Carrie lives here

© Joselito Briones

Eric and I were walking around New York and taking photos yesterday when, just when I was done taking photos of a neighborhood, an older man, probably on his way home, carrying grocery bags, told us that the actress Sarah Jessica Parker (that's) Carrie Bradshaw to you) lives on this particular house (photo, above).

Today we went to Century21 and DSW for bargain shopping, unfortunately I wasn't very much into it because I had a headache. It didn't help that it was dark and drizzling the whole day.

We then went to a computer repair shop in Elmhurst, one that Eric knows to ask if they could repair the notebook, unfortunately, they said they also need time to at least diagnose the computer, time I don't have, so we didn't leave the computer there.

In the evening we just stayed in, even as we were planning to go out with Jane.


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Eis day

© Joselito Briones
Lovely day. I went for a walk around late in the afternoon and took pictures. There was a long line at the Eishaus (ice cream shop) so I thought I'd get myself some. "Creme Caramel" and "Blau Bär" (picture, above). As is usual, it was impossible to eat it and keep some sort of dignity at the same time. The entire load on the cone (2 enormous scoops) fell on my bare hands seconds after taking this picture. I held the ice cream on my hand for a split second while deciding what to do, and then packed it back on the cone and pretended nothing happened. Kids, and their parents, who saw what happened, were amused. By the time I found a cafe with a public toilette to wash up in, about half an hour later, I realized that they didn't have to witness the de-coning incident to have a laugh at my expense. The darn ice cream was all over my face.


© Joselito Briones

I went through SchlossPark and the pedestrian zone, and by the time I headed back home, it was already dark but ice cream stores (different ones) were still doing good business. Photo above was taken at the carnival in front of the Erlangenschloß.



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Open Cafe season

© Joselito Briones

Spring's here. The weather's beautiful and everybody's out and about. I took pictures of several cafe's in the city, all of them full in the early afternoon, and I'll show them to you in the next few days.

The one above is the Hotel Brasserie in the pedestrian zone, corner Henkestraße, next to it, left, is a small cinema. And no, the colors aren't like this naturally, naturally. I'm experimenting again on giving my pictures an old look.


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5th Av.

© Joselito Briones

There was just something about the bright light today. We walked down 5th Avenue from Central Park South to Times Square and along the waywe took so many photos, mostly street scenes. It helped that most of the crowd didn't care at all that they were part of the pictures, and some, although subtly, even posed upon seeing that he might be part of the picture.


© Joselito Briones

Since we were already in the area, we also took the chance to drop by Sak's, just so I can see what I can expect to buy next year. Such is my shopping pattern now. I wait for everything to be on sale before buying what I want. I guess it's not too bad. Last year's fresh fashion here in New York is still pretty advanced when I wear them in Erlangen.


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How do I melt this snow?

© Joselito Briones

This is just an extra photo of the past snow weeek here in Erlangen. The snow has since melted, of course. It's bright again. Luckily this kind of snow reacts to changes in the weather. The other kind, the personal kind, it keeps one cold long after it's melted.


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Powdered Pebbles

© Joselito Briones

This is a photo of the landscaping pebbles in the driveway downstairs. It's not even powder anymore. More like iced, except not completely yet. Yep. One of those days when there's really nothing worth saying. At least there's this picture to show.


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Snow

© Joselito Briones

We got snowed in! I didn't think this place could have so much snow, but it did. First thing we saw on TV are videoclips of kids playing in the snow, so early in the morning. I guess they've been waiting for this one. The city looks so different and feels so different. It's so nice and bright and pretty.

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More of Erlangen

© Joselito Briones

If only the weather can be like this always...

I went to the post office right after German class, to pick up a package that was supposed to have been delivered last Saturday by DHL. We were having breakfast when the delivery guy came. We heard the buzzer, and, in less than a minute, the time it took to get to the intercom system in the reception area from the kitchen where we were having breakfast, he was gone. He must be in quota system, or just very very eager to go home. When we picked up the intercom from the reception and heard nothing from the other end, we even went out to the balcony and yelled a loud "hello?!?". No answer. The time it took for him to ring the bell, write the note that he left on the mailbox notifying us to pick up the package from the post office, and be beyond the distance where he could hear our "hello" could not have been any longer than the time it took for us to get from the kitchen, pick up the intercom, and yell out from the balcony.

© Joselito Briones

From the post office I passed by the city center and got myself a Leberkase sandwich. That's meatloaf sandwich in plain kitchen speak.

I then went to Frankenlabor, after dropping my bag in the apartment, to pick up some films, and on my way there took the pictures shown here. The first is a Siemens building, next block to the apartment (city blocks here tend to be big). On clear days like these, the stark contrast between the silvery metal of its enclosure, with its yellow awnings, against the clear cloudless sky is very striking.

The bottom picture is of a residential development. I always pass by here in between Frankenlabor and Handelshof. Next to it are huge areas of land that are currently under developement. In the next few years the whole area will become one huge suburban heaven.



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Gray Day in Berlin

© Joselito Briones

Nothing's quite right today. I woke up with a headache. It started before I went to bed last night, there was no place I could go to to buy some paracetamol. Or maybe I just didn't know where, but sure enough I asked several places. I went out after shower, hungry for breakfast, determined to go to the first place I see that serves anything digestible. The sky's gray. My only full day here in Berlin and the sun decided to play hide and seek. Bleh.

© Joselito Briones

First thing I saw was KaDeWe. Sure, those Dior clothes look yummy, but not in a nourishing way, the opposite actually, it made me want to not eat ever again so I'll fit in them. I'm sure though that if the store was already open I'd have gotten in and procastinated on getting headache relief. Thankfully, the KaDeWe apotheke around the corner was already open, so I got myself some painkillers.

© Joselito Briones

I wasn't so lucky food-wise. The first place I saw was McDonald's. I had mcMuffins. It did the job. It didn't stop me though from stopping at several wurst vending places while walking and talking pictures all day.

© Joselito Briones

These are all taken with a digital camera, the one I got as a present on my birthday. As you can see, in all the pictures, the sky is consistently gray.

© Joselito Briones

First two pictures, left and above, are of the same building, in the Museum island, something something dome, my map said. The first one was taken while I was walking along the river bank, just before it rained. I let the rain pass while having espresso in a sand bank (made to look like a beach) cafe, then continued on to the island itself, the next picture.

© Joselito Briones

I went around the island, until I got to where I started, the east tip of it, and took this picture (left), which I'm sure so many others have taken before, a visual gag trying to make the TV tower look like it's on top of the dome of another museum. I think this is going to be the theme for today: taking cliche' pictures. Only doing worse version... one with gray sky on every picture. Hmmm... come to think of it, this had always been the theme of all my pictures. Oh well...

© Joselito Briones

The digital camera actually adjusts the brightness, so that instead of dark gray which I see in reality, the images have a very bright gray sky.

© Joselito Briones

It's all museums basically, this area, so I decided to go somewhere else, and headed towards the Reichtag (left). Last time I was here in Berlin was 1999, and the only two places I remember from then is Liebskind's Jewish Museum and this, the Reichtag. The rest are all a jumble of cranes. This city was full of promise. And if anyone's to gauge its fulfillment, now's the best time.

© Joselito Briones

The next few pictures were taken in the same area. Except for the last one and the one before that, taken in Mitte, and the third one from the last picture, taken in Galleries Lafayette (designed by Jean Nouvel), close to Unter den Linden, where I bought a couple of socks.


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2006.12.01
As you may well know by now, i've reformatted my blog, and some pictures are too big (and I now deem unnecessary) to put here, so if the text refers to a picture that isn't shown here, that's because I've taken it off.


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