Macedonia (FYROM) has a large Turkish (Muslim) minority, a result of 500 years occupation by the Ottoman Empire. This is picture from the big Turkish bazaar, sleeping at night, but busy during daytime. It was the evening of January 1st, maybe it was even calmer than on normal nights.
Archive for Januar, 2010
Turkish market in Skopje, Macedonia
Samstag, Januar 30th, 2010Christmas lights in Skopje, (FYROM) Macedonia. January 1st 2009
Mittwoch, Januar 27th, 2010 
Christmas lights in Skopje, (FYROM) Macedonia. January 1st 2009
Originally uploaded by plepe
It’s not the time of year right now, but this were the Christmas lights in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia (to be exact: FYROM, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).
The Macedonian orthodox church celebrates Christmas, like many of the orthodox churches, on Januar 6th. Therefore everything was still in full anticipation, when we went there on the evening of January 1st, with the first bus from Sofia.
The Christmas lights looked really nice and overwhelming (no comparison to Sofia), but if you look closely you can see a T-Mobile-logo as star on the christmas tree in the background, it also explains the color … Commercialisation everywhere :(
Memorial near Gara Lakatnik, Bulgaria
Dienstag, Januar 26th, 2010 
Memorial near Gara Lakatnik, Bulgaria
Originally uploaded by plepe
A last picture from that rock face in Gara Lakatnik, from my first visit in January 2009. This time we can see the summit cross on of the protruding rocks and the memorial, the main attraction of that site.
The memorial remembers the ‚Bulgarian coup d’état of September 1944‘, when the Bulgarian kingdom was overthrown with the help of the help of the Red Army, which finally led to Bulgaria joining the soviet block.
View from Gara Lakatnik, Bulgaria, May 2009
Sonntag, Januar 24th, 2010 
View from Gara Lakatnik, Bulgaria, May 2009
Originally uploaded by plepe
Again Gara Lakatnik – I hope it doesn’t get boring yet – this time in the beginning of May, and spring has finally started. I went there again with to Polish friends who were on the Erasmus program too. They really loved the place, and the view is really beautiful from there – this time to the East. It’s part of the main line between Sofia and Varna, and it’s the slowest part, as it’s going through the mountains and is very curvy. The next bigger towns along the train line are Svoge to the South and Mesdra to the East.
In the area next to the river you can see some small industrial landuse, between the train line and the right picture corner the spreading village of Gara Lakatnik.
Gara Lakatnik in Bulgaria again, in April 2009
Freitag, Januar 22nd, 2010 
Gara Lakatnik in Bulgaria again, in April 2009
Originally uploaded by plepe
I really liked this rock face near Gara Lakatnik so, one day when I needed some fresh air, I went there again (and a third time in June with some other Erasmus students). Down in the village a nice Bulgarian couple started talking to me, I think they thought I’m confused and lost my way, in fact I was just doing some mapping for the OpenStreetMap-project. Anyway I showed them the way up the rock face, as they were there for their first time and we had a really nice time together.
As you can see, although it was the beginning of April, spring hasn’t really started yet, only the cherry trees were in full blossom. In the valley you can see the train line in direction Sofia.
Gara Lakatnik, Bulgaria in January 2009
Donnerstag, Januar 21st, 2010 
Gara Lakatnik, Bulgaria in January 2009
Originally uploaded by plepe
There was an especially warm period in Bulgaria nearly one year ago. I and two friends used the opportunity to go for a little hiking trip to Gara Lakatnik, about one hour by train to the North of Sofia. That rock face in the background is easily climbable in about an hour, a socialist monument waiting on the top.
Gara Lakatnik is a village itself, it must have been founded when the train line was built. There’s a village Lakatnik too, some kilometers to the East.
„TCM“ shop in Bucharest, Romania
Mittwoch, Januar 20th, 2010 
„TCM“ shop in Bucharest, Romania
Originally uploaded by plepe
Today I want to show you a picture of a „TCM“-shop selling „Produce Germania“ meaning „German Products“. Quite funny, you can find them all throughout Eastern Europe and seem to be quite popular, selling electronics, cooking utensils and clothing. In Germany and Austria those products are sold by coffee shops like Eduscho and Tchibo and are famous to be „low priced“. My mother is very fond of them, she often buys me some stuff.
Group of Photographers in Bucharest
Dienstag, Januar 19th, 2010 
Group of Photographers in Bucharest
Originally uploaded by plepe
The day I went to Bucharest (Rumania) my CouchSurfer joined a group of photographers who meet regularly (like once a month) to explore a district of their city. For sure I used the opportunity to join them, that’s what I’m travelling for, don’t I?
So we were this huge group (about 50 people I guess) of photographers walking through this district, taking pictures of everything. Imagine the astonishment of the population ;)
It was really interesting, as this were my first experiences with Rumanian culture.
If I remember correctly, on this picture I think they were taking pictures of the moving swing.
The Zeitgeist movement
Dienstag, Januar 19th, 2010A couple of days ago somebody gave me a DVD with the movie „Zeitgeist„, which is distributed freely over the internet and by DVD (if you like it you can burn a copy, make a special cover out of a A4 sheet of paper, and distribute it). I was quite curious about this movie, as it is about Change in our world.
Actually it was quite interesting, most of it questions our economic system based on monetary values, which – according to the movie – is one of the main reasons for inequalities on Earth, as one of its basics is debt and scarcity. Which is true in many ways, in the last century poverty and hunger massively increased and state debts multiplied, although progress developed many new inventions which might obsolete poverty, famines and diseases. It’s true, the „western world“ exploits their inhabitants and the poorer regions of Earth.
A big part of the movie are world conspiracies, performed by the U.S.A., who are accused of assaulting leaders of developing countries to keep up their influence and fight against democratization of their countries. This is something where I don’t know what to think, I can’t believe that a nation can do this without noticing and being held responsible for this. On the other hand it sounds pretty reasonable, e.g. it’s a matter of fact, that (at least some) of the last wars (e.g. Iraque) have been fought due to economic reasons. Without 9/11 this war might not have been possible. 9/11 also helped to implement surveillance laws (to oppress its inhabitants, living in permanent fear). Another example is the U.S. ignorance of global climate change.
The last part of the movie was rather disappointing to me, it’s about the Venus Project (the makers of the movie as it turns out). I’ve read about this project before and I regard it as immature (not to say bullshit). The Venus Project develops ideas for a society based on a „resource based economy“. Technical progress should enable us to live without any inequalities, totally based on renewable energies and so on (that’s the good part). But it sounds like an Utopia from the 1950s-1970s, with all those huge buildings and transportation systems in tubes and everybody has their own car (which runs on renewables, with a lot of security measures, and so on). Sorry. But that’s too late, those Utopias are stories from the past.
My biggest concern: Who manages the resources? There’s a long page about their mighty resource based economy, but no explanation about its function. Even if an economy is not based on monetary values, somebody has to distribute those resources. How do I get food, a new computer or a car? They will never „fall from the sky“. Somebody has to produce it. Even if it is produced by machines, somebody has to build those machines. Will somebody (a person, company, organization or entity) will create it, „just because it feels right“? Somebody has to decide what should be build. Somebody has to decide where to build something.
This „who“ doesn’t have to be a single person. It can be a community. It could be an elite, but who decides who is that elite? It could be a democracy, but there are many kinds of democracies and most of them don’t produce equalities. I’m sure, we do need a new social system. Fast. Urgent. But the movie „Zeitgeist“ and the Venus Project don’t answer this question.
Have you seen this movie? What do you think about it? Ideas for a new social system?
National Library in Prishtina, Kosovo
Montag, Januar 18th, 2010 
National Library in Prishtina, Kosovo
Originally uploaded by plepe
In March 2009 I made a trip to Kosovo, as I was interested in the youngest democracy of Europe. It’s a country which still needs a lot of time and energy to develop their economy, but people are very friendly and helpful.
In this picture you can see one of the most famous buildings of Prishtina, the capital: The national library, located near the city centre in something which might develop into a park some day.