After a wonderful week of horse back riding in Austria i suffered a severe relapse. I really don't know how i was able to neglect my love for these funny animals for such a long time. Seems like i'm back on track. Fully determined to find the right four-legged friend for me in Berlin. Any help appreciated!

I read about this 4th of 4th thing on my sister's blog and immediately had to check mine... although i haven't been tagged for this i'm posting my picture... cause i like it so much. It's the view from my former apartment in rosenthaler strasse. The sports ground oposite my window was brand new and when the first rain came the red surface was washed away. Streight into the canalisation. As if the the rain fell in love with the red and took it with him.

Found this here. I think this is how i feel right now.

We spent our christmas holidays and new year in Austria. Staying with some friends from Munich at our friend E.'s family "Castle" in the middle of nowhere between many beautiful mountains. It was fantastic. We had "Kaiserwetter" unlimited and perfect snow. The family's property, consisting of a main buidling (the pink one), stables, some barns and an old castle ruin, is more than 900 years old and E's family has owned it for 5 generations. Her mother runs the "Wirtstaverne" (Restaurant), Hotel and Youthhostel and her father used to look after the animals (cows, horses and sheep), which he gave up only 2 years ago. E. has 3 siblings, all of them come back there for the holiday season every year to help out with the kitchen, the guests and everything. Not only that they do an incredible job keeping an unbelievably high quality all over the whole enterprise, they also seem to get on with each other pretty well. I was so impressed by their energy, enthusiasm and composure. Even as young children they had to work with their parents but it doesn't seem like they suffered or anything. They're all very proud of the family's heritage, the history of their grandparents, how brave they were, giving shelter to refugees in the nazi regime and their courage and dedication when the old building burned down in the 40s, when a fire, caused by a broken oven, destroyed half of their property, along with many very old furnitures, relicts of the past that would have been enough material to make it a museum at some point. E's grandfather had to sell two of his alms to rebuild it. Now E's youngest brother, 25, is the chef of the kitchen and he decided to take over the business. He has big plans for the hotel. I hope he will manage to keep the authenticity.

Meeting this family made me think. If I can have only a tiny little slice of their determination i'm fine for 2009.

++++

my sister a. inspired me to change my header... i haven't found the right one yet, so this is just a placeholder to remind me that i want a new one....

Last Night, when i was about to brush my teeth, i was given a very special bedtime present... i hadn't realised it was snowing. Shorty after i heard thunder. Weird combination that made me feel uncomfortable. Snow and thunderstorm. Doesn't go together very well. I think i've never ever had this before. Is it the global warming? Or was i dreaming already?

I got tagged by my sister A. Sorry, i don't even know what it means! Seems like I don't know anything about blogging... but here are my details.

1. clothing
i wish i was this person, who automatically dresses perfectly. but i'm the opposite. in my dream i buy my clothes second hand, find these special pieces, classy, timeless, great fabrics and colors. and combine them with fashionable accesoires, mix it up with with legere, sporty, casual bits here and there. all looking very random, like "not put on on purpose". the problem is: you can't buy such a talent with money. in reality i'm a scarf addict. i try to hide my lacking style behind a big and ideally colorful scarf.

2. furniture
as longs as i have a functionable desk, a chair and a bed, i'm happy. i just started to think about furniture – in a design-way – pretty recently. that was when i moved in with t., who's always been thinking about furniture a lot, which means i'm not neccesarily needed when it comes to it. he's very much into fancy 60's, scandinavian furniture design. i prefer the "improvised", more practical style.
In the picture above you see our newest hello from svancinavia, given to me as a present by my 5 lovely friends from fotofuenf. Thank you so much again... I love them!!

3. sweet
liquorice and yoghurt icecream.

4. city
berlin has become my hometown. i just fell in love with san francisco and kopenhagen is a puppethouse city but i like it a lot, too.

5. drink
apfersaftschorle, good wine and wodka.

6. music
the music i'm into can be described as honest. i don't like any kind of pretentious music. the genre is probably called indie-folk, electronic-related, singer-songwriter.... whatsoever. i don't need povocing, progressive, experimental music. but i wouldn't say that i don't like it. music is very important to me and i wish i had more time to listen to it. also i wish i would get back to making music at some point. but that's another story.
i've posted a lot of the bands i've been listening to lately, you can find them in older posts.
Aaaaaah... i have to add my latest find (or rather t's).... THE (GLORIOUS) RUBY SUNS

7. tv
grey's anatomy (i know, it's pathetic), six feet under, dexter, dirty sexy money, the wire....

8. film
unfortuantely i don't know too much about film. which means i'm the perfect consumer. i see a movie, i like it or not, i forget it straight away. if i meet people who are comparably ignorant and uninformed about MUSIC i'm always surprised. but: that's how it is. i like michel gondry. of course. and the last film i saw at a theater and felt very well entertained by was 'burn after reading'.

9. work-out
swimming, bikram yoga.

10. pastries
all kinds of good pastries.

11. coffee
black with a shot of soy milk, or soy cappuccino.

So what do i have to do now? Do I have to 'tag' someone else? Could anyone explain it to me please? Or can i look it up at wikipedia? If I can choose one person, I tag my friend S. from duyland.

Nothing but more leaves... I still don't have anything to tell you.
Ok. There is more.
More music: It hugs back, High places, Chad Van Gaalen. Enjoy!

We are back now for more than two weeks and I still haven't manage to finish my full report on the five week journey. It's weird but it feels like a dream you remember well but can't find the words to talk about. Maybe i'm still too overwhealmed by all the impressions. Or just overchallenged by "story-telling" you about it, I don't know.
Maybe it's because I was having a hard time getting back to my everyday life after such a long time "on the road". Not that i didn't like coming back. I just had the biggest mental jet-lag ever.... and almost killed myself in a bicycle accident. Twice. So please be patient. I still want to get this written down... But it takes some more time.

Meanwhile i'm enjoying myself copying the beauty of fall.
It's my favourite season right now. Despite all the rain, the chillness and the sadness of the dark sky. Jaja.

Berlin - Heathrow - Lake Nippising - Toronto - Vancouver - Seattle - Cannon Beach - Otter Rock (And many other "Beaches", "Rocks", "Forts" and "Bays") - San Francisco - Big Sur - Santa Barbara - Los Angeles and back. We met many dolphins, sea lions, seals, whales, squirrels, chipmunks, racoons, deer, jackals, all kinds of birds, and people. Most of them very american. Most of the good food we had pretty unamerican. We saw some very nice conerts (The Dodo's, Fleetfoxes, Okkerville River, Beach House, Mogwai ...) and beautiful sunsets. All above: the Pacific Ocean.
Now we are back, very happy but also very exhausted. I hope i find the time post the stories of the pictures and more pics soon.