Winter Wonderland

It's only January and I am already sick of winter. After two weeks of
consistent snow fall and blistering temperatures I am starting to develop
cabin fever. Last week was especially painful with temperatures down to
-10F at night. It'll suppose to get better this week, but I am not holding
my breath. Unfortunately, driving is equally bad. Every trip I seem to
hit snow and ice on the road. Ah well, only 2 more month to go, maybe.

And, tomorrow is Obama's inauguration. Which means that the Bush era
is finally coming to an end and. It will be interesting to see, if there is
really a change in American politics and policies. My guess is that change
will not come as easy as people think. I mean, the USA is just like a big
elephant. You can't just turn it around, you have to nudge it a bit at a time
into a different direction.

Well, good luck President Obama.

Bollywod

There is a movie theater in the middle of Novi that plays foreign movies,
mostly from India. So, on Friday I finally managed to watch my first
Bollywood movie. From what I have heard, Indian movies are a lot
different from the type I usually see. And boy, are they different.
The movie I watched was named 'Ghajini' with a story about a guy with
short term memory loss who is trying to revenge the death of his girlfriend.
Sounds familiar? It basically the same premise as 'Memento', but that where
the similarities end. First, 'Ghajini' takes 3 hours!. It basically combines two
films into one, where the first part tells the story on how the main characters
meet, kinda like a romantic comedy ala 'You've got mail'. The second movie
in the movie is the part when the main character, no more memory, tries
to revenge the death of his loved one. I think it was suppose to be more like
a thriller, but you could spot the story from a mile away, so it comes down
to some fight scenes and weird camera work. The film also contains a
couple MTV style music videos sprinkled throughout the movie.
In the end, it was an interesting experience but I think I stick with the
Hollywood style movies. No rating for this movie, since you absolutely
can not compare the movies I usually watch.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I hope you welcomed the new year as well as I did.
As the last stop of my travels in Germany I stayed at my sister's in
Cologne and we celebrated with her, my brother-in-law and some of
their friends in a small bar in Cologne. The party was alright and drinks
were plentiful. So, I spent New Years days attending a hangover and trying
to beat everybody at Mario Kart WII. Not very successful I might add.
On Friday it was again time to say good bye. I left Cologne early in the
morning and took the ICE train directly to Frankfurt airport. The train
clocked at 285km/h and I was in at the airport in no time. The flight back
was boring as always and now I am sitting in my living room, watching
football playoffs and finishing the blog entry. Overall, I had a great time
in Germany.

Donaueschingen

After spending Christmas in Warburg, I went on to visit friends in southern
Germany, Donaueschingen to be exact. Of course, I went by train. Although,
it got more expensive recently to use the train, there are really no alternatives.
And it is always fun to take a long train ride. Lots of things to see and even
the slow regional train through the black wood forest offered some great
views.








We spent the next day visiting the castle of Sigmaringen, which is a 1000 year old castle of the Hohenzollern family. The tour was great and offered
a good glimpse at life for the gentry during the days. The castle is still in
good shape, although some parts were rebuilt after a big fire in the 19th
century. It was a cold day and only a couple of rooms in the castle were heated, as it used to be when it was inhabited. No wonder the folks during
the middle ages didn't live too long.
I had to leave the next day, but I always enjoy going south to
visit Michaela, Thomas, and Soeren.