In Spain: Malaga, Nerja and Granada

I am in Spain now for five days.. yes five days, times seem to fly by... however we still have more than two weeks to go until we fly home ;) We arrived in Malaga on Sunday evening and still 34 degrees in the city. We stayed over at Picasso`s corner, a really nice Hostel with a big personal touch in the heart of Malaga close to everything, the sights, the restaurants and bars and the beach. Trying to get used to the heat we also hold our Siesta and spend some time visiting the city and the beach brrr the sea was colder than expected but also thus a real refreshment. It was my second time in Malaga and a nice visit.
Then we headed off to Nerja with our rented car a red five door Fiat Panda (hope the car does not fulfill its brand promise of breaking down ;) ). Nerja was definitely a highlight with its charming little streets, an amazing view from Balcon de Europe on the sea and if you not going to the main beach, small and not crowed beaches with lots of locals around. We spend two nice days there, enjoying the beach and the sun and the not to hot climate there. The city is not so touristic, but nearly all tourists are from the UK.... most of them looking like lobsters from the sun and the density of British Pubs and places to eat is quite high.

Today then car ride to Granada, pretty easy, not much traffic and even the city traffic not as bad as expected. The city is charming and has this amazing mixture of culture styles. Lots of arabic shops an be found in the little streets... which makes us think of doing a day trip to Morocco from Tarifa later on... soo many nice things you could buy ;) up to now we resisted tough, saving our money for the beach and surf shops in Tarifa.

I am pretty relaxed now and enjoy my holidays to the max and especially the style of holiday we choose.. not the typical one hotel for the whole time one... seeing different things, doing what we like and having a good time!

Our next stops will be Sevilla ( 1 day), Chipiona / Cadiz ( 3days), white village tour with Ronda (1-2 days) and Algeciras...

more news on that later on..

enjoy the summer, whereever you are at the moment and relax a bit

Zurich, Golf and leaving for my holidays

Long time no updates. Exactly a week ago I came back to Zurich and spent a really nice week here. On Friday I was in Bern enjoying Marzilli, the sun and a really nice wedding BBQ from Zuzka and Sam. The next day we got up early (6 am) to drive to the golf club in Gonten were Fabian and me did the rules and etikette course and the exam. We both passed. Fabian also has the 'Platzreifepruefung' and can now officially play on the golf course. I did some practicing and had a pro class and did more practicing over the next three days, as we came back to Gonten again and stayed there. So I spent some really nice and relaxing days at the country side, in the fresh air and with some excercise... I never believed that you can sweat so much by practicing some golf.. ;) We also had nice dinners with Fabian's parents and a little shopping tour.

Yesterday, I did some more shopping, as I still was missing an outfit for my cousin's wedding mid August in Italy (lake Garda). As it starts a day after I return from my Spain holiday it became really urgent.
Today evening I will spend a last wonderful evening with Fabian before I leave for my holiday tomorrow. We go to the Orange Cinema in Zurich, good movie, view to the lake :D

Tomorrow morning I have to pack, get on the train to Tyrol again and on Sunday my sister and me leave to fly to Malaga and to three weeks of heat, sun, cities and beaches in Spain.

Hasta luego amigos!

Talk to you soon

back in Tyrol - home again?

Since last Thursday I am back in Tyrol at my parents place. It seems like a curse, everytime I went home this year we had bad weather ;). So 3/4 of the clothes in my suitcase are still clean... as they are summer clothes and too cold to wear - which on the other side is good as I don't have to wash them. Today, after cold days and a lot of rain the sun is slowely coming out.

Every time I am going back to Tyrol, I feel a bit weird and every time I get like a smal culture shock again. Back at my parents place, where my twin sister still lives (well she works in a school just 10 minutes away and we have a really huge house... she has like her own apartment in the house) and for the time being also my younger sister, I often feel like a different person, with different habits and often also thrown back into my old habits, behaviors and 'old' me again.

For example, I eat differently, I am hungry at different times of the day, I eat more sweets as my parents have always chocolate, ice cream or cake in the house. I never buy a bar of chocolate for myself in Switzerland and except ice cream I hardly stock sweets in the flat.
I also feel differently walking down the main road in the city. I have to be attentive and look more at who is also walking there as I could pass by someone I know from school and it is rude if you don't say hi. In Zurich I enjoy the anonymity of the city, move freer, don't care so much about what other people think who see me.

I also always feel torn coming back, ask myself the question where do I belong to, where is my home? I am Austrian by birth but inside me there is a mix of Austrian, Irish and Swiss culture now. At the moment I live in Zurich and I love living there. Seeing pictures of Dublin and Ireland again, my heart says go there and feel the vibe of the city again. Back in Tyrol, I enjoy the calmness and the quietness of the place. Nearly no noise, no trams passing by the house, nature all around me. I enjoy evenings with my oldest friends here, chatting about life, where it leads us to, about love, men and other things. Just for the moment it feels not right for me to stay here and live my whole life here.

In the last days, I emptied my room in my parents house, so my sister can use it, as I am anyway just there for some weekends and 1 week visits. It hurted to empty it, go through all the stuff which accumulated over years, to throw things away and back everything into boxes. Parts of it I move to Zurich mid August, parts of it stays in the house in a storage room.
And my mum did not really make it easier for me. She was shocked seeing me packing my stuff and seeing me moving out - as she says. Well I said to her, I moved out 2 years ago actually, when I moved to Innsbruck. She said then, yes but I always hoped that you move in again. I answered, I am 24, I will not move in again.
It breaks my heart to see her suffer, everytime on the platform of the train station when I leave she nearly has tears in her eyes.

Still I have to live my life and do what is good for me. At the moment this is living in Zurich, starting a new job there. Moving back to Tyrol now and living here would make me very sad at the moment, as it is just not the life I feel like living now.

It is..

shocking. Shocking, how things happening in the world affect you as a person. I travelled from Zurich to Schwaz - my hometown in Tyrol - today and as I arrived I heard about the bombings in London. Watching TV, different types of news. Wondering, is everybody I know there ok? A friend of mine wanted to fly to London this evening. A long planned weekend trip to visit a friend there. Finally she cancelled her weekend and stayed here, no refund from Ryan Air though as Stansted is not in London and the airport is ok... welll.... We went out for dinner tonight, my sister, her and me.

Talking about our lives and of course about what happened today in London and the world leaders' response to it. What really made us angry is what they said, especially Bush... they officially condemn killing of innocent people and thus the attacks.. but killing innocent people.. yes this happens all the time in Africa, because they have no food, no water, live in poverty and with today's politics of our world leaders you can also call this killing innocent people...

I also did not like the statement: 'the war against terroism continues'... eye for eye, tooth for tooth... striking back again Mr. Bush? Isn't it? A vicious cycle, biting in the dog's tail? If we continue like that.. world war three is maybe not as far as we think...

Sounds of a Sax

as I have now eight weeks of holidays unitl my new job starts, I sat down yesterday and wrote a list of things I want to do in these eight weeks... the list became quite long and has several categories. One goal of my free weeks is to get fit again and loose my MC kilos I put on especially in the last 4 months. Although I was subscribed to a gym the whole year from March on I did not make it to go there twice a week as I am used to for the last years... well this shows.. so now is the time to get fit and healthy again. My goal is to do some sports every day now - either jogging, walking or swimming. I also stormed the supermarket today and filled the fridge with healthy vegies, all sort of fruits and bought myself a book with healthy low calorie recipies. So here we go!

Yesterday I started with jogging in a park next to Fabian's flat - for those who know Irchel Park in Zurich. It is a nice not to big park with a special running track with really soft underground and a lake in the middle. I managed 20 minutes of running without stopping or getting out of breath, which I did not expect.. I thought I was more out of shape.. and afterwards some sit-ups and weight training in the flat... today I felt the muscle I trained ;) but nevertheless I went for a run today at half past eight in the evening.

The nice warm summer air was really inviting and in the park there were some people finishing off their BBQs, kids playing in the grass and a cool small band. Three young guys, two with drums and one with a sax were playing a jam session next to the lake. So nice Jazz music accompanied my run. 20 minutes again, 5 minutes power walking.

Afterwards I just had to sit next to the lake and listen to the music, listen to the rather silent summer air (although I was in the middle of Zurich) and enjoying myself. The sound of the sax just set the right atmosphere to relax, enjoy life and summer and think who lucky I am to sit here and do what I am doing at the moment.

I love summer in Zurich, the music, the smell, the taste... lot more time to go!

More points on my list to fulfill ;)