Crossrail

Elizabeth line, London

I hadn’t been to London for over four years and when I headed through the underground of the Heathrow airport towards the Heathrow Express I noticed a major change in public transport: the tracks used by the high-speed train to Paddington are now also used by the new Elizabeth Line colored in purple. The new line was created in a project called Crossrail, because it is a connection from East to West throughout the city – opened in autumn 2022.

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Place of warmth

View from Mtatsminda, თბილისი

It was 4 am when the lights of თბილისი appeared at the windows of the plane taking me to Georgia. A driver picked me up and drove me through the capital city that was still completely asleep. I dropped my bag at the hotel and sat in front in the dark, surrounded by stray dogs. A quick look at the watch: 5 pm, time for a coffee from one of the 24/7 shops and a walk through the empty streets to enjoy sunrise over the Mtkwari river.

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City of the winds

Flame Towers, Bakı

Bakı is a city like no other. The capital city of Azerbaijan is shaped by the fossil resources available at the shore of the Caspian sea: oil and gas. They’re owned by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and create visible wealth and they are so widely available that they even remain unused and create continuously burning mountains and bubbling mud volcanoes. An endless number of horsehead pumps are moving around the city, three skyscrapers are shaped like flames and there is even a religion (Zoroastrianism) that worships the flame.

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Manatı and Qəpik

Manatı, Bakı

If you need to pay at Azerbaijan you’ll have to use the Azərbaycan Manatı (AZN, ₼). The currency symbol is like the Euro sign but rotated 90 degrees to the right and that is not the only connection to the Euro: the Manatı notes and coins might look familiar to Europeans as they’ve been designed by the same currency designer, Robert Kalina. The Manatı is divided into 100 Qəpik and all available coins are Qəpik, the smallest note is one Manatı.

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BakıKart

Airport Express, Bakı

Do you want to travel through Bakı using public transport? Then you’ll can’t get around the BakıKart, a rechargeable plastic card that you can use on buses, the metro and the Airport Express bus oscillating between the city center and the airport. It can be received from vending machines primarily at the airport and in metro stations. There you can also add money to your card; afterwards you only need to put it on entrance gates in the metro or readers in buses.

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ანალფაბეტი

Georgian alphabet, თბილისი

When travelling throughout Georgia you might feel a little bit like a ანალფაბეტი (=analphabet). The Mkhedruli alphabet used most often looks really beautiful but is completely undecipherable for visitors from abroad. In the capital city most often English translations are available (except on and in buses) and this doesn’t cause any problem. The Georgian language belongs to the Kartvelian languages – together with Mingrelian, Svan (both spoken in northwest Georgia) and Laz (used in northern Turkey, south of the border to Georgia).

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Metromoney

Metro, თბილისი

At Georgia they seem to like rechargeable payment cards. Whether its for the Mtatsminda fun fair or public transport at თბილისი, you just need to lend a plastic card for a small deposit, top-up some money, pay as often as you wish and later return the card. Already when you reach the international airport you can go to a vending machine, buy a card and put money on it to use the bus bringing you to the city center.

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Lari and tetri

Lari, თბილისი

On April 9th, 1991, Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union. After that, the Russian ruble was used in parallel to western currencies and Kuponi, a kind of emergency money. In 1995 the country introduced its own currency, the Lari (GEL). Lari means ‘property’ or ‘treasure’ in Georgian language and a Lari is divided into 100 Tetri. The bills show important personalities and buildings of the country.

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Art, peace & sauna

Holmenkollbakken, Oslo

What do you think of when you hear the name Oslo? The Vikings? Edvard Munch and his Skrik? Ski-jumping on Holmenkollen? The Nobel Prize? The iconic opera house at the fjord? First of all Oslo is an amazingly green capital city that was in older days known as Christiania (or Kristiania). It has a city center with many ancient and beautiful buildings due to the fact that it wasn’t impacted by war for a long time. And it is a city offering an absolutely high quality of life: nature, art and mentality contribute to this.

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