Kennt ihr FS-Misik (bzw. Robert Misik)? Das ist ein Wiener Autor, der für den Standard und einige andere Zeitungen schreibt. Außerdem betriebt er auf der Homepage des Standards seit einiger Zeit einen Videoblog, von dem ich in der letzten Zeit großer Fan geworden bin, aufgrund seiner seiner bissigen Analysen und Gedankenanregungen. Schaut mal auf http://derstandard.at/?url=/?ressort=fsmisik rein und stöbert … es lohnt sich.
FS-Misik
November 20th, 2008Page 56
November 19th, 2008What had I done in my almost twenty years? – The Chariot of Time, Yuri Medvedev
The last meme in internet culture:
* Grab the nearest book.
* Open it to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
* Dont dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
This book was just lying on the table next to my laptop because I found it in my (new) room, and apparently it belongs to nobody – a good reason to read it.
To say something about the sentence: I already done a bit more then twenty years, but I’m still quite satisfied with it. But to really engage in this question now would be too much :)
Forest Landscape Design
November 19th, 2008One of my professors at the university gave me an article called ‚Notes on Forest Landscape Design‘ as reading. I didn’t expect much, but I was very positively surprised. Many design principles and ideas were presented, that are valid for other design projects too. One main conclusion is: Always have everything in mind :)
So, if you have some free time, I can recommend you: http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/e-journal/pan_eco/edesign.html
Велико Търново (Veliko Tarnovo) and the Dragon Dance
November 15th, 2008Last weekend we spent in Veliko Tarnovo, one of the former capitals of Bulgaria, before the occupation of Ottoman Empire (in 1393). It’s a very historical place. For sure of this old time not a lot has been remained, only the foundations of a fortress, called Царевец (Zarevets). During communist era the government tried to rebuild the castle, or at least part of it. Now you have the original ruins and ruins of construction.
Anyway, it’s a special place. On top of the hill where Zarevets resides you find the Patriarch’s church with very modern paintings (unfortunately taking pictures would have cost 5 Лв = 2,50 ). Every now and then there is an audio-visual show at this castle, it will be illuminated by different colors and you can hear music – the problem: you never know, when is the next time. So we didn’t see this.
It’s a huge area with lots of walls, ways and … an awesome view of the city. Veliko Tarnovo is lying in a meander of the river Yantra, which cut it’s bed deep into the earth. Most of the city consists of small houses which are build on the river slopes. So the city structure is something very special and from every viewpoint you are astonished again. In the old town centre you have a lot of houses with the typical architecture of Bulgarian Renaissance.
In total we haven’t seen a lot of Veliko Tarnovo, because we were a large group of eleven people (everybody from our Language Course in Burgas) and we met there to celebrate Adrian’s Birthday.
 Zarevets |
 Zarevets |
 The old city of Veliko Tarnovo |
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I can really recommend the hostel were we were staying, the Hostel Mostel. It’s in renovated old building, a very comfy place and they even left some holes in the painting of the walls, so you can see the structure of the wall. The staff was also very amiable and there were interesting, international guests (always a good sign for a place).
One of those guests was a Japanese guy, Oikado Ichiro, who is travelling (walking!) through Europe for quite some time now and he is an artist. He has a show, which he calls the ‚Dragon Dance‘. On the second day he already announced that he wants to do this dance for us and when we got home from Saturday evening Birthday party we found a note on the floor with his costume next to it, which announced his Dance for 11am or 12am. I was up a bit earlier, so I already could see him preparing. Finally when nearly everyone was awake he started his show (the rest awoke because of the noise). It was really impressive, what he showed us with just some simple costumes and some masks. The show lasted for about half an hour and afterwards we spent quite some time talking to him, he wrote us our names in Japanese and we exchanged e-mail-addresses.
 Kappa |
 A Dragon |
 A Fish |
 Oikado’s sign |
 Talking, exchanging experiences |
 The common room in the hostel |
So much for this trip, it was really a nice experience again.
This week the hard disk of my notebook died, so I had to buy a new one and reinstall everything. Fortunately I’m often doing backups, so I didn’t lose a lot of data, but some pictures of the last trips are damaged :( The good thing: I have now a hard disk with the double size from the old one (250 GB). I’m now using Xubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibix, I’m curious how it will work for me in the long run. For now I have to say, it feels really fast.
A lot of things …
November 6th, 2008I really have to excuse, now there was a really long time without an article on my Blog. It’s not that there’s nothing to talk about, for sure I’m not getting bored that easily.
As I already announced I’ve been to a CouchSurfing-Meeting in Borovets, a skiing-resort in the Rila-Mountains at the weekend of October 24th-26th.
The Meeting started on Saturday, but I wanted to go there on Friday and use the whole weekend, especially as I was told, that this place is very good for hiking. I finally found some fellows – two more Erasmus students from Germany and Latvia and a CouchSurfer from Bulgaria (who did Erasmus at Vienna University of Technology some years ago and was studying at the same university here in Sofia too). We started our trip with an evening hike. We met in Sofia shortly after 6pm and travelled to Боровец (Borovets) by bus and taxi and started hiking around 8:30pm. So it was already really dark and we had to use our head lamps. After about two hours we reached our place for the night … a mountain hut. We were welcomed with a burning oven and candle light. We had some dinner and spend the rest of the evening playing cards.
Most of the next day we spent hiking, we hiked to one of the next peaks, Шатар (Schatar), with about 2500m over sea level. Unfortunately the weather was not very nice, it was very foggy and it even had some rain.
 The mountain hut |
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 The stony way to the top |
In the days after I got a nasty diarrhea with stomach cramps and fever … not very funny, but after three or four days it finally got better. So I spent a lot of time at home, in my bed or in front of the TV.
On the weekend I joined my first Critical Mass in Sofia with a borrowed bicycle. You know, this is this an international movement of cyclists who meet and cycle through town to fight for more rights for cyclists and other alternative forms of transportation. Here in Sofia we are still a small group, we just were like a dozen people or so. Afterwards I was invited to the national radio for a concert – some psychedelic underground rock band was playing there, which was pretty got. I met the husband and a flat-mate of Rossi, the CouchSurfer where I spent my first two weeks. I had thought I might meet him there, because he is working at this radio.
On Sunday I went hiking again, this time on the Vitosha, the mountain close to Sofia, to it’s highest peak, the Черни Връх (Cherni Vrah). This time we took it easy and used a chair lift for a part of our tour. Unfortunately the weather was again not very good.
 The band at the radio |
 It was supposed to be a short cut |
 Heavy clouds on Vitosha |
Most of the last days I spent with my computer, because I’m working on a new web application (I also should study, I will do it tomorrow, promise!). I told you about the OpenStreetMap (OSM) before, which is a free alternative to Google Maps (and similar applications) and consists mainly of user generated content. I’m not very satisfied with the default view, as the public transport routes are not being displayed (at least not if you enter them in the preferred way). I was thinking about generating an own map style for a long time, and now I decided to just do it. The project is progressing quite nicely, and I think the OSM community will be quite excited about it. But at the moment I can’t show you anything yet, I will write a special article on my blog when it’s ready to be announced.
I could actually need some help with this project. I’m not very good at drawing and I need little icons for train, tram, bus and some more things. So if you want to help the open source community, this is your chance. :)
So, thanks for patience. Have a nice weekend!
First trip to Istanbul
Oktober 23rd, 2008Already Thursday … and still no report about last weekend. Shame on me. But now it’s time, because the next weekend is arriving, with new exciting experiences (at least I hope so – it will start with an evening/night hiking tour on Friday and will lead to the CouchSurfing-meeting in Borovets).
So last weekend we went to Istanbul, supposed to be the largest city in Europe with over 14 million inhabitants. I heard a lot of good things about this city beforehand, and I have to say, I was not disappointed. Istanbul is not far away from Bulgaria, it’s 8-10 hours by bus. Sure, I would have preferred a train – but the bus was way faster and cheaper and there are several buses a day and not only one. And supposedly it was more comfortable. I was really impressed … Bord service, more the enough room for my feet, comfortable seats. I would never have thought that I would enjoy an 8 hour travel by bus. And it was really cheap – only 40Лв (about 20) per direction.
What really was annoying, was the border control which took one hour. We had to show our passports five times (on the way back only four times) and I even had to buy a visa for 15 (which I knew beforehand, I always check the homepage of the Austrian ministry for foreign affairs before travelling to another country). My visa is valid for three months, so I have to go there again soon – maybe already next week.
At our arrival at 6am we were greeted by the morning-prayer of the next mosque. After getting a map and a ticket for public transport we tried to reach the sea before sunrise – what we unfortunately didn’t manage. But we had breakfast at the sea. Very nice.
 Too late for sunrise, but impressive anyway. |
 Small ships, old rusty ships and in the background the city in morning fog. |
 Some ships at the marmara-sea are waiting for their day work. |
Some days before we went to Istanbul we had dinner at my CouchSurfer’s place again and we met a Turkish guy there who gave us a lot of tips what we have to visit in Istanbul. So we went on a sightseeing-trip – The Blue Mosque or Sultan Ahmed Mosque, built 1609-1616 was our first spot, directly followed by the Hagia Sophia which was built over a millenium earlier in 532-537 as church and has been converted to a Mosque after the takeover of the Ottoman Empire in 1453. Both are very impressive buildings.
 The Blue Mosque, seen from the Hagia Sophia |
 The Hagia Sophia, seen from the Blue Mosque |
 Inside the Blue Mosque |
 The Hagia Sophia from the Gallery |
So, I will not continue with too much details, this would take too long, and I just want to write an article for my blog and not a book. Next I want to show you some pictures of the Bosporus, the sea connection of Black Sea and Mediterranean and the view of the surrounding quarters. They really offer some impressive views of hilly Istanbul. It doesn’t matter to which direction you look, you can only see populated area. It’s crazy.
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 Dolmabahçe Palace |
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 The Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia, seen from the asian side |
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What else is worth telling about? We have been to The Grand Bazaar which has been built in 1455-1461. It’s really huge, but very touristic at most places. But there are some hidden quarters, which are worth seeing. Anyway, it’s very impressive.
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On Saturday I left Europe for the first time in my life :) We went to the Asian side. I think it’s different from the other side were we came from … but it’s more like another quarter of the town as being ‚Asian‘. What we noticed in whole Istanbul, but especially on the Asian side: People are very friendly, often too friendly. For example, you watch a mosque from the outside … immediately somebody is here and invites you to see the mosque. We were even allowed to stay for the evening prayer. Fore sure, if you pass a shop or a restaurant they want to convince to come in and see – for me it’s annoying, but it’s just the culture there. I also didn’t really fell comfortable in the restaurants, it’s different to what I’m used to.
 Fish seller at a market |
 Somewhere in a residential area |
 Populated area, wherever you look |
 Inside a small mosque |
 A cemetry |
 The Maiden’s Tower |
The Turkish guy also recommended us to see the Istiklal-Street near Taksim Square. As this was not far away from the place where we lived in Istanbul (a friend and CouchSurfer from Vienna, who is doing Erasmus in Istanbul currently), we went there on Saturday evening. Crazy … the street and the side-streets were so crowded, it looked as if half Istanbul was there. We just went through the road, you could hear different music from the bars, people talking and having fun. Very, very nice. It was hard to resist to go to one or more of these places, but we decided to be tired and therefore went home. During day time it’s a shopping street, like Mariahilfer Straße in Vienna – but it’s restricted to pedestrians, and there’s an oldtimer tramway running through. And I found a Space Invader!
 On Taksim Square |
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 Space Invader in Istiklal Street |
Still, so much to tell about this trip – But I think it’s enough for you to get an impression and for me to remember later. Now I know, why I avoided to write it earlier … it took me two hours. Hope you enjoyed reading it, I also enjoyed going there.
What else happened? I have to leave my flat in mid of November, because the project where the girl who I’m living with currently we will be changed, so she doesn’t have to stay in Bulgaria (which she really regrets, because she tried to find her roots here). But I think I already have a room for afterwards, although it might be crowded till beginning of December. We will see.
On Wednesday I was presenting Austrians national parks and the UNESCO world heritage sites in the class Landscape Architecture. I would have like to put the presentation on my blog, but unfortunately I had to use copyrighted material, so I don’t feel save with this.
So, stay tuned for the next update.
Zoom in
Oktober 15th, 2008
Trip to Елена (Elena)
Oktober 12th, 2008This weekend (Friday and Saturday) I was invited to join an excursion to some villages in the surroundings of Елена (Elena), a small town with some 6000 inhabitants in the centre of the country. The next larger town is Велико Търново (Veliko Tarnovo), the former capital of Bulgaria before the occupation of the Ottoman Empire in 1393. In Елена the 3rd-year students of architecture exercise planning. So I was again confronted with some new students, but we got on quite nicely. Some always kept translating me the most important things, because the professor who guided the trip only speaks Bulgarian and French.
There was not a lot of time for sight seeing in Елена, as we spent most of the time travelling or in the villages. On Saturday morning I got up early and had time to have a walk around town. Although it was foggy, I could make some nice pictures. Most of the town looks pretty normal to me, but near the city centre, which is crossed by a small river, are some roads which let you forget that the last fifty years or so have happened.
 The river and some houses |
 A road near the centre |
 Here you can see the typical architecture |
 Another view of river and houses |
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 Typical architecture |
The villages showed a poor image. Many houses are deserted, you seldom see people, especially young people. The age group 15-35 years was missing completely. What really stroke me was the absence of cars. I often have the problem that cars spoil possibly good images, especially these modern large SUVs.
These villages are really beautiful places, so tourism could get interest in these places soon. Some houses have already been sold to international investors and a few new buildings have already been constructed, which doesn’t fit the regional style. It’s a job for the governments to find a way to develop regions like this without destroying the landscape. Too many disasters happened around the world because of uncontrolled development of tourism. I don’t think that the Bulgarian government is capable of handling this job, I heard too much about corruption. There must be a reason, why ‚city planner‘ is the 5th best paid job. By the way, I’m just reading a scientific book about tourism, but that’s content for another article.
Миковци (Mikovtsi) – the first village we visited – is surrounded by some little wooded mountains. The evening-sun provided some great pictures. Here we could also see an example for new development – an apartment-house which looks somehow traditional, but it’s not typical for this region.
 An old woman with her goat |
 View on the mountains nearby |
 New building |
In Марян (Marjan) it was already getting dark, so the pictures aren’t very good. Марян is famous for having a monastery where a legend tells said that the remains of Tsar Boris I, the first Christian tsar of Bulgaria, have been found.
 The local pub and our bus |
 One of the students chatting with a farmer |
 Марянски Манастир (Marjancki Manastir) |
Of Чакали (Tshakali) I can’t tell you much, because the group separated and I followed to the next village. The name origins of the jackals which lived there in former times.
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Каменари (Kamenari) is named after the stone plates around the city. They make construction very difficult. Here I had the impression, I’m no longer in Europe, so different was the atmosphere. Here too the children we saw have no future, the school has closed down some time ago. The only amenities are a shop and a health care centre.
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Майско (Majsko) was our last stop. The only developing village we saw, which is due to the fact, that the population consists mainly of Gypsies and Islamic people. Which raises even more problems, because they don’t want to be assimilated by Bulgarian culture. Although one of the main roads between northern and southern Bulgaria is passing through this village, there was not a lot of traffic.
 The main road |
 Primitive Houses |
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All in all this was a very interesting trip with a lot of alien experiences and beautiful views, but also a lot to think and worry about.
One more thing happened. I met one of the students on the trip who is responsible for the Erasmus-students. I thought there are no such students at this university, because I asked at the international students office that I like to meet the other foreign students. The woman there promised to organize a party when everybody is here. Now I learned, that they already had several parties and meetings. I had also asked what organisational stuff I have to do – The answer was No. Which was not correct, I should get an ID and cheaper tickets for public transport. I’m a bit angry about this office.
Hope you enjoy my pictures!
13A bald wieder als Bim?
Oktober 10th, 2008Sehr viele meiner LeserInnen werden vermutlich nicht wissen, dass der 13A, eine Buslinie in Wien die zwischen Südbahnhof und Alser Straße verkehrt und dabei wichtige Bezirkszentren (Margaretenplatz, Mariahilferstraße/Neubaugasse, Josefstadt, …) erschließt, bis in die 1960er Jahre eine Straßenbahn war. Nun gibt es wieder Pläne diese Straßenbahnlinie wiederzuerrichten, da sich der Bus dort nicht bewährt (hat). Mehr dazu in der Wiener Zeitung.
Man beachte den Preis: von 20 Mio. Euro für 6 km neue Straßenbahn wird hier gesprochen, eine Summe die für gerade mal 200 m oberirdischer U-Bahn-Trasse reicht.
Ganz neu ist diese Idee übrigens nicht. Die Grünen fordern eine Umstellung schon seit längerem. (aktuelle Reaktion)
Achja, am Sonntag wird die Neuordnung der Ringlinien umgesetzt, wovon ich vor ein paar Monaten berichtet hab.
Витоша
Oktober 7th, 2008Sofia has a huge mountain close to the south, the Витоша (Vitosha) with it’s highest peak reaching over 2000m. You can conveniently reach the mountain with several tram and bus lines, which takes around half an hour from the city centre.
We decided to hike up the mountain last Saturday. Because of Friday’s Erasmus Welcome Party in Sofia we were only two, but we decided to do it anyway (and it might had slowed us down anyway). We could have used one of the lifts up the mountain, but we preferred to walk. So we took Tram 5 to Knyazhevo and started walking up. We didn’t really have a plan where to go, we just kept on going up. It’s a very beautiful place, the flora and fauna is changing all the time. Going up over 1000m takes quite some time, we already thought about going back, because time was running, and we had to go down too. But finally we reached the tree border at about 1800m (GPS is a great invention) and we could clearly see a peak, not far away. And the view from there was really exciting, Sofia was lying in front of us like a huge map. You barely can see it on the pictures, I hope you can imagine. Maybe you want to see it yourself?
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 The peak |
 Sofia |
 Waterfall |
On the way down we took an other way, which was shorter and more interesting, but pretty hard, so we had quite a muscle fever on Sunday and Monday. It was about 1300m up and down. Sunday it got really cold and it was raining a lot, so the right weather for a lazy day. Vitosha now has white cap :)
Two other important things happened last Saturday. As we were in the Tramway and discussing about tickets (in German) a young german woman started talking to us. She is working for a german company in Sofia and after some talk she offered that we can live with her, she has two free bedrooms. Really good news, I will move there this weekend. Currently I’m still couchsurfing, I really enjoy the company of my hosts. The other news unfortunately is bad news … my bike got stolen. It was a risk I was willing to take, because taking it home every evening would have been too unpleasing. Next time I will try to find a better lock, mine was really weak. Currently I have no plans to buy a new bike. We’ll see. At least it was not very expensive, and it was not the best anyway.
Enjoy your time too!