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january 2009
sun	mon	tue	wed	thu	fri	sat
				01	02	03
04	05	06	07	08	09	10
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18	19	20	21	22	23	24
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strasbourg-trip, day 05

today the weather was very nice again, with sunshine and enjoy-
able -5 degrees celsius. so we walked to "petite france", an
area in strasbourg with loads of very old half-timbered houses.
on our photo walk we also found a shop specialised in beer that
offered loads of different beers most of them from belgium and
germany, but they also had the japanese "asahi" beer there.

 
 
 
 

although the buildings are really very nice, after a while all
houses and places start to look all the same and familiar. so we
finally walked home then and watched another movie. maybe we'll
go out later. we'll see...

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strasbourg-trip, day 03 and day 04

not really much to tell besides a nice new year's eve party
on the 31st and a nice hangover on the 01st of january in 2009.
we were watching loads of movies and relaxed the rest of the
day. maybe tomorrow there will be some activity and maybe then
there will be some pics again. we'll see...

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strasbourg-trip, day 02

day 02 startet in the harbour of strasbourg where a lot of
house-boates are anchored. on one of the boats i saw my first
cat here in strasbourg. unfortunately it was running away too
fast so i could not take a picture of it (i was pretty sad).
next to the harbour is the "orangerie" park with a bunker (or at
least we thought it was one), a big lake, and a public zoo that
seemed to raise storks. close to the park is the council of
europe. but today no one was there, so kempes and me were the
only ones there.

some pictures (to keep the readers from falling asleep) from...
...the harbour, the orangerie park, and the council of europe...
 
 

...and some more of the council of europe...
 
 

in the same area is also the tv station of "arte". we went in
there and drank a coffee and then walked on to the buildings of
the european parlament and the european court of human rights.

...and even some more of the european parlament, and the euro-
pean court of human rights.
 
 
 

afterwards we met tony again and went to a brasserie. we ordered
some "ordinary" stuff like a burger for kempes and pork meat
with mashed potatoes for tony and me each. kempes had to bring
some special beer brands (that seem to be available here only?)
to austria so we wanted to go to a super market. but it was
really hard to find one. actually, it's even very hard to find a
grocery store somewhere. in austria there are loads of those
stores everywhere, even placed right next to each other some-
times - here, not. so we jumped into the car and drove the
"nearest" supermarket, which took us about 20 minutes to get
there. inside we found out where all the people buy the goods
they need for their everyday life - in the supermarket. so there
were masses of people in this really really really (i mean it!)
huge store. at the checkout we had our next strange experience.
there were two female cashiers sitting back-to-back, each one
with a conveyor for the goods you want to pay. so we placed our
goods there and it took them ages to get them registered by the
barcode reader. in between the items they sometimes continued
their talk, so it took quite a while until they grabbed the next
item. the customers, on the other hand had the same attitude.
they slowly packed their stuff into the bags and once they were
done they slowly got out their purses to pay. so this all really
took ages. oh well, we're on holidays, so we have loads of
time...

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strasbourg-trip

day 01 of my trip to strasbourg with my former study-colleague
"kempes". we started our trip to strasbourg at 00:00 on the 29th
of december 2008 in linz. kempes brought his younger brother,
since he's studying here for one semester. so we left linz by
car and drove approximately six and a half hours - we took some
breaks and once we missed the exit on the highway, so we had a
little detour. we were rotating the driver, so everybody had to
drive a little, but none of us could really sleep while he was
not driving. so, after we we dropped off tony (the younger
brother) at his flat, we arrived a little sleepy at the hotel,
which is located in the same street as tony's flat. our room (of
course) was not prepared yet, we had to wait until 14:00 - which
was a little longer than we expected. but that was ok. at least
we thought so. so firstly we deposed our luggage at the hotel,
then the two of us headed right across the street to a very
small "boulangery" (bakery) to get breakfast, while tony was at
home sleeping. later we headed towards the center. luckily the
guy at the reception gave us a map. at first the streets were
really empty (although it was already about 07:00 in the
morning). we walked around the center but did not really try to
get somewhere specific, like sights or other famous places. in-
stead we took lots of photos and had a lot of fun.

some photographic impressions of what we saw (since some people
complained about missing photos in the bLog for my tokyo trip):
 
 
 

then we got to the big cathedral which one can enter and go up
to a observation deck. according to wikipedia, the cathedral's
height is 142 metres. climbing all the stairs in the narrow
hallways was quite exhausting. remember, we had not much sleep,
and additionally we drank a gluehwein before climbing the
stairs. but we made it, and it was worth it. one has a very nice
view over the city and also the cathedral itself is very im-
pressive.

 
 

at about 12:00 we met tony again - though he had about four
hours of sleep he didn't really look recovered actually. but i
guess that's what we just looked like too. we went to a
"brasserie" and had a "tarte flambee" (aka "flammkueche") which
is a traditional local dish, and is somehow like a pizza, but
yet different (unfortunately i forgot to take a picture of it).

 

finally, at about 14:00 we arrived at the hotel again and went
to bed to get some sleep. we got up at 20:00 again and watched a
movie ("army of darkness" - perfect brainless stuff for this
evening). so far strasbourg is a very nice and very small city
with awesome and monumental buildings. since kempes is already
sleeping, i will try to get some rest now too...

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nostromo in hello-kitty land, resumee

stuff i bought in japan. some of the items are presents. here
is, what it is in detail:

[01] "domo-kun", from the shop at the "NHK broadcasting center".
[02] "jiji", the little black cat from "kiki's delivery ser-
     vice", bought at the "studio ghibli museum".
[03] "totoro", from the movie "my neighbor totoro", bought at
     the "studio ghibli museum".
[04] washrag bought in the "ikebukuro" ward in the "tokyu hands"
     mall, in the "nekobukuro" shop on the 9th floor.
[05] two "lucky cats" bought in a shop at the airport.
[06] "lucky cat" i bought at the "imado jinja shrine".
[07] "ta-chan", another character from the NHK studios, bought
     at the NHK shop.
[08] "moomin" pin, bought at the "moomin bakery & cafe" at the
     "tokyo dome" site.
[09] another "jiji" merchandising item, bought at the "studio
     ghibli" museum.
[10] cat "ema", bought at the cat shrine shop.
[11] "doraemon" fan included with a manga by "corocoro" tv.
[12] "chi's sweet home" manga, part 4, including a cloth bag.
[13] "chi's sweet home" sticker book, including 671 stickers of
     "chi".
[14] cat food i bought in the "cats living" shop in the "odaiba"
     ward.
[15] a book full of dog pictures with a fisheye lens.
[16] another "ghibli" merchandising item. a "jiji" mug, bought
     at a "ghibli" shop at the "shidome sio site".
[17] a mug from a "lawson" store.
[18] "welcome cat" bought at "electric street" in "akihabara"
     while searching for a cosplay restaurant with Gullevek.
[19] "nekomimi-gashapon", number one.
[20] "nekomimi-gashapon", number two.
[21] "chibi totoro" plush toy, bought at the "ghibli" store at
     "shidome sio site".
[22] unknown toy i found at the "shidome sio site".

random facts for my tokyo trip: 2173 pics taken.

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