Category Archives: Family - Page 2

Back to Germany (for a while), hiking and relaxing

Posted by on November 22, 2009 6 comments

After having come back to Germany (and having dealt with the enormous jet-lag bwahahaa), I had to experience how awesome the Munich airport is and how not-at-all awesome its connection to the city is! From the moment the plane touched the runway in Munich until the moment I stepped out of the security area (including baggage retrieval by the way) it took less than 20 minutes! But to travel from the airport to Heufeld (distance: approx. 80 km) where I was picked up by my mom, it took more than 2 hours…

Anyways, my mom and me went hiking today! And it was legen… (wait for it) …dary! We ran up to the peak of the Breitenstein and ate 850 meters of height in just 90 minutes – lovely! Sunny weather, maybe the very last warm day this year. Having returned home, my first action was to start the sauna πŸ˜‰ But even if this day has been so beautiful (or maybe because of that!?), I can’t wait for spring to come.

London – A first summary

Posted by on November 20, 2009 6 comments

Hey! I’ve been here for a few days already and still no post? Sorry ’bout that, but I’ve just been busy coding with Booka! πŸ˜‰ And even though this post and the one mentioning my flight here are called something with “London” I am not in London, actually… The house we’re living in is in a relatively small village near Sutton and it’s a blast! Huge rooms, too many bathrooms, extremely quiet etc. so we really can focus on the programming we’re supposed to do here.

Today finally, we had some free time and Booka, Wolle and me could stroll around in London, take some pictures and have a good time, of course :mrgreen: We rode the train to Victoria station (yeah, that’s the one that’s to be seen in almost every Harry Potter movie as “King’s Cross” because Mrs. Rowling mistook it for the latter, by the way) and took a walk from there. We passed by Buckingham Palace where by coincidence some ceremony was going on and we were forced to wait until it’s over πŸ˜‰ After that, we crossed Green Park and finally arrived at Picadilly Circus. Haaah, finally. I’ve been here before and even though it’s like one of the no. 1 tourist-spots in the city, it’s actually quite lame and cool at the same time πŸ˜€ It feels like a tiny version of the Shibuya crossing, doesn’t it? Anyways, we had lunch and continued our trip in the direction to Trafalgar square and Chinatown and finally headed down to the Thames where we “met” Downing Street, Big Ben and The Eye.

After that we entered The Tube at Waterloo station and went to Tottenham Court Road where we took a long walk down Oxford Street, had some Starbuck’s coffee (which sucked, by the way) and went back to Leicester Square to have dinner. Eventually, Miri joined us and after having drinks at a nice bar, we finally cruised back home. And London traffic is hell – seriously. 9:30 p.m. and all roads are still packed with cars? Seriously folks, where do you all wanna go? Why don’t you ride your beloved Tube? :mrgreen:

Update: I just had to step up to that DDR machine… Just like the good ol’ times with my English class from school when we were in London back then! πŸ˜€

London

Posted by on November 16, 2009 2 comments

I’m boarding the flight to London right NOW. Will meet Booka at Heathrow airport and am looking forward to the code-sesssions πŸ™‚ If the job’s cool, I might end up working and living there December through January :mrgreen:

Preparing for London

Posted by on November 9, 2009 1 comment

Whew! Only one week until I’ll go to the airport and fly to London to join Booka for a testing week at his artificial intelligence project in London. I promised myself to start packing early enough but I just know it’s not going to happen until Sunday night or (way more likely) Monday morning πŸ˜‰

I’ve also attended the HoKo at my old university last week and now have plenty of contacts to dig through in order to find possible employers. I just hope I made a good impression at the fair and that there are going to be some opportunities for cool jobs in Munich. And again: Keep your fingers crossed :mrgreen:

Here I go again…

Posted by on November 1, 2009 4 comments

… and the general direction is: north! Hamburg’s calling for a short visit to my family I have there, for a job interview and hopefully for having a good time in general :mrgreen:

After the tour

Posted by on October 4, 2009 2 comments

Well well well… Since I don’t have access to my iPhoto installation at the moment (but help is on the way…) I was not importing the pictures I took during the past few weeks. Therefore, I also did not publish anything here πŸ™‚

Me, the climbing instrument

Alright, here we go: First of all, I want to complain that all my young cousins always misconceive me for a climbing instrument… But hey, it’s for the family, so I just shut up and stop whining πŸ™‚ Just having arrived back in Munich after my tour, I had a nice chicken-wings-dinner at Marcus’ appartment with Finn, Gunnar and Marcus’ successor, Paula. It’s good to see them once in a while πŸ˜€ Hmm, talking about food: My mom presented me the traditional Mohrenkopftorte for my birthday and Selai made a very delicious strawberry cake (but without strawberries πŸ˜‰ ) for my birthday party at the Sausalitos bar. Hmmmm *yummy* But we also had delicious ribs, tons of cocktails and loads of fun! Thanks everyone for coming!!

Chicken wings at Finn's and Gunnar's Family tradition: My birthday cake made from chocolate-coated marshmallow treats Selai's birthday cake she brought to my party at the Sausalitos
But we also had delicious ribs :) I won the candle-pic-contest!

After all that excitement, I was eager to return to Bad Aibling for a few days of peace πŸ˜‰ Together with Chrisi and Tia, I spent a fun evening at the annual medieval-festival in Maxlrain (which is always conveniently taking place just a kilometer away from home), watched the fire acrobats and all the other stuff, had tons of good food etc etc. I also found myself in the newspaper! The newspaper’s photographer took a picture at the start of the BΓ€derlauf and I’m in the very center of the picture πŸ˜€

On Tuesday, we also had a chance to meet Flo during his short-trip to Germany when he was organizing a small jam session with family and friends! It was nice to see him again – we only met once in Barcelona πŸ˜‰ Returning to Munich, Andrea, Chiara and me stopped in GΓΆtting where we met Pronita and her mom from India who had just arrived in Germany. Of course, we had lots of food there, too… (damn, I really should pay attention not to get fat!)

Fire performance at the medieval festival in Maxlrain Heey, I'm in the newspaper!! Pronita's mom, Chiara and me

Back in Munich, I spend some days doing sports (finally…), sorting my mail etc. Aaaand I finally managed to go to the Wiesn! It was planned to be a gathering of colleagues from my studies but in the end, I was the only one there… Grmbl! Anyways, as I dragged some friends along, it was a nice afternoon / evening – and we were very lucky to find a good spot to sit and eat at in the HofbΓ€uzelt.

Finn looks sooo cute, doesn't he? Wiesnbrezn and a Hendl
Crowded subway station The security's vests

Happy Birthday Baby!

Posted by on September 16, 2009 4 comments

Exactly one year ago, my niece Chiara was born. And as proud uncle I want to be the first to say “happy birthday” πŸ˜€

Barcelona day 1

Posted by on September 4, 2009 2 comments

Whew! I landed in the afternoon and thanks to the detailed description of my sister, I could easily find her workplace. At the airport, I found nice oddities like a long tunnel that’s above ground and that features two typical airport-style conveyors – just without the conveyors… Everything’s there: the handrail, the two seperate gangways with converyor handrails, the special road in between them which the cool airport dudes with the electric cars might take now and then but just no conveyor itself! The trains in Barcelona are quite nice and as far as I’ve experienced so far almost always on time. Due to the fact that Barcelona is a big city when it comes to population but not to covering a large area, you always get from A to B in less than 30 minutes. Oh, and the penalty for smoking inside the train is somehow odd… What the heck are those 5 cents for?

Handrail that suggests the presence of a conveyor where there is none IMGP2312

After I met Ela and got the keys to her appartment, I buzzed off to find said appartment – and thanks to Streetview I did πŸ™‚ There, I finally could take a rest from the trip, take a shower and relax a little. Meanwhile, I also managed to contact Flo and arranged to meet him and Beatriz in the evening. I could take a look at his ridiculously huge appartment before we went downtown to get some tapas – mmmhhh, tapas! πŸ˜€

IMGP2319 IMGP2320 IMGP2324
IMGP2327 IMGP2329 IMGP2332

After stuffed our stomachs with delicious tapas of all kinds, Beatriz, Flo and me walked through the sometimes shiny, sometimes shabby but nevertheless cool downtown until we arrived at our destination behind the amazing Sagrada familia: The Michael Collins irish pub πŸ™‚ Ela was already waiting for us inside (it took us longer than expected to walk ehehee…). We had a few drinks and lots of fun. The guy playing live music was shitty at first but gradually got better and better so in the end at roughly 2:30, we all lurched home after a very funny night out.

Sagrada familia 1 Sagrada familia 2 Flo and me posing in front of the Sagrada familia
At the irish pub Dr. Flo Evil - but MiniMe has grown ... and has a beard, too! Siblings, indeed!

Oh and by the way: They have Aquarius here! Yaaay!

And off I go!

Posted by on September 3, 2009 1 comment

Thesis is gone, my only duty is to wait for the final grades… So why the heck don’t I just travel around a bit? Well, actually I do! πŸ˜€

  1. Barcelona: 09/03 – 09/06
  2. Hamburg: 09/06 – 09/08
  3. Chemnitz: 09/08 – 09/09
  4. Wunsiedel: 09/09 – 09/10
  5. WΓΌrzburg: 09/10 – 09/12 or so

My mom and typesetting programs

Posted by on August 29, 2009 1 comment

Hey mom, look at this! I’m so totally cool and write my thesis with LaTeX!

Oh! So you’re wearing those strange gloves when you’re typing on your computer?

Love you, mom πŸ˜€