hungry for hungary

this was our first night in hungary visiting with three friends who are living there: ariel ann and adam (centre) in budapest, and angie in siofok.


big, beautiful church in the middle of pest. the city's divided by the danube river; pest is the east side and buda the west.


we arrived on saturday and went down to the parliament buildings (below) that night to join the protests against the hungarian prime minister. he had recently been caught on tape saying that he had lied to the public for two years about the state of the economy in order to get reelected in april. people demanded his resignation but he refused, even after admiting that it was him on the tapes.


about 30,000 people were at the protests on sat night and they had been going on all week. a major economic problem for hungary when we were there was price increases: heating and electricity had gone up by about 35% over a few months.


above and below: this was a cool pub we visited on sat night called szimpla. indoor, outdoor, plastic lanterns, movie screens, beer, plants, delapidated walls with peeling paint, a bike room, cozy nooks and tons of character. this is double a's great shot of a cozy nook




a jewelry stand for girls to play in.


graffiti on the walk to lunch the next day.


lunch! really yummy, fusiony food. i was impressed we found more than meat, dumplings, paprika and sour cream.


wicked facades on old buildings.


tone and double a in the sun near double a's hood.


music academy where liszt studied.


the courtyard of ariel ann and adam's flat in pest.

...and we haven't even got to lake balaton yet!!! more excitement to come.

Kiran!

We received a visit from the lovely KIRAN!!! Yay! I urge you all to come and do the same. I love visits. Our couch is lonely without a warm body to keep it company, and we are comepletely overrun with sausages, too, and in need of help eating them... (I'm sure we can even scrounge up some ghee to fry them in for those who so desire.)


Kiran enjoying two major pleasures of our German existence: The bratwurst sausage with mustard and The Paulaner weissbier... ah, good times.

We visited the Koelner Dom, which is the massivist most kick ass cathedral ever. (It's in Cologne, which is 40mins from Duesseldorf). You really can't do it justice with a camera - it's just too tall.

These two dudes were hanging out in the doorway...

...checking out this chick.

My best meal to date in all of Germany was in Cologne at the Haxenhaus Am Rheingarten. It's an inn/pub/restaurant that's been around for a few hundred years. Damn good lamb knuckles, schnitzel and sausage!

More on our Hungary exploits to come soon...! :)

Liam's Baptism

In August we went on a Deutsche Bahn adventure (ie: train fiasco!! don't be needlessly fooled by the stereotype that Germans are efficient and orderly! I have evidence to prove otherwise...).

Our mission was to make it to the little town of Weidingen, near Bitburg, to attend Liam's baptism. Thanks to luck, dogged persistence and Claudia, the gracious mother of the baptee himself, we made it just in the nick of time. It was a wonderful day watching the ceremony, then meeting Claudia's family, getting a tour of the town and area and drinking white wine in the sun and gorging on cake.

This is little Liam!

Here he is with mom, Claudia, and dad, Mark. Claudia and Tone are friends from UBC. She still works there, but came over for a visit to Germany to do the baptism up in proper style with the full fam-damily.

This is the church the baptism was held in. It's a pilgrimage site (can't remember why), so is much bigger and more colourful than you would expect for the size of the town (about 200). Claudia's family's house was right across the street, so we just walked back over for the reception afterwards.

This is Johann, a friend of the family. He was totally adorable in his little lederhosen.

Claudia with the Tonemeiser.

Belgium

Here're a few shots of our visit to Belgium in August...

Tony, Alice and Giuseppe in Dinant, Belgium.

Dinant is on the Meuse River (also known as the Maas, as in Maastricht). Impressive church and cliff fortress.

Kayaking on the Lesse River... more castles on cliffs!

Me frolicking beside the river. I think this field is where the knights must have had jousting competitions...

Al and G-sep!

Kellys' visit

Hello, one and all…

Lots of things happening over here in Duesseldorf, keeping me from my appointed blogging rounds. I’m going to post up some chunks on different things we’ve been doing. I have almost completely given up on getting Tony to write entries, as he’s useless. (:) He’s working, entertaining parents, trying to keep me happy and also finishing up a paper for publication that he started at UBC, so has many sorry excuses…

We are now nicely settled into our apartment and had our first guests last week!!! Jim and Breeda Kelly (the co-creators of James Anthony, otherwise known as ‘Tony’) came and joined us in our pad for about 10 days. It was a great visit, despite the rain that insisted on pouring down in sheets for the first 2 days. We toured around the city and the Rhein promenade, visited a palace, had a visit from Tony’s aunt Lori who lives 2 hours away in Holland, and watched the Germany – Ireland European Cup qualifier game in a packed O’Reilley’s pub (Ireland bitterly defeated themselves). We drank many pints of beer, galleons of tea and filled ourselves up with sausages, schnitzel, sauerbraten and spuds.



Then we rented a car and drove down south to a town called Cochem on the Mosel River. The whole place is a fairy tale - and yes, I got to be the princess - with a huge castle perched on the top of a steep hill overlooking the town. The area was spared during the war, so unlike Duesseldorf and other major centres, all the little old houses, narrow cobblestone lanes, secret passages between buildings and city wall towers are still there, painted up all pretty for the tourists. The Mosel twists and turns through green hills saturated with growing grapes. Every restaurant and cafe in town has real grape vines loaded with fruit growing up around their signs and doorways. We stayed in an old inn which must have been in the family for generations, filled with old photos, collections of pocket watches, rocking horses, vases and rugs. I like old stuff, so needless to say, the inn and whole town were a goldmine for me.







On our way down we also stopped at the Maria Laach church and monastery in the Eifel region. It’s 850 years old and stunning. Chris Suen, you need to come visit us and see it! It’s a whole kind of retreat centre today as well as a functioning monastery, with a lake nearby for boating, walking trails, fields of grazing cows and organic food and wine production on the grounds.







Besides the town itself, the trip was significant because I drove us there and back in our trusty VW steed, on the German autobahns, reaching speeds of up to 130km/hr, and NO ONE WAS HURT. Jim, a seasoned Irish bus driver, wondered that we made it home at all, what with me driving counter-clockwise on round-abouts and entering the right-hand lane after left-hand turns.

That’s all fer now, folks! :) Kate

some duesseldorf pix

so, here's a few photos
old and new

1 - our street! Liebfrauenstrasse ("Virgin Street"). our house is on the left in one of the brick apartment buildings up on the top floor. i think the ikea delivery guys have come to dread visiting us.

2 - ... yes, i love cobblestones, especially overgrown ones

3 - this is the courtyard of Schloss Eller, an old, overgrown castle near our house.

4 - the Schloss itself. it has a great moat and pond. no alligators though, just lots of ducks. and they were pretty ferocious, what with their eyeing my sandwich and all...

5 - wacky modern architecture in the Media Harbour

6 - we ran into some marching bands in the Altstadt on my first day

8 - closely followed by these dudes on horses

7 - on Koenigs Allee, a big boulevard in the city centre

more photos to come soon! must introduce y'all to german bread and beer, and our pink, candy-striped foyer. this is all made possible by our new, at home, *internet connection*. we also have a PHONE now, too - yay! i'll send out a group email with the number.

this weekend tony and i are off to anseremme, belgium to meet up with al, my roomate from sydney way back in 1999. we're going to do a bit of kayaking and get better acquainted with belgian beer.

signing off for now - much love to all you lovelies!

:) kate :)

colour my world

testing, testing... can i upload photos??

ah, here's a lovely one from muneera wallace and james hussain's wedding, may 7, 2006.

setting down roots

we've officially moved into the neighbourhood - protect your children! we are now living in a part of düsseldorf called wersten: close to the university, downtown and ikea: all the most important things in life.

the apartment: we no longer live in a thimble. yay! our place is 72 square meters with lovely laminate floors and has 1 1/2 bedrooms and a big living room and kitchen. you are all cordially invited to come and visit now that we can put you up in our pad properly! not that that ever stopped anyone before. it's on the third floor, which translantes to 4th floor for you non-europeans out there. the landlords live there, as well as their son and daughter and granddaughter. people seem really friendly and welcoming so far - the girl below us offered us the services of her washing machine, and the guy across the hall moved in the same day. he is a language teacher who speaks impeccable english and a variety of other languages.

the stuff in it: we are now the proud owners of a fridge! and sink and stove and cupboards and a bed! i never thought it would happen.

the hood: we're on a lovely street called Liebfrauenstrasse. 'Lieb' means love, as in 'ich liebe dich', and 'frauen' means women. i'm not entirely sure how that translates... street of beloved women... street of women who love... street of loving too many women at one time will get tony in trouble... *NB: ever-wise father informs me that actually 'Liebfrau' means 'virgin'... hmm.*** there are gorgeous, enormous trees in a boulevard out the front, higher than the 5 storey house itself. at the end of the block is an old church which gongs its bell every quarter hour. 24 hours a day. it's quite charming actually, but thank god for the double-glazed windows at 3am. shops and tram and chinese, greek, japanese restaurants and german pubs are all 5 mins away. there are also really pretty green spaces nearby with little rhein river tributaries running through them, and bike and walking paths along side.

more to come, along with photos, soon. email us and we'll send you our mailing address. we'll also have phone and internet hook up in 2 weeks, so will send out a big email then so you can contact us.

muchos love to you all! come drink beer with us soon!

Tony & Fido

Tony Kelly has arrived in Duesseldorf and is alive and well! That is all we know at this point. Look for future posts by the man himself...

Good to see the bidding heating up! Don't forget to pass this site on to your friends and check back: I've added stuff to the original list. Also check the COMMENTS on the T&K Bay post to see who has claimed what.

Does anyone want to take over my CITY FIDO CELL PHONE PLAN? THERE IS NO CONTRACT. I don't need to pass it on because I have a commitment to fulfill; it is simply a good deal that Fido is no longer offering. They will honour these accounts and change the name over for free, but you can't get a new cityfido deal anymore.

SO: $45 per month for unlimited calling anytime from Bowen Island to Hope: no minutes to count. I also pay about $5 for voice mail and a $7 service fee, plus tax and whatever long distance I do. It's more expensive than a land line, but cheaper than a land line and a cell phone. If you're intersted, please let me know ASAP. The phone is available on July 12.

Kate

T&KBay

Hey y'all!

In our preparations for mass exodus from Vancouver, we are creating an online listing of stuff we need to get rid of. We're sharing this site with friends, family, coworkers, Kate's choir and anyone who wants any stuff; please pass the link on to your friends if you think they'd want anything.

Here's how it works:
1 - check through the list and locate something you just can't live without.
2 - post a comment to claim your item(s). if you don't want to open your own account, use our guest id and password: both are tonynkateguest. don't forget to add your name at the bottom of the text.
3 - pick up your item from Kate at our house.

Prices:
- Bidding for all items starts at CAD 0.01 (except for the two futons - $50 each.)
- ALL OFFERS ACCEPTED.
- In the event that two people want the same item... how BAD do you want it??!? The highest bidder will take the item! Proceeds from the bidding war will go to the TONY & KATE BEER & GERMANY START-UP FUND to grease our wheels and palates in preparation for the Big D and to help us build our nest there.

LET THE BIDDING WAR COMMENCE!!! :)

The List:

1) General Stuff

- 2 futon couch/beds, both double size ($50 each)
- armchair (gold corduroy) Tony: "Mint condition!! Never use - Only used once, briefly! I swear!"
- TV (circa 1922. if unclaimed, may have 'accidental' fall from balcony.)
- VCR
- 2 stools ROSS has first bid
- 2 orange throw pillows, good for pillow fighting
- stereo (only working radio and double tape player. ditto TV.)
- "shelf" (ie, bricks and nicely finished plank)
- metal filing cabinet; 2 drawers; about 1 meter high
- big brown bookcase (1.5 metres)
- big white bookcase (2 metres)
- small white bookcase (ikea) ROSS has first bid
- small brown bedside table/TV stand (ikea) ROSS has first bid
- magazine basket
- fruit basket
- hat & glove basket
- desk chair (swivel)
- fridge magnets
- wax (tony's soy wax, wicks, moulds)
- deck chairs (2 plastic; one semi-broken)
- tack board
- orange clock
- working computer
- flashlight
- 2 milk crates
- silver ikea standing lamp
- bed lamp (screws into wall above your head)
- picture frame (large)
- linens and towels
- grey shoe mat
- wall sized guinness poster
- laundry basket (plastic)
- bookends
- desk stuff: (felts, pens & pencils, erasers, protractor, glue, etc)
- pottery soap dish
- tealights and candle holders
- tupperware
- canning jars and lids (celina? kiran?)
- knitting yarn
- folding clothes drying rack
- bathroom plastic 3 shelf roller thing (about 1m. tall)
- small space heater/fan
- electric appliance timer (can turn the heater on at a certain time)

... and, the piece de resistance...

- THE LAST SUPPER paint-by-numbers, artist unknown (bidding for this priceless item begins at CAD $1.00)

2) Kitchen Stuff:

- cutlery, knives, untensils (big spoons, etc)
- mortar and pestle x2
- plates, bowls
- mugs
- glasses
- cutting boards x2
- wok ROSS has first bid
- toaster oven PAMELA has first bid
- bamboo placemats x2 & hotspot
- sushi set ROSS has first bid
- strawberry teapot & 2 cups
- brita water filter
- kettle

3) Food Stuff

- tea in jars & tins
- spices
- dried food in jars (brown rice, flour, popcorn, etc)

***********************************************************************************

Please keep checking the blog: don't miss out on a bid, and we will add NEW items as we discover them in our packing process...

ALSO, we have copious books and cds to rifle through, and Kate will be sorting through clothes, so GIRLIES come by this coming weekend (June 17 & 18) to see what she's got.

Wilkommen...

Welcome to Tony and Kate in Deutschland!