dresden

 It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything here.. I blame it on work and bad weather for photography. These are some photos from Dresden, part of my vacation in Germany this past summer. Some big changes coming my way.. my time here in the Netherlands is finally coming to an end it seems. My internship is almost up and after that it looks like I’ll be heading back to Canada and see where things take me from there! I’m both excited and really anxious about the move. I’m really used to life here now so I think it will be a bit strange being back home at first but there are definitely some things I’ve missed since I’ve been living here. Anyways, I want to try to make the most of my last few months here so I will try to take as many photos as possible. Hope to share more soon.

bastei

 This summer my family came to visit me for my graduation and after we went on a 2.5 week trip to Germany. We spent the first few days in Berlin, then traveled south to Saxony [Freistaat Sachsen] and spent almost a week there before returning to Berlin. These photos were taken at the Bastei, near Kurort Rathen. The landscape here reminded me of one of my favourite paintings, Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer by the Romantic period painter Caspar David Friedrich. It was really beautiful up there.. I realized that since I moved to the Netherlands I find myself missing the mountains a lot. Overall the trip was great, plus I got some much needed German practice in. More photos to come soon!

mitte

 More photos from Berlin this summer. I’m really missing that city.. hope to find an excuse to go back soon!

landschaftspark duisburg-nord

After our overnight stay in Brussels we packed up and headed to Köln. Although I didn’t get to see too much of the city, I really liked what I did see and we happened to find a pretty cool art festival/party going on in one of the neighbourhoods close by our hotel. The next day we headed to Duisburg to check out the Landschaftspark there. It was established in 1991 as a way to reuse the coal and steel production plant that had been abandoned there in the mid-1980s. The park was probably one of the coolest places I’ve ever visited. Even though it was pretty rainy we climbed all the way to the top of one of the biggest structures there and got an amazing view of the surrounding area. And the best part was we  discovered a huge climbing area and even a slide [last photo], which ended up being the funnest part of our trip.

More photos soon, I’m waiting on a roll from Berlin to be developed. Hope the summer is treating you well!

last stop: wuppertal

 The last place we stopped on our roadtrip before heading back to NL was Wuppertal because Leah and I were adamant about seeing the Schwebebahn. I kid you not I had dreamt about this place before.. so I just had to go! The Schwebebahn is a floating tram system that’s been in use in Wuppertal since the beginning of the 1900s.. pretty amazing. It looks a little bit like some futuristic dystopian structure but it’s really great.. riding on it was almost like an amusement park ride. Overall I think we were all pretty glad we took the time to stop in Wuppertal and explore the city a bit.

I’ll be super busy for the next week working towards a big presentation on the 27th and then I’m leaving right after for 4 days for a little post-presentation/pre-birthday vacation.. so it might be a while until I post again but I’ll try to at least share a few photos from Scandinavia before long.

trier

 During our road trip we made a stop in the German city of Trier. Although we only stayed long enough to take a walk through the centre it seemed like a pretty interesting place with lots of history. The Porta Nigra [last 2 photos] is an old Roman city gate.. pretty amazing that it’s still in such good condition. I think my gloves may have gotten in the way on a couple of these photos in the top corner.. it was bitterly cold and really hard to work the camera without freezing my fingers off!

Thankfully the cold spell in this part of Europe has passed and it looks like we’ll be getting above 10 degrees pretty consistently soon. Looking forward to spring!

 

2011 [part I]

 Looking back, I did a lot of things in 2011 and I think it was a pretty great year overall. I tried to find some photos that may not have made their way onto here yet to sum up the year.

[1] went to the beach on a cold and sunny January afternoon [2] early morning sky on a studio site visit in February [3+4] friends and food, sometime in early February [5] went to a small town in Niedersachsen, Germany [6] and visited an old house [7] made my first ever trip to London and toured the AA building [8] went for a yummy lunch at Koya in London [9] got to explore a cool old building [twice] for my building conservation course [10] spring came to NL and it was sunny and warm [11] experienced my first Queen’s Day [12] went to Berlin! it was one of the best trips and one of the last things I did before finishing up school and coming back to Vancouver for the summer…

More 2011 memories to follow. Happy 2012!

ich liebe berlin

 I was thinking about Berlin a bit the other day and was looking through my photos and found a few more I hadn’t posted yet. I feel like working there a bit after I graduate would bit a really awesome thing.. we’ll see what happens though haha. I’m really going to try and make the most of my last year in Delft.. and I’m kind of anxiously excited as to what might await me afterwards.

I have a bit of work to do this weekend but my mini holiday is coming up next week and I’m pretty excited! Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

 

kreuzberg

 A couple more photos from the first evening, these ones were taken around Kreuzberg. Not much to say about these but I would definitely recommend walking around this area if any of you visit Berlin.. there are some pretty amazing things hidden [or not so hidden] around there.

Not sure how much I’ll be posting in the next few weeks with school winding down.. have a lot to take care of in the next 14 days or so. Maybe something like more pictures and less writing for the next couple posts.

After a hard working week last week and a fun weekend it’s back to work. Hope things are going well for everyone. Go Canucks!

green berlin

 I think Berlin is one of those cities you could live in for years and still find new things to see or do every day. It’s also a very green city [1/3 of Berlin's area is parks/forests/lakes/rivers/etc] and I love that. I took these photos around the Görlitzer Park area before filling myself with some spätzle and a radler. I’m already hoping I can go back to Berlin sometime next year…

Yay it’s the weekend! Annnd Kevin and Janice from back home are visiting, fun times!