Happy New Year… and my resolutions

Happy New Year to everyone!!!

I don’t do this every year, but this time I feel motivated. Here are my resolutions 

• Get an IT certification.- possible options are Java, Linux and SAP. 
  
• Study German and get A1.- For me, it’s a challenge and a way to communicate better.
  
• Get my driving license.- Yes! More procrastination
  
• Learn to swim.- Well, I’m one of those adults who didn’t learn when being a kid. I'm still scared.
  
• Make Advent calendars to my nephews.- I’m a Christmas person and I want to transmit this to my little nephews.
  
• Buy a new printer.- I think this is the first one I’m going to complete. My current one is almost 10 years old. Still analysing my dilemma: buy new ink or buy a new printer.
  
• Make at least 10 language charts.- I like my charts, my next idea is organize them better.
  

2009 is going to be a really busy year.

Why I should get fun on holidays?

Every holiday is the same. Everybody asks me the same question: What are you going to do in your holidays? And New Year’s Eve is worse! If I say “Nothing”, the people start to say “poor you, you don’t have plans” Grrr. 

Why do I have to get fun? Why!!!! It’s like I have the duty of getting fun. That’s not spontaneous and sometimes it’s not according to my mood. Why is it mandatory to do the same as all the people do?. For years I argued with a lot of people about it. One of the most recurrent topics is alcohol. I’m not totally teetotal, but I don’t put alcohol and fun in the same sentence.

My idea of getting fun in holidays is spend my time with the people I love, no matter if they drink or not. Those people respect my choices and I respect theirs. I’m blessed to have good friends. For me, a nice holiday is a peaceful day doing things I can’t do regularly, like have a nice conversation with friends or reading a book.

I don’t have plans for this New Year’s Eve yet, let’s see how it goes.

Coin album

Collecting things is a good hobby. I tried first with stamps, but as I don’t have too much friends by mail and the rise of e-mails, my hobby didn’t prosper. Then I got another one: collecting coins. 

My first ones I got by chance, but then I got into it more seriously. At the moment my only source of coins are travels, for that reason I have coins from the countries I visited or some close friends gave me.

One big issue was finding a coin album. Finally I bought this one in Heidelberg, it’s for collecting Euros but works perfectly with other countries. For each country has 8 pockets for coins and one for a little label with country flag. I already designed some labels for the non-Euro countries that I have and I’ll ask some friends to help me to complete the countries. Maybe some day I will start to collect notes too.

Merry Xmas

This is not my happiest Christmas, because I can’t have everything I want. But this is not a reason to don’t wish Merry Xmas to everybody! And I wish your dreams, as mine, become true. 

Free photos for websites - FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Countries

I really love my Germany adventure. I made this map that shows in green the countries I visited or lived in and the yellow ones are my future destinations to holidays (or to live in). I hope to start a new adventure soon.

Germany – Last day: SAP Headquarters and Hockenheim

My last day in Germany was a bit busy but nice. Our first destination was SAP Headquarters, and my first surprise was there were 2 SAP buildings: headquarters and Germany, as indicated in the road signs:

SAP Headquarters is a complex of buildings, some of them exclusively for parking purposes and other under construction.

This is the front of one of the main buildings:

After that, we made a technical stop in IKEA to eat hotdogs. My first (and last) hotdog in Germany, because the rest were German sausages of course!

Then we headed to Hockenheim, to visit the Hockenheimring (I'm a F1 fan). I took this picture from one of the intersections:

The bad news: Hockenheimring was closed! We forgot to check the dates and they already started holidays. But at least I took a picture outside:

I'll visit this ring in my next trip.

Germany - ‘Ausfahrt’ city and ‘Einbahnstrasse’ street

In my first days in Germany, as a non-German-speaker, I was very excited and interested in every sign that I could read, especially while travelling through the autobahn. One road sign caught my eye:

And my thought was "that’s the exit to Ausfahrt". Some kilometres later, another sign:

I thought “uhm, maybe it’s a large city”:

How large can be “Ausfahrt” city?

I started to think that “Ausfahrt” city was really huge and we were driving encircling it. maybe all roads lead to Ausfahrt. But as I was reading the signs every time I found them, my dear kiwi said “Exit”. “What?” I said. “Yes, ‘Ausfahrt’ means ‘Exit’ in German”. I still feel stupid for that. 

But as I can improve, during our city adventures we almost get lost among the streets. Again I was reading the road signs, this time trying to be helpful. To figure out where were we, I read every sign whose looks like street name and I proudly read ‘Einbahnstrasse’, believing that name means something. And again a simple answer “yes, I know that’s a one way street.” 

German language is funnier that people think. Could you find the exit?

Germany – Stuttgart: Zoo and outlet

I can’t remember when my last visit to a zoo was, and that’s the reason I wanted to visit one in Germany. Again we arrived to Wilhelma after several minutes in the ‘autobahn’. This is a picture of the entrance:

Then can be useful take a picture of the map:

We found some nice friends, sometimes they look like talking. For example this one is saying “Mom, where are you going? Wait for me!”

“Hey guys, smile! We'll appear on the next Camel’s pack”:

“Nemo!!! Where are you?”:

We also I found some jelly fish dancing:

That was the first time I see an electric eel. Notice the black box which indicates when eel generates electricity:

At the end of the day, we reached Metzingen, a.k.a. the outlet city. No more pictures but we walked a lot. Zero clothing shopping…buh. We bought some things in a toys store and ate fresh popcorn. 

p.s.- Where is the rest of the pictures about the zoo? Look at the sidebar.

Germany - Heidelberg

We started this day late. When we reached Heidelberg, we looked for a nice place to drink a coffee; our place was Hard Rock Café:

It wasn’t as glamorous as I expected, but the place is really nice. I had a Student's Breakfast at 4:30 pm. One stunning thing: they sell sex-toys in the ladies bathroom (?).

With more energy, we were ready for the castle. Again, saving some Euros and sponsoring healthy exercise, we walked uphill to the castle, but it was quite dark. However, I could take nice pictures where the architecture is highlighted:

The view from the castle is beautiful. Here is the Christmas market and the Neckar river:

We walked then to the river and took this picture of the castle:

While we were waiting for some friends, we heard music. It was a little band in the street. I was wondering what Christmas carol was it, but for second time in the day I was stunned, they were playing Britney Spears song “Baby One More Time”. A really Christmas song.

Germany – Nuremberg (Part II)

Today started as a very nice day. I love buffet hotel breakfasts. We went for a walk but sadly my left knee wasn’t in its best moment. That didn't stop us to enjoy the walk and get some crêpes. The old buildings look different:

More pictures about the strange fountain, now with daylight:

I really like these medieval buildings:

Of course, a stitched image:

During our return trip, we made a stop and lunched… Makis! Courtesy of Nordsee:

What happened with the Christmas Angel? Well, that girl has a busy schedule, as us, and that made impossible our meeting. Maybe we meet her next year.

Germany – Nuremberg (Part I)

Some months ago, I watched a TV program from Deutsche Welle about the Nuremberg Christmas market and Christmas Angel, and that really interested me. That’s the reason why visit Nuremberg during my trip in Germany was mandatory. Kiwi-chan drove the car during 3 hours from Bruchsal, and after 1 stop and 4 super sandwiches we were there. My first impression was the landscape full of old medieval buildings around:

But the old buildings have a modern artistic touch, like this really strange fountain:

Beautiful churches:

A sign, made with lights, was welcome us to the market:

In the market, I took this video in front of Frauenkirche:

We ate 2 “Nuremberg sausages in a bun” and I tried Glühwein, but it was too much alcohol for me, so I only drunk the non-alcoholic version, for kids.

Germany – Karlsruhe (Part II)

Today we saw the Karlsruhe Castle, it's really beautiful:

There is also this statue. I don’t know who he is and why he is killing this poor dragon:

The statue of Karl Friedrich von Baden, where kids play:

Karlsruhe is also decorated with Christmas theme:

Again, some pictures of the tram. I still impressed about people walking among the trams:

The Pyramid, built in 1825, is the symbol of Karlsruhe. During these days it's a little bit hiding, because the Christmas market is exactly there:

Germany – Schwegenheim and Gommersheim

With a sunny day, we visited Gommersheim village. In the road there were several forests:

Also we had to cross the Rhine:

In the middle of the way, we pass through Schwegenheim village. I like the architecture of the houses and the width of the streets:

Finally we reach Gommersheim. I took this wonderful picture, sadly the only one. My fault: