whale watching was much more impressive than i thought. i expected it to be “nice”, but it was quite overwhelming. It must be the size, the setting, everything together… when you see the green spot announcing the whale surfacing (it is green because the plancton makes the white skin look green through the water :),…

Was in Solothurn last week-end, a quite nice but not overwhelming little town. Didn’t see much of the baroque it was supposed to burst of, but maybe it’s me. nice trip, though. Came back towards the evening, and the light was so warm outside, sun about to set, that I decided to jump on the…

i had no business in frankfurt. I shouldnt have been there today. But of course i got lost. on the way back from Goettingen. Jane didnt want to speak to me at all, she didnt even start since yesterday. I am very angry with her, very upset. So i missed some intersection, in high traffic,…

i dont want to leave goettingen tomorrow… for several reasons…

Tuvan’s wedding was a blast. Well, I missed the wedding itself completely, because I missed the plane, arriving late by 10 minutes, and they couldnt get me on it.. so the only way was to catch a late connection through germany, and i arrived in the middle of the night.. one hour after the wedding…

aug 1st is the swiss national day, more importantly, day off. since they probably ordered nice weather, i took the opportunity and my new scooter for a tour in the area. went down to Zug, a nice little town by an (of course) omonym lake, then off to ruetli, where the treaty between the old…

took my new old car on its first 400km trip thru europe. freiburg, germany, is a small nice colorful romantic town, then thru the black forest mountains to donaueschingen, which has the danube springs, so i paid respect, then to stein am rhein, an extemely picturesque little town where the rhein comes out of the…

its good that i waited a few hours before announcing the whole world that i’m going/coming to NY for the last two weeks of august. coz it got cancelled, due to an overbooking of 2 immovable days, when i have to be in germany. the last two. oh well. in the good old romanian way,…

lucerne is to my mind so far the most charming city in switzerland. for potential visitors, include “in the package” a trip to one of the two mountains, Rigi or Pilatus (check at the tourist office for the weather/view, pilatus tends to have its head in the clouds). this saturday went with (other) two friends…

meaning Konstanz – Lindau – München. that’s what i saw in the weekend, accompanying my friends who left :(.as a bonus, the monastery in Ottobeuren, a seemingly Godforgotten place somewhere in Bavaria, but only seemingly, coz it has a HUGE baroque monastery. mesmerizing!there are so many nice places in this world it gets scary if…

For weekends like this it is worth working like crazy. Went with the two friends who are visiting to meet two other friends (all from romania) in lausanne, and spent a wonderful week-end on lake Leman, in a region called Lavaux. Recommended: Lausanne-Evian boat trip, then boat trip along the coast from Lausanne (Ouchy) to…

met 2 very dear friends in germany yesterday, they came from romania, i went from zurich, met in-between to visit some bavarian spots, 2 castles (neuschwanstein & linderhof) and a resort, garmisch partenkirchen (ski fans might recognize the funny name).neuschwanstein (=”new swan’s stone”) castle is the highlight – apparently it was the inspiration for disney’s…

was in Nurnberg, Germany, for work, 2 nights, both quite late, but last night at 11 i asked myself: so will you sheepishly watch tv till you hardly fall asleep, or will you take a short walk thru a nice city who knows when you’ll have the chance to see again?i didn’t see much, but…

took a short 1-week surprise vacation between projects, went home to romania. cant believe it’s over and i’m back about to start again.. one noticeable thing i did was visit the european culture capital 2007, Sibiu, Romania. Pics below: http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2009111308.swf?AlbumID=2941750&AlbumKey=wDBxu&transparent=true&bgColor=&borderThickness=&borderColor=&useInside=&endPoint=&mainHost=cdn.smugmug.com&VersionNos=2009111308&width=640&height=485&clickToImage=true&captions=true&showThumbs=true&autoStart=false&showSpeed=true&pageStyle=black&showButtons=true&randomStart=false&randomize=false&splash=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smugmug.com%2Fimg%2Fria%2FShizamSlides%2Fsmugmug_black.png&splashDelay=0&crossFadeSpeed=350.

went to Gstaad today. just to check it out, had heard of it. seemed strangely empty, although there were some people on streets. everything closed, of course, except for a boulangerie and a couple of restaurants.. pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/explorish/gstaad

Bruxelles & Bruges, i.e. Belgium. Joined my sister in Bruxelles, where she and “the gang” were visiting a friend who lives there. Had a great time with them, revisiting the two cities mentioned + Oostende, where we managed to keep the Romanian tradition of going to the seaside on may 1st, to “inaugurate the season”.…

its snowing like in fairytales.

The worst was when it bent. Fooorward-baaaackward. Like a big boat. Only there was no water beneath, just air. Air and down, much further down, snow. The cablecar we were in, the biggest I have seen in my life, connected two mountains, without any mast inbetween. Cool, if it wouldn’t have stopped exactly in the…

survived the rookie camp. didn’t know cross-country skiing can be very enjoyable, didn’t know powder-snow-skiing was so tough, albeit wonderful, did know that sledging at midnight must be a great adrenalizer..some pictures here: http://explorish.smugmug.com/gallery/2485279#130404879back to work…