Hello.

As mentioned in the previous entry, I dared to leave Prague on 2 days to explore some further away sights as well.



One of them was Karlstein Castle.
The train ride is really cheap and takes less than 1 hour. The landscape you get to see during the train ride is also lovely!

The castle is truly impressive.
I'm a huge castle fan, so I just had to go.
At the castle I found a poster promoting other nearby castles but this one was by far the best one, so yay!


( more photos )




But the actual highlight is probably the so-called "Church of Bones" (Sedlec Ossuary).

The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, whose bones have, in many cases, been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel.

( Read more... )



But the views from up there were stunning! What a beautiful little town!

( Read more... )


If you're interested in cathedrals, beautiful old town centers or even just that awesome church of bones, I'd highly recommend you'd do a day trip to Kutna Hora from Prague if you have enough time. ;)


Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Bye~chuu!

Hi!

I can finally add another country to my list: Czech Republic!
So many people have told me how beautiful Prague City is so I always wanted to go.

Finally I had a chance to!
And it's not that difficult to go there.
There's actually a direct (!!!) train from Munich to Prague and it only costs 37 € one way!
Of course, you could also go by car but with the current gasoline prices .........................

The train ride takes about 5:30 h, but usually there are delays, so we weren't under 6h for both train rides.
I just kept watching "Inventing Anna" on Netflix on my phone which I had downloaded beforehand.
And because I wasn't alone we also played games or just talked.


There will be 3 entries in total.
I didn't stay in Prague the entire time. As we had 3,5 days for sightseeing, I also left Prague for 2 daytrips and those I'll share in separate entries.

In this entry I'll just share the impressions from Prague.

( photos ahead )



My next stop was the Strahov Library in a monastery. Really impressive.
You aren't allowed to enter, you can only take photos from the outside and you have to pay extra to take photos!

In Prague they don't use Euro, but have Czeck koruna. But luckily we could pay pretty much everywhere by credit card.
The only time you needed coins was for toilets and luckily most of the time (at least in Prague) they took Euro as well for that.



Next I headed to Prague Castle, probably the main sightseeing spot.
Next to the entrance is probably one of the coolest Starbucks with such a great view over Prague!

( Read more... )

Country travel list (which is still super tiny....):

• Austria


• Czech Republic


• Greece


• France


• Ireland


• Italy


• Japan (*most travelled country for me)


• Malta


• Spain


• The Netherlands


• UK (Wales, Scotland, England, Northern Ireland)

(*I've been in Switzerland, but not for travelling, I think, so I don't count it.)


I hope you enjoyed the photos!
More to come soon.

Bye~chuu!

Hullo again!

So, as mentioned before there was a weekend with good weather, so I was out and about again.
Unlike Saturday it was more crowded on the streets, but again no problem to find a (paid) parking lot this time.



I went to Tegernsee again. You'd think it gets boring, but as there are so many things to explore and so many mountains to hike around this lake, this was surely not my last time there. ;)
And it is a lovely region after all. :)

( more photos )



The view from there is really stunning and I loved it.
You don't have to work a lot to get up there and enjoy this view.

Note the color of the grass. It's so dry as obviously we didn't get enough rain.
You'd think that all that melting snow would do the trick, but nope ...

( Read more... )

Hope you enjoyed the photos!



Prague photos will probably follow soon.


Bye~chuu!

Hello.

I said it would be tough to catch up with entries.
That's because I went hiking on both days 2 weekends ago.
Last weekend I went to Prague (4 days) and this weekend is the best weather this year, absolutely stunning and I was planning being in the mountains ....

However, that's not gonna happen.

In Prague they basically have no rules apart from wearing a mask inside of public transport. And even there people didn't bother much.
The results? From the 4 people that went:

Person 1: got Delta
Person 2: got Omicron
Person 3: got a cold (that's me) - already had Covid
Person 4: perfectly fit - already had Covid

Go figure ......

I'm so sad that I cannot make any use of this absolutely awesome weather, especially because they're forecasting snow for April. *sigh*
But it is what it is ................... so instead I'm catching up with photo entries ....


2 weekends ago the weather was nice, but still very cold.
Needless to say that I was out and about again.




As you can see there was still snow on the trails. I couldn't use my hiking shoes (not suited for snow / wet underground).

( more photos )



The view into the valley was so lovely.

( Read more... )


Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Bye~chuu!

Hello again!

A friend of mine told me 2 weekends ago when I met her in person that she had caught Covid around the same time as me.
She's the exact same age, but unlike me she already got her booster a few weeks prior to getting sick.

And while my symptoms weren't really bad and it seems I have no long Covid symptoms thankfully, she struggled a lot.
When we met it was her 3rd week of being on sick leave.
She told me she still has to nap every noon to keep her energy levels up and circling that lake with me (around 6 km) was really tough for her.

It's so scary to see how this virus is like a lottery.
It doesn't matter how old or young you are.
It doesn't matter how sporty you are or if you have any chronical diseases.
It doesn't matter if you have been vaccinated and if so how many shots you got.

At least that's the impression I recently get.
I just hope she'll fully recover soon.
But she was happy to do this little excursion with me and I'm sure the exercise and fresh air was good for her.

( Read more... )



The lake itself is really beautiful and in summer you can swim there.

( more photos )



That's what the lake looks from above and you can see the mountains in the background as well as the restaurant where we sat.


Ahhh~ I miss my home region. It's just so beautiful and there's ALWAYS something beautiful nearby to explore without having to be stuck in traffic jam like when I try to go anywhere here on the weekends ....


Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Bye~chuu!

Hello

There's actually a lot I want write and update about, but I doubt I'll be able to do that within this week.
And as a lot of you are being in total panic mode saying that this Friday might be our last day on LJ, I figured I should rush to post here .....

To be perfectly honest, I don't know what will happen if LJ really goes completely puff.
I've been here with this account since 2004 and with an older one even longer than that.
This has been my diary and there's SO much history... I've always used this as a reference, even for my therapist, as you would with a normal diary.

I managed to sync all my entries to DW now, which only contained all the entries until 2017 before (as that's when the panic first started back in the days).
Unfortunately, I couldn't sync my comments, so all entries from 2017-2022 have zero comments now which sucks, but it is what it is.

I also tried to save some graphics. I found so many old entries where I put a shitload of work in and while nobody looks at them anymore, I once put so much work and effort into them.
It would suck to lose this all, but the graphics are all on LJ as I've had a paid account since forever.
I just paid for another year in February ....................................................... so it would REALLY suck if LJ goes puff now....

I also took a screenie of my current LJ stats (just in case):

( Read more... )




Anyways. I'm not sure if I'll continue to post on DW or not.
I haven't decided yet.


In case you want to stay in contact with me:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bergneko/ (I'm very active there, might become my LJ alternative.)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chochajin_ (pretty much dead since I lost my original account with lots of friends and followers.... but I might come back at some point)
MAL: https://myanimelist.net/profile/chochajin
DW: https://chochajin.dreamwidth.org/

Japan content:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoomingjapan/ (also active here, mostly Japan and fandom related stories at the moment)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/zoomingjapan (mostly Japan news here)
Blog: https://zoomingjapan.com/ (it dead....)


Feel free to add me on any of these.
If you have a different name as on LJ, just leave a comment here, so that I know who you are or send me a message or whatever you like. ;)


I hope this is not a goodbye forever, but see you around!
I'll keep posting here for as long as I'm allowed to!


P.S.: For those of you who also post on DW, are you using Semagic, does it still work? Or are you just copying your entry and pasting it to DW?

Bye~chuu

Hello.

Saturday (Feb 12) was the first weekend day in almost a month with good weather where I did have time to actually do something!
So, I just had to go out on a tour.



I went near Eching to check out four different lakes.
The first one you see above, it was also the largest one: Hollerner See

( Read more... )



I like that it doesn't get dark that early now. Around 17:30.


As I got sick, I couldn't go on a trip the next day. Sunday was even warmer with less wind ... oh well.
I shouldn't complain. :)

Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Bye~chuu!~

Hello

I'm so late in sharing this, but I simply didn't have time to post about it earlier.
On January 15th we had good weather on a weekend which doesn't happen very often recently ...

I already heard about the traffic jams in the morning in the direction I originally wanted to go to (mountains), but as everybody else wanted to go skiing it seems, I had to choose a different place.
Instead I went to the Kalvarienberg in Bad Tölz which is also quite nice.

( Read more... )

The hill features a church, a chapel and a really nice view onto the city below as well as the mountain panorama in the distance.



That's the stunning view you get from up there! Not bad, huh?

( more photos )

Not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but it was freezing cold.
I barely found a bench to sit down and have my lunch as the benches were either full of snow or completely frozen. ^^; ....



A really beautiful region, though.

( Read more... )


I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Thanks for reading.

Bye~chu!

Hello again!

On January 1st we had absolutely beautiful weather and extremely warm on top of that (about 14°C).
Needless to stay that I had to use that opportunity to go hiking.

It wasn't a difficult hike and I only went up to around 1200 m. I think snow has melted until an altitude of around 1500 m.

( Read more... )



Stunning views from up there!

( Read more... )



And here's the first sunrise of the new year!

Later on there were absolutely stunning pink colors in the sky, but because I had to drive, I couldn't really take photos of it.


What a great way to start into the new year.

Thanks for reading.
Bye~chuu!

Hello!

On Sunday I went on a short flatland hike.
It was the first day in a very, very long time with some blue sky and sunshine, yet extremely cold.
Right now we rarely ever get above 0°C.


I didn't have much time, so I opted for a hike near Munich that's not too long.
And when I say hike I mean stroll. No altitude meters involved around this time of the year. ;)



You can see how low the sun already was. It currently gets dark around 4 p.m.



I was mainly walking through the forest along the Würm.
On the photos it looks like a warm autumn day, but it was a freezing cold winter day.
We already had some snow as well.

( Read more... )



As I doubt I'll be updating again before Christmas, I wish you all Merry Christmas or at least Happy Holidays!
For me, this is going to be the first time ever that I don't have a place to stay at back home, so we'll see how that all goes.
And I decided to work all the way until next year. I'll only take 2-3 days off. But that's okay. I'd rather spend them on travelling ... if that's possible at all in 2022. :(



Germany has decided to implement even stricter rules right after Christmas. Even people who have received 3 vaccinations are only allowed to meet up to 10 people (and only if all of those people are also vaccinated).
And probably starting from January we'll be back to home schooling, closed shops, restaurants and all that shit. :(

It's so frustrating to start into the new year with these glooming things awaiting us all. Go fuck yourself, omicron!


Bye~chuu!

Hello

Wow, it's been a while.
I really need to catch up!

Let's start with my very last hike of the year.
After weeks of grey and dark weather, there was ONE day (and luckily it was a Sunday - even better a Sunday when I was back in my home region) when the sun decided to come out for once.
Needless to say that I had to use that very last opportunity of the year!

Now, we're fully in winter mode. The first snow has already fallen. Dark, grey and very short days continue. I hate this time of the year so much which is why I usually am in Japan around this time ...............................


Anyways, here are photos of the hike!

( Read more... )



Descending with even greater views onto the lake.

( Read more... )



Sun goes down so early now, I barely made it back to my car during daylight. ^^; ....

( Read more... )



Hope you enjoyed the photos. Will probably be the last landscape photos for a while, but you never know.
I still owe you the photos of all of my vacations this year: Malta, Vienna and Corfu ..... lockdown is coming, so I guess then I'll get to do it. :)

Otherwise, you can always follow me on Instagram where I'm usually posting the photos on the very day.

More to come soon.

Thanks for reading!
Bye~chuu!~

Hello

As I feared this weekend it's raining, so unfortunately I'm not going anywhere.
It's not too bad. I have a lot of things to do anyways.

But for now let me share the photos of last Sunday's flatland hike which I really enjoyed!



The Kendlmühlfilzen near the famous Chiemsee is a moorlands landscape.

( more photos ahead )

The sun was already gone, but the colors were still nice. But oh, it was soooo cold!




Thanks for reading!
I hope you enjoyed the photos.
Not sure if there will be any more entries like this in the next few months due to the season, but I still should upload the photos of my 3 vacations of 2021: Malta, Vienna and Corfu. :)


Have a great weekend!

Bye~chuu!~

Heyho!~

As mentioned in previous entries, the mountain peaks are covered in snow already and as it doesn't get any warmer anymore, the snow will stay there.
So, I opted again for flatland hikes (?) / strolls on the weekend.

( Welcome to Fürstenfeldbruck! )

You see, my phone is still producing these black lines in some photos.
In the meantime I found out that this happened to all Pixel users that have updated to Android 12.
At least all those who have a Pixel phone with ultrawide camera ......

I really hope Google will fix this soon or I'll seriously downgrade to 11 again ... I mean WTH, right?



The autumn colors along the way were still stunning, though!

( Read more... )



There were also some churches with beautiful graveyards again.

( Read more... )


I hope you enjoyed the photos!
Photos of my Sunday daytrip will follow soon.

This upcoming weekend has shitty weather, so I guess this will be the first time in a very long time that I'll actually stay home and hopefully get some shit done (finally). ^^;

Enjoy the rest of the week!


Bye~chuu!

Hello!

Sunday was a busy day, but a very good day.
I felt fit enough to do a full-fledged hike.
Mind you, it might be the last one of the year.

( Read more... )

Approaching the first summit which you can already see in the distance.
The trail was marked as "black" which means "difficult". There were a few passages where one wrong step could have killed you, so I guess it's justified....



Did I ever mention that I'm afraid of heights? ^^; ....

( Read more... )

From there you got full view onto Schliersee. Isn't it beautiful with it's tiny island in the middle? :)



Hiking back down with these stunning views was awesome!

( Read more... )

What a great autumn day! I'm so happy that I was fit enough again to do it.
The weather turned really bad starting from November 1st and it also started snowing in the mountains yet again, so this might have been the last chance for hiking this year.
If there is another chance, I'll go once more, obviously, but we'll see. :)


Hope you enjoyed the pictures!  

On my way back, I also was stuck in a traffic jam.
I just quickly refreshed, changed clothes and was off to a Halloween party.
Photos of that party will follow soon!


Thanks for reading.

Bye~chuu!~

Hello again!

I hope you all had a nice Halloween!
I've mostly recovered from my cold and as this was probably the very last weekend with nice weather for a long time, I needed to go outside no matter what.

I wasn't sure if I could handle a full-fledged hike yet, so I opted for a normal walk instead.

( Read more... )

It was also very quiet there, so I decided to stay there and have my lunchbreak.



Unfortunately I'm back on a bland diet due to my gut acting up yet again. This is a chronic disease I have and in October it was really bad. I had 2 weeks that weren't very good and one of those weeks I had to rely on a bland diet ....
I still have no idea what's going on and I've done so many examinations in the past ....
I'm just extremely worried now that it's getting more severe and happens more often ....... I'm worried that at some point I won't be able to take part in life properly anymore......
Until then, I just try to get the most out of it.

I've gotten used to do full-fledged hikes even when my gut hurts. I still can do it.

( Read more... )



I took way too many photos of the same scenery, but it was simply so stunning!

( Read more... )


Hope you all had a great weekend!
Today is a national holiday in Germany. The weather has become quite bad, so I'm glad I got out to enjoy the golden autumn a bit during the weekend.
Yesterday, I actually went hiking and afterwards to a Halloween party. Photos will follow soon.

Bye~chuu!~

Hello again

Sunday 2 weeks ago I finally did a highlight hike I wanted to do for quite a while already.
Actually, I wanted to do it during the week, cuz this area is super popular and if you go on a weekend, parking lots are gone before 9 a.m. or so I heard.
I wanted to try nevertheless. At least, it had snowed down to the lower peaks and it was rather cold, so I was just hoping that some people refrained from going for a hike.

Luckily, I found a parking lot, though it wasn't easy .....

And also ... this happened:

( Read more... )



You'll hike through the forest for quite a while (read: a few hours) until you finally get this stunning view onto the famous Walchensee.
That's also where I then had my lunch break.

( Read more... )



Autumn colors were also kicking in, so it was truly a lovely scenery.

( Read more... )


All in all a really lovely hike.
I'm glad I got to do it, but scratching my car was truly unnecessary ...... but that was my own fault, being so impatient....


This week has had awesome hiking weather as well. But as I'm still down with a heavy cold, I fear I'll miss out those last few chances of hiking this year. *sigh*

I wish you all a lovely weekend!
Stay healthy!

Bye~chuu!

Hi!

I promised to catch up. 2 weekends ago the weather was great, so I was out and about again.
On Saturday, October 16th, I decided to walk along the Osterseen (Easter Lakes) near Lake Starnberg.

I didn't go hiking because it was snowing down to 1000m on Wednesday so even the lowest peaks were snow-covered and I simply don't have the equipment for that ...



This has been on my list for quite a while, but rather for the winter months ... but oh well. :)
Isn't the mirror effect simply beautiful?

( Read more... )

Quite muddy these days, though. You always need to clean your shoes thoroughly afterwards....



And back where I began the trip. :)


I hope you enjoyed the photos!


Bye~chuu!~

Hello!

The depressing season has started, but I was happy to see that we got at least one last "golden autumn" weekend, so naturally I needed to make full use of that and went hiking - on both days. :)

As I wanted to do a tougher tour on Sunday, I picked a light route for Saturday.

( Read more... )

I then decided to prolong my tour to Stolzenberg. The trail was marked black which stands for very difficult.
Above you still see the easy trail.



The trail surely wasn't easy, but marking it black was an exaggeration in my opinion. :)
At least almost no people there anymore ... ^^



Beautiful view onto Spitzingsee.

( Read more... )


Hope you enjoyed this tiny, easy tour.
Next up my Sunday tour where I actually went over to Austria for another hiking experience.
Stay tuned.


I hope you all had a lovely weekend!~

Bye~chuu

Hi again!

I'm sorry, I'm so freaking behind everything.
I still haven't posted any of my Malta photos ... I'm so busy recently ... and on top of that the search for a new smartphone keeps me even busier.

Anyway, I'll try to catch up and will start with hiking photos from last Saturday.
It was also a good opportunity to test the new smartphone's camera in the setting I'll use it in mostly (namely mountain panorama).

I was out late on Friday night with co-workers, so I didn't get up too early and I also had to pack my stuff because I finally went back home for the weekend, but more about that in another post.
That's why I decided to do a tour that's pretty much on the way back home. :)



I already LOVE the ultrawide camera although it gets blurry towards the edges, but I've read that a lot of current uw cameras still have the same issue.

The trip started out at a small gorge with quite a few nice tiny waterfalls.

( more photos )



So for those of you who're interested, here are a few comparison photos.
On the left always the new one: Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G
On the right always the old one: Samsung Galaxy S7

No filters or editing was used on them.

( Read more... )






The S7 shows the true colors but because of it's small sensor it doesn't get enough light in, so in cloudy weather it does struggle.
A good camera would be in between those two, I guess.

I'm currently using GCam on the phone which can produce more natural looking photos but isn't as good as the standard camera app on the Samsung.
I've also ordered the OnePlus 8 Pro now ...... I did check out quite a lot of phones in a store, but OnePlus is only available online .....


Anyway, more photos coming soon. Also the Malta photos, hopefully! :)


Enjoy your weekend!

Bye~chuu!