Gourmet in Germany!

Cooked and photographed by me!

Spring 2011!

First entry of the year! Seems like i can only manage to come up with one entry per season. Far from the 1 per 2 days i managed in my first blog. Been really busy with all the weekly challenges throughout the semester and the exams during my holidays. There is simply no time to write like before when you need to spend 3 hours trying to solve 1 part of the assignment. Did make me feel pretty stupid at times but after a while, i realised its just the norm. I've been too hard on myself.

So March 2011, spring is back, flowers are blooming, sun is shining. Perfect time for cycling! Haven't been able to do much since i don't party, so i was either studying, cooking, watching Scrubs, amazing race (finished 2 seasons in 2 da

ys) or cycling. Strangely, watching amazing did give me a feeling that i was back home. After being here for sometime already, the desire to lug around my SLR has diminished so now i go around with my mulitfunctional 2 megapixel HTC

tattoo. Yup all the photos from this post is from my phone =)

Its just amazing how easy it is to bring your bike onto the train, travel down to Blackforest, ride up the mountains, and speed back down and back in Karlsruhe, all within a matter of 5 hours. And the best part of it, i didn't have to pay a single cent. It was awfully fun even though the Black forest mountains are not as high or pretty as those in the Alps, but the opportunity to cycle through nature on my baby is really priceless.

Tried one trail on my own last tuesday, it was one hell of a ride. Took me more than 2 hours of continous cli

mb at around 7 degrees gradient. As i slowly crawl to the highest point of the trail, 700m above starting poin

t, i couldn't help but notice how the landscape changes. First it got colder, then windier, then some snow on the side of the path, then some snow on the path and path totally covered by snow. Soon after, it became snow and trees across the path. So after 14 km of gruelling climb, i found myself standing infront of what looked like an obstacle course (one of the pics). Didn't want to give up so easily since it took so much effort to get to the top, but after scaling over 6 fallen trees with the bike on my back, snow in my shoes and god knows how many scratches on my leg from

the branches of the fallen christmas trees (yeah i was in shorts), i decided that it would be a wiser choice to turn back before it gets colder and darker. The way back down was freaking awesome. I don't think there is a better word for it. Trip down took just 15 mins. Honestly, 2 hours of hell for 15 mins of fun wasn't quite worth it, but didn't and couldn't think much about it when i was coming down at 60km/h down the gravel roads. Thats what i call travelling in europe!