IRES in Hamburg — Week 4

One month down, now only two weeks remain in our IRES program and I’m wondering where the time has gone. This week was filled with record high temperatures, heuristics, and sightseeing in Prague.

This past week, Avi and I spent our time in the office writing algorithms to create heuristics for solving our problem. We enjoyed our time writing up solutions and testing them throughout the week. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from the experience of critiquing my own math and algorithms.

Of course, we couldn’t spend too much on work. On Friday, as the heatwave hit Europe in full-force, our mentors took us on a tour of AIRBUS. AIRBUS in an aerospace corporation that designs and builds aircrafts. During the tour, we got to see the process of building an aircraft and learned about the development of the famous Beluga planes, huge shipping aircrafts created by AIRBUS. It was a so interesting to see the behind the scenes of the aircraft construction.

Posing with a model of the Beluga plane.

And, just like that, it was the weekend and we were making the ten hour FlixBus journey to Prague!

Prague was nothing short of incredible. Despite the intense heat of over 100 degrees, we had a lot of fun wandering through historical landmarks. My favorite part of the afternoon was climbing the 287 stairs to the Great South Tower of St. Vitus Cathedral. Looking out over the burnt umber rooftops was staggering.

View from St. Vitus Cathedral.

Astronomical Clock

It was so hot that the city deployed trucks to spray the hot cobblestone streets with water and we enjoyed cooling off under the spray. We made sure to stop for ice cream often!

Walking through the streets of Prague, see if you can spot the German flag.

That evening we watched the sunset from the grass outside of the Vysehrad Fortress. When the sun went down, the heat was much more manageable and we were able to walk around without melting! For dinner, we ate traditional Czech food. I tried fried mushrooms in a cold sauce and it was delicious. Afterwards, we wandered to see the Astronomical Clock and the Charles Bridge at night.

Walking from the fortress as the sun sets.

View from the Charles Bridge at night.

On our bus ride home the next morning, we agreed that Prague was our favorite trip we’ve taken together. This week, I’m looking forward to relief from the intense heat and evaluating our algorithms. It’s hard to believe this is our last work week and last weekend in Germany! See you next week!