Another Day in Hamburg!

Despite the fact that I am still in Hamburg I have to work for uni. I have a lot to do and so I was sitting the whole morning and was doing something for a project. The problem is, that I have two things that require a lot of work, however, one is interesting and the other one not at all. Anyways, I was working together on a project with my group mates, which was quite funny; it was the first time that I was working with two other people at the same time in one document over GoogleDocs!

Around lunch time I put a deep frozen pizza in the oven and still added some cheese. When I was done eating A's flatmate came home and we were sitting together in the kitchen, talking about this and that and drinking coffee together. I am happy, that he is so cool with me hanging around here all the time.

In the afternoon I went by bike to town to pick up A. from work. We went to H&M where I bought a new shirt. I was all the time looking for a shirt, which you can use with cuff links, since A. gave me some for my birthday. Now I finally have a nice shirt and am waiting for the next opportunity to wear a suit... and of course the cuff links!

After buying me a shirt we went to another shop to return some shoes A. had bought on the weekend, but hadn't been so sure about. Then we slowly biked along the Alster back home. I called home and talked to my parents for 20 minutes and asked my mum for a recipe. Then we went to the shop and when we returned I started cooking. I made Curry Wurst for the three of us in the flat and so we were eating, drinking, sitting and talking most of the evening!

Now I am quickly going to finish here. A. is already sleeping and I dont wanna type too much, not to wake her up. I will fix myself and then join her in the land of dreams. She really "forces" me to have a healthy sleep rhythm! ;-)

~M~

Easter Holiday in Hamburg!

Again I did not write for a long time. However, this time a lot happened since my last post. The few days after my last post I was in Bad Honnef and there is not so much to tell about. I was in uni or working for uni most of the time. The university-week was actually quite short, I am off already since last Tuesday afternoon. The Tuesday evening I went out with some Finnish people; a girl I met in Helsinki was in Bad Honnef to meet her friends, who are on exchange. She asked me if I wanted to join and so I went!

Anyways, on Wednesday I packed all my stuff and went in the evening to Cologne from where I got a ride to Hamburg. I arrived here late in the evening and just went to bed. The next morning A. left early for work and before I got up also her flatmate left for the Easter Holidays. So I spent the Thursday by sitting in the kitchen and reading again for university. In the afternoon I picked A. up from work and we biked home.

On Friday A. and I went to a viewing not far from the flat where she is living right now. After we had gotten a flat promised on Tuesday afternoon and had it taken away two hours later from a real estate agent we are again looking for a flat here in Hamburg; Even today we have a viewing again! The flat on Friday was nice and in a good area, we are really hoping to get that flat. The Friday afternoon we spent at the Alster, sitting on the lawn having a beer and getting some tan.

In the evening of this Good Friday we had - in accordance with tradition - fish. I made fried salmon and A. cooked potatoes and vegetables. It was very good and we enjoyed the dinner. Afterwards we got a craving for ice cream and so A. ran over to the petrol station and got us two Magnum Gold!

The next day we slept long and by noon we made our way to the city. We walked around the shops and did some shopping. However, it was way too warm and crowded in the shops and so we went to the supermarket, bought some cold drinks, coke and ice tea and went down to the Alster, where we were sitting on the quay in the sun, enjoying our refreshments.

The Sunday was dedicated to enjoying live - again. We went by bike to the Alster and were lying a long long time on a blanket on the lawn by the water and were hoping not to get attacked by one of the swans that was nesting close by.

We spent the time in the park by the Alster reading and talking. A. did some homework for her German class and I was taking pictures. It was a wonderful day and when we got home we were slightly burned from the sun. This didn't stop us from cooking and then fixing ourselves to go out. We took the train to the city and met up with A's friend H. We went first to a pre-party at some guys flat and then made our way downtown to the Reeperbahn to party. It was - as last time - a lot of fun and we came home late or early, however you wanna see it.

The Monday was a perfect hangover day, although I didn't really have a hangover. Anyways, we got up late, had some breakfast and took the train to Landungsbrücken. We again met up with H. and her friend B. and took the ferry from Landungsbrücken to Övelgönne to the Elbstrand. We were sitting in the sand, eating ice cream and just enjoying the good weather; we stayed until 6 o'clock when it got cool. In the evening we had super nice hangover food: Burritos/Fajitas/Tortillas (which ever word you prefer!). From the leftovers I then made a chilli, which I took as lunch to work today.

Now I am again sitting here in the kitchen. A's flatmate just came home from uni. He was away the whole weekend, had stopped by some time ago, just to leave his stuff and to pick up his uni material. I worked the morning on some uni things and will go on now until A. comes home from work. Then we have the other viewing and hope to get an answer quickly! We really need a flat!

~M~

Nice Saturday!

This was a really nice day in a way! I was sleeping long and was lazing around after getting up. I had lazy breakfast and nice coffee. After some time I wrote a list and went to the shop to buy something to cook. On the way I was enjoying the bit of sunshine and was listening to good music. At the shop I met some girls from my university and was talking to them a bit.

When I got back home I was again just chilling around and eventually started cooking. I still had spinach from back when I was cooking with L! I wanted to get rid of it and decided to make small spinach pancakes, like my mum makes them. These pancakes were then the side dish of the lamb meat, that I fried. to round it up I made some croquettes and a creamy redwine-rosemary-sauce. It was easier than I thought and was super delicious. The good thing was, that I had opened a bottle of wine for the sauce and so I had a glass with lunch!

Now I am getting slowly in the mood to go out. The graduation party is tonight and most of my colleagues are going; so am I. I just ironed my shirt and talked to A! Her parents are visiting her at the moment, but she anyways went on viewings for flats in Hamburg. I really hope she will find something nice! 

~M~

Long Day at Uni!

Today I had a rather long day at uni. Compared to the days I spent in the first year in uni it was nothing, but for my schedule right now it was long!

It all started at 10.30 in the morning, when I left home. I had a meeting with my course in front of our café. The course, Hotel Engineering, was special today. Our lecturer had organized with the engineering department of our university a "behind the scenes" campus tour. 

When we met, the sun was shining very nicely. One of my colleagues, who I also have a group work with gave me back my ready-made book. I had printed it out from a PDF-file and always forgot to bind it properly. Yesterday after the group meeting I mentioned it to her and she agreed to fix it for me, since she has the machine and material for it, how nice of her!

Anyways, we were waiting outside the café and when our lecturer arrived he told us, that the first station of the tour had to be done in groups of five people due to the limited space in the room. So we were waiting in the sun until it was our turn.

The tour then was very interesting and informative. Despite the fun fact, that you basically can control all utilities and equipment like lighting and the blinds from one PC, it was very interesting to see all the facilities and to realize how many systems are working in the background of such an operation. 

We walked around the whole campus and into all buildings. We ended the tour on the roof top terrace, where we had to take a picture; we have been the first group in 10 years to actually get such a tour and such an insight into the systems "behind the scenes"!

Anyways, after this tour we had lunch in the cafeteria and went then to a presentation of the chief editor of the most important German Hospitality Newspaper. He was talking about the trends and future developments in the Hospitality industry, which actually is a quite interesting and important topic; he however managed to present it in such a boring way, that I was happy, when he was done!

Now I am home already for quite some time. I just watched the news and will maybe watch a movie later on. Today there is nothing going on in Bad Honnef; we all have to save ourselves for tomorrow. Tomorrow evening is the graduation party and basically all my colleagues are going, it will be a blast!

~M~

Uni Work!

I know, I know I haven't been writing for a while again. This was mostly because nothing really happened here in Bad Honnef. After having a lousy match of football, which was not fun nor worth mentioning, on a hot Monday afternoon, the weather changed quickly. On Tuesday it was cold and raining all the time, so that I couldn't do anything. This didn't really change until today (despite of the rain) and so I was sitting home most of the time.

While being home I was reading for uni - a little bit and not as much as I should have done. I am really fed up right now with studying and can't wait to be finished. The problem is, that I do not really have a motivation right now to think about my thesis, which I should start doing. 

Anyways, today I went for a lunch date to university to meet with my "groupies". I met F. & S. before the cafeteria and had lunch with them and some other people we met. After lunch we were still sitting there and suddenly my ex-flatmate came over and it was really nice to talk to him. We have been living only the first semester together, but came along quite well. So we talked about this and that until my group wanted to leave.

After leaving the cafeteria we did not start the meeting right away but were wandering around the campus looking for one friend, who had her colloquium, the last oral exam of the graduation process, today. When we found her we were standing on campus drinking champagne to celebrate!

Bad quality due to the cellphone camera!

About 1 1/2 hours after we had intended to start the group meeting we finally went to our café on campus and started working, while having coffee. We made good progress and now we know how the text will be structured and what we want to put into report. At least I did something productive today!

~M~

Sunday Afternoon!

Today after I wrote the first post I had lunch. I warmed up the rest from yesterday and ate it while watching an episode of How I met your mother. I really like this series and started some time ago to watch the whole series from the beginning again, which is funny!

Anyways, after the lunch I got bored of sitting inside and packed my camera and left for a walk through the woods. Lately I've been walking a lot here. It's really nice, as I mentioned before, since there are so many trails and paths through the forest. You can walk every time a different one and it doesn't get boring. Also you don't get really lost; ok, sometimes you don't really know where you are and which fork of the road to take, but if you just walk and walk and walk you will eventually find a map or a signpost on which you recognize a direction.

While walking through the forest I saw so many nice things. Just how the light breaks through the leaves, the colors and so on. Then I realized, that I tried quite often already to take pictures of it, but they never caught the real beauty. I realized, that there are so many things that you actually have to see and experience, since you can't capture them in a photograph.

So I walked through the woods and then just randomly up a mountain. I actually had seen it on the map and decided not to walk up there, but when I came to the road fork I reconsidered and climbed the Leyberg; luckily, how I realized when I was at the top. The last hundred meters of the path were really steep and more stairs than a trail; you really hat to climb sometimes.

The view from the top was magnificent. You had a view over Bad Honnef and over the Rhein. You could see the Petersberg, Drachenfels, Oelberg, Löwenburg (where I have been on Thursday) and also Bonn and Cologne. I sat down on one of the basalt columns and was enjoying the view and the sun.

After some time I turned back, climbed carefully back down and made my way through the sun-drenched forest back to Bad Honnef. I came out of the woods and found myself on a trail through the pastures. I walked back to the main road and then back home.

On the main road I realized, that I really miss motorbiking. I am living at the main road, which leads up into the mountains. Now, since there is so good weather, I all the time see and hear the motorcycles passing. I really miss to ride motorcycles and hope I soon have the possibility to do it again. It's my hobby and there is nothing worse than being unable to pursue a hobby.

 ~M~

10.000!

I just realized, that I have been taking over 10.000 pictures with my camera by now! I really love the camera and have so much fun with it. However, I would have never thought that I would take so many pictures in just under nine months. I never thought I would take 1.111 pictures a month 37 pictures a day, that crazy!

Picture from when I got the camera!

Anyways, I just wanted to let you know! That I'm really amazed by that and hope you like the pictures. Most of them I always just took for the blog in order to give my posts a visual touch; like the old saying: A picture is worth a thousand words!

~M~

Barbecuing!

I'm sorry for not posting yesterday, but I really did not have anything to tell. I was just getting up for uni, had class until lunch time and had lunch together with one of my class mates in the cafeteria. The I came home, was not doing anything special and went then for an evening walk through the woods, which was really nice. The evening I stayed home, I didn't feel like going to a 70's party.

Anyways, today I slept long, had lazy breakfast and then fixed myself to go to the shops. I walked with my big travel backpack through Bad Honnef to Aldi to do my weekly grocery shopping. It was still kinda fresh outside, which was good, since I wasn't sweating; The walk to Aldi is always downhill with an empty backpack, the way back, though, is always uphill with a full backpack.

After I had stored all the groceries at home I was sitting around at home and talked to A. for a while. Then I started cooking. The problem really is, that it is hard to cook for one or even two persons; the cans and portions are just too big. Let's take chopped tomatoes for example, they come in 400g cans; for a tomato sauce you need maximum 100g chopped tomatoes per person. Since you wont keep a half full tin (for what else, but tomato sauce would you use it), you can either throw it away of make sauce for 4 persons.

Anyways, I'm getting carried away. So, since it is so hard to cook small portions I made a huge portion of casserole for me. I did that also in Norway quite often, that I was cooking on Saturday a lot and then ate the whole weekend from it. Not very diversified, but what can you do as a virtually single guy with a gourmet cook and connoisseur as flatmate.

In the afternoon one of my colleagues from university invited for the evening to her place for barbecuing. We had been grilling at her place in the earlier semesters quite often. She is living in a house directly at the Rhein with a terrace literally at the Rhein. I had been walking past the house before and saw, that they were reconstructing the terrace, now that she invited I though the terrace was done and this would be kind of and inauguration barbecuing.

I wanted to walk to the house, which is on the other side of Bad Honnef, about half an hour by foot away. So I packed my things in my backpack and made my way through the town. I was stopping by the shop to get some meat and beer for the barbecue and then walked along the Rhein to the house. When I arrived the terrace at the Rhein was still under construction and I found the guys sitting directly at the house, which was also nice!

 

We spent the evening grilling, drinking and talking. It was nice to be there again, like so many times before. It didn't really matter, that we were not sitting directly above the water, we were enjoying the sun anyways, the meat and beer tasted anyways good and we anyways had a lot of fun talking.

~M~

Day off!

Today I decided to have a day off. The last couple of days I have been doing stuff for university, mostly reading. Today I decided not to do anything uni related. I didn't had classes today and so I didn't set an alarm.

I got up anyways rather early, had breakfast, some coffee and was lazing around the whole morning. I was organizing some things, made some important phone calls and sent some e-mails. These were all things I was pushing away already for some time and now finally had the motivation to do them.

I cooked some pasta for lunch and had an afternoon coffee. After I had finished the coffee I decided to go out to enjoy the really nice and warm spring weather. It was again something like 23°C, but different from yesterday a quite strong North-wind.

I walked out of the house and a steep road up the hill. There were many nice houses in the street with good views over Bad Honnef. At the end of the road I followed a steep and tiny path into the woods. I was walking and I really got a spring feeling. The trees don't have leaves yet and so the sun is shining through to the ground, which is already covered with all kinds of green plants and small flowers.

I followed the small train and soon came to a bigger one. Suddenly I saw a bit up hill a small chapel in the middle of the woods. I went up to it and walked around it. It was a bit spooky though and so I didn't enter, but had a short glimpse through the door.

I went on uphill and followed the road through a light forest with quite majestic trees. I had seen a sign, which was leading the way to an old castle ruin I had heard of before. Since the distance on the sign wasn't too far I had made the Löwenburg my destination of the day.

The way seemed longer than what was written, but maybe it was just because the path was really steep and I was sweating and running out of breath. However, I did not turn around and came eventually to the ruin. I was walking around a bit and enjoyed the view to all four cardinal directions.

This reminded me a bit of Lord of the Rings!

From there I could see Bonn, Bad Honnef and also the Drachenfels, where I have been three weeks ago or so. I was taking some pictures, but then decided to leave. I could see from the north some pretty dark clouds approaching and I didn't wanted to get wet on my way home. Also the wind up on the hill was just too cold and I didn't wanted to risk to get sick again.

I turned back and walked quite fast downhill. I took another road back to Bad Honnef and got lost a couple of times in the woods. Here in the region it seems to be quite common to have paths that just suddenly end in the middle of the woods. I had to turn around four or five times and walk something like a kilometer back each time. So the walk back was a bit longer and also more exhausting, since I was hurrying. The sun was already behind the clouds and it got cold due to the wind.

Eventually I found a path back into the valley and made it back to Bad Honnef. The way down the steep road I had come up earlier I had to walk really slowly; my legs were just so tired from walking downhill all the time, that they were shaking.

Now I am back at home, will work on the pictures, put them into the post and then I will eat something! I hope the weather stays like it was today the rest of the week and especially the weekend; I really like to be outside!

~M~