Sydney Lights

Hi folks!

Brief update I have to announce: I uploaded the pictures of my 3 day singapore stop-over. See them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21084745@N00/sets/72157594232258498/ 

c ya

Hi fellows.

Not too much happening in the beautiful German summer here. But last weekend me, Sebastian and Denis, another old fellow of mine made a party in Kassel. We hired a room close to Kassel's cool party scene close to the old main trainstation. It is called Galerie Loyal and is well equipped for a party. Everything was there. From a very loud sound system, light system, bar and chillout lounge. We invited about 40 people and had free beer in the beginning. First I showed a collection of my Australia and New Zealand travel pictures on a beamer that I had hired, which lasted about an hour and was liked a lot by the people. Later we played the playstation 2 game "Singstar" on it. A karaoke game which compares the tune of your singing with the actual tune of the song and judges the quality of your singing so in the end the person with the best tuned voice wins. Very funny indeed. And a lot of nice people were there. So it was a good party night, although quite expensive. But Denis and Sebastian had their birthdays and I was back from the other side of the world, if that's not reason enough to spend a lot of money on a good party...?

Maybe you are curious for party pictures. Well, there you go: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21084745@N00/sets/72157594225122741/show/

(most of the pictures were taken by me and my old camera "KonicaMinolta Dimage Z2")

Do you think I am ready to enter the big business of party photography? :-)

Hi people!

Only a few days after I had arrived back in Germany I spent 6 days on a vacation with my mum and my brother. We went to our neighbor czech republic, respectively the little town Ceski Krumlov. It's a beautiful site with a medieval centre and lots of water. The river Vlatlava (Moldau) flows through it and meanders its way through it.
Czeski Krumlov is a relatively unknown (because of its size: 20000 people only) but increasinly popular place among czech and international tourists. Even the big Lonely Planet recommends it for backpackers. And indeed the town is full of young internationals that stay in the town's various hostels. You won't believe it but you can meet not only german, french italian and english people there but also people from the other side of the world. For example I had 4 Australians from Melbourne on my room and 2 japanese girls.
So what makes this town so attractive for foreigners? Well, it's something you only realize after you have already spent at least 2 days there. It's the town's river that brings a certain kind of relaxed and laid back mood into the town. It is present almost everywhere and there is plenty of gastronomy on the riverbanks and a couple of historic bridges.
So you can always enjoy a cappuccino or a chilled beer there and just watch the river flow gently through past the town. On the river, and that is one of the regions most popular attractions there are many people moving down the stream with little canoes or rafts. It's nice just to watch them going down the river. On one of the towns watergates (Schleuse) there are always many people just watching those ones with the canoes overturn since its a hard exercise balancing down the turbulent water there.
Anyway the atmosphere in the town was just amazing, the people very friendly and helpful although not all czech people spoke english. But the czech women are of a very natural beauty indeed. My brother always said the town had a good Chill Factor. He is definitely right.
So on the first day we hired some bikes and explored the region a little bit. We came past towns where there was a lot of gypsy population which were often living in shabby old communism houses. But the landscape we passed was very beautiful and showed lots of green. The same like in the german summer. But just something I hadn't seen in for while in down under. On the second day we rented out a raft and did like all the others and rode down the river for 40 km until short before the Czech town of Budweis, where the famous beer comes from. This was one of the best things we could do there. Just being on the river got us in a chilled relaxed mood with no hurry because the river was flowing quite fast and made it not too necessary to row the boat quickly. The third day we hiked on the "Klet", a mountain in the area from where we enjoyed a fantastic and far 260 degrees view. One the fourth day we went to Budweis and explored the town. It has the biggest central marketplace in the whole czech republic with 130m side length and a square shape. You can calculate how many square metres that is.
Before I finish there is one thing I still wanna mention: It's a good idea to begin your evening in Ceski Krumlov with a restaurant visit. The food there is affordable (A big portion of excellent food hardly costs 10 Euros) and the quality was outstanding without exception. We were very surprised because normally in a little czech town like that you can't expect such good value for your money.
So alltogether it was a very relaxing, interesting and culinaric holiday without being pricey and I am pretty sure I will come back one day.

Enjoy the photos in album No. 12

 Cheers!

hi fellows.

very brief update.

my new zealand pictures are now online! Check them out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sydneylights/sets/72157594169169424/ 

marvellous landscapes and incredible colours!

 I am now off to a one week vacation with my family to czeck republic.

C ya back again in one week

Marius