Christmas 2012 (19 images)

I decided this year to take a short trip around Christmas again.  But instead of heading to Edinburgh, I went to Germany. 

As an overall itinerary, I left on Friday the 21st from Poznan and took the train to Berlin and then on to Dresden.  I spent Friday evening and Saturday in Dresden wandering around and enjoying the oldest Christmas Market in Germany.  Sunday morning I headed to the city of Braunschweig, which I sort of picked at random to spend a day in before heading back to Poland on Monday, Christmas Eve.  I spent Christmas Day and Boxing Day in Poznan before returning to work on Thursday.

My co-worker Marva Kington travelled to Dresden with me, where she combined both the tourist thing with the Christmas thing; while I went off in a different direction and did a mix of the shopping thing, the tourist thing, and the Christmas Market thing.  :) 

This was the 578th Dresden Striezelmarkt, although this year there were actually 11 different markets of differing sizes spread throughout the city.  The Winterlichter market was being held on Pragerstrasse, just out outside the hotel we stayed in.  You can see the view from my hotel window below, taken Friday night, not long after we arrived in Dresden.

 

Poznań 7th International Ice Sculpture Festival (15 pictures)

Yesterday (Saturday the 15th) I went up to Stary Rynek (the old town square) because I had heard there were ice sculptures there (thank you Pawel for mentioning it in passing) and I wanted to see them before they melted.  It was first day over zero in a bit and it was raining, so I figured they might melt fast.

The picture below is of the winning sculpture, which won 1500 Euros.

 

More pictures after the break (if you are viewing this on the home page).

 

From Rain to Snow

I'm back in Poland after nearly 3 weeks back in the U.S. and I'm starting to wonder if I'm hauling bad weather around with me.

The five days before I left California included massive amounts of rain as three storms pounded northern California one after the other.  There was so much rain that one of the tree's in the neighbors yard behind my Mom's house fell and crashed through the fence, just barely hitting the edge of the roof (no damage I think).

As you can see, it made a bit of a mess.

However, while my Mom was lucky with this tree, there was another tree in the neighbors yard that was leaning at quite an angle and looked like it was going to come down too.  Unfortunately, while it wasn't aimed at her house, it was aimed directly at the utility pole that carried the power, phone, and cable lines.  Take a look at the picture below.

Thanksgiving Pictures

One of the things I have bought on my visit to the U.S. has been a new pocket camera to replace my old Panasonic.  I bought a new Canon G15 and took along when I went to my cousin Victoria's house for Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, I forgot to fully charge up the battery after I took it out of the box, so I ran out of juice far quicker than I would have wanted.  Between that and trying to learn a new camera I didn't get a lot of pictures taken, but I did get about 20 that I think are worth sharing.

I will include a few below, and you can go to my picture site to see the full set.

Many thanks to my cousin Victoria, her husband Danny, and their kids Joshua, Zachary, and Aliana for making my visit home so nice.  Now on to a few of the pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

Have a wonderful day!  And if you go to my picture site, please rate any pictures you happen to view so that I get an idea of what people like.  Thanks!

 

Winter has arrived in Poznan.....

All right, it's not officially winter yet.  But when there is actual snow falling, that is winter as far as I'm concerned.

New Foods #7 - Filo Dough

It's sad to say that after over a year in Poland, this will be only the 7th "New Foods" posting I have done.  It's not that my diet has been quite that unimaginative, it's just that I've forgotten to take pictures, or I didn't think it would be terribly interesting.  After all, you've seen candy bars, beans, and fruit juice before, even if they are in different packaging.  And when I have gone out to eat, I almost always seem to forget my camera. 

I've gone to a restaurant called Manikin that serves naleshniki (sort of like a crepe) a bunch of times.  It's probably my favorite place for a good meal that is not too expensive.  But for some reason, I always forget to take my camera.  I really need to, because they make all sorts of options besides the standard naleshniki.  They also make versions that are similar to a burrito, to lasagne, to spaghetti, in addition to the standard crepe-like creation (which can have meat and vegetables, or sweeter fillings).

But I don't eat out much so the opportunities are limited (unless you want to see pictures of the Subway, salads, or Starbuck's I usually get for lunch).  I mostly cook at home, and for simplicities sake, I don't experiment too much.  One thing I have tried a few times recently though is filo dough (like this picture).

I wouldn't be surprised if you can get this stuff in the US, but I don't remember seeing it there.  From what I can tell, it's mostly used here for making torts and something that is quiche-like.  But being me, I had to experiment.

Pictures Galore.....

Long before I set this blog up, I had a picture site that I used to show pictures that I took during my hikes or of family get-together's.  It wasn't intended as a picture showcase, rather as a large-scale photo dump.  So the images weren't heavily edited and I didn't put too much effort into just selecting the best pictures, rather I just tried to get rid of the worst ones.  Unfortunately, the database got corrupted at one point and I lost all the pictures on the site, and I never got around to re-building it.

Well, not too long ago my Mom asked why I didn't put up all (or more) of the pictures from my trips that weren't showing up on this blog on that site.  So I reinstalled the original software from scratch, and uploaded a bunch of my trip pictures.  But after playing around with it, I decided I didn't like that software that much.  So I spent a good chunk of this weekend installing a different software package and uploading all of the photos I have taken since I arrived in Europe that I thought anyone might be interested in.  Like before, I just went through and tried to get rid of the bad pictures, or near duplicates.

If you want to see the full photo dump, you can go to this site: www.theartofdave.com


With the new software you can:

• See how many images are in each Album
• I can add keywords to the images, so that you can see virtual albums based on keyword (such as "Churches"). Click the "Tags" link in the left menu (not all images are tagged yet).
• Rate images (1-5 stars and you have to be viewing a single image) and see which images are the highest rated (if people rate them). Click the "Best Rated" link in the left menu.
• See just the recently added photos, even if they are added to an existing Album. Click the "Recent Photos" link on the left menu. (Warning, I added around 800 photo's today, so this won't be useful until later)
• See photos by the date I added them, or the date they were taken. Click the "Calendar" link in the left menu. Not all photos tagged with their creation date yet.
• Add comments to photos (they will be flagged for moderation and review by me, so they won't show up immediately).  You need to create an account and log in to add comments (to keep the spam-bots down).
• Search for photos by combinations of Tags, Creation Date, Post Date, and specific Albums. Click the "Search" link in the left menu.
• If you use RSS feeds, you can subscribe to an RSS feed of this site, choosing either just the photo's or any blog comments as well. Click the "Notifications" link in the left menu.
• Although there is an effect to show a larger version of a thumbnail when you move your mouse cursor over it, you can also change the size of the images displayed on the page (including thumbnails). When you are in an album there are several icons on the top-right, the icon that looks like a box with an arrow diagonally in it will let you change the size of the image on the screen. These icons show on the top-left when viewing a single image.
• If you don't want to click through the images in an Album, you can start a slideshow by clicking the movie camera icon.
• You can register with the site to create your own user ID and password.

 I even added a small album with some pictures from one of my hikes, and will add the others as I get a chance.  And I'll probably eventually add a "People" set of albums to show some of the pictures I have taken from various parties and get-togethers.

So anyway, I knew there were at least a few folks who might be interested in seeing all of the photos, since there are way more than it would be practical to show here.  So feel free to check out the site at the link above if you are interested.

Thanks!

Warning: Political Content (2012)

For every election my Mom asks for info on all of the California ballot Propositions, because she knows I actually sit down and read through the full text of the ballots.  And we usually talk about the different candidates for office too.  

Since I am not back in California, this post will contain my thoughts on the Propositions and Candidates for the November 2012 election.  So if you are not interested in my thoughts on this issue, please skip on by.  I promise you will only see stuff like this once an election.  :)

Content after the break.

The first year is done .....

It's hard to believe, but September 16th was the one-year anniversary of my arrival in Poland.  It doesn't seem like nearly that much time has gone by.  And with the passing of the first year has come the process of renewal.  I have recently (with the help of Move-One, our relocation service):

• Gotten my new Work Permit.  Apparently it was just as easy to apply for a 2-year extension as a 1-year extension, so for contingency purposes my work permit is good through the end of July 2014.
• Received my Polish Residents Card.  So I now have an official Polish ID.  This takes the place of the visa I originally had, and also means I don't have to carry my passport around with me.  Like the Work Permit, it is good through July 2014.
• Signed a lease extension with my landlord, ensuring I don't have to move and try and find a new apartment just as the hordes of college students decent on Poznań for the start of the new semester.
• The only paperwork left to ensure the continuing stay is to extend my official residence filing, which Move-One will be helping with in a week or two.

So, what are my thoughts on the first year?

• I have done a terrible job of trying to learn Polish.  It's just too easy for me to get by with English between my co-workers and most of the folks in the shops (who are generally younger) speaking English.  I am resolving to do better, but we'll see.
• Poznań is a pretty good place to live.  It has lots of young people, so lots of energy.  The only downside that consistently bugs me is the water, which is so full of minerals that it consistently dries out and causes minor irritation to my skin and leaves a residue behind on everything.  The dark grey / black sink in my kitchen is pale grey from the deposits in places.
• The Polish people are generally tremendously outgoing and nice.  I can only think of one time in my whole year here when I got even a bit of dirty look from someone for not speaking Polish.  Try going a day in the US without someone being nasty to you if you don't speak English.
• Accepting the offer to come to Poland has to be among the best choices I ever made.  It's given me opportunities I probably never would have had otherwise, even if I am not taking advantage of them to maximum possibility.  Strangely, I think that in many ways the biggest change has been in a work capacity where I have had a chance to work on things that were much more interesting that what I was doing in the US and kept me much more interested in my job.  The location stuff has just been a major benefit.
• Being able to work a schedule that generally runs from 11am or Noon to 7-8pm really has been as nice as I thought it would be.  
• Living in an apartment still sucks just as much as I remembered it did.  ;)

 
As for what I'm doing right now, I'm hoping to try and take one more trip in Europe before I head over to the U.S. for my visit and before winter sets in.  Hopefully in the next 3 weeks or so. 

Given that the NHL is in a lock-out and some San Jose Sharks players are playing in Europe right now, I'm thinking of trying to catch a hockey game somewhere.  Logan Couture is playing for Geneva in the Swiss League, and Joe Thornton is playing for Davos.  So if the lock-out is still going on towards the end of October I might try and catch the meet-up of those teams on October 27th.  Jason Demers of the Sharks is playing in Finland, but for a team in the far north.  That may be hard to reach on a 4-day weekend.  Maybe I'll luck and they'll go to Helsinki sometime soon.  Or Tomas Hertl, the Sharks top prospect, is playing the Czech league, so that offers another option.

Or if I can't find a hockey game to go to, I'll try and visit another city on my list.  Depending on the weather at the time I am looking at Helsinki, Copenhagen, Zurich, Dusseldorf and Cologne (just a short train ride apart), or possibly Amsterdam.  The situation in the Southern Europe has made me decide to stay away from there right now, even though there are places I would like to go.

So sorry for the lack of update for the last month.  Hopefully I'll have more interesting news soon.

Enjoy!

New Food #6 - Peaches (sorta.......)

OK, it's not really a new Polish food.  And it may not be a new food to any of you.  But I tried something sort of randomly tonight that turned out pretty well, and I thought I would share.

I picked up some thin (less than 1/2 inch) turkey cutlets to pan fry up for dinner tonight, and as part of dinner tomorrow night.  Besides the chili flavored olive oil, a bit of lemon juice, and a bit of soy sauce; at the last minute I decided to dice up a peach I had that a deep bruise on one side, but was a bit firmer than I usually buy them (I hadn't noticed the bruise when I bought it).

Because the turkey cutlets were thin, they cooked quickly.  And the peach had enough time to absorb some flavor from sauces and lemon juice, and get a bit softer, while not being anywhere near falling apart.  Adding a bit of peach on my fork with a bit of turkey turned out to be surprisingly good.  I'm sure it would work just as well with chicken, and probably pork and fish as well. 

So there it is, not a new food, but a new way for me to eat it.  I had never tried peaches in any state other than raw before, and it was good enough that I decided to share.  :)

Enjoy!

Transatlantyk Film and Music Festival 2012

For the last week Poznań has again been the host of the Transatlantyk Film and Music Festival, 2012 edition.  The founder of the festival is Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, a Polish composer who has composed the scores of over 50 movies, including Finding Neverland, for which he won an Academy Award.

I love film festivals, and this one was great.   I was able to attend eight different films over the week-long festival.  And at only 10 złoty per ticket, they were half the price of normal movie tickets in Poznań, so the festival was very affordable as well.  My only regret was that I couldn't see as many films as I would have liked.  

In this post I'll give a brief overview of each of the movies I saw, as well as a link to the trailer and IMBD page if I have them.  And I'll include at least one movie that I did not get to see got good reviews from co-workers that saw them.

But to start off, the festival has a neat little animation that I linked to below.  Check it out.  There is a high-def version available too.

Great Train Journey - Munich: Part 3 (14 pics)

I think the title of this post should be "The Cathedrals of Munich", but I figured I would stick with the format I have been using all along.  There are several churches in the old town area of Munich, but the ones I made it to were the Frauenkirche, Michaelskirche, Theatinerkirche, and the Cathedral of St. Paul.

 

 This is a picture of the Frauenkirche.  Unfortunately, it's in a confined area and there was construction going on around it, which meant that this was the best image I managed to get of the exterior.

Great Train Journey - Munich: Part 2 (9 pics)

Like in nearly every other city I visited on this trip (Nuremberg was the only exception), I had to visit some parks while I was in Munich.  Munich doesn't seem to have the sheer proportion of park space that Dresden has, but it has a giant of a park in the English Gardens.  I only wandered around in the very southern part of the Gardens, but they go on for quite a ways north.  To give you an idea, let me borrow a few statistics from Wikipedia:

• They cover an area of 3.73 km squared.
• They contain over 100 bridges
• They contain 8.75 km of streams (length)
• The contain roughly 75 km of roads, footpaths, and bridlepaths

 
As you can see from this picture, they are also a favorite place for locals to bring their dogs.

Great Train Journey - Munich: Part 1 (9 pics)

The last city I visited on my trip was Munich, and I have to admit that did not explore nearly as much as I could have.  After having spent a week walking at least 8 hours a day (and some days closer to 12), my body was telling me it was time to lay off a bit.  So out of the three days I was there, I probably only explored for about two.  For the rest of the time, I actually did something I rarely do.  I hung out at Starbuck's and other cafe's reading books on my iPad and just relaxing.

One thing that was definitely true about Munich is that it was BUSY and full of people.  I did not take nearly as many pictures in Munich as I did in other cities like Dresden, so the posts on Munich will be short and sweet.  Today, just some introductory pictures around town.

 

This is the gate at Karlsplatz, that leads onto Neuhauser Strasse, the main pedestrian street in the center of old town area.

Great Train Journey - Nuremberg: Part 3 (8 pics)

This will be my last post on Nuremberg, and I'm just going to show some pictures of some of the interesting things I saw (that aren't churches, castles, or similar old buildings).  :)

The picture below is from The Way of Human Rights, which is an outdoor sculpture between different parts of the German National Museum.  There are 30 pillars in total, with each being inscribed with one article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in German and one other language.