Salut de Montréal et Ville de Québec

I spontaneously need to go far away and found myself in Canada.

I got to speak English again! Although we didn't understand each other sometimes.

“Who's uni?” became expression of the day. 

I spoke some French and after two weeks some more.
In the shops they say “bonjourhi”.

I'm now enrolled in Saturday! morning! (insane!) French class. France here I come!!

I ate fish & chips!

Although they didn't wrap it in paper, it did come with tartar sauce.

I was also very happy to find an assortment of other foods. TimTams, instant porridge, Ritz biscuits and Crumpets!

And of course we made pancakes, blueberry pancakes, so that we could eat maple syrup.

 

I learnt guitar and now I'm having withdrawals and saving for one.

... although the things being saved for list is already quite long. A bicycle is on top.

What is this animal?

I climbed trees, rocks, hills and strange structures.

I played aussie rules, with a rugby ball, in bare feet.

 I turned a year older watching an amazing jazz concert in a little bar.

 and in a microbrewery called La Barberie drinking interestingly flavoured beers with a funny group of French and Francophones.

and ...

that's all there is, there isn't anymore.

Abenteuer

I always seem to blog when I feel life's an adventure. This doesn't always mean traveling, it just mean no Alltag.

It means discovering and rediscovering things; music, cities, cooking, friendships, swimming, interests. Yourself, the world and how they somehow strangly unexplainably fit together.

Spring is here! Which in itself is enough to make one feel like life is an adventure. Winter's fun... but spring puts it's in perspective, makes you dread the next one and pray it wont be as bad as the one we just had!

 Autum, Winter and Spring ... unfortunately not all the same place, but you get the idea. They're from the fields surrounding the village I used to live in. Here some more winter scenery... 

 Now I'm in the city :)  Uni is a 10min walk, and the centre is not much further. I'm living in a  share house with 3 other students. Here my room. 

 

My beloved Cacti, two of which are now dead. I loved & nurtured them for years! They grew up bilingual! I made them beautiful homes. I even left them alone for months! Or put them in places without sun! And how do they repay me, without rhyme or reason, they DIE!!  I'm really quite sad!

And here the view from my window...

 I can see into the fields here too. Mainz (Mayence) is not big nor small and is the capital of the state of Rhineland- Palatinate. It was founded by the Romans. During the Holy Roman Empire the Archbishop of Mainz was one of seven to elect the Emperor. And it's Cathedral turned 1000 last year. Mainz was also home to Johannes Gutenburg, inventor of the printing press.

Stay tuned... some real adventure is poking around the corner.

Adventures with Carla

On Carla's birthday we drove along the Rhine Valley

On every hill is a castle

Rather picturesque ...

With vineyards on the steepest of slopes

We visited the castle Rhinefels

 

Build in 1245

Destroyed by the French in 1796

I'm innocent!!!

The Niederwalddenkmal (Germania). When the Germans defeated the French in 1871 they built this monument overlooking the Rhine towards France to glorify their unification and say 'haha' to French for occupying the Rhine again.

The view from the Germania

The 'old city' in Mainz

Walking in the Pfälzer Forest with our relatives

The Christmas Market in Cologne, with Natty & Carla

Ach! Köln!