Tag Archives: cigars
My Drug Dealer from Cuba
Zur deutschen Fassung. For a short break from the library, I went to the park in Amberg, my hometown in Germany. It doesn’t matter how highly motivated you are studying, sometimes you need a break. And thus, I am sitting … Continue reading
Smuggling Cigars into Poland
Zur deutschen Fassung. At the German-Polish border, there is plenty of police right now. What are they looking for, I wonder and ask. Cigarette smugglers, says the female officer, while her two male colleagues are ostentatiously of the opinion that … Continue reading
Facing the Firing Squad in Style
Zur deutschen Fassung. On a friend’s blog, I came across this photo, depicting Captain Carlos Fortino Sámano, facing a firing squad in 1917, during the Mexican Revolution. Please don’t ask me any details about that revolution/civil war, because it’s even … Continue reading
Austrian Border Control
When you’re smuggling Italian cigars while hitchhiking across the Alps, the imposing Austrian customs checkpoint near Nauders will give you a brief scare. But it was Sunday morning and the soldiers were apparently attending church. Or they didn’t want to … Continue reading
Marienbad Eulogy
Zur deutschen Fassung dieses Artikels. It seems that the Corona virus will impede long-distance travel for quite a while. In that time of need, maybe we’ll finally discover what has always been so close. Writing for an international audience, it’s … Continue reading
Uman: Communism or Cheesy Story?
Zur deutschen Fassung dieses Artikels. There is really no reason to visit Uman. It is a small city like hundreds of others in Ukraine. But because it lies halfway between Kyiv and Odessa, I decided to break the journey and … Continue reading
Our Prisoner of War
Recently, I stayed with my father in Bavaria, where life is informal and one can put the feet on the table and smoke inside the house. We were both preoccupied with reading, my father with the newspaper and me with … Continue reading
At the Cigar Shop – 50 Years later
I had gone to Huéscar for market day, thinking I might as well look for my favorite Spanish newspaper, El Pais. It would find it at the tobacco shop, I was told. As I entered the store, just around the … Continue reading
My house in Colombia
Bogotá is actually quite green for a large city, but I wanted only nature, without the city. So I rented a little house north of Colombia’s capital, which I reached on smaller and smaller roads, shared with a surprising number … Continue reading
The Happy Hermit 