～Out of Ginnungagap～

Black and white

2009-11-07T23:06:59Z

Since I was somewhat unhappy with the way my camera captures colors on some pics, I thought about turning some photos into B/Ws, with some great results. Here's my 2 favourites so far:

Not bad....

2009-10-23T19:42:02Z

I usually get up to the last level, and most of the time I fail there. XD The islands always kill me. But hey, if they tell me to find an island called "Bouvet Island, Norway", I expect it to be near Norway, and not south-west of Africa, lol.

Hike No 14 (Siebengebirge) - A Morning in the Mountains

2009-10-16T18:46:36Z

No 13
Date: October 8th
Weather: fog, then sun, somewhat cool
Location: Siebengebirge, Germany
Starting point: Rosenauer Weg
Destination: Weilberg
Via: Nonnestromberg, Stenzelberg
Destination reached: Yes.
Walked Distance: approx. 12 km (7.5 miles)
Duration: 5:00 hours
Treasures found: none
Blisters: one

I had a daring plan for this hike, wanted to be in the mountains at sunrise. Even though I managed to get up at 5:30 am, I didn't quite make it though, I reached my starting point at roughly 8:00, when sunrise was scheduled for 7:45 am (which didn't matter much though). I still needed 2 autumn pics for my treeseasons series, and I hoped to catch them with a nice soft morning light. Imagine my shock when I left the bus and was standing in thick white fog. There was no sun, so sky and no soft morning light. This was not what the weatherforecast promised me!

Somewhat grumbling, I began my ascend. Much to my happiness, after 20 the fog had cleared completely. (And I would later realize what had caused this miracolous change in weather.) And I could just see the morning sun creeping up behind the hills.

Ignore bluriness. Seems I couldn't hold the cam still here.

A bit later I reached my first target, the meadow at the slopes of the Petersberg. The meadow still lay in the shadow of sorrounding mountains and was soaked in morning dew.

Only the peaks of the western mountains were illuminated by the early sunlight. A couple of rather huge birds flew high above the hills, probably buzzards or goshawks.
And there was a beautiful moon as well.

Sadly, the tree I wanted to take my autumn pic of wasn't, unlike many other trees, very autumn-like at all. I guess I'll have to wait another few weeks.

So I decided to skip the second tree as well and instead went towards a hill called Nonnenstromberg, which was still missing in my collection of climbed peaks anyway.

The ascent was moderate and not too long, since I already mastered half of it by reaching the meadow below.

Hmmm. A Pile of Rocks.

And a bit of a view.

And then time to go down again.
It was still early in the morning when I decended from Nonnenstromberg again and made my way towards the Stenzelberg. The sun, still low in the sky, finally gave me the "autumn mood" I had hoped for.

Making my way up to the Stenzelberg wasn't difficult at all, and after a while I reached the a clearing on the "peak" and was offered an amazing, rather unexpected view.

The peak of the Stenzelberg was actually a plateau of naked rock. Well not entirely naked, as there were trees growing on top, but nevertheless, it was a huge piece of vertical rock, beautifully illuminated by the morning sun.

It's amazing, even after a year of hiking in these hill, you can still find new, astonishingly beautiful places like this.
I began to scramble up to the rocks, which probably extended for 200 metres as far as I could see, and were probably 10 metres or more in height.

Good place for a pic of myself.

Then I went to the far side of the rocks.

There I found a single wedge-shaped rock reaching up into the morning sky.

The sun hadn't reached here so far. I shall come back some other time for better light.

A view up.

Towards the west, I could see down in the valley, and I finally realized, why there had been fog when I started my journey.

It was a damn cloud! Yes, there were clouds lingering in the valley below and the reason why the fog cleared so quickly after I began to ascend was simple: I had climbed above it. So while the people down there couldn't even see the sun, I was here and enjoyed beautiful weather!

I kept handling along the rocks as close as I could, which was pretty difficult at times, but I was hopeful that there was some way up to the top of the plateau. And there was, although it included a good amount of scrambling and almost killed my already damaged shoes. The huge number of acorns lying around didn't make things easier either, because on the steep slopes they would start to roll below your soles. But I made it up and it was worth it.

Small path ontop the plateau with the edge on the left.

I didn't dare to go to close to the edge, because, well, one wrong step would mean a rather unpleasent and possibly fatal plunge.

View from top of the plateau towards west.

The "dark" side of the rocks seen from the top.

There was some rusty barbed-wire, rather unskillfully placed, and it wasn't really clear what it was supposed to do anyway: prevent people from entering the inner part of the plateau or prevent people from going to close to the edges. Because it did neither really well. All it did was scare me to death when I stumbled over a hidden part of it. Finally I left the plateau and resumed my journey.

Somewhere here I heard the peculiar cry of a bird, very close nearby, but I could't find the bird that was producing the sound.
Back home I searched some internet database though, and I think found the bird in question:
It was some kind of buzzard, apparently.

Listen here:

It was some kind of buzzard, apparently.

Now I took a longer rest, mostly because I wanted to avoid a large hiking group of elderly people that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Then I lefte The Stenzelberg and reached the road with thus bus station where I ended my journey last time, this time however, I moved on to my final target, the Weilberg.

Having fun with my shadow.

For some reason I made a full circle around the Weilberg, which was rather unnecessary, since I actually wanted to go inside it. At least I had a nice view over the the Ölberg.

Then I finally found the "entry" to the Weilberg, which was basically a larger version of the quarry I found ontop the Ölberg.

I was too lazy to combine this into a panorama pic. Use your imagination. ;)

The cliffs werer probably 20metres high, those peculiar large birds I saw before were flying on top of it, and there was a small lage in the middle. A very nice closure to a very nice trip and certainly another place that warrants a second visit.

I rested for a while and then went back to the bus station, going home.

Hike No 13 (Siebengebirge) - Enchanted Places

2009-09-23T16:42:00Z

No 13
Date: September 7th
Weather: sunny & warm
Location: Siebengebirge, Germany
Starting point: Margarethenhöhe
Destination: Some train station.
Via: Größer Ölberg
Destination reached: Yes.
Walked Distance: approx. 10 km (6.2 miles)
Duration: 4:00 hours
Treasures found: none
Blisters: none

Main objective for this trip was to climb the highest peak of the Siebengebirge, the "Large Mount of Olives" (Größer Ölberg - which of course has no Olives anywhere near), 460m (1,500 feet) high. Lying on the outer skirts of the Siebengebirge, climbing the peak from Rhine-level on would have been a bit much, so I took the bus right up to the foot of the mountain. I left the bus, turned into the forest and basically started to ascend right away. Beautiful weather, beautiful forest. Ugly, ugly ascent.

It was a short, but violent ascend of roughly half an hour when I reached a pass that, as I discovered later, lead in a full circle around the peak. I went left to a small place with bench to rest. Between the trees you yould see the Dragonrock in a distance. Other than that, the view was not very impressive. Too many trees in the way.

From there I went the last few meteres to the peak. Again, there wasn't much of a view, only a few glimpses between the trees. On the peak, there's a rstaurant and presumable you have a better view from their terace, but there were constructions going on, so I couldn't enter. I guess I have to come back another time for my view.
I left the peak and followed the pass around the peak. The steepness of the slopes to my side was quite impressive. It doesn't translate well into photos, but this one gives you a rough idea:

I reached a clearing at the slopes with another bench. And I found something interesting: from the clearing there was a very small path leading away from the slope on a rock outcrop.

Now that was adventurous! The outcrop was hardly 2 meters broad, the path itself even smaller, and to both sides there was surely 20 meters of almost vertical slopes.

Pic below: the view back to the clearing with the bench. Notice the steep descent to the left. It was even steeper to the right, right after the trees, it was just... going down.

It was worth the small spike of adrenalin though. From the top of the outcrop I finally had my long-awaited view.

Semi-fail panorama photo.

After leaving the outcrop I followed the path around the peak, when I noticed something strange between the trees. It looked like some huge rocky cliff. I left the path and went down a rather thorny route up to the shore of a small lake. Opposite of it there was a huge, vertical wall of rock. It was a great view and the photo doesn't really do it justice.

I strayed around a bit and finally found a small path that lead me nearer to the rocks. This route seemed to be seldomely used and was partially overgrown with thorny and stingy plants, but I made it. I found myself in what was almost some sort of cauldron, apparently an old quarry, partially filled with water. The vertical wall of rocks, surely 20 metres high, seems to be the peak of the whole hill itself - as if someone just chopped of half of the peak and left some huge bricks of basalt lying at its foot.

The pile of rocks looked kinda delicate, as if they would come down any minute, giving me the second spike of adrenalin in half an hour.

The small lake that filled up the lower part of the quarry was of a circular shape, and of a dark, almost black-ish color, making it look like the entrance into some deep, mysterious underworld. Dragonflies chased over the lake and were about the only sound you could hear.

Note the hexagon-shaped basalt bricks to the right.

From there I went to one of the upper ridges of the cauldron and made this attempt at a panaroma photo. Note the "chopped-off" peak on the left and the deep black color of the lake.

At this point I was no longer sad at the lack of far-reaching views on the trip so far. This place was much more gorgeous!
But it was time to continue. I returned to my path and finally concluded the trip around the peak and began to descend.

A look behind. See the mountain ascending steep from left to right.

I walked on for about an hour over a hill called "Wasserfall" ("Waterfall"). Which, I might add, was a blatant case of false adertising. There was not water anywhere near, let alone a waterfall!

There were however some exciting slopes, descending to a street some 40-50 meters below.

The grey-ish thing far down below is said road.

My next peak (a small one) was called Rosenau. Like many other peaks around it sported the remains of a medieval castle. There wasn't much left of it (it was basically part of a corkscrew stair leading up to a small turret) and it was heavily overgrown, giving the whole place a very enchanted feel.

Time for a auto-shoot pic!

After leaving Rosenau I walked on for another hour or so. There would have been another peak to climb but I was too tired. Finally I reached a street with a bus station. I pondered to go on a bit, but when I saw that the next bus was going in exacly 1 minute, I decided to take it. It took me back to the next station and I took the train back to Cologne.

This was quite an unexpected journey. Since I climbed the highest peak I had expected some spectecular views, but instead I found some gorgeous, beautiful and unexpected places. I'll certainly return here some day.

I hate computers

2009-09-19T12:25:57Z

I hate computers. At least I hate mine. The amount of time, energy and nerves this piece of crap had cost me the last few months just isn't funny anymore.

A chronology of horrors:

- for several months already the display if flickering like crazy. It's hurting my eyes, and changing the monitor doesn't help either. It's some kind of problem with the graphics card. At first it was only the first few minutes after switching it on. Now it's permanent and I have to switch to a lower resolution to make it bearable. And I still wonder why I'm becoming increasingly short-sighted?
- it crashes all the time for no apparent reason at all.
- For about half a year, out of 3 components (TV card, sound card network card) only 2 work simultanously. It sounds crazy but it's true. This gives me 3 options: Internet + sound, but no TV (which is what I'm using now), Tv + sound, but no internet (which I installed as 2nd hardware profile, so I have to restart to use it and then restart again, when I want to go online again), and TV + Internet, but no sound (which is entirely useless, unless I watch silent movies).
- Since a few weeks, my computer isn't recognizing 2 out of 3 external HDs anymore. It's not a problem of the hard drives, they're fine, it's my computer. Of course one of them has all my music, which I miss dearly. I just slavaged a tiny portion of it unto the third and oldest HD, which is still working, via a friend's computer.
- I got some nasty malware recently. Well, that's my fault of course. When my HD stopped working, I thought it was a disc failure and I became careless when pirating some data rescue programmes, trying to get my data back. A took me a week to get rid of all the nasty stuff.
- Firefox is crashing permanently.

And now, the highlight. Yesterday, windows stopped working alltogether. It did start and all that, and then it would just stop and shut down again to the log-in screen. And again and again. Safe mode, system restore, even re-installing windows wouldn't help. The only option was to reformat C: and make a fresh install. But there is too much important data on that drive, so I removed it from my computer and replaced it with some old 20GB-HD I had lying around, reinstalled windows there and the most important programmes, which took me a whole day.

On the bright side: with a fresh windows the computer is fast again, and firefox no longer crashing. The display is still flickering though and it still doesn't regognize most of my external hard drives, including my old internal drive when installed as external, so until I can salvage the data via another PC, I'm without my data, setting, bookmarks, passwords etc. Sigh.

If all goes well, I should be able to buy a new comp in November. I can't wait, seriously. Any more with this old piece of shit, and I'm going crazy.

Selling stuff

2009-08-13T23:07:11Z

I have already been able to sell some of my Jrock stuff I don't want anymore, but maybe I can find someone for my leftover as well... :`D

D'espairsRay - Murder Day DVD (rare, out of print)

BLOOD - First Period (sealed, out of print)

Celestia Le ciel/Merveille Magique - Fairy Tales of Celestial World (Special package, includes pins, stickers and bonus CD)

UNDERCODE Omnibus: High Style Paradox III ~Maiden Voyage~

Full details and pictures on Garagesale Japan LJ com:
http://community.livejournal.com/garagesalejapan/12683372.html

If you're interested, or know any that might be, drop me a line via comment or PM.

Hike No 12 (Siebengebirge) - A Full Circle

2009-08-04T23:23:04Z

No 12
Date: August 5th
Weather: sunny & warm
Location: Siebengebirge, Germany
Starting point: Heisterbach Monastery
Destination: Rhöndorf
Via: Petersberg, Geisberg
Destination reached: Yes
Walked Distance: approx. 11 km (6.8 miles)
Duration: 5:00 hours
Treasures found: one
Blisters: none

Today's hike took me back to the Sibengebirge. I had some unfinished business there, I needed summers pics for my seasonal circle. And finally there was a day with clear weather, not too hot, and enough time for me.

Since I walked this route several times already I won't be giving detailed descriptions this time, except for the few new places I visited, and mostly let the pictures speak.

I started down at the Heisterbach monestary (which I didn't visit) and went right into the hills.

Past the Thor-Tree....

... then a short rest at the crossroad at the lower edge of the slopes...

... and into the part of the forest, halfway up, where I needed to take most pictures.

The difference between spring and summer isn't that big, but big enough in my opinion.

Once I reached the top of the Petersberg I decided to finally visit the other side, to get a view at the Rhine.

A lot of people were there, sitting on the terrace of the hotel/restaurant, eating - probably overpriced - cake. But the view was very nice indeed.

Here is me, looking over the Dragon Rock in the background.

Nice!

I made this attempt at a panorama pic. Disregarding the different shades of the sky, it's not that bad.

Then it was time to go down again.

This tree, at the far side of the Petersberg still needs an autumn pic. Will come soon, I hope.

Same for the tree on top the Geisberg:

Here, tried to make another panorama pic as well:

After leaving the summit of the Geisberg I went towards the Dragon Rock, but this time I didn't visit it, but went straight down to Rhöndorf.

There I found this piece of shit along the way, literally:

You see those tiny black spots? Dung beetle. They really love that shit, lol.

Finally, before I reached Rhöndorf, I had to go through the forest cemetary (which is not a cemetary for forests, but a cemetary in a forest).

I have seen forest cemetaries before, but never one like this, because this was literally clinging on the slopes of the Geisberg.

I wonder how they're even able to bury people in the rocky, rooty soil of the slope.

As I mentioned before in some other hiking post, the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany is buried here somehwere. I didn't had the time to look for his grave though, because I wanted to catch my train, so a picture of the sign pointing in the direction of his grave will have to suffice, lol.

And well, shortly after I was back on the train.

So, my first set of the "Treeseasons" series is finished, and I'm rather happy with it. Now all I need are 2 more pics from autumn to finish all of them. :D

Thunderstorm!

2009-07-21T22:32:15Z

A ligtning, see from my parent's house, where I'm staying right now.

Is this awesome or what? xD I always wanted to capture a lightning on cam.
The pic was taken at night btw, all the illumination is from the lightning.

Sunrise

2009-07-17T17:18:25Z

Sunrise this morning seen from my window.

No, I was not already wake that early in the morning. I was still awake, lol.

Hike #11 (Nothern Eifel) - Through ruins and caves

2009-07-16T23:23:19Z

No 10
Date: June 6th
Weather: cloudy & moderate
Location: Northern Eifel region, Germany
Starting point: Bad Münstereifel
Destination: ?
Via: Pesch
Destination reached: I made it back home so... yes
Walked Distance: approx. 17 km (10.6 miles)
Duration: 6:30 hours
Treasures found: one
Blisters: none

This is a bit late, but better late then never.

My third attempt to reach the temple ruins at Pesch. This unlucky little village really lies in some kind of public transportations black hole. There a several towns around it with train station, but all 3-4 hours away by foot, and most of the busses connecting the smaller villages inbetween only run on preorder.

The nearest train station is in Bad Münstereifel, to the east of Pesch, so this is were my journey started this time. There was no fixed destination, the idea was to walk to the temple in Pesch, and then, depending on the conditions, either go back the same way, or try to reach on of the other sourrounding town with train connections, namely Mechernich, Kall or Nettersheim, where my last hike in this region started.

Weather was mostly cloudy, nice for walking although not ideal for photography.

The town of Bad Münstereifel turned out to be rather neat, with old city walls and impressive gates, a castle residing above the town, and a creek running directly through the mostly medieval town center.

Ths swould certainly warrant a longer visit, but I had no time to spare, so I just passed through. After I left the city and did some intensive map studying, I was on the right way. And this way going - up. Quite much so, even. And to my surprise, after going up, it didn't go down again. Apparently I reached some kind of plateau, because for the next few hours, ascents and descents were rather moderate.

After a short excursion on the wrong path, I found myself on track again - undoubtably.

The withered sign says "Heidentempel" - "Heathen Temple" - so exactly what I was aiming for.
I was progressing fast. The way lead me through moderately hilly fields, broken up by small groves and a distant range of small mountains on the horizon. The cloudy weather didn't really allow for good landscape pictures, so I'll leave it with this.

Oh yeah, and another treasure, of course.

After about an hour of going through the open, I entered a forest again. I crossed several small creeks running down from a hill to my left and eventually reached a small valley, called "Horntal".

The fields in the valley was freshly mown and the air was filled with the scent of newly-cut grass.

Suddenly I noticed something odd. A range of small bushes covered with some odd, grey tissue. It almost looked like spiderwebs from afar.

I came closer to investigate.

Oh my goodness. It's not spiderwebs, it's some kind of caterpillar or maggot!

Thousands of them, bundled together in cocoons! (The dark bundle you can see in the middle of the pic above is indeed a pile of caterpillars, with some already venturing out.)

And they had already eaten away pretty much all leaves of 5-6 infested trees. What a scary sight.

After I taking many photos I finally moved on, took a turn left and went into the forest again, up a small hill. I could see a small hut and a hedge from afar. Was this already the temple ruins I was looking for? It was indeed, and I was much faster than I expected. It roughly took me 2:30 hours to get here. Not bad.

But first I noticed a huge, inscribed stone along the way. It told me that, roughly 30 years ago, some guy, in his late 60s, died here "amidst his hiking friends". Now that's encouraging. But he didn't pick a bad place to die as a few metres away the temple area began.

This was indeed bigger than the other two I visited. And this was completely sorrounded by forest, giving it quite a different atmosphere. The remains of at least 3 building could be seen.

The first was a small temple building with two nice altars in front of it.

As usual, the goddesses were tenderly decorated with withered flowers, small stones and candles.

I actually had a lighter on me this time, so I lit one of the samller candles. Also, do you see the snail shell? Yes, that's the treasure I found on hike #9. I still had in the pocket of my jacket, and I thought it looked nicely there.

Not exactly horizontal, but there just was no even ground to put the camera on, lol.

The second building was the sacred yard. The walls, that once also included two small buildings, encircle the hilltop and contained the holy tree marking the center of the sanctuary. Today, only the fundaments surrounding a clearing in the forest and some altars remained.

This one I found particulary beautiful:

The apple that someone left there also looked exceptionally appetizing. The white stuff at the bottom and on the figures is candle wax.
The yard contained two more smaller altars, without figures, just text.

Then there were the remians of a community building, where the people used to congreate, hold meetings and ceremonies. It even contained the bases of a few coloumns.

At the back there was a mysterious "earth chamber", some kind of crypta lower than the rest of the building, and no one really was sure what it used to be there for.

Finally, there was a well, probably for cleaning ceremonies. The well used to be part of an extended porticus, encircling the whole area, that was not preserved. Either way, the whole complex must have looked glorious when it was in use some 1700 years ago.

I think I almost stayd for an whole hour, until I decided to move on. It was still early in the day though, so I decided not to return the same way, but try to reach Mechernich to the north. I left the sanctuay on the other side and went down a small path, and then towards the actual village of Pesch.

As you can see, it was all pretty rural around here.

I passed through Pesch and went up the hills again. Then I reached this beautiful path with poppy flowers growing alongside it.

Very beautiful, but sadly, the wrong way, so I had to turn around and lost over half an hour. But I was determined to reach my next target, some caves mentioned on my map.

A nice tree I found on the way.

After another hour of walking through fields, I actually reached the caves. It was around 4 pm now, so I have been walking for roughly 6 hours and I started to feel the exhaustion, but the next train station was still far away. To my surprise there also was a bus stop here, and a bus was scheduled to run half an hour later. And while it didn't take me right to the train station, it probably cut my way to there short by 2 hours. And I didn't even had to pr-order that bus. I couldn't have anyway. Due to hills and the remote location, my cell phone barely had net connection. Good grief.

I still had some time to explore the caves though. The "Kakus-Caves" were located in something that is best described as a "huge chunk of steep rock".

Once entered, I found myself in a surprisingly huge "hall", with two beams added for support. Quite conforting.

There were several small exits and holes that let it some light.

I followed a small passage towards one of the lights. With every meter the ceiling was coming lower and lower until I literally had to crawl on.

Yes, the stony stuf on top of above picture is the ceiling. Now that was an eerie feeling.
Then I somehow managed to make myself very very thin and left the cave through this exit:

Now that was adventurous! Sadly there was no time to explore the caves in more detail, because I had to catch the bus. Need to come back here some other time.
I went around the chunk of rock and proceeded towards the bus stop.

After 15 minutes I left the bus in Zingsheim. A place not unfamiliar to me, as I have been here before on hike #9. I passed through the village to reach the temple, the smallest of the three in this region, which I had visited on same hike.

The decoration had changed a bit. Some things had disappeared, new stuff had arrived. The most beautiful piece, the mother-of-pearl pendant, was still in place though, hanging over the side of the altar.

I now proceeded towards Nettersheim. I took the most direct route and it was surprisingly quick. Only half an hour to reach the town. I sat down at the train station. Not counting the time I spent on the bus, I probably walked slightly more than 6:30 hours, and archived quite some distance in that time. My feet were hurting badly now though. But I saw a lot of beautiful places and found some sites I need to visit again on my next hikes. With summer approaching I might not get around to hike often though. I can't stand the heat so I doubt I'll go hiking if temperatures rise over 25 ° Celsius.

Interesting....

2009-06-26T19:05:11Z

Sometimes it pays off to randomly look out the window.

This is what I saw just now:

Nice! Also odd, cause there hasn't been any rain whatsoever the whole day.

I hear some noise which might be very distant thunder though, so we might be getting to this. But I think this is the first time I see a rainbow before the rain as opposed to after it...

Sorry, this bed is occupied...

2009-06-15T17:22:56Z

I went home on Saturday for my sister's 20th birthday celebration.

I entered my room and saw that during my absence, my bed had been taken over by... somebody else.

All these Teddys have been handmade by my mother, and they temporarily had to move, so they ende up in my bed...

Also, Ayla has grown quite a bit since my last visit.

Still not her final size, but definetely not a puppy anymore.

Raise your horns!

2009-06-06T22:55:33Z

I recently sold a few old jrock items to buy the new Týr album "By The Light of the Norther Star". I needed some extra cash since I wanted to buy a special edition by the online metal shop EMP, that came with an actual drinking horn. Now, when I ordered it 3 days ago I didn't expect anything this size. I thought it would be maybe 10-15cm, about the size of the CD, so imagine my surprise when I received a HUUGE package today.

It turned out almost twice the size!

Drink to Victory!

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWRRRR!!

Too bad I had no mead at my disposal today. Just milk or water, and this wouldn't really be befitting, I guess.

Hike No 10 (Siebengebirge) - Among Lions Pt.2

2009-06-06T21:45:02Z

No 10
Date: May 29th
Weather: sunny and warm
Location: Siebengebirge, near Bonn, Germany
Starting point: Ittenbach (Margarethenhöhe)
Destination: Rhöndorf (Main Station)
Via: Berg Löwenburg (455m)
Destination reached: Yes
Walked Distance: approx. 10 km (6.2 miles)
Duration: 4:00 hours
Treasures found: none
Blisters: none

W00T! My 10th hike in roughly as many months! Who would have thunk that? (Actually I already finished my 11th, but first things first - this is from last week)

It was another short hike with my friend Anna. After unreliable public transportation prevented us from visiting the Löwenburg together (see Hike 8), this was our second attempt. I picked her up from work early in the afternoon, but of course, public transportation was as unreliable as ever. But I quickly adapted the route so we could go the Löwenburg anyway. This time starting on the eastern side of the Siebengebirge, unlike all previous hikes where I came up from the Rhine in the west.

The new starting point had a bid advantage. It's already much higher compared to a starting point in the Rhine valley. So the ascend to the Lion Castle wouldn't take long at all.

After we left the bus, I double and triple checked our route, until I found the right way to go.

I kinda look like a hitman searching for the next target on that pic though....

After a few minutes we reached a well coming out from the mountains. The water was cold and refreshing to the touch.

Then we walked a while through beautiful deciduous woods with a slight, but tolerable ascent. And lo and behold, an hour later we already reached the high plateu with the meadow orchard, beneath the summit of Mount Lioncastle. Last time, when coming from the other direction, it took me over 2 hours and much more work to get here.

I started making a lot of photos. Anna started whistling on a blade of grass...

...but finally stopped when she found me decididly unimpressed by the unharmonic noises she produced.

After admiring this green-metallic little guy, we continued our journey.

Things were getting steeper now. We followed the small path through the forest up to the summit. Unsurprisingly, the big pieces of rock (see hike 7) were still there. Time for a group picture.

A short but steep ascent later, we reached the the first viewpoint.

Time for a short rest in the sun.

But not too long, or else Anna's pale skin will be fried, despite the sun screen I just bought hours before the hike.

Now it's just a few more metres up to the castle ruins.

Below, a view of the ruins. Sun being a jerk.

More nices views to enjoy.´

And then up to the castle. Sun being a jerk again. And the plane trail looks kinda funny, like some meteor going down.

Even more nice views to enjoy.

We took a longer break under the lonely tree growing on top the ruins. Oh yeah, sun being a jerk once more.

BTW, can you spot Anna on that pic? ;D

I took some pics of the surroundings.

And Anna took pics of me.

I still look like a Mafia guy.

Anna, and sun being a jerk, of course.

Sun being a jerk one last time.

Finally, it was time to go down again.The route led us, quite fittingly through the "Anna Valley". We passed the time playing word games, like coming up with words of a certain category for each letter of the alphabet. Categories like "Things in your fridge" or "Things connected to Japan". Annas proposal for the letter L in the category "Things to do on holidays" was "lobotomy", which still amuses me to no end.

And if she wasn't making odd proposals on how to spend your holidays, she was pushing trees up the slopes.

Or pulling them up the slopes.

Nevertheless, we somehow made it back to Rhöndorf. The koi and carps in the well on the main plaza greeted us. Or maybe they just wanted food.

We reached the train station a few minutes later. We had to wait for the next train for a while though, so I was passing the time by fooling around with forced perspectives a bit.

While Anna was utilizing her umbrella to avoid getting fried altogether.

One thing bothers me still though. Why did she bring an umbrella? There was hardly a single cloud on the sky.

I guess I'll never know.

Wtf???

2009-05-19T20:40:43Z

DDDDDD:

10 new russian bots in 8 hours? What's going on? I had one or two occasionally, but this?

And I wonder what they are aiming for anyway. They make fake journals, randomly add masses of people and then.... what? Suppose I would accept them (which of course I don't), what would happen?

I don't get it....

Hike No 9 (Northern Eifel) - Among Goddesses

2009-05-17T17:36:13Z

No 9
Date: May 16th 2009
Weather: mostly sunny, some clouds, and windy
Location: Nettersheim, Northern Eifel region
Starting point: Nettersheim (Main Station)
Destination: Bad Münstereifel (Main Station)
Via: Zingsheim, ~~Pesch~~
Destination reached: No
Walked Distance: approx. 20km (12 miles)
Duration: 7:30 hours
Treasures found: two
Blisters: none

Well, the weather was good, so I left early in the morning for my most ambitious hike as of yet. I almost expected that I wouldn't be able to make the whole route. I planned it with my new map alone, without hiking guide, so I had no idea how long it would actually take.

The idea was to visit 3 ancient temple ruins en route from Nettersheim to Bad Münstereifel, but I feared that I would only be able to see the first two.

The trip from Cologne to Nettersheim was only one hour and I got there at about 9:30 in the morning. My first destination was the Matrona-Sanctuary "Görresburg" nearby. I followed a small river called "Urft" out of the town.

Snails live here too!

The sanctuary lies on top a small hill just outside the town. Getting up wasn't difficult, because it's nowhere near as steep then the mountains in the Siebengebirge. Just the last 50 meters were a bit tricky cause the path was really wet and slippy. The entrence to the sanctuary:

Looks mysterious, doesn't it?
The sanctuary was a large, square area, with a low mural around it, and the remains of 3 smaller buildings inside. In front of the main one, there were three altars for the Aufanian Matronas, ancient gallo-germanic fertility goddesses, that usually appear in pairs of three and that are related to the later Norns and Valkyrs of the nordic mythology.

The Matrona cult was popular in this region around 1800 years ago, and apparently still so today, as the place was tenderly decorated with ribbons and easter eggs and flowers and other small things like nuts were lying on the altars.

I managed to use my hiking pole as stand to take this photo of me.

The view was quite beautiful as well. I just wish these damn power poles were not there.

After staying there for a while, I continued with my journey. I left the hill, crossed a creek flowing in the valley below. There I noticed a small group of people, standing motionless with heads bowed. I thought "Wtf are they doing there? Holding a service?" When I got closer I saw this was exactly what they were doing. There was a wooden cross at the side of the road, and one of the folks was holding a large pole with a cross on top. Really weird. Some kind of pilgrims I guess. Anyway, I continued my own "pilgrimage" which would now lead me to an old roman quarry.

There was also a large information sign that told me that this region was part of a coastline 370 million years ago. And south of the equator, no less.

More ancient stuff was nearby. This is a roman roadsign or something like that.

The people here have been really trying to make the region more intersting, but sometimes they overdid it a bit, I think. There were signs pointing towards all kinds of strange attractions like the "Barefoot Path", a "Journey through the aroma of the flower world" or the "Listening Landscapes". I skipped to try all of these experiences though. There was enough other stuff to see.

Like this little guy:

Or some mysterious footsteps:

Or just a look behind.

Somewhere at this point it was when I took my first bad turn. Because even with map, I totally seem to lack any sense of orientation.
The wrong path I chose led me back to the town, so I had to turn around, and probably lost a whole hour because of it. But at least found my first treasure for the day:

After I was on the right track again, I met some very intelligent looking fellows:

The cows were kinda irritating actually, cause they followed me with their eyes every step I made. Scary!

See them staring at me!

About an hour later I reached my second target. The small temple ruins near Zingsheim for the Fachinehaen Matronas.

It was a lot smaller than the previous one and looked more "rugged" as it apparently isn't as well taken care of as the Görresburg. There was also only one small altar without statues, but it was richly decorated.

There were withered flowers that definetly didn't come from nearby but were brought there, some nuts, a shell, a candle, some coins, a fake easter egg as well as an actual egg, lying in some kind of nest.

Someone even left a nice mother-of-pearl pendant there.

This all made me feel kinda cheap, as I didn't had anything. So I plugged a few Dandelion, the ones you can see on the pics above, and left another coin. For a safe journey back home ;-)

And regarding my journey, I had to make a decision now. Would I go to see the third temple near Pesch, or would I return towards Nettersheim? I blame it on the stimulating atmosphere of that place that I initially chose the first option. But about an hour later and another wrong turn that led me into an industrial park, I had to reconsider.

The third temple at Pesch was still about 4 km away, which would have been feasible, but in order to get from Pesch to the next train station in Bad Münstereifel, I would have to walk another 10km. This was beyond my powers, and I probably would have missed the last train back to Cologne. So instead I turned around to return to Nettersheim on a different route.

It was there that I found my 2nd treasure.

Unlike my previous hikes, which were mostly through forests, I was mostly walking among fields here.

With lots of typical animals around.

Can you spot the butterfly?

And here?

I usually like forests more than fields, but the landscape was really beautiful to look at, because it was so hilly.

Shorty before I reached Nettersheim again I made this pic of blowballs growing near the road. There have been lots and lots of Dandelions all over this hike, with the seeds of the blowballs flying through the air like soft snow.

I reached that station of Nettersheim at about 5:00 in the afternoon, so roghtly 7.5 hours after I started. Thank the Goddesses. xD
I was REALLY exhausted and glad that I didn't take the long route. I will have to find another way to see the third temple next time.

Oh yeah, even though it wasn't that hot at all, I woke up with a very slight sunburn today. The walking through fields as opposed to forests took its toll, it seems.
Not to self: don't forget sunscreen next time!

Charting new terretories

2009-05-15T18:12:51Z

A bought a new map recently so that I can expand my hiking activities to more regions xD

The map is of the nothern Eifel region, which is still fairly close to Cologne (1-2 hours by train, depending where you go.)

If the weather is fair tommorow I will take a trip and try to make good use of it. :D

Hike No 8 (Siebengebirge) - Among Snails

2009-05-11T19:59:17Z

No 8
Date: May 8th 2009
Weather: cloudy, sometimes sun, and windy
Location: Siebengebirge, near Bonn, Germany
Starting point: Königswinter (Main Station)
Destination: Königswinter (Main Station)
Via: Geisberg, Drachenfels
Destination reached: Yes
Walked Distance: approx. 10km (6.2 miles)
Duration: 4:00 hours
Treasures found: none?
Blisters: none

This is another unscheduled hike. My friend wanted to go hiking with me, and since her schedule only allowed for a short trip on Friday afternoon I postponed my other plans.
I had decided on a partially new route, that would have led us to the Löwenburg and possibly other peaks, but public transportation was not on our side. After I collected her from work, the train was a few minutes late, crushing all my well-thought-out plans. Moreover, the hurry caused us to take a wrong train afterwards. Suffice to say, we lost over an hour, so I amended my plans to a shorter route, which is mostly identical with hike no. 5.

So, we left Königswinter station and made our way up through the Nightingale Valley.

There were some caves in the sloped of the valley that I hadn't noticed before.

We had to cross the small creek to reach them.

They seemd to be pretty deep, but you could barely see more than 2 metres. Neither of us really wanted to go inside either - me because I was concerned about stability, and Anna because she was concerned about possible dangerous creatures living inside. So whatever treasures may have been inside - we never found out.

Our adventure spirit returned later though. Looking into the eye of death we climbed on arcs across the creek or huge roots of ancient trees.

Even if it meant getting our hands smeared with snail slime. And snails we had in abundance, as there had been rain the night before. This also made the path rather swampy... and trippy.

Price question: does anyone else see the face of an elephant here?

After roughly an hour we reached the first view point over a green meadow with the spires of the Dragoncastle. Sadly, the cloudy weather brings my old camera to its limit.

At least you can see the sunrays falling nicely through the clouds.

^ One of our next targets, the Dragon's Rock.

In the meantime, Anna was seeing snails again. And if she wasn't, she was throwing sticklewort after me.

Speaking of snails, a few minutes later we found the biggest one so far. We helped her to cross the road.

About an hour later we had reached my old nemesis: the ascent towards the Geisberg. But the view afterwards was beautiful as always.
The sunrays breaking through the clouds fell directly on the ruins on the Dragon's Rock.

My beloved lonely tree looked quite changed as well.

Group picture time! Tree + me + Anna + Rhine.

We rested for a moment and then continued the way towards the Dragon's Rock. Not without visiting the old quarries on route.

Anna's attempt to climb them proofed to be rather unsuccesful though.

Earlier than expected, we reached the Dragon's Rock. Behind us lay the Siebengebirge in all its lush greenness.

The clouds were still quite spectecular.

Also for the first time during my 3 visits here, the main ruins were finally without scaffold.

It was pretty damn windy up there though, so we didn't stay long.

Instead we proceeded to descend down towards Königswinter again. Past the Dragoncastle and the Nibelungenhalle.

Since it was already late in the day it was closed and gave me the chance to take a closer look at the door.

Some 20 minutes later we arrived again at the main station of Königswinter. The whole trip lasted just over 4 hours, considerung that we took a lot of time to explore region and look at snails, that was rather quick.

Hike No 7 (Siebengebirge) - Among Lions

2009-05-05T22:07:12Z

No 7
Date: May 4th 2009
Weather: sunny, warm and windy
Location: Siebengebirge, near Bonn, Germany
Starting point: Rhöndorf (Main Station)
Destination: Rhöndorf (Main Station)
Via: Berg Löwenburg (455m)
Destination reached: Yes
Walked Distance: approx. 12 km (7.5 miles)
Duration: 5:30 hours
Treasures found: none
Blisters: none

Originally I had other plans for this hiking day. But that plan would have involved crossing the state border and thus buying a train ticket, and sadly, due to holiday and weekend, my wage hadn't arrived on my bank account by monday morning, when I left for the station. So I changed to my (already prepared) Plan B, which involved another trip to the Siebengebirge. This time, with a completly new route, a bit more to the south than the previous ones.

I got off the train at Rhöndorf, which is one station after Königswinter and lies directly beneath the Dragon's Rock, so I actually had the chance to see it from a ground perspective now. Apparently, the scaffold on the ruins is entirely gone now.

View of Dragon's Rock from Rhöndorf station

I walked through the idyllic town of Rhöndorf with its cute, little and oddly crooked timber-frame houses. One was even named after me, lol.

"House Katharina"

On the marketplace of Rhöndorf I found a small fountain called "Dragon's Rock Well". The feather-helmeted guy (Siegfried, presumably) ,with the tube coming out of his mouth looked positively odd though.

Behind the well, there was a small pond with some very beautiful Koi in it. You can't see them well on the pics because of the reflections though.

Real' big fish

The last outpost of the town was a madonna statue (who kinda looked like a goth close-up with heavy black make-up.)

Apparently she was guarding the entrance of a cemetary, and according to my hiking guide, the first chancellor of the Federal Republic Germany, Konrad Adenauer, was buried there.
However, I'm not in the habit of visiting dead politicians, so I continued my journey.
And this journey would now lead me into the forest along a beautiful path next to a creek.

At some point I crossed the creek, and the path got steeper and thinner, clinging on the slopes of the Geisberg (yeah, the summit I visited last time, only this time I was on the other side). And the gorge to my right with the creek flowing through it became deeper and deeper.

The ascend was moderate so far, but constant. After roughly an hour of walking uphill, I took a rest on the bark of a big tree.

It took almost another full hour for me to finally reach a high pass between two summits, with a beautiful, wide meadow orchard, gently descendig down the slopes.

My final ascent was still ahead of me though. A small steep path through the woods to reach the summit of the Berg Löwenburg ("Mount Lion Castle") the second hightest peak in the Siebengebirge.
All along the path, there were big rocks lying around that must have broken off from the summit. They made for some good photo opportunity though.

Shortly before I had reached the summit I arrived at a small clearing, giving me the most grandiose view of all my hikes so far.

I could see the Rhine flowing by, and all the other peaks I had visited before, Petersberg, Geisberg, Dragon's Rock. Clouds moving above.

After dwelling there for a while I went up the final metres to the 455m high peak Berg Löwenburg. On top, the walls of the name-giving castle greeted me.

The next 20 minutes I spent exploring the ruins of the "Lion Castle", enjoying the great views I had from all sides.

Afterwards I entered the main complex of the ruins, where I had a nother great view

Shortly after I arrived, a group of 25 hikers or so came as well, which annoyed me quite a bit. I prefer to enjoy my hikes in solitude and not feel as if I'm visiting a tourist site. Luckily they didn't stay long, so evetually I was alone, well, almost. A lonely couple was sitting on the murals looking down to the Rhine.

I took a rest under the lonely tree that was guarding the castle remains.

I stayed for quite a while, before I proceeded to descend again. And not without taking a few experimental pics if the sun sneaking up behind the ruins.

From now on it was pretty much all going downwards, for roughly another 2 hours. My knees didn't really like the permanent descent, but that was compensated by a beuatiful forest with awesomely high trees.

At times the path was getting quite adventurous though, with a steep ascend on one site, and a steep decline towards the other side.

Halfway down the hill I saw this odd fellah:

Not sure what's going on here. Maybe a creative beaver?

Eventually I was back in Rhöndorf, roughly 5.5 hours after I started. That was a lot longer than I expected, but the constant ascent in the first half and the long brake on top took their toll.
For a moment I considered going down to the shores of the Rhine since it still was early in the afternoon. But my knees were of different opinion, so I took the next train back to Cologne.

Overall it was a great trip, but slightly disillusioning about my pace. The trip I orginally planned was twice the lenght, so I probably would have needed 10 hours or more to complete it. I don't think I'm ready yet to go for longer than 8 hours a day. I still might take the long trip though, with minor modifications.
Since my money has arrived by now, I might go back to those plans as early as Friday, or next week.

LOL...

2009-04-30T16:30:28Z

Recently I got a message on flickr, that one of my pictures was shortlisted for inclusion in some online travel guide.

I agreed to have that photo submitted and today I received another message, that it was indeed included.

It can be seen here: Linky (Under "Heisterbach Monastery, top right, as part of the slideshow)

This is the picture in question:

Now what's so funny about it?

1. It's actually a pretty crappy picture. Or mediocre/boring at best. Bad lightining (rainy day, no sun), I fooled around with my camera setting a bit and that one didn't turn out like I wanted, and I don't even think it's 100%ly horizontal either.

2. There are pics on flickr of the very same site, that are 3846395x better than that one, as a quick search showed me.

3. Even I made pics of it that are much more interesting, like this one:

So why they had to choose the crappy one in particular is simply beyond me... but I guess can't complain, lol.

Ayla (and Loni)

2009-04-26T22:22:14Z

Hike No 6 (Siebengebirge) - It's spring time!

2009-04-23T20:39:22Z

No 6
Date: April 20th 2009
Weather: sunny and warm
Location: Siebengebirge, near Bonn, Germany
Starting point: Heisterbach Monastery (Obedollendorf)
Destination: Königswinter (Main Station)
Via: Petersberg, Geisberg, Drachenfels
Destination reached: Yes
Walked Distance: approx. 15 km (9.3 miles)
Duration: 6:00 hours
Treasures found: none
Blisters: one (on the finger!!!)

Note: most pics are linked from my flickr account - you can click them for higher resolution :3

It was time for some hiking again. And on monday the weather was so nice, I just couldn't resist.

I was planning big. Alltogther but three peaks (well, four, but one of them doesn't really count) and the longest route I did so far. Basically it's a combination of hike No 3 and 5, so nothing really new, but I wanted to see the Petersberg without clouds for once.

After getting off the train I took the bus directly to the Heisterbach monastery... didn't went to see the ruins this time though. Two times was enough with me, lol.

After arriving there I had a first problem to solve: my extendible hiking stick just wouldn't... extend! xD I screwed in both directions for minutes until I realized that I was screwing at the wrong place. So I managed to pull it out after all, but the result of my brutal use of force I would notice 2 hours later: I got a freaking blister - on my finger! It would remain the only one during the trip though...

After winning the intellectual battle against my hiking stick, my journey finally started.
Not long after, while beginnig the ascent up the Petersberg, I saw something odd. Something I hadn't seen the other two times I went there, altthough it must have been there already.
There were runes carved into a tree!

And well, what can I say. I could actually read them on the spot. Th(urisaz), O(dal), R(aido) = "Thor"
Judging from the way the carving looks like, it must have been there for several years already. What an odd and funny discovery.

Then I reached the familiar places I already photographed in autumn and winter. Everything looked totally different now, without the fog.

I found a nice opportunity to take some pics of myself.

About an hour after I started, I reached the summit of the Peteresberg. This time with view!

Somehow I had expected to see the Rhine. Hmh. I probably would have to walk to the other side, but I didn't really feel like it. So I proceeded and went down again.

This one looks familiar, 'aight? Much better to walk when not wet.

By the way, there is an old celtic ringwall, some 2000 years old, supposed to be somewhere on the slopes of the Petersberg, but until today I failed to spot it. This one looked compelling, but I somehow doubt it's the one. It's clearly man-made, however.

Another motive from my previous hike. This impressive tree at the feet of the Petersberg shed its foggly cloak and exchanged it for a lush, green garment.

Shortly after that I reached a sunny meadow clearing so idyllic and stereotypical as if just came alive from an impressionist painting.

Under a brilliant blue sky, trees in white bloom between green and red leaves, a meadow filled with small flowers - and countless small butterflies flying around.

But no time to rest - the next ascent is waiting!

When going through the forest most of the time the path was covered in white petals, with some always falling down from the tree tops. It was almost like a small sakura season.

This creek I hadn't noticed before. Odd, considering that it was rather noisy.

Did I already mention that I love taking pics of the sun breaking through the leaves? (This one looks awesome in full resolution by the way.)

This little fellah almost fell victim to my hiking boots.

The ascent to the Geisberg was still as steep as I remembered it. I think I needed some 20 minutes for the last few hundred meters, lol.
Thankfully, the view was also still as breathtaking ~~as the ascent~~ as I remembered it.

The lonely tree growing dangerously close to the depths also developed some green-ness.

OHAY, it's me!

It was pretty exactly 3:00pm when I reached the top of the Geisberg (3 hours after I started). So there was still enough time to pay a visit to the dragons, i.e. the Dragon's Rock.
After a longer break I left the Geisberg and went over to the Schallenberg (the forth peak, the one I don't count, because it's directly next to the Geisberg), and then down again, past the old quarries, where I took another rest. And pic.

Then up to the Dragon's Rock, which I reached around 5:00pm.

Oh Rhine! So here you are!

The castle ruins were still in scafold for renovation, but no longer packed in plastic, so you could actually see something.

I didn't stay long this time. Too many people around.

Going down, I saw the "honey hut" again. This time witch actual bees! (You can see them flying around Osama's face). I didn't go closer this time, cause I'm allergic to bee stings. xD

The obligatory picture of the "Dragoncastle".

After that I went a slightly different path, so that I could see the "Nibelungenhalle" ("Hall of the Nibelungs"), a museum dedicated to the Siegfried legend.

I didn't visit though. Maybe some other time.

And well, about half an hour later, around 6:00pm I reach Königswinter main station, making it a while 6 hours. So, even though this was my longest hike so far, it only lasted slightly longer than the last one. I guess I'm finally picking up pace!

Anyone interested in seeng more pics from the hike can see them at my flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/champ213/

So. What's next? I'm planning to make one or two more hikes in the Siebengebirge, before exploring other territories ( I have some plans already). But only after I got some maps and guides, or I will be (literally) lost! xD

Hooolmgaaaaaard and beyond!

2009-03-16T18:40:13Z

Well, I haven't written anything in a while. But with a good reason. Or better: because of lack of reason. There just wasn't anything going on worth mentioning.
It's semester break, and for the last few weeks I've been mainly getting up at 10, having breakfast, hanging around a bit, going to work at noon and work for 5-6 hours, come back in the evening, eat dinner, hanging around again and go to bed.

Can't complain though cause in the end it's a pretty confortable life. But CERTAIN PEOPLE have been complaining that "nothing happens in my life", so yeah. So I thought I should update this again. ;-)

Anyway, I finally thought that it was time to spend some of the money I work for each day. I hadn't bought any non-japanese CDs in quite a while (just downloading, me thief :< ), so I went to Saturn at Hansaring which claims to have the "biggest selection of CDs and DVDs worldwide". Not big enough to have the Kiuas-CD I wanted to get though. They just had their most recent album, and it would be cheaper to order that directly from the band's webshop anyway.

My next choice would have been Týr's "Land" with Bonus DVD, but it was fakkan expensive. Actually most CDs were, especially if it's new and/or less common. There was almost no CD in the "Hard & Heavy" section of the shop that was cheaper then 17 Euro, except for a bunch of Hammerfall and Nighwish CDs at bargain sale.

In the end I bought Turisas' "The Varangian Way -Director's Cut + Extended Version", which was pretty good at 18 Euro for a CD with Bonustracks + DVD. Plus it's a mightily awesome album (had it in mp3 already.) And epic. Epic in the truest sense of the word.

All sealed and virgin.

Men with makeup!!1!!!1

Two shiny little discs.

Oh yeah, and Ayla, the new dog arrived at my parent's home. Probably going to see her in a week or so.

It's official.

2009-02-22T13:30:35Z

I want to sex Ilja Jalkanen
Or at least his divine vocal chords.
Whatever I get my hands on first.

His voice is giving me mental orgasms.

The valkyrie is preparing for battle! (i.e. Carnival)

2009-02-18T21:17:02Z

It was about time to get my costume together.... so I went shopping after work today. I probably had to expect that the carnival shops would be bursting full. I had to wait 40 minutes in line before I could pay for my helmet. Then I went to buy some white velveteen for the costume itself, and it looks great so far. And I only paid 20 Euro for both Helmet and the cloth, which is pretty good.

There was none of the horned viking-helmets left, but I think the feathered one looks even better for a valkyrie. I didn't buy a wig though. My hair is pretty long, so I'll just have my friend make me braids. ^_^ It won't be blond, but who said that valkyries have to be blond anyway?