Maj Carita

Back in the Land of Blogging

I am resurfacing.

I got back from my travels two weeks ago, but I had this bugging cold - not the swine flu - just a cold, that kept me company for a month now, and tapped my energy. This made jetlag even harder to get over. So I have neglected blogging, and e-mailing, and I have a lot of catching up to do. Enough on this subject! Here goes:

 

I started my travels with a short visit in Tsawwassen, south of Vancouver. My aunt and uncle were in the middle of packing to move house, but they took the time out to go with me to a beautiful bird sanctuary not far from Tsawwassen. We had an absolutely gorgeous day!

 

I had heard about the colours of fall in Canada. And - WOW! Reds, yellows, golden browns... I will show more pictures in future posts.

In the coming days I will tell about Journalfest, which was my second leg on the travel.

Springtime in Mom's garden

Three and a half week in Denmark.
Not so long, when you are visiting loved ones.
And a lifetime, when you look at the garden.

I really get my Mom, who spends most of summer "bottoms up", weeding and planting in her garden.
It is such a joy and a calming experience to hear the bird song and see the little ones come out of their nests and learn to fly.

One day I may get a garden of my own... Just a little one?!

They say it's all happening at the Zoo...

I have just returned from a wonderful time in Berlin.
It might have been a more "true" picture of Berlin to show all the graffiti; but so much of it is great street art, that I decided to go back another time, graffiti hunting with my camera.
This time, I travelled six hours north, and my sister Nina travelled seven hours south, and we met up in Berlin. We wanted some well deserved sister time. And we wanted to go to flee markets, which were fun, but not a big revelation.
We stayed in the middle of Prenzlauer Berg, which is on the east side of where the wall was. A former noble area, so the houses are grand, but very dilapidated...
I Loved the atmosphere! People seemed very laid back (a joker claimed it was due to the high unemployment...!) And most friendly, which I am sorry to say is a rare commodity.
There are cafés and restaurants all over the place, many of them with good homemade food, and not expensive.

One of the highlights for me, was visiting Berlin Zoo. At least I enjoyed those animals, that were kept in a sensible way, and seemed happy enough. The two on the left, above, were in neighboring "gardens", and spend a good time sniffing and greating each other. An unlikely couple, don't you think?

My next venture is back to Denmark for a while, so I shall not be posting here untill late june.
Kisses and good bye for now!

Danish summer

  

 

Danish Impressions II

And now to the post I have been trying to upload for some days...
Living in Germany, we often get totally undeserved brownie-points, just because we are danish. A lot of Germans go to Denmark on holidays, because Germany has only a small stretch of coastline, the rest is inland. Denmark is surrounded by the ocean and even if it is just a tiny country with five million people ( total: 43094 sq km which is slightly less than twice the size of Massachusetts), it amounts to a long stretch of beach ( 7314 km ).

Funfact: Among the people still smoking, pipe-smoking is more common for the danish male than in many other european countries. (You may have to enlarge the picture to see, that the guy on the swan sculpture is smoking a pipe).

I could easily kill the myth about a fairytale country, telling about problems that are common in Scandinavia... but in this case I will not!
I so enjoy going back to the place where I grew up and join the easygoing mentality of the danish people, that I choose to ignore the downsides when I am there.
I shall be going back for a slightly longer period very soon, and I promise (Jo Anne) to make more photos and show and tell more about one of my favorite places on earth.

Have a look at the little cottage on the riverside. Wouldn't you just love to have an artists studio there?

Funfact: In Denmark there are no rivers, only smaller ones which are called å. The danish name for an island is ø.

Day trip to Strassbourg

We are living about half an hours drive from the french border. And we go to Alsace maybe once a month... they say Alsace is different from France, or at least the Alsacians are... well, the lingo is funny, but to us it is still France, and we love it!

I can't help looking for inspiration all over the place... And with all those old buildings in Strassbourg - Wow, I'd need to go alone some day, and spend my time just taking pictures!

And I'd have much more time to peruse the bookshops!!! I always find great illustrated books, especially for children! The next pictures were taken in an antique shop, but it did not mention the author of the book...

Window shopping in french is called "lecher vitrines", which translates: Licking windows! Next time I go, I'll get some fotos of the windows at the Pattisserie, with the little pastries looking like jewels! THOSE windows I am almost tempted to lick! But I do prefer to eat the real thing, though!
Next time I'll be blogging about Denmark, that should be about middle of may.