#hoyo did an amazing job with her story

[blindecho6]

[delightedcupcake]

Okay but the second half of Arlecchino's story quest? Slay

Lyney's VA?? Amazing

Arle's reaction after Clervie disappeared? ✨️

The second half was amazing and in truth? Alrecchino is morally grey, i dont want to hear anyone else say otherwise. She cares about her kids but is ruthless to them. She is ruthless to outsiders and a mastermind. Hoyo knows what they're doing and they did such a good job with handleing her character

Cant wait to see more of her

[xzho-writes]

i’m rambling a lot here but i’ve just about finally finished the 3.2 archon quest and i have Very Many thoughts

utc for spoilers obviously

I HEARD THE STORY GOT SUPER INTERESTING BUT I WASNT EXPECTING THIS??

first of all the plan to free nahida was so big brain, i loved it.

it’s currently 1am and i’m sobbing over rukkhadevata (/gen). i’m still wrapping my head around how she’s PHYSICALLY ERASED from teyvat, and nobody including nahida herself remembers her. only we do, supposedly because we’re not from teyvat.

she sounded so sweet and gentle and that’s partially what started the waterworks. hoyo did a great job casting her eng va cause she was amazing. when nahida had to wipe her out i was so so sad :( she gave up her entirety for the greater good

im also assuming zhongli doesn’t remember her either. i’m not gonna dwell on that cause i could rant abt him and his memory for ages, but i think that says enough :( it’s insane, to have your existence literally erased is so huge.

also nahida’s dialogue with dottore at the end had me GRIPPING MY BLANKET it was so intense and interesting. im super excited to see how the story will progress cause i feel like 3.3 is the starting point for everything cruel and brutal story-wise. dottore literally wiped out all his clones without so much as blinking, my jaw is hung.

the cryo archon must be insane if she’s keeping ALL THESE HARBINGERS ON A LEASH. i’m scared to find out what pierro is capable of now if dottore is that menacing 😭 the akademiya was literally dottore’s PLAYGROUND and he still has the gall to wager with the god of wisdom omg

and the fact that nahida called us the ‘first sage of buer’… that’s the coolest title ever, so sentimental and meaningful i’m literally in pieces rn the sumeru archon quest was amazing. leagues better than inazuma’s.

I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY IM JUST GENUINELY SO IN SHOCK 😭😭😭

[petitexmagician]

Okay so I can't for the life of me keep these thoughts back, so spoilers for the Abyss Quest under

So like I had mentioned when I got through the Abyss Quest, as someone who has played K.h, as well as been through the rollercoster of the Xeha.nort Saga - yes even with Dark Road and no I don't think Missing Link will help the bitter taste in my mouth with what happened in K.h3 that is a post for another time I swear to god.

ANYWAYS

It starts off as usual with the Abyss Quest, Traveler twin and Pai.mon end up going to Sumeru Katherine for anything to do, she gives a job involving a missing persons case over in Vimara Village, a village I feel like is a infamous little spot given how Sumeru's dendroculus themselves were all story quest locked behind the Aranara world quest. There we end up learning that everyone is having a similar memory loss episode of person that looked to be in his 20s, give a freakin' age range on a important NPC appearance wise but not the cast of vision wielders will ya huh Hoyo?

The traveler twin puts together after speaking with a few that it's almost the same as Greater Lord and her sacrifice, yet with the prescience of the Abyss Order it seems that they have a involvement which gives rise to the biggest cryptid Hoyo could ever give - Dainslief to show his face which means lore drop!

AND WHAT A DAMN LORE DROP IT WAS! Dainslief reveals it's a freakin' family drama as the short of it, his older brother, Gold, Skirk's teach and two others are the damn reason Khaenri'ah had a huge ass target on their backs and whatever they were doing caused Heaven P to wake up and chose violence whether it was right or wrong is still left in the dark to curse a whole nation for what these five were doing.

To make matters more crazy it was Dainslief's own bro thats the reason the Abyss Twin is part of Teyvat despite them and the Traveler Twin not being from Teyvat at all. So if and when Dottore manages to burn Irminsul it'll probably leave a damage so insane it draws the attention of Heaven P and quite hopefully free the Abyss Twin from whatever BS they put on the spot for.

Can I just say these twins are in a damn tragedy stage, they both seriously miss each other - you can't even count this mess as damn reunion if you go and pull a freakin memory wipe on them both. Not only that but the Abyss Twin has a mess of words to say about Heaven P it's not just being separated for 500 years from their sibling, being a witness to a hell scape and being put on the spot as the de facto leader of a nation that treats them like a God instead of nobility by a whole ass mess of hypocrites, finding a place that their sib mentioned without them, ON TOP OF KNOWING THEY'RE DOING INSANE SHIT AND ARE NOT COOL WITH IT!

The things I did like is that whatever name we give the Traveler Twin won't even matter to the Abyss twin because they say their actual name, with the Traveler twin confirming Pai.mon and the rest of Teyvat don't even know their actual name and just response to a fake name and that is amazing plus seriously depressing!

Any relationship formed won't mean nothing when they've been giving people left and right a fake name - it's gonna hurt but for whatever reason the playable vision wielders are gonna forgive them for not trusting them to give their actual name, best bet whoever the Traveler Twin tells their actual name to it's the person they trust the most.

though tldr: Fuck memory manipulation, fuck family drama we hate Heaven P for the BS going on in Tevyat we hate Heaven P on this blog

[saoirseunaronan]

Movies I’ve Watched in 2020

I’m gonna do this for pure self-amusement, so here we go!

🎞️ Frozen II  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - a whole ass treat!! this soundtrack is better than the first one because of the next right thing, show yourself and into the unknown, the trio of the tears. I love love love this movie!

🎞️ Taylor Swift: Miss America  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★  - to get a glimpse of taylor’s life and how vulnerable and inspiring she is i’m just babey about this movie

🎞️ To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ - the first one was so much better i’m sorry lol i think the best part was the soundtrack for real and peter, but it’s a good movie to watch

🎞️ The Invisible Man ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - i think a huge reason why i loved this movie is elisabeth moss, but we can just ignore it lol i just love her i’m sorry. but this movie is really good, i really rec it for everybody (it has triggers pls be careful)

🎞️ The Hunger Games ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - the movie of a lifetime. gary ross did a great job, even tho i’d like less forest scenes and peeta’s leg situation to appear. still an amazing movie that makes me sob. rewatch.

🎞️  Catching Fire ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - francis lawrence coming for my soul on this one!! great movie, amazing storyline, CF is just pure perfection. rewatch.

🎞️ Mockingjay Part. 1 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - transition movie. still a great movie, cause i’m a slut for thg, but a very chill movie with less action than the second and fourth ones. rewatch.

🎞️ Mockingjay Part. 2 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - GREAT FINALE!!! a movie that takes my breath away every single time and just opens all the wounds. rewatch.

🎞️ Get Out ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - amazing movie about racism and prejudice inside a GREAT horror film. jordan peele really be doing god’s work eating the rich and the white. rewatch.

🎞️ Seven ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - a classic!! i’m a hoe for investigation movies and this one is INCREDIBLE. great storyline, great production, just great everything. WHAT’S IN THE BOX???. rewatch.

🎞️ Parasite  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - one of the best movies of 2019, just amazing. bong  joon-ho said EAT THE RICH MOTHERFUCKERS!! he was right tho. rewatch.

🎞️ The Platform (El Hoyo)  ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ - this movie is very good in its message, but still very violent, took my sleep away for a couple of hours, had nightmares lol.

🎞️ Coco  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★  - one of my favorite movies of all time!! i cried a lot, a laughed a lot, it’s just pure magic, i love it so much!! rewatch.

🎞️ Your name  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - SO TOUCHING!! I was crying for a good part of the movie and was so into the story I didn’t even know what time it was lol It’s so great and it has an amazing storyline and so raw :(( tears all the way.

🎞️ Little Women   ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - i went thinking this movie was going to be about romance and little drama and no, this shit is DEEEEEEP! I loved it! Performances were amazing, totally deserving of nominations and awards, just YES and story was great!

🎞️ Gretel and Hansel  ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆  - HORRIBLE! I mean lol I’m sorry but this movie sucks and I won’t spend time talking more shit about it, just don’t watch it ever

🎞️ The Maze Runner  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - so the first movie is amazing!! it’s very similar to the book and it’s very good in terms of performances like my newtmas was LIVING and i’m just very pleased with the first movie, it does what it’s asked for! rewatch.

🎞️ Maze Runner: Scorch Trials  ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ - the second movie.... is enjoyable for someone who hasn’t read the books LOOOOL like i’ve read the books and re-watched this movie and it just changed for me. it’s a good movie if i can erase the book’s storyline cause it’s just very different, it’s a totally different story and i have no fucking clue WHY, cause the book is so good, but okay. so i wanna give it 3 stars for effort as a movie, but as a fan of the books things got out of hand. rewatch.

🎞️ Maze Runner: The Death Cure  ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ - the third movie gave me my newtmas scenes so I’M GOING TO TAKE IT! the movie is also extremely different like they could’ve just switched the fucking name lool but like NEWT’S LETTER IN THE FUCKING MOVIE IS SO GOOD!!! omg i have this movie so much for doing that i’m just babey

🎞️ Bacurau  ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ - this is a brazilian movie and it’s probably one of the best brazilian movie i’ve ever seen! it’s really good with its storyline and metaphors and it’s really interesting!! it’s also enjoyable! it didn’t stick with me so i’m giving it 3 stars, but it’s really good!

[riding-alpacas]

Lost in heritage

When I put Bariloche and the surrounding Lake District on my long list of things to do in South America, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I had read about some nice lakes, beautiful mountains and a bit of Alpine-style architecture but what I found when I got here was pretty much... Germany. Just in Spanish. Okay, there might be some more minor differences, but I'll get to that later.

In terms of accomodation, I got a lot more lucky recently. For Bariloche I picked a place that was supposed to be a little bit outside of the city centre which I thought would mean quiet. However, it turned out that from Bariloche you have one busy main road that goes all along the huge Lake Nahuel Huapi and never really becomes quiet. The hostel was still an awesome choice though: It was small, the owner was super caring and best of all they had Alan - a chef who cooks an amazing three course meal every night for little money. During my four day stay, the other guests were also very nice and did not stare at a black mirror the whole day.

When I arrived, Alan immediately overwhelmed me with all the hiking choices you have in Bariloche. You can probably spend at least two weeks just with hiking. Conveniently most hikes are accessible by bus, so you don't even need a car. The first thing I wanted to do though was to buy a new rain jacket. So off I went into the city centre. And I bloody hated it. Bariloche is super popular as a vacation spot for Argentinians and they really try to squeeze every last cent out of you. At every corner you have shops where they try to sell you all sorts of shit that you don't need. You can book skydiving, rafting, canyoning - pretty much everything that you can do everywhere else, too. It was noisy, it was busy, I left it very quickly again without even getting my rain jacket. But not before having some amazing ice cream at a place called Rapanui though - there's got to be time for that.

The next day I wanted to mix things up a little bit after spending so much time with hiking before. When you follow the main road all the way to the end, you get to Circuito Chico: A 27 kilometre loop that goes past some short hikes, beaches, breweries and other smaller sights. Sounds like a perfect bicycle trip to me! After renting a two-wheeler I explored the area for the day. It was very sunny and hot, so I actually ended up just cycling from beach to beach to brewery and didn't do any of the hikes. I also took one of the famous chair lifts in town to get to one of the lookouts that gives you the view. When I spoke to Corinna recently, we agreed that pretty much every view in Bariloche is the same anyway. You see the surrounding lakes, mountains and forests and it doesn't differ much at all.

Good place for a nap

This looks familiar

I wanted to do at least one day hike while I was in the area though and after looking at all my criteria (accessible by bus, something with water, nothing that just gives you the view) I decided to tackle the 25 kilometre return hike up to Refugio Frey on day two. As usual, I started early to avoid the crowds. The hike itself was quite dull and uninspiring. It was also extremely dusty which actually turned out to be the case for all hikes in the Lake District. But what waited at the end was definitely worth it. There was a beautiful little lagoon, surrounded by an amphitheatre of spiky peaks and of course the Refugio itself which sold cold drinks. I spent a couple of hours up there, basking in the sun and just enjoying the scenery.

Spiky peaks

Great place for a refreshing dip

Now - I originally wanted to leave the German part until the end but I have to bring some aspects of it forward a bit because it fits into the current story. The whole area here basically looks 100% like South Germany/Austria/Switzerland. And not just the landscape, also the architecture (which is due to some immigration waves from Germany, some of them quite questionable). The hike to Refugio Frey started at a chairlift and in the morning I didn't really pay much attention to it. But when I came back down, I had to wait 45 minutes for the next bus and suddenly I found myself in the most bizarre situation. Trying to kill some time, I went to a little Kiosco for a cold drink. I sat down and the following happened (watch with sound!):

Where the fuck am I?

What. The. Fuck. Look at the scenery. Look at the architecture. Listen to the fucking music. This was probably the most German experience I ever had outside of Germany and it was just plain weird. For a moment I actually wanted to leave the area. This is not why I'm travelling. Why go to Argentina for something that you can actually 100% have in the country you grew up in? But to be fair: I like summers in Germany, I like freshwater lakes, I just had to change my attitude. This is beautiful and I should just enjoy it. It doesn't matter where I am, it only matters that it's nice. Well, maybe not the music, but the conditions, the setting, the water. Let's move on.

For my last two days the forecast was mainly saying two things: Hot and sunny. I surely didn't want to walk in the dust with these conditions and luckily I was surrounded by beautiful water everywhere. So I decided to book a little trip to a place called Isla Victoria - famous for its white beach. During the trip we also stopped at another island to look at some Myrtle trees that apparently inspired Walt Disney to make Bambi (he scotched this rumour at some point) but I was only interested in the beach. And when we finally got there, we had four hours time for it. I headed straight to the fine gravel and also for the first time in six weeks went for a little swim. How much I missed this! I'm totally out of shape but it felt good to just move in the water again. Water temperature was also quite ok with about 16 degrees close to shore.

Bambi trees

Please sun, turn me into a crab

On my last day, a thing called triathlon thwarted all my plans. Three wonderful girls (one of them having her own bikini brand, just saying...) and I wanted to spend the day at Lago Gutiérrez. That lake is apparently the warmest lake in the region because it's fed by rain water and not glacial water like the other ones. I was hoping to use that opportunity and do some more serious swimming again but unfortunately there was an Iron Man that day and half of Bariloche was shut down. On the positive side, this also led to a closure of the main road in front of the hostel and it was super quiet that day. We ended up walking a few kilometres up and down that road until we found an acceptable place close to the water where we ended up just chilling in the sun.

They even put in the Dom and the coat of arms!

It was now time to leave Bariloche, but I wasn't done with the Lake District yet. A lot of other travellers warned me about the fact that Bariloche is quite busy and recommended a little town called El Bolson, which is roughly 2 hours south. I was in desperate need of something quiet and found the perfect place: A hostel called Luz Clara which was even further south in a village called El Hoyo. And this was an absolute lucky find.

The hostel is located in a rural area and after leaving the taxi I felt instantly relaxed. It was surrounded by a huge garden, with hammocks between the trees and a little creek nearby. The style was very rustic, beautifully made and it was an absolute haven compared to all other places I had stayed so far. Juan, the host, and four volunteers run the place and they're doing such a great job. One of the volunteers was a vegan chef and made some incredible meals for all the guests one night. They also set up a cozy fire every night and it was just perfect to abandon oneself to total idleness. For some reason however, I still ended up doing something every day...

There was a surprising amount of things to do in the area and I started slowly on day one with just a little 10 kilometre hike to a waterfall. It was still quite hot during the day and I ended up dozing in front of it with the cool spray from the falls breezing into my face.

Another pretty waterfall

Stretched up even further

On day two I wanted to do a kayak trip on a lake which came highly recommended by Juan. They wanted to pick me up from a road close to the hostel at 10:30am but after waiting for an hour at the end of a dusty gravel road, I decided to go back. Juan was shocked when he heard what happened and felt super guilty. So he spontaneously organised a hike to a secret lagoon with two of the volunteers which turned out to be quite adventurous. He warned me about that though:

You might be disappointed. You might even be a little mad. But it will definitely be an adventure.

I don't think he knew how correct he would be with that statement. We wanted to start at 3pm which would have given us plenty of time to get back before sunset. But Juan's new hobby didn't agree with our schedule. He bought a Jeep from 1960 a couple of weeks ago and likes to tinker with it and learn stuff about cars in his free time. For him it has the same effect as meditation and I can deeply relate to that. Unfortunately the car wouldn't start when we wanted to leave which was due to a cable that got disconnected as a result of heavy corrosion. We had to start the car manually which meant that one person had to hold the cable and make sure it touches the contact point. I thought some of the wiring in our old Nissan Patrol was dodgy but what I saw under the hood of this car was just... impressive. About 30 minutes later we were finally on the road. When we were passing the local supermarket, Juan decided to stop for some snacks. What a fatal decision. We tried to start the car manually again but Juan didn't put it in neutral so it basically jumped forward a bit with two of us leaning over into the hood. Thankfully nobody got hurt but that little jump caused a new issue. The whole electrical circuit was now interrupted, most likely a contact that became loose during our attempt to start it. I learned a thing or two when I was tinkering with the electrics on our car in Australia and I suspected that the main battery got disconnected. The wires there were dusty as fuck and heavily corroded. Juan's phone didn't have service so he had to walk a kilometre to find wifi. He called a friend of him who was a mechanic and about thirty minutes later he arrived. It turned out that I was right. He rewired one of the main cables that went into the battery and we were able to manually start the car again. It was 5:30pm by now and we decided to still do the hike.

How do we fix a car that’s twice as old as us?

Juan wasn't exactly sure where we'd have to start the hike but he was optimistic that we'd find the trail if we just follow the random forest roads that led up the mountain to the lagoon. It was super dusty again with my shoes completely disappearing in piles of dust at times. The poor people walking at the end were breathing in a lot of that dust which is why we decided to take turns. After zigzagging through the forest, we finally made it to the trail. Parts of it were overgrown and we had to take some bizarre detours but eventually we made it to the lagoon. It wasn't anything special but we were definitely the only ones and it was a good change compared to most of the other hikes I did in the past few weeks.

The lagoon

After walking through that dry and dusty terrain for more than 1.5 hours I was craving to get into the water. It turned out to be quite difficult though as it was surrounded by reed and mud. The others pulled out but I didn't want to give up. Getting in would be easy, but how would I get out again? I decided to place some branches into the mud which would hopefully act as some kind of path for me to get out. It kind of worked but I was still knee-deep in mud when I tried to go back. The water was beautiful though and it all added to the adventure. Once I was out, I constructed a little brush with a Spinifex kind of grass so that I could clean my legs. Eventually it all worked out!

Once it started to get dark we made our way back down again. We weren't sure where we would end up once we were down that mountain and we actually made it into somebody's backyard. Thankfully the people who lived there we very easy-going and pointed us in the right direction back to the car. We were able to start it without problems this time, the only minor thing that happened was a blown fuse once Juan turned on the lights. That was an easy fix though and half an hour later we were back in the hostel. What a beautiful day!

Nice sunset on the way back

Once we were back in the hostel, we also heard from Pedro - the guy who was running the kayak tours and was supposed to pick me up in the morning. It turned out that he had some logistical problems in the morning and simply forgot to pick me up... he was very, very apologetic though and I decided to give it another go the following day.

The next morning he was actually 10 minutes early and picked me up right in front of the hostel. He apologised another million times and I had the feeling that he was genuinely sorry. Plus he was driving a Hilux, how can you not forgive a Hilux owner? After picking up all the other people (we were about 12 in total) we made our way to Lago Epuyén. Pedro was happy to give me a single kayak and even removed the rudder as I prefer to keep it simple and steer my watercraft manually. After giving everyone a crash course in paddling we started our little 12 kilometre cruise.

Crystal clear water

Being on the water I immediately noticed a key difference to most other lakes I've been on. The water was extremely clear and had a beautiful deep blue colour. I assume this is due to the colder temperatures which simply doesn't allow algae to build up that much. About 4 kilometres in it was time for our first stop. We parked the kayaks on a nice beach and Pedro prepared lunch for us. He sizzled some beef on a hot plate, cut some fresh veggies and we had some delicious sandwiches. We then hiked up a little hill to a scenic lookout with a great view of the lake.

Lunch anybody?

Underwater

It was a calm start to the day

Some wildlife

I was the only non-Argentinian in our group by the way and even though everybody mostly spoke Spanish, the others really made an effort to include me in the group. Their English was really poor but with the few words they knew (plus hands and feet) we were able to actually have some good conversations.

After our excursion to the hill we got back into the kayaks and paddled another 4 kilometres to the next pretty beach with a little waterfall on the side. After recording a superhero rock jumping video it was time for some Mate and scones with homemade jam from Pedro's mum. I got another lesson on how to make Mate and I have to say that I'm damn close to buying my own Mate set. It took me a while to warm up to it but I'm definitely a fan by now. I think it's time for the dedicated Mate blog post very soon.

Look at these colours

Shower

Perfect afternoon snack

Guess what superhero I tried to be

The last 8 kilometres back to where we started were a little more challenging due to some headwind, but we all made it back safe and sound. It was another beautiful day and a refreshing change to all the dust that I encountered on all the hikes I did before in this area. Originally I was planning to do the popular Cajón del Azul hike but I think this was a better choice. Water beats soil - always.

The next day was a travel day and brought me to a town called San Martín de los Andes from where I'm writing this blog post right now. It's quite a posh place but I'm only here to relax for two days before making my way back to Chile again. The landscape is pretty much the same as in Bariloche and El Hoyo. When I started writing this post I realised that I actually didn't take any pictures of the Alpine-like architecture here in the Lake District in order to proof my point that it looks so much like South Germany. But then I thought that I'd probably just have to walk a few blocks to find some good examples and it turned out that I was right:

Cake shop

Hotel

Downtown

Pub

One more thing I'd like to briefly mention is my progress in terms of eating my way through the Argentinian cuisine. Hopefully this blog won't turn into a foodie blog. I'm not an expert when it comes to food anyway but these guys here surely know how to cook. During my time in El Calafate, I went to a place called Isabel where they served stew-like dishes, served in a cast iron skillet. This might have been the best frigging lamb I ever had. Also Alan, the chef in the hostel in Bariloche, made an Asado one day and I can confirm that the Argentinians are at least as good as the Brazilians when it comes to BBQ (sorry Will!). He also made a delicious vegan bowl for us one day and I'm very close to liking vegan food by now. For me, vegan always translated to dry and tasteless but Alan and the volunteer from the hostel in El Hoyo (forgot her name) proved me wrong.

That’s what I call a proper portion of lamb

All in all it was an interesting time here in Northern Patagonia. I don't think it's specifically worth going when you are from Europe, but if you're in the area anyway and just travelling through it's surely worth stopping because it is still beautiful. Also, when speaking to people who were from Germany and Switzerland, they still pointed out a few differences (the colour of the water, the more ranch-like environment). I'm just happy and grateful for my time here. I've met some great people, did some amazing little trips and I'm now looking forward to climbing an active volcano in Pucon before leaving Patagonia and exploring some totally different environments again up North.