The trip to Egypt was great!! Well...ok, it was good. Nice, sun, warm, the sea, relaxing time. A bit short - 4,5 days but still worth it. Filip and I went to Hurghada. The town itself is not so exciting (there are kind of two downtowns - an old one with many shops, mess, dirt, huge traffic, people draging you into the shops. And the new one - fancy, clean, fresh, quiet, cool). Our hotel was kind of in between those two areas. Close to a small beach (pictures later). The majority of tourists in our hotel were Russians. Amazing - almost each Egyptian guy spoke Russian fluently!
We went on one boat trip to Giftun Island and then snorkling - beautiful!!!! I got a bit stuck in a coral reef but managed to get out of there. A bit scary though...
What more? Talking to some locals, playing beach volley, swimming, reading books.
Too bad the trip was so short. I promise to add some pictures after Xmas.
Yesterday we came to Gdynia. And tomorrow going to grandmom's place.
I wish all of you very Merry Christmas, relaxing time with your families and loved ones. Also party wild on New Year's Eve ;-)
And hope the new year 2009 will be good, prosperous, and full of new exciting challenges and adventures.
måndag 22 december 2008
onsdag 10 december 2008
Xmas tree
I didn't manage to get a real one, and also a pity when all the needles fall down. So I got a little tree with soft needles. And bought some ribbon and an ornament. And here you can see the effect :-)
What more has happened?
Well, finally today I bought a trip to Egypt! I'll go with Filip on Sunday! Yuppi!! Ok, it will be only 5 days but better than nothing.
And since I was in the booking fever I also got tickets for flight for Xmas to Poland.
Yesterday Sandra and I went to the movies and saw Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". It was a good one and with the great action city! :-)
What more has happened?
Well, finally today I bought a trip to Egypt! I'll go with Filip on Sunday! Yuppi!! Ok, it will be only 5 days but better than nothing.
And since I was in the booking fever I also got tickets for flight for Xmas to Poland.
Yesterday Sandra and I went to the movies and saw Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". It was a good one and with the great action city! :-)
söndag 7 december 2008
Vacations
So I have started my vacations. Incredible. Since it seems that I'm not going to Göteborg this coming week, and I will stay in Hamburg I need to come up with some activities to do.
Gym and training of course. It may be nicer to do it during the day - not so many people and a better air quality ;-)
Then I plan to go to some museums - so far I've just been to the Art museum and it was also a long time ago...
I may also start a new painting, since the last one was I think more than 1 year ago. Shame!!
Of course I have some books to read.
And then I hope to meet some friends when they are done with work.
Yesterday we met with some friends at Altona Xmas market. We had some gluhwein and schmalzkuchen (so unhealthy and so good!). It was nice that almost everybody was there.
Enjoy the work week! ;-)
Gym and training of course. It may be nicer to do it during the day - not so many people and a better air quality ;-)
Then I plan to go to some museums - so far I've just been to the Art museum and it was also a long time ago...
I may also start a new painting, since the last one was I think more than 1 year ago. Shame!!
Of course I have some books to read.
And then I hope to meet some friends when they are done with work.
Yesterday we met with some friends at Altona Xmas market. We had some gluhwein and schmalzkuchen (so unhealthy and so good!). It was nice that almost everybody was there.
Enjoy the work week! ;-)
måndag 1 december 2008
Xmas feber started...
The first Advent candle is lit. I cannot believe that we have December already...
After a crazy and tough week there was quite a relaxed weekend. Alex arrived on Friday evening, then he went to our neighbor to give him some birthday present (we were invited over but I didn't have the energy). On Saturday we decided to do some Xmas shopping. I guess 1 mln other people decided to do the same thing. There were so many people downtown!!! Anyway, we got most of the stuff and were home quite early.
Then we watched Kung fu Panda on DVD, ate something and gave each other Xmas presents :-)
Afterwards we went to one bar in Schanze to celebrate our Japanese colleague's birthday. Cyril managed to fix the present in a form of Autoliv F1 T-shirt. Kazuhiro was sooooo happy!!!
Here you can see the Xmas market in front of the Rathaus in Hamburg:
Here is the happy Latin population (left - Mexicans; right - Catalans: Raul and his wife):
Here the purchase-logistics-connection:
Jenny, Johan, Alex and Miguel ("dos")
Here: Dennis, happy Kazuhiro, Cyril, Karo, Mathias and his girlfriend in the back
And here also with Vengatesh (an Indian colleague who left the next day back to India). Plus you can see Kazu's Autoliv T-shirt :-)
Sunday was just a lazy day...When Alex left I went to the gym, then looked for some trips somewhere warm. Still no plans for the next weeks...Hope Filip will have some news this week and we can book a trip.
Oh yeah - some news: my Mac is "almost" ready now. Hope I can pick it up tomorrow and that everything will be working fine. After almost the whole month being "dead".
After a crazy and tough week there was quite a relaxed weekend. Alex arrived on Friday evening, then he went to our neighbor to give him some birthday present (we were invited over but I didn't have the energy). On Saturday we decided to do some Xmas shopping. I guess 1 mln other people decided to do the same thing. There were so many people downtown!!! Anyway, we got most of the stuff and were home quite early.
Then we watched Kung fu Panda on DVD, ate something and gave each other Xmas presents :-)
Afterwards we went to one bar in Schanze to celebrate our Japanese colleague's birthday. Cyril managed to fix the present in a form of Autoliv F1 T-shirt. Kazuhiro was sooooo happy!!!
Here you can see the Xmas market in front of the Rathaus in Hamburg:
Here is the happy Latin population (left - Mexicans; right - Catalans: Raul and his wife):
Here the purchase-logistics-connection:
Jenny, Johan, Alex and Miguel ("dos")
Here: Dennis, happy Kazuhiro, Cyril, Karo, Mathias and his girlfriend in the back
And here also with Vengatesh (an Indian colleague who left the next day back to India). Plus you can see Kazu's Autoliv T-shirt :-)
Sunday was just a lazy day...When Alex left I went to the gym, then looked for some trips somewhere warm. Still no plans for the next weeks...Hope Filip will have some news this week and we can book a trip.
Oh yeah - some news: my Mac is "almost" ready now. Hope I can pick it up tomorrow and that everything will be working fine. After almost the whole month being "dead".
tisdag 25 november 2008
Crisis, winter, ages ago...
Sorry for not updating you with the stuff from here. But the thing is that my 1 year old MacBook died!!!! More than 2 weeks ago it just froze, some strange noise was coming from the loudspeaker (I swear it sounded like there were crickets inside) and then everything got blue. That's it. So after trying all possible options to get the laptop alive, I gave up and went to Mac store (or a store which sells Apple things). And then the problem started...Those guys never had such a case! They told me that the hard disk crashed (I'm lucky with the warranty). And now they laptio has been there for ca 10 days and my data is still being transferred from the crashed disk to some device in order to ne then transferred to the new HD. This is insane!!! Takes ages!!!
Beside the laptop problem, in the meantime I went to Poland to celebrate my grandmom's birthday. Filip came to HH and we flew together. Last Friday. We were supposed to pick up Alex from the airport in Poznan but his plane from Stuttgart never took off... There were no other flights to Poznan and the earliest he could arrive would be Saturday at 6PM...Great!!! So poor him, he had to stay in Niefern.
Grandmom was quite surprised to see us (we managed to tease her a bit that we wouldn't come). There were many relatives whom I have never met before so it was quite funny. Especially when we tried to figure out who was who. At the end I drew the Family Tree or rather a graph with all of them and other relatives so we all know in the future who is who :-)
It was really cold in Poland and snowing quite much. Usch! Winter is here... Now it is just few months and we have spring ;-)
Now I just have less than 2 weeks left at work and then I'm on holidays. Due to the car industry crisis, we have to use all our holidays until the end of the year. Too bad I don't really have plans for December. Filip, Dan and I are thinking of some trip to a warm country, or maybe Filip and I will go skiing. But it is all "maybe"..
This crisis is some kind of paranoia. But hopefully we will all survive. Somehow.
Beside the laptop problem, in the meantime I went to Poland to celebrate my grandmom's birthday. Filip came to HH and we flew together. Last Friday. We were supposed to pick up Alex from the airport in Poznan but his plane from Stuttgart never took off... There were no other flights to Poznan and the earliest he could arrive would be Saturday at 6PM...Great!!! So poor him, he had to stay in Niefern.
Grandmom was quite surprised to see us (we managed to tease her a bit that we wouldn't come). There were many relatives whom I have never met before so it was quite funny. Especially when we tried to figure out who was who. At the end I drew the Family Tree or rather a graph with all of them and other relatives so we all know in the future who is who :-)
It was really cold in Poland and snowing quite much. Usch! Winter is here... Now it is just few months and we have spring ;-)
Now I just have less than 2 weeks left at work and then I'm on holidays. Due to the car industry crisis, we have to use all our holidays until the end of the year. Too bad I don't really have plans for December. Filip, Dan and I are thinking of some trip to a warm country, or maybe Filip and I will go skiing. But it is all "maybe"..
This crisis is some kind of paranoia. But hopefully we will all survive. Somehow.
måndag 10 november 2008
Göteborg...after 3 months...
It's been 3 months since I went to Göteborg last time! That's why I went there last weekend, to spend time with my la familja, get updated and have some good time.
On the plane on Friday I already got cold, so now I'm trying to heal it somehow. Got to Tania's place and we talked a little. Saturday we spent downtown, walking around, having lunch, doing a bit shopping. In the evening we were invited for a dinner at Dan's place. The dinner was great (I still need the recepy for the dessert!). Then we had some drinks and dancing and our typical "karaoke" (with the remote control as microphones) started ;-) Dan's neighbors joined our party as well. Then...Petra disappeared. She decided to take the bus and she left so soon. Magnus had to leave earlier as well. So at the end we were 4 and at 01.30 we decided it was time to go out. And we went for 80's party in Röda Sten (http://www.rodasten.com/). I think we were the oldest ones. And the only ones who weren't dressed like in the 80's... Anyway we had fun. Then we had a small after-party at Dan's again, and we got home at 05.00. Not bad! (as for us "pensionaires"). Sunday was grey, windy and rainy. Bläh!
Tania and I managed to go to Bengans to look for some CDs. Then fika with Calle and Handan, and then flight back to Hamburg. Sunday passed so fast...
On the plane on Friday I already got cold, so now I'm trying to heal it somehow. Got to Tania's place and we talked a little. Saturday we spent downtown, walking around, having lunch, doing a bit shopping. In the evening we were invited for a dinner at Dan's place. The dinner was great (I still need the recepy for the dessert!). Then we had some drinks and dancing and our typical "karaoke" (with the remote control as microphones) started ;-) Dan's neighbors joined our party as well. Then...Petra disappeared. She decided to take the bus and she left so soon. Magnus had to leave earlier as well. So at the end we were 4 and at 01.30 we decided it was time to go out. And we went for 80's party in Röda Sten (http://www.rodasten.com/). I think we were the oldest ones. And the only ones who weren't dressed like in the 80's... Anyway we had fun. Then we had a small after-party at Dan's again, and we got home at 05.00. Not bad! (as for us "pensionaires"). Sunday was grey, windy and rainy. Bläh!
Tania and I managed to go to Bengans to look for some CDs. Then fika with Calle and Handan, and then flight back to Hamburg. Sunday passed so fast...
måndag 3 november 2008
Some reflections...
I just feel like I have to write about it. Already now in the beginning I have to say to all my Germans friends that I don't mean anything bad, and hope you won't get me wrong. It is just some observations that one (I) makes while living in a foreign country. And I bet I would make this kind of observations anywhere I would live.
So there is the thing: this is not the first time that I see how unflexible and short-sighted German people are (I mean NOT all of them! I don't want to generalize here). I just got back home from the gym (I will write some stories about this gym some other time - the topic for one complete blog, I'm telling you). And while stepping there on this cardio machine (which I most of the time do), I look at people around. And since around 19-20 o'clock this place is usually full, some people have to stand at the wall or walk around the place to get a free machine. So I see one girl who is waiting, and another one who comes some minutes after her. And the machine next to me gets free. So the girl number 2 who walked around saw this free machine (and I swear she had no clue that there was this girl number 1 in line) and she approached it at the same time as the girl 1 did it (with an angry face expression). So girl 1 tells girl 2 that she was waiting longer. OK, fine, girl 2 makes no issues and looks for something else.
Girl 1 gets on the machine, and starts to plug in her headset. Which apparently doesn't work! (I mean the connection in the machine doesn't work). So what she does is that she gets down and starts looking for some other machine...
My God!!! How about next time trying first your headset (without making fuzz that I was the 1 st one in the line) and in case it doesn't work, letting the other person use the machine??!?!?!
This is so typical! There is the "rule" first goes first. But there is absolutely no flexibility and no proactiveness to take this rule somehow softer!
It is just one example of the kind of behavior that I also observed at work. We have rules and we have to obey them but how about sometimes making life easier (I'm not talking about breaking serious rules), just be a bit human and proactive and FLEXIBLE! Life will be easier, I swear.
A similar behavior can sometimes be on a highway. Some guys driving like crazy, flashing you with the long (full) lights, overtaking and in 1 minute breaking since there are other 5 cars on the left lane. Get a break!! ave a look first on the situation ahead instead of stresing everybody.
Puh! OK, I just had to le it out from me...
Again, please don't take it as an offending issue. I get angry at stuff in Poland or Sweden, or Romania for that matter... But since now I'm here I'm just sharing the experiences.
Otherwise, grey and 100% moisture (=light rain). Bläh!
But at least now I got the complete set of winter tyres.
So there is the thing: this is not the first time that I see how unflexible and short-sighted German people are (I mean NOT all of them! I don't want to generalize here). I just got back home from the gym (I will write some stories about this gym some other time - the topic for one complete blog, I'm telling you). And while stepping there on this cardio machine (which I most of the time do), I look at people around. And since around 19-20 o'clock this place is usually full, some people have to stand at the wall or walk around the place to get a free machine. So I see one girl who is waiting, and another one who comes some minutes after her. And the machine next to me gets free. So the girl number 2 who walked around saw this free machine (and I swear she had no clue that there was this girl number 1 in line) and she approached it at the same time as the girl 1 did it (with an angry face expression). So girl 1 tells girl 2 that she was waiting longer. OK, fine, girl 2 makes no issues and looks for something else.
Girl 1 gets on the machine, and starts to plug in her headset. Which apparently doesn't work! (I mean the connection in the machine doesn't work). So what she does is that she gets down and starts looking for some other machine...
My God!!! How about next time trying first your headset (without making fuzz that I was the 1 st one in the line) and in case it doesn't work, letting the other person use the machine??!?!?!
This is so typical! There is the "rule" first goes first. But there is absolutely no flexibility and no proactiveness to take this rule somehow softer!
It is just one example of the kind of behavior that I also observed at work. We have rules and we have to obey them but how about sometimes making life easier (I'm not talking about breaking serious rules), just be a bit human and proactive and FLEXIBLE! Life will be easier, I swear.
A similar behavior can sometimes be on a highway. Some guys driving like crazy, flashing you with the long (full) lights, overtaking and in 1 minute breaking since there are other 5 cars on the left lane. Get a break!! ave a look first on the situation ahead instead of stresing everybody.
Puh! OK, I just had to le it out from me...
Again, please don't take it as an offending issue. I get angry at stuff in Poland or Sweden, or Romania for that matter... But since now I'm here I'm just sharing the experiences.
Otherwise, grey and 100% moisture (=light rain). Bläh!
But at least now I got the complete set of winter tyres.
söndag 2 november 2008
I-lands problem...as it is called in Swedish
Why so? (in Swedish it is Industrialized-countries problem). Well last week at work we got to know that we have to use all our holidays until the end of this year... Due to cancelled orders from our customers (car manufacturers) we need some savings. Plus if there are no orders - there is no work for us. So now I have a "problem" since I'm off from work on the 6th of Dec already!!!! I mean it is nice with holidays, don't get me wrong, but would be better to have some plans. If I had known about it earlier, I would have bought a ticket to Mexico, Argentina or whatever - for almost the whole month! But now it is a bit too late. So I'm asking around some friends and maybe Dan and I will go to Egypt. If we manage to find some cheap last minute trip. Anybody else who would like to join?
Then back to Hamburg, then Poland, Xmas, and then Marbella. Should be nice!
All Saints weekend has been quite calm and quiet. Alex arrived on Friday - he came by car cause he was supposed to change the tyres - for the winter ones. On Saturday he went with Sandra and Hans downtown to get some electrinic gadgets (GPS and some presents for his dad), while I went to gym. Then we met in the city for fika. In the afternoon Alex started to change my tyres first. Everything went fine until....the 4th wheel, which just had some different nut and couldn't be unscrewed! So now I have 3 winter tyres and one summer one left. So I guess I have to go to some car workshop on Tuesday or so. Puh!
A neighbor of ours was also changing the tyres yesterday so it looked like "winter-tyre-picknick" ;-) Except the weather wasn't so nice...
This morning Alex started to change his tyres...and guess what? The rims don't fit in!! :-( So he has to look for some other ones and try to change them with someone in Stuttgart. Crap! Anyway, I managed to take a photo of (what I thought) him changing the tyres.
So now he left to Stuttgart.
Next week is Göteborg for me :-)
Then back to Hamburg, then Poland, Xmas, and then Marbella. Should be nice!
All Saints weekend has been quite calm and quiet. Alex arrived on Friday - he came by car cause he was supposed to change the tyres - for the winter ones. On Saturday he went with Sandra and Hans downtown to get some electrinic gadgets (GPS and some presents for his dad), while I went to gym. Then we met in the city for fika. In the afternoon Alex started to change my tyres first. Everything went fine until....the 4th wheel, which just had some different nut and couldn't be unscrewed! So now I have 3 winter tyres and one summer one left. So I guess I have to go to some car workshop on Tuesday or so. Puh!
A neighbor of ours was also changing the tyres yesterday so it looked like "winter-tyre-picknick" ;-) Except the weather wasn't so nice...
This morning Alex started to change his tyres...and guess what? The rims don't fit in!! :-( So he has to look for some other ones and try to change them with someone in Stuttgart. Crap! Anyway, I managed to take a photo of (what I thought) him changing the tyres.
So now he left to Stuttgart.
Next week is Göteborg for me :-)
söndag 26 oktober 2008
First complete weekend at home
On Friday we went to the movie theatre. To Abaton - one of the few original language cinemas in Hamburg, which are left. Alex and Hans and Sandra met earlier on Friday (guess who's got his new laptop - to know more check out Sandra's blog: http://www.millischeckl.com/).
They bought the tickets for Coen's new movie "Burn after reading". The movie was great!!! Later on we went for a drink to a bar (which was bar and hair dresser in one) and we got kicked out at 22.00! :-( Well, it's a hair saloon, right?
So we went further to "Elbe" near Handan's place. And got new Cuba Libres.
Saturday started with some gym, Alex's ironing session, groceries' shopping, fika with some friends, cake baking - for a dinner at Handan's.
Here you can see the whole group (Alex took picture).
Pedro came from Wolfsburg and stayed at our place. It was nice to see hime again. The weaher was sooooo great on Saturday!
In the evening we went for a dinner to Handan. It was nice!
Today the weather is crap. Raining, grey, bläh. Alex left to Stuttgart and Pedro back to Wolfsburg.
They bought the tickets for Coen's new movie "Burn after reading". The movie was great!!! Later on we went for a drink to a bar (which was bar and hair dresser in one) and we got kicked out at 22.00! :-( Well, it's a hair saloon, right?
So we went further to "Elbe" near Handan's place. And got new Cuba Libres.
Saturday started with some gym, Alex's ironing session, groceries' shopping, fika with some friends, cake baking - for a dinner at Handan's.
Here you can see the whole group (Alex took picture).
Pedro came from Wolfsburg and stayed at our place. It was nice to see hime again. The weaher was sooooo great on Saturday!
In the evening we went for a dinner to Handan. It was nice!
Today the weather is crap. Raining, grey, bläh. Alex left to Stuttgart and Pedro back to Wolfsburg.
söndag 19 oktober 2008
Weekend in Berlin
On Friday evening I went to Berlin. During the train journey I got some sms from Magda saying that Filip is stuck in STAU 50 km from Berlin, and Alex' plane got redirected and he is stuck in Amsterdam. What?! I somehow felt it was a joke... (and it was that!). Anyway, I met with Magda and Sebi at the central station, then taxi and we went to the apartment which we rented. Of course Filip and Alex were already there, with some beers :-)
That's the view from our apartment:
Around 22.00 we got hungry so we went out to have a look around Potsdamer Plats and our street - Charlottenstr. We found some "diner" and got some food. Then back to the apartment and get some sleep to be fresh for Saturday.
On Sat. first we had some breakfast near our place. Then we decided to take the double decker tourist bus around Berlin.
We started at Checkpoint Charlie and got off at Brandenburger Tor.
The day was beautiful and warm. From the Tor we went to the Jewish memorial place. Although it is a memorial place and one should be serious and respectful, you cannot help hiding behind the stones in this "labirynth" and scaring each other...
I really like this place. I mean as a memorial and architecture-interesting place.
Then we went went back to the bus and got off at Kurfurstendamm. We walked on the shopping street and had some tapas in KaDeWe.
Then headed to the apartment, bought some wines and food for breakfast.
At night we had dinner at Vapiano (which I must say is not as good as here in Hamburg). We were close to Sony Centrum with all "spacy" buildings and we finished the evening with some drinks (they had a rasberry mojito!).
Sunday we didn't do much. Coffee, walk around our quarter, then walked to Hauptbanhof were we all splitted into different directions.
Thank you guys for the weekend! It was nice!!!
That's the view from our apartment:
Around 22.00 we got hungry so we went out to have a look around Potsdamer Plats and our street - Charlottenstr. We found some "diner" and got some food. Then back to the apartment and get some sleep to be fresh for Saturday.
On Sat. first we had some breakfast near our place. Then we decided to take the double decker tourist bus around Berlin.
We started at Checkpoint Charlie and got off at Brandenburger Tor.
The day was beautiful and warm. From the Tor we went to the Jewish memorial place. Although it is a memorial place and one should be serious and respectful, you cannot help hiding behind the stones in this "labirynth" and scaring each other...
I really like this place. I mean as a memorial and architecture-interesting place.
Then we went went back to the bus and got off at Kurfurstendamm. We walked on the shopping street and had some tapas in KaDeWe.
Then headed to the apartment, bought some wines and food for breakfast.
At night we had dinner at Vapiano (which I must say is not as good as here in Hamburg). We were close to Sony Centrum with all "spacy" buildings and we finished the evening with some drinks (they had a rasberry mojito!).
Sunday we didn't do much. Coffee, walk around our quarter, then walked to Hauptbanhof were we all splitted into different directions.
Thank you guys for the weekend! It was nice!!!
lördag 11 oktober 2008
Goodbye weekend with Miguel and Melody..and other stuff
Last weekend was crazy! We planned to spend it with Miguel, Melody and Katia, and we booked minigolf dor Saturday. First I met with Sandra to buy some presents for the leaving family. Then we met Alex and Hans and had a fika, and in the meantime I received a call from Tunesian consulate that I need to deliver some papers to get the visa. And I had 30 min to fix it!!!!! So I drove with Hans to some bike shop to borrow their fax and I sent those papers. Sandra prepared the presents, and later on we went to minigolf.
After minigolf we went to Marrakech - a Marrocan restaurant in Altona. When we were booking the tables we said: we will be smth between 8 and 25 people. And guess what?! - at the end we WERE 25!!!
Dennis joined with his American family - 9 people! And then the Catalan connection came as well.
It was loud, food was great, wine even better (thanks Cyril for the choice, and Alex for the extra 3 bottles!). It was really really nice.
Then we decided to go to one bar to watch Barcelona soccer game. Well...some people watched it, while we were standing outside and having some beers and other stuff from Pedro's "Car bar". We had really good laughs! And although it was cold, late (we had to get up at 5.00 to go to the airport), it was great to be together with Miguel for the last time (until we go to Mexico and party together again).
We were at home at 2 and had to get up at 5. Alex and I flew to Romania. I was sleeping almost the whole way....
The week was intensive - plant visits in Romania and Turkey.
I got back Thursday night.
Yesterday Monica, Handan, Sandra and Hans and I went to see "Opera meets Kuba" in a Hamburg Filharmony. It was nice and different with this combination... Here you can see some more info and pictures - Sandra's blog:
http://www.millischeckl.com/
Today laundry, fika and Kumpir (baked potatoe place) in Schanze. Now packing again for the next trip tomorrow. So, again a short weekend. And next weekend probably Berlin.
After minigolf we went to Marrakech - a Marrocan restaurant in Altona. When we were booking the tables we said: we will be smth between 8 and 25 people. And guess what?! - at the end we WERE 25!!!
Dennis joined with his American family - 9 people! And then the Catalan connection came as well.
It was loud, food was great, wine even better (thanks Cyril for the choice, and Alex for the extra 3 bottles!). It was really really nice.
Then we decided to go to one bar to watch Barcelona soccer game. Well...some people watched it, while we were standing outside and having some beers and other stuff from Pedro's "Car bar". We had really good laughs! And although it was cold, late (we had to get up at 5.00 to go to the airport), it was great to be together with Miguel for the last time (until we go to Mexico and party together again).
We were at home at 2 and had to get up at 5. Alex and I flew to Romania. I was sleeping almost the whole way....
The week was intensive - plant visits in Romania and Turkey.
I got back Thursday night.
Yesterday Monica, Handan, Sandra and Hans and I went to see "Opera meets Kuba" in a Hamburg Filharmony. It was nice and different with this combination... Here you can see some more info and pictures - Sandra's blog:
http://www.millischeckl.com/
Today laundry, fika and Kumpir (baked potatoe place) in Schanze. Now packing again for the next trip tomorrow. So, again a short weekend. And next weekend probably Berlin.
tisdag 30 september 2008
The last wedding this year...I hope ;-)
Again it has been a while I gave you some update. Last weekend I was in Romania. It was nice being in Brasov again, although I forgot how tough the whole trip is. On the way to Bucharest, my plane from Dusseldorf got delayed by 2 hrs! "The crew didn't arrive" was the answer. And when they arrived from Prague, it turned out that the pilot couldn't fly any more since he flew for too many hours that day. Great! So we had to wait for another pilot. I was tired but somehow couldn't sleep on the plane...
We arrived at 00.30 instead of 22.00. Bleeeee
Taxi journey was also a bit unpleasant. Rain and quite many trucks; we arrived around 03.00 to Brasov and I had to wake up Bernd to let me in his apartment. And then I couldn't sleep... Bernd went to work around 8 and I had a meeting at 10 but cannot say that I was totally relaxed and awake. Anyway, Alex arrived later on Friday (after I spent some time downtown) and we went to his dad's place. Nice dinner, some chatt and going to bed.
The day after we met Paul and his girlfriend for lunch (before the wedding). Then we took cab to the groom's house. Cause that's the tradition. The family and some close friends were there. Some music, cakes, food and drinks. Afterwards all of us drove to the godfather's place for some blessing....or whatever they did there. We, the guests were waiting outside, freezing!!! It was damn cold.
Here are the guys/friends Alex used to work with: Paul and Vlad with their girls.
Anyway, after freezing for some while we went to the church. Oh yeah - bride's dad is Hungarian and they live in a town Sfantu Georghie (for sure wrong spelling) 30 km from Brasov. It is a Hugarian town pretty much - quite big minority (or majority) lives there.
So the church service was Hungarian and Romanian mixture.
After the church (I swear the temp. inside was around +5 degrees!!!) we got back to the cars and headed for the restaurant where the wedding party took place.
Well, it is certainly a different tradition than in Sweden or in Poland.
First - people dance almost all the time! Second - there is WAY too much food!!
We started with a champagne and a starter - some ham, cheese, bread, etc. We had some cognac which I drank fast since I had to defrost ;-) And then....a dance! It is cool - people just start dancing and having fun so fast. Anyway, after an hour or two we got the first dish - some fish and potatoes and sallad. I thought this was the main and kind of final dish...but no no.
And then dancing again.
Here - Jo and Paul.
The couple in their Walz.
And after some time we got the second dish - famous polenta (mămăligă) and sarmale (cabbage rolls with mince). Mums! But NOT after already so much food...
Then dancing and partying again...
The party finished around 4AM and since Alex and I were not going to Brasov we had to take a taxi to his dad's place. So we got one and as soon as we entered it, I kind of fell asleep. Kind of...cause you can't really sleep on that road ;-) Anyway, I woke up when the taxi stopped and I heard a question which road to take. And somehow we ended up on a sandy, field road in the middle of a corn or whatever field at 04.30 AM. OK.... holes in the road were so deep that I thought we would just loose all the wheels and would have to carry the car. And at the end...we got lost! I mean this road was some road to a farm or whatever. Hmm...ok, now turning back - and we managed to take a wrong sandy field road!!! My God!!! I thought I was having a bad dream and didn't even want to make a mess and yiel. Too tired as well. So at the end we made it back to the asfalt road (that I have no clue why we left at all) and we were at Gelu's place at 5 AM. I hit the bed directly.
Sunday was the departure day. We had breakfast, the weather was beautiful (as usual when I'm leaving Brasov).
A girlfriend of a friend of mine (Carina) and I took the same taxi to the airport. We left in a good time - 4 hours before the plane departure. Normally this trip shouldn't take more than 2,5 hrs. Normally...
As soon as we got out of Brasov and left the first curvy mountain road and got to Predeal we got STOP.
So I could make this picture:
HUUUUUUGE traffic jam!!! We moved super slowly and had no clue how big this line really is. We heard on the radio that there was this traffic due to the end of some folklore festival in Bran (where Dracula's castle is). My God!!! On the distance between Brasov and Sinaia which normally would take us maybe 50 min, this time it took us almost 3,5 hours!!!! We got a bit of panic. Called Lufthansa, got checked in and prayed for making it to the airport. Our taxi driver tried to make his best. And he really did but we really drove more than "Romanian" style ;-) We overtook like 10 cars standing in that line. As soon there was some car movement we accelerated and built a third lane. Between the cars in our line and those which were coming from the opposite direction. Hmmm...quite akward. After Sinaia on a kind of straight road we drove 150km/hr, just blinking with the full (long) lights so cars would let us go. I think people just hated us, showed us the finger and I was thinking of making a sign that we are REALLY in hurry to the airport. Anyway, sweaty and full of adrenaline we made it!!!! The plane got delay of 50 min and that saved us!! amazing!!! Then we just missed the plane in Munich but that's no problem - they rebook you for the next one 45 min later. Once I got on that plane I just fell asleep. I think adrenaline dropped totally.
Now on Sunday a new trip to Brasov for work. Hope this time it will go smoother.
Friday is a day off - German national day so a relaxing weekend is ahead.
We arrived at 00.30 instead of 22.00. Bleeeee
Taxi journey was also a bit unpleasant. Rain and quite many trucks; we arrived around 03.00 to Brasov and I had to wake up Bernd to let me in his apartment. And then I couldn't sleep... Bernd went to work around 8 and I had a meeting at 10 but cannot say that I was totally relaxed and awake. Anyway, Alex arrived later on Friday (after I spent some time downtown) and we went to his dad's place. Nice dinner, some chatt and going to bed.
The day after we met Paul and his girlfriend for lunch (before the wedding). Then we took cab to the groom's house. Cause that's the tradition. The family and some close friends were there. Some music, cakes, food and drinks. Afterwards all of us drove to the godfather's place for some blessing....or whatever they did there. We, the guests were waiting outside, freezing!!! It was damn cold.
Here are the guys/friends Alex used to work with: Paul and Vlad with their girls.
Anyway, after freezing for some while we went to the church. Oh yeah - bride's dad is Hungarian and they live in a town Sfantu Georghie (for sure wrong spelling) 30 km from Brasov. It is a Hugarian town pretty much - quite big minority (or majority) lives there.
So the church service was Hungarian and Romanian mixture.
After the church (I swear the temp. inside was around +5 degrees!!!) we got back to the cars and headed for the restaurant where the wedding party took place.
Well, it is certainly a different tradition than in Sweden or in Poland.
First - people dance almost all the time! Second - there is WAY too much food!!
We started with a champagne and a starter - some ham, cheese, bread, etc. We had some cognac which I drank fast since I had to defrost ;-) And then....a dance! It is cool - people just start dancing and having fun so fast. Anyway, after an hour or two we got the first dish - some fish and potatoes and sallad. I thought this was the main and kind of final dish...but no no.
And then dancing again.
Here - Jo and Paul.
The couple in their Walz.
And after some time we got the second dish - famous polenta (mămăligă) and sarmale (cabbage rolls with mince). Mums! But NOT after already so much food...
Then dancing and partying again...
The party finished around 4AM and since Alex and I were not going to Brasov we had to take a taxi to his dad's place. So we got one and as soon as we entered it, I kind of fell asleep. Kind of...cause you can't really sleep on that road ;-) Anyway, I woke up when the taxi stopped and I heard a question which road to take. And somehow we ended up on a sandy, field road in the middle of a corn or whatever field at 04.30 AM. OK.... holes in the road were so deep that I thought we would just loose all the wheels and would have to carry the car. And at the end...we got lost! I mean this road was some road to a farm or whatever. Hmm...ok, now turning back - and we managed to take a wrong sandy field road!!! My God!!! I thought I was having a bad dream and didn't even want to make a mess and yiel. Too tired as well. So at the end we made it back to the asfalt road (that I have no clue why we left at all) and we were at Gelu's place at 5 AM. I hit the bed directly.
Sunday was the departure day. We had breakfast, the weather was beautiful (as usual when I'm leaving Brasov).
A girlfriend of a friend of mine (Carina) and I took the same taxi to the airport. We left in a good time - 4 hours before the plane departure. Normally this trip shouldn't take more than 2,5 hrs. Normally...
As soon as we got out of Brasov and left the first curvy mountain road and got to Predeal we got STOP.
So I could make this picture:
HUUUUUUGE traffic jam!!! We moved super slowly and had no clue how big this line really is. We heard on the radio that there was this traffic due to the end of some folklore festival in Bran (where Dracula's castle is). My God!!! On the distance between Brasov and Sinaia which normally would take us maybe 50 min, this time it took us almost 3,5 hours!!!! We got a bit of panic. Called Lufthansa, got checked in and prayed for making it to the airport. Our taxi driver tried to make his best. And he really did but we really drove more than "Romanian" style ;-) We overtook like 10 cars standing in that line. As soon there was some car movement we accelerated and built a third lane. Between the cars in our line and those which were coming from the opposite direction. Hmmm...quite akward. After Sinaia on a kind of straight road we drove 150km/hr, just blinking with the full (long) lights so cars would let us go. I think people just hated us, showed us the finger and I was thinking of making a sign that we are REALLY in hurry to the airport. Anyway, sweaty and full of adrenaline we made it!!!! The plane got delay of 50 min and that saved us!! amazing!!! Then we just missed the plane in Munich but that's no problem - they rebook you for the next one 45 min later. Once I got on that plane I just fell asleep. I think adrenaline dropped totally.
Now on Sunday a new trip to Brasov for work. Hope this time it will go smoother.
Friday is a day off - German national day so a relaxing weekend is ahead.
söndag 21 september 2008
Oktoberfest (or Wisn' as it is called...)
Time is flying by and I just noticed that it's been 2 weeks since I wrote last time. I try to update this blog at least each weekend but the thing is that not so much happened last weekend. Beside that I fixed some stuff at home, spent half a day with Monica and Raul, watched the movie "Sex and the city", packed and left for a business trip on Sunday late afternoon.
Then I was gone for almost the whole week and on Friday evening I flew for Oktoberfest to Munich.
Alex and Hans picked me up with Hans' rented Mercedes. My God! Monster! I think it was the new S-klass (have to confirm that though) - there was so much space on the back seat that I could almost stretch my whole body and easily sleep. The car almost could make coffee ;-)
Anyway, we met with Sandra and her friend Susi (in whose apartment Alex and I stayed the whole weekend), Hans' friend Björn was there as well. We chatted for a while, had some beers and wine and went to bed.
On Saturday, first we returned this monster car, got some food and then had breakfast in quite a big group. Then Sandra, Hans and Susi put on their traditional Bayerish outfits and we got ready for Okt.fest (which over there is actually called Wisn' or Wissen?). The place is like a fair with lots of food, beers, roller coasters, and other rides, etc. There were quite many people but it wasn't soooo crowded.
We were lucky and managed to get a table in one place. Ordered 1 liter beers (and radler which is like alsterwasser in Hamburg = beer+sprite). Having good time and enjoying the atmosphere.
Here a traditional hat:
And some beers:
But since this table was booked from 15.00 we had to go out to a beer garden which would be OK if it were a bit warmer....so after another beer we tried to find some free table indoors - forget it!
So the evening finished up in a typical Bayern restaurant with some good food and ...."interesting" bil. For a kind of apfelschorle, they charged us 7euro!!! Separate for juice and water! WHAT?!
On Sunday we had breakfast and then went to English Garden for a walk. And a giant brezel. Mums!!!
Now back to HH. And the new week is ahead. With my dad's visit here, and going to Romania on Thu evening. Till the next time!
Then I was gone for almost the whole week and on Friday evening I flew for Oktoberfest to Munich.
Alex and Hans picked me up with Hans' rented Mercedes. My God! Monster! I think it was the new S-klass (have to confirm that though) - there was so much space on the back seat that I could almost stretch my whole body and easily sleep. The car almost could make coffee ;-)
Anyway, we met with Sandra and her friend Susi (in whose apartment Alex and I stayed the whole weekend), Hans' friend Björn was there as well. We chatted for a while, had some beers and wine and went to bed.
On Saturday, first we returned this monster car, got some food and then had breakfast in quite a big group. Then Sandra, Hans and Susi put on their traditional Bayerish outfits and we got ready for Okt.fest (which over there is actually called Wisn' or Wissen?). The place is like a fair with lots of food, beers, roller coasters, and other rides, etc. There were quite many people but it wasn't soooo crowded.
We were lucky and managed to get a table in one place. Ordered 1 liter beers (and radler which is like alsterwasser in Hamburg = beer+sprite). Having good time and enjoying the atmosphere.
Here a traditional hat:
And some beers:
But since this table was booked from 15.00 we had to go out to a beer garden which would be OK if it were a bit warmer....so after another beer we tried to find some free table indoors - forget it!
So the evening finished up in a typical Bayern restaurant with some good food and ...."interesting" bil. For a kind of apfelschorle, they charged us 7euro!!! Separate for juice and water! WHAT?!
On Sunday we had breakfast and then went to English Garden for a walk. And a giant brezel. Mums!!!
Now back to HH. And the new week is ahead. With my dad's visit here, and going to Romania on Thu evening. Till the next time!
måndag 8 september 2008
And the pictures from our bachelorette party
As I promised there would be some pictures from our picnic on Sunday. We surprised Agnieszka at home, gave her a little present and then went by S-bahn to Rissen. We found a beautiful spot at a small lake. We had lunch over there, with 2 bottles of wine. And Melody's peanutbutter cake in a form of.....tja...well, something which belongs to guys ;-)
After the lunch we biked further to "wild" animal park where we said hi to wild pigs, deers, some birds, etc. It was a really nice and relaxing day and Agnieszka seemed to be happy.
The happy trio (Handan, Monica and Sandra) waiting for Agnieszka in front of the house.
Agnieszka and a deer:
And the happy bunch:
After the lunch we biked further to "wild" animal park where we said hi to wild pigs, deers, some birds, etc. It was a really nice and relaxing day and Agnieszka seemed to be happy.
The happy trio (Handan, Monica and Sandra) waiting for Agnieszka in front of the house.
Agnieszka and a deer:
And the happy bunch:
lördag 6 september 2008
Weddings, bachelor (-ette) parties...
Last weekend I went with Alex to his cousin's wedding in Aachen (kloster) and wedding party in Vaals in Holland. As it seems to be a rule we had a fantastic weather! The ceremony was both in German and Romanian, also mixture of protestant and ortodox styles. I don't have so many pictures but on the attached one you can see Paula and Thorsten.
The first night we spent at Paula's & Thorten's place in Aachen. The second night we got to know that we would stay at Alex's aunt's place in Eupen (Belgium). Fine but we had to wait until everybody left and said goodbye and so on in order to drive home. So it took a while.... Totally tired and after driving around Germany-Holland-Belgium in the middle of the night (or early morning) we got home and collapsed in the beds (well I did it).
Then in the morning (ok it was 12.30 but it felt like early morning) the rest of the family came to the house and crashed in the living room where we were sleeping on a matrace in the middle of the room. Everybody was walking around and talking loudly and harding noticing we were sleeping there :-) It felt like Kusturica's movie. I swear. I just got a laughter attack when Alex started playing some Balkan kind of music from his mobile phone.
Anyway, it was fun and nice to meet Alex family.
This weekend is a weekend of bachelor party for Dennis and bachelorette for Agnieszka. The guys are still partying and they had a really full and advanced agenda.
We will go with the girls for a picnic somewhere in the nature tomorrow. So some pictures will follow. Hope wetter.de is right about the weather forecast. Cause for today they said sun and no rain. And guess what....???
The first night we spent at Paula's & Thorten's place in Aachen. The second night we got to know that we would stay at Alex's aunt's place in Eupen (Belgium). Fine but we had to wait until everybody left and said goodbye and so on in order to drive home. So it took a while.... Totally tired and after driving around Germany-Holland-Belgium in the middle of the night (or early morning) we got home and collapsed in the beds (well I did it).
Then in the morning (ok it was 12.30 but it felt like early morning) the rest of the family came to the house and crashed in the living room where we were sleeping on a matrace in the middle of the room. Everybody was walking around and talking loudly and harding noticing we were sleeping there :-) It felt like Kusturica's movie. I swear. I just got a laughter attack when Alex started playing some Balkan kind of music from his mobile phone.
Anyway, it was fun and nice to meet Alex family.
This weekend is a weekend of bachelor party for Dennis and bachelorette for Agnieszka. The guys are still partying and they had a really full and advanced agenda.
We will go with the girls for a picnic somewhere in the nature tomorrow. So some pictures will follow. Hope wetter.de is right about the weather forecast. Cause for today they said sun and no rain. And guess what....???
torsdag 28 augusti 2008
Nothing really....
It's been a while since I wrote last time. Sorry!! But nothing really happened... Well last weekend Alex and Filip came to HH. It was nice! Well apart from weather on Saturday. It was pour-raining the whole day and around +13. Summer...
We went out on Friday and met with some friends in Schanze.
Then on Saturday we met with most of the international bunch and we had dinner at Bok (Asian food, yummi!).
During the day the guys did some shopping (can you believe - I almost got nothing!).
Then on Sunday Alex got very eager to iron his shirts, and my for that matter. The day before he brought the ironing board from the cellar (Thomas left it for him) and the picture was some model (?) in bikini.
The thing was that as soon as he started ironing, this bikini started to disappear due to the heat.
Great! ;-)
Both Filip and Alex (and Thomas as well) think that this is a perfect motivation for guys to iron. You bet! Even some of my shirts got ironed. My God! Guys are so simple... ;-)
Tomorrow I'm flying to Köln, Alex will pick me up and we will go to the Belgian side to Alex' aunt's place. On Saturday there is a wedding of his cousin - in Holland. In a castle! Cool!
I'll write more after the weekend.
Have a good one!
We went out on Friday and met with some friends in Schanze.
Then on Saturday we met with most of the international bunch and we had dinner at Bok (Asian food, yummi!).
During the day the guys did some shopping (can you believe - I almost got nothing!).
Then on Sunday Alex got very eager to iron his shirts, and my for that matter. The day before he brought the ironing board from the cellar (Thomas left it for him) and the picture was some model (?) in bikini.
The thing was that as soon as he started ironing, this bikini started to disappear due to the heat.
Great! ;-)
Both Filip and Alex (and Thomas as well) think that this is a perfect motivation for guys to iron. You bet! Even some of my shirts got ironed. My God! Guys are so simple... ;-)
Tomorrow I'm flying to Köln, Alex will pick me up and we will go to the Belgian side to Alex' aunt's place. On Saturday there is a wedding of his cousin - in Holland. In a castle! Cool!
I'll write more after the weekend.
Have a good one!
måndag 18 augusti 2008
Short vacations
I went to visit Alex close to Stuttgart more than a week ago. I went on Friday night and stayed until Monday morning. I had big plans of travelling around Schwarzwald but we weren't so close to it, and all the highways around Stuttgart seemed to be under construction. So instead we visited Stuggart (picture below - you can see some International Art-Bear Exhibition), which is much smaller than Hamburg and not so exciting but still OK.
After visiting the city we drove a bit around and found a really nice spot with grape plantation.
The day after we visited a "kloster" (it is monastery in Engl, right?), which is under UNESCO protection, and later on we went to see a barock castle in Ludwigsburg.
Monastery was cool; the castle little bit too much (as baroc style usually is).
Then on Monday I went to Göteborg. It was a nice, relaxing week. Too bad "la familja" was working. But we spent time together in the evenings. I also met Leif and Jenny with little Oumar. On Tuesday we went to see Miss Li and Moneybrother concerts. M-brother didn't seem so happy and willing to perform, which is a pity. The weather was also a typical GBG-weather. Fredrik and Tinna joined us, and we had dinner in a Turkish restaurant. Nice!
Then on Friday we had "kräftskiva" at Leif's place. My God!!! Yummi!!!! We ate so much crayfish and shrimps!! Had wine and snaps. It was sooooo delicious! Tack Leif!
On Saturday the whole familja went to the coast. First we had lunch close to Kungsbacka (kill me - but I don't remember the name! :-/) It was so nice to be with all of them. And the smallest one - Theo loves olives! Check out the picture! (Aparently he also loves sardines or sardelles - fantastic, huh?).
We also went to swim in the sea. Well...it was Tania and Dan who jumped from the cliffs. The water was cold. I'm a "chicken".
Now I'm back to Hamburg. A new week has started. Have a good one!
After visiting the city we drove a bit around and found a really nice spot with grape plantation.
The day after we visited a "kloster" (it is monastery in Engl, right?), which is under UNESCO protection, and later on we went to see a barock castle in Ludwigsburg.
Monastery was cool; the castle little bit too much (as baroc style usually is).
Then on Monday I went to Göteborg. It was a nice, relaxing week. Too bad "la familja" was working. But we spent time together in the evenings. I also met Leif and Jenny with little Oumar. On Tuesday we went to see Miss Li and Moneybrother concerts. M-brother didn't seem so happy and willing to perform, which is a pity. The weather was also a typical GBG-weather. Fredrik and Tinna joined us, and we had dinner in a Turkish restaurant. Nice!
Then on Friday we had "kräftskiva" at Leif's place. My God!!! Yummi!!!! We ate so much crayfish and shrimps!! Had wine and snaps. It was sooooo delicious! Tack Leif!
On Saturday the whole familja went to the coast. First we had lunch close to Kungsbacka (kill me - but I don't remember the name! :-/) It was so nice to be with all of them. And the smallest one - Theo loves olives! Check out the picture! (Aparently he also loves sardines or sardelles - fantastic, huh?).
We also went to swim in the sea. Well...it was Tania and Dan who jumped from the cliffs. The water was cold. I'm a "chicken".
Now I'm back to Hamburg. A new week has started. Have a good one!
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