Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
Everywhere in the world you seem to get the same soft drinks. But during the Cold war the situation was kind of different: in the communist and socialist world the cola from the United States wasn’t allowed. That’s why in different countries alternatives have spread. Most of them are nowadays unknown, but not Kofola.
You can reach the main sights in Bratislava on foot, you can go to the Danubia Meulensteen Art Museum by boat and to the castle of Devín by bus. But if you want to see the Červený Kameň castle, explore the little Carpathian mountains or simply don’t have enough time to wait for ships and busses, it is time for car rental.
Continue reading “Renting a car in Bratislava”
If you’re not going by plane to Bratislava or Vienna airport, the ride to Bratislava is pretty long. I went on a 7,5 hour train passage from Göttingen via Würzburg, Regensburg and Passau in Germany; Linz and St. Pölten to Vienna in Austria. In Vienna main station I had to switch to a regional train going to Bratislava.
While for most travel destinations you get good books in German or English from companies like Baedeker, Marco Polo or lonely planet, the variety goes down when looking at eastern Europe. One might even say that there is no choice.
Flying to Sarajevo was a quite spontanous idea: I still had a week of paid leave to take and in the last year I was continously travelling eastwards throughout former Yugoslavia, having seen Zagreb and Ljubljana. Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina were the logical consequence.
Continue reading “Welcome to Sarajevo”
When Yugoslavia broke in parts in the beginning of the 1990s, the ethnic conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina escalated; the state is a reflection of Yugoslavia in miniature. Three ethnics and three religions exist next to each other: Bosniak muslims, orthodox serbs and catholic croats. While the bosniaks, forming the majority of nationals, wanted to became a separate state, the serbs wanted to be part of Serbia or remain in former Yugoslavia and the croats wanted to cooperate close with Croatia. No surprise.
As I was travelling to Sarajevo, Bosnia, I got a very cheap flight which included a 15 hours layover in Beograd. Not much time for the capital city of Serbia, but enough to see the main sights of the city and to catch a bit of the atmosphere. I had to prepare well and especially to get some Serbian dinar in advance.
One of my annual traditions is to participate in the Labour Day march and gatherings on May 1st. As a child my father, who was work council member of Deutsche Bahn, took me there and I never missed this festivity since then. Normally I would attend in my home town, Göttingen, but as I disagreed with some decisions of the local DGB regional organisation (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, German federation of unions) lately, I chose to relocate for this day.
Continue reading “Labour Day in Hann. Münden”
This time I came to Stuttgart to introduce a friend to the city – and to see my team loose against the Verein für Bewegungsspiele (VfB), a designated candidate for the descent to the second league, in the Mercedes-Benz-Arena. But as we were meeting some friends that moved to Stuttgart, my mood was unbreakable.
Continue reading “Swabian metropolis”
On my last day in Rio de Janeiro, the two most favorite teams in Rio – Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas (Botafogo FR) and the Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (CR Flamengo) matched at Estádio do Maracanã. Of course I had to be there. So I chose the colours red and black (kind of strange for me) and went to support Flamengo (“mengo – mengo – mengo!“).
Continue reading “Botafogo x Flamengo”