Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
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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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.
Continue reading “Art, peace & sauna”
Unsure how to spend an evening at Oslo? If you like movies, the city offers you different cinemas. One of them is the Saga which you can find in the Stortingsgata, directly next to the Nationaltheatret (and which is there-by very easy to reach). What helps you here is that movies in Norwegian cinemas are typically shown in English language with Norwegian subtitles – that is probably also why so many Norwegians know English so well. The Saga cinema was already opened in 1934 and is the most important cinema for children and families in the city.
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I love to purchase tourist passes in advance. With them you typically can use public transport and visit the most important sights without paying every single time. If you get around a lot in a city it can save you a lot of money and that is quite important at Oslo as it is one of the most expensive cities in Europe. How does it work at Oslo currently? You just need to download the ‘Oslo pass‘ app from your mobile app store and within you can buy passes for different time frames. Once you arrived at Oslo you just need to activate it. The app shows two different tickets: one for public transport, one for visiting sights.
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Amalie Emmy Noether is probably the most important woman in the history of mathematics and left a strong footprint in modern algebra. She did so facing strong resistance caused by the fact that she was a woman, Jewish, and on the left politically. Emmy Noether was born at Erlangen in 1882 and started her studies at Göttingen. She returned to Erlangen after one semester until she received her PhD in mathematics there.
Continue reading “Abstract algebra”
When in 2023 Christopher Nolans movie Oppenheimer came to cinemas worldwide the history of Julius Robert Oppenheimer also came back to focus. How should he be remembered? As a genius physicist? Or is the leader of the Manhattan project and creator of the first atomic bomb, the destroyer of the worlds (a quote from the Bhagavad Gita), responsible for the death of so many people at Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Or did he save many lives by helping to end World War II (as he stated himself); at a point in time when Nazi Germany already had surrendered? A question also relevant for the city of Göttingen, as Oppenheimer was living and working there for some time.
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Iceland is a beautiful country best to be explored on a road trip. If offers magnificent everchanging landscapes and a weather that can switch between heavy rain and bright sunshine within minutes. It is an island far in the north on which you should dress according to the onion principle as temperatures can very between eight and 26 degrees within a distance of 50 kilometers. And you need to prepare for either extremely long or short days; during my stay the sun went down shortly before midnight and came up at three o’clock in the morning – but it was never really dark at night.
Continue reading “Land of fire and ice”
When you’re travelling from Akureyri to Reykjavík or vice versa you need to pass the Hvalfjarðargöng, an impressive road tunnel under the Hvalfjörður that is nearly six kilometers long. It feels like being shaped as a giant V with a maximum inclination of 8.1 %. Until it was opened you had to go be cay around the fiord making the trip 50 kilometers longer. That’s why there was a ferry boat connection from the harbor of Reykjavík to Akranes.
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Reykjavík is a special capital city, as it is the most-northern capital of the world. It can be found in the West of Iceland at the shore. Why is that? It was founded by Ingólfur Arnarson (one of the first settlers) in 874 CE in Viking tradition: he threw wooden poles from his ship and waited where they would reach land. Today the city has 140,000 inhabitants and is the largest settlement in Iceland. Its name literally means ‘smoky bay‘ which might refer to hot springs once existing in the area.
Continue reading “Capital by the sea”
The currency of Iceland is the íslensk króna (ISK). When in 1918 the island became independent from Denmark this currency was introduced. Typical bills circulating are of 10,000, 5,000, 2,000, 1,000 and 500 ISK value. An íslensk króna is divided into 100 Aurar but these coins don’t exist anymore; you might typically receive coins with the value of 50 or 100 ISK during your journey. If you want to withdraw cash you’ll find sufficient options, already at the Keflavíkurflugvöllur. But to be honest: you don’t need them.
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