Back in Bielefeld

Okay, finally I went back to Bielefeld, Germany. The big picture series is over for now. Thank you all for your attention. :)

Stroll in the area of The Ex

Having met Anonym/Padua for lunch in that area, I used the opportunity to stroll around the area of The Ex(hibition), an area where big exhibitions (as the name says) are held in Toronto. This is pretty close to where Cirque du Soleil took place in September. It was bitter cold there today, but equipped with my tube, my gloves and my hat I could resist the challenge of nature. :)

Here are the pictures.

McMichael Art Gallery

So finally Don and I went to the McMichael Art Gallery in Kleinburg, a bit northwest of Toronto. This is the place where a lot of work of the Group of Seven is displayed. The Group of Seven is the most famous group of Canadian artists, established at the beginning of the 20th century. Most of the pictures didn't do a lot for me, but some were very nice. I took pictures of those. Have a look.

The HUGE New York City package

Finally I was able to see New York City! Last week's wednesday I flew from Toronto to Newark, New Jersey where Brian whom I had met in San Francisco picked me up and brought me to his family's house in Morristown, New Jersey. There we stayed until friday morning, had a look at Morristown and saw the neighborhood.

On friday we took the train to New York City, Penn Station and took the subway to our guest house, the Chelsea Inn, a moderately priced slightly run-down place. From there we did our excursions to see Manhattan.

So here are the galleries:

Flight to Newark

Morristown and environment

Day 1 (friday): Midtown, 5th Avenue

Day 2 (saturday): Battery Park, Ground Zero etc.

Day 3 (sunday): Greenwich Village, East Village etc.

Day 4 (monday): Empire State Building etc.

It's tuesday, and I'm still in Morristown, will fly back to Toronto tonight.

This time you've got a HUGE load of pictures to look at, but I decided to put up as many nice pictures as possible to give you the best idea of my stay in NYC possible, so don't expect all of the pictures to be artsy, please.

[ADDON]

This is a tiny new album with pictures of Evergreen Cemetery in Morristown and some more pictures of Brian and me hanging out in Morristown.

Day trip to Buffalo with Don

Don whom I met at Starbucks one day when all I wanted to do is watching demos and showing them off took me on a day trip to Buffalo, New Jersey last monday, so we went. The city itself wasn't exactly thrilling, but we enjoyed seeing things and talking to the clerks at the mall. :)

Here are the pictures.

And some more of the surroundings you'll find in the places section.

Oink oink. :)

Niagara Falls

So I finally managed to see Niagara Falls. Too bad that the weather actually wasn't all that good. I went to see it with "Jojo Tours", and we were three people all in all. Funny, hm? Two girls from Australia were with me, young and innocent and very quiet.
Before seeing the falls, we went to see Niagara-on-the-Lake, a small town about half an hour away from the falls.
At the falls themselves, we did both the "Journey behind the Falls", which is basically not more than a pair of tunnels behind the tunnels, lots of noise and rumbling and water pouring down, and the "Maid of the Mist" boat tour, which turned out to be pretty wet, and the forces of the water were incredible.
At the end of the falls tour, we went to see Clifton Hill, a street very nearby that's called "Tacky Town", because it's so incredibly over the top. Just check Frankenburger, how bad is THAT?! :)

So here you go with the pictures.

Visit to Lucid and more pictures at night

The currently second biggest nightclub in Toronto is called "Lucid", and thanks to Brenda and Tony I was able to see it and take a pile of pictures of it. Have a look! Isn't that a great nightclub?

On my way home I took some pictures of Yonge Street and the St John Cemetery. You'll find the pictures at the end of the Lucid gallery.

Apart from that, MAKE BUNNY FOR HAPPY TIME!

Online via hotspot for the first time

For the first time I took my laptop downtown and used a hotspot to go online. Funny enough, I'm sitting in a starbucks store on Church Street in Toronto, which has no hotspot of its own, but there are around 5 unsecured hotspots around that we all here can use. So...we do. :)

Of course I watched demos here, and some people must have seen them. I've been talked to about them, and obviously people have never seen anything like them.

I also bought a new little pair of JVC headphones. They're sweet and have a great dynamic, even block some noise from outside. The only thing that's bothering me now are the two girls sitting next to me who have these intensive voices that get on my nerves a lot. For some reason, North American girls have a much more penetrating way to babble. :)

Three new galleries

Okay, I haven't been very eager updating my blog in the past days, but now here goes.

Gallery 1: Castro Street Fair in San Francisco
This street fair is not quite as big as Folsom, but more relaxed and very nice to see as well. Just the weather could've been a lot nicer. The clouds dove the whole day into an odd shine of grey, and when the fog rolled in around 4pm (as it usually does), Brian and I had to seek shelter in a café eventually and have something warm to drink.

Gallery 2: My flight back to Toronto
It might sound boring to you, and the first pictures of the airport show how boring the weather was, but when you see the pictures I took out of my airplane window, you'll see why it was worth asking the old couple next to me to stand up so I could get my camera out of my bag.

Gallery 3: My fifth stroll in Toronto
This time I paid attention to artsy things like sun reflections in skyscraper windows and other appearances that appealed to me. The sun gives situations and places a fantastic shine and glow in the mornings and afternoons these days.

Wishing you a good evening, I'll get back to work and write all the emails that are left to write after my San Francisco trip.

Golden Gate: Park and Bridge

It probably doesn't come as a surprise for you that I went to see the Golden Gate Park and Bridge, does it? Well, here are the pictures. :)

Suppenküche, Polk Street and Civic Center

And my day didn't stop after having seen Chinatown. Sean and Philip, two guys I had met at the pool party on saturday, went to have dinner at the Suppenküche with me. Nice place! Authentic and very good German food, and they have German beer sorts of all kinds there! You get Reißdorf Kölsch there, is THAT something? :)

After that, we went to have coffee at a place on Polk Street (where Margaret Cho grew up) and saw the Civic Center area by night. Beautiful!

Here are the pictures I took during the evening.

San Francisco - Chinatown

All I wanted was this computer keyboard with Kanji, Katagana or some Chinese signs on it. Or -- that would've been the best thing -- ALL of these things on every key! Tacky as can be! But -- alas -- I didn't get one. None of the computer stores had them. Out of stock. Great.

BUT

I was able to take some pictures of Chinatown and tried some Dim Sun buns. Odd food, but good. I could do without the occasional bone in the bun though.

Anyway, here are the pictures I took today. :)

Stroll in San Francisco: South of Market Street and ocean beach

Finally I took some time to have a closer look at the area of San Francisco that's called "South of Market" and at the beach. South of Market (also called "Soma") was interesting, but more in a negative way. There is a HUGE amount of homeless people, and you're asked for change on almost every corner. No violence, but the poverty shows clearly.

Having walked from Powell station back to the Castro, I took the MUNI (one of San Francisco's subway systems) to the ocean beach and relaxed there. The weather wasn't exactly good, but the sand was warm, and I loved to feel it between my toes while I was writing diary.

These are the pictures I took today.

Folsom Street Fair 2004

Okay, it finally happened. Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco! I attended it, and this is how it looked to me.

Pool party - Road pictures

Yoohoo, not only was I allowed to take Gene's Z3 to a pool party on saturday that I was SO lucky to be invited to, but I could take a couple of pictures of Divisadero Street in San Francisco and the things I could see from there.

Downtown San Francisco

Last night I went downtown to meet Scott and to take some pictures of the neighborhood. Pretty big and consume-oriented, but just a few streets further you see all sorts of weird people not only begging for money but obviously being totally messed up drug addicts.

Oh, and also see these two pictures of the funky pink bike that we saw on Castro Street and me having fun with it. :)

FINALLY San Francisco!

WOOHOOO! HERE I AM! San Francisco has come my way, and believe me, this city IS beautiful! Gene is such a caring warm-hearted man! Wanna see some pictures?

This morning Jay, Brit, Gene (whose place I'm staying at) had breakfast at "The Cove", as you can see here.

Even before I could stroll around, Gene and I went to a big warehouse called "Costco" to buy junkfood for 800$ to feed volunteers of the Folsom Street Fair with. This is how it looked.

Also I did my first strolls around the gay neighborhood yesterday and today. Shopping, shopping, shopping, while everybody else seems to be cruising, cruising, cruising.

I'll call Jay now to see where we'll have dinner.

More additions from recent Toronto excursions

At the end of the collection of things I've seen you will find some more pictures, including another Germish-weird Mercedes advertisement.
Additionally, you can also check out Lettieri's (coffee store) model of the month, Mr. Andreas Björnson, and John and Larry, two very nice guys I met at the Black Eagle on sunday.

San Francisco is coming up

Today Jay, Brit and I will fly to San Francisco. So expect a load of fresh pictures in the next days. I hope (but think) I will have internet access down there, and I can't wait to see this city!

Breath visible

Ladies and gentlemen,
it looks as if autumn has finally come. When I opened the house door this morning to pick up the newspaper, I could see my breath in the air. Temperatures have apparently fallen, and I'm not sure whether taking my shorts to San Francisco next week actually is a good idea, but nevertheless I will do that. You never know.

Welcome, Mr. Autumn, please step in and give me opportunity to wear all these fabulous clothes that weather has been a lot too warm for until now. :)

Some additions

Being out and walking around today, I took a couple of new pictures of this and that. You can see them at the end of the PLACES section.

Also, yesterday Andi and I met at Timothy's on Queen Street. This is what you might see when you sit in there and watch everybody go by.

Andi, Anja and the flood light blossoms

Yesterday after my CN Tower tour I met Andi at Starbucks on Church Street. We had agreed to meet there, because he is visiting from Germany and wanted to have some ideas what to do in Toronto. So we met and went shopping. What fun and what a great break from my gay overdose from the last weeks! Today we met again and went out for dinner and some drinks with Anja, the friend he's visiting. Pictures of Andi you can see here and here, pictures of our night out are right here.

And that's not all for today. On my way back home, I came by St. John's church and found these beautiful flood light blossoms, LOOK!

Now I can get some sleep, lucky me. :)

CN Tower

Well okay, I HAD to see it: The CN Tower, the tallest building in the world. At least that is what everybody who goes there is told. I remember something about a taller building (being?) built in Taiwan or somewhere around that. But anyway, these are the pictures I took from the platform.

Not always sunny

September has arrived, and it seems like weather is changing big time these days. All of a sudden, wearing shorts is not such a good idea any more most of the time. And it has rained quite often, ever since I arrived here, but these days rain has increased, and additional wind doesn't make it all a lot better. And this is what the gay village looks like when it's raining in the morning. Not a very pleasant sight, is it?

Cirque du Soleil with Paul

On saturday I saw Cirque du Soleil, "Alegría" to be precise, and I was able to see it because Paul asked me if I wanted to come along with his mother and two friends of his. Trusting him and having heard almost nothing about it, I instantly agreed to go with them, and -- believe me -- this was the most amazing show I have seen in a long time. Alegría is so graceful, so beautiful, so colourful, so full of emotions, precision and fantasy that I couldn't stop staring, even forgetting when to applaud.

If you ever get the chance to see it, you MUST NOT SAY NO!

Paul did such a great thing in asking me, it is incredible!

I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but these are the people I went to see it with. And here you have a slight idea of what the stage looked like.

And I've got a new friend. Oink oink.

St. Lawrence Market

Yesterday I strolled around at St. Lawrence Market, a big place to buy groceries, which is downtown, somewhere between Front Street East and King Street East.

Have a look here.

Mike's 40th birthday

Now what do you know? Chris -- whom I had met during Jamboree -- took me to the Mike's 40th birthday party. Mike is the husband of one of Chris' uncountable cousins, Liz, and we had so much fun! Unbelievable! Chris has such a caring family!

have a look here.

Fourth stroll around in Toronto

I figured that with the computeraffen gallery alone, it might be pretty hard to figure out which galleries have recently been updated, so I'll try telling you recent updates here from now on.

A couple of funny things I saw just walking around, so you might like to have a look here.

and the correct version of the "wish: please bring a pet's excrement home"-engrish.com-picture here.

Otherwise, I did my fourth stroll around in Toronto today, and the pictures I considered worth taking (a lot of university buildings this time) are here.

Have fun. :)

Back from "Jamboree" camp

After around four days of Jamboree camp, organized by Out & Out Toronto, we're back home in Toronto, and my gallery of pictures I took there you'll find here.

People were very friendly, and the fact that I helped with the food helped me get to know all of the campers in around a day. Incredible. Ever go somewhere and don't know how to get in touch with people? Get a position to help the organizers! :)

Grandstream Handytone-486

Es ist zum Brechen, wirklich. Seit Wochen schlage ich mich mit diesem Scheißgerät von Grandstream herum. Handytone-486, ein VoIP-Adapter. Supersache, das Ding.

An diesem Scheißgerät hat bislang wirklich GAR nichts richtig funktioniert. Man sollte nach den Anleitungen, die man bei grandstream.com und sipgate.de ziehen kann, einfach das Netzwerkkabel reinstecken, seine DSL- und VoIP-Daten eingeben und gut.

Nix da. Der Rotz funktioniert mal GAR nicht, und es hat jedes Mal einen anderen Grund. Mal wählt er sich einfach nicht ein, mal tut er das, dann sind aber Telefonmenü und Internet nicht erreichbar. Dann wiederum ist mal einfach die IP-Adresse so verdreht, dass man nicht mehr ins Web-Konfigurationsmenü kommt.

Ganz ganz toll gemacht, liebe Leute. Wirklich GANZ großartig.

Damit hätte ich, weil der Händler meint, nur weil in Abu-Dhabi sitzt, müsste er mein Widerrufsrecht als Verbraucher nicht anerkennen, mittlerweile ZWEI Adapter hier rumliegen, die allesamt nicht das machen, was sie sollen.

Zudem ist der Support von Sipgate die letzte Pisse. Natürlich hat Sipgate als VoIP-Anbieter KEINE Telefonhotline. Wofür auch. Statt dessen haben die guten Leute einen Emailsupport eingerichtet. Gut, dass von dreien meiner Emailanfragen nur zwei beantwortet wurden, das wiederum auch erst nach 2-3 Tagen und dass eine Antwort davon nur eine Gegenfrage war, auf deren Antwort nichts mehr kam, sollte mich ja nicht so interessieren.
Ist halt nur etwas scheiße, dass man richtig Geld auf den Tisch legt, damit am Ende trotzdem nichts funktioniert. Wofür sollte Sipgate auch einen Support anbieten, wenn man sie doch bezahlt.

Ich sehe mich also trotz der ganzen Rotze schon in Toronto sitzen, ohne dass irgendwas von diesem VoIP-Scheißdreck funktioniert.

So hab ich mir das vorgestellt.

Guten Morgen, Blog

Das hier wird also mein Blog.

Herrlich.

NICHT herrlich dagegen ist die Tatsache, dass heute -- wie jeden Mittwoch -- ein Pausentag für meine Klausuren ist. Einen Tag rumsitzen, herrlich.