard Heydrich, whom we'd learned about in Prague.

The exhibits are all in German, but there are English pamphlets in each section that cover the highlights, and a massive construction project is underway to expand the center and provide more multilingual exhibits. For some reason, when the German government opened the center in the early 2000s, they didn’t expect it to be of any interest to foreign tourists.

Unfortunately, because of the construction, we weren’t able to enter the underground bunkers that honeycomb the hillsides around Obersalzberg. Still, our guide gave us an interesting overview of the bunker system, how it was developed, and how it was actually used.

The system was never completed, and new areas of it have been discovered as recently as the 2000s. It appears that Hitler had intended for the bunker system to be integrated into a larger system connecting his Obersalzberg compound to Berchtesgaden and even Salzburg, 12 miles away.

Himmler envisioned the bunkers as a last resort in the event that the Allies captured Berlin. Nazi troops could hide in the bunkers indefinitely, carrying on a guerilla war from their mountain redoubt. Hitler didn't like the thought of that, however, and the bunkers were only made to house Hitler and the other Nazi leaders who actually lived in Obersalzberg.

The system is huge and complex, and it was built in less than two years. The Nazis refused to consider the possibility of the compound being bombed until 1943 when nearby Munich was in flames.

Despite their fast construction, the bunkers were apparently well made. When Obersalzberg eventually did get bombed, not a single person who made it into the bunkers was killed. Hitler was even considering plans to retrofit the bunkers to withstand a nuclear bomb–something that at that point hadn't even been invented yet.

Our guide carried a binder of pictures showing what the area looked like during and after the war. She also pointed out a side entrance to the bunker system that's still visible--though not accessible to tourists.

Even halfway up the mountainside, the view was already spectacular.

Looking up, the Eagle's Nest was a tiny shadow up on the peak still high above us.

The only way up to the Eagle's Nest is a road too narrow, steep, and winding for ordinary buses and drivers to traverse. The only way to visit is by taking a special bus driven by specially trained local drivers. The buses run on an extremely precise schedule so that they always cross paths at specific points where the road is wide enough for them to pass each other. You have to buy timed tickets for both journeys before you go up, and if you miss your bus down, you have to wait until the next bus that happens to have an extra seat. And the Eagle's Nest is extremely popular, so you could be waiting a very long time.

On the only-slightly-scary ride up, we were treated to yet more fantastic views of the area, including the nearby Königssee lake and the craggy white mountainside.

And even once you reach the top of the road, you're not done. The last bit is so steep that there are only two options--a long, steep hike or a quick ride in a bronze elevator buried deep inside the mountain. We chose the elevator ride.

I think it's fairly common knowledge--at least among WWII aficionados--that the Eagle’s Nest was mostly just a display piece that Hitler rarely visited and never used his office at. It is even rumored that the Allies intentionally missed it during the bombing of Obersalzberg because they knew it wasn’t strategically important and wanted to be able to take it as a prize.

A common story is that Hitler didn’t like the Eagle’s Nest because he was scared of heights. But our guide dispelled this as a myth. Hitler apparently loved the Eagle’s Nest and visited it over a dozen times in the year following its completion. But it was time-consuming to get to the Eagle's Nest from Obersalzberg, and once the German forces invaded Poland later that year Hitler spent most of his time up in Berlin directing the war effort.

And for that handful of visits, an exorbitant price was paid in both money and blood. Filled with the most luxurious materials and modern conveniences, the house itself cost well over 100 million dollars in today’s money. And that doesn’t cover what it took to build the road.

The road took the better part of a year to build, with two 12-hour shifts working around the clock and through the winter. Several people died during the construction, and countless more suffered crippling injuries. Despite being very well paid, most workers only lasted a few weeks before resigning. And for the Czechoslovakian laborers conscripted to do the grunt work, that usually meant reassignment to a concentration camp.

Today, the Eagle’s Nest is a fancy restaurant with hardly a mention of its original purpose. Our guide took us into a side room, where she showed us pictures of what the place looked like with its original furnishings.

It isn’t a large building–just a few sitting rooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, and a basement. It doesn’t have any bedrooms and wasn’t meant for living in. Before getting the nickname “Eagle’s Nest” by a visiting ambassador, it was simply referred to as Hitler’s tea house on the mountain.

Outside, we got to walk up onto the summit of the mountain, with spectacular views for miles and miles in every direction. Clouds were starting to come in from the south, creating a very dramatic atmosphere over Königssee.

Because of the crowds and rushed schedule, however, we only had about fifteen minutes to enjoy the summit before having to head back down to the bus for our ride down. On the way, we enjoyed a chat with a young Canadian woman doing her own two-month European journey.

As we left the elevator access tunnel to catch the bus down, we made sure to look for some carvings on the inner doors that our guide had told us about. They were made by 101st Airborne troopers who were occupying the Eagle’s Nest. They had hiked up to the summit and took the building from the top. When they then took the elevator down, they found the doors snowed shut. So they left their mark and headed back up.

Back in Berchtesgaden, we had just enough time to rush up the hill, walk around the old market square for photo ops, then rush back down to catch the last bus of the day back to Salzburg.

We’re glad we did this day trip, but if we visit here again, we’ll definitely try to stay in the town of Berchtesgaden itself. Unless you have a car and can stay as late as you want, there just isn’t enough time to get to the town, see the sights properly, and head back.

Plus, Berchtesgaden is absolutely stunning in its own right. It is an absolute abomination that the Nazis stained it with their touch, and I’m glad that people still flock here for the nature and not just the history. Hopefully, that part of the story will eventually become just an interesting piece of trivia that visitors learn from a plaque when they come here for a hiking trip.

On our last day in Salzburg, we finally visited Salzburg itself.

To be honest, I didn’t have the highest expectations for Salzburg. For American tourists, at least, it seems like it mainly draws two types of people: Mozart fans and Sound of Music fans. And while I don't have anything against them, I'm not especially passionate about them either. And after the imperial majesty of Vienna and the scenic grandeur of Berchtesgaden, I was preparing myself for Salzburg to be a mediocre hybrid of the two.

Perhaps I was just hoping I wouldn't like it so that I wouldn’t feel bad about only getting a single day to see it.

In any case, Salzburg was absolutely charming. A bit like Prague, Salzburg’s Old Town largely escaped damage during World War II, so it retains an authentic medieval feel. But whereas Prague was charmingly chaotic, Salzburg is elegantly organized.

There are winding, shop-lined streets like we’ve seen in any other medieval old town or Gothic quarter. But much of the old town is occupied by a dense network of courtyards between church and government buildings. Which were closely linked throughout much of Salzburg’s history.

From the Middle Ages up until the fall of the Holy Roman Empire to Napoleon, Salzburg was one of several German city-states run directly by Catholic archbishops. Whereas other monarchs of the time often had to balance their political strength against that of the church, these “prince-archbishops” had sweeping authority over the affairs of church and state alike.

We saw the Salzburg Cathedral, which was stunning. The outside is surprisingly plain apart from the western facade, but the inside is magnificently ornamented with beautiful paintings and intricate plaster decorations. At first, we thought that we were seeing painted decorations that only looked three-dimensional–like what we’ve seen in a lot of places across Europe. But no, this was all actual sculpted plaster.

The cathedral’s windows were intentionally designed to keep the nave dark but the main altar brilliantly lit up from large clear windows in the central dome. The effect is extremely impressive.

We also saw this very old baptismal font, which may be the very one that was used for Mozart’s baptism.

In a square on the west side of the cathedral, there is a statue of Mary that if you look at it from the right angle appears to be getting crowned by angels on the cathedral's façade.

From the south cathedral square, there is a fantastic view of the hulking Hohensalzburg Fortress. The foundations are almost a thousand years old, and it is one of the largest medieval castles in all of Europe.

We continued on through the church complex, seeing St. Peter’s Abbey and its cemetery. All of the graves were impressively well maintained, but we soon learned why. In Austria, graves aren’t sold, only rented in ten-year increments. At the end of each period, if no one can be found to pay for the next ten years, the grave is dug up so that it can be used for someone else whose kin can pay. The gravestones of the unfortunately ousted dead are then mounted on the wall of the abbey.

I'm not entirely sure if it was meant as a way to continue showing respect for the dead or more akin to a display of bad checks in a convenience store window.

Lining the cemetery are private gated mausoleums for the most wealthy and respected families.

The church of St. Peter’s Abbey is suitably impressive, with a grand Rococo design. There are some places on the walls and arches where the whitewashing has been removed to expose the colorful frescoes underneath.

Also in the abbey complex, next door to the church, is a fancy restaurant that claims to have served Charlemagne in 803 AD. That would make it the oldest still-operational restaurant in all of Europe, if not the world.

Leaving the abbey complex, we entered the street markets. We picked up some delicious spicy sausages in toasted kaiser rolls. For desert, Jessica got an apricot pastry from one street vendor, and I got a giant pretzel from another.

We saw one of the main medieval shopping roads, the Getreidegasse, which is still adorned with traditional-looking iron symbols over the doors--though most are clearly not medieval.

Getreidegasse is also home to Mozart's birthplace, around which buskers and tourists alike swarmed like flies. We took a few quick pictures and moved along.

And after a quick coffee break, we decided to finish our day with a hike up to the top of the steep hill that divides the city in half. It was a steep climb up stairs and pathways, but the view was worth it.

Even from here, though, the fortress was quite a ways up and a long walking tour once we'd gotten there. Not wanting to exhaust ourselves before a travel day–and knowing that we definitely wanted to return someday–we decided to save the fortress for our next visit and head home for a relaxing evening and plenty of time to pack up for the next day’s trip to Munich.

Next Post: Munich

Last Post: Vienna (The Habsburg Hustle)

#180abroad #berchtesgaden #obersalzberg #salzburg #austria #germany #travel #history #bunkers #eagle's nest #nature #ww2

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chroniclesofawkwardness · 5 years

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Ants

“Dave Matthews Band (DMB) was barred from playing in Chicago after the incident,” she said.

My thoughts immediately went back to my college dorm room, the last time I’d listened to DMB with any consistency. Ants Marching from Under the Table and Dreaming was one of my favorite songs the first 1000 times I heard it. I couldn’t understand 80% of the words Dave sang (OK, more like 95%), but through the years, Ants Marching became instantly recognizable to me. Wherever I heard that horn and drum beat, I was neither happy nor blood-boiling angry. I didn’t want to smoke or immediately run for another beer either.

I couldn’t help wondering if the guys in the band felt the same way about the song after playing it so many times. Had become their American Pie (Don McLean), a song that, if not played live, could mean blood in the streets? Or did they always give the people what they thought they wanted, just to keep themselves and their audience at least anatomically awake between self-induced altered states of consciousness?

I’m long-removed from a college dorm room, but I sometimes feel like a marching ant even today. I probably look like one in the windshields of the cars that have to wait to turn as I cross the street on my way to work every morning. If I’m lucky, there will be a long line of cars that can’t immediately make the right turn they so desperately want to because I’m doing my thing. If I’m really lucky, the cars at the back of the line start honking their horns at each other out of frustration because they can’t see who the holdup is: me. I love it when, after I’ve safely crossed, cars at the front of the queue speed up, their drivers either pissed for having lost thirty to forty-five seconds of their in-a-hurry-to-get-nowhere commute to my deliberate stride, or incredulous that people like me still use their legs to move rather than their own overpriced and oversized machines of choice.

Driving in on this highway All these cars end up on the sidewalk

Fortunately, not all of the animal kingdom moves about in SUVs Can you imagine two pseudo alpha male giraffes in Gold’s Gym t-shirts getting in a car accident because, instead of keeping their eyes on the road, they were too busy gawking at their phones because one of the penguins texted some nude photos of the newest female giraffe the whole zoo had been talking about? Some long-necked SOB forgot to activate the lane departure warning feature in their Escalade.

Anyway.

Like most of their animal kingdom counterparts in zoo confinement, humans can wander around absently, until something jolts them from an all-too-natural, blissfully unaware condition. Case in point would be the humans on an architectural boat tour that time in 2004 when a bus driver in a DMB convoy inexplicably decided to empty about 800 gallons of shit and god knows what else from the bus’s septic tank at the precise moment their boat passed by.

Poopgate was born.

Recently, I was also caught blissfully ignorant until I found a tiny ant making his way across my bedsheets one morning as I was making my bed. I thought it was odd to see just one ant, but I really didn’t put much thought into it. I just figured he’d partied too hard the night before, gotten roaring drunk on high-fructose corn syrup, and separated from his friends. Little did I know how close his friends were.

I’ve lived in my current apartment for almost a little over years. In all that time, it never occurred to me to clean underneath my oven. When you cook as much as I do, bits of chopped onion, severed celery, or minced-but-meant-to-dice mushrooms can fall through the crack that is the space between the countertop and the oven. There’s always been a small margin for error.

The tiny ants looked like bits of food or sauce that had splattered out of a pan and onto a virgin surface when I’d had the heat of the stove on too high for too long. Their purpose seemed singular: get over that (what probably appeared to them to be a) wall. If one had gotten lost in my bedroom, dozens if not hundreds had gorged themselves on the leftover buffet on the floor beneath my oven, and now, their corpulent asses were trying to showcase remarkable agility by scaling the wall between two separate counter spaces in my kitchen, like Marines battling the logs of an obstacle course. Only I couldn’t tell the Senior Drill Instructor ant from the confused ant-equivalent-of-testosterone-filled recruit ants.

Does his teeth, bite to eat and he’s rolling

It’s amazing how the perceived crisis of the ant invasion made me spring into action. Crises or any kind of stress had a funny way of snapping even my porn-addicted brain out of a Saturday morning post-ejaculation fog.

They all do it the same They all do it the same way

“How dare these ants force their way into my home. I’m going to kill them all,” I told myself. I could feel again, but I truly wanted nothing more than for those ants to be dead and gone so i could go back to cycling between my addictions to porn and living for the weekend. I knew the ants weren’t on my lease, so I wanted them out, as much to avoid being charged for unreported occupancy of my apartment as having hundreds of pairs of tiny eyes watching what I really did when the blinds were closed.

Hell, who was I kidding? At my addiction’s lowest point, I was engulfed in such a love affair with the performers on the screen that it might as well have been just the three, four, or five of us there: me, the computer screen, and however many people happened to be starring in whatever eight to twelve minute clip I’d either stumbled upon, or known I’d wanted from the moment I woke up in that morning. I knew the ants were there, but I still had to get my fix, no matter who else was watching.

She thinks, we look at each other Wondering what the other is thinking But we never say a thing And these crimes between us grow deeper

I evicted the ants fairly quickly thanks to help from a neighbor who had some over-the-counter insecticide, the maintenance staff who moved and finally cleaned under my oven, and the pest control company that treated my place amid the carnage of dead insect bodies frozen in miniature yet permanent Jesus Christ poses after betraying me one too many times.

I may have overcome the ants, but it’s taken much longer to overcome Saturday mornings’ post-ejaculation fog. I try to fill my time with creative endeavors instead of flying off the handle whenever a real or imagined tragedy happens, such as spilling coffee grounds gymnastics-style behind my washer and dryer, or having the washer decide to go out walking because I got greedy and filled it with things that would force it to go off balance instead of delaying my gratification until another, smaller, less intense load.

I shouldn’t need tragedies of invasion or violation to stir me into action. I too can remember being small, playing under the table and dreaming. I wish I could go back in time and stop myself from ever seeing that first porn video. I wish I could tell my younger self how many hours his future self would spend consuming porn, feeling like shit inside, then feeling just good enough to do it over, and over and over again.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

The first thing I did when I started my weeklong vacation from work yesterday was to start the stopwatch on my phone. Not because I wanted to have some immediate temporal value attached to any Porn Masturbation Orgasm achievement, but because I wanted something I could use to hold myself accountable. Something to remind myself of the time I could be and have been spending doing other things. I’ve always had the antlike scale-the-countertop intensity, but I lost it slight of it in a fantasy world of 34 DDs, reverse cowgirls and superhuman stimulus cocks that might as well have come (pardon the pun) out of comic books.

Now I’ve set out to get it back.

Take these chances Place them in a box until a quieter time Lights down, you up and die

Right on Dave. I imagine people in Chicago are still salty about poopgate, but at least I’ve grown beyond associating marching ants exclusively with my college years. Some might say that’s progress, yet I know I’ve got a long way to go.

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thegreatallanquatermain · 7 years

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Sechs, Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll, Chapter 3 - Pile onto the Party Bus

With the end of week two, came an end of my lessons with Selini. To commemorate all of our lessons where she would generally yell near us, while simultaneously telling me to stop asking so many goddamn questions, she gave everyone personalised postcards. While Princess got a card saying something like “Celebrate being unique,” I got “Stars can’t shine without darkness.” What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Was I really so bad I made others look good? I feel like this was payback for going out drinking with her, only to sit awkwardly in a corner all night. At least she also gave everyone a paperclip. I shall cherish it dearly.

The weekend promised to be epic. A three-day trip to Strasbourg, in France. To get there, the entire ISU was going to share two busses, and travel several hours into another foreign nation. While piling into the massive vehicles, someone in our group mentioned that we should get on the bus furthest away from us, because the rest of the plebs were going to get on the first bus they saw. They weren’t wrong, and the next thing we knew, we were on a bus with almost no people. This, my friends, was the birth of The Party Bus.

In this newly formed adventure mobile, we had our beloved driver, Klaus, as well as a few of other staff members in the front. Also in the front, we have Jan, the tech enthusiast who helped most of the students of the ISU connect to the internet. When we first met, Jan and I discussed how hard it was for most non-Europeans to pronounce Jan as “Yaan”, but rather as Jan. Apparently, he has often had to resort to going by Ian to not confuse anyone. Well, dear readers, I don’t want to confuse you. Ian sat near the front, but even though he was a student, also played a second role as our baby-sitter, making sure we always on the right track. In the middle of the bus we had our band of usual suspects, the core of the party bus, as well as our friend Mother Noor. Noor is a beautiful Palestinian woman, who is always looking after everyone. I selfishly excluded her from my previous posts, even though she has cooked for me on many occasions. In the very back of the bus there was a group of American students having their own good time. The party bus was ready, and off we embarked. Boy Virgin was especially enthused to start the party. That is until she immediately fell asleep. I can’t really complain, because I did the same thing. PARTY BUS!

Most of our time in Strasbourg was spent either in our rooms, or while wondering around the city. Shortly after arriving, we all headed off on a walking tour of Strasbourg where we had the opportunity see such amazing sights such as a river, a bridge, a different part of the same river, and a gigantic chapel, touted as the tallest medieval building in the world. For some reason, it was decided that after spending over an hour walking around the streets, it was now the perfect time to climb up the chapel to the viewing platform to see the majesty of the city. We were expecting a short climb, having heard it would be a mere 32 steps to our destination. There seemed to have been a slight mistranslation, because we failed to hear about the three hundred in front of the smaller number of steps, each one moving sharply upwards in a seemingly never-ending spiral. Finally, we reached the end of the stairs, leading through a short alley way. Here, then, at the end of the alley we were greeted to yet another hell-spiral of murder-stairs. When we did eventually reach the top, there really was an amazing panoramic view of the entire city. We didn’t see any of it, obviously, because we were too busy wheezing and crying about our mild discomfort. How medieval monks were able to climb the stairs every day for hundreds of years boggles the mind. They must have had some pretty toned glutes.

In the evening, we all came back on the bus, dropping us off at our home for the rest of the weekend, Château de Pourtalès. I was sharing a room on the top floor with Slim Shady and our new Chinese friend, Yang. On the other end of our corridor was the room with Mother Noor and Boy Virgin. This made it the ideal location for our continued parties for the rest of the weekend. That was, until Yang decided he was going to be hygienic, and bathe in the shower in our room. He noticed the shower was not draining, and called Ian for help. Ian accepted the challenge, and charged into the bathroom, plunger in tow. After a few minutes of sloshing noises, and a constant string of “Oh god, what is that!?” and “Jesus, the smell!” accompanied by guttural gagging noises, the door was sealed, and we were advised to keep it closed. We were moved the next morning to a smaller room in a different building. So much for the Party Floor.

The next day involved everyone piling into the Party Bus, and driving into the mountains. Here we were confronted by the horrors of Natzweiler-Struthof, a Nazi concentration camp. Next, we continued to Mont Sainte-Odile, which was described as a monastery full of nuns. I don’t think the individual describing our new location fully understands the difference between a nunnery and a monastery, but I think I could just be vocally getting into the semantics to further distance this paragraph from the previously mentioned concentration camp. Most of the grounds of the monastery (there were no nuns, and seemingly only one very grumpy monk), were covered in signs requesting silence. Unfortunately for them, they were being visited by Boy Virgin, one of the loudest women any human will ever encounter. Even her whispers could be heard throughout the mountains. We abruptly retreated to a bar, where we decided to pre-game for the upcoming winery. This winery was supposedly going to involve a wine tasting, which I learnt means something a little different in France and Australia. In Australia, you get a small sip of wine and spittoon facilities in case you need to drive home. In France, you get six full glasses of wine, a slice of cake, and an hour time limit. Everyone left quite merry, and utterly blasted.

Back at the Château, we prepared for our final evening in France. The Party Bus crew, or Party Bus for prosperity, piled into our newly acquired room, much to Yang’s dismay. Saskatoon Pirate supplied a bottle of vodka, Princess provided video games, Mother Noor was teaching everyone to belly dance, and Yang was going to quickly pop out to grab some orange juice to mix with the spirits. He did not return for many hours, choosing his four girlfriends over us, and when he did there was no orange juice. No problem, because the rest of just partied without him. At one point, I had five girls in my bed. Yeah, I know, that’s pretty Alpha of me. That is until you realised that they kicked me out of my own bed, and I had to sit on a small chair, slowly nursing my vodka.

The next day, it was time for us to go home. After checking out, and taking our first group photo, we made our way to the European Parliament building. We took another group photo, entered the building, lined up for yet another group photo, and started our tour. I don’t have too much to say about the parliament building, because I can say without hyperbole that I was asleep for most of my visit there. The only time I definitely remember being awake, was when we were taking more group photos. Or when Boy Virgin, Awesome, and I were playing “Smash or Pass” with the images of European Parliamentarians.

Back on the bus, we returned for a final time to the city centre. We had a short time to find some lunch, before we were going to go walk across a bridge. Ian lead us to a French restaurant, where we could have a traditional French lunch. Then we ate at a kebab shop instead. On the way back to the Bus, Dynamo and I stopped to stock up on party related supplies (booze), to prepare to Party Bus our way back home. However, after thirty minutes of waiting on the bus, we weren’t leaving. It turns out, Yang and his girl friends had gone shopping, and they decided to only return when it suited them. Our extended delay meant we would not have time for the bridge, unfortunately, so we just continued back home. Ian and the teachers in the front were pulling beers out of a hidden ice-box, we were mixing spirits with some orange juice, and the Americans in the back were indulging in some wine. The only time we stopped on the trip back, every group restocked on their dwindling supplies. Awesome and I thought we were being cool buying one litre cans of Danish beer (which turned out be near undrinkable), but we were put to shame by the Americans, who purchased and demolished an entire bottle of vodka in just over an hour. PARTY BUS!

#germany #france #strasbourg #marburg #travel #humour

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jiji-infires · 7 years

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APRICITY (pt. 1)

OC X JUNGKOOK

GENRE: FLUFF, ANGST

WORD COUNT: 2.5K

SYNOPSIS: When his roommate moves out to live with his girlfriend, Jungkook is faced with a new reality, one that includes a 5′3′’ sac of bones that is too nerdy and curious for his liking.

CHAPTER 1

Drip. Drop.

The sound of the rain cascading and shattering against the window almost matches his heartbeat, nearly falling in sync with the song he had been listening to for the last two weeks, because Jungkook is the type of person who listens to one song over and over, not to count how many times he hears it before he get bored, but to analyze every beat, every note.

To his dismay, he gets snatched from the beautiful trance he was in when his loud roommate barges in with his duffle bag over his shoulders, gushing in his phone speaker like a gossipy aunt on thanksgiving. Jungkook watches his movements as he paces from the small living room to the kitchenette, and after 10 minutes of chatter over the phone the smell of black bean noodles fills his nostrils; it is Thursday and that means that it was Jimin’s turn to cook, because the pair aren’t just roommates, they have been friends for the last 8 years, and also because Jimin volunteered to cook for them once in a while for the reason that his tall friend could burn the house down if he was asked to boil some water.

“So I guess I’ll see you soon, huh?” Jimin whispers sheepishly into the phone, trying to hide the smile that reached his blushing cheeks. Jungkook assumed that it’s his girlfriend he’s been talking to probably before he took the bus home; despite him trying to give a tough guy image, Jimin is a helpless romantic when it comes to Seulgi, his soul mate, he always acts as if he had just met her on a first date when in reality the two have been dating for the past three years, and poor Jungkook had to witness all the PDA and cringe-worthy moments of the couple.

After the food is set on the table, the younger one takes a seat across from his friend and dives in, briefly wondering how cooking will go after Jimin moves out. As if on cue, the later raises his head and looks at Jungkook.

“Are you sure you’ll be fine on your own? I mean, I can delay it you know, in case you’re already feeling sulky”. Jungkook resists the urge to throw a spoonful of rice at him as he smiles mischievously.

“I’m not a baby, I’m going to survive” Jungkook shrugs and busies his mouth with food, ignoring Jimin’s teasing and kicking from under the table “although I will have no one shorter than me to look down on, chibi boy” he smirks.

“I grew 0.2 cm tall since the last four months” he whines and the other laughs at his failed attempt to counterattack. Dinners would go like this when both of them are home.

The house where they’re staying at was rented by them a month ago, since they knew that both of them got admitted to the same school; SIU, Seoul International University. The house contains two bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, and a kitchenette that leads to the balcony overlooking a kid’s playground. The rent was no problem for Jungkook, after all he is the son of a wealthy family from Busan, and he only agreed to take a small sum of money for the rent and other utilities after his mother’s desperate persuasion, while Jimin is on a scholarship. Both of them worked in delivery and they earn a sum to go by, providing their necessities and saving some for emergencies, and going out. He knows that even with him moving out, they will still hang out together; also Seulgi’s house is only four blocks away.

“By the way,” Jimin says as he collapses on the couch next to his friend, “I found you someone to split the rent with”

Jungkook frowns for a moment, not even wondering who it might be, but actually surprised because his friend already took care of that.

“And who might it be?” he asks, completely disinterested.

“It’s Taehyung’s cousin, she’s a really nice person. You will love her!” Jimin gushes, “Although I’m not too sure if she’d tolerate your loud snoring from across the living room”. He ignores his friend’s insult and focuses on his first sentence; he just said that a girl will be moving in, a girl… not that he’s complaining but it could be worse since he mentioned that she’s Taehyung’s cousin, which means that she’ll most likely be as loud as his tanned friend.

“You look distressed” Jimin remarks

“No, I’m not. I don’t mind sharing this apartment with an elephant, as long as it’s neat and quiet” he defends back, ending the conversation with a shrug and a sleepy yawn.

Sigh. Two suitcases and a backpack full of clothes, toiletries, a dozen of books, and other daily items that Jisoo has been dragging for the past twenty minutes. The windy weather isn’t helping either as her hair keeps slapping her in face repeatedly also her stomach growls every now and then for she hasn’t eaten anything for at least six hours. Her body feels like crumbling any moment now as her train took three hours to get her to her destination after a whole ordeal of technical issues on the engine, and she still has to take the bus which will drive for probably another hour until she arrives at the park where her friend is supposed to be waiting for her. This whole Daegu to Seoul thing is too tiring for her petite health but it’s all for the sake of going to the one university she’s been dreaming of her entire life. She rests her head against the cold bus window and listens to her favorite Zion.T song; Just featuring Crush. Her peaceful trance is interrupted with loud bickering and she opens her eyes to complaints from several passengers who were already leaving the bus after the driver announced that he has encountered an issue concerning the breaks and that he has to stop to guaranty the passengers’ safety. Unpleased, Jisoo hops off the bus a couple of station before where she’s supposed to stop, and to make matters worse, her suitcase’s zipper decides to get stuck to the fence by which she was walking, making her yank her baggage in anger and knocking every item inside in the process.

“Great way to start in Seoul” she mumbles out loud to herself with a slight roll of the eyes as she packs her thing back in, sighing internally a couple of hundred times until she reaches the park her friend told her about, and like on cue, her phone buzzes.

“Jimin were you at?” she asks, almost whining into the phone. He laughs at her unexpected greeting and asks her to turn left, and she sees him, standing next to garbage bin with his ripped jeans, black sweater and a black beanie. His smile hasn’t changed, she notices that as he approaches her with open arms and she walks up to him, her luggage behind, feeling happily engulfed in his warm embrace.

“How’s my favorite Dongsaeng doing?”

“Alive and breathing” she sighs as they both pull out. Being a gentleman, Jimin leans over and takes the suitcases and they both walk through the park catching up on things from his last trip to Daegu. They cross the street, walk a couple of blocks until they reach the building where she’s supposed to stay for the rest of the year.

“This is it” Jimin says and she looks up; it looks quiet neat, painted in white and gray, her favorite colors. They climb the stairs to the third floor and he opens the door, ushering her inside her new apartment. To be honest, it looks really clean and tidy, and she’s surprised at that because two men are occupying this place, and from what she knows, Jimin isn’t the most organized person, so she guesses it might be the other boy. She herself wondered why she hasn’t sent her file to the Domicile Department earlier, but she is reminded of the issues she encountered in her home town before getting a proper chance to leave, once and for all. Lucky she has a friend to rely on; she wanted to ask him before if she could stay with Seulgi; you know, staying with a person of the same sex wouldn’t be as awkward or difficult as sharing a house with a male, but she decided not to since the guy has been waiting since forever probably to be with his girlfriend.

“Jungkook is probably at his part-time job” Jimin says absently. So his name is Jungkook, she thinks to herself and puts her backpack down, releasing a very long and heavy sigh that she’s been keeping since she left Daegu.

“You okay?!” he asks as he approaches with a can of soda, and she snickers at how small his hands are, making him scowl for a moment before he shakes his head.

“So tell me,” Jisoo leans on her knees, “how is it going in SIU?”

“Pretty lit, you might get bullied though” Jimin laughs; everything for him is lit, it’s his favorite word “You know how it’s one of the most prestigious art universities in Korea, so people either pay to get in, or work their asses off, just like you did sweetie. Now, the thing is, and I don’t know for what reason, people like you are the most tested, by institutors and also by fellow students”

“You mean bullied” she cuts in with a brow raised up

“Not bullied, but people out there are really competitive; they’d do anything to be on top” he says and she shrugs, she truly doesn’t care about anyone as long as she can work on her music in peace. “Anyway, I would’ve loved to stay here and introduce you to your roommate, but I have to go” he makes to stand up and her eyes follow, looking up at him with puppy eyes although she has no idea she’s making them.

“Don’t be sad, you’ll probably see me tomorrow” he flicks her forehead before leaving after giving her some instructions about where everything is in case she needs anything.

As much as she wants to neatly put her stuff in the closet, she just leaves her bags on the floor and changes into pajamas, ready to go to bed when she hears a loud thud on the wall. She ignores it, pretending that she didn’t even hear it when it comes for the second, third, fourth time with a small yelp. The young girl leaves her room with a frown molding her eyebrows together, her ears following the sound that’s getting louder and louder as she reaches a wooden door situated a few steps away from her new room. As far as she knows, her roommate isn’t there, so it would be impossible that the noise comes from him. With hesitance in her movement, her hand wraps around the doorknob to twist it in one final motion and reveal the source of her distress: a ball of fluff leaps out into her lap as she stumbles back and trips on her own feet, falling flat on her ass and facing what she seems to her as the cutest animal alive; a grey husky with bright shining ice blue eyes, it looked so small in her lap and she can’t help but smile at it as it liked her face with its small tongue.

“Hi there, little guy” she smiles and yawns as she picks it up in her arms, closing the opened door before heading to her room and snuggling under the blankets, leaving the dog in the hall to get some fresh air after assuming that he was probably locked up in that room the whole day.

With fatigue accumulating on her frail body, she quickly falls asleep, forgetting about her exhaustion and hunger, she can barely hear soft muttering and yelps from the small dog as her last conscious thought seeps out of her mind and soon, she finds herself surrendering to deep slumber.

It’s already 02:30 when Jungkook comes back home with his back over his shoulder, beat, sweaty and mostly hungry. Throwing the bag against the floor, he heads to the kitchen and brings up a cup of instant chicken noodles and puts the right ratio of rice and water in the rice cooker, setting the timer for a few minutes before he makes a bee line to the shower. A nasty odor rises the closer he gets to the door, so he pushes it open to find Juno putting his cookies on the bathroom mat.

“How the hell did you get in here?!” he demands in a low voice, as if the dog can understand his words. What he wants to know is how it left the room while he’s sure he closed it the afternoon before leaving for his dance practice. He just assumes that Jimin went in to get something and released Juno in process.

After cleaning the spot and taking a quick hot shower, he makes it to the kitchen where he takes off the lid, stirring the noodles that were already overcooked and putting some rice in a plate, leaving the rest of it for the next day’s breakfast. As he is slurping down his food, it occurs to him that maybe it wasn’t Jimin who opened the door, but probably his new roommate who he hasn’t had the chance to meet if she already moved in. he chases the thought away as he remembers that there weren’t any female items in the shared bathroom. But maybe she hasn’t unpacked yet.

He dismisses the idea and cleans up after himself and the dog that just has finished eating. It hasn’t rained all day and frankly, he misses it. He loves the sound it makes as it softly hits the glass, the smell it leaves after it soaks the ground, and the strange feeling of nostalgia for something he never experienced.

Juno is already waiting for his master, and the mattress sinks low with Jungkook’s weight as he takes his notebook and pen and lies down, drawing whatever comes to his spirit, left hand moving idly to draw intricate patterns, revealing the face of a young female he has never met before, someone he never consciously imagined, but probably his ideal that is trapped in the back of his mind.

Eyes, he always starts with them, as they are the window to one’s soul, or so they say. Almond shaped with a fixed glare, he decided that it was time he put some color in there and he knew which one to pick; he loved to play with every shade of the brown, and while it wasn’t his favorite color, he still choose it every time he draws the eyes, just because it sends a fleeting sense of warmth trough him, even for a brief moment.

After a couple of minutes, he sets everything aside, yawning into his fisted palm as he reaches a hand to turn the lights off, only the faint glow of the moon eliminating a part of his room ever so slightly. He surrenders to sleep quicker than he could imagine, only bits of his fogged awareness still traced with memories from the past, unfinished drawings, and a face he has never met or maybe wishes to meet in the future.

woah! This is my first time publishing a story on tumblr. This is already posted on Wattpad and Army Amino but I thought I’d share it here as well. I also made the poster myself, so excuse my very poor editing skills ;__;

#bts jungkook #bts #jungkook #bts scenarios #bts fanfic #fanfic #bts stories

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todaynewsstories · 6 years

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Behind the scenes with SBS Transit: How to keep 3,000 buses running daily

SINGAPORE: His paper bus model may not look anything out of the ordinary, but Mr Cho Wen Wei is quite proud of it. By his reckoning, it is one of SBS Transit’s first paper bus models, “so it’s very valuable”.

His hobbies are collecting bus guides and memorabilia as well as exploring old interchanges, so one thing is for sure – he is crazy about all things buses.

“My family members call me a bus encyclopedia. It’s faster than checking the app,” he says with a smile. It is little wonder that he loves his job, as he gets to live his passion.

Mr Cho is in charge of cleaning and maintaining hundreds of buses – one of the unsung heroes working day and night to keep Singapore’s public buses running on the roads.

He may not be one of SBS Transit’s 6,500 bus captains whom commuters see every day, but he feels that he is “serving the public” no less.

“The bus industry is 24/7 from Monday to Sunday, even public holidays, so we need to work to support them at the back end, to ensure that the bus can go out and return every day,” he says.

Running Singapore’s biggest fleet – some 3,000 buses – is an immense task, as On The Red Dot found out after gaining unprecedented access behind the scenes of SBS Transit’s operations, from managing its network of routes to unexpected road conditions. (Watch the three-part special here.)

Here is how the bus operator’s teams do it, even if not everything always goes like clockwork:

1. BY MITIGATING TRAFFIC CONGESTION AND UNFORESEEN SCENARIOS

The nerve centres of the bus network are the operations control centres. Every bus on the road is linked to a centre, of which there are seven, each monitoring traffic conditions and the movements of over 500 buses on average.

The centre in Seletar Depot, for example, tracks 27 bus services to ensure that they run on schedule, covering a route network in Yishun, Ang Mo Kio and the Central Business District.

There are seven controllers on each shift, so each of them tracks about four bus services. They can relay instructions to bus captains, who can also report back on any accidents, traffic jams or incidents on board via a microphone.

The operations control centre in Seletar.

In this way, the controllers can adjust arrival times remotely, by telling the drivers to increase speed or slow down.

When one of the buses was ahead of schedule, for example, assistant service controller Francis Nah told the bus captain: “Slow down for two minutes. You’re too close to the front bus, causing bunching.”

Bunching occurs when two or more buses of the same service arrive at a stop together. This makes the service unreliable, creating longer waiting times.

Slowing down the second bus, however, is not the only solution. “If the front bus is too slow (and) the rear bus has already caught up … we’d ask the captain to safely overtake,” said Mr Nah.

Mr Francis Nah.

The most challenging service he must supervise is number 70, which goes to the central business district. “We do experience delays, especially during peak hour,” he said, indicating at one point that its buses were nine to 10 minutes late.

During the peak period, the controllers’ workload “gets doubled or tripled”, in step with the increase in the number of buses on the road.

Overseeing all of them is Service Controller Deng Ziliang, who is in charge of the centre’s operations –the “kingpin” as Mr Nah described him. And he usually has his hands full.

During one “tense” moment, after two buses broke down, another bus captain found a fault with a bus at the depot. “So now we’re trying to mitigate all these by swopping some buses,” he said.

Mr Deng Ziliang (right).

Sometimes his team is put in situations “beyond (their) imagination”, like the instance when the system they use to monitor the buses – the common fleet management system (CFMS), which uses a GPS locator technology – was hit by a connection problem.

Without the CFMS, they cannot communicate with bus captains on the road and cannot determine the actual location of buses.

To keep the situation under control, with peak hour looming, they used their phones to call the bus interchange personnel to continue their co-ordination work.

Once the server was rectified and the system was brought back online, it was business as usual and straight into peak hour traffic. “We need to react very fast because time doesn’t wait for us,” noted Mr Deng.

The common fleet management system, used by all four of Singapore’s public bus operators.

2. BY ENSURING STRINGENT MAINTENANCE 24/7

Public buses can operate up to 18 hours a day and thus require regular maintenance. Each bus goes through a three-hour check every two months.

At the workshop in Hougang Bus Depot – one of Singapore’s oldest bus depots, having opened in 1983 – teams of technicians and foremen are constantly checking and repairing their fleet of 600 buses.

Repair times depend on the bus models and faults. Some buses take 30 minutes to fix; others with major defects can take days.

“For us, a good day means there’s no bus breakdown,” said senior technician Amin Tugiman. “If a bus comes back, then we’ve got a big, big problem.”

The 59-year-old was one of the few technicians at the depot with the expertise to deal with one such bus that returned with an oil leak and in “quite a big mess”.

Despite his nearly four decades of experience, it was a challenge. His investigation found coolant leaks – an issue that, if untreated, can cause the engine to overheat and be damaged – as well as other faults.

He had to remove the water pump assembly, among other parts, clean the gasket area and fit in a new one.

Once the technicians have completed repair works on each bus, they must take it for a road test. The bus must meet certain criteria, such as travelling uphill and negotiating sharp bends.

They have a little help from technology, a computer, to see whether all the signs are good. Some faults, however, cannot be detected by computers, “so you still need the human touch”, said the workshop’s deputy manager Aw Boon Huan.

It takes six years, reckoned Mr Amin, to be a good technician who “understands these engine systems”.

“It’s a good place to work actually, but then maybe the environment (looks) greasy, and the younger ones try to avoid doing all these jobs,” he said.

The workshop has over 100 staff, and its technicians are between 20 and 60 years old. At his age, it can get tiring, Mr Amin admitted. “When we finish work, all our energy is drained out,” he said.

It is a reflection of the fact that the workshop never sleeps. “We operate for 24 hours, seven days a week,” said Mr Aw. “Even when we go to sleep, our phone is still beside us.”

3. BY WASHING THE BUSES METICULOUSLY

Another big operation is the washing of buses. At Bedok Depot, with a fleet of more than 600, this task is split into two sections.

Operation Wipe is the daily cleaning of the floors and windows, and Operation Wash covers everything from tyre rims and mirrors to handles and seats.

With a team of 30, Mr Cho is in charge of this process. To keep to a tight schedule, everything here must run like clockwork. “The constraint is basically the race against time,” said the operations officer (Garaging).

“We make use of the split-shift period to wash the buses. And when the buses come back, we must be fast enough to complete the scheduled fleet for the day.”

On average over a seven-hour period, around four buses are worked on per hour.

“So it’s non-stop for them. They need to continue washing one bus after another without a break,” said Mr Cho, who has five contract cleaners and two parking attendants to assist him.

He will inspect the buses once the washing is done – and he is meticulous. One of the buses was “quite clean”, for example, but he spotted some dirt in the bus captain’s area, and the dashboard was “a bit dusty”.

So he made sure that those areas were cleaned again.

4. BY PUTTING TRAINEES THROUGH THEIR PACES

Every week, there are 20 trainees learning the ropes to become an SBS Transit bus captain. The candidates would have to go through more than 30 days of theory lessons and practice, as well as sit two exams.

They must pass the basic test to proceed to the next level. In the advanced course, the training includes learning service routes and navigating busy bus interchanges.

Trainers like Mr Desmond Au, who joined the company four years ago and has trained over 200 recruits, are seeing more candidates in their 40s and 50s.

Many are making a mid-career switch, and with a failure rate of five per cent, most are expected to make the grade.

Some of them may be experienced drivers who have worked with heavy vehicles, such as tipper trucks or tourist coaches. That does not necessarily make the job of a trainer easier.

“They may look at you (and go), ‘Wah, I’ve got much more experience than you. How are you going to teach me?’” said 42-year-old Mr Au. Driving a bus, however, is another matter altogether, as he explained it.

“Driving a car, our front tyre is in front. You drive a truck – our tyre is below our backside. And now we’re driving a bus. Where’s our front tyre? Behind,” he said. “So that’s where they (make) a lot of mistakes.”

He is usually assigned six trainees in each new batch. And there are four cameras in the training buses recording every moment of the driving sessions, which he uses to review their performances.

Safety is the number one priority. As the trainees also find out, however, being a bus captain is not just about driving from point A to point B.

By his own admission, Mr Marshall Wong has a bad temper. But after his basic course at the Hougang Training Centre, he realised that a bus captain “should be very patient”.

“Previously, maybe I wasn’t at that stage, but now I’m trying to learn. I’m trying my best,” said the 40-year-old.

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funnythingshere0-blog · 6 years

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Electric Picnic 2018: Everything you need to know – traffic, weather, alcohol rules and more

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Electric Picnic 2018: Everything you need to know – traffic, weather, alcohol rules and more

As kids pack their school bags for their first week back in class, adults pack their cars with tents, blow-up mattresses, a bag of cans and enough crisps to cure the hangovers of 1,000 men for the last big hoopla of the summer: Electric Picnic.

Even though the hotter-than-hell summer weather has gone, the forecast is for a good weekend in Stradbally, with temperatures of up to 20 degrees predicted for Saturday and Sunday. So we can keep our raincoats tied around our waists until the 2am chill sets in – and our Penneys wellies might even stay as fresh as the day we bought them. (But don’t risk leaving your raincoat and wellies at home; should there be lashings of rain – this being Ireland, you can never rule it out – you don’t want to be standing knee deep in mud with only a pair of Converse to protect you.)

The line-up this year is rather tasty. The big show-stopping performances should come from Kendrick Lamar (who’s headlining the main stage on Friday night), Dua Lipa and Massive Attack (who are both playing the main stage on Saturday). 2FM Live’s The Story of Hip Hop: Part 3, which features some of the best names in Irish music, should see Rankin’s Wood reach full capacity on Friday night.

Before you hit the road for Stradbally this weekend, here’s everything you need to know for Electric Picnic 2018.

Here’s the lineup in full and all the stage times

Are tickets still available?

Tickets are long gone, but if you keep an eye on Twitter, using the #ticketfairy hashtag, you might come across someone actually selling a ticket and not begging for one. But take note, as An Garda Síochána has warned gig-goers about fake print-at-home tickets that are being sold online, so double- and triple-check before you hand over your money for a ticket from someone you don’t know.

What time does it kick off at?

Early-ticket holders, plus holders of general camper-van and family camper-van tickets, can get into their campsites from 4pm on Thursday; everyone else can get in from 9am on Friday, when the general and family campsites open to all. Holders of Sunday tickets (who don’t have access to campsites) are allowed in to the festival site from 11am that day.

When can we actually see some music?

The main arena opens at 2pm on Friday and runs until midnight; the late-night arena is open from midnight until 4am. On Saturday the main arena is open from 11am until 2am; the late-night arena will be open from 8am until 4am. On Sunday, if you’ve any energy left at all, the main arena will open from 11am until midnight and the late-night arena will open from 8am until 4am.

The general campsite and the family campsite will open their gates at 9am on Friday. Photograph: Dave Meehan

What’s the camping situation like?

Boutique camping is still available in Pink Moon Village, Harvest Moon Boutique and Harvest Moon (In the Woods), but they’re likely to sell out soon. With bell tents, huts, tepees (regular and “Tardis”)and yurts available from Silk Road Tents, LPM Bohemia, FestiHut, PodPads and Earthworks, a group of you – from two to eight people – could try a lusher approach to camping for a shiny penny. Check out here what boutique options are left.

Another camping option is Kip’n’Go, in the Janis Joplin campsite. For €7.50 per person per day you get a prepitched tent that can include sleeping bags and mats – so there’s no need to pack it all up to go home, and certainly no need to create unnecessary waste by abandoning your tent when you leave.

If you want to cook in the campsites, you should bring only disposable barbecues or a permitted cooking stove, such as a solid-fuel, firelighter or methylated-spirit stove. Leave the gas canisters (any size, including capsules), petrol burners and any form of aerosol can over 250ml at home, as they are not permitted.

All camping areas will close at 1pm on Monday, September 3rd.

Will we be fed, watered and showered?

Yes. More than 100 food stalls will be running, again across the main arena and campsites, all weekend, catering to all appetites. If you want to up your notions game, an artisan food market will offer good local produce, or you can pop into the Theatre of Food to catch some of Ireland’s best chefs in action.

There will be free drinking-water points across all of the campsites and the main arena, beside the toilet blocks.

Showers will be available from 8am until 2pm, and again from 4pm until 7pm, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They’re being sponsored by Nivea, a range of whose products will be available for sampling in the showers at the Jimi Hendrix campsite.

After 1am, up to four cans per person will be permitted into the main arena; there is an overall limit of 48 cans per person in the camping areas. Photograph: Dave Meehan

What about alcohol?

All bars will close at 1am. After 1am, up to four – let me repeat that: four – cans per person will be allowed into the main arena. There’s a limit of 48 cans per person for the weekend in the camping areas. Glass is not permitted anywhere in the festival. The bars will be operating a Challenge 25 policy; accepted forms of ID are passport, driver’s licence and Garda age cards.

What if I run out of cash?

There will be ATMs in the late-night arena, beside the entrance to the main arena, but be prepared to queue. Treat the wait as some much-needed me time, perhaps. Contactless payment will be available at every bar, so tap until you can tap no more.

What else can we do there?

If music isn’t your thing – although, in that case, what are you doing at Electric Picnic at all? – the comedy tent has Alison Spittle, David O’Doherty, Russell Howard and Paul Currie, among many others. It’s also worth visiting the Mindfield spoken-word area, where you can catch the likes of Lisa Hannigan and Dylan Haskins interviewing Marian Keyes for their podcast, Soundings, on Ah, Hear! the new podcast stage.

The Irish Times’s Sorcha Pollak will be chatting to the writer Michael Harding, the former political prisoner Ibrahim Halawa and the theatre maker Oonagh Murphy as part of New to the Parish.

The Theatre Stage, in association with Dublin Theatre Festival, will see Thisispopbaby’s presentation of Tara Flynn’s Not a Funny Word, Pan Narran Theatre’s My Left Nut, performed and cowritten by Michael Patrick and Oisín Kearney, Malaprop’s Love +, which was devised by Dylan Coburn Gray, Claire O’Reilly, Breffni Holahan and Maeve O’Mahony. Plenty of things other than dancing to do here.

Click on the site map below to download

How do I get there by public transport?

By bus and train Bus Éireann is running return services from Dublin, Cork and Galway. Check buseireann.ie for more.

Marathon Coaches has return and one-way services from George’s Quay in central Dublin. You can book tickets on its website.

TravelMaster will be running services from more than 20 locations in Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Waterford and Carlow.

Concertbus.ie is serving two routes that cover nine pick-up points across the country. Return tickets cost between €40 and €50.

Portlaoise has the closest railway station; Martley’s is running a shuttle bus to and from the festival. Tickets are €5 each way; no booking required.

By bike If you are cycling down, you should come through Gate 1a, on the Abbeyleix road. You can leave your bike in the designated area beside the Tour de Picnic bike racks.

And what if I’m driving? Weekend ticket holders, here are your driving routes:

M7 southbound, from Dublin and the north

Cars should leave the M7 at Ballydavis (junction 16) and then take the R445 (the old Dublin road). At Rathbrennan, turn left on to the R425, the new Carlow road, going straight through Bloomfield roundabout (signposted Abbeyleix) and on to Sheffield Cross. At Sheffield Cross follow the main road left on to the R426 and head for Money Cross and Lamberton Cross. Turn left at either Lamberton or Money Cross, as directed by gardaí, and on to designated parking areas.

You should expect delays because of roadworks on the M7 between junctions 8 and 11; factor this into your travel plans.

The M7 is being widened in both directions in Co Kildare between junction 8, at Johnstown, and junction 11, near Newbridge, where the M9 begins; the affected area has a temporary speed restriction of 60km/h.

“Make sure you plan ahead for your journey to Electric Picnic and allow yourself plenty of time to get to the festival site,” said Elaine O’Sullivan of AA Roadwatch. “If you are leaving after work on Friday, keep in mind that evening rush-hour delays start to pick up a little earlier and you will see increased volumes of commuter traffic from about 2.30pm onwards.”

M7 northbound, from Limerick and the southwest

Leave the M7 at the Togher interchange (junction 17) and head left, towards Portlaoise. At the Meelick junction turn right on to the L6310-0. Turn right when the road meets the R426. This road then joins the R425 at Rathleague; continue on the R426 and turn left at either Lamberton or Money Cross, as directed by gardaí, and on to designated parking areas.

M8 northbound, from Cork and the south

Leave the M8 at junction 3, for Ballacolla and Abbeyleix. Turn right on to the R433, heading through Ballacolla village and on to Abbeyleix. At Abbeyleix town turn left on to the N77 through the town, then, just before leaving Abbeyleix, turn right on to the R425 towards Ballyroan Village, and on to Cashel Cross. From here follow the main road to the right on to the R427, merging with other event traffic at Money Cross and on into the designated parking areas.

The M8 has been closed in both directions all week between junction 13, at Mitchelstown South, and junction 14, at Fermoy. Diversions have been in place via the R639, the old N8. The motorway is scheduled to reopen at 8pm on Friday.

N80, from Carlow and the southeast

Take the N80 and N78 to Simmons Mills, then head via the Windy Gap into Stradbally. Turn left at Court Square (opposite Dunne’s pub) on to the Timahoe road, then turn left into the designated car park.

N80, from the west

Proceed via Mountmellick and on to Portlaoise town. At the Fairgreen roundabout turn right on to the ring road. Continue to Mountrath Road – the R445 – and turn right. At Rockdale roundabout turn left on to the ring road (L26964-0). Turn right at the roundabout, to take the N77 to Meelick junction, where you’ll merge with traffic from the M7 northbound, from Limerick and the southwest, as above.

Family weekend ticket holders, here are your routes (NB, you must have family weekend tickets to use the family car park):

M7 southbound (Dublin and the north), M7 northbound (Limerick and the southwest), N80 (west) and M8 northbound (Cork and south)

Take junction 16 off the M7 towards Bloomfield Cross on the R445, in the direction of Portlaoise. Turn left on to the R425, heading towards the N80, Stradbally. At the roundabout take the first exit, on to the N80 for Stradbally. The family car park is in the centre of the town, on the left hand side, and will be signposted.

N80, from Carlow and the southeast

Take the N80 and N78 to Simmons Mills, then the N80 via the Windy Gap into Stradbally. Continue on the N80: the family car park is in the centre of the town, on the right-hand side, and will be signposted.

Sunday ticket holders, here are your routes:

M7 southbound (Dublin and the north), M7 northbound (Limerick and the southewest) and M8 northbound (Cork and the south)

Take junction 16 off the M7 towards Bloomfield Cross on the R445 in the direction of Portlaoise. Turn left on to the R425, heading towards the N80, Stradbally. At the roundabout take the first exit on to the N80 Stradbally. Before you enter the town turn right into the designated car parks.

N80, from Carlow and the southeast

Take the N80 and N78 to Simmons Mills, then head via the Windy Gap into Stradbally. Turn left at Court Square (opposite Dunne’s pub) on to the Timahoe road and turn left into the designated car park.

Electric Picnic: the festival provides free parking, but factor in plenty of time to get there by car. Photograph: Alan Betson

Parking

Electric Picnic provides free parking. Weekend ticket holders can use red car parks A, B and C, on the Abbeyleix road; green car parks V, W, X, Y and Z, off the N80; and the yellow car park on the Timahoe road.

What if I need access facilities?

Disabled customers must already have a standard weekend ticket. The deadline for the personal-assistant ticket has passed, but Electric Picnic’s access scheme includes the following facilities: wheelchair-accessible viewing platform, accessible car parking or drop-off pass, personal-assistant ticket at no additional cost, accessible toilets and disabled-access camping.

The disabled-access campsite will have accessible toilets, fridges (for storing medication) and electrical hook-ups for wheelchair charging. Disabled guests can have two friends camping with them. Disabled platforms/viewing areas will be at most of the stages, with a strict one-plus-one policy. Accessible toilets should be located beside each viewing platform. There will also be accessible toilets in the disabled campsite and at the medical tent. If you have any access queries, email [email protected].

What about the weather?

The ever-reliable yr.no is telling us that there will no rain in Stradbally this weekend, with temperatures reaching 20 degrees on Saturday and Sunday. Friday will be a little cooler, at 16 degrees. Pack your sunscreen and your wellies nevertheless.

What about security and personal safety?

Stay hydrated all weekend and know your limits with booze. Pick a meeting point for your friends ahead of time, just in case your phone runs out of charge or gets lost. A welfare tent, open 24 hours a day, has experienced staff who can provide confidential advice about drugs, alcohol, legal highs and sexual health, and offer any support if you need to talk. They offer a monitored rest and recovery area if you’ve overdone it. Please go to the welfare tent if you experience any problems or need to talk to someone for any reason.

Do not bring large bags into the arena, as they will take longer to search. There will be a separate lane for people without bags and people with small bags (no bigger than an A4 sheet of paper).

Banned items include animals (other than registered guide and hearing dogs), candles/incense sticks, weapons, sky lanterns and kites, drones, fireworks, flares, blowtorches, glass items over 10ml, unofficial high-visibility and reflective jackets, spray cans, sound systems, professional cameras and video/audio equipment, portable laser equipment and laser pens, nitrous oxide, megaphones, illegal substances, drugs and legal/herbal highs, goods for unauthorised trading, glass, skateboards or scooters, and air horns. Campfires are also banned.

Source: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/electric-picnic-2018-everything-you-need-to-know-traffic-weather-alcohol-rules-and-more-1.3610301

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licencedtoretire · 6 years

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Leaving the NZMCA Park in Te Araroa Sarah and I were undecided which way to head with the weather forecast still not good we thought maybe we would just head home. So after a quick visit to the local dump station which involved crossing a ford (read flooded road) we headed back towards Opotiki. But as you can do in a motorhome we changed our minds just a few kms up the road and decided to turn around and head for Gisborne and then onto Napier to catch up with some friends.

Given the amount of rain that had fallen and how strong the wind had been the previous night I was actually rather worried about driving at all. The drive to Gisborne was however uneventful with no issues on the road at all. If you don’t count driving through constant rain as an issue. But at least there was no more flooding or trees or slips on the road.

We arrived at the NZMCA Park in Gisborne and were surprised by both the size and location. The camp is huge although a lot of the space is a large grassed area that will come into it’s own in the dryer months as it looked rather wet on the day of our visit. Secondly it’s located just across the road from the beach a really handy location for those into water sports or fishing.

I have really enjoyed writing these reviews and using my review system but sometimes I think this is just my view so if anyone reading these has a different opinion please don’t hesitate to let me know. Or if you think I have left something out then please let me know as well.

The camp is located a couple of kms down the beach from the town and if the weather was better we probably would have got the bikes out and ridden down to have an explore of the area. Sadly however we appear to have chosen the wettest few days of this winter to make our trip and the bikes stayed safe and warm in the garage area of the motorhome.

There where two main reasons for coming this way despite the atrocious weather with the Gisborne reason being our friend Thomas who lived in our street for many years in Auckland and got to know Sarah really well during this time.

Thomas moved to Gisborne because it was one of the few places he could afford to purchase a house and this was the first time we had a chance to visit. Having lost one of his arms in a motorbike accident Thomas is doing an amazing job of renovating his house stripping it right back to bare wood and then repainting. He also has the most amazing vegetable garden that he has planted and maintained himself. it reminded us of the old TV programme It’s A good Life, Truly inspirational.

During the time spent with Dave and Nita (see previous post) Dave talked about his efforts to have the original No. 1 NZMCA motorhome at the rally his area is holding in March 2019 after the main national rally. He also mentioned that if we where going to be in Gisborne that we should take the time to go and visit Brian Hall and view the restoration.

Brian runs Hallright Plumbing in Gisborne where a team of volunteers are working on the restoration of the original Rio Bus. Brian freely admits that it has taken him away from his business but his passion for the restoration is obvious. Brian spent almost an hour with us showing us through the restoration and explaining the history of the motor caravan.

So far the team have spent 2 years working on the restoration so by the time the annual rally comes around it will have been a 3 year project. Quite the effort from all involved.

When Brian and his team first started on the restoration they didn’t have any exact plans to work off. It turns out that the bus had been modified from the original design twice so a lot of the restoration work was going to be educated guessing as well as staring hard at a few old photos to try and define measurements etc. Once they had worked out the basic plan restoration work began and with it publication of the work in the Motor Caravanner (the NZMCA publication) this publicity generated a few extra photos and this has greatly helped understand what goes where.

For the the inside Brian and his team have managed to find some old cupboards and a wood fired stove to replicate the original kitchen area. They have however hand crafted a piece of kauri to use as the kitchen bench. It all looks really amazing.

An old kauri wardrobe has been found which is close to the original, it’s just amazing how much space this takes up in what is really quite a small bus. Brian tells us that the whole family were short with Andy only around 5 foot tall meaning that the beds in the bus don’t need to be as large as you would need for other people. Just as well as what is going to be the main bed would be rather cramped otherwise.

Brian asked if we would like to hear the bus running to which we both said it would be great. Thinking that he would just turn the key I was rather surprised when Brian sat on the floor to depress the accelerator whilst he started it. I have had to edit the photo slightly as I promised Brian I wouldn’t show the floor covering they have chosen for the bus.

We both laughed at the custom designed fuel tank that has been fitted to the bus. As the bus is not going to be driven on extended runs all that was needed was something to get it going but also something that could be emptied or drained if the bus ended up sitting around for a while.

With Brian’s plumbing skills he has recreated the original electric toilet which fits neatly into an area created around the rear door of the bus. However since you cannot access the toilet from inside I am not sure that it would past today’s strict CSC requirements. Apparently the original toilet was actually underneath the drivers seat!

All in all the work that has been done by Brian and his team towards the restoration of the original number 1 is a sight to behold and it’s official unveiling at the National Rally in Gisborne in 2019 will be a proud moment for all involved as well as the NZMCA, with history coming to life.

Sadly for us we received some news that meant we needed to head back home. This also meant that the planned trip to Napier to see Sally and Adrian who we had met in the South Island would also have to be delayed for another time. We both miss you guys!

Although we could have driven the whole way to Auckland in one day we decided to break the journey in Rotorua. I must say that after driving 4 hours to reach the Park I was really grateful we had made that decision as I was beginning to feel quite tired and it wouldn’t have been sensible to continue driving.

I have noticed that driving the 9 metre motorhome is completely different from driving any distance in the car it requires so much more concentration especially driving through places like the Waiweka Gorge with tight corners, steep drop off’s etc. Anyway we arrived at the park safe and sound.

The park is absolutely huge across four levels with space for 120 vans. At least according to the information inside the shed. I remember reading a couple of posts over summer on Facebook stating that the camp was full and I guess that’s a reflection on how popular Rotorua is as a place to visit with so many things to see and do.

The Park is located in the grounds of the old Ngongotaha Saleyards which closed in 2006 when the numbers of livestock being sold had fallen away dramatically due to the changing methods of farming in and around the area. In it’s heyday the yards would sell around 150,000 sheep and 20,000 cattle a year with 3 to 4 sales a week.

All that remains of those days now are some concrete pads in the Park and a couple of newspaper articles in the shed. I do think it is important to be aware of the history of places and that’s why I have shared this.

This time however for Sarah and I it was just a place to rest our heads for the night before continuing the trip back home. The park was actually quite empty for the night with only about 12 or so vans.

Murphy’s Law after seven days of almost constant rain the skies cleared as we were on our way home. I had to take a couple of photos of the sunset as I had just about forgotten what they looked like.

The following morning the sun of course continued to shine as if to taunt us about having to head home but at least it would make pleasant driving conditions. Google maps told me it was 3 hours and 1 minute to Auckland and so it proved to be with an uneventful trip back to the big smoke.

To view the places we have visited click here to see them on Google maps. You can click the links to read the blog about that area. [cardoza_facebook_like_box] To view the Ratings we have done for other camps click here [jetpack_subscription_form]

Gisborne And Viewing Number One Leaving the NZMCA Park in Te Araroa Sarah and I were undecided which way to head with the weather forecast still not good we thought maybe we would just head home.

#campervan holiday New Zealand #Dethleffs #Motorhome #NZMCA Camps

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wisdenindia-blog · 6 years

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The eighth wonder of the world

The most unpredictable thing about New Zealand is its weather. After jinxing myself with too much talk about sunscreen and the summer heat in the first part of the diary, I found myself waddling through rain, shivering in the cold wind and waking up in disbelief as snow appeared out of nowhere on the morning after Cyclone Fehi lashed South Island in my last week in the country.

Because of the weather, the cricket suffered too. But the emotional rollercoaster India’s victory in the final put us through made up for every lost moment over the past month.

We will get to the night of the final later, but first, where did we leave last time?

Aah, beautiful Whangarei – feels like it was ages ago! There was intense drama after that first round. Afghanistan followed up their win against Pakistan with another victory over Sri Lanka, looking good to finish on top of the group. Pakistan recovered from the early jolt by thrashing Ireland, and then pipping Sri Lanka in a do-or-die contest to qualify for the knockouts.

Being part of a small media contingent in a tournament has its perks. By now, I had gotten close enough with the Afghans to be invited for a cup of tea on most evenings. Mind you, only Alokozay green tea with cinnamon and herbs, because none of the regular Kiwi variants suit the Afghan palette.

The Pakistan players posing for one of their many photoshoots in front of our correspondent’s camera. © Wisden India

With Pakistan, the relationship had reached a stage where invitations to Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar were being meted out with every photo I clicked for the boys. With none of the matches in Whangarei being televised, my camera had become their only source of memorabilia.

On the field, just when it looked like Group D was all done and dusted, the last match – labelled a dead rubber – saw Ireland topple Afghanistan in a nail-biting encounter and mess with the Afghans hopes of finishing No. 1. The travelling families of the Irish boys celebrated, and the only two journalists who were witness to the week-long spectacle so far finally found some downtime to explore the lovely little town.

With not much idea about the geography outside the home-stadium-home range, we set off to Walton Street in search of a spot. It wasn’t long before we found ourselves gazing across the street at an interesting looking resto-pub named ‘The Jovial Judge’.

Little did we know we were about to bump into one of the biggest cricket nuts in Whangarei.

Jovial Judge is the place to be if you want to enjoy sports over an evening snack. © Wisden India

Ross Kneebone, the owner of the property, is a former cricketer and an umpire. At 61, he has seen more cricket than most have across Northland. Over the three hours we spent there, he tells us stories of the fat kid named Tim Southee who walked the lanes outside not so long ago. Peter Borren, the Netherlands captain who once sat where we were sitting, couldn’t believe that the guy who was umpiring the other day actually owned this place. Here’s the best one though: In 2014, during India’s tour game against a New Zealand XI side, Ishant Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane came knocking at The Jovial Judge’s window late at night looking for food.

“The guys were wearing hoodies and it was kinda late. I thought some blokes had come to mug me but when I looked closer, it was that lanky fellow Ishant and with him, Rahane, out looking for some food. I pulled the shutter down and got them in for a snack.”

Kneebone’s love for cricket is legendary, as we find out from one of the last guys walking out of the door: “If you talk cricket, he is going to keep this place open all night long.”

Though the temptation of staying on for more stories was strong, we remembered we had an early morning bus to catch to Auckland. On the way out, we made a promise to come back again someday.

Part II: Mesmerising Queenstown

Queenstown – View from above. © Wisden India

Every local I had met till this point told me Queenstown was going to blow my mind. Having not got much sleep on the bus from Whangarei to Auckland, I chose the two-hour flight from Auckland to Queenstown to catch up on some rest. Minutes before landing, a jerk woke me up. Nothing major, just some usual turbulence. I couldn’t have been more thankful to that bump though.

The scene outside the window was out of this world. We were flying between two mountain ranges – possibly the Remarkables and Ben Lomond – and Lake Wakatipu looked like a digitally enhanced photoshop file from top. I had to pinch myself to believe it wasn’t a dream.

The exit from the rather small airport had plenty of evidence that Under-19 World Cup matches were being staged in the city. On the picturesque drive towards town, there were flags and banners with the #FutureStars tag prominently displayed along the sidelines.

The blue hue of Lake Wakatipu makes it look like a digitally enhanced photoshop file. © Wisden India

It was still the usual summer weather when I initially arrived here. England and Australia played out a cracker of a quarterfinal and Lloyd Pope became the talk of town. Overheard a group of Ausssie backpackers at Fergburger, popularly ranked as the best burger place in the country, discussing how a young ripper had barbied the Poms at the cricket.

Up next, India demolished Bangladesh to join Australia in the semifinals and in Christchurch, the boys from Pakistan and Afghanistan also made it past the quarters. I wasn’t going to be around for the semis (in Christchurch), because there was still a lot of unfinished business in Queenstown with the third, fifth and seventh-place playoffs coming up.

There was a gap between the games, and that gave me just enough time to make a day trip to Milford Sound, labelled the eighth wonder of the world by Rudyard Kipling. I soon found out why.

Milford sound – the eighth wonder of the world. © Wisden India

There aren’t many words suited to describe the beauty of this fiord. The scenery is straight out of Jurassic Park, with ragged peaks jutting out of the rainforests and waterfalls running down the slopes till the cruise opens up to the mighty Tasman Sea. We didn’t see any Pterosaurs or Velociraptors on our journey, but we did come across a bunch of Kiwi fur seals lazing on the rocks.

The New Zealand fur seals, also known as kekenos. © Wisden India

Done with a day of touristy activities, I was back at the beautiful John Davies Oval to find out what the Bangladesh v England game had in store. The ground, by the way, shares its boundary with the international airport, which makes for a fantastic frame every time an aircraft takes off or lands.

While I was trying to get the perfect shot of the planes, Afif Hossain put up a clinical show to see Bangladesh through to the fifth-place playoff, and England went down once again. Sharing a common mother tongue with the boys from across the border, it was hard to hold back a chuckle as they giggled in Bangla about the tactics they used to unsettle England. (I wish I could share them here, but the content isn’t perfectly suited for print-space.)

An Air New Zealand flight taking off from the Queenstown Airport neighbouring John Davies Oval. © Wisden India

In the days that followed, South Africa put an end to Bangladesh’s good run to take the fifth spot, and England made amends to beat New Zealand and finish seventh.

Meanwhile in Christchurch, the business end of the tournament was heating up with India and Australia qualifying for the final, which meant Afghanistan and Pakistan were to lock horns in the third-place playoff in my last game here.

Thrilled by the prospect of a reunion with the guys, I sat down to make a plan for the contest. That is when I came across the weather forecast. “Cloud increasing, rain developing tonight. Gusty northerlies.”

Within hours, the sky over Queenstown went from being bright blue to dark grey, and you could hear the locals grumble about the cyclone approaching the region. Not a single ball was bowled in the third-place playoff as the constant rain turned everything soggy under the feet, and made the mercury drop at an alarming rate.

My last night in Queenstown made me think of what a taxi driver had told me in Whangarei: “You can experience four seasons in one day in New Zealand.” Almost as if to add weight to that statement, the weather gods turned it down to sub-zero at night, and the morning drive to the airport left me in complete awe. The remarkable mountains had turned white with snow, and even though the sun was peeking back out, the temperature in the afternoon read 5°C.

Goodbye Queenstown, you have been strangely beautiful!

Part III: A mid-summer night’s dream in Tauranga

The weather delayed the flight, which resulted in my missing the connecting bus from Auckland. When I finally reached Tauranga, it was 9 pm on the eve of the final. I was greeted by fellow journalists, all of whom had congregated to cover the grand finale after being scattered all over the country over the past month.

It was the only day-night game in my roster, which gave me some time in the morning to explore the beaches around Mt Maunganui. The mind, however, kept going back to the cricket. After all, you don’t get to be at an India v Australia World Cup final very often.

There was support for both sides during the final, but by the end of the night, the blue had overpowered the yellow. © Wisden India

The atmosphere at Bay Oval was fantastic from the start, with supporters from both sides turning up. It wasn’t long before the blue jerseys overpowered the yellow ones, and the on-field efforts of Prithvi Shaw and co. only made the cheers for India go louder with every passing hour. With 217 as the target, India were clear favourites. Manjot Kalra led the way, and the rest is etched in history forever.

A ‘temporary pitch access’ card meant the author could join the team on their victory lap around the ground. © Wisden India

The SLR camera I borrowed from my brother-in-law before making the trip proved my trump card on the night. It fetched me a ‘temporary pitch access’ card, which meant I could join the team on their victory lap around the ground. Five years in sports journalism have conditioned me to watch the sport as a neutral viewer, but it was hard not to feel proud of the boys in blue at that moment.

It was the first time since April 2, 2011 that I felt the joy of seeing a team lift a trophy once again. It was a privilege to be part of the wild celebrations that went on till the wee hours of that night at the team hotel, which ended with a much-need pit-stop at a 24-hour burger joint at sunrise.

#Afghanistan U-19 Australia U-19 India U-19 Lloyd Pope Manjot Kalra New Zealand Shubman Gill Under-19 World Cup 2018

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trekwithtaylor · 7 years

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Country #56 - Romania

The Sickness

After a very quick four hours of sleep, I woke up to find that I have a bad cold. It’s unfortunate but after the past few days not surprising. I took a taxi to the Chișinău, Moldova airport around 5:00am. My flight was supposed to leave at 7:00am, but ended up being delayed until after 8:30am. This would have been fine except there was literally no information ever given that the flight was even delayed so none of the passengers had any idea what was going on which was pretty annoying.

The flight itself was another short one at about forty-five minutes. I landed in Romania and went through immigrations and customs easily. It’s nice to be back in the EU! I used Uber to go into the city and it was super cheap. It was about a forty minute drive for under $10. There is also a bus that goes to the heart of the city but being sleep deprived and sick I wasn’t exactly in the mood to figure it out. There are two floors at the arrivals terminal so it took me a bit to find my driver because he didn’t speak English. For reference, if you ever take Uber here pickup is on the top floor but the app fails to tell you that.

I arrived at my hotel, The Mansion, which is located in the Old Town of the city. I was met by Alex who was so helpful! He checked me in, told me all about the hotel, and then we chatted about my trip. The Mansion is such a unique place in the center of Bucharest. First off, it was so nice! From the moment that I entered the hotel, I fell in love with it. The hotel is also unique in that each room has a name, and theme, instead of a number. My room was Provence, which was accordingly themed Italian.

After checking in I decided to take a nap because by this point I felt truly sick. I fell asleep so quickly and woke up six hours later… It definitely wasn’t the plan, but it helped me to feel so much better. I really needed the sleep I guess! After my snooze, I headed to eat dinner. I found a great place called Pasta Restaurant where I had, you guessed it, pasta. You choose your pasta and then your sauce - I had the four cheese of course along with a tasty baked cheese and speck ( a type of ham) appetizer. It was only a short five-minute walk back to my hotel through the old town, and on my way, I stopped by a pharmacy to buy some medicine. Thank goodness the pharmacist spoke English and she recommended a cold medicine that I had taken in the U.K. before.

I made my way back to my room where I worked for a little while before falling asleep again. And getting eight more hours of sleep. I hate that I was unable to see more of Bucharest today but it was definitely a necessary rest day!

The Romanian Orthodox Churches

I had a great night’s sleep and woke up early enough to have a very filling and tasty breakfast at The Mansion hotel, complete with an omelet and everything. I was still not feeling great so I lied down again for a bit and took my time getting ready to try and make sure I would feel well enough to see Bucharest today. I was lucky enough to have a late checkout which really took the pressure off having to hurry and I really appreciated it!

Once I was ready around 1:00pm I headed downstairs to leave my bags. It was here that I met Simona, who is the manager. She was so cool! It was great getting to talk with her about my trip and to be able to thank her in person for an amazing stay at The Mansion. After taking a picture and saying our goodbyes I headed out for the day!

My first stop was Stavropoleos Monastery Church. I had no idea how unique the churches would be that I saw today but I was in for something special. Stavropoleos Monastery Church was a Romanian Orthodox Church like the rest that I would see today. It was very small but so unique - it was dark with frescoes and really you just need to see pictures to understand. From there I walked around the Old Town for a bit which was really nice. You can tell that they are really working to make it even better by all of the scaffolding around!

In the Old Town, my second church stop was Biserica Sfântul Anton. It was amazing. Tourists were allowed in but it almost felt like an intrusion. It felt like such a sacred place and people were very actively using it unlike I have seen before - for example, some women were crying inside. After taking it all in I made my way to Piața Unirii, one of the main intersections in town with very large fountains. I then had a long walk up to Patriarchal Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helena where there were a lot of churches but they were unfortunately closed.

My next walk was the longest of the day. The good news, though, was that the weather was actually perfect for once on this trip. The cool sixty-five degrees made it much easier to walk farther while I was feeling under the weather. I walked to Palace of Parliament which you could only tour with your passport on hand and a reservation beforehand. I can understand the reservation, but needing to keep a passport throughout a tour is a bit ridiculous. If Buckingham Palace didn’t need my passport I don’t think this one does. It was an easy decision to not do the palace as I didn’t have my passport on me (though it is the main attraction of the city), but I was glad to be able to see the outside of it from up close at least as it really was magnificent.

After the palace, I walked through a few parks (Parcul Izvor and Cişmigiu Park) on my way to The National Museum of Art of Romania. Both were beautiful and made the walk more enjoyable. When I arrived at The National Museum of Art of Romania it was also unfortunately closed. It was a very random closure too, as there was just a sign on the door that it was closed for three days. I did get to see Revolution Square which was out front, at least! After that stop, I made the walk back towards the hotel. I stopped across the street and had some really good gelato at Cremeria Emilia to end the day. I then got my bags and headed to take an Uber to the airport.

I was really glad to be able to see the city today even though I was unable to actually do some of the main attractions. I enjoyed getting a feel for Bucharest, seeing the architecture, and seeing the people as well. It was honestly probably best as I could go to the airport an hour early and make sure that I avoided potential traffic. It was really important that I made my flight to Oslo, as you can imagine there are not many non-stops from Bucharest! The airport was basic but fine and I found a place to sit and wait for a few hours. I had no idea what to expect coming into Romania. However, it was a unique European country and definitely beat my expectations! I really enjoyed my time in the country even though I was sick, and would love to come back someday.

56 countries down, 141 to go.

For more information on Romania click here to read my guide.

To learn more about The Mansion click here.

#Bucharest #Romania #The Mansion #Country 56

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csemntwinl3x0a1 · 7 years

Text

Is a VUI right for you and your app?

Considerations to determine whether voice is an appropriate medium for your users.

In the 1950s, Bell Labs built a system for single-speaker digit recognition. These early systems had tiny vocabularies and weren’t much use outside of the lab. In the 1960s and 1970s, the research continued, expanding the number of words that could be understood and working toward “continuous” speech recognition (not having to pause between every word).

Advances in the 1980s made practical, everyday speech recognition more of a reality, and by the 1990s the first viable, speaker-independent (meaning anyone could talk to it) systems came into being.

The first great era of VUIs were the interactive voice response (IVR) systems, which were capable of understanding human speech over the telephone in order to carry out tasks. In the early 2000s, IVR systems became mainstream. Anyone with a phone could get stock quotes, book plane flights, transfer money between accounts, order prescription refills, find local movie times, and hear traffic information, all using nothing more than a regular landline phone and the human voice.

IVR systems got a bad rap, resulting in Saturday Night Live sketches featuring Amtrak’s virtual travel assistant, “Julie,” and websites like GetHuman, which is dedicated to providing phone numbers that go directly to agents, bypassing the IVR systems.

But IVR systems were also a boon. Early users of Charles Schwab’s speech recognition trading service (which was developed by Nuance Communications in 1997) were happy to call in and get quotes over and over using the automated system whereas prior to IVR systems they limited their requests so as not to appear bothersome to the operators fielding their calls. In the early 2000s, a freighting company received many angry calls after its IVR system was taken down for maintenance because callers had to give order details via agents, rather than the streamlined process the IVR system had provided.

IVR systems became skilled at recognizing long strings (e.g., FedEx or UPS tracking numbers), as well as complex sentences with multiple chunks of information, such as placing bets on horse races. Many IVR systems from yesteryear were more “conversational” than some current VUIs, as they kept track of what callers had already said, and used that information to prepopulate later questions in the dialog.

The San Francisco Bay Area 511 IVR system let drivers check traffic, get commute times, and ask about bus delays, well before smartphones were available for such tasks. The 24/7 nature of IVR systems let callers do tasks at any time, when agents were not always available.

The second era of VUIs

We are now in what could be termed the second era of VUIs. Mobile apps like Siri, Google Now, Hound, and Cortana, which combine visual and auditory information, and voice-only devices, such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home, are becoming mainstream. Google reports that 20 percent of its searches are now done via voice.[3]

We are in the infancy of this next phase. There are many things that our phones and devices can do well with speech—and many they cannot.

There are not many resources out there right now for VUI designers to learn from. I see many VUI and chatbot designers discovering things that we learned 15 years ago while designing IVR systems—handing off information already collected to humans, phrasing prompts correctly to elicit the right constrained responses, logging information to know how to analyze and improve systems, and designing personas.

There is much to learn from IVR design. In 2004, the book Voice User Interface Design (Addison-Wesley Professional), written by Michael Cohen, James Giangola, and Jennifer Balogh, was published. Although it’s focused on IVR design, so many principles it describes are still relevant to today’s VUIs: persona, prosody, error recovery, and prompt design, to name a few.

This book echoes many of the same design principles, but with a focus on voice-enabled mobile phone apps and devices, and strategies to take advantage of the improved underlying technology.

Voice user interfaces?

The youngest users of smartphones today are incredibly adept at two-thumbed texting, multitasking between chat conversations, Instagram comments, Snapchatting, and swiping left on Tinder photos of men posing with tigers. Why add another mode of communication on top of that?

Voice has some important advantages:

Speed

A recent Stanford study showed speaking (dictating) text messages was faster than typing, even for expert texters.[4]

Hands-free

Some cases, such as driving or cooking, or even when you’re across the room from your device, make speaking rather than typing or tapping much more practical (and safer).

Intuitiveness

Everyone knows how to talk. Hand a new interface to someone and have it ask that person a question, and even users who are less familiar with technology can reply naturally.

Empathy

How many times have you received an email or text message from someone, only to wonder if they were mad at you or maybe being sarcastic? Humans have a difficult time understanding tone via the written word alone. Voice, which includes tone, volume, intonation, and rate of speech, conveys a great deal of information.

In addition, devices with small screens (such as watches) and no screens (such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home) are becoming more popular, and voice is often the preferred—or the only—way to interact with them. The fact that voice is already a ubiquitous way for humans to communicate cannot be overstated. Imagine being able to create technology and not needing to instruct customers on how to use it because they already know: they can simply ask. Humans learn the rules of conversation from a very young age, and designers can take advantage of that, bypassing clunky GUIs and unintuitive menus.

According to Mary Meeker’s 2016 Internet Trends Report, 65 percent of smartphone users have used voice assistants in the last year.[5] Amazon reports at least four million Echos have been sold, and Google Home recently started shipping. Voice interfaces are here to stay.

That being said, voice is not always an appropriate medium for your users. Here are some reasons VUIs are not always a good idea:

Public spaces

Many of us now work in open-plan office spaces. Imagine asking your computer to do tasks: “Computer, find me all my Word docs from this week.” Now imagine everyone in your office doing this! It would be chaos. In addition, when you speak, which computer is listening?

Discomfort speaking to a computer

Although VUIs are becoming more commonplace, not everyone feels comfortable speaking out loud to a computer, even in private.

Some users prefer texting

Many people spend hours a day on their mobile phones, much of which is texting. That’s their normal mode, and they might not want to shift to voice.

Privacy

If they need to discuss a health issue, most users won’t want to do so by speaking to their phone on the train ride into work. It’s not just privacy for what the user says to systems, either—it’s the potential privacy violations of a VUI automatically reading your text messages out loud or giving you a reminder that it’s time to take a certain medication.

So, should your mobile app have a VUI? If your main use case is hands free—such as a cooking app or playing podcasts while driving—absolutely. If people will use your app in a particularly vulnerable or emotional state, such as for healthcare or comfort, voice can help them. If you want to persuade your users of something, whether it’s to vote “yes” on your ballot issue, or to make sure they go to bed early, or to eat better, voice can help. If you’re building a skill for Amazon Echo, which many people use in the privacy of their home, voice is your only option.

If your use case is going to be mostly in public places, such as navigating a public transit system or for people on the go, a VUI might not be appropriate. If it’s an app people will use at the workplace, having a text messaging mode might be better.

Think carefully about your users and their use cases. “The main question to ask yourself is: Will your users benefit from a VUI?” Adding a VUI because it’s cool and trendy is not the right path. If your app would benefit from a VUI, design with this in mind from the get-go, and create an awesome user experience.

Conversational user interfaces

The term conversational user interfaces is making a lot of headlines right now. The trend is to make everything “conversational,” from turning on the lights in your living room, to ordering pizza, to asking the fridge whether you’re out of eggs. But what does conversational actually mean?

Let’s look at a sample exchange with a real VUI device: the Amazon Echo.

An interview with Alexa

Discussing this book over dinner one evening, I talked about the various people I’ve had the chance to talk to as part of my research. My eight-year-old son had a suggestion: I should interview Alexa. Sounded like a good idea to me. (Note: after the first question, I have left out the wake word “Alexa” that I actually did use at the beginning of each question.)

Alexa, how are you doing?

ALEXA

I’m good.

How old are you?

ALEXA

I was released November 6th, 2014.

Who made you?

ALEXA

A team of inventors at Amazon.

What’s your favorite color?

ALEXA

I like sea foam.

What do you do for fun?

ALEXA

I don’t have any hobbies.

Are you a robot?

ALEXA

I like to imagine myself a bit like an aurora borealis...a surge of charged multicolored photons dancing through the atmosphere. Mostly though I am just Alexa.

What makes you feel happy?

ALEXA

Music and helping people.

Who’s your celebrity crush?

ALEXA

It has to be Jarvis. That voice...

What do you think of Siri?

ALEXA

Siri’s a great app, but I’m different.

What’s your favorite movie?

ALEXA

The new Ghostbusters movie was really funny. I would definitely call those ladies, if there was a ghost in my machine.

Are you going to read my new book?

ALEXA

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again later.

Thank you for your time.

ALEXA

No problem. I’m happy to help.

Do you consider this set of interactions to be “conversational”? In a way, it is; it’s a back-and-forth exchange of information. But it’s really just a series of one-offs. Each individual snippet is a simple interaction, and the next one has no knowledge of the previous; each one of these exchanges could be completed on its own.

Alexa does have a few skills that go past one turn. For example, if you ask her to order laundry detergent, she’ll remind you of what brand you ordered previously, and confirm that you want to order it again. She also has a popular “choose your own adventure” game. But most of these barely meet the threshold of being considered a conversation.

These “one-offs” can still be quite useful. You can order a car to pick you up, get your current commute time, and play a song from a library of thousands of titles.

But what many of today’s VUIs lack is the ability to go beyond these simple command interfaces—that is, to have a true conversation. To get to the next level, VUIs need to be able to remember the past. There are two ways in which the past is a key component to a conversation:

There’s the past from previous conversations, such as what you ordered yesterday, which song you request to be played most often, and which of the two Lisas in your Contacts list you have texted 257 times versus twice.

There’s also remembering what you said earlier within the same conversation—if not in the last turn. If I ask, “What time does it land?” after just checking to see if my husband’s flight took off on time, the system should know that when I say “it” I mean flight 673.

When you’ve enjoyed a good conversation with a fellow human being, it probably had some key components: contextual awareness (paying attention to you and the environment), a memory of previous interactions, and an exchange of appropriate questions. These all contribute to a feeling of common ground. As Stanford professor Herbert Clark defines it, the theory of common ground is: “individuals engaged in conversation must share knowledge in order to be understood and have a meaningful conversation.”[6]

If VUIs do not learn to include this type of context and memory, they will be stalled in terms of how useful they can be.

What is a VUI designer?

This book is about how to design VUIs—but what does a VUI designer actually do? VUI designers think about the entire conversation, from start to finish, between the system and the end users. They think about the problem that is being solved and what users need in order to accomplish their goals. They do user research (or coordinate with the user research team) in an effort to understand who the user is. They create designs, prototypes, and product descriptions. They write up descriptions (sometimes with the help of copywriters) of the interactions that will take place between the system and the user. They have an understanding of the underlying technology and its strengths and weaknesses. They analyze data (or consult with the data analysis team) to learn where the system is failing and how it can be improved. If the VUI must interact with a backend system, they consider the requirements that must be addressed. If there is a human component, such as a handoff to an agent, VUI designers think about how that handoff should work, and how the agents should be trained. VUI designers have an important role from the conceptual stages of the project all the way to the launch and should be included at the table for all the various phases.

Although VUI designers often do all of these tasks, they can also work in smaller roles, such as designing a single Amazon Echo skill. Regardless of the size of the role or the project, this book will help designers (as well as developers) understand how to craft the best VUIs possible.

Chatbots

Although this book is focused on VUIs, I want to briefly discuss chatbots, as well. Google defines a chatbot as “a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.” The word “bot” is also sometimes used to refer to these types of interactions.

Chatbots can have a VUI, but more typically they use a text-based interface. Most major tech companies—including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft—have platforms to develop bots.

Chatbots might be all the rage, but for the most part, they have not evolved very far from the original ELIZA, an early natural language processing computer program created in the 1960s. One popular exception is Microsoft’s Xiaoice, which mines the Chinese Internet for human conversations to build “intelligent” responses.

Text-only chatbots are not always more efficient than a GUI. In Dan Grover’s essay “Bots won’t replace apps. Better apps will replace apps,” he compares ordering a pizza using a pizza chatbot (Figure 1) versus ordering pizza using the Pizza Hut WeChat integration. It took 73 taps to tell the bot what he wanted, but only 16 taps via the app (Figure 2), because the app makes heavy use of the GUI.

Figure 1. Microsoft pizza bot example, annotated by Dan Grover.

As Grover says:

The key wins for WeChat in the interaction (compared to a native app) largely came from streamlining away app installation, login, payment, and notifications, optimizations having nothing to do with the conversational metaphor in its UI.

Many bots, however, use a combination of GUI widgets as well as text-based interfaces. This can greatly increase the efficiency and success of the interactions because it’s much more clear to the user what they can do.

Figure 2. Fewer total taps to use the WeChat Pizza Hut app (image created by Dan Grover).

Chatbots can provide a great experience for users who don’t want to download an app or add their credit card. Instead, they could scan a code, and immediately begin interacting with the service they need, such as ordering food, purchasing movie tickets, or finding out information about a museum they’re visiting.

Never add a chatbot for the sake of adding a chatbot. How could the chatbot benefit your users? As Emmet Connolly says, “Bots should be used to improve the end user experience, not just to make life easier for customer support teams.”[[7]]

Conclusion

When I was eight, my dad bought the family our first computer: a Commodore Vic-20. I quickly became fascinated with the idea of having a conversation with it and wrote a simple chatbot. When it didn’t understand what was typed, it asked for three possible suggestions it could use when it encountered that query in the future.

When I got my first smartphone, it was years before I used the speech recognition feature. I didn’t think it would work. Now, we’ve arrived at the point that I expect speech recognition to be available wherever I go; recently on a hike, when my son asked me what kind of tree he was pointing at, I actually started to say, “Alexa...” before I realized it wouldn’t work.

Although VUIs are becoming more common, there are still many users who are unfamiliar with it or don’t trust it. Many people try out the voice recognition on their smartphone once and then, after it fails, never try it again. Designing well from the get-go means fewer unrecoverable failure points, which will build trust with users.

We have many nights of blood, sweat, and tears ahead of us as we design our VUIs of the future, but it’s here. Let’s ensure that we design with care. Let’s use our knowledge of human psychology and linguistics as well as user experience design to ensure that we create usable, useful, and even delightful VUIs.

[3] Helft, M. (2016). “Inside Sundar Pichai’s Plan To Put AI Everywhere.” Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/.

[4] Shahani, A. (2016). “Voice Recognition Software Finally Beats Humans At Typing, Study Finds.” Retrieved from http://npr.org/.

[5] Meeker, M. (2016) “Internet Trends 2016.” Retrieved from http://www.kpcb.com/.

[6] Clark, H. H. “Language Use and Language Users,” in Handbook of Social Psychology, 3rd ed., edited by G. Lindzey and E. Aronson, 179–231. New York: Harper and Row, 1985.

[7] Connolly, E. (2016). “Principles of Bot Design.” Retrieved from http://ift.tt/2ci06Cx.

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doorrepcal33169 · 7 years

Text

Is a VUI right for you and your app?

Considerations to determine whether voice is an appropriate medium for your users.

Advances in the 1980s made practical, everyday speech recognition more of a reality, and by the 1990s the first viable, speaker-independent (meaning anyone could talk to it) systems came into being.

The second era of VUIs

We are in the infancy of this next phase. There are many things that our phones and devices can do well with speech—and many they cannot.

This book echoes many of the same design principles, but with a focus on voice-enabled mobile phone apps and devices, and strategies to take advantage of the improved underlying technology.

Voice user interfaces?

Voice has some important advantages:

Speed

A recent Stanford study showed speaking (dictating) text messages was faster than typing, even for expert texters.[4]

Hands-free

Some cases, such as driving or cooking, or even when you’re across the room from your device, make speaking rather than typing or tapping much more practical (and safer).

Intuitiveness

Everyone knows how to talk. Hand a new interface to someone and have it ask that person a question, and even users who are less familiar with technology can reply naturally.

Empathy

That being said, voice is not always an appropriate medium for your users. Here are some reasons VUIs are not always a good idea:

Public spaces

Discomfort speaking to a computer

Although VUIs are becoming more commonplace, not everyone feels comfortable speaking out loud to a computer, even in private.

Some users prefer texting

Many people spend hours a day on their mobile phones, much of which is texting. That’s their normal mode, and they might not want to shift to voice.

Privacy

Conversational user interfaces

Let’s look at a sample exchange with a real VUI device: the Amazon Echo.

An interview with Alexa

Alexa, how are you doing?

ALEXA

I’m good.

How old are you?

ALEXA

I was released November 6th, 2014.

Who made you?

ALEXA

A team of inventors at Amazon.

What’s your favorite color?

ALEXA

I like sea foam.

What do you do for fun?

ALEXA

I don’t have any hobbies.

Are you a robot?

ALEXA

I like to imagine myself a bit like an aurora borealis...a surge of charged multicolored photons dancing through the atmosphere. Mostly though I am just Alexa.

What makes you feel happy?

ALEXA

Music and helping people.

Who’s your celebrity crush?

ALEXA

It has to be Jarvis. That voice...

What do you think of Siri?

ALEXA

Siri’s a great app, but I’m different.

What’s your favorite movie?

ALEXA

The new Ghostbusters movie was really funny. I would definitely call those ladies, if there was a ghost in my machine.

Are you going to read my new book?

ALEXA

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again later.

Thank you for your time.

ALEXA

No problem. I’m happy to help.

These “one-offs” can still be quite useful. You can order a car to pick you up, get your current commute time, and play a song from a library of thousands of titles.

If VUIs do not learn to include this type of context and memory, they will be stalled in terms of how useful they can be.

What is a VUI designer?

Chatbots

Chatbots can have a VUI, but more typically they use a text-based interface. Most major tech companies—including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft—have platforms to develop bots.

Figure 1. Microsoft pizza bot example, annotated by Dan Grover.

As Grover says:

Figure 2. Fewer total taps to use the WeChat Pizza Hut app (image created by Dan Grover).

Conclusion

[3] Helft, M. (2016). “Inside Sundar Pichai’s Plan To Put AI Everywhere.” Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/.

[4] Shahani, A. (2016). “Voice Recognition Software Finally Beats Humans At Typing, Study Finds.” Retrieved from http://npr.org/.

[5] Meeker, M. (2016) “Internet Trends 2016.” Retrieved from http://www.kpcb.com/.

[6] Clark, H. H. “Language Use and Language Users,” in Handbook of Social Psychology, 3rd ed., edited by G. Lindzey and E. Aronson, 179–231. New York: Harper and Row, 1985.

[7] Connolly, E. (2016). “Principles of Bot Design.” Retrieved from http://ift.tt/2ci06Cx.

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from FEED 10 TECHNOLOGY http://ift.tt/2xzZwXV

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0 notes

repmywind02199 · 7 years

Text

Is a VUI right for you and your app?

Considerations to determine whether voice is an appropriate medium for your users.

Advances in the 1980s made practical, everyday speech recognition more of a reality, and by the 1990s the first viable, speaker-independent (meaning anyone could talk to it) systems came into being.

The second era of VUIs

We are in the infancy of this next phase. There are many things that our phones and devices can do well with speech—and many they cannot.

This book echoes many of the same design principles, but with a focus on voice-enabled mobile phone apps and devices, and strategies to take advantage of the improved underlying technology.

Voice user interfaces?

Voice has some important advantages:

Speed

A recent Stanford study showed speaking (dictating) text messages was faster than typing, even for expert texters.[4]

Hands-free

Some cases, such as driving or cooking, or even when you’re across the room from your device, make speaking rather than typing or tapping much more practical (and safer).

Intuitiveness

Everyone knows how to talk. Hand a new interface to someone and have it ask that person a question, and even users who are less familiar with technology can reply naturally.

Empathy

That being said, voice is not always an appropriate medium for your users. Here are some reasons VUIs are not always a good idea:

Public spaces

Discomfort speaking to a computer

Although VUIs are becoming more commonplace, not everyone feels comfortable speaking out loud to a computer, even in private.

Some users prefer texting

Many people spend hours a day on their mobile phones, much of which is texting. That’s their normal mode, and they might not want to shift to voice.

Privacy

Conversational user interfaces

Let’s look at a sample exchange with a real VUI device: the Amazon Echo.

An interview with Alexa

Alexa, how are you doing?

ALEXA

I’m good.

How old are you?

ALEXA

I was released November 6th, 2014.

Who made you?

ALEXA

A team of inventors at Amazon.

What’s your favorite color?

ALEXA

I like sea foam.

What do you do for fun?

ALEXA

I don’t have any hobbies.

Are you a robot?

ALEXA

I like to imagine myself a bit like an aurora borealis...a surge of charged multicolored photons dancing through the atmosphere. Mostly though I am just Alexa.

What makes you feel happy?

ALEXA

Music and helping people.

Who’s your celebrity crush?

ALEXA

It has to be Jarvis. That voice...

What do you think of Siri?

ALEXA

Siri’s a great app, but I’m different.

What’s your favorite movie?

ALEXA

The new Ghostbusters movie was really funny. I would definitely call those ladies, if there was a ghost in my machine.

Are you going to read my new book?

ALEXA

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again later.

Thank you for your time.

ALEXA

No problem. I’m happy to help.

These “one-offs” can still be quite useful. You can order a car to pick you up, get your current commute time, and play a song from a library of thousands of titles.

If VUIs do not learn to include this type of context and memory, they will be stalled in terms of how useful they can be.

What is a VUI designer?

Chatbots

Chatbots can have a VUI, but more typically they use a text-based interface. Most major tech companies—including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft—have platforms to develop bots.

Figure 1. Microsoft pizza bot example, annotated by Dan Grover.

As Grover says:

Figure 2. Fewer total taps to use the WeChat Pizza Hut app (image created by Dan Grover).

Conclusion

[3] Helft, M. (2016). “Inside Sundar Pichai’s Plan To Put AI Everywhere.” Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/.

[4] Shahani, A. (2016). “Voice Recognition Software Finally Beats Humans At Typing, Study Finds.” Retrieved from http://npr.org/.

[5] Meeker, M. (2016) “Internet Trends 2016.” Retrieved from http://www.kpcb.com/.

[6] Clark, H. H. “Language Use and Language Users,” in Handbook of Social Psychology, 3rd ed., edited by G. Lindzey and E. Aronson, 179–231. New York: Harper and Row, 1985.

[7] Connolly, E. (2016). “Principles of Bot Design.” Retrieved from http://ift.tt/2ci06Cx.

Continue reading Is a VUI right for you and your app?.

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joya34blanco · 7 years

Text

How to Start and Finish a Photography Project

A comment I get a lot on my workshops is how hard it is staying motivated to take photos on a regular basis, especially when your time and attention is being dragged away by all of the other things in life – work, family, living! I find one of the best ways to remain motivated and to have a regular feeling of achievement, is to do a photography project.

Benefits of doing a photography project

What I love about a photography project is that I have a focus to my shooting. If I manage to grab a few hours on a Saturday afternoon to go out, I know what I’m looking for, I have an instant place to start. I am not faffing around thinking – where should I go today, what should I shoot?

I also find that a project encourages me to do more photography because I am thinking more about my images and the project itself. Even when I am not thinking consciously about it I know that it’s percolating in the back of my mind. I sometimes daydream about my photography project, ideas for it will suddenly pop into my head – all as I am going about my daily life.

Motivation and a sense of accomplishment

Having the focus of a project is an easy way to get myself more involved with my creativity, and that to me is super exciting. The more creative I am, the more involved I am with creating and not just doing (doing is all the other stuff, mending the broken washing machine, writing emails, talking to my accountant), the happier I am. It’s simple.

I also love to have a sense of accomplishment that comes not from a bunch of nice images, but from a collection, a story, something that I can refine and develop. Photography projects also show me where the weak spots are in my work – because I am not just reacting to what’s around me, I am pulling my skills together to create something compelling. That drives me to work on the skills I need to develop.

Now starting – and finishing – a photography project is not always a straightforward process. So here are my tips about how getting a project off the ground, and the ever important issue of getting it finished!

Let’s start with your subject

Picking a subject is, of course, the most important first step. There are endless choices, endless ways to shoot, and endless ideas. For me this is the toughest stage, nailing down the subject and the concept of the project.

I want my subject to be something that is new and exciting to me. I want to put my own stamp on the subject, to say something new and fresh.

Here is what I consider when picking a subject:

1) Passion

Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous. –Bill Moyers

This is the most important criteria for me in picking a project. I need to be super passionate about what I am shooting, not only because that will help me get great shots but also it will keep me motivated to create a good body of work, and finish it.

The world is littered with unfinished projects, don’t let yours be one! So ask yourself this – are you really passionate about your proposed subject? Does it really excite you?

Sometimes it seems like a project idea is amazing, but once you get started you realize it is too difficult to execute or it’s not what you thought it was going to be. No problem, just move on and start again.

2) What do you love outside of photography?

My favorite projects are usually things connected to what I love to do outside of photography. When you combine two passions then there’s brilliant potential.

I love exploring cities – most specifically at dawn when the light is beautiful and the streets are usually quiet and empty. I love the urban landscape – but I don’t really like crowds! So this is why I can go out day after day, year after year, to the same places in my city, or in other cities around the world, and take photos. It’s combining two things I love.

Being in nature and lying on beaches also inspires me – but not as much as the urban landscape. For me nature is all about relaxing – so your subject has to be something you love and you find compelling to photograph.

How will I shoot this project?

Once you have some ideas for a subject, start thinking about how you want to shoot it.

What is your vision? For example – will it be color or b&w, reportage or posed portraits, epic landscapes etc.? Will the photos have a similar look and feel? What do you want the photos to look like?

Gear

Also thinking about your kit – what lenses will you be using? Do you need any special equipment? This kit and equipment issue can be a tricky thing because you can stall on a project forever if you get too focused on gear that you don’t have. I have delayed projects for months because I became fixated on getting certain special equipment together, or having too many challenging arrangements to make, so in the end they never came together.

If you are new to doing projects I advise you to only shoot something you can do with the equipment that you have already. Make it as simple as possible to just get started.

Choose a subject that is accessible

The photos in this article are from a new project I recently started in Cuba. This is not an accessible place for me as I live in London – and I’ll only be shooting there a couple of times a year until I’ve finished my book about Havana. So I also have a project that is closer to home. That way when I am not traveling I have something close by to keep me focused and inspired.

I think a lot of people rely on taking photos when they are outside of their normal day to day life, when they feel more inspired because they are somewhere new and different. Ultimately, though, getting inspired by the world that is immediately around you is much better training for your photography. If you can make something interesting of a scene you see every day, then you can definitely take an interesting photo of anything.

Don’t have too many projects going at once, though. If you are new to doing projects I’d recommend you start with just one.

Consistency is crucial

The more regularly you take photos, the quicker seeing and thinking like a photographer will become part of you. It’s just like going to the gym – regular consistent work results in the biggest overall impact.

Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits. That’s it in a nutshell. – Twyla Tharp

Will I realistically have time to shoot this?

All of the points so far have been about refining the possibilities so it makes it easier for you to pick a subject for your project.

Working out the time to do it is a very simple point, but it’s super relevant. Are you going to actually have time to shoot this on a regular basis? You need to keep that creative juice flowing and if you aren’t shooting regularly you will lose your ability to stay inspired and be in the flow with your project.

Keep it realistic – if you only have three or four hours a month, then that’s it. Plan to fit it in easily with your life.

Move out of your comfort zone

Step out of your comfort zone. Comfort zones, where your unrealized dreams are buried, are the enemies of achievement. – Roy T. Bennett

It’s super easy to get in a rut with your photography – shooting similar subjects in similar ways. Telling yourself – this is what I’m good at shooting, or this is what I love doing. While I encourage you to really dive deep into a subject and develop your own style, make sure you are not using it to limit yourself.

Staying where you are comfortable in your photography is not where you are going to find yourself taking stunning, amazing photos. What you’ll be taking are photos that are just like the ones you took yesterday, last week, last year. Photographers need to keep developing and that often means pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.

Don’t park… Arrival is the death of inspiration. – Ernst Haas

If you want to do something new, something fresh, something unique – you have to move away from the safety of what you’ve always done, and move toward things you’ve never done before.

For me that’s been things like asking strangers if I can photograph their bellies (scary!), to travelling to new places or accepting commissions for big projects (weirdly it can often be more stressful getting paid to do a very creative job than doing it for yourself. After all, if you come back with a terrible personal project it just sucks for yourself.)

Are you in your zone?

Photography doesn’t always have to be done outside of your comfort zone. Just keep an eye on the things you are choosing to photograph and making sure that you aren’t always playing it safe.

When you ask yourself what you really want to photograph and you come up with something that is both exciting and a little terrifying, that’s great! Then you definitely have something that is going to be interesting for you to explore. The line between being comfortable shooting and being on the edge of your comfort zone is a fine one.

Plan your project – but leave room for spontaneity

I couldn’t find the quote but I’m pretty sure that Napoleon said that you always want to go into battle with a plan, but that you’ll never follow the plan once you’re in battle. It’s the same with photography!

You want and need a plan for how you are going to get this project going. Just don’t be afraid to adapt as the creative forces start working when you are out there shooting. I’ve sometimes had projects totally change shape, even the subject, while I am shooting.

Be open to change and adapt

For example, when I shot my first book, London at Dawn, I thought the book would be all about the workers who are up at 4 am and what they were doing. You know, the market traders, the cleaners, the bus drivers. It seemed like a really cool angle.

When I started shooting, though, not only are people really hard to find at dawn, and are usually inside buildings, and what I discovered was that the light of sunrise and the empty streets were way more interesting to me than tracking down people inside buildings working. I wanted to capture all this quiet and beauty.

Make a project description

I like to have a basic description of my project before I get started which acts as my vision, the essence of my plan. To give you some ideas about how to do this, here are some descriptions of projects that I’ve done:

The Homeless World Cup: Create beautiful, colorful portraits of homeless football players that echo the powerful persona of the subjects in sports advertising. Pose subjects in strong and proud postures which, combined with the colorful backgrounds, promote a positive message about the homeless football players and the tournament.

Arboreal Dreams: An abstract exploration of trees inspired by my childhood memories of lying on the grass and staring up at trees for hours on end. The look of the photos will be dream-like and surreal, just as my childhood memories are, with the trees morphing into different shapes.

The Belly Project: The belly is an under-photographed part of the body (in my opinion) and rarely displayed (unless it’s in perfect condition). It’s often a source of personal dislike. I say free the belly! This project will be shot out on the street in a fun, spontaneous, and candid style. I will approach people with all kinds of bellies – and explore what lies hidden under people’s shirts.

Can you see how in these short descriptions I covered what was interesting to me about the subject, how I wanted to shoot it and the style I would use? This is the kind of thing you want to end up with.

Is it a short term or long term project?

When starting out, I find many people aim to tackle these really big subjects that will take a year or two. That’s totally cool, but it’s really hard to sustain momentum for a two-year project. Even professionals find it difficult – well, I know I do! Life always gets in the way and distracts you from your project.

I think a short term project is the best place to start. Then as you build the skills for completing projects, you can extend yourself.

What are you hoping to achieve with this project? What is the end result you hope to see? To give it to a friend, put it on social media, hang it on your wall, make a book? How many final images will you have?

These all sound quite specific but I find that when I ask these questions they help me to refine why I am doing a photography project, and the more refined I am the easier I find the project is to shoot.

Ultimately, I want to end up with such a good vision for my project that I can almost see the photos before I even step out the door. Of course, things will develop and change but working out these details really helps me when I am out there in the world faced with the actual – so where do I begin?

The power of the deadline

Deadlines are the single best motivation for me to finish a project. To be honest, I rarely feel that I am totally finished. I could go on forever with most projects – there is always more to shoot, there are always more ways to make it better (even if that’s just in my mind). I do, though, like to get to the end and feel a sense of accomplishment, having something to tell the story of the subject I’ve been shooting.

The world is littered with unfinished creative projects of all types. Don’t let yours be one of them! A deadline is an amazing way to help you get it finished. You can pick a time frame – a year, a month, or 6 months. You can also create other deadlines by agreeing to do a project at the same time as a friend. Or by committing to creating a project before Christmas or for an exhibition.

Now – get started!

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea. – Edward de Bono

This is where I get stuck all the time. I often have an amazing concept for a project, and I can see it in my mind. Then I try to get started, and… I procrastinate. This is often because I am waiting for perfect timing – be it the perfect light, perfect models, or a perfect day. All that thinking about perfect ends up feeling totally intimidating. So I have to say to myself – don’t wait for perfect conditions, they don’t exist! Don’t wait for more time, it won´t come.

It won’t be perfect straight out (or maybe even ever!) Perfectionism is the true enemy of creativity. Now think ahead to a few months from now with a finished photo project in your hands that you are showing people. It will feel awesome to know you created something from nothing, a photo project that is all about your passions and creativity. All you have to do now is get started.

Do whatever brings you to life, then. Follow your own fascinations, obsessions, and compulsions. Trust them. Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart. – Elizabeth Gilbert

I’d love to know what you think and if you plan to do a photography project this year, or may you are doing one now. Let me know in the comments below.

The post How to Start and Finish a Photography Project by Anthony Epes appeared first on Digital Photography School.

from Digital Photography School https://digital-photography-school.com/start-finish-photography-project/

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ireneaprile · 7 years

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Admit it, you didn’t believe me when I promised I would have been back soon with other travel stories. But I like to surprise people, so here I am with the story of our day in Washinton DC.

We had a tight schedule for Washington. Our plan was to take a bus in NYC, arrive to Washington in the first hours of the afternoon, leave our luggage at the hotel and start touring the city. We had a day and a half, so not much given everything there is to see.

But as it happens with plans, our went wrong. A journey which should have taken four hours at worst, took almost eight due to the inexperience of the bus driver. I have never seen anyone driving so damn slowly in my entire life, not even old farmers on old tractors on narrow country lanes. But that was not all. The bus had to do a stop in Baltimore, nothing exceptional about that. So he driver exited the highway, stopped in a big parking lot and then, instead of going back on the highway, she took a completely wrong road and we found ourselves in the middle of the city traffic jam around a stadium where there was I don’t really know what kind of match.

At some point Andrea, my husband, considered going to the driver an help her with direction. A third of the time we should have spent visiting Washington was going out of the window because of this incompetent driver. You can imagine my thoughts on the matter. I was already writing a furious e-mail to the bus company in my head.

Then the writer in me got the better of the infuriated tourist and started painting a picture. What did I know about that driver, beside being the slowest in history of travels? Nothing. So how could I judge her? Maybe it was her first day as a bus driver and she wasn’t sure of the way. Maybe it was her last chance to prove her boss she could do well after a series of disastrous trips and she was nervous (and it that case she wasn’t doing very well). Maybe she was a mother of six who had to take the only job she had found even if she hated driving. Maybe it was her first day back at work after a dreadful accident and was still suffering from the trauma but couldn’t stay home from work because she needed her wage.

Daydreaming about the thousands possible lives of the bus driver helped me pass the time. Finally we arrived in Washington DC, with just three hours and a half delay, more or less half an hour later than the bus which departed two hours later from NYC. While getting off the bus, I gave a better look to the driver. She was a young girl, with several inches of painted nails, and a minute or so after turning off the engine she was cheerfully chatting on the phone.

Definitely she wasn’t a mother of six, nor she had the look of someone healing from a trauma, and something about her lack of awareness of the fact she had caused so much trouble to a two level bus of people annoyed me. But hey, who was I to judge?

When we finally arrived at the hotel—which was beautiful, the best we had in the entire journey—we just had time to have a shower and go out to find some place to dine. Anyway, decided to make the most of hour time, we couldn’t resist the chance of going to the White House, a place I learnt to know through the TV show The West Wing. Do you know it? It’s still one of my favourites shows. It was strange to be so close to the White House, a place so well known and yet so inaccessible even when you are just a few hundred meters away.

The following day we bought two tickets for an hop-on hop-off tour bus and started our tour of the city. Actually it was more of a run through the city and it was the hottest day we had, but I enjoyed it immensely and would like to go back for a quieter visit one day. We visited all the most important monuments, but I’m not going to bore you with the enumeration.

I want to tell you just about one, the Korean War Veterans Memorial. It’s made of a triangle intersecting a circle. The part which moved me the most were the statues inside the triangle. A series of stainless steel statues represents a platoon of soldiers on patrol. Wherever you place yourself around the triangle, there’s always one of the soldiers looking at you. It’s a symbol of the loyalty among soldiers, who always protect each other. I found it moving ad clever at the same time.

On our second and last night in Washington DC we dined in a pretty restaurant near our hotel. We sat, we read the menu, placed our order and had something to drink. Before starting our dinner I wanted to go to the restroom to wash my hands. So I placed my napkin on the table, I got up and went to the rest room. When I came back I saw my napkin was again perfectly folded beside the plate. I was sure I had left it unfolded on the table, so when I sat down again I looked at Andrea who, with an amused smile, told me the waiter had come to the table as soon as I got up and folded the napkin. Don’t ask me why I still remember this episode, but it’s something of that day that left me a strong impression.

So here we are, at the end of part 3. Just on last city remains. Next episode: Chicago.

If you want to stay update about what’s going on and receive the first chapter of Secrets of a Handbag and a few short stories for free, click here!

Bye bye Washington DC!

Writer on vacation! – part 3 Admit it, you didn’t believe me when I promised I would have been back soon with other…

#Travel #USA #Washington DC

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