Summer has nearly arrived....

It's seems only a few weeks ago that we were still having temperatures around 0C here in Poznań and my how the times change.  In the middle of this week we moved up into the low 20's and today we got up to at least 28C.  That's in the very low 80's for those of you using the Fahrenheit scale.  Yes, I still largely think in Fahrenheit, feet, inches, and pounds; but I am trying to adapt to this strange thing called the metric system that seeming the rest of the world has adopted.  ;)

We are expecting several more days in the high-20's before we get a bit of rain, so I'm hoping to get the camera out and wander around tomorrow or Monday.  Plus, I might as well get out and enjoy myself while I can this month.  Next month the UEFA Euro 2012 Cup comes to Poland (including Poznań) so travel is likely to be an issue and it will be interesting to see if the hooligans shows up.

Have a great day!

New Food #5 - Dave's Polish Bachelor stew

My latest culinary creation is Dave's Polish Bachelor Stew


- 2 cans white beans
- 3 cans red kidney beans
- Kielbasa per preference (I used 4 hot dog sized)
- 1 bag frozen mixed vegetables (pref with Potatos)
- 1 can pineapple chunks
- 1 jar spagetti sauce
- chile con carne and other spices to taste

Combine all (including pineapple juice) in a large pot and cook slowly, stirring occasionally.  This was another random attempt to throw food together and it's actually pretty good I think.  You can leave out the meat if you want vegetarian.  I think it actually taste's pretty good.  You may disagree.  :)

Why Polish? Because red and white are the colors of Poland (and the beans are red and white).  And because Kielbasa is about as Polish as you can get (from an American's perspective).

Why bachelor?  Because I am one, and this turned out to be a really easy recipe to make, and I figure it would appeal to bachelors.  :)

Enjoy your weekend.

My Trip to Berlin - Part 5 (8 pics)

I'm going to close out this series of posts of my trip to Berlin with a few random images and things I found interesting.  I hope you enjoy them.

The site of the old Checkpoint Charlie.

As usual, don't forget to click the link below to see the rest of the images, and click an image to see a larger version of it.

My Trip to Berlin - Part 4 (9 pics)

[NOTE: I added links to the Wikipedia pages for many of the sites I visited so that you can find out more info if you want.]

Monday was a nice clear day, and not too cold. So I decided to head west, toward the Pariser Platz.  At the west end of Pariser Platz is the Brandenburg Gate, with the US Embassy on the south side, and The Kennedy's Museum and Starbucks (the other home of American's abroad) on the north side (among other things).

The Brandenburg Gate

Click the link below to see the rest of the images.  And click and image to see a larger version of it.

Enjoy!

My Trip to Berlin - Part 3 (9 pics)

[NOTE: I added links to the Wikipedia pages for many of the sites I visited so that you can find out more info if you want.]

Sunday dawned with mostly clear skies, if a bit cold.  So this was first real chance to try and do some "official" (in my mind) sight-seeing.  So I headed East from my hotel, starting with the Gendarmenmarkt, right across the street, which is the site of Der Französische Dom (The French Dome), Der Deutsche Dom, and the Konzerthaus Berlin.

See the rest of the pictures by clicking the link below, and don't forget to click on a picture if you want to see a bigger version.

Enjoy!

My Trip to Berlin - Part 2 (9 pics)

[NOTE: I added links to the Wikipedia pages for many of the sites I visited so that you can find out more info if you want.]

I arrived in Berlin late on Friday afternoon and it was overcast, rainy, and cold.  So after arriving at my hotel, I did a bit of wandering around in the immediate vicinity, looking for food and coffee (of course) and generally scouting the neighborhood around my hotel.  Saturday was also wet (as you can see from the picture below).  But since it was one of the days that shops were open, I did a lot of wandering into shopping complexes and such.

This is what the weather was like most of Friday and Saturday.

More pictures after the break, so click the link to see more and don't forget to click the actual picture if you want to see a bigger version.

Enjoy!

My Trip to Berlin - Part 1 (7 pics)

Having maxed out the amount of vacation I could accrue (again), I decided to take Good Friday and the Tuesday after Easter Monday off as vacation days and take a trip to Berlin for the first time.  And after a bit of research, I also decided to take my first train trip ever (at least that I could remember) and skip dealing with hassles of the airport.  There is a regularly scheduled train that runs from Warsaw to Berlin, through Poznań, that would deposit me at the Berlin Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) slightly more than 2.5 hours after I left.  Poznań Głowny (the main train station here) is about a 35 minute walk from my apartment, or if I catch the tram, less than a 10 minute ride.

Knowing that much of the city would be closed down 3 of the 4.5 days I was there (Good Friday, Easter, and Easter Monday are all holidays in Berlin), and that the weather forecast was for rain and cold, I decided to at least get a nice hotel in case the weather was so horrible that walking around didn't make much.  Thanks to Google Maps and some research, I settled on the Sofitel Berlin.  If you are going to Berlin, I have to recommend it.  It's in walking distance to many of the major attractions, has comfortable beds by American standards (not the hard and thin mattresses you get in most European hotels), and it's on a relatively quiet street (Charlottenstrasse) so it's not too noisy.

I ended up with over 350 pictures taken during this trip with my smaller travel camera (due to the weather predictions I left the Nikon behind) and will post a few of the decent ones here in case you are interested.  First up, pictures mostly taken from the train (so excuse the reflections and dirt from the window) on both the way there and back.

First up is this picture of the Hauptbahnhoff taken the day I left (which was nice).

Click the link below to see more pictures.  And don't forget to click on the pictures to the see the larger sized versions.

Enjoy!