Today we went to have a look at the gay and lesbian citizens of Berlin parading themselves around Brandenburger Tor. I have to say that although they're a happy bunch, it wasn't that much different to the Love Parade. ie. lots of scantly clad men and women, some very extravagantly dressed people, floats with techno and pop music pumping out, a couple of smoke and foam machines... lots of police... The highlight was definitely two somewhat-much-older lesbians (I would go as far as to say two grandmas) dressed up as nuns dancing on one of the floats :)
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
A birthday in Frankfurt
The weekend after we were in Paris we went to Frankfurt for my cousin's 30th birthday - unfortunately the weather wasn't so good and I'd picked up a nasty cold.
And spent most of the days eating and talking too much again, it was a lot of fun to see the family and be fed until bursting point ;)
We helped put up a nice giant tent, on loan from the scouts of which my cousin and her brother are both members.
And spent most of the days eating and talking too much again, it was a lot of fun to see the family and be fed until bursting point ;)
Summer in Paris
We'd been to Paris in the winter of 2006 and we decided that it was time to have another look - in summer this time. The 1st of June was a public holiday here in Germany so I took a couple of days leave and we went for an extended long weekend.
First thing was first - we needed a decent coffee and a croissant followed by some culture.
We also took a nice long boat cruise down one of the canals, under the Bastille and along the Seine, the tour guide also let fly on his clarinet while we were down there - quite a lot better than the average river cruise.
We did feel that we needed to get a bit more cultured while we were there so we went to the Musée d'Orsay which is in an old train station. They had a very nice collection of stuff but very little in the way of descriptions about the paintings and most annoyingly everything was in French. Now don't get me wrong - I support people using their own language in their own country, but if the audio guide that you can hire still doesn't have very much information and does not mention 90% of the works at all then that's a bit dissapointing. What I found most rude is that this was the even the case with art they had borrowed from around the world - at least there they could have had it in the owning countries language too.
Having not done it last time we were Paris, mainly due to the weather, we decided that we aught to go up that truely Parisian spike. We went the stairs option which only gets you up to the second level but the view from there was already pretty good. On the stairs and around the levels they also have lots of interesting posters and photos from the construction and about its maintainence.
We dropped in to see the Statue of Liberty that the Americans had given the French - it's a little bit shorter than the one that went the other way I must say - which could explain at least partly why the French don't like the Americans - nah there's plenty of reasons for that ;)
And finally we did spend a lot of time drinking wine on the footpath cafes - Polina managed to get her much desired Crème brûlée too which was rather tasty! And after many trials, tribulations and frustrations at odd opening hours I got my crêpes too mmmm yummy!
On the whole it was a fun trip - we both like Paris but we think it would be nicer without the (French) attitude. There's no real support for any foreign tourists - we saw lots of asian tourists looking very lost, stressed and upset - things like the train staff at the airport only speaking french is rediculous as none of the french need to talk to them. But they do make good wine, coffee, cheese and food in general and their nightlife was fun although that was mainly in the immigrants quater so possibly not typically french.
First thing was first - we needed a decent coffee and a croissant followed by some culture.
We tried the Picasso Museum but found it a bit disappointing compared to the one we saw in Barcelona - it did have a huge trippy outdoor mirror thing though.
The weather was gorgeous and we spent most of our time in Paris lounging around in the many parks and gardens they have.
The weather was gorgeous and we spent most of our time in Paris lounging around in the many parks and gardens they have.
We also took a nice long boat cruise down one of the canals, under the Bastille and along the Seine, the tour guide also let fly on his clarinet while we were down there - quite a lot better than the average river cruise.
We did feel that we needed to get a bit more cultured while we were there so we went to the Musée d'Orsay which is in an old train station. They had a very nice collection of stuff but very little in the way of descriptions about the paintings and most annoyingly everything was in French. Now don't get me wrong - I support people using their own language in their own country, but if the audio guide that you can hire still doesn't have very much information and does not mention 90% of the works at all then that's a bit dissapointing. What I found most rude is that this was the even the case with art they had borrowed from around the world - at least there they could have had it in the owning countries language too.
Having not done it last time we were Paris, mainly due to the weather, we decided that we aught to go up that truely Parisian spike. We went the stairs option which only gets you up to the second level but the view from there was already pretty good. On the stairs and around the levels they also have lots of interesting posters and photos from the construction and about its maintainence.
We dropped in to see the Statue of Liberty that the Americans had given the French - it's a little bit shorter than the one that went the other way I must say - which could explain at least partly why the French don't like the Americans - nah there's plenty of reasons for that ;)
And finally we did spend a lot of time drinking wine on the footpath cafes - Polina managed to get her much desired Crème brûlée too which was rather tasty! And after many trials, tribulations and frustrations at odd opening hours I got my crêpes too mmmm yummy!
On the whole it was a fun trip - we both like Paris but we think it would be nicer without the (French) attitude. There's no real support for any foreign tourists - we saw lots of asian tourists looking very lost, stressed and upset - things like the train staff at the airport only speaking french is rediculous as none of the french need to talk to them. But they do make good wine, coffee, cheese and food in general and their nightlife was fun although that was mainly in the immigrants quater so possibly not typically french.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
June Resolution
After eating like crap and drinking waaaaay too much alcohol for the last month I ended feeling generally tired, grumpy and unhealthy. So I decided to go on de-tox as of this Monday. What does it involve?
For a month (until 30.07.2009) I am saying NO to:
For a month (until 30.07.2009) I am saying NO to:
- alcohol
- meat (aside from fish)
- sugar
- chocolate
- coffee/black tea
- ice cream (nooooo!!!)
- pasta
- sweet carbonated beverages like coke & lemonade
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The last four weeks
We've been pretty busy over the last four weeks
In other unrelated news I need a root canal and the Germans are stupid when it comes to ADSL. They're the only country (excluding Bosnia-Herzegovina which conisidentally had it's phone system installed by the German telco.) in the world which does not use the Annex A/M specifications over a normal phone line - instead they use the Annex B (ADSL over ISDN) specification everywhere. This means if you buy a cool ADSL modem/router combo cheaply in Australia, get your friend Paul to lug it all the way around the world - it wont work. The moral of the story is A) don't do what I did and B) standards exist for a reason, Germans should not exclude themselves from this anymore than Microsoft should. *sigh*
- 5 days in Paris for the long weekend at the start of June
- a rainy weekend in Frankfurt for my cousin's birthday
- a sunny extended weekend in London for Julia and Denis' birthdays
- a week of having Paul as our guest also including a special appearance by his girlfriend Deb
In other unrelated news I need a root canal and the Germans are stupid when it comes to ADSL. They're the only country (excluding Bosnia-Herzegovina which conisidentally had it's phone system installed by the German telco.) in the world which does not use the Annex A/M specifications over a normal phone line - instead they use the Annex B (ADSL over ISDN) specification everywhere. This means if you buy a cool ADSL modem/router combo cheaply in Australia, get your friend Paul to lug it all the way around the world - it wont work. The moral of the story is A) don't do what I did and B) standards exist for a reason, Germans should not exclude themselves from this anymore than Microsoft should. *sigh*
Friday, June 19, 2009
Bildung für alle
or "Education for all"... that's the theme of this week in Germany. Germany wide there are thousands of students protesting against all sorts of things - such as:
I had the pleasure of watching the protestors from our balcony today, so here you go:
- the idea of the Bachelor (that it's restricted in terms of how long you can stick around uni to study/procrastinate)
- the fact that some universities (and a small number at that) introduced education fees
- compulsory student semester fees (in my case it is 250 EURs that include a semester ticket for whole of Berlin and outer Berlin for half a year)
I had the pleasure of watching the protestors from our balcony today, so here you go:
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