I was going to write about my day today and post a picture of the insanely loud tourists walking around down in the cathedral’s yard but then I found pictures of that first snow on my camera that we had about a week ago and I needed to share them with you guys. Also I realized that posting a photograph to get the impression of certain sounds across to you may just be the stupidest thing I ever planned to do.

Now keep in mind that by snow I always mean two snow flakes per square inch and that’s it. Simply because we are never blessed with more than that around these parts. As is often the case in life, less is more, though. And two flakes per square inch is plenty pretty, especially early in the morning when the sun has just come up and you happen to live in part of the old cathedral buildings which provides you with a perfect view on any normal day, let alone a snow day.

The two towers belong to Aachen’s old city hall. As seen from my window.

Reflection of one of the city hall towers in my window glass. Pretty, no?

Buildings right across from me. As seen from my window. On a snow day.

Part of the Aachen cathedral on the right, and conjoining cathedral buildings. As seen from my window. Again, no zoom used or anything and only minor cropping on my laptop afterwards.

The cathedral’s main tower and a close-up of the window above the main entrance. As seen from my window.

And let me tell you, it’s even much prettier when it’s not just on a computer screen. However, you can also check out previous entries in which pictures of the cathedral have been posted: in the late autumn sun, in the background on a rainy day, during a wedding and during other weddings; or check out the city hall at night, on a summer evening, or on a September afternoon. (Also check out this picture of the cathedral by night. I found it on Flickr and it shows the building from the other side than the view from my apartment. Anyways, beautiful picture and read the description, too! Such history in this cathedral, it’s breathtaking.)

In closing I’d like to add that taking pictures out of my apartment’s window is not all I do during the day although it may appear as though that was the case.

Have a scandalous Saturday night, my children. And a detoxifying Sunday.

I just wanted to replace the last blog post with something new but I’m in a weird mood tonight and don’t feel like writing at all. So while I will feed on the vast choice of different food stands on the Christmas market from now until Christmas, here is where you need to go for some of the most delicious looking recipes I’ve ever seen: smittenkitchen.com.

It is amazing there, and what’s most important and maybe the clearest difference to your typical Pioneer Woman recipe - the recipes are healthier and can easily be prepared for just one person or a couple. And, no offence, I love the Pioneer Woman as much as the next person, but the recipes are even more creative and never what you would expect.

The Smitten Kitchen used to be my number one go to for recipes and then it got deleted from my favorites until recently when I came across the site in a different context and immediately sang hallelujah. And saved it as a top favorite again.

Go check it out right now. Also, if you don’t end up cooking anything that’s on there, just drool over the gorgeous photography.

Picture source: screenshot from here.

It’s the same anger I felt when I looked at the pictures of the World Press Photo exhibition about a week ago. The same deep infinite hatred for those who go around and… and do what they do. There are no words for the kind of violence they promote, there are no words for the way they kill hundreds and hundreds of innocents every year. There are no words.

It makes me want to scream and kill back, as I have said before, it makes me want to destroy them just like they destroy others. I hate what their actions bring out in me, this powerful red rage.

And I know that they’re not all the same, their actions may not all be based on the same fundamentalist religion (although my disliking of religion in general grows with every terror attack), some may be forced to act the way they do, some actually do the planning. But they’re all terrorists.

This whole entry is not angry enough, it doesn’t express at all what I actually feel. No swearing, no cursing could do the trick, no detailed analyzation of the different terroristic organizations, no closer look at particular attacks.

These past 48 hours I have been glued to CNN and other channels, following their coverage. I have tried to make sense of it because that’s what I do when terrible things happen, when someone is attacked by somebody else I look at both sides, I try to understand where both parties are coming from. I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and I feel that I shouldn’t just come out and say, See that’s what religion does, because I don’t know that the Mumbai attacks are in fact based on religious motives.

I’m tired of being rational about it. I’m tired of dismissing Americans rage against certain countries as blind, uneducated, inappropriate accusations. I’m tired of pretending that this isn’t actually as bad as it seems because a week from today things will go back to normal again. I’m tired of agreeing with those who say, yeah they’re terrorrists but torturing is never okay. I’m tired of hanging on to my initial belief that we have to start at the bottom and educate children before they fall into the hands of terrorist organizations.

Obviously, I, too, will go about my daily life again. After a few nights’ sleep, I will have to deal with the silly little things of my small, still sheltered world again.

But I feel like giving up on this planet. I am the first to fall in love with the beauty of the earth over and over again but at the same time it feels as though everything lies in ruins right now.

I wish I had a thoughtful and thought-provoking statement to close this entry but I don’t. I feel frozen with fear, sure, but mostly with anger that I haven’t known before.

It’s not enough to lock them up, it’s not enough to torture them, it’s not enough to kill them. It’s never enough. It’s never going to be enough. And that’s what frightens me.

I want them gone forever because in my opinion they don’t deserve to be.

(This entry is very unstructured and I’m sure I’m missing all sorts of important points; a few come to mind as I’m typing this. But I just needed to get this out before I can maybe come back and look at it all from a distance.)

Picture source: here.