Chris Around The World

summer holidays 08

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:44:00 +0000

Hi there!

Katja and me had been in Portugal from the 25th of July (my birthday) up to the 9th of August. You'll find the pics in the tab "new pics" and the videos in "vlog". When you click on "panoramas" you can have some 360° views of some sights where we had been. You'll need quicktime to view it and a fast internet connection is recommend.

The stories will follow here.

Some spots where we stopped: Salamanca (Spain) - Oporto - Lisbon - Coímbra - Setúbal - Zambujeira do mar - Aljezur - Sagres - Lagos - Tavira - Tarifa (Spain).

Check it out and leave a comment ;).

Chris and Katja

Madrid and the people

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:07:00 +0000

Hi there!

What happened in the last months and weeks. I finished last week my language course in the www.eoidiomas.com which is situated near the metro Islas Filipinas in Madird. Mostly, I walked or took my inliners from Cuatro Caminos to the school. Check out Google Maps.
My project is going forward and as a balance Katja and I have finally found a great gim: Metropolitano.

Moreover, we had some visitors already. Katja and her boyfriend Andreas had been here the last days. We went out and had a lot of fun. Check out our facebook pictures, too.

Cheers,

Chris

Some panoramas from semana santa

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:26:00 +0000

Here you have some nice panorama pics. Just click on "fullscreen" at the bottom of the slideshow you see here for total satisfaction ;).

Recorrido por el Sabinar de Arcones - Semana Santa 08

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:15:00 +0000

Hi there!

We had been in the mountains North of Segovia around Arcones this day. You might check out . It was a nice day and we had been hiking around that place because Katja found this wonderful book with the best trips in the mountains around Madrid. If you're intrested I'll send the title to you. Some pages are in the album. There will be more coming up because we're going to explore more of the tours which are also great for biking.

Have a great day!

cena con los amigos de salsa

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 02:48:00 +0000

Hola a todos!

Aquí podéis ver las fotos de la fiesta!

Snowboarding around Madrid

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:08:00 +0000

Ok, I just have to post this. Perhaps you already know there are mountains around Madrid :). And yes, even some higher ones might be found ;). Check this out:

Snow around Madrid

The last link will show you the snowzone. It's an indoor snowboard centre as there are some around Cologne (Landgraaf Snowworld near Aachen but already in the Netherlands - check out my snowboardblog -, Neuss Allrounder or shitty Bottrop). So as every Spanish webpage lacks the really important information as, how exactly do you get there without a car, Katja found out one of the buses (see the end of the page)actually stops around where we live and directly gives us a ride to the centre.
The prices are moderate for 199 Euro for 4 months or 600 Euro a year minus 33% discount if you pay it once.
We probably spend our xmas presents for some new equipment parts :).

And moreover, there are cheaper ways for doing sports here. Madrid offers with some public sport centres a way of saving money and still have fun - centre polideportivos. You really have to know those words otherwise you are unable to find something on google. It's the same with the health system here. They have public 'centros de salud' and moreover varieties of them. With your EHIC (European Health Insurance Card) you will get a treatment for free. This is good because most of the privat doctors don't belong to this system. And if you pay the bill to get treated you probably won't get all of it back from your insurance at home. Finally, it's more comfortable and that's the best reason ;).

Besides, Spain has some laws medicine has to be cheap in a way. I can just tell you one medicine I know costs 150 Euro in Germany and here just 20 Euro! Yes, that's true. That's the way pharmacy companies rip you off.

Enjoy your day and stay tuned!

Hiking at Manzanares

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 16:09:00 +0000

We had been hiking on Saturday in Manzanares in the North of Madrid. You just take the bus 724 from Plaza de Castilla for 3,10 Euro one-way and hop off one hour later and around 60km farer away. The mountains go up to 1600m and there are nice hiking routes. In the information centre they have detailed maps which help a lot :). If you're there for one complete day as we did - 25000 steps in total :) - there are a variety of tours.
Enjoy the pics.

Madrid

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:32:00 +0000

I decided on Monday to go to the Complutense Group of Jacobo Santamaria. It took me a while but the people there are just great. The prof went once sailing with the group and one guy likes to play beachvolleyball a lot ;). Well, I think we have thinks in common.
A good question might be why I made this decision. Actually, it's only based on sympathy and the distance to the city. The Autónoma is just to far away in the North for having a real life at uni. Katja works in the city centre at Sol so we could meet up easily.
Moreover, the sport facilities at Complu are much better although they are a joke in comparison to Cologne. The courses are booked out quite fast and after this you missed out - "chang!". Besides, that's Argentian slang for experiencing a surprise. It sounds like an error message on the computer :).

As you see, I let totally my subconciousness descide where I will go with a little advicing from my mentor in Cologne - Prof. Mydosh. But it were those reasons above which led me.

Keep on eye on this page because I figured out you can use picasa and google webalbums to post those slideshows - more will follow.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:22:00 +0000

This is Lila. One of the two cats in our flat. Why did I post this pic? Because Katja and me got our new digital camera, finally :). The next posts will have pics and we'll share them also in studivz and facebook where you will kept updated. Espacially facebook is really cool because you get a message on your starting page what was updated. I think you'll like it.

Keep reading,
Chris

Everything has a beginning!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 12:22:00 +0000

Hola muchachos!

Probably on Monday I will decide for a project at UCM. My mentor in Cologne had too many talks and can help me again tomorrow. But besides, I got already to minor jobs in Madrid. One is, of course, tutoring two children at home. The otherone is a "becario" job at a very well known business university in Madrid: instituto de empresa Madrid. It's ranked fourth worldwide and second in Europe. The job consists in helping - means putting numbers into Excel sheets - a prof who is the wife of one of the researchers I have contact to. The only thing in question is if I will have the time to spend another 20 weeks for this and earn the 600 Euro more. But this tutoring is better paid per hour. Let's have a look.

Pics will come soon. Katja and me hadn't had a camera but we ordered one and it should arrive soon ;).

Moreover, I checked out some capoeira groups here but their all expensive as in Cologne. At UCM they have a group, too, which is cheaper but still costs 19 a month or 90 a semestre. That's the same for all courses at uni. You see it's luuxury what we have in Germany especially in Cologne with the sport university.
But if the people are right here there is also a kind of sport university - for teachers etc. - here. They might have also those nice floors in the practice buildings for arcrobatics ("Springboden"). Let's see.

Will be in Cologne from the 18th of Dec and fly back from Cologne at the 3rd of Jan!

Hasta luego de Madrid!
Chris

My one year project

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:49:00 +0000

Still, I haven't decided where I should do my project...at Autónoma or at Complutense. Well, the UCM is just so much closer at the city but the UAM has the more interesting projects. Well, so I take the UCM! Or shouldn't I!? Arrrrggghh!

Let's see what will happen.

Spain!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:06:00 +0000

Alright, after having an exhausting time studying this year and a fair part of the year before this. Damn, that was a long time. I finally made it to Spain yesterday where I'm going to write my final one year project (Diplomarbeit). For this, it's nice to blog a bit about my experiences and what will happen.

Katja and me have found last month a double room in a shared flat. Well, it was a funny story because we stayed at first with www.hospitality-club.org in Madrid and tried to find our new flat. The prices in Madrid made us believe we might have chosen the wrong city. At the end a flatmate of our hospitality club friend Javi moved out and we got the double room from Javi.

That's it. We're living in the South of Madrid at Empalme but the universities where I want to study are in the North (UAM) and near the centre (UCM). At the moment I have to decide where I want to do the project. If I want to do it at UAM we definitely should move to the North near Charmatín because otherwise I had to drive ONE HOUR to the university and ONE HOUR back. As you can imagine that's f*'+ing way too much!

Besides, I miss my sport activity a lot. There are some Capoeira groups here, of course, and I will try to find some interesting ones. Moreover, I started the last semester with acrobatics and climbing which made me want to continue with it.

I will keep this page updated and would love to read some comments from you all.

Let's keep in contact.

Chris

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 03:22:00 +0000

I'm back in Germany! Yeah! Bankok was just ace. I stay in Banglamphu in the New Siam II hotel. They had even a pool ;)! The first night I booked a room in a hostel called something like Shrenki or whatever.I arrived quite late in Bankok because my plane from Phuket had 1.5h delay. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the evening with a nice meal at the restaurant. The next three days I shopped as much as I can. As I told you already I was allowed to take 64kg with me plus hand luggage. At the end I was able to buy 20 kg so I had 40 in total. Now I think I should have bought a bigger bonger and muuuuuuuch more souvenirs :). I missed out a lot of the sights in Bankok but had an awesome time. While I was shopping I got to know to a German dude called Tobias. I met him again on the top of a skyscraper in Bankok. Actually, it was an all around open restaurant and bar. Pretty cool. My friend Ooh picked me up from my hotel and accompied me. Indeed, she showed me even around her city ;). We had a drink and took some great pics. Hopefully, I will get them from her. Afterwards we went to a club in the 'famous' area Pelang (I have to look up the spelling :) ). Well, it's the red light district but they have some normal bars there, too ;). We danced till 2 because everything closes and went then with a couple of new friends to an illegal club. Till the end of the night. I didn't sleep much to get more tired in the plane. The next day I had some last fit sessions for my suits and a beautiful dinner with Ooh. Grabbed a cab from my hotel around 9.30pm with a German couple and really wanted to stay longer in Bangkok. Shopping and going out is great there. I tell you just save the money for buying clothes and get a ticket to Bangkok instead. Just take your clothes on your body with you. You can buy everything there and save a lot of money at home. At the end, you'll probably saved enough money to make it up for the plane ticket. So, if you plan your next holidays and haven't been in Asia. Go for it! Will publish now some pics since the last ones. Don't get confused with the different chronology :).

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:58:00 +0000

without words...the end of the day of 12|01|06 on the coast of Ko Lanta in Thailand.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:57:00 +0000

Enjoy this ;) and buy your plane ticket to Thailand ;).

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:56:00 +0000

And with a Chang beer in my stubby holder having this beautiful view in front of me I know why people get stucked in Thailand ;).

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:46:00 +0000

What a day the 12|01|06!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:38:00 +0000

And such a beautiful diving day has to be finished classically with a nice drink and sunset :).

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:38:00 +0000

Here you get some more corals ;).

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:29:00 +0000

Close up of a barracuda. This night I had one for dinner. Delicious!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:28:00 +0000

Then we swam through a rock hole filled with little fishes. The world is full of miracles ;).

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:28:00 +0000

Some barracudas floating in the water. They didn't really move a lot.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:27:00 +0000

More! Beautiful, isn't it!? It was so stunning to see them almost fly through the water.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:23:00 +0000

huge moray eel ;).

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 03:22:00 +0000

Had been shown fishes you can't recognize at the first view ;).