Fall

 It is definitely fall weather here and I love it.  I forgot that I actually love fall since I never really experienced it since I moved to USA.  In Texas there is no real fall, the trees do not change color and the temperature is highly sporadic.  I have pictures of my family playing volleyball in shorts and t-shirts at the end of December.  In Colorado, just like in Texas everything is always a bit brownish so do not really notice the color change and the temperature, in my opinion, changed more drastically.  In any case, I feel like here I am experiencing the fall of my childhood: wet, cool and full of color.  This weather is perfect for a dark read like The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, which I finished it in a few days and it was by no means a summer read.

The mornings are dreary, humid and chilly, but when the sun comes out during the day you can actually enjoy lunch on your balcony and not get a bit uncomfortable. 

I took these pictures this morning.  Fog covers everything like a thick blanket.

This is the park right across from our apartment.

Check out just how green the grass still is and it stays like that even under the snow!!! 

In a week I am going to Ukraine and I will indeed see the fall of my childhood! 

Freiburg

My oh my, am I getting lazy!?  Well this post is about a month overdue, but better late then never, right :)

I finally visited Vishnu in Freiburg.  We went together to the same high school and now she lives in Germany and studies Medicine.  What a small world!!!

I loved Freiburg, I think this is the best 'college-town' I have ever visited.  Here are some of the things/facts I enjoyed.
--Freiburg is one of the warmest places in Germany
--it is close to the Black forest, Switzerland and France with lost of picturesque biking/hiking routs
--very bike friendly city
--small city but it felt like it had everything

These mosaics are everywhere.  Some of them could be found in front of stores: like a pretzel in front of a bakery and fish in front of seafood store, and so on.  It takes a lot of work to maintain these mosaics and they are constantly being repaired.

During my first day we walked around the city and enjoyed the panoramic views from a hilltop.

Pretty Vishnu :)

These fresh water chanels are everywhere in Freiburg.  I think they were my favorite. 

Next day we went for a relaxing bike ride and guess what I saw more cows.

Picnic with scones Vishnu made and Federweisser from the local green market.

It was perfect weather the whole time I stayed in Freiburg. 

Don't you want to live in a neighborhood like this?

Last day.  In front of the Münster.

It is a very small world.

I look happy, but I was pretty sick and taking antibiotics the whole time.  Vishnu took good care of me.

I had a great time with Vishnu sharing impressions of both living in Germany and US.  We ate Mexican food, made random things like almond/coconut butter and basically talked non stop. 
It was a perfect trip, thanks Vishnu! 

Almabtrieb 2011

cows and lots of them

Almabtrieb means 'drive from the mountain pasture'.  You can read the wiki page here. 
So parents, Ludwig and I set out for the trip at 8:30 in the morning.
Ready set...go!!!

Wolfgang was the driver!

We got into the dorf/village of Krün. The tent on the right is where all the beer drinking is going on.  Look at those mountains, so pretty!

The first thing that we saw was the whipcracking, a traditional sport of Bavaria and Austria, if interested can read about it here. 

It was pretty cool, but really loud.

We started moving out of the city center and more to where the cows were coming from because there were just too many crowds. 

silly family ;) also they never want to pose for my pictures, and by they I mean Ludwig!

We had to wait for some time for the cows to come, but it was worth it.

They were coming right towards me, I was a little scared.

Some of the cows were so beautifully decorated to celebrate their homecoming from the mountains.

Here is a funny picture of me, being happy to see so many cows.

He does not like taking pictures, but I do not care ;)

more pretty cows

The tent was filled with so many people and even outside it was just so crowded that we decided to go somewhere else for a beer.

Unfortunately, everywhere we went was closed, probably due to the fact that Oktoberfest is going on in Munich.  It was frustrating.  We ended up being at our appartment drinking beer. 

The day itself was great, the weather was perfect, the cows were pretty and I got a beer at the end of the day. 

I hope you guys are enjoying your end of the summer as well.

Thanks for reading :)

I want a new lens for my camera!!!

I've been wanting a new lens for my camera for a long time now, but everything I really want is way too expensive, these lenses cost more then my camera :(  I have been doing a lot of research for long time now, and I think I would really like a wide angle (24mm) lens.  Instead of just dropping €400, I decided to first rent the lens and then see how I like it.  Also I will try to shop around and hopefully buy a used one, just wait and buy one in US or Ukraine if it is cheaper.  We will see! Today I went and rented the lens.  I had to speak German the whole time, which was a lot of fun, I think the guy appreciated my efforts.  I now have for the weekend a fancy shmancy wide angle 24mm f/2.8 canon lens.  Next time I want to rent 24mm f/1.4 which is like five times more expensive and I will probably never buy it in my life, but I will rent it ;)

So to celebrate I took some pictures!

In the city center they have so many fruit stands.  I just could not pass up these huge and juicy figs.

Stachus

Pedestrian Zone

Rathaus

Narrow streets

This is how people park in the city center, yikes.

And then I got hungry!!!  Hering sandwich and wheat beer, it was perfection!

So far I am pretty happy with the lens and hope to use it the whole weekend and will share will all of you some of the highlights.
I did not stay too long in the city because it was crazy busy, and you know why, because tommorrow OKTOBERFEST STARTS!!!!
Have a great weekend everyone!

dinner and a movie

We do not go out to dinner very often, but we definitely enjoy it once and a while.  This time we tried a modern Turkish restaurant and it was a delight.  We now have a luxury of walking to almost all the restaurants in town so you can have a cocktail or two and not be worried about driving.  After dinner we went home to watch Jane Eyer downloaded from iTunes.  It was the first grown up book I read, when I was about 11 years old and bored during a hot summer and nothing on TV.  I think I read it twice in Russian and twice in English, I love it that much.  I cried when I read it but I bawled during the movie.  I totally freaked Ludwig out!!!  Men, ahahha.  The things that stood out to me about the movie were of course great acting, muted colors, and music.  I obviously enjoyed the movie, Ludwig was confused and complained that he did not understand their accents, I had to translate ;)  It was a great night!

I AM BAAAAAAAAACK!!!!

Hello world!!!

I feel like I was gone for a century!  I missed you all so much, especially YOU internet, you connect me to so many people and so many wonderful things.  I think I am about to cry I am so happy.  You think I am exagerating, try going without internet for a month and a half, try it, I dare you, you would go insane!!!  I had iPad with 3G as my 'patch', but it was just not like a real thing....you know, video streaming, fast photo uploading, flashplayer, my god I am drooling!!!

So what I was doing this whole time I was gone? Well, we finally moved in.  Here are a bunch of photos of the empty apartment.

Living room and the corner where the dinning table goes.

Our wood burning 'oven' will be great during those cold Bavarian winters.

 Entrance hallway

Bathroom with a window!!! and pretty outdated brown/pink everything.

Master bedroom

Balcony

View from the balcony!!!

 I have also been addicted to shopping at the local green market :)

I got all of this for less then €20!!!

I've been trying to go to the lake as often as possible.  I bike there, swim for 30min and bike home.  I love it and will miss it so much in the winter.

Puchermeer

Okay more to come soon!  For now here is a kiss!

I missed you all!

Training for Munich 1/2 Marathon.

Happy Monday everyone!!!

So I decided each week to give an update on my training for the Munich 1/2 Marathon which is in 10 weeks (October 9th).  I am super excited, but this training is a bit different then I am used to.  While living in Fort Collins, I trained for a bunch of races including two full Marathons with my friend Jenni.  The runs went so much faster and waking up in the morning was so much easier when I knew someone will be waiting for me.  Now I have to mostly rely on my own will power, which sometimes sucks.  I am glad I have Ludwig who runs with me sometimes, it really helps to have a running buddy, it makes running so much more fun for me.

I hope these weekly summaries this will help me keep my motivation and keep me accountable.

Week 1
Monday: 77km bike ride
               25min swim
Tuesday: 90km bike ride
               30min swim
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: run 2.7mi
                 50min yoga for runners
                 6km bike ride
Friday: run 2.7mi
Saturday: bike 20min
                swim 30min
Sunday: run 3.7mi
Total mileage: 9.1mi

Week 2.  Last week was a lot more rest after such an active week
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: run 2.7mi
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Bike 12km
                 run 3.7kim
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: run 4.5mi
Total mileage: 10.9mi

Goals for this week are to do more yoga and increase my total mileage to 13.6mi, also hopefully I can go for a swim since they are promising sun on Wednesday!!!

The good thing about this week is that my runs felt so much easier than ever before.  On Sunday after my 4.5mi run I had the best tired feeling ever, such a wonderful feeling of accomplishment.

This Friday we are moving into our apartment so I might disappear for a little while again.  I will take a bunch of pictures so you guys can see how we are settling down.
Hope everyone is having a terrific Monday!