Merry Christmas! God Jul! Wesolych Swiat!

So it is time again...
This year has passed by (almost) really fast! Or is it so I say every year???
Anyway, the first snow has come to HH today!! It actually looks much nicer and feels cozier with the snow. Lighter and more winter-ish. I just hope that Alex will land with no delays tomorrow and that we can fly without problems on Monday.
Looking forward to those holidays.

Wish you a really great and peaceful Xmas, spend in a nice atmosphere. And a great start into New Year!!! Hopefully it will be one full of adventures and challenges.

Lussekatter

The 2nd Sunday in Advent and I still haven't found my Xmas candle holder... It has disappeared!! Or rather I think Alex brought it once down to the cellar but I cannot find it!!! Oh well... next week hopefully.
Since I was in GBG last weekend I wanted desparately to bake lussebullar - saffran buns which are absolutely yummi!!! So yesterday, Handan and I did it! Normally I find baking any bread, cakes etc which have to have yeast in, a huge challenge. Cause the dough never really grew. But this time I succeeded!!! Whoohoo! They are great! One thing is though that they didn't become as yellow as they should. I probably should have listed to Handan and somehow crushed or put saffran into warm water first. But they taste great! I'm so so happy!


Before baking we went a bit around shops in Eppendorf. It was raining and windy - such crappy weather!!

Only 2 weeks of work and I have holidays! Hope it will go fast. Although - a new year, one year older K. Oh well.. ;-)

The end of November

Yesterday was the 1st Sunday of Advent. I cannot believe that it is only 3.5 weeks until Xmas!!! Last year I had holidays already from ca 10th Dec... Time is just flying pass so fast!!
Anyway, this weekend I was in Göteborg. It was as ususal very nice and cosy (do you spell it with "s" or "z" - I always mixed it). A bit of shopping, fika, brunch (I just love Le Petit Café in Haga!!!), meeting friends. A dinner at a new place called Familjen. Fish was really nice!
I had an obligatory kanelbulle and also had one lussekatt. Mums!!! I got some inspiration to bake them here. Although I think there are some problems with certain ingredients...
I also managed to meet Kristin (who was on the way back from her weekend in Amsterdam) at Schipol!!! Soooo cool to see her again!!!
This week seems to be quite cold. Or probably normal actually for December. It is just that I got used to those +9C for a while now ;-)
I guess there will be some going out to Xmas markets soon. I miss glögg but I guess German gluhwein will have to do. Wanted to buy some glögg at the airport but got to know that it is not allowed to buy alcohol within the EU!!! What?!?! Since when??? I need to get updated about those regulations I guess...

1 week in Istanbul

I went to Istanbul to give ergonomics training to my colleagues in our plant close to Ist. And since there were many people we had to split the training into 2 groups. It was in a way good cause I could also spend the weekend in Ist. And it was actually the 1st time I had time to see the city. Or at least some parts of it...

Alex arrived on Fri evening and afterwards we met with two of my colleagues. We went a bit around Bagdat stret - a long shopping and eating paradise ;-) Well, we just had dinner.

Saturday morning we went a bit around Uskudar district - close to our hotel. It is in the Asian side of Istanbul. It was nice and warm. Felt like late summer in a way.



Then we met with my colleague who comes from Istanbul and she showed us a bit around. Alex actually has been few times in Ist so he has seen quite much and the most of historical places.
We took a boat to the European side and went to see Sophia church and Sultanahmet Mosque. Both are so beautiful!!!

On the way we stopped at Spicy Bazaar and afterwards we went to Grand Bazaar. Which is huuuuuuge!!!

















We had a late lunch in a famous "köfte" restaurant. Yummi!

In the evening we were quite tired so we didn't do much..

Alex left on Sunday morning. I decided to visit Topkapi Palace. Which is quite big so it took me few hours to walk around there.
Again it was a beautiful day.










Afterwards I went around and had some fish lunch at the waterfront.
Saw some interesting architecture as well:



I didn't get to see some other important places. And neither Taksim - a huge and one of the most famous streets in Ist. Oh well... next time :)

My dad is in HH this weekend. Maybe we'll have dinner or brunch with some friends.
And next weekend - Göteborg!!! :-)

Halloween party and November

Last weekend we had a Halloween party at Dennis' and Aga's place. Originally the plan was to get together and help them getting rid of alcohol which they had since wedding and what Miguel left there.
Then we proposed a dress up party since it was Halloween!
I wanted to be Pippi Långstrump but I couldn't find a wig (ok I didn't even have time to look for one) and then I got panick so it ended up with what you see on the pictures. That is half witch - the eye got stuck on a wrong spot first so you can hardly see it maybe..
People were really cool dressed!
And it was so much fun!!











Then the rest of the weekend was calm and quite relaxing.
Alex left to Hungary on Sunday - to work there for some while.
The whole week now it has been a typical November weather. Usch!! Rain and cold and windy. Crap!

But next week I get to travel with work to Istanbul!!

Göteborg gang in HH

Last weekend my dear friends from GBG visited us in HH. Finally!!! ;-)
The reason was good - Marcus Berg - a football player from IFK GBG plays now for HSV. So with some help of work colleagues I got the tickets and we all went to the game on Saturday. The game sucked, especially when compared with another game Barca-Valencia on TV the same night.
Anyway, Petra, Magnus, Fredrik and Tommy came on Sat before noon. After some coffee we went downtown and strawled around. Had some lunch, did a bit of window shopping; then home, eat burritos and go to the game. Together with some other 70.000 people!






After the game we went together with Guillem and Dennis to see that Barca game in the usual bar.
When we got home, we realized that we needed to pump the matraces. The big one we fixed in the cellar. It was fun to get it in the elevator together with Fredrik, Alex and me.



The problem was that this matrace was loosing air so Magnus had to pump in at 4 AM!!! I think he woke up half of the building ;-)

Sunday - I woke up at 9, while the others at 10.30!!! We had late breakfast and then again went to the city. We went to Landungsbrucke and then walked along Elbe. The day was so beautiful!!!





We had some coffee at the "Coffee roasting café", then walked to St. Nicolas church remainings, had lunch at Gröninger with their good beer, and we finished with a walk at Alster. Then got some local döner for dinner at home.

The weekend passed fast but it was so much fun! Tack att ni kom!!

Today Alex changed the tryes in my car so I'm ready for winter (NOT!!!). Hope this week will pass fast. On Sunday Miguel is coming (our crazy Mexican friend from our company) so looking forward that!

China - part 2

We stayed only 1 night in Guilin (the city is not that spectacular), went to one park/garden and then left to a much nicer Yangshou (where everybody else went).





The nature around Yangshou is beautiful - the funny looking hills covered with trees, rivers and rce fields. We took a "bamboo" raft trip on Li River, rented bikes and biked to Moon Hill and chilled out on the roof of our hostel.













From Yangshou and Guilin we went up North again - to Xi'An and Terracota Warriors. From +34 degrees to rain and cold :(
But the Warriors are impressive. We also stayed in a traditional looking hostel.













When we arrived back to XiAn we had a plan of visiting the muslim quarter but there was no way we could get hold on any taxi or bus or whatever means of transportation! We walked for over 1 hour in the rain and at the end took this "riksha" which was a rip of but still took us faster to a dumpling restaurant. Unfortunately we only had time to get our stuff from the hostel and go to the airport to catch the flight back to Beijing.



Back to Beijing felt nice. For Filip it sort of felt like coming back home :)
In the morning we went to the Forbidden City, then to some markets to get some presents, glasses, Chucks (which I never got due to "high" prices), etc.





That was my last day in Beijing. The day after I took off. Due to the fact that I got some awful cold the trip back home wasn't so nice. The pressure in my ears was killing me :( But thanks God I didn't catch anything what could put me in the quarantine in China. The trip was great and full of surprises. Still many places to be seen. Some other time. Just hope that people will start taking care of the external environment - otherwise there is not much to be seen over there...

China - part 1

I don't know how I can manage to update this blog after two weeks in China. The good thing is that I kept a paper version of blog - the old school diary. But it is too much to write here so I'm just gonna write a little and place only some pictures (out of 700 or 800 which I have...). To see more pics - check out on Facebook.

Two weeks passed fast but there was so much impressions and experiences. Amazing country! Amazing culture and less amazing land of copies at present. Friendly people. Good food. Pollution. Trees are really not green. A combination of 100 different scents/smells on the streets. Bikes and super expensive cars on the streets. 1,5 billion people on holidays at the same time. I hate crowds!!!!

Trip started at Filip's place in Beijing. All the musts have been done: Lama Temple, Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen (almost totally closed due to the 60th's year celebration of the Republic), the Great Wall, markets, Forbidden City etc. I'm a bit disappointed cause I didn't eat Beijing duck - oh well...
After a few days in Beijing, I had an "appetizer" of Chinese turists who had holidays. Plus the celebrations of 60 years of the Republic didn't make the things easier. Crowds all over, closed areas etc.
I had a few days with Filip's friend Mathias who was also at Filip's place. We went to Lama Temple, Temple of Heaven, visited some hutongs - old, genuine districts with small streets, the Great Wall.
















Then we took a night train to Shanghai (on soft chairs, 10 hrs long trip). Check out the crowd at Beijing train station (Chinese people started their national holidays):



We stayed at a very nice hostel - Blue Mountain Hostel. The first day wasn't so nice due to the weather. It was pouring rain so much that our new umbrellas which we got there didn't resist. We met Ola and Kuba (Filip's friends from Gdynia) there. Shanghi is cool but Lonely Planet tips couldn't be seen due to the fact that Shanghai is Expo 2010 host and right now there is a lot of construction places all over and no access for people. Great...



A very nice and cozy district - within the French Quarter:










From Shanghai Filip and I went to Guilin in the South.
Took Maglev (magnetic train with speed of 400 km/hr) to the airport: