Attending Conference at Berlin - Travelog Day 6

Final day (of conference)

A bit late today. Wake up at 4.20am. Might be the mind had accepted the time here or may be because I'm tired. My leg and butt are really in pain.. hahaha... felt like training for marathon... hahaha

Normal breakfast

As previous day, had time to chat with my kids :), then update my blogs and perform solah. Around 7am, went down for breakfast and went to the conference.

Many people were late today due to conference dinner end up late. Many attend the dinner and got drunk I guess :) ... hahaha...

Information overloading

The panels

Topic

There are many session that I wish to attend but some of of the presenter are too good for me to walk away and attend other session... At the end, I had to rush here and there. Same as yesterday.

On one of the session (I attend the panel session since the paper presentation, you can refer to material given), the presenter talk very fast and I was not able to take pictures as he quickly flip through... arghhh, that was good image...

Another paper presentation I attend, each presenter only spent 5 minutes with less than 10 slide each. Wow!!! that's fast and they really punctual when it come to time.

Try my best to catch up with many interesting session.

Fault estimation!!!!

Break time

Buying is very easy if you know German :)

During break time, we when to Brandenburger Tor.

Just press... hahaha

Actually, my colleague
plan to go to holocaust location where jews was 'slaughted' during Nazi (Adolft Hitler) time (that is what the jews claimed) located near by Brandenburger Tor and Reichstag. So we bought train ticket for 1 complete day of which cost us 7Euro.

The train to Zoologischer

The first train was to Zoologischer which about1 km from TU Berlin. Then we need to change train. A bit confuse and got the wrong guidance for few times. They are friendly but either we don't really understand as some of them show us the way but speak in German or they don't really get what we said.


After wondered around, a man came approached us and query us if we need some help. Ooo yeh... of course and he gave us the correct and exact ways. That's better.

Another train buddy... so we switched from U-Bahn train to S-Bahn train and goes to Hauptbahnhof (the Berlin Central Train Station)... We reached there around 1.30pm. And from there we got lost again. Goes to information counter and they shows the wrong way too.. aargghhhh..... and we went here and there, up and down until I almost give up.

So I went outside to rest and thinking of just walking around the station. My colleague still looks at the map and try to find the way. After awhile, he went somewhere else. I turn around and went I turn back to the door, I can't find him. Wait for him as thought that he might come out. After few minutes of waiting and he did not turn up, I took my chance and goes straight to front. Crossed a river (saw boat-tour)... Thought if I had time, I will definitely try the river-cruise.

Then saw Branderburger Tor signboard which about 1km from there. Decide to walk and yes, saw few nice scenes. The first thing I saw was the German Chancellery which about 500 meters from the train station.
The parliament was located there too; the opposite of the chancellery and in front of it was really nice. Night scene here should be nicer I guess. Took some picture of it.

More picture can be seen here.

After shots some photos, I walk down the road towards the gate or known as Brandenburger Tor. Part of it contains lots of stories behind it. On the way there, I took few more shots on the surrounding scene. Drop by a shops selling gifts for tourist. Thought of buying something but then decided to take my chances which I plan to shop at near by my hotel; like 'gift bazaar'; around Kurfurstendamm (using bicycle should be ok).

After 15 minutes of walking slowly, I reached the gate and get to see many more. Also saw many jews whom definitely when to their memorial centre which about 500 meters from there. Wish to go there just to see the view and see how they were 'killed' by the Nazi but too many of them that stops me from going there. After all, time does not permitted :).

Capture some of interesting moment there :)

More picture can be seen here.

About 2.30pm, I decided to turn back and head towards to conference. This time around, it was very easy but my leg already felt pain. Carrying a bag of computer and camera, plus my weight, absolutely a burden to my feet.

Reach Zoologischer about 3.05 and then decided to walk to TU Berlin.... arghhh wrong decision brother. Reach there around 3.40 and went straight for break.. Had bread and coffee and met my colleague there... He really look tired (and he did make a u-turn, back to the conference after confuse of finding the right way)... hahahaha... He went back to hotel and rest (which later I found out that he lost his way due to trying to find a turkish shop to buy Zippo and spend 2 hours of circling around Berlin... hehehe).. what a day brother.

Closing ceremony

After break, went to panel session which talks about Smart Cities and how EU plan to move forward from now till 2050. They surely want to move that ways. However as previously during a panel session yesterday, there are question about successful rate of RE and smart grid and question weather we should implements RE or not since the cost and rate of successful is low. The panel mentioned that it is yet to discover.. after all, it is still long way to go and they might change the plan if they discover something else later. On top of that, it is 'RESEARCH' ... anything is possible. Even US is building up 4 more nuclear power plant, of which 2 starts this year and will commission in 2015.

At 5.30pm, the session end up and they get ready for closing ceremony. Not many left as many speakers and presenter left earlier. I did not wait for the closing ceremony as was thinking to go around the cities looking for chocolates and few items to bring back home. Reach hotel around 6.20pm after my colleague did not response my YM. When I went to his room, he just arrived from his adventurous cycling... hehehe

Went back to my room and take a rest.

Night tour

At 8.00pm, after prayed, we went around the cities. Enter the Kastard (a large shopping complex) just to be ask to leave.. They closed at 8pm... So, they only open for 10 hours (compared to us which from 10am - 10pm and sometimes till 12pm). So we went up ahead and took some pictures. Not really impressive scenes.

Then, we met an Indian guy.. a Phd student and we exchange business card. He is doing EE but I can't remember his focus area. We discussed for a while. He told me that the dinner he went last night was not as expected. The food is ok but the location, scene, and the band was lousy.. hmmm and he said that it is a waste of spending 4 hours (1.30 hours of journey through-and-flow).. hehehe good for us.

Then we went about 100 meters ahead before turning back. Reach our room at 11pm. Take a light shower, play games... and goes to sleep...

That's end my 6th day in Berlin... Need to wake up early tomorrow to pack my things and hopefully to do last minute shopping :)... Good night Berlin...

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Attending Conference at Berlin - Travelog Day 5

As usual

Sunrise ... the scene is not that ok :(

As usual, woke up at 4am. Have chit-chat with my kids and my team at Malaysia. Read and reply some emails :).

Around 6am, take a shower, perform solah, and then continue updating my blogs :) as usual...

Then, around 7.30am, went for breakfast and as usual, ate the same food for breakfast. Just that the location has changed... hahaha seat at another end of the restaurant.

The cafe... Kaffeehaus

Me.. with coffee.. in b/w

The cafe... Kaffeehaus

Conference again

The second day conference was really pack and full of presentation that I wish I could divide into few people. There are many presentations that I wish to attend but can't.

During the break, visit the exhibition from various exhibitor including Vattenfall, IEEE PES, ETAP, etc. The Vattenfall shares lots of ideas and I can only remember one - search for papers published or written by Vattenfall staff :). Here are some of the pictures of best speaker...

Solah with Middle-east brother

Around 1.30pm, I went to prayer room in the university and pray with brothers from middle-east. They are fast and not like us... too many istiqomah and slow movement. On top of that, I do confuse when the mention Jamaa'... I thought of Jama' (for travellers) but it is actually Jamaah (pray together)... hahaha... never mind, lesson learn... but I actually perform Jama' together with them...

Conference Dinner?

The conference end up at 6pm. I was thinking to attend the dinner, but then my colleague does not register for that. So, I decided to cancel and went with him and have dinner at Arabic Restaurant, El Reda (the same we had on the first day). Is not that difficult to find a good and halal place to eat here. There are many arabic and pakistani restaurant but they only issue is the location. It is not that far. The nearest is about 1km and the farthest is about 5km from our hotel (Azimuth Hotel). Just type halal restaurant in Berlin and you'll find your way there. The only food that was not here is Malay food (or I can't find it). Not like when I was at Sydney. There are 2 restaurant in North Sydney which belongs to Malaysian and they served Malaysian Food; you can have curry, asam laksa, masak lemak, etc.

But at least you can eat halal food in Berlin and as for me, not Maggi Mee after two consecutive days of having it and at least I can eat a lot :). If I went to the dinner which 8km aways from the hotel, I'm not sure I can ate or not. But we should go there tonight for some pictures :) (if we can... hahaha)

On the way back, stop by a few shops and bought few gifts to get back to Malaysia for few friends and team member.

Not many pictures taken ... but you can see some of the shots taken around TU today here.

That's end my 5 day trip in Berlin... Gute Nacht!

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Attending Conference at Berlin - Travelog Day 4

The conference starts

Just cereal!!!

As yesterday, I woke up at the same time. Around 4am. Finish my shawarma bought previously as was very hungry. You need to be skillful in warm-up the food here :).

Then, open up my email and messenger. Get some messages and then spend time to chat with my kids.

Around 6am, perform my solah and continue with updating some notes.

At 7.15am, pack my things, and went for breakfast. The same food that I had yesterday. Not much choices. There are scramble-eggs but it was located side-by-side bacon which I'm not confident at all ('was-was').

Shining early day

After some 'ok' breakfast (I miss nasi lemak and roti canai), we went to thee conference. Still using the bike and the leg and butts are really felt painful. It is but enjoyable :).

Welcome day

Parking .. they love cycling

Reach the conference at 8.45 and the take the last row just to ensure that I can get better view for taking photo.

Outside TU

It starts with simple speach by Prof Kai Strunz.. He delivered a warm welcome and speech with less than 3 minutes... so fast and there is NO MC for at all. He is the chairman of IEEE PES and also the MC and also deliver the first welcome speech. Direct without protocols. Then he call TU Berlin President whom also give simple speech, and Engineering Dept Dean of TU Berlin. Next, it was followed by Minister. Again no protocol but he deliver speech longer.. after all, he is political person.. hahaha. And finally, Ms Li Xiaolin, the co-chair of the conference whom also the president of China Power which deliver the longer speech and like many asian, addressing many people first before began with speech. We should starts with that... Begin with Bismillah and Salam and then straight to speech and only use ladies and gentlemen thorough the speech. :)

The session starts... just kick-off aaa..

Prof Kai Strunz of Faculty of EE and CS, TU Berlin giving the opening remarks

The great German

The main IEEE PES people

History you should not forget

Presentation time

What good about the European is that they are really puctual in time. If the scheduled starts at 8.30, it will starts at 8.30 (except when it involves the minister... hahaha). I miss out the first speaker because see an exhibition and get interested to know more.. When I came into a panel discussion, the second panel has half-way through the slide.

It is apple ... not ****!!!

Listen to the panel presentation. Most of it was related to European implementation or perspective with regards to smart grids. There are interesting facts that we can learn from the EU people. They are really committed and also supported by their people and governments ... also includes the universities and industries.

I had this for my break

At 10am, we take a break and not much can eat accept bread and sweets castard like,.. Get to talk with few presenters and met a good professor from france (E'cole polytechnique). Thought of doing collaboration in power quality systems. He shares new project of him of which he is using time reversal technique to detect fault. That's interesting.

After the break, I went into one of sessions which talks about smart grids and transmission and distribution and cyber securities and many more...
Not much I can learn as either the presentation is not well delivered or I don't understand at all.. hahahaha

We had lunch and it is an interesting lunch. Nothing that I can ate except salads and small bun. One thing I notice here, the drinks (apple and orange juice) is really masam. and they have sparkling mineral water which taste weird.

Talk continues

Yeah... the talk continues as goes the presentation and panel discussions. Had to run to two places due to different locations and there are papers that capture my interest.

Had to rush through to find location to perform solat. Ask the information counter but the lady can't speak in english very well. Ask few muslim student and they seem either new or don't know the location. Luckily the committee help out and show us the way to prayer room.

At prayer room, met 2 turkish, one is applying for Phd after completing his M.Sc and he actually start his studies here in TU Berlin before change to another university in Berlin and now applying for Phd at TU Berlin again. They other one was just his first semester. Then, we pray maghrib together.

Today conference ends up at 6pm.

Welcome Reception

The Orangerie

After prayer, we rush to The Orangerie (beside Charlotteburg). We was guided by another committee member whom also riding a bike (bicycle). But he left us after I checked with him on the right path. Wow!!! they are surely very healthy people. See many of them just ride a bicycle and if the place is far, than the ride to nearest bus or train station...

Friends from India

Lets drink and... not for me!!!

We reached there around 7pm. The first smells goes into my nose was alcoholic drinks.. what??? never mind... we just register in and walk around. I met a Prof. whom previously work with Nokia and turn into lecture 3 years ago. He was a computer science lecture but came to smart grids due to his student were doing research in EV. And he felt that he need to equip himself with such knowledge and hopefully to get few experts to work with. Proposed him to talk to Christop Brunner and Alex Apostolov. Good as we share the same understanding and difficulties. :)

The musician.. relaxing

Than met my colleague whom managed to talk with a Brunei lecturer whom attach to Physics Faculty but doing EE research.... hahaha... complicated world isn't?

Can't talk with them.. can't stand with the smell

They only offer sour apple or orange drinks plus tasteless mineral water and alcoholic drinks. My nose already felt uncomfortable. Get to taste soup with peanuts plus bread than decide to take off...

On the way, I was thinking to stop by a curry cafe. Was thinking that it was an indian curry cafe but it is actually referring to Italian style of curry and not confident of the food at all.

Then when around the street and take some nice picture... you can view it here. After awhile, back to hotel room and have Maggi Mee which my colleague brought from Malaysia... that's all I can ate. Saw KFC and McD but 'was-was'.

Do some reading and then play games on my phone.

Around 10pm, goes to sleep and that's end my 4 day trip to berlin.

For nice scenery of Berlin at night.. see it here.

<< Day 3     Day 5 >>

Attending Conference at Berlin - Travelog Day 3

First Day of Conference

From the hotel window
(the time is actually malaysian time)

I still unable to tune my mind to Berlin time. So, still wake up around 6.30am of Malaysia time (around 12am here) ... had to force my eyes to sleep again and wake up at 4am of local Berlin time.

It was a bit cold here with temperature goes till 8'C. It was raining around 5am and the temperature drop to 6'C. I open up my laptop and skype and see some notes from my kids... hahaha sorry kids, unable to open skype yesterday. Quickly make a voice call for each of them and communicate with them. Only kakak tablet  can be used to communicate via video call. My hero's table are unable to use video call. And my manja-girl's table is worst. Unable to use video and voice call at all. So she felt frustrated and demotivated. Lucky my wife use her phone :).

My breakfast on my 2nd day in Berlin

After talking with them for a while, went for a shower and then perform solah.

Then, I started to upload few pictures to my galleries and update my life blogs. After completed, I open my work to update few things.

At 7pm, went for breakfast. There are not much we can ate since I'm not confident of its halal features :). But need to have something. So I had cereal and bread.

We decide to back to our room and move out around 10.30am to the conference location.

Riding to TU Berlin

Me...

It is a bit tired for us to walk and using taxi will not be cheap for us whom only bring less than 300 euros. To take a bus, we don't know how and worry of getting lost especially when you don't bring lots of money :). So we decided to rent a bike. I cost us 20 euros for 4 days. It is cheap for hotel guest. Else, it will be 12 euros for 1 day.

run kids

Run guys... as fast as you can

Ok Jon? Shall we move on...

This time, we thought of taking another road and we have make a mistake of doing so. The path that we took bring us closer to airport as we can see the signboard... hahaha... then we had to make a u-turn and reach The Orangery. Beside it is Charlottenburg Palace. aaaa... lost again... hahaha...

But, we had opportunity to see an event (marathon) there. There were many supporters out there. And there was even a group of people playing drums to support those runners. The best part was when the kids that runs (in different lane) reach the finish line.. all of the people watching automatically claps their hand and give morale support to those kids although those are not their kids. There was even parent running with their kids. How nice. In Malaysia? hard to see those...

The Sambanda

The band cheering the runners

The statue of ?? don't get the name actually

Brother Jon looking for the right direction

Then, we ask the police (polizing) near by to show us the path to TU Berlin. He can't speak english very well but he still show us the path and it was very easy. Just go straight of the road and there you will see it :).

Where am I?

Here I was

TU Berlin (but not the main campus)

We are thinking of to see the location of TU Berlin and then when around Berlin after that. However, since we have lost our ways and only reach the university at 12.30pm, so we decided to go for registration. After sign-off with a bit of misunderstanding (at first, did not get the conference material... what!!!.. had to change at information counter and we are not the only one facing it) we took a rest and decide to attend the tutorial. So, we when to the tutorial room but was told that our voucher does not include the tutorial and we need to reprint the voucher. When we went to the information counter, we were shocked that if we wish to attend the tutorial, we need to pay 150 euros. WOW!!!... Cancel that and lets go back to hotel brother.

Went back to hotel. My colleague went to buy bread and I went to finish my bread (from last night meal)... hahaha... still have it and luckily I have mini bar to keep it cold. Had to use hot-water tab to make it warm again.

Informal Reception

The Atrium, TU Berlin

Around 6pm, went to TU Berlin for Information Reception alone. My colleague was unable to join me. His cough was getting worse. Might be because of the exercise we had today (cycling around Berlin - more than 5 km of cycling for people that no longer exercise is really hard).

Reach there around 6.16pm. There are not many people yet. Then saw few poster presentation. Had few that catch my attention. However, it is still a student project so can't expect most of it. But had few ideas generated from it...

Nothing much can eat... Had chicken BBQ (arabic style and I only ate small amount of it as taste weird) and a tortilla with some vegetarians inside and that's it. Get orange drink and coffee. Around 7.30, I make a move and decided to go to a turkish cafe (call the Istanbul) and buy donor demer (like kebab but it use tortilla type of bun). Then head to hotel. When to see my colleague and thought of sharing it since it is quite big. But heard him sleep loudly.. hahaha.. so went back to my room, ate, take a shower, than perform solah. Play some games before when to bed.

That's end up my third day in Berlin. Tomorrow will be a long conference day. Adios!!!

For today's photos of few scenery in Berlin, check it out here.

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