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I'm going to do something which always used to irritate me - crosspost from LJ to the SB ;0) So if anything doesn't quite make sense it might be because I didn't spot it to make a change for a different audience.
In 2008 I took roughly 4500 photos. I've been inspired to use some of these to create a sort of photographic review of my year. A lot of us are guilty of not keeping SBland updated on lives anymore and I know that there's still a, hmm, five year gap here ;0) But still. I thought this would be a nice way to update people a little on my life over the last year, which has been quite the rollercoaster. But the part you'll see in this first updated is a bit more like the teacups.
I'm actually starting this just after Christmas 2007 for a couple of reasons. 1) I took a short trip then and wanted to include some pics from it and 2) I took a grand total of five photos in January - four not very good ones of a sunset from my bedroom window and one of a train. Whilst I find the one of a train quite interesting, I don't think that would be a widely shared view. It ends at the end of the holiday Guido and I took for my birthday.
December 2007 - Sussex
We took Guido to Sussex to meet some of my extended family. Pictured are the Brighton Pavilion by night; the open air museum at Singleton (which they decorated for a traditional Sussex Christmas, lots of holly and ivy and such); and a fishmongers in the village Mum grew up in.
February 2008 - Karneval
I go back over for Karneval again. Compare the small scale local parade with the somewhat more extravagant whole city one. And the small scale of the British Lent tradition against the haul from the German one.
February 2008 - Monschau
Still in Germany, we took a trip with Guido's parents to the historic town of Monschau in the Eiffel region of Germany (although to get there we drove 2km through Belgium). I liked that statue, and the aerial picture is taken from the old castley thing, now a youth hostel. For some reason in Germany they seem to really like putting youth hostels in old castley things at the top of steep hills - this is the second or third I've seen.
February 2008 - Köln
2008 was, unbeknownst to us, to become the year of Köln. Having previously been there just the once before, I've now been 4 times. Top left is the main shopping street which I don't particularly like because it reminds me of a dozen other European cities. Then of course the Dom; the square outside it (Dietmar's birthplace!); an art gallery nearby. I forget whether or not that's still there.
April 2008 - Brussels
I was sort of hoping I would defy my parents' opinion and like Brussels. Unfortunately they turned out to be right. Oh well, at least I know now. I loved the name of that museum; that's the first shopping centre in the world or something like that - I was thoroughly enjoying a window display of knives until I noticed a scale model of a -ing tarantula amongst them; these mannequin pis souvenirs were so wrong they were right; and the pathetic city symbol itself.
April 2008 - Brussels
Top left shows a rare example of sympathetic architecture - it's far more normal in Brussels to take a beautiful old building and stick an ugly monstrosity next to it; this view reminds me much more of somewhere south-eastern, and actually somewhat of Jerusalem; against Guido's protestations we followed my nose down a random street and found this rare example of a run of lovely buildings - with a tower block behind them, naturally; these exceedingly bizarre statues were to be found in the park near the royal household. I just... wha?
April 2008 - O(o)stend(e)
These are the sum total of all the photos taken on my birthday, such a crappy day it was thanks to my laryngitis. The three outdoor ones were even taken by Guido, not me. The fourth (if you can't read French/Dutch) was by the pay machine in the carpark and was a breath test. I've never seen such a thing before, but I think it's a brilliant idea.
April 2008 - Dietmar!
He likes helping his daddy drive. And look, something good came out of my birthday - his new friend, Nombear!
April 2008 - Ghent
This was the city we stayed in, daytripping to the others. I liked Ghent a lot, it had a great historic centre. Bruges probably had more historic buildings and covering a greater area, but consequently was filled with tourists. Ghent was less known. But still covered with bikes five deep everywhere you looked. ("Clean Gent, celebrate decently" if you're wondering. Or thereabouts.)
April 2008 - Ghent
Just more nice buildings. Look at the profile of that one on the top right!
April 2008 - Ghent
Graffiti by the station; me tormenting Guido by taking a dozen photos of him when he was already in a bad mood because I made him walk a reeeeeally long way and it was raining and snowing and really really cold; seats outside a restaurant near our hotel; the reason I made him walk a long way in the cold. It was 100% worth it.
April 2008 - Ghent
Ghent by night.
April 2008 - Bruges
We were meant to go to Bruges on my birthday itself, but cancelled because I was so ill. So we went on our way back to Germany (forgoing a trip to Antwerp). I can see why everyone raves about Bruges, but like I said earlier - it was a bit tourist filled after Ghent. Still, beautiful place. And I got the nicest nougat EVER there.
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(VISITOR) AUTHOR'S NAME
EofS
MESSAGE TIMESTAMP
20 january 2009, 11:25:00
AUTHOR'S IP LOGGED
82.69.7.14
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