Travelogue:Getting to Cape Town

So this week, I'm traveling to Cape Town, South Africa, for a conference on Novae (which, as you recall from blog post "The Astronomer's Day On," is my topic of study). The conference is from the 3rd-8th, and I'll be giving a short (15 minute) talk on 7th. After that, there is a two day "after conference" tour (optional, but fun), and then I'll be bouncing about on my own: mainly around Cape Town, but also in the town of Stellenborsch (in the wine country!).  I'll be flying back on the 18th, arriving in NYC on the 19th. Since I'm writing these on the road, these entries will probably be a little shorter, and possibly light on pictures, until I get back (sometimes I forget to take out the camera when I'm enjoying myself, or what I'm doing just isn't particularly scenic), not to mention more clearly written chunk by chunk.

The flight and layover:
I could love Munich for its airport alone. Seriously, great place to have a layover. Germany in general, probably, but this is the first time I've ever been in a German airport - the last time I was in Germany, I came by train, and the only other time was driving across the border of France to grab a meal, just so I could say I've been. There are little areas you can rent that are a quiet space to nap - an actual cot - plus a little desk to work at, if you want such a thing. But if you don't want to pay, there are chairs - both regular and lounge - and plenty of them, each with their own place to plug in your computer. So I can stretch out comfortably while waiting for my flight (as I'm doing as I type these vary words, though they'll be posted later, due to lack of internet connection). I suspect on my next layover I'll find one of these chairs and just NAP, since THAT layover is 4 hours, and early in the morning, rather than this one, which was 12 hours and starting at the beginning of the day I'm supposed to be getting used to. I think I recall I had the choice of  this or leaving super early in the morning, rather than in the late evening and sleeping on the plane, but honestly, I'm not really quite sure why I decided to book this flight in particular, when I was being reimbursed the cost.. But it was enough time to go into town. Which leads me to the German trains - so fast, efficient, and ON TIME. I traveled in Germany with Benson in 2011, for a bit, and they actually make an announcement and apologize for the inconvenience if the train is - LITERALLY - a minute late. And it's a rarity if it is late at all. I'd love to see the NYC metro do that...

Also, Germans do vending machines RIGHT

So I bought an all day train/bus pass at the airport, and went into Munich. Like I said, I've been here before, with Benson, so my first stop was actually the central station, where I knew I could pick up some VERY tasty sausage for cheap (breakfast!), plus then move on to anywhere else in the city easily from there. The second stop was a museum that we missed last time, the Deusch Museum, which was a museum of science and industry - very up my ally. Not the usual science museum, though - it seemed very focused on the instrumentation side of things, so there was a lot of really awesome old equipment from all branches of science. Astrolabes, old slide rules, tubes of all sorts, telecommunications, musical instruments, old cars and jets and helicoptors and rockets, whole ships, seriously, everything. It was a pretty cool museum, and a good chunk of the signs were translated into English, though not all. So that was a good place to spend my time. I also managed to hit not one, but 2 beer gardens. I'd been to both before, Augustiners for a light lunch (a bowl of liver dumpling soup, after the sausage, and a nice tall half liter of Augustiner Hells), and Hirschgartin for dinner (a half of a pork shank, with a potato dumpling and a pretzel, plus a nice tall half liter of a local Weissbeir.) Both were delicious, and refreshing. In fact, I wasn't able to finish my dinner, but got it wrapped up and through security with no problem, so I'll be having a some very tasty pork for breakfast tomorrow, as well! It was very easy to get through the airport, and security very efficient, so there was hardly any wait to get through again. Anyway, an enjoyable layover, for the most part! And now, an overnight flight (again) which will land me in Cape Town, where I've already booked a nice shuttle to take me directly to the hostel. Hopefully I won't be *too* tired, but I don't have anything planned for tomorrow (aside from working more on my talk!) just in case.

Addition:
Just jotting this down, I'm super exhausted and will be taking a nap shortly - but I've officially arrived in Cape Town, now and the hostel I'm staying at is really nice. I'm staying at a hostel for the first 2 nights before moving to the conference hotel (since while I'm getting free housing provided by the conference people, they're not going to pay for students to stay extra there, either). I'm in an all girls dorm room, which is nice, and it's very clean and seems pretty secure. Right near the waterfront area, so it looks like there are some nice places to walk around near by. But for now, after an 11.5 hour flight, I just got in, got a shower, checked e-mail and whatnot, and am going to take a NAP.  I can hold out until this evening or tomorrow to start exploring, and it would be nice to be well rested if I'm going to work on my talk any. Even if it is a lovely 92 degree (!) afternoon....