Prague :)

Last weekend, I spend a great time meeting friends in Prague. By train, it's only about 4h to get there from Leipzig - perfect for a weekend. The train went through a beautiful piece of countryside - the little Swiss Valley, the Elbsandsteingebirge. The rock formations and pillars look great, but the climbing there scares me (badly bolted, and no metal protection gear allowed meaning you have to stuff knots into cracks...). On arrival in Prague, Lubi picked me up at the station and we went buying my new crash-pad! It was fun to take the bus, tram and train with it! It came in handy twice at the train station when I had to wait for delayed trains...After having gone to Lubi's place, we went for coffee and meet the Torontonians, which we missed due to misunderstandings and non-working cell-phones...We had typical Czech dinner, no english menu, including beer, lots of meat and potatoes and little veggies.

The next day at breakfast, I met Lubi's boyfriend Libor (whose english btw is very good), and then we went out to meet Amy and Damien. We took a long stroll through the city and over the Charles bridge, went up to the castle through quiet and cute back alleys, had lunch including beer, and arrived at the way to busy castle. Nowadays you also have to pay an entrance fee to see the complete cathedral. The view from the castle over the city is great, however it was cold and windy, felt more like april than july! We had great cake and probably one of the best and densest hot chocolates I have ever had, like eating dark chocolate pudding (with chilli)! It was just in a side street next to the bridge and really nice and quiet there. After stepping by at Lubi's, we walked a little more and went for yet another heavy Czech meal close to Lubi's institute. The food was very tasty, but I couldn't eat it every day! So much meat and potatoes - I was glad about the salad that Lubi prepared the next day for lunch.

Sunday, it was raining a lot - we missed each other again, and Lubi and I went shortly to Vysehrad Castle to see a photo exhibit. But then it started to rain, and we much rather drank a coffee and ate cake. The time was over much to fast, and me and my crash-pad got back on the train to Germany. Great thing that it's so close, so you can expect me again in Prague soonish :)

the crash pad :)

view from Lubi's balcony

Art Nouveau architecture

jepp, they are Canadians and not Americans ;)

in the old center

classic view

the typical picture: Charles bridge and castle

quiet side streets towards the castle

with interesting flower pots

cathedral

and the classic view over Prague

self shot!

super-dense hot chocolate

and delicious honey-cake

It was awesome meeting you guys again! Hope to see you soon again, somewhere...!

A day in Berlin

Last Friday, Tina and I met up for a Berlin-day. We started the day off with some coffee, then walked along the 'Alte Schoenhauser Strasse and Allee" to Konopke's, Berlin's oldest and re-opened Curry-Wurst Bude. In modern times, the 'Oeks' eat now Currywurst and drink Bionade...

We spend the rest of the day shopping, drinking coffee, shopping, drinking beer, shopping, eating out Korean food, and drinking beer - in short, the perfect relaxing day! I like Berlin - the cafes and bars are so much more interesting, people are working in coffee shops, which makes me feel more at home again. The shops are more interesting, you can find other than H&M and Zara, and it doesn't matter how you dress, no one cares or notices.

We just went to the Alexanderplatz for the obligatory proof picture that we actually were in Berlin...

coffee No 1 - candles are only unpacked at night...

coffee No 2...

...with cheese cake.

and Curry Wurst with Bionade

shopping...

and what's your wish?

beer in 'An einem Sonntag im August'

the obligatory proof...

and a different perspective...

view from the train station

Climbing Frankenjura

This past two weekends, I have been out with friends to the Frankenjura - Germany's top climbing area. There are ~9000 routes on ~900 cliffs, located in the forests in Franken/Bavaria. It's the place where modern sport climbing developed in Germany, with the invention of the red point system by Kurt Albert, and the famous route 'action directe' by Wolfgang Guellich. Lots of history but most important awesome rock - solid, sharp limestone with lots of pockets. It's very scenic there, rolling hills covered in forest, the cliffs can be directly at the road, or with a short access inside the forest.

The first weekend, Arthus, Christine's puppy, kept us entertained by howling all day, as soon as she got two meters away from the ground, and jumping around energetically. I wish he could have transferred some energy to me! We started on a cliff with 30sec access...it was a bit busy, but we managed to put in some routes. The next area we had for ourselves. We were on a shady cliff, close to a cemetery which is convenient to wash your hands afterwards....At night, we camped at a campsite this time; for Arthus it was the first time in a tent. It got a bit too warm inside the tent for me, so I was happy to sleep outside the following weekend. And being camping, I am finally allowing myself to have Nutella again :) On sunday, we had another full day of climbing, and a nice area to start with. The rock is often so sharp, that the 2nd day is very hard on your skin! The question is, how to get stronger skin (and fingers)....?

The next weekend, Adam asked me if I'd join again - for sure! The weather was great, sunshine, a bit hot, great rock, lots of routes climbed, painful fingers and skin - a great time.

Here are a few pictures from Christine:

the first route

last cliff for saturday with my favourite 'sunset boulevard'

sunday morning: great route with sharp rock

fingerholes...

I am infected....next weekend I have to take a break 'cause my mom is coming to town ....but the again :D

Leipzig - 7 weeks

I can hardly believe I am here for such a long time already! Time is flying too fast...I am slowly getting used to a life in Germany again. Some things are great here, like drinking alcohol in the park without hiding it, eating good bread, that actually fills you up (I had to say that...), cheese is soooo cheap (even at the Karstadt Deli store) and delicious, the weather - it's like summer!, biking to get around (although the roads are soooo bumpy and bad, worse than Canada)! But I also miss Toronto, going out for food, good coffee places (it's not really common here to take your laptop and go working/writing in a cafe - or I haven't found it yet...), the multiculturalness (here, you walk over the street and everyone is white - I miss the different faces from all over the world), the international crowd is missing here, and the possibility of shopping on sundays (such a stress on saturdays. trying to buy food, and stuff for the apartment..), and a saturdays farmers-market in the center (this is the first city I live in which doesn't have it - I miss my stroll over the market!). And Germans like to complain about everything (now it's too warm, then it's too humid...), which I guess you should just ignore.

I think I am spending most of my time in the climbing gym...Met some great people, we already went outside climbing once. It was nice, the cliff was in an old quarry that had filled up a little with water - so for the approach you had to walk through knee deep water (ok for summer weather...), but then you feel like you are climbing on a little beach. we just missed the BBQ and beer! We did some easy routes to get used to being outside again, and put up a top rope on a harder one. I am stoked, my fingers are itching, and I need to get out again! Too bad that today, there were already thunderstorms (and likely more to come). I am thinking of buying a bouldering mat, and than cycle around the city and start buildering!

My place is about a 2min walk to a nice big park, which continues along a small river out of the city. It's nice, still a little sparse, but it's getting there. Since thursday I am eating again on a table, feeling a little too civilized again (or maybe is it the dish washer???), and even bought nice plates, a set of WMF pots (yes, I am getting old, no more (or less) Ikea stuff :D)...discovered the Xenos yesterday and felt brought back to Groningen! I am still waiting for my bed, shelfs, cupboard, still need to buy lamps, curtains,...Is it only me, or is shopping getting increasingly difficult due to the choice we have now? I went to the hardware store the other day to buy a light bulb - It's crazy, there are 50 different kinds (or more sigh), how can you ever decide on anything....and why do we need that? I mean I could live with just one kind. There's everywhere too much choice, in the supermarkets as well, who needs all that stuff? no wonder that 1/4 of all produce goes to waste. I would be happier to have less but then better quality. I seem to be the only one among my colleagues who thinks that groceries are cheap. but look at it - 50 years ago, we spend half of our income on food, now it's 10%, plus we have lots more...

yesterday night, I went out for dancing to music I actually really like! I cannot remember when that happened the last time (not that I had been out much)! The gothic/wave/alternative scene here seems big and interesting, so I am hoping to try out more very soon!

I am starting to feel a little more alive again - but I wish Mike would be here with me. He would like it here, experiencing the differences between Eastern and Western born Germans, living in a place where people are more conscious about the environment, with lots of green parks, and lots of old buildings but also socially very different neighbourhoods. Packing out his climbing gear here broke my heart. It's so real and definitive. Every morning on the way to work, I pass the place where we stayed 2.5h years ago on our short visit here. The old GDR cafe where we had breakfast, has now made place to a more western bakery chain.

Some impression of the last weeks - need to get out and take more photos again :)

view from my living room window including some herbs :)

kitchen area including dishwasher, what a luxury! But only a beer-cooler sized fridge...

view from my guest-apartment window after the construction covers were removed. To the left is the building where our offices are.

cherry blossoms!

Spring at the institute site, there's a little pond in front of the cafeteria.

a 'Schrebergarten' - little garden parcels people can rent in the city, where you can grow veggies/fruits/flowers, have garden parties....a typical German concept for city folks.

tree-art

The climbing area: the approach went through the lake along the left side...

The cliff, we also climbed that corner route later.

Now there's rhododendron flowering everywhere!

Playing around at the Clara-Park close to my house - a great place to be at night, too, withe BBQ, picknick, beer and wine!

Berlin and Potsdam

Last weekend, I went to visit my friend Julia in Berlin. It's amazingly close - only 1h 15min by train (if they arrive in time...). Too bad that Julia is moving away this weekend.

Saturday morning we got up surprisingly early and took the train to Potsdam, of course not after I had my Starbucks latte, which made me feel at home immediately. We went for a really nice walk through the gardens of Sanssouci Castle - a huge park, with already lots of flowers and the trees starting to be green or already completely green. Spring is amazing and comes with such a speed. I missed its beginnings this year...The castle is elaborately decorated showing off the wealth of kings and queens, and indicating the social injustices in that era. And nowadays social differences are well visible at every corner in Eastern Germany...

We enjoyed our walk and continued through the old city centre, which has a nice pedestrian zone with lots of cafes and stores. We rested with a nice pizza with bacon and white truffles and continued to the 'dutch quarter'. It made you feel like you are in Holland, with one exception, there were almost no bikes! The houses look very dutch including very steep stairs, the even sell poffertjes and pannekoeken there. Then, we returned to Berlin, had a Radler outside at the Kastianienallee. And of course I could not miss a good Curry-Wurst! For dinner, we had Vietnamese style food, definitely more elaborated and fancy than anything I had in Toronto, but nevertheless good food!

The next morning, again blue sky and sunshine, we spend having a nice big breakfast on a patio and then strolling over the flea market at the Mauerpark. That's what Berliners do on sunday, spending lots of money for lots of rubbish. There's also lots of nice old stuff, you just got to find it. I got a little sunburned there. We finished the afternoon with a delicious huge cake and then I had to take the train back in the early evening.

Here are some of the picture of the trip:

a turning golden eagle...

Julia in front of the New Palais - this is not the main castle yet...

naked male statues are found everywhere in the park

I like daffodils!

blue hyacinths give a great contrast

the steps to the castle still look very grey without roses and wine flowering...

colourful flowers in front of the castle

close up at the castle. It reminds me a lot of Schoenbrunn in Vienna.

the dutch quarter.

getting you bike ready for spring: a bike wash!

we are back in Berlin!

Radler with lime

Prost! on the patio of 'An einem Sonntag im August'

...and not to be missed when you are in Berlin: Curry-Wurst