Month: June 2005

Something’s rotten in the state of… – whom?

With the recent election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a hard-line conservative, as the new leader of the Iran, president George Bush once again made clear that attacking Iran is indeed an option, if the government of Iran is not willing to do what the US government wants them to do.

Is the Iran an aggressor that wants to use nuclear weapons against western nations? Will Mahmoud Ahmadinejad start to produce thousands of deadly (intelligent) bombs, load them onto stealth-bombers, fly to our soils and wipe us out? Will Iranian troops march to Europe and the United states, overthrow our governments and force their culture upon us and gain access to our recourses? Make us eat their food, dress like them and watch their TV-shows?

Or is it that the people of Iran are actually not a threat, but feel threatened? Maybe there are people in Iran who fear that some day, someone is coming to occupy their country and to get access on their most valuable resources. Oddly, if the Iranian government wouldn’t say otherwise, I would actually understand why the Iranian government wants to get their hands on a powerful weapon – for protection…

Maybe the Iran is not as dangerous as the media reports tell me day in and day out. I don’t know much about the lives of people in Iran, if they are actually doing good or bad, but I hope they are able to stand up for themselves if they want a change in their country and their system.

Well, what more can I say… with another old arch enemy (Iraq) almost gone, the US military industry maybe is just in need for a new enemy to fight against and keep the war factories working and the money from Americas honest tax-payers going into the “right” channels… Maybe… but these are just my thoughts.

In the Summer time.. Vienna I’m coming!

Hi folks – hope you are all doing well!

Summer has finaly started and today is a very special day in Austria – its called “Sonnenwende” and we celebrate the solstice with a huge fire. The whole family is gathering at my grandparents farm where we are going to have BBQ, lough, share stories and have a lot of fun.

Tomorrow I’m off to Vieanna with a couple of friends for the Donauinselfest – one of the biggest Open-Air concerts in Europe with around 1500 artists and about one Millon visitors.

Hope you all have a great weekend with the people you care about!

Ps: There are various reasons for not blogging much recently, but I’m sure there will be more stories in the weeks to come.

Four days in Stockholm…

Stockholm – four days, not much time considering the activities and sights this city has to offer. The thing I really liked about Stockholm is that it was easy to explore as most of the sights were within walking distance of my hostel in Gamla Stan, the historic district of Stockholm. Public transport is also very well organized and since everyone warned me on how expensive everything is up in Scandinavia, I was somewhat prepared and it did not feel “THAT” expensive at all.

The main purpose to come to Stockholm was not just do some sightseeing, but to meet friends. Actually, it was a meeting that was originally going to happen in London, but things changed back then and so we somehow ended up meeting in Stockholm instead.

And what do friends do when they get together? Have a picnic in the park and get drunk with overpriced wine from South Africa! Which we sipped from Mac Donald’s paper cups by the way… At a certain level of alcohol in your blood you realize that doesn’t matter at all!

But even a box of wine is at some point empty and how do you keep the fun going? A very effective way for me was to buy Swedish vodka at the duty free store at the airport in Munich before I went on the plane, as it costs a little fortune to buy “Absolut Kurant” in Stockholm. Short storie: half of the bottle was consumed at a festival called Popaganda at the Univeristy of Stockholm…

The final day in Stockholm was spent with sightseeing rather then drinking. I managed to visit the museum of the historic warship “Vasa” and Drottningholm, the royal castle and Swedish Versailles (where i realzied that all castles in Europe look somewhat similar…). I did that all in less then 6 hours in one day, which I consider quite astonishing giving the fact that I still had a hangover from the previous night.

Before I even started to get into my holiday mood, I was on the plane, heading back to Austria.

Reminder for myself – Four days is just not enough!