Bayern ist Super ober Affen Geil!

Last weekend I was in Bavaria, Germany, where - before doing business in Stuttgart on Monday - I spent the weekend with a good friend of mine, JH, who I know since secondary school. That's him:

Now, for all you Ladies who - after seeing this picture - suddenly become regular visitors of this blog: JH is married... with Nursel... So don't ya even start thinking about it! ;)

Anyway, I stayed in Munich over the weekend and absolutely came to love the city. It is set up spaciously, has the typical Central European (Habsburg-influenced) architectural styles and colored houses, a cozy market square, the fresh and alive Isar river making for nice evening walks and a big, big park to space out in. Oh, and then I did not even mention the flowery English garden with its romantic fountains. Half a day definitely was too short to see it all/well, and most of my pictures of the city did not turn out well because I took them at dusk. However, here's a little impression:
On Saturday evening I walked into a couple of stereotypes one can have about Germany (nonetheless these stereotypes are often based on what happens in Bavaria - at least that what's I was told by a German). There had been a soccer match in the city and the Munich (or maybe Bavaria) team won and that needed to be celebrated, the Bavarian way... Beer, beer, beer in glasses that are swimming pools to the youngest among us, loud chanting of victory songs, looooooooooooots of broken bottles everywhere and even some men in Lederhosen (the typical leather pants that come to the knee and which are worn but in certain areas of Europe). Oh boy... :O The partying was such that both JH and I wondered whether the Worldcup games had already started, but these haven't yet. Munich can definitely brace itself when that party will start.

The day after I woke up wondering why the sound of the shower seemed so close to my bed. Confused I wondered if JH was maybe taking a shower with the bathroom door open, but then I saw him come into the room from the direction of the balcony and I realized that the sound of water was caused by absolutely incredibly p-o-u-r-i-n-g RAIN! Of course that had to happen on the one day in the year we decide to rent a car to go for a hike in the mountains. Great. However, being the enlighted positive spirits we are ;), we decided to go see those mountains ANYWAY!
It turned out to be great day in Sud-Bayern (southern Bavaria). During the rainy morning we hung out in Aschau, a village that is so overly cute that it frequently serves as a movie set. We continued our mountain wandering by car towards the Austrian border, taking little roads for fun and amazing ourselves about the beauty of the local landscape. So peaceful, so calm, so away from the fast world, so many shades of green, such healthy cattle and so many blossoming trees and flowers in the fields. By the late afternoon the sun broke through the clouds while we undertook a little hike to a nearby cascade. Soothing. We ended the day at Chiemsee, a big lake offering dramatical views on the mountains in the background. What an unexpected day...


As they say in German: "Bavaria is really more-than-monkeys cool". And now don't ask me where that comes from... but I do agree!

CES Gossip!

Ooooh, that title got some of you interested, huh? ;)

And other readers are wondering: "What's CES?"
It's the Center for European Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where I completed my MA last year.

Anyway, at this insane hour in the morning (I just woke up - dunno why) I decided to just throw some 'gossip' on my blog. I rather create it for myself than I have others create it for me. Guess who's staying at my place at this moment? ... Henry. Henry who? Henry from CES (as he presented himself in the first email he wrote to me). Henry with whom Sanne never hung out in the year she was in Kraków. But, hey, life is full of surprises and I guess this is another one.
Last week I received an email from Henry saying that he's going to start an internship in the Netherlands, but that he did not have a permanent place to live yet. So he asked me for advice on where to look for a place to live. Then events turned such a way that he could not go to one of the places where he was supposed to stay temporarily and I decided to offer him to stay at my place. So here I am, sharing my open-space appartment with a former fellow student with whom I did not hang out while living in the same Polish city. And, guess what, I think he's a nice guy!

Never a dull moment...

After an intense week of work in Brussels (where the association I work for held its annual conference as well as a political event), I thought I would have a month without business trips to 'recover' from the long working days, the exceedingly high levels of Belgian chocolate consumption, as well as the regularly elevated alcohol levels of the past week(s). Spring has finally arrived in the Netherlands and I was thinking of sleeping in, breakfast on my balcony and general procrastinating. However, my life (most of the time) is not supposed to be like that, I guess... The first unexpected business trip announced itself this morning. So in two weeks I will make my way to Germany and since I will be close to Munich, where one of my best friends lives, I have taken the whole weekend to spend time with him and see some more of the city. I love how an unexpected business trip can turn into an even less expected visit to a friend, eventhough this life style gets me increasing bags beneath my eyes (but also a smile on my face)! :)