This sentence is not poetry.
This
one
is.
We are sorry, Afghanistan, but we are giving up. Good bye.
Not that I have a better solution. – Well, actually I have.
When I first saw the Christmas lights in the center of Târgu Mureș, I felt reminded of Las Vegas. Glitzy, flashy, shining, pompous, they turn night into day. Cheesy Christmas songs emanate from the public loudspeakers which had once been installed for the regular disbursement of communist wisdom. Horse-drawn sledges pull children around Piața Trandafirilor, while their (the children’s, not the horses’) parents get tipsy on vin fiert (mulled wine).
Meanwhile, some villages not too far away have regular power outages or no electricity at all. There, children wouldn’t (and couldn’t) pay for a 15-minute ride with a horse. They have to use them every day, for lack of cars or even roads.
Romania, a country of contrasts. Good that mayors and city councils have got their priorities right. And how convenient that some electricity companies are owned by the Romanian Orthodox Church, so that all the money earned will be used for a good purpose, like building more churches with yet more lights to shine.
I went to the market today to get a Snickers bar. After all this healthy and light food over Christmas, I wanted to celebrate the end of the year with some chocolate.
The lady at the chocolate stand informed me that there was no Snickers this week. Probably the truck had been stuck in the snow somewhere. She asked whether I wanted “a Romanian Snickers” instead. I had never heard of it, but my curiosity was sparked. Emphatically, and tired of one week of salad, rice and vegetables, I said “yes”.
She handed me a huge piece of an extremely dense and heavy combination of chocolate and cake. See the photo for scale.
When I cut off a slice, I discovered that it even had fruits inside. It tastes magnificently! But you can only eat such a small amount of it that it will last for weeks.
It’s a great invention which I am sure will take over the world market soon. When you will see it in stores from Canada to Australia, remember that you first read about it here. And never get the king-size version! It’s twice as long as this one and weighs several pounds.
Please watch this warning message each time you are thinking of giving up your 9-to-5 job, taking a sabbatical, travelling the world or doing something else which would upset your daily routine. In short: don’t do it!
Why? I’ll explain in the video.
(Filmed on Sinis peninsula on Sardinia in May 2014.)
I wasn’t aware what kind of important people were following my Twitter account until one of my tweets was retweeted by none less than Jesus himself.
Jesus apparently liked this post from my German blog.
Now you know what you have to do: if you follow Jesus, and Jesus follows me, that logically means that you should follow me as well.
(Photographed in Trani, Apulia, Italy.)
Did you also wonder how Santa Claus can ride all around the world with his reindeer-powered sledge? And whether he would really do that in the freezing cold? And how he could transport all these presents with one sledge?
Well, the truth is that this kind of traditional travel is merely a marketing gag.
In Palermo, I saw how Santa Claus really travels: in a comfortable luxury coach, probably with a mini-bar and a bed.
Pope Francis would be enraged.
The Happy Hermit 