Now back to blogging my trip - Berlin

Berlin was awesome. Just the feel & friendliness on the streets (after Italy which had been very stand-offish).

Also just being in such an important city of recent (modern) history felt really good.

This first photo is of the Brandenberg Tor [s?] (gate). This was the built to be the primary entrance gate into the city of Berlin - and it was here that the Cold War kicked off with the Berlin wall being constructed in front of it (the gate was isolated in the no-mans land for the duration of the cold war. Those cars in front of it are all taxis - and all mercedes (sigh). This view is looking West from what was East Berlin.

This statue on top is very famous - having being placed here, then stolen by Napolean, then returned later.

This is the re-creation of Checkpoint Charlie - the most famous of the Berlin Wall crossing points. The really interesting thing is that they have marked the location of the former wall with a double line of cobblestones around the city.

This is another set of famous buildings in Berlin - it has a wonderful collection of old and made to look old buildings around it. The girl in the foreground is our guide for the day - from New-Europe tours (New-Berlin specifically). She was absolutely brilliant - really knew her stuff. This photo shows her as she was - hands constantly emphasising the information she was providing - part of the reason she was so good was she obviously enjoyed her work & sharing the history of this great city.

This photo was taken from the taxi as I was heading to the train station (to catch a bus to the airport - don't go there). This is the TV tower - built by the East Berlin government to be a land mark of their greatness (similar but smaller version of the one in Moscow). Unfortunately for the East Berlin government (who had banned all signs of religion from being displayed) - when the sun reflects off the dome, it highlights a golden cross (just a natural occurance). Just another fact of Berlin for your information.

I didn't take a lot of photos in Berlin - not sure why. Anyhow - I am back at it & will have some more photos up soon (York, Edinburgh & London coming next).

The pictures from overseas continued

Hi guys

I just posted a draft that I started whilst in Europe - unfortunately it was posted in order of the date it was started - not the order it was posted.

It is listed on 28 July - it has more pictures from Nuremberg. Easiest way to get there is click the link below to Nuremberg which will then show you only those entries with Nuremberg as a label.

More will follow soon (in the proper place hopefully).

Cheers

Hanbal

Degree or not degree - that is the question

Well, having returned from my overseas trip I now need to make further decisions with my life - what are my future plans.

I am considering starting a degree (p/t - online). Any thoughts???
I've never been to Uni - having done a Public Service Traineeship straight out of school and then straight into the workforce.
I find it hard to consider signing on to something that I would be looking at 6-8 years to complete (but I'd only be around 40 when I finish it, so I suppose I'd still be youngish).

Anyhow - I've been back from holidays for a week now and am settling back into the regular stuff. My hockey team unfortunately lost our game last week which means we miss out on the finals (if' we'd won or even possibly drawn we would have gone through). My bad for being away for so long I guess.

Judith has the lurgy (again) - hopefully one day soon she'll actually be completely healthy.

The cats both missed me (Tanis especially, he's been taking every opportunity to sit on my lap - even when I didn't actually have a lap for him to sit on).

I pickup the expanison for TotalWar Medieval 2 today - YIPPY.

I'll be taking some time this weekend and posting a pictorial log from the trip (and hopefully at least one each weekend for a while - I have lots more to tell about the trip).