Movies weekend

Initially I planned to go to Eindhoven this weekend, but I was too lazy to go there (or to wake up early on Saturday..:-P) . So I decided to go to the cinema, there are several movies that I really want to see for quite some time. Recently I am so crazy to go to independent cinemas, small cinemas where they play independent movies. We have seven Filmkunstkinos (what they call them here) in Duesseldorf and I am really happy for that (I have visited four of them already so far). First of all because they usually have a lot of interesting movies from all over the world not only Hollywood or German movies (though everything is dubbed in German most of the times, or subtitled in German but the original language is Chinese :-P). Second reason is because the cinema is small, mostly there are not so many people (for example today I only watched the movie with two other people). It gives the feeling of 'your own cinema' :-P. Third reason is because the ticket is cheaper than the normal cinema's and with the member card, I can get more than 20% discount from the normal price (so in total it's 50% cheaper than the ticket for normal cinema).

On Saturday I watched Into the Wild, a movie that was recommended by some of my friends. I was so curious about it, though I have read a lot about it before. I know the whole story, I have read the pros and cons, but watching the movie, it still gave me a strong impression. Somehow I can understand him and I am happy that he was able to realize what he wanted in the end (though it was a tragic end).
"Happiness only real when shared" (Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild).

Today I watched My Blueberry Nights, a debut film of Norah Jones and the first feature length English-language film of Wong Kar Wai. Norah did not make a very special appearance on it, but the movie was okay. At least it's not the usual Hollywood love story :-P The music (as you expect) is nice and I like the original idea of the movie.
"There's nothing wrong with the Blueberry Pie, just people make other choices. You can't blame the Blueberry Pie, it's just... no one wants it" (Jeremy, My Blueberry Nights).
"It took me nearly a year to get here. It wasn't so hard to cross that street after all, it all depends on who's waiting for you on the other side" (Elizabeth, My Blueberry Nights).

I was tempted to go for a second round today, still want to watch Kite Runner (I know it's not a new movie anymore but I missed it when it's played in normal cinemas). But I decided to enjoy the very good weather outside instead (summer mode on..it's about 20C today). I walked home from Oberkassel (the area on the other side of Rhine river, my first time there and I really like the area..) and passed through the Hofgarten, watching people having their picnics or just laying down on the grass. Hofgarten is so beautiful today.. I could not resist the temptation to sit and read my book there. I decided to continue my walk home when I felt hungry and realized that I needed something to eat..:-P

The most scenic train rides..

It has been quite a while since I had the idea to post this on my blog. Mostly because I just realized that I love traveling by train and I did several train rides which are considered to have the most beautiful sceneries in Europe (or even the world). I will put two lists here, the train trips that I have experienced so far and the train trips which are still on my wish list.

My fave train rides:
1. Oslo to Bergen (including Myrdal to Flåm) - Norway
We joined the infamous Norway in a nutshell tour which was worth it. The train stops very close to a waterfall and they even made a special attraction there. The views are so amazing. Just imagine that in several stops, a lot of passengers go out from the train to take some pictures and then return back in hurry before the train continues its journey :-P

2. Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh - Scotland, UK
On our way from Inverness to Isle of Skye. Previously I planned to take the Jacobite Steam Train, which is famous because it was used for Harry Potter's Hogwarts Express train scenes for the movie. But its route did not fit our plan, we decided to take another scenic train trip from Inverness. We had snow during the trip and it made the view so beautiful. I have a book on my lap but decided to put it off, I did not want to miss a single thing! :-P

3. Mainz to Koblenz - Germany
This train ride along Rhine river is my fave train ride in Germany. You can see the Rhine valley with a lot of castles ..really like this area...

4. Seville to Granada - Spain
I did not expect that I would have the scenic view during my train ride, but it's so beautiful especially when we almost reached Granada with Sierra Nevada view.

5. Rome to Genoa - Italy
I love Mediterannean sea and this train ride gives a glimpse of Mediterranean sea a long the trip....

6. Somewhere between Marseille and Nice - France
I forgot which part is really the beautiful one. I just remember that we have a great view of Mediterranean..

My wish list:
1. Trans Siberian from Moscow to Beijing
2. Glacier Express - Switzerland
3. Bernina Express - Switzerland
4. Jungfraubahn- Switzerland

Harpenden Story

First of all I went to Harpenden (a small town about 25 mins by train from London's St Pancras Int. station) for a training/group meeting, since most of my group mates work in the Harpenden office. So it was not for holiday and I would not write a blog on it, if it was not because something that I will tell later :-P It was my first time to Harpenden office and I was so excited (though I just returned from Scotland several days before) to meet some new colleagues who just recently joined our group and also to see Muhammad, Dez, and of course Tony, my boss again.

My flight was at 6:30am (thanks God that I live not so far away from Duesseldorf airport), I woke up around 4am and I managed to catch the bus around 5am. I did the web check in before, so everything was okay and I had quite relaxing time in the airport. We took off and then flew for about 15 mins before the pilot made an announcement that we had to return to Duesseldorf because they had a problem with the windscreen (which reminds me of one episode of NG's Air Crash Investigation program that I have seen before). Thankfully we landed safely in Duess and they decided to fix it and let us waiting on board (you could imagine a lot of people started to call with their cell phone or Blackberry...you name it..most of the passengers traveled for business purpose on that morning flight). I sent a text (since it was still early morning in the UK) to Tony informing that I would not be there at 8am as it was planned.

After 1.5 hrs or so, the mechanics have finished with the repair and we got ready to take off. But before we reached the runway, the pilot made another announcement to inform us...that they still had that windscreen problem. They decided to cancel the flight and transfer us to the next flight of their airline.

So we returned to the terminal building, transferred to another terminal building where the next flight (which was at 10:30am!) supposed to be, and waited. Not to mention that I have to pass the security control again (and took off my boots again, unpacked my laptop again...). We boarded around 10am but finally because of several things, we only took off around 11:30 (well my training supposed to be started at 10am). Finally I landed on England soil (London Stansted) around noon. I was a bit worry about how to get to Harpenden from Stansted, it supposed to be one hour drive and Faye from Harpenden office had ordered someone to pick me up from Stansted to the office, but it was for 7 in the morning and I was 5 hours late. I just started to call Tony to ask him how the best way to get to Harpenden when I saw someone holding a board with my name and my company's name on it. I was so relieved and the guy who picked me up was really waiting for me that long, he almost returned to Harpenden but someone from the office asked him to wait (I said "sorry" to him several times :-P).

I arrived at the office around 1pm and the guys in my group were so nice to wait me for lunch, oh and the view from Stansted to Harpenden was quite nice also. I joined the training for the next half day and after that Tony took us for some drinks in George, a very nice pub in Harpenden.
The next day, we had a group meeting and I headed back for Duesseldorf in the evening...this time everything was so smooth. The funny thing, I met a woman who also took the same flight with me before, she also recognized me and told me that she hopes that it would not be like yesterday again... hehe, well definitely I could not stand for another 5 hrs delay...(it was 8pm already) :-P...

All in all...Harpenden is a nice small town, the guys in my group were great, and we had a good time together. The flight delay just made my first Harpenden trip unforgettable .. I think..

Scotland trip, Easter 2008

My second trip to Scotland, but this time I planned to discover more of it, not only Edinburgh and the surroundings. At first I thought about joining a 3-day or 4-day tour offered by Haggis or Macbackpackers. But after several discussions with some 'experts' on Scotland (thanks to Win and Collin), I decided to create my own trip, since I want more than what they offered :-P I almost did this trip alone, but I am lucky that Yuko would like to join me (thanks Yuko :-)). The funny thing is that since we knew each other from our German class, we get used to talk in German (even when we went out several times together). In fact, I just recently found out that she can speak English.., but German has already been our first language when talking to each other :-P So I was a bit wondering which language that we would use in this trip. It turned out that we still spoke German even when we were in Scotland. I can say that I improved my German in Scotland :-P

Prestwick-Edinburgh-Inverness

We started the trip in Wednesday evening after we arrived in Prestwick airport. We went directly to Edinburgh to stay overnight there. The next morning, we took bus to Rosslyn to visit Rosslyn Chapel (remember Da Vinci Code?). Rosslyn is a small town about 40 mins from Edinburgh and actually not only famous with its chapel but also because of Dolly, the famous clone sheep, that was cloned in Rosslyn Institute. We managed to return to Edinburgh around noon and had a walk around High Street and Edinburgh castle (and also visited some souvenir shops). We left Edinburgh for Inverness around 15:00 and arrived in Inverness in the evening (it was raining). Luckily the B&B that we booked was a very nice one. Catherine, the owner is very nice (and she gave us a big Scottish breakfast everyday).

Inverness-Culloden-Loch Ness

After a very good sleep, our first destination was Tourist Info Center. Our original plan was to go to Glen Affric and Loch Ness, but we found out that we just missed the bus to Canich (and it’s only twice daily :-(), so we decided to join a tour to Culloden battlefield and Loch Ness. Culloden battlefield visitor center was a nice one, though it was nothing too special, they really reconstructed the battlefield so we could imagine it. Good thing that now I know about Bonnie Prince Charlie and also that Culloden battlefield is the last hand-to-hand battle fought in British soil. In the afternoon we continued the journey to Loch Ness, visiting Urquhart castle.

Inverness-Kyle of Lochash-Portree (Isle of Skye)

We took train from Inverness to Kyle of Lochash the next day. The view was great especially because it was snowing. We continued our trip to Portree in Isle of Skye by bus; it was great view during the trip. We arrived in Portree around noon and after left our luggage in our B&B we decided to have a walk to Tourist Info Center. But again, we have to deal with the fact that we could not rely only on public transportation. Our only choice was to go to Aros visitor center, we decided to take walk there, only visited its shop and café, back to Portree, and it was quite heavy rain after that.

Portree-Fort William-Glencoe-Glasgow

After breakfast we still had sometime to walk a bit around Portree and we left for Glencoe around 11 by Citylink bus. It was four-hour trip, but I just realized when I was on the bus that actually we stop in Fort William (which is close to Glencoe already) for one hour to have lunch break. I was a bit worried about this trip because I do not know how the situation in Glencoe. I only know that the bus stops at Glencoe crossroad on the way from Portree to Glasgow. The plan was to take the next bus from Portree to Glasgow since we would stay overnight in Glasgow. It gave us about four hours to explore Glencoe. When we stopped in Fort William, I asked the driver how far the stop at Glencoe to the Glencoe visitor center. Instead of answering my question, he offered me to drop us in Glencoe visitor center and I was happy with that (since I thought that it must not that far away). As you might guess… the Glencoe bus stop is quite far away from the visitor center which is in the middle of nowhere. We passed through the bus stop first and we just realized it …Yuko and I only stared to each other, thinking how we could go back to the bus stop (for our trip to Glasgow). We could not see the pedestrian way…it was only highway with some hills and valley in the middle of nowhere. So.. the driver dropped us on the way to the visitor center (still have to walk to go there) with our luggage. A bit panic actually (I thought about hitchhike some cars that pass through the highway) but we still tried to enjoy the beautiful view of Glencoe with some snows at the hills, which reminds me of marmer cake and powder sugar on top of it, and for sure we were also busy taking some pics. We went to the shops (still with our luggage) and I asked the man there how to get to the village from the visitor center. Thankfully, there is a walk path from the visitor center to the village, which he said about 20 mins walk. To make the story short, it turned out that the walk path was one of the recommended walk paths in Glencoe area and it was beautiful. We passed a small forest with a small river (and the water was green). The distance is about 2 miles and for sure we could not make it for 20 minutes :-P But it was indeed our fave walk during this trip. It made me want to go back to Glencoe again in summer (and try other walking route) :-)