24 March 2008
Catchup - March 200 8
And then there's been March.
It's been mayhem. It's been wonderful and shit and a whole lot of confusing.
First off, i decided that for the Scotland trip (nature cruise in may, with the 'rents) I absolutely need a better camera. One with interchangeable lenses so i can take great pictures from far away, and have more and more control over the photos.. This, of course, means Digital SLR! I talked with some camera savvy friends here and at home (via the magic of the internets). i read a bunch of articles and decided on a Canon 400D. I picked up a 70-300mm tele lens, but i'm still working out which other lenses i'll need.
in order to avoid being one of those folks who lays out a whole wad of cash for a good camera/lens kit, but shoots all her pictures on Auto, (and to reduce the experimental learning curve to get better pictures sooner), i'm taking a photography class at the Adult Education center in Bamberg.
i also signed up for yoga, 15 sessions for 30€! can't beat it! and next weekend will be an intro to Afro-Brazilian dance seminar with the girlfriends. should be a hoot.
The first classes took place in the first week of March. That first weekend, I visited Karen, who was in Cologne on Business.
I shot the first pics with the new cam. At first i was just sort of snapping. I loved the colors at the flower stand, had to get a shot of the Cathedral from the bridge.
I had a very Austin Powers moment, with Karen in the square. "Yes, Loving iT! Give me more! Grr! Sexy, Bay-bee, very Grrr! Yes! Yes! NO! NO! ach, i'm spent."
There was some general touristing.
and the world is thiiiiis big. we ran into my only coworker in Cologne, right in front of the cathedral, where some punks were having a pillow fight. yeah. no kidding.
in the cathedral i started fooling around with the cam, i tried playing with focus on the long rows of votive candles, and i pulled out the tripod and attempted saturated pix of distant stained glass windows.
I especially liked that last glass window, because it looks like it's not receiving the transmitted image. like it's a 404, or tuned to the static channel. :)
We had an extra-lucky encounter on saturday. I'd found a yarn shop on the internets, and Karen remembered the address! So even though it was after 5 (because we needed a caffeine hit - at Starbucks!) and everything usually closes by 6 on Saturdays, we set off on foot to cross town. We got there just before 6, and found out that they'd been closed since 5. But, because we had our noses pressed against the window, they let us in!
Karen got her much-anticipated german sock-yarn infusion. I found exactly the yarn i'd want to make this cardigan - a pretty blue Malabrigo and a coffee colored merino from GGH. ok, i still need to get the Rowan Kidsilk haze.. but still. kismet (and a little plastic rectangle!) brought me a sweater's worth of yarn!!
Sunday morning, K and I bopped around her neighborhood. We found an excellent coffee shop with attached quiche-café. We had apple-onion-ham quiche and Latte macchiatos. Doesn't K look cute with her Euro-Scarf?
and the quiche was just as yummy as it looks. then we lucked into an antique market. i got the cutest handbag, some silver pie servers and buttons for the sweater. success!
then on the way home, i was supposed to get on a train from the Cologne Convention Center headed towards Würzburg. ..yeah. there were people who'd been standing on the platform for more than 2 hours. The rails were blocked somewhere, so the trains that were going in the direction i wanted to go had been blocked for more than 2h. I sat and chilled, and contemplated. The train came, and I tried to get on the first one, but it was so packed that i ended up back on the platform. The second train came and i got in and got a seat - next to 6 Americans travelling for Siemens. That was a riot. I think they bought me beer because I said, "Oh! I snowboard with your legal department!"
Even though my departing train was delayed about an hour, i got home 4 minutes later than I was supposed to with my original itinerary. I caught a faster train from Würzburg.
Then, second weekend of march I flew to Gothenburg Sweden. I finished my Valentine Socks (started in Feb on the Zillertal Ski-weekend) on the plane up to Sweden. That meant I had brand new handmade wool socks to wear for my first sightseeing in Sweden. w00t. ..they are fraternal twins. :)
This Gothenburg excursion is what my company calls a "Look and See" trip. You go on one of those if you're thinking about relocating. My job in Germany has been "below expectations" since I got here, so after months of trying to get it right here, the management is thinking of sending me up to replace some expats-going-home in Sweden. There was a lot of uncertainty before the trip - was it going to happen or not? i had to do a whole lot of wrangling and calling Embassies before I could book the tickets. Just to give you an idea, tix got booked Friday afternoon and I flew Saturday morning.
Gothenburg's pretty cool. Much larger, more english-speaking, and just sort of cooler than Bamberg. Lots of ethnic restaurants. Lots of people, bars, shops, 7-11's. really. that's where we bought our tram tickets. heh.
Do street-cars get Road Rage?
The work situation up there seems really good, and I felt really comfortable in the city. I saw some apartments, went to the grocery store, learned about how the health care system up there functions.
I walked through the city, and snapped some pix with my new paparazzi camera.
The crocuses were up in more than one park. It snowed the next day, though! I like the style of the big brick apartment buildings. They're kind of Victorian. Makes sense, because many were built in late 1800's early 1900's.
Later in the week I drove out to the island of Öckerö. There's no bridge, so you drive onto a car ferry and it takes you over for free. That was a pretty cool thing. And the island is full of cute little fishing villages.
The flights home worked out great, and I was home just in time for a 4-day weekend. I think it's the first weekend i've been home for about 6 weeks. Heh. Friday night I went out with my friend Nadine (who's torn her achilles tendon, and is on crutches), we drank wine and played Yahtzee with her boyfriend and his pal. Then Saturday I bought some mad german kitchen knives (Saturday is the only one of the 4 days when any stores will be open) and stocked up on vegetables to cut. I was so inspired by the quiches with Karen in Cologne that I made one of those this weekend - broccoli and mushroom with swiss. very exciting.
It's been nice to lay around in my own place for a bit. but i'm starting to get a little stir crazy. :)
It's been mayhem. It's been wonderful and shit and a whole lot of confusing.
First off, i decided that for the Scotland trip (nature cruise in may, with the 'rents) I absolutely need a better camera. One with interchangeable lenses so i can take great pictures from far away, and have more and more control over the photos.. This, of course, means Digital SLR! I talked with some camera savvy friends here and at home (via the magic of the internets). i read a bunch of articles and decided on a Canon 400D. I picked up a 70-300mm tele lens, but i'm still working out which other lenses i'll need.
in order to avoid being one of those folks who lays out a whole wad of cash for a good camera/lens kit, but shoots all her pictures on Auto, (and to reduce the experimental learning curve to get better pictures sooner), i'm taking a photography class at the Adult Education center in Bamberg.
i also signed up for yoga, 15 sessions for 30€! can't beat it! and next weekend will be an intro to Afro-Brazilian dance seminar with the girlfriends. should be a hoot.
The first classes took place in the first week of March. That first weekend, I visited Karen, who was in Cologne on Business.
I shot the first pics with the new cam. At first i was just sort of snapping. I loved the colors at the flower stand, had to get a shot of the Cathedral from the bridge.
I had a very Austin Powers moment, with Karen in the square. "Yes, Loving iT! Give me more! Grr! Sexy, Bay-bee, very Grrr! Yes! Yes! NO! NO! ach, i'm spent."
There was some general touristing.
and the world is thiiiiis big. we ran into my only coworker in Cologne, right in front of the cathedral, where some punks were having a pillow fight. yeah. no kidding.
in the cathedral i started fooling around with the cam, i tried playing with focus on the long rows of votive candles, and i pulled out the tripod and attempted saturated pix of distant stained glass windows.
I especially liked that last glass window, because it looks like it's not receiving the transmitted image. like it's a 404, or tuned to the static channel. :)
We had an extra-lucky encounter on saturday. I'd found a yarn shop on the internets, and Karen remembered the address! So even though it was after 5 (because we needed a caffeine hit - at Starbucks!) and everything usually closes by 6 on Saturdays, we set off on foot to cross town. We got there just before 6, and found out that they'd been closed since 5. But, because we had our noses pressed against the window, they let us in!
Karen got her much-anticipated german sock-yarn infusion. I found exactly the yarn i'd want to make this cardigan - a pretty blue Malabrigo and a coffee colored merino from GGH. ok, i still need to get the Rowan Kidsilk haze.. but still. kismet (and a little plastic rectangle!) brought me a sweater's worth of yarn!!
Sunday morning, K and I bopped around her neighborhood. We found an excellent coffee shop with attached quiche-café. We had apple-onion-ham quiche and Latte macchiatos. Doesn't K look cute with her Euro-Scarf?
and the quiche was just as yummy as it looks. then we lucked into an antique market. i got the cutest handbag, some silver pie servers and buttons for the sweater. success!
then on the way home, i was supposed to get on a train from the Cologne Convention Center headed towards Würzburg. ..yeah. there were people who'd been standing on the platform for more than 2 hours. The rails were blocked somewhere, so the trains that were going in the direction i wanted to go had been blocked for more than 2h. I sat and chilled, and contemplated. The train came, and I tried to get on the first one, but it was so packed that i ended up back on the platform. The second train came and i got in and got a seat - next to 6 Americans travelling for Siemens. That was a riot. I think they bought me beer because I said, "Oh! I snowboard with your legal department!"
Even though my departing train was delayed about an hour, i got home 4 minutes later than I was supposed to with my original itinerary. I caught a faster train from Würzburg.
Then, second weekend of march I flew to Gothenburg Sweden. I finished my Valentine Socks (started in Feb on the Zillertal Ski-weekend) on the plane up to Sweden. That meant I had brand new handmade wool socks to wear for my first sightseeing in Sweden. w00t. ..they are fraternal twins. :)
This Gothenburg excursion is what my company calls a "Look and See" trip. You go on one of those if you're thinking about relocating. My job in Germany has been "below expectations" since I got here, so after months of trying to get it right here, the management is thinking of sending me up to replace some expats-going-home in Sweden. There was a lot of uncertainty before the trip - was it going to happen or not? i had to do a whole lot of wrangling and calling Embassies before I could book the tickets. Just to give you an idea, tix got booked Friday afternoon and I flew Saturday morning.
Gothenburg's pretty cool. Much larger, more english-speaking, and just sort of cooler than Bamberg. Lots of ethnic restaurants. Lots of people, bars, shops, 7-11's. really. that's where we bought our tram tickets. heh.
Do street-cars get Road Rage?
The work situation up there seems really good, and I felt really comfortable in the city. I saw some apartments, went to the grocery store, learned about how the health care system up there functions.
I walked through the city, and snapped some pix with my new paparazzi camera.
The crocuses were up in more than one park. It snowed the next day, though! I like the style of the big brick apartment buildings. They're kind of Victorian. Makes sense, because many were built in late 1800's early 1900's.
Later in the week I drove out to the island of Öckerö. There's no bridge, so you drive onto a car ferry and it takes you over for free. That was a pretty cool thing. And the island is full of cute little fishing villages.
The flights home worked out great, and I was home just in time for a 4-day weekend. I think it's the first weekend i've been home for about 6 weeks. Heh. Friday night I went out with my friend Nadine (who's torn her achilles tendon, and is on crutches), we drank wine and played Yahtzee with her boyfriend and his pal. Then Saturday I bought some mad german kitchen knives (Saturday is the only one of the 4 days when any stores will be open) and stocked up on vegetables to cut. I was so inspired by the quiches with Karen in Cologne that I made one of those this weekend - broccoli and mushroom with swiss. very exciting.
It's been nice to lay around in my own place for a bit. but i'm starting to get a little stir crazy. :)
Labels: cologne, germany, photog, sweden, travel
