I’ve been promising you a home tour for ages now, so ready or not, here it is! There are still a few things that are unfinished — like I need to find a drill in order to hang up that painting propped against the back of the couch, I’m waiting for a hanging lamp for the dining area to be delivered, and someday I will buy actual dining chairs instead of sitting on the folding balcony chairs — but that’s just the way homes are, right? Constantly evolving.
A work in progress or not, I’m so happy to finally be surrounded in one place — no more commuting between cities! — by everything I’ve collected during my travels and stints abroad over the last nearly 20 years. It really feels like my personal history is reflected in my home now.
Although everyone remarks at how steep the steps are coming up to my little (55 qm/590 square feet) attic apartment, you’re always rewarded with a flood of light from the large south-facing windows and balcony and a wonderful feeling of airiness. At the same time, the relatively low wood beam ceilings offer a lovely coziness.
Currently in the midst of Whole30 (more on that in another post), I’ve really been putting the kitchen to the test, and while a bit more counter space would be lovely, it mostly does the trick. There’s another window to the left of this photograph that looks directly onto the balcony, so there’s of natural light in here. And the glass door is perfectly for containing cooking smells but still giving you a sense of belonging to the rest of the apartment.
The balcony might be my most favorite aspect of the whole apartment! Even towards the end of October, my flowers and plants are still going strong. (P.S. I took these pictures several weeks ago — today those trees in the background are beautiful shades of orange and yellow!)
Finally, the sleeping area is a bit awkward to photograph because of the slanting walls, but you get the picture. My current bed frame is actually in the cellar because it was too tall to fit against the slant, but sleeping low to the ground actually fits this space perfectly I think.
So, there you have it! My humble abode. Still a work in progress, but it’s home.
What home improvement projects are on your to-do list?
I started this year with the goal of getting my half-marathon time under 2 hours. But while training for the Berlin Half Marathon over the winter — coinciding with prepping for my PhD defense — I was burnt out and decided to train and run without a watch, to take the pressure off and simply run for the love of running. It was fabulous!
Although I started diligently reporting my training for the Bremen Half Marathon over the summer, my training quite honestly fell apart a few weeks before the race — a mixture of work stress, catching a cold, and generally lacking motivation were all to blame (sounds like classic burnout here too, right?). While I was hitting my prescribed paces during the workouts I did manage in those weeks, I knew they were too few and far between to really have a chance of breaking 2 hours.
And here’s the spoiler alert: I was right. I didn’t come in under 2 hours, and I didn’t set a new personal record. But I did end up with my second best time ever (2:06:00), running about a minute and a half slower than my best time (2:04:32 from last year’s Bremen Half Marathon).
My goal for the race was just to try as hard as I could and see what happened. I calculated all the paces I would need to reach my different goal times and printed out a pace band — though generally good at math, my running math during races sucks, so I love having a pace band to refer to and know exactly where I stand.
Basically, I can sum up the race with two words: it hurt. Every single freaking kilometer hurt. Unfortunately it was not the same kind of hurt that comes from pushing your boundaries based on strong training (hurts so good!), but more like the hurt that comes from being undertrained and having no business trying to maintain those paces. But I’m pretty stubborn when I want to be, so I didn’t ease up (my paces for the first 10 miles were: 9:27, 9:32, 9:26, 9:28, 9:30, 9:33, 9:35, 9:33, 9:39, 9:34)
That is, until I had to — around 17 km/10.5 miles — when the side stitches that had plagued me from the beginning became too sharp to run or stretch through. So I did something I haven’t done in at least 10 years during a race — I stopped to walk. Up until that point, I was more or less maintaining a pace that would put me close to or under my best time from the previous year. While of course a personal record is always tempting, the pain was slowing me down even more than it would have to take a quick breather. So I took maybe a minute or so to catch my breath, walk and stretch out my side. Afterwards, I was able to continue on running the last 4 km as strong as I could and still enjoy the rest of the race (my paces for the last 3 miles: 10:32, 9:43, 9:39). Totally worth it.
Photo by Regina. Around 15 km/9.3 miles along the Weser River.
All in all, I have to say I was pretty satisfied with the race. Of course it’s frustrating that I couldn’t get it together to finish out my training strongly before the race — because I think I could have at least run a personal record — but such is life. I’m glad I got to see where my base fitness more or less sits, even with being under trained. I’m also pleased that it’s quite a bit faster than the half marathons I was running even a couple years ago!
So what’s next? Per usual after a long training period, I’m spending some time concentrating on strength training for awhile. And I’m letting myself dream big about my running goals for 2016! More on that to come later…
Over the past several years I’ve taken part in two Fotomarathons in Berlin, billed as a photo “competition under extreme circumstances: One city, 12 hours, 24 themes.” Always exhausting, but always a fantastic experience. So imagine my delight when I heard that Bremen was organizing it’s own Fotomarathon in mid-September: 9 hours, 9 photos, 9 themes. A little less extreme maybe, but still a proper challenge — I signed myself up immediately!
The Start – Schaulust, 11 am
The Bremen Fotomarathon kicked off on a Saturday morning. Over 200 photographers were there to learn the overall motif for the day: Stadt im Fluss or Flowing City. Definitely appropriate given Bremen’s maritime and Hanseatic history. We were also given the first set of three themes, plus the place and deadline for the first check-in point: 2pm at the Botanical Garden.
Before getting started, however, I sat myself down at a cafe with an espresso and a sandwich and put some thought into my strategy for the day. Although I only knew the overall motif and the first three themes, I decided that my set of photos for the Fotomarathon would also have a transportation theme in some way or another…
Photo 1: Abgefahren / Departed
My first stop for my first photo was the main train station. An additional challenge for this photo was that it needed to included my start number for the competition. So number 126 of the luggage lockers seemed fitting!
Photo 2: Aufgetakelt / Rigged
Next I headed to the Europahafen to see the “Alex”, a well-known, beautiful boat visiting for the next months My aim was to make use of the figurative use of the theme in German, meaning overly made-/dressed-up, as well as it’s literal meaning. Although I love the Europahafen, I later ended up kicking myself for taking the time to travel out there.
Photo 3: Überschäumend / Effervescent
For the third photo I stayed at the Europahafen and did my best to capture the effervescent energy of the Golden City Hafenbar. Then with plenty of time to spare until check-in, I made the 45-minute journey back into the city center and over to the Rhododendron Park and Botanical Garden.
Check-in point 1 – Botanika, 2 pm
Photo 4: Speckgürtel / Suburb
After checking in, I received the next set of themes and sat down with a slice of cheesecake to mull them over. Immediately I noticed that the next check-in was at 5pm at Lloyd Caffee again in the Überseestadt near the Europahafen. Doh! Well at least I had time to make my way back out there. But first, I decided on this shot in Schwachhausen near the Botanical Garden. The sign reads: private path, not a thruway.
Photo 5: Stadtpflanze / City person
After reaching the city center again, I headed straight to another well-known boat that serves as a restaurant and is always anchored in the Weser along Bremen’s Schlachte — a true Stadtpflanze!
Photo 6: Landei / Hillbilly
My final photo of this set was composed along the train tracks in the industrial section of the city’s harbor area. I took my inspiration from those adventurous souls hitching rides on freight trains. Again, with plenty of time to spare before the deadline for the next check-in, I wandered around the Kaffeequartier and took some non-Fotomarathon photos of the loads of cargo containers. Now that’s my idea of heaven!
Check-in point 2 – Lloyd Caffee, 5 pm
Photo 7: Heißes Pflaster / Hotspot
Picking up the final set of themes, I immediately head back into the city. Continuing with my transportation motif, my next photo was overlooking Bremen’s main train station — most definitely the city’s pulsing hot spot.
Photo 8: Freier Fall / Free fall
Ok, around this point, I was starting to feel the effects of many hours on my feet and my inspiration was lagging. Looking up, at the front of the main train station. Please don’t ask me what that has to do with the photo’s theme!
Photo 9: Gute Stube / Bremen’s living room
Finally, I headed into the heart of Bremen: the Markplatz. I definitely wasn’t the only Fotomarathoner with the same idea. There were several of us propped up on the stairs across from the Rathaus to get a good view of the square. Unfortunately, we all waited there quite a long time for a good shot because an ugly white van was ruining the shot for at least 20 minutes. Good thing I was still ahead of schedule!
The Finish Line – noon, 8 pm
Nine hours after the start, I was at “noon” in the Viertel for the final check-in. I took a few minutes to select my favorite photos for each of the themes for the day before handing my SD-card over to be scanned. Geschafft! (No editing was allowed and all photos had to be in the same order as the themes were given out.)
Another fun, but exhausting Fotomarathon under my belt! I was so glad to be able to participate this time in my own backyard and have a chance to explore all of Bremen’s different sides. I also became a fan of the 9 themes, 9 photos, 9 hours structure — somehow it felt much more manageable and less hectic than the other Fotomarathons I participated in.
A Photo Exhibition
Now I can’t wait to see how everyone else interpreted the themes and faced the day’s challenge! If you’re in Bremen this weekend, all photos are being exhibited at Schuppen Eins (Konsul-Smidt-Straße 20-26) and admission is free:
Tis currently the season when beer usually receives way more attention in Germany than wine. But living in Northern Germany, I’ve managed to tune out Oktoberfest this year and instead hosted a small wine evening — the first official gathering in my new apartment. The theme of the evening was a comparison of German and American wines, so I invited a nice group of German and American friends over, along with a couple of other nationalities to keep things interesting!
For the event, Ludwig von Kapff sent over this fantastic selection of German and American reds and whites…*
In total, there were two German white wines — a Riesling and a Chardonnay/Weißburgunder (aka Pinot Blanc) mix — and one German red — a Spätburgunder (aka Pinot Noir). Personally, I’ve always found Germany’s Spätburgunder wines to be my favorites, but I kept my mind open for the evening! The American wines consisted of one white — a Chardonnay — and two reds — a Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Syrah mix and a Zinfandel.
Anticipating that the actual wine tasting might get a little lost as the evening wore on, I created a placeholder for each wine with some important information, like: key tasting notes, grape sorts, vineyard, awards, and so on.
Without a doubt, there are plenty of differences between American and German wines. Growing up near Washington State’s own wine country, I somehow arrived at the perception that European wines are more sophisticated and refined, while American wines are more innovative and bold. This might have to do with typical American preferences for a flavorful wine that can be enjoyed on its own, as compared to a more European preference for a subdued wine to complement a meal. It also seemed to me that Americans as opposed to Europeans were typically more than happy to experiment with wines from less traditional regions of the world, like South Africa, Chile, and Australia. These are huge generalizations, for sure, which I wanted to put up for discussion.
An Argentinean friend with an admitted bias towards Argentinean Malbecs, said if he was going to drink a white wine, he wouldn’t hesitate to reach for a German Rieslings, even in Argentina. For him, it’s about recognizing the strengths of countries’ wine regions. One of the most surprising insights of the evening was the professed love of some of my German friends for Californian wines — indeed, you might even call it a guilty pleasure! Why so? With all of the outstanding German and European wines at their fingertips, the ecological footprint left by shipping wines from the US to Germany may indeed induce a bit of guilt among the eco-conscious. While the environmental consciousness of Germans in general has always impressed me and doesn’t come as any surprise, I was quite happy to have my wine preconceptions blown away by my Californian-wine-loving German friends!
With that said, perhaps the clear winner of the evening will come as less of surprise? The Fetzer Zinfandel — brand new to Ludwig von Kapff’s selection of wines — was a definite crowd pleaser. Hailing from California, this full-bodied wine boasts a strong note of dark berries and slight hints of spice and black pepper. Earning them bonus points in my book, the Fetzter vineyards pride themselves on starting a “winemaking revolution” and are committed to environmentally sustainable practices in wine production. Maybe that will help take some of the edge off of that guilty pleasure? :)
All in the all, it was an outstanding evening full of conversation with great wine and even better friends!
* Many thanks to Ludwig von Kapff for providing the wine for this evening, and to my friends for sharing their thoughts on wine.There are no affiliate links in this post. *
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