In Oil we trust(ed)

You might remember that i go to work on bicylce and pass by an area with a lot of graffiti. There is one column that caught my interest last summer: it had a graffiti-fied oil platfrom on it. Given my background that was funny for me. Look:


The cool thing about this is that the artist seems to be a rather persistent person. I first saw it sometime last summer. Since then it has happened numerous times that someone sprayed something else over it. But it always came back. Looks like someone really wants to deliver a message here. Or maybe it's just the omnipotent oil-industry, leaving us a reminder of their power
*conspiracy, hello big brother*

By the way, if you think that oil has no more influence on your life these days, i recommend you to read the excellent book 'Oil: A Concise Guide to the Most Important Product on Earth' by Matthew Yeomans.

Speaking of graffiti:

As seen on one of the benches in front of the main entrance of MQ. I hope you can make out the two surveillance cameras in the drawing. Pretty funny, huh?

Feel sLOVEenia

Hey there,

guess where i've been last weekend:

Yupp, visiting friends in Maribor. A nice weekend, good fun. Pictures will follow on my picture page, this blog entry is just a short teaser ;-) i've been there on a 'cultural exchange'. Funnily enough we had a Polish friend with us and after she saw a poster of it we went into an exhibition of 'Polish icons of architecture'. That was the only museum thingie we saw from the inside on that weekend.
Europe, ain't it wonderful, all mixed through.

Oh and in case you're wondering, i've hardly been travelling at all during the last month. My last travel was a month ago, in the end of March, also to Slovenia. To the town of Osilnica, home of local hero Peter Klepec. And just at the Croatian border - since it's a Schengen-border now they were constructing some new border stations, yet unfinished. Funny to see in a place where you'd expect almost nobody crossing except some local residents.
Anyways, that thing at the end of March was a working meeting, organised by friends from Ljubljana. With people from all over Europe. Hehe.

Speaking of Croatia: do you know Cedevita? It's a pulver to put into water, pure chemistry, love it. Croatians are very fond of it, also telling everyone how healthy it is, with all those vitamins and so on. Whatever, i recently ran out of Cedevita. Had a 1.1 kg-bag since last year, a present from a friend. So now that i was in Slovenia i refilled my stock. Now look what i've got:


Yummy! And six different tastes: blood orange, regular orange (the classic taste), mandarin orange, lingonberry(!), lemon and grapefruit. They say it's the best hangover medicine. Well, i'll simply use it whenever i feel like having something purely artificial.

Cheers.

Thessaloniki

Long time, no blog. I know. And i still have to blog about some of my Russian adventures and so on. Anyways.

Right now i am in Thessaloniki. Wonderful Greek city. I am here to do an ATHENS course, ain't that ironic. It has been almost four years (!) since my last visit in Greece, far too long. And this is my first time in Thessaloniki. Quite a nice place, next to the sea, with a wonderful promenade at the harbour.

I arrived friday afternoon. Took a walk through the city to get a first impression - sunny weather, nice buildings, usual hectic traffic like in all bigger Greek cities. And then at night i met up with some Greek friends to get to now the nightlife. Hehe. Greeks party until the wee hours in the morning. Literally, until they closed all the clubs. And then some. It was also interesting to see that no matter how full the club is, you don't immediatly pay your drinks. Only when you leave you talk to the barkeeper again to pay. Different system to what i am used to.

Saturday was the beginning of the course i am attending. Official opening at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. And then the cultural programme started. On Saturday we took a guided tour through the city, from the citadel down to the harbour, through the exhibition area, around the "White Tower" and so on. And we visited the Archeological Museum. If you know me long enough, you will know that this was a highlight for me =)

Speaking of highlights, Sunday was even better: we went a bit out of the city with a rented bus. To Vergina and Dion. Now, i have been to some quite impressive places in Greece, but this area was still unvisited by me so far. In Vergina they have found the unrobbed and unopened tomb of Philippos the Second. Almost sure it is him, THE Philipp II., the father of Alexander the Great. Wow. Including bones and all (not on display, the bones, being under constant restauration).
2300 years waiting there. Rediscovered 1977. Fascinating. Truly fascinating.

Other than that, not too much to tell right now. I am enjoying the course - it is related to my PhD and the professors are quite good, plus sympathetic like i know Greek - and Greek lifestyle.

Well, there is aspects that i don't like too much. For example the fact that they are smoking everywhere. Literally everywhere, in public, in private, indoor, outdoor, in the cafeteria, in every restaurant... you get the picture. Let's all trust EU to change that all over Europe ;-)

I've been to a club with only Greek music. And the Greeks who took us there really loved it, knowing all the lyrics and singing and so on. Hehe. They also took us to a nice restaurant to eat fish and seafood. Best octopus i ever had. Yummy. And Ouzo, of course. The good one, from Lesvos.

Once again, on the danger of repeating myself:
Life is good!

Winter

Hey there,

if you have been following this blog for a while you might know that the last two years i managed to escape winter - one i spent in the KSA and the other one near Hong Kong. Both places have a climate that i prefer to winter with all the freezing and so on. I prefer summer, actually, being able to run around in a t-shirt during day and night and so on.

This year it has already been quite cold in Vienna, around new year and in the end of January. But well, to have the real winter feeling i did something else: i went to Russia! So here i am right now, blogging to you from a classic block building in Ekaterinburg. I took a direct flight to Moscow. Got onto the aeroexpress into the city and went down into the metro to meet up with a Russian friend. Oooh so many things to write about, so many impressions. In short, it is a really interesting country for me.
A bit longer: well, a lot of things would be as you expect them. The metro is really impressive, with the glorious stations. The first i got into already looked nice. I drove to another where i touched the statues of a dog for good luck. I got out of the metro and saw the Bolshoi theatre, walked on around the Kremlin (passing quite some Russians who ate ice-cream outside, bought at макдональдс). It was sunny and according to my friends it was about -15 degree C. Nice weather. We walked around the Kremlin and when we got up close to Red Square we ... went into a pubilc toilet there. Nothing much to tell but for the soldier at the entrance of the toilet who warmed himself up, leaning against a radiator. Unfortunately we could not go into Red Square on that day because some politics going on and it was locked by police. But i saw it from afar. We went on to eat some Russian food, driving around in the Lada car of a friend there, passing the Duma and some more places that so far i had only known from movies and TV. I have to say once again that it is all simply cool to see and interesting to experience. I drove through a lot more parts of Moscow that afternoon, passing at least four of the five(?) highway rings of Moscow, getting out of the car for making a picture in front of Lomonossov university (not too long because the two Spanish friends with me where freezing like hell) and our Russian friends insisted we buy some alcohol as welcome drinks to Russia together with some food to accompany it. Funnily enough the first supermarket we passed was a BILLA - yes, the Austrian supermarket chain...

Anyways, i spent a night in the airport and took a flight in the early morning to Ekaterinburg. -15 to -20 degC in daytime and a lot more snow. And so much fun. I"m attending a course at the university here and a lot more things. I have done sports indoor and outdoor(!) - Russia will organise olympic games in 2014 i think - i have tasted some vodka, yes, i did a city ralley, saw a castle made out of ice in the style of Chinese palaces, Lenin statues, i was at a live concert of a young Russian rock band, i attended a Hawaii party(!) and so on...

Now i have to go, i just cooked "Kaiserschmarrn" for my friends here for the international evening, yummy! More will follow, including pictures,

Cheers
CGA
-yippiiiiiiiieeeeeee!!!

Banksy no more

Maybe you've heard of Banksy, maybe not. Sure has made some nice pieces. I recently bought his book entitled 'Wall and Piece' and can highly recommend it - good fun to read, or look at.
All the more interesting to find one of his works in the streets of your own city (well, at least if you live outside of the UK, this is something special, i guess). Well, i haven't, but a friend of mine has found one a couple of months ago (thanks for the pic), look:


The police-smiley. I asked her where that was. Unfortunately i was too late:


They painted over it, well, most of it. And someone has scratched "BANKSY HATES YOU" into that :-)

...when hell freezes over

Hey there,

maybe you know the idiom "until hell freezes over". Hell, a rather mythological and hence non-existent place, can be a rather ridiculous topic to research since it simply does not exist, "it's all in your miiind!". But well, in the traditions around here it has mostly been described by whoever made it up as a hot place.
Having lived in the desert for a while i was quite reminded of that old idiom when i read the news yesterday: snow on the gulf!
See here or here .
A mountain in UAE, quite a rare thing as such, and covered in snow. And then it's so remote that it can only be reached by helicopter. And so the only people able to enjoy real snow there are some rich bastards. All the rest might get a chance in Ski Dubai but after growing up in Austria i find the idea of indoor skiing kind of pervert. Well, well, those are strange times...

Ballsaison!

Cheers
CGA

ps: if you haven't heard that story about hell freezing over by that student, go here and enjoy.

Things i'd like to own that i don't really need

A stormtrooper bobble-head and a cuddly plush Yoda. Ooooh. Really must-have items for me. But still, i did not buy them, so i resisted temptation. One more time.

In case you're wondering: they are on display at the fnac in Madrid. I've been to my favourite city one more time last week. At the end of my two-weeks-vacations-travelling. I'll blog more about it if i'll have the time. Was good fun, met a lot of great people. Thanks!

Cheers.

LEGOLAND

So, if you follow this blog you might know that i like to travel. But i still haven't made it to Danmark. But at least i managed to see LEGOLAND, yippiiiiieeee! Not the original one, but the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre here in Duisburg. And i gotta say, that was good fun. So much for achieving your childhood dreams. Having grown up playing LEGO that was definitely one of them. Jejeje. Some more pics:

Posing with LEGO batman.

LEGO Spielberg. Sat just in front of their 4D cinema.

Ooooh i'd definitely like one of those for my flat. Unfortunately those are custom-built and don't come nicely packed with instructions :-P

That funny fellow was part of the medieval-themed area/ride.

LEGO Indy. They also have LEGO Sean Connery keychains.

Creepy, huh? Was part of the jungle-themed area, sinpired by Indy II.

Picture's not really good, but that was a really cute scene. When i put myself into that LEGO lion and my head through its mouth a little girl saw me and came closer, laughing. Really sweet. After a bit of laughing she asked me "hehehe so you can't get out of there?" =)

Just outside of the entrance. That fellow with the slightly sick complexion had quite a summery outfit for the end of November. Didn't look too happy.

That's all, folks! Keep on travelling. And smiling.
Jejeje.