Photographed at Capo Milazzo in Sicily.
Stairway to Heaven
How rich is Estonia?
You can tell that a country is abundantly rich and has a prospering economy when there are signs next to the toilet that tell you “Don’t throw money down the toilet”.
(Seen and photographed at Tallinn Airport in Estonia.)
Three Generations of Transport
(photographed in Messina, Sicily, Italy in October 2013)
You can’t say you haven’t been warned.
Russia put up this poster for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Everybody should have listened to that warning.
What a Waste of Balloons!
Hundreds of children could have been made happy with all these balloons. But no, people had to misappropriate them for a wedding.
(Spotted at Capo Milazzo in Sicily on 28 December 2013.)
Did you notice that the married couple are about to leave the place called Paradise? Very fitting.
You know you are in a hotel in Moldova, when …
… you can study electrical engineering in the corridors,
the bed looks like from your grandmother’s house in the 1950s (cozy, but a bit short),
and the doors between corridors are kept open by 2-liter bottles of beer.
But to be fair, I really liked Chișinău. It’s quite a green city with beautiful and large parks, where people play the violin or perform dances at night. The city planning is generous and it’s a pleasure to walk around randomly. I guess I should publish the photos of the more beautiful side of Chișinău, too.
By the way, I like these old-fashioned hotels more than the modern ones which look and feel the same all over the world.
Sunflowers
In Transnistria I went for a walk from the capital city Tiraspol to Kitskany to visit the monastery there. Along the river Dnestr, which is pretty much the border between Transnistria and Moldova, I walked on paths between the fields, most of the time fully exposed to the relentless sun. Particularly now in summer, one can easily see why the Soviet Union swallowed up the territory of Moldova in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: good soil, enough water, no steep slopes, perfect for agriculture and to feed a country which is frozen over for half the year in other parts.
Until then, I had never seen such large sunflower fields. A few days later, I did however spot even larger ones in Moldova.
Even the wheat fields have been overrun by the yellow peril.
Some of the sunflowers were taller than me, although I measure 6 feet.
Divorce? Let’s celebrate!
The counseling service of the feminist organization Mujeres Creando in La Paz in Bolivia not only offers advice and help, but also a place to celebrate your divorce.
I always thought it made more sense to celebrate freedom instead of its loss.
But in South America, this thought is still rather revolutionary. Too many people here regard unmarried women (and, to a lesser extent, men) as sad losers who deserve pity. Too many parents push their children into unhappy marriages far too early, resulting in violence, alcoholism and femicide.
Links:
- More from Bolivia.
- And more about divorce.
Waiting for the Boat
Photographed on Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca.
How to avoid CIA surveillance
Are you also tired of the CIA, the NSA and others spying on you all the time? Are you worried about the heaps of data they are trying to collect? Do you also suck at technology and have no idea how to use e-mail encryption?
Then I present to you the best way to avoid CIA surveillance. Two surprisingly simple steps will do the trick:
1. Use only your girlfriend’s phone and computer.
2. Change your girlfriend at least once every week.
(Dieser subversive Ratschlag ist natürlich auch auf Deutsch erhältlich.)
The Happy Hermit 