Nothing like a decent list

Hi again!
 
Before I get back to the January Cure, let me entertain you with a photo I shot in Siberia last summer.
I highly doubt everybody is as much into curing his/her apartment as I am. ;-)

The photo below shows the Port Baikal station, a former station of the Transsiberian railway, now a dead end.
At the bottom today's posting you'll find out more about these old, neglected tracks of the world famous railway in Russia.

Department Store in  Port Baikal

Now back to the apartment. 
I am a fan of lists. For those of you who share the love for decent lists, the January Cure's second assignment is made for you. Today you are asked to write a project list.

What is better than a list? A project list! Here you can find assignment #2 at apartmenttherapy.com  
At the end of the article you also find the Cure calendar, you can download it.
In case you want to join, you can register for the daily mails (they end by Jan. 31, no worries!)

Here you can see what the upcoming days have to offer:

 I remember myself cursing while trying to master the kitchen weekend. No way I could do the oven, the fridge and all the cabinets in two days. To my surprise the oven is still very neat. The frdige is not bad. And the one cabinet, next to the oven still contains only goods I need for baking. Perfect order, installed one year ago. 

For those of you, who have not gone through their clutter in various drawers for a long time:  There is always a light at the end of the tunnel! 

Ok, now this was a cheap bridge.

I feel like posting this photo ...  mainly because I think it is beautiful. 

Secondly, because tonight Mr Paula and I finally presented the Transsiberian-slide show (no more than 120 photos) at a friend's house. The tunnel (photo above) was part of the original route of the Transsiberian railway. Due to a hydroelectric power station, built around 1960 in Irkutsk, the original route had to be transferred - the old tracks close to lake Baikal and the river Angara were lower then the new water level. The tunnel above was part of the old route, which was not flooded. Today it serves as a tourist attraction, an attractive attraction. I really like this photo. And yes, it was shot on film. 35mm Fujifilm. :-)

This deal might work out: The January Cure Transsiberian Review. hehe.

Meanwhile, take care, it's slippery out there!
Paula

Back Home

Hello!

The past 5 weeks went by so fast.
Today we arrived back home, returning from a wonderful time we had in Russia, Kalingrad in the North-East of Europe.

The next days are going to be busy. You can imagine how many emails wait for an answer.

Let me start off with some impressions - comprehensive postings to come ... here!

Basic food

It works!

The Baltic Sea aka Ostsee

Kaliningrad discovers Kenigsberg

Lunchtime

In the land of Amber

From Russia ... in Europe

Hello!

2 weeks ago I arrived in Russia.
Kaliningrad is located between Lithuania and Poland and the Baltic Sea, hundreds of km away from mainland-Russia.

I am having a wonderful time here and as soon as I am back in Vienna, ah ch will be in 3 weeks, I am going to publish photos and tell some stories.

Yesterday I actually had a conversation on the phone in Russian - which is more than I wished for in sich a short time.

At the moment all my photos are stuck in my camera, but I did take some pictures with the tablet cam inside the apartment, where I live at the moment.

Enjoy!

Right now

History channel?

Love

A red lipstick is a must. 

I am thrilled that I am actually reading Russian texts. Very simple, but still!!

Can you find the sink?

After the manicure

Apples everywhere, now thet the EC must not export fruits to Russia. Tje city of Kaliningrad crowded with appletrees.

Minimalism was yesterday. Golden flowers on the wall.

Kalinimgrad is an incredibly green city.

I am off to the Russian Disco.

Paula

Meanwhile

Hello!

Sorry for being absent. 1 month!

Vienna at this very moment

The last month has proven how photo-driven this blog actually is. I have not touched my cameras in weeks. There is not a lot happening, camera wise ...

Some days have been so hot, I went swimming after work and since the beach is public and I was on my own I left the camera at home. Just not safe.

The birds keep coming to our kitchen window, which keeps us busy from breakfast to dinner. We changed the bird diet and started to add nutts.

familiar scene at the dining table

We few weeks ago, Mr Paula and I decided to make plans for our upcoming vacation. We had no clue where to go. A beach would be nice. Not too hot. We prefer sand over stones. Hamburg? Brittany? Sicily? Cornwall? Where to go?!

Well, so yesterday I was was standing at the Russian consulate, waiting in a line, applying for a visa. Russia! We are going to explore the Baltic Sea in Kaliningrad. Kaliningrad is the name of the city and also the name of the Russian exclave, north of Poland and south of Latvia Lithuania.

No one I know knows Kaliningrad today. People know about Königsberg - the German city until 1946. And of course the amber ressources - Kalinigrad is said to hold 80% of the world's total amber ressources. But that's about it. It seems as if I am going to visit another blank area on the European map, after having visited Crimea in 2013.

Most tourists from abroad visit Kaliningrad as part of an organized group tour.  I was told that people in Kalinigrad hardly speak English or German. Which is the reason why I want to go to Kaliningrad: I want to improve my Russian skills. I will attend a class in a language school. I can not imagine a better place than a region where the travel books warn visitors about the poor English and German language skills on the countryside.

Russian lession on a saturday morning

Cursive writing! And I am able to figure out, what the letters actually mean. 

The credit goes to Ruslana, my Russian teacher in Vienna. She only uses cursive writing on the blackboard, thanks to her I am acutaly able to read cursive writing.

I guess you can say languages are another passion of mine. Besides photography.

The label "Russian" on this blog is going to grow. :-)  You can bet, I will return with stories, photos and individual outlooks.

This is my first time I have to apply for a visa to be allowed to visit a foreign country. Japan, USA, Ukraine, Kuba ... we just went there on vacation. I know that many people are used to applying for visas. Well, I am not. I guess as soon as I have my passport in my hands with the visa tucked on a page, I will relax.  Until then - I admit - I will remain a little nervous.  It is always a good thing to leave your comfort zone.

Have a relaxed weekend!
Paula

Finally, immersing

Having listened to German internet radio stations, day in day out, in 2013, I finally made it to the Russian internet radio stations.

I am not quite sure, if I a listening to a Russian mass right now. ?!?

I enjoy decoding what I hear (I switched from the rather strange station to a news station):

Listening to a foreign language that you hardly unterstand is to me like solving difficult crosswords. In the beginning you have absolutely no clue. Over time it becomes less and less obscure and you start to recognise single words.

In the beginning you will probably hear mostly a melody and understand only a few words. My "puzzle" today included journey, friends, tomorrow, listen, lesson, speak, wish, many, twenty, riot, street, now, good, question, surely, eighteen. And no racism. It gets ... funny - ok, probably more ... embarrassing, when you realise, you have interpreted a word SOOO wrong for the whole past hour while they were talking about ... ! Want an example? Take racism. They did not say racism. Not a single time. All they said was Россия, Russia, which  - pronounced Russian - sounds a lot like "racism", especially when you are new to Russian.

It can get very, very annoying when you hear a word have learned half a year ago, but you can't remember the meaning. Lets take четверг. четверг. четверг. Come on, четверг. Arrgh. Thursday. Yes, of course!
I did not find it in my brains but went searching online. "four", forty, forth ... this one did not take too long. Wikipedia is a great source. One leads to you the other, Thursday leads to Friday and you learn that the oil on canvas is butter in Russian. Ok, you probably have to have a love for human languages to enjoy games like these.

I assume you like the sound of the language you are learning. Why else would you learn it? Listening to internet radio stations delivers the joy of listening to that unique melody that defines the foreign language.

In case you are trying to learn German and wish to immerse (I have to admit, I have no clue, how many people enjoy listening to the German "melody") I highly recommend the 3 DEUTSCHLAND RADIO stations: DRadio Wissen, Deutschlandfunk, Deutschlandradio Kultur, available right here.

Good news: 2014 I will take extra good care of you, my dear readers, having Raymond Murphy at my side. Thank you for being patient with me. Punctuation and tenses call me!

 

Happy listening!
Paula

Tourists from Austria

Not just once I have written about tourists in Vienna on my blog. This time it is the other way round: we are going to be tourists and look forward to encountering the Crimean hospitality. Since we know how to behave, I have not forgotten to pack some the sweet greetings. They seem to be quite iconic. They worked in Japan, on the Outer Hebrides. In case you ever come to Austria and visit one of those Chocolate-Boutiques, be sure to buy the round ones. Any Mozartkugel that stands on a bottom is not the right kind of Mozartkugel. The true original Mozartkugel from Paul Fürst dates back to 1890. It tastes different from the Mirabell Mozartkugel (pictured below) and it is handmade and comes with fewer layers inside.

I am surprised, how accuarate the colours are. I mean it was grey when I was taking this photo, with another heavy cloud-burst outside.

Oh, I forgot to solve the riddle: one sweet "bar" is for my Russian teacher, one for Natascha, she will show us Sevastopol and one for the housekeeper, who is going to cook for us. The heart goes to Valentina, our host.

I will put the comments on "moderated-only"-mode for the time that I am gone.
Пока, see you in June!