Dublin-Arrival

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IMG_4839 Finally we arrived around 9 PM local time. It’s amazing it may take up to 12 hours to get from Zagreb to Dublin. Sure, it could go a lot faster but it would also be a lot more expensive.

The drive to Budapest was uneventful but at least, somewhat unusualy for us, we were there on time. Our plan to take all of our stuff as carry-ons failed since a guy at the check-in informed us that the flights are full so we accepted the fact that the bags will be late in Dublin since there was no chance they could reload it from one plane to another in just 45 minutes in Paris. In the end, to our great surprise, they actualy managed to do it and we got it in Dublin without problems.

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You gotta be kidding!

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luxembourg_flag

Amazing, isn't it?
Amazing, isn’t it?

It is truly unbelievable what happens with the price of internet access in various hotels. While on one side number of hotels, mainly smaller ones, provide access for small or, more often than not, no fee at all, larger hotel chains  “with reputation” charge ridiculous amounts.

Since for the current stay in Luxembourg the hotel I usualy stay at was fully booked, arrangement has been made for me to stay in a hotel belonging to one of those international chains. Not only the hotel is situated in the middle of nowhere (which is not an easy thing to accomplish in a country of Luxembourg size)  but the internet access fee is record-breaking high. Must admit I haven’t seen something like this yet.

It’s interesting how the “hunger” for internet access drops sharply under such circumstances (of course, sitting in a coffee shop with the free of charge access doesn’t count:-))

Luckily, it’s a very short stay followed by care-free home surfing.

Roadhouse Blues

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rukeI’ve always felt a huge frustration that there’s so much good music around that I don’t know of. Perhaps I’ve heard a song I liked on the radio once, then once or twice more, then perhaps they would even mention a name of the band. Then I’d go to a record store, rummage the shelves and if lucky, found what I’m looking for, only to realize to my huge disapointment that the album is actually crap except perhaps for the song that got me hooked in the first place.

Or, scenario number two: with some cash to spend, I decide to take a risk and buy a record that I thought might be good (yes, some of us actually tried that as well to broaden musical horizons :-)). Don’t know what’s the mathematical probability that such a move would result in something good but unsurprisingly, the outcome was more often than not disastrous.

Exceptions to the rule that I can remember today (happened more than 20 years ago): Tom Waits-Big Time and Nick Cave-Tender Prey. Both purchased mostly based on a hunch and resulting in tectonic shift of my musical taste (for better or worse, it’s a matter of discussion :-)).

“Fast-forward” to today. Resources are almost unlimited, starting with traditional and “internet-only” radio stations streaming music, through services like Last.Fm, to on-line stores with more or less valid recommendations. On top of that, there’s not-so-legal aspect of torrents and web forums.

Using some of those resources until now I’ve discovered bunch of great music I would never hear of in pre-internet era. Truth be told, that kind of music can’t be defined as commercial by any stretch of imagination and that’s not due to geographical isolation but peculiarity of musical taste.

Good example of the above is a guy whose concert I went to see recently here in Zagreb – Scott H. Biram. Genre-wise I’ve no idea how to define it but I read about “alt-country”, “southern goth”, “psychobilly-punk” and all kinds of other exotic definitions.

To me, it’s just a good music played with passion.

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Good people

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It’s been a while since I’ve visited Serbia so I thought: “Why wouldn’t I drive 650 km and see what’s new over there?”

Well, actually it was a little bit different – the company sent me there since there was some work to do for few days.

So far, furthest south I got in Serbia was some 70 km north of town of Nis where I’m currently at so this is kind of a record. When arriving to a town you see signs towards Thessaloniki, Greece, you know you’ve gone south for real (although truth be told, there’s at least additional 450 km of driving to get there).

The drive to Nis was quite OK since luckily there was almost no rain, and I would have made it in less than 6 hours if it wasn’t for a litlle problem I had just before crossing border into Serbia – my exhaust pipe kind of fell apart.

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Shady character

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Photo by drp
Photo by drp

I flew today, as I have done over past three months, to Luxembourg (hopefully the last visit if things remain as originally planned).
Considering holidays are almost here and my alcohol stash at home is dangerously low (believe it or not, mostly because the chemical structure has suspiciously changed, so even though technically it might have not expired yet, it’s hardly something I’d want to offer to guests. At least not to those I generally like) and prices in Zagreb duty free shop on the airport are substantially lower than anywhere in EU, I decided to buy some stuff and ended up with a liter of Jagermeister and half a liter of vodka.
Only later it occurred to me that I’m flying through Frankfurt airport which, for number of reasons (not least of because few years back I was slapped with a hefty fine thanks to 2 boxes of cigarettes I was carrying in transit), I hate passionately. Since I believe only one liter of spirits is allowed, even in transit, I fully expected to pay “idiot-tax” there.
So, there I am, on the Frankfurt airport, going through all the mazes and tunnels to reach my exit, and there awaits a final hurdle-security check with x-rays and all.
Sure enough, there comes a guy and goes through my bottles and asks where have I flown in from. So, I said, Zagreb. He thinks about it for a second and says, Aha, Kroatien!
Next thing I know, he tells me to take all of my stuff and follow him.
I’ve already done few calculations on how many bottles of drinks I could have bought in a regular store for the money he’s gonna charge me for now (a LOT).
Just around the corner, he opens the door behind which there was a machine looking like oversize xerox machine. But, instead of writing me a fine, he takes some kind of swab and starts scratching it on my jacket. Turns around, does something with it on the machine, comes back, repeats the procedure on my backpack, back to machine and then comes back telling me it’s OK and that I can go now.
Being thrilled not to be penalized for my drinks, and curious as hell I asked him what was that all about, assuming it might had something to do with testing on drugs.
But it turns out it’s about testing for explosives!

So OK, I definitely have to work on my appearances. I was cleanly shaven, but I was dressed in my regular clothes since on arrival to Lux I was not supposed to go to the office (which pretty much means I looked like an average bum). It certainly didn’t help that it was a morning flight and as usual, I slept all the way from the moment I sat on the plane to the touch down in Frankfurt and at that point most likely gave an impression of the desperate guy with nothing to lose.
But apparently worst of all, I arrived from bloody Kroatien!

The best URL in the world

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So, it’s been more than a month since we got back from holidays thank you for asking, and photos are still not reviewed, edited, sorted, not to mention published on the web.

Since I’m stuck in Luxembourg for the second weekend in a row (that sucks!) I thought I might put that time to a good use and get some work done. Three hours later I took a better look and realized I’m still going through the second photo folder (folders being organized by dates). What?!? And mind you, just making a first rough selection in a second folder. Then I went and took a closer look and file count doesn’t lie – 1882 files. 1882! At this pace I should stay in Luxembourg until retirement to wrap this up. I’ll have to speed things up a bit.

But, that does not stop me from singling out a photo I like to call “The best URL in the world”.

I can’t be sure, but it could be some noble organization, e.g. Public Education Network, selling school materials on Iceland.

What do you think? Continue reading →

Impressions from Luxembourg

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IMG_3210_conv_small
Welcome

The first week in Luxembourg is behind me. What to say?

Well, the facts mostly confirm what I knew already:

– Luxembourg is small – OK, so there wasn’t much room for surprise here

– Luxembourg is expensive – this is not much of a news either. I think that most of the western Europe is ridiculously expensive but after so much time spent in Denmark, not many things can surprise me here.

The truth is, prices in some cases can vary. Take McDonalds which is twice as expensive than in Zagreb. Luckily, there is a cheaper alternative in “burger” department (which actually tastes better than McD) which is “only” 80% more expensive. Coffee is more expensive than in Zagreb but not necessarily by much. Single espresso is only little more expensive than in a better cafe in downtown Zagreb, but if you take double espresso, as I usually do, the price is almost same. Simply, in Zagreb double espresso has a price of 2 espressos. Period. Abroad on the other hand, double espresso is typically 1,5 or less of the single shot price.
That logic works only until you run into Kafka-like situation as I had the other day: Continue reading →