Berlinale

At the beginning of February I decided it was finally time for a long-overdue trip to Berlin. Friends from Ottawa were going to be at the Berlin film festival Berlinale on business (Mike’s an independent film producer, www.qrpictures.com) and I had wanted to visit my friend Alexia, a former-fellow scholarship holder who really helped me get through my first year in Munich when I didn’t know the language or the system.

I really like Berlin; it’s definitely one of my favourite German cities. It’s bigger, cheaper, funkier and much more cosmopolitan than Munich, although Munich is safer and cleaner (…sounds boring though, I know). Unfortunately the line-ups were too long to get into any films, but it was far too sunny to be indoors anyway. The weather, food and company were great and it was nice to forget about the stresses of work for a little while!

Point of arrival: the sprawling new main train station. I arrived on Chinese New Year’s.

Christina and I did a walking tour around Berlin while Mike was networking. Navigation wasn’t always so easy…especially when the streets leading off in all directions all have the same name.

One stop was where the Nazis held the first book burning in Berlin. There is a prophetic inscription from Heinrich Heine, 1820: „Das war ein Vorspiel. Nur dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen.“

This roughly translates as: “This was only a prelude; where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings”.

A simple, moving memorial to all the fallen in war by Käthe Kollwitz, Pietà 1937.

Alexia and I outside a funky French café with the best goat-cheese salad and turkey breast Dijon baguette I’ve ever had.

Christina with a canvas photo of the German Parliament building, the Reichstag. Below is a picture of the glass dome from the inside that I took during my first trip to Berlin 3 ½ years ago, before I was even thinking of moving to Germany.

A few more pictures from my first trip to Berlin since I didn’t have a blog to share then.

Brandenburg gate

Frank Gehry’s DG Bank building, nicknamed "the fish" .

This next one is actually of Kiran during her vacation this past summer, but her pose alongside the serious-looking Engels and Marx made me laugh.

A mix of interesting architecture dating from WWII, through Communist East Germany, to a revival of the older Prussian style, to modern is found scattered through Berlin.

The new synagogue to replace the one partly destroyed during the pogrom night of 1938 as seen from the artists’ compound in Kunstpark

My extended Christmas “vacation”

Home, sweet home in Calgary with the Rockies in the background.

I flew home to Calgary over Christmas for a much-needed two week break. Unfortunately, starting on the flight over I had a fever which quickly progressed to the stomach flu, huge lymph nodes, extreme tiredness and other lovely symptoms; a blood test revealed I had mono. Before you start wondering though, I’m pretty sure I got it from someone drinking out of my water bottle at an ultimate tournament. You wouldn’t believe how often I have to tell people that; it seems to be universally known in French, English, German, Italian and Spanish as the “kissing disease”.

Because I was quite ill I had to extend my stay in Calgary in order to recover. Thank goodness I had my Mom to look after me and put up with me being a princess for a month; thanks Mom! Although it definitely wasn’t a good thing being sick it did give me the chance to spend more time with my parents, and to rest for a few days on Vancouver Island. Here are some pics of my time in Canada:

Christmas time. Unfortunately we had to put my cat Saffron down while I was at home, but I was glad to still have had the chance to spend some time with him and say goodbye. We had sleeping contests while I was sick, but I think he won clocking-in at ~20 hours a day.

Espresso on fire. A Swiss speciality from Chris.

Kiran and Chris’ new car

Chris’ birthday!
Proof of mono: I’m going through a feverish stage in this picture. Note the Ibuprofen gel-caps and my exclusive diet of crackers in the foreground.
At least I got to enjoy a few more Alberta big-sky sunrises from my kitchen window than on a usual trip home.


Vancouver Island in January



A few days before heading home and finally feeling much better. You can barely tell us apart!

Munich Perspective

This post is a collection of pictures mostly from visitors passing through Munich this fall. In no particular order:

Back in Munich after a visit to Karlsruhe I’m making tiramisu for Heather and I for dessert. Prospective house guests take note: tiramisu is a standard bonus item to make up for the lumpy futon!

Funny German Porta-potties (this shot courtesy of Heather)

Jeff looking excited to dig into his Schweinhaxe (“pig’s knuckles”). I find it kind of intimidating having the knife come already wedged in the meat.

Schnapps are supposed to be good for digestion after a heavy German meal

Unfortunately for Jeff it was pretty foggy during his entire visit....

After seeing some additional foggy parks and churches we decided to check out BMW Welt, the new BMW showroom in Munich with a funky cyclonic design. Note: the following two pictures were downloaded from the Internet; it did not clear up that day.

This one is from Jeff. For an extra fee of ~1000 euros you can pick up your car here. The cars are delivered by elevator and are parked on rotating platforms – just like in the ads.

OK, this isn't from a visitor but I just had to include a picture of a beautiful hike I did in October in the Alps near Berechtsgaden. Already lots of snow. You know it’s a little late in the hiking season when 5 skiers pass you coming down…

Jeff and I took a short jaunt to Innsbruck in November. Unfortunately most things were closed for post-summer, pre-Christmas clean-up/renovation, but we managed to hike up to the last open “Alm”. Alm technically means meadow in German, but in Austria pretty much means place-on-a-mountain-where-one-can-still-get-beer. Jeff and I enjoyed hot cocoa and a riesen schnitzel (giant schnitzel). In the German spirit of precision (or rather the German-speaking-culture, since we were actually in Austria) they like to inform you EXACTLY at which elevation you are at all times.

Erfurt, Germany

Toby, Bridget, Heather and I teamed up for another trip, this time to Erfurt located in former Eastern Germany.

Outside of downtown, significant portions of Erfurt still have the typical “Plattenbau” architectural style popular in former East Germany.

Random pics from Erfurt including a funky birdhouse, and Heather’s grin/Thuringer sausage.




No sausages allowed while wallet shopping apparently.

Probably one of the most memorable experiences in Erfurt was our trip to the ice cream parlour. Their specialty is pressed ice cream which forms “spaghetti ice”. I was pretty excited to get my chocolate-nut creation.