Christmas Markets

IT'S THIS TIME OF THE YEAR! The time when you count down the days until the holidays, start shopping for Christmas gifts, it starts getting icy outside and the Christmas Markets open.

I love Christmas Markets because they feel like such a nice and festive place to walk around (unless it's obstructively filled with hundreds of people and you can't even move). Geo and I have had the fun to explore the Christmas Market of  Leeds for two weekends now and this weekend added the Manchester one to the list. I have been missing this German festive treat for years, while Geo haven't seen one until this year! So it was my pleasure to walk along the stalls with him and spend loads of money (maybe not as much pleasure) of delicious food that made me nostalgic and that I really wanted him to try (yes this was the most pleasure). He was amazing in being happy to try all the things I suggested ranging from Bratwurst (German grilled sausage) and potatoes to Mulled wine and candied almonds. He even seemed to like everything so that was super great as well.

Comparing the two, the German Christmas Market in Leeds (as implied by the name) is more focused on German food and products, but you can still find the occasional random stall like Crepes, Churros or Fudge. It is also far smaller than the Manchester one with about 20 stalls. However I would not say that it is a disadvantage, in my opinion it makes the market a lot more homey.

On the other hand the European Christmas Market is HUGE and as equally as the name implies more versatile. I did love it and due to its variety we did find new dishes to try and enjoy. I was especially excited about our find of the Flammkuchen (thin pastry baked with sour cream, bacon, onion and cheese *yum* I know) as it is like one of my favourite things. But I must say that even though we did spend a lot more time at the Manchester Christmas Market exploring all the stalls and trying some of the most appealing dishes, it did not seem as festive as the Leeds one, mostly due to the huge chaos in the crowds. It was still amazing though and I can't wait to visit it again!

-KK

PS. More pictures are coming in a separate post.
(Just because we didn't transfer them from the DSLR)

Gear

Bragging

I like technology, tis nice. 

So I decided to share/brag the tools that Ksen and  I use to run this blog. 

Firstly my beautifully elegant late 2015 MacBook Pro with retina display. Which I'm currently typing this post with. Random review of this product, it's nice. SSD is always a delight, the nice display is good for the eyes the keyboard is just perfect. Summary, I like.

Second, my phone, the Galaxy S7 edge. For this blog, the occasional photo will taken by it. Other than that it's just another smart phone really.

Third, my beautiful newest member of the family, the Canon EOS 700d. It's not been one since I started using DSLRs, but the 700d was quite a bargain. 650d was released not too long ago, then 750d was released quite early too. So the price of the 700d just plummeted down. Yay for me. 

Now for Ksen's gear.

Her problem causing laptop, the HP Spectre X360. So many problems here and there. Setting it up was quite drama filled. Now it works fine-ish (the webcam doesn't work but meh...) so that's always nice. 

We won't talk about Ksen's phone, tis a sin this product.

Her camera is the old but sorta reliable EOS 300d. It was mine, but I have lent it to her in hopes that she'll take photos with me and I won't feel bad when I stop to take pictures in public. Yay me. 

Well that's that. Nothing fancy, but very dear to us (except Ksen's phone). 

End of bragging. 

-GK

A long time ago in a country far far away...

Ksenia being interested in lotuses (yay bio)
and Geo using the chance to hold her hand.

...we met at the International School Ho Chi Minh City in grade 10 beginning of 2014. Just after a few days of knowing each other Geo invited me to his birthday party (not by choice, more out of politeness, sorry to disappoint you believers in love from first sight). We became friends and over the course of a year of better and better friendship and mutual understanding, our feelings developed.
The magic bond was officially made on the 30.01.2015 and i will spare you my cheesy side of the story. I am very happy with the way it has turned out (and hope Geo is too *cough cough*) and it will always stay a warm and funny memory of that evening's emotional roller coaster (not even the T-express can beat it).
Approaching the relationship at a slow but curious pace we have first held hands a week into our relationship on the day the picture you see on the right was taken. Spending most our time together in school, our relationship was based on conversation, which is think gave us a good and solid base for further development. It is also useful to have a similarly fast pace of walking compared to the rest of our group of friends, this way we always ended up next to each other and at one point our hands found each other.

-KK

Bonfire Night

04.11.16

So, time for the first memory. Many pop to mind, but as my not so deeply lingering laziness is exposed I will stick with the more easily available pictures, hence ones of the more recent events. On one of my weekends in Leeds, to be exact on Friday the 4th of November 2016 Geo and I went to see the bonfire and fireworks in celebration of the UK Bonfire Night. Linked to some weird historical occurrences that even after multiple explanation events from Geo and Wikipedia I don't understand, the main point of the night is to watch a huge bonfire which is followed by some less impressive, but still very pretty fireworks. And when I say huge, I mean HUGE. By approximately stacking peoples silhouettes in my mind I would assume the fire to be around 10 meters high, which if you think about it is a 3 story house.  Being used to ordinary scouting bonfires of no more than 2 meters high, I was immensely impressed, and I think Geo was too as he seemed to be happy that we dragged ourselves out of the room into the cold evening.

-KK

Lighten by the bonfire
 (No my eyes aren't actually red)

The uneven border at the bottom of the
fire are actually shadows from people's heads!