- Now I know why it’s called CATalonia: it doesn’t know if it wants to walk through the door or not.
- Shouldn’t nobody sign no contract that they ain’t read before.
(I am now giving legal advice in country lyrics, at no extra cost.) - I never knew Luxembourg was a world power, but now I read that the Luembourgish Army fought in the Korean War.
- Why do the three Baltic states have such an uneven women/men-ratio?
- The numbers for different age brackets give a partial answer. Everything is fine until 55 years of age, then the number of men drops off. Above 65 years old, the ratio is a stunning 2 women for 1 man.
- From a program about bird migration on the BBC, I learned that storks returning to Europe with obviously African arrows and spears shot through their bodies were some of the first indicators of bird migration.
- I didn’t think that this advice might become relevant for my readers in the USA, but apparently the time has come: How to make fun of Nazis.
- I noticed that you can save a lot of time if you eat only one big meal per day instead of three smaller ones.
- Thanks to Ana Alves for sending me Human Rights after Hitler by Dan Plesch, The Non-Existence of God by Nicholas Everitt and Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World by Carlos Fraenkel!
- I give up on Venice. Each time I go there, the whole city is flooded, whatever the time of year.
- For the World Fair 1937 in Paris, an architect proposed this 700-meter-high tower that could be scaled by cars:
- Thanks to the readers who alerted me to this dream job with the New York Times. But when a newspaper announces such a job, I am quite certain they already have someone in mind and only use the job advert to create additional buzz.
- Upon reading Paul Theroux’ The Great Railway Bazaar, I noticed that I could have saved myself the investigation to find out the longest possible train route. For he writes: “The way is clear, by rail, from Hanoi Junction to Liverpool Street Station in London,” but then makes a detour via Japan and Vladivostok.
- When I was young, we could still read and smoke for passport photos.
- After taking up studying again, I still have to get used to asking for student discount everywhere.
- Did you know that I inspired a verb in German? “To moser” means to constantly nag and criticize, although not without reason. Quite fitting.
- Every generation is entitled to its own Spanish Civil War.
- The #MeToo campaign is opening my eyes. Thank you! I hope it’s a bit easier for those speaking out because so many victims are coming forward (and absolutely no blame at all on those who don’t – I wouldn’t either), making it less about the individual stories, but about how widespread abusive, violent, demeaning and criminal behavior is. – It’s really shocking for me to read it from so many women whom I know, and I hope I will always keep this in mind when the subject comes up.
- How to scare Germans: Look people in the eye, smile and say “hello”.
- For Coming Out Day, I confess that I prefer books over people.
- How to spot difficult clients:
“Hi Andreas,
You might be rightfully charging your fees – but …”
(I stopped reading at that point.) - Life would be much more comfortable if it was socially acceptable to go to university in jogging pants.
- What if Bob Mueller arrests Donald Trump in exactly the same moment as Trump fires Mueller?
Random Thoughts (17)
The Happy Hermit 
Re: #8. Yes, one good meal a day works for me, although my Wife often questions this with “Why don’t you eat?” and “You really should take better care of yourself!” Also on your little bio, I too would love to be a hobo but apparently enforcing that lifestyle on your 3 small children is child neglect and frowned upon.
Regards
Rob
That’s a problem indeed. You’ll have to wait until they are grown up.
11.- Propuesto y archivado, solo de pensar en el efecto de dar tantas vueltas ya siento mareos. 8.- Nuestro organismo precisa un numero mayor de veces/comida/día, no importa cuanto tiempo ahorres.
11. Me ponería miedo ir ahí. Con auto o caminando.
Con tu permiso me gustaría descargar las imágenes de los puntos 11 y 14.
Si, claro. Estos fotos no son míos.
Andreas, have you ever considered publishing a book about your adventures? I like reading your blog but I greatly prefer reading physical books. It would be great to have a hard copy compilation of 10 or 20 of your favourite explorations.
I am actually happy to read this, because I also very much prefer printed books and newspapers. Even when I have access to the online sources, I still rather buy them in print.
And of course I have thought about writing a book many times already. What truly prevents me from doing so is lack of focus, and everything else is probably just an excuse. But I also think that an anthology of travel stories would not find a big market because I am totally unknown. I would need more of a thread to tie all the stories together, either thematically (and “travel” is a bit too wide for that, I think) or geographically. So I would probably want to focus on one theme or one country or one long trip – like the railroad trip halfway around the world or a long hike – first.
10. Is it really? I always wanted to visit, and heard that the flooding only occurs in winter months usually.
It’s really all year round. All the streets are flooded, always! Whenever I was there, I never saw anyone driving. It’s like people in Venice are already used to it and do everything by boat – https://andreasmoser.blog/2015/09/15/venice-by-boat/ .
But it’ still a beautiful and interesting city!
Good one. I meant acqua alta.
Oh, that one. :-)
Yes that only happens every winter, I believe. But on the other hand, winter is the best time to visit Venice because there are far fewer tourists. I was in February and it was bitter cold, foggy, but not crowded at all. A beautiful time to visit.
And even when you are in Venice at a time of unusually high water, it only lasts for a few hours during the high tide – see forecast: http://www.comune.venezia.it/it/content/centro-previsioni-e-segnalazioni-maree – , so you can still enjoy your visit. When the water is too high, you simply go to a higher floor to eat cake and read a book for a few hours.