Summer Footage

Do your feet enjoy the summer breeze as much as this one does?

Braindump Books

I love to poke around in book stores and today I stumbled into something special.

The book is called "Wie man sich die Welt erlebt" [Amazon.de] (the English version is called "How to be an Explorer of the World" [Amazon.com]) by Keri Smith.

So what is so special about this book? Well, it simply felt like a braindump of my very own head.
Do you know the feeling when you are listening to a person who is on the same wavelength? Do you know the urge to say "I also thought about the same thing recently" or "hey, I did this the other day"?

Browsing through this book was very close to that feeling.

It was almost ridiculous how close the chapters or tasks were to some of my photo walks (I call them "Digipirsches" - digital stalkings) or meandering thoughts.

Over the last years a lot of more or less weird ideas crossed my mind. Some of them turned into something practical (like the 24 hour photo experiment) and a lot of them left my head a few minutes later and I forgot about them.

The book flashed a huge pile of those thoughts and ideas back into my mind within seconds and I was super excited to remember all those things.

Of course I bought the book and of course it will help me to wake up again the perception for the small things in life - a point of view that had suffered in the last months.

On my way to the checkout the salesperson run (and I really mean "run") after me. I guess I was grinning a bit too broadly while browsing the book and she spotted that.

She said "It is a brilliant book, isn't it? We got it just a few days ago".
I replied "Oh yes, it is more than brilliant" and thought "You have no idea how brilliant, little lady".

Well, I actually haven't told you what's actually IN the book. That's for YOU to find out during your next visit to your favorite book store.
Keep me posted about whether the book inspired/reminded you at least a little bit as me.

Stuffed Animals for Vienna

A Blue Bag, a Photo Rucksack and a Green Croc

 

Vienna for just one day? Why not.
My friend DD and I drove to Austria just for the sake of it. There was absolutely no plan what to do there and we enjoyed that fact very much.
Well, DD hat some kind of rough idea because he brought a huge blue bag full of stuffed animals. He got the stuff for free from a Second Hand Store in Germany. He didn't know what to exactly do with them but throwing the bag into the trunk of my car was at least a start.

He didn't tell me until arrival what's in the bag and when he showed the content to me in the morning in Vienna I was really excited. We decided to take the bag with us for our stroll through the city and see what happens.

We didn't have to wait long for the first encounter because we were struggling with a ticket vending machine for the subway because it wasn't accepting our bill. A girl stepped by to help us (BTW: not so likely back home in grumpy Franconia). She bought the tickets for us using her own coins after telling us some strange plan that included the exchange of tickets, coins, change and some sort of magic. Neither DD nor I are very good at math and we forced them to explain her strategy again and again. I am really bad in things like that and I always envy people at the supermarket checkout that hand over a random amount of coins the get just one bill back. In the end we gave up trying to understand and just trusted her. It was kind of a defeat for us boys but the was really way more clever than we.
Afterwards she just waved us good bye and walked away. DD and I just looked down at our blue bag, nodded and run after her. 
She chose a piglet, smiled broadly and disappeared. Good start.

A Piglet in Exchange for some Ticket Vending Machine Help

One Trunk and a Lot of Bird Houses

The Stephansdom cathedral is the center of Vienna and we thought about just giving the stuffed animals away to kids. After some discussion we came up with the idea to not give animals for free but to ask for a poem in exchange. DD said that no one will recite a poem in public to get a useless stuffed animal. In the end we decided to invest exactly 15 minutes to find out.  
My old chalk board was perfect for advertising saying "1 stuffed animal for 1 poem".

DD in Front of the Stephansdom

The pedestrian area in Vienna was full with street vendors so we didn't look like complete morons at the first glance - well, actually we did.

After a few minutes a group of tourists walked by and we just stopped a family from Croatia and told them about our "mission". The liked our idea but only their youngest daughter was brave enough to recite a poem in Croatian. I think she was really proud and I am sure that she will handle her new stuffed horse well. 


A Poem in Croatian for a Stuffed Horse

Waiting for Poem People.

An old man walked by, read our chalk board and smiled.

We: Excuse me, would you like to have a stuffed animal in exchange for a poem?
Man: I don't know poems at all but I like your idea.
We: Hey, you just looked like you already searched your mind for one. Right? Be honest.
Man: Well, you are right. But I really don't know a single poem.
We: What about if you go back to your childhood days?
Man: Wait, I know a blessing for house owners. It rhymes. Does that count as a poem?
We: Of course. Perfect.
Man: Gott beschütze dies Haus vor Sturm und Feuer, denn es war sehr teuer. *big grin*
(god save this house from storm and fire, because it was expensive)
We: Hey, cool. We knew you know one. Thank you. What animal do you want?
Man: I did it completely for free. Thank you for reminding me of the poem.

In the end it was 3 poems in 15 minutes and some more interesting talks with strangers.

A Poem about Storm and Fire - for Free

2008 I have been to Vienna for a business trip and we visited a nice little cafe. The waitress had every right to opt for an elephant for her good service.

DD Gives an Animal to the Waitress of the "Cafe der Provinz"

While DD was dealing with the waitress I was talking to a group of people. A girl gave me a very nice poem for two stuffed mice (I promised not to publish the photo) and a blond grown up girl impressed her boyfriend by standing up and reciting some chapters of the classic "Der Erlkönig" from Goethe in front of all guests in the cafe. Really cool.



A Rabbit for a Goethe-Poem

The rest of the day was filled with a lot of kilometres walking around and in the afternoon I was really exhausted.

A Stopover in the famous "Cafe Museum"

In the end we still had approximately 20 animals left. Damn. After visiting the Secession building we sat them down for a public shooting and left a green worm.


DD Prepares Our Public Shooting Near Secession

The highlight of the whole day was at the very end of it. On our way back we saw a mother with her two sons in a subway station. One of the boys was crying very loud. DD and I followed them, stopped them and opened the blue bag in front of the crying boy.
We told the mother that we just want to help healing the crying with a stuffed animal.
Well, the open bag stopped the crying immediately. The little boy checked all the animals very carefully and took the biggest one. He didn't look exactly happy afterwards but at least he had some trust again in general justice in the world.

A Big Brown One Helps Healing

Summary? Hmm, a lot of talks to strangers, some happy faces, much more openess than I expected, tired feet and a cool tour with a friend in a cool city. Vienna rocks.

Don't ask me what happened to the rest of the stuffed animals. I guess they are living now in DD's apartment.

 

No Unlockable Doors

There are no unlockable doors
There are no unwinnable wars
There are no unrightable wrongs
Or unsingable songs

There are no unbeatable odds
There are no believable gods
There are no unnameable names
Shall I say it again, yeah
(Ozzy Osbourne - I Just Want You)

It is a good day for stating slogans like the above.

Although I am a fan of the old songs of Ozzy I prefer the version of Hellsongs a lot more.



The line "There are no unrightable wrongs" is a tough one, isn't it?

Today - 3 Years Ago

Time flies.
Exactly 3 years ago - on Dec. 21st 2007 my pal Daniel and I did our first 24 hour photo experiment.
We strolled through the city of Nuremberg for 24 hours - from midnight to midnight.
Our mission was to take random photos and see what happens and how many moments can fit into 24 hours if you try to live them intensely.
We created a little Web site with some of our photos and our thoughts from that day.

Actually I don't want to bother you with old stuff but because I used the "anniversary" to browse through the page I thought I just re-share it with you.

Here you go: http://www.twentyone24.de/index2007.htm
Yes, I know, all the texts are in German but I was too lazy translating all the stuff.

Integration Issues

Do we do a good job when it comes to integration of fellow citizens with roots stretching out beyond the borders of Germany?
I don't really think so.
There's a lot of discussion around how to integrate migrants in Germany these days and I do have to admit that there are indeed some problems.

My city Nuremberg is also the city of a lot of people from Turkey, Russia, Kosovo, Iraq, Greek and from a lot more places around the world. A good share of them isn't really able to integrate because they can't use the most useful tool to do so: The matching language.

From my travels I know that language makes hell of a difference: It was so easy to connect to people in all the English speaking countries and a lot more challenging (up to almost impossible) in countries like Brazil or Jordan because I had no clue about Portuguese or Arabic at all.
I know that I am living a very privileged life with access to education and a good income (don't mention the latter to my boss). Knowing that, I can imagine that it is almost impossible to learn German if you are e.g. a woman from Iraq who the father has taken out of school in fifth grade and who now lives in Nuremberg as an immigrant in a traditional Arabic family.
My sister used to work as an elementary school teacher in Nuremberg and she told me that often the first-graders have to act as translators for their mums during parent-teacher conferences.
Really sad, isn't it?

The German government recently made some effort to improve that situation by forcing immigrants into so called 'Integration Classes'. Such a class last more than 400 hours and the main part of it to learn German. Other subjects of the class include to learn about the rights (and duties) of being a citizen in Germany and how to deal with civil service in a bureaucratic country like Germany.
All the learning lead to a feared 'Naturalisation Test' which caused a lot of discussion recently because the questions were considered either too lame or incredibly hard.

A few days ago I did the test online just for the sake of it and found the multiple choice questions quite reasonable.

Sample questions:
What happened in Germany on November 9th, 1938?
a) Germany attacked Poland starting WW2
b) The National Socialists lost an election and suspended the government
c) Jewish shops and synagogues were destroyed by National Socialists and their followers
d) Hitler becomes President of the German Reich

What is allowed during elections in Germany?
a) The husband can also vote on behalf of his wife
b) One can do postal voting
c) One can vote via telephone
d) Voting is possible starting with the age of 14

The Job Information Center can help on
a) Calculation your pension
b) Finding an apprenticeship position
c) Tax return
d) Health insurance



I don't know whether immigrants would be kicked out of Germany after failing the exam but I don't wanna know how many non-immigrant 'old school' Germans would fail the test miserably.

You can try the test for free [here...].

Oh, I almost forgot about the inspiration for this posting: I saw a flyer for a German class preparing for the Naturalisation Test. I really don't think it is a clever way to advertise a class for learing German in German language, is it?

PS: Just for the record: I passed the test with 33 correct answers out of 33. Therefore I won't be kicked out.

PPS: It would be great to hear how YOUR country helps immigrants.

Dummy Kid Games

There are games where a grown up needs a kid as dummy. Dummy Kiding Games so to say.
You don't know what I mean?
Well, imagine a father giving a model railway to his kid for Christmas. It is not unlikely that the father buyed it because he secretly wants to play with it and if the kid likes it too it's just a bonus.

Today I played one of my favorite Dummy Kid Games - again. It is one of the games that are very universal and probably being played all around the world. Just grab a kid by its hands and spin it around as fast as you can.

I really love the perfect mixture of cheerful joy and a glimpse of fear screamed out load by the Dummy kid and I also love the dizzyness in my head after spinning twenty times at full speed.

In this case I guess my Dummy enjoyed it as much as I did - or maybe even a wee bit more.

Ads?

I finally did it and joined the dark side. Am I a bad guy now?

The thing is that I switched on Google Ads on my blog. I am just curious what will happen and what kind of ads Google connects to the texts on my blog.
Actually I don't expect to earn any money but who knows. In the end there were more than 70.000 visitors to my blog since 2006.

At the moment it is one single ad just below the title row of the blog.

If it totally annoys you just drop me a note and I consider switching it off again.

Homage Dinner

Yesterday was All Saints' Day.
Here in Bavaria this day goes hand in hand with a visit to the graves of loved ones. In some places it ends up in big crowds rushing around the cemeteries carefully paying attention in being noticed by the neighbors.
If those crowds master to remember the dead relatives simultaneously to fulfilling social conventions, it's fine for them. I don't like it for myself, though.
I would probably feel different if the gatherings would be more like the celebrations of Day of the Dead in Mexico.

Yesterday, more or less by coincidence I had the chance to remember my dead Granny in a slightly differeny way: With my nose and with my stomach.

For the first time ever my girlfriend and I prepared a dinner that is very closely related to my Grandmother. The dish is called "Linsen und Spatzen" and consists of lentils with spaetzle noodles. In the days of my Granny it was a poor mans dish because of the cheap ingredients.

I can exactly remember the smell of the lentils when I entered our house after school as a kid. It is one of the smells I really connect to a certain human being - my Grandmother preparing lunch.

Yesterday my kitchen smelled like my childhood days and the memory of my Granny and of some of her funny awkward mannerisms flashed my mind.
After a while I realized that it was All Saints' Day and that my lentil menu was nothing less than my very own homage dinner.

Although my Granny wasn't the best chef in the world (actually quite the contrary) my connection of lentils to her will probably last as long as I live.

Unexpected Tenderness

Why is it, that one doesn't really expect to spot signs of tenderness from some people?
I wouldn't be surprising to see a young couple holding hands but for some reason it seems kind of uncommon to see some older folks show their affection in public.

The couple on the photo did show that they belong together in a way that really touched me. They were sharing a stunning view down to the Danube river at the Walhalla temple near Regensburg.

In one moment they were just standing close together and in the next one there was this gesture for "hey this looks stunning and I am glad that I can share this moment with you".

The guys made me smile in a good way.

Nudging Forward

Finally I feel like start blogging again. It's remarkable how much energy can be stolen by some things without noticing it. Energy that would have been really helpful to keep my eyes open for all the small things that enriched my life and to blog about it.

Like the little guy in the video it might be helpful to get little nudges from time to time to keep crawling (walking, jumping, flying etc.) forward.

Maybe I'll tell you a bit more about my trip around the world because I stopped right in the middle of New Zealand. There is a lot more to come from Australia, Vietnam, India and Jordan.
Maybe I'll show you some photos or video footage from stuff that fed my soul in the summer.
Maybe I'll just share some weird unfinished thoughts with you.

I really look forward to it - and to your comments.

If you wonder who I am talking to in this blog - don't ask me, I dunno.

Stirring Sounds

There was a thing that kept myself busy since I was a child. Really.

I have no idea how many cups of beverages I stirred until now but almost every single time I listened to the sound my spoon made in the cup when stirring.
There was always the suspicion that the stirring noise differs dependent on the the liquid and on the temperature.
Cold milk seemed to sound different to hot milk and a coffee different to ice tea.

Well, finally I extended my breakfast with a scientific experiment to give my poor mind some rest.

What can I say - my theory proved to be right! The stirring sounds ARE different.

You might say "so what?" but for me it was a big deal. A very big deal.

Try to listen to the stirring sound the next time you enjoy a hot beverage. Listening will even extend the joy of it. I promise.

Yellow Rustling

To a tree in the parking lot of a nearby school:

Bursting in colors
Before a big sleep
A scream in bright yellow
And then resting deep
I though got the message
Of leaves lying curled
That it could make big sense
To color my world
The voice of your foliage
Make my mind jump and sing
You fade for a few months
See you next spring

clickme

Some presents require a special response. Thanks to a friend for a lovely Africa-Survival package!

Glow Worms! / Waitomo, New Zealand, November 2008

After the abseil / the boots are already filled with water *)

Now I know why I have holes in my rubber boots. It is to get rid of the water that floods in from the upper rim. Actually my boots are completely filled with water - and it is damn cold.
I am standing in the middle of an underground river in a cave wondering what the hack I am doing here.

A little while ago I drove together with two French girls and two English guys with a van through the green hills of the Waitomo area. We were equipped with wet suits, helmets, head lamps, harnesses - and rubber boots with holes in it.
Our mission was to explore a cave by doing "Black Water Rafting".
Crouching through caves and all kinds of abseiling would have been enough to get me but in addition a fellow traveller mentioned that there are glow worms in some Waitomo caves.
Glowing worms? No idea what to expect.

Our guide Bettina briefed us about our equipment and pointed out that this wouldn't be a good idea for any person struggling with vertigo or claustrophobia.


*)

While I slowly descended down into the cave my environment changed completely and all senses noted a shift of gears.
The green hills changed into a indication of greenish light from above, the bird voices changed into the swoosh of water and the smell of fresh grass turned into that very unique cave-mixture of moisture, wet stones and soil.

All of a sudden I touched ground respectively water by landing in the middle of the stream that runs through the cave. I really had to inhale hard because the water up to my knees was very cold - and I mean 'very'. Was I really supposed to wade through that dark liquid antarctic for several hours? I guess so.

So here I am, in a cave rive'r. Let's enjoy it.


Freezing cold darkness *)

While waiting for the rest of my group to abseil I started to enjoy the scenery. Light fingers pointed down from above and when looking up there was no blue sky but a very intense green.
If you ever want to amplify a color just put complete darkness around it.

Everyone of us fetched an inflated rubber tube and we made our way up the river.
Bettina led us through a lot of small and smallest crevices and every time the water reached the next area of my body my lungs seemed to collapse.


Sometimes we had to crouch on our back with the cold water up to our ears - literally *)

After a while we reached a kind of underworld sandy beach in a bigger hall. We sat down on our tubes and Bettina shared some of her knowledge with us.
The said that the ceiling of the hall is covered with glow worms and that they illuminate to attract insects as prey. I looked up and saw not a single glowing thing. Did they cheat on me?
Bettina asked us to switch off our head lamps. Have you ever had the feeling of being swallowed by darkness? If there is a climax of 'pitch black' this would have been the moment to use it.


The underground sandy beach*)

I looked up into the darkness and was disappointed: No glowing worms above me. Did they really rip me off?

After some seconds of silence Bettina said 'Shall I switch the worms on? They are sensitive to noise and I am going to make some. Be prepared."

Without further warning she slammed her rubber tube on the surface of the water creating a really loud bang.

Sometimes you can densify a whole day into just one second. On this particular day it was the second after the bang.
It was like someone had switched on a steroid version of a starry sky. The whole ceiling was covered with thousands and thousands of little green-yellow glowing spots. The fact that it was completely dark around us amplified the effect, too. It seemed that the starry night was all around me because the worms reflected even on the surface of the water.
I never saw something similar before and I don't expect to see anything like it in the future.
Only the fact that I already had goose bumps from the cold water before prevented my skin from doing it again because of the sheer beauty of the moment.


A 30sec long exposure / Look at the glow worms behind us / Click on photo to enlarge *)

I cannot remember how long we sat in the darkness staring up to the worms but it was long - very long.

On our way back down the stream we 'embarked' our tubes and rafted down the river which was big fun and really kind of an adventure.
On some calmer parts we switched our lamps off again and drifted slowly through the starry darkness and from time to time we clapped onto the water to illuminate the worms again. Now we noticed that the whole cave was full of glow worms.


Rafting in our rubber tubes *)

Mastering some parts of the river was really like rafting. The water was quite wild as it made its way around the rocks. Everyone of us fell off the tube more than one time but for some reason the cold water wasn't a problem at all any longer.


English-French-German exploration squad

I didn't waste a thought about the climb up into the light until we came back into the entrance hall. The walls of the cave were almost vertical and climbing with rubber boots isn't very comfy.
In the end it was fun, too, because Bettina secured us with a rope.

The whole tour was one of my absolute favorites in New Zealand and the perfect combination of adventure, sight seeing, physical exercise and team thing.

Oh, I should mention that I can absolutely recommend the company I did the tour with: "Rap, Raft 'n' Rock". The groups are very small, the guide was superb and even their small hostel was cute and relaxing.

*) Photos taken by Bettina of 'Rap Raft'n'Rock' with a water proof camera. I didn't bring my own camera into the cave for obvious reasons.