Flo's adventures

Iceland - day 3 - part 1

2009-09-17T16:09:00.004+02:00

The third day a lot of stuff was happening therefor I split the report in two parts.

We spent the night in this little shelter in the middle of nowhere. Close to Hagavatn and Langjökulls. One of the huge glaciers on Iceland.

I climbed a small mountain/hill/volcano to get this view of Langjökull early in the morning while the others were still sleeping.

Later we started our expedition to the glacier were we passed a rather big waterfall that looks pretty small on this picture... But believe me, it was BIIG!

There is really not much vegetation in this area, actually on the whole island...

After the glacier trip we drove back into civilization where we had a stop at Gullfoss. Another really big waterfall - one that even looks big on a picture :)

Desert

What do these horses eat on an island where nothing grows?

Unfortunately not our car...

Icland day two

2009-09-15T10:42:00.004+02:00

On the second day we got our nice little car. A Honda CRV. Maybe not the best offroad truck but perfect for us!

This day we followed the tourist tracks. The first stop was Þingvellir. The place where the European and the American continental plates meet. That's the valley you see...

The next stop was the Geysir. It erupts every 8 minutes or so. Very impressive. In the whole area you find wholes in the ground with boiling water and it smells intensely - sulfur.

This is not another view from the airplane down on Iceland. It's one of the water holes next to the Geysir. By the way, the blue color comes from some sort of algae in there...

On the way to the Geysir we stopped at this strange thing. From the distance we just saw a lot of smoke and thought there must be some factory that blows it's dirt in the air. When we came closer we realized it was a geothermal powerplant. Completely green energy!

This guy wasn't so lucky with the car :(
Well, didn't have a Honda CRV ;-)

Iceland - day1

2009-09-04T08:45:00.010+02:00

I managed to get a week off for a trip to Iceland. While other people fly to a place where it's nice and warm my friends and I decided to do a trip to where it's cold, wet and windy.

It all started quite stressful. The day before my flight I got tonsillitis and had to take antibiotics. I was not sure if I should go at all. But I did and that was good!

The flight was already amazing. Such a great view. If you ever fly to Iceland try to get a window seat on the right side of the plane (if you come from Europe).
I was sitting on the left side though, so I didn't see much :-)

The first night we spend couch-surfing with a very nice Icelandic guy. He had 9 couch-surfers in is small apartment for the night. That was cosy.

But before we went to bed we had to explore the legendary nightlife of Reykjavik.
First of all - if there is not much going on on the streets and bars only some sad girls sitting in the streets - you are to early!
The party does not starts before midnight.

But when it starts it's really wild! You'll find real vikings, girls in super-hero dresses shooting you with laser guns, guy who drop their pants to show what they got (I didn't upload that picture)...
Reykjavik nightlife is great!

A new job

2009-07-06T22:12:00.002+02:00

For one week I'm now in my new job at www.symena.com

Small company with big customers! Not bad at all. And the best - they say there will be lot's of traveling.

Apple and quality - not so sure anymore

2009-06-04T10:51:00.003+02:00

Ok, I know nobody really wants to read this kind of stuff but I have to let my frustration out.

Two years ago I bought a Macbook pro for almost 2000€. Everyone told me what high quality standards Apple has and that it would be completly worth paying a bit more.

When I got this nice machine I finished school and had to do a presentation of my master theses. I thought nice, now I can do these nice presentations with keynote. Well actually I had to use my professors PC with a pdf version of the presntation. My Mac first didn't want to start up and had strange video errors and then didn't recognice the projector, no matter how many times I tried. GREAT first impression!

Some months later the keybord backlight stoped working the way it should. It turned on, started flickering, turned off just randomly.

Well I got it fixed during warranty. The technicians decided to replace the whole case. That's when I found out that it's much nice to have the touchpad installed straight and not leaning to one side as it was from the day I got this machine.

Well, everything fixed within warranty time. That's good. How high are the odds that something else would happes?

But then the battery started to die. After 200 cycles it had energy for maybe 5 minutes. And no, my battery is not part of the defect batteries that Apple changes for free.

Now, almost exactly two years after I bought my Macbook pro I took the machine from sleep but nothing happened. The screen stayed black, I could hear the fans, harddisc and CD drive spin up but nothing else. I tried all the key combinations there are, no luck.

The technicians at the store then told me the mainboard broke down and a new one would cost 1000€. GREAT!!!

When I got it back I thought now everything has to be ok - I mean all that's left form the original faulty machine is the screen, CD and hard drive. Well, no. There is also the airport card which now decided to not work with 5GHz networks anymore. I hope they fix this at the store for free since this issue came up after I got it back from the mainboard switch...

If I hadn't put so much money into this crap I would really like to do this:

(And no, I don't mean grow my hair like his)

By the way, my Acer notebook I am writing this on has been working for 8 years without any problems (even the battery is as new).

Flo and the vikings

2009-06-01T23:43:00.006+02:00

Another story from last month is my trip to the last Vikings. I went to Oslo, the last place on earth where you can find real vikings.

We went out to the sea, stealing and plundering just as their ancestors did.

And it was a good day for vikings!

We had a good night sleep between all the

treasures we

brought together on a small island.

The next day when we left our prisoners on the island.

A storm came up and we almost capsized but due to the instincts of our captain Kay and his chief mate Knut we ma

naged to return save to the harbour of Oslo.

We even got a video of the gloriose sea maneuvers

When we returned the Oslo the people were cheering and waving flags.

The whole town was decorated and people dressed up in their best cloth.

Even the king was waving us for us being so good vikings.

We like :)

Midnight at the farm

2009-06-01T23:39:00.002+02:00

Now that I started I can't stop :-)

Of course it wasn't all bad the last months. E.g. I worked on my own little time laps project. Check out this nice movie I did from 9pm till 2am.

I'm back

2009-06-01T23:30:00.002+02:00

Hej there,

probably there are not many visiting this place anymore...

I had a rather tough time which wasn't so nice to write on my blog.

If you still wonder what this 80+1 post is all about, well it's kind of what got me into this in the first place: http://www.80plus1.org/

I'm not gonna post what was going on but it wasn't nice. But now this chapter is over and I hope I can post about some nicer things soon!

80 + 1

2008-11-01T12:10:00.002+01:00

Can't say more yet...

test of a livestream

2008-10-24T20:33:00.004+02:00

Today I've attended a lecture on live streaming so I thought I test this a little bit on my blog. So whenever I have my streaming server running (probably won't happen so often) you can see me here on the web :-)

Swedish television

2008-10-19T21:38:00.008+02:00

ok sorry, I didn't feel like writing any more about my Turkey trip. Such things should be done when you are there or never I guess.

But now to new frontiers...

Now that Lovisa moved to Oslo (she got a job there) I have a lot of time feeling bored and watching TV. But watching TV can sometime be nice especially when they show "stor i Japan" (big in Japan). An experiment where two freaky Swedish guys try to become famous in Japan with their music within one month. I think...
And one of their songs (they only have two) feels a bit like written for me :=)

Listen for yourself: (hit the small blue button)

Seraye

2008-07-18T21:00:00.000+02:00

James Bond has been there, Mozart has written an opera about it and now I have also been there. The Topkapi palace. If I remember it right it was until around 1930 that a sultan lived in that palace with all his servants, a harem and incredible treasures. And this place is big!!!

One of the three gardens each as big as maybe 10 football fields, maybe more

That's inside the harem which is an incredibly rich decorated place although now there is no furniture or carpets or anything. I guess it must have been completely stunning place.

Hamam

2008-07-17T18:57:00.000+02:00

The third day in Istanbul I was very tired from all the sightseeing. I thought I have to see as many things s possible in minimum time and was just running around the city without any breaks until I just couldn't take any more.

So I went to a Hamam - a Turkish bath and that was really nice! In the beginning I felt a bit lost because I didn't know how it works there but they kind of take you on the hand and show you (these tourists really don't know anything...)

This is the main room in the Hamam. Really nic

e, everything is made of marble.

And that's the best part - it starts with some kind of peeling and then washing and massage at the end. All performed by a fat sweating Turk. Sweat :-)

And that's how they dress you up at the end. Almost looks like a bedouin

fresh again after the Hamam

2008-07-17T15:23:00.001+02:00

after the Hamam visit I was fresh again for more Bazaars and sights. Some cats found a cozy place on the pillows of that store.

Later that night I saw a swirling dervish in a Cafe. This dance is a way for them to come close to god. I can imagine that you feel a bit out of this world after swirling for 15 minutes.

This is Aya Sophia again this time at night on the way back to the hotel

Rain is falling on my head

2008-07-16T22:16:00.009+02:00

The second day I didn't believe my eyes. It was raining cats and dogs! I thought it would never rain in that part of the world (at least not in summer) but I was completely wrong.

The whole day I thought it would just be a short shower until it got night and I was cold and very wet. At that point I realized that it wasn't just a short shower but a rainy day in Istanbul.

Anyway I managed to see the Blue Mosque (there are many smaller mosques that are much nicer!)

and Aya Sofia which is also a bit overrated. Though it's interesting to have a former church and a mosque in one building.

I almost forgot to mention, I also visited Instanbul's Grand Bazaar which has not so much of an Bazaar as I would imagine it. It's a big souvenier market. Of course you can find some nice things but it feels very un-authentic!

The night life in Istanbul is completely crazy! The streets are stuffed with people, everywhere are bars, restaurants, discos. Every day of the week.

Now that I read that post again I feel there's a bit of a neative vibe. That's how strong rain can influence your mood (no wonder when you're wet and cold).

Turkey, Istanbul

2008-07-14T22:05:00.006+02:00

Finally it's holiday and I take the plane to Istanbul/Turkey.
The flight via Paris went very well - was the softest touch down of a plane I ever experienced. Air France becomes more and more my favorite airline. The food they serve is just unbeatable!
Arrived at Istanbul around 00:00 and thought it's better to spend the night at the airport. That was not the best night I had in Turkey (but maybe also not the worst).

The first day I was lucky to meet two Turkish guys from Sweden and a Turkish guy who lived in Germany and works for an Austrian company. That was really a good start for the trip. They showed me (and the two Swedish guys) a bit around and told me what to look out for etc. Felt very nice!

But now some pictures of the first day:

On the boat tour I met the guys. Here the Bosporus bridge that connects the European and Asian part of Istanbul

Of course we had to take a picture of the Swedish guys in front of the Swedish consulate.

Heja Sverige!!!

2008-06-15T19:01:00.009+02:00

When the Swedish national team is playing whole Sweden is gathering to cheer for their team. Everybody is dressing up in yellow and blue and the main street in Gothenburg is closed down for the football fans.

Highly concentrated they are following the game, some are even connected with their mobile phone to the friends in the stadium to coordinate the cheering in a better way.

Sometimes it was very close that Spain got a goal.
But two times it actually happened. Spain scored. That hurts!
Their faces fell

And the few Spaniards that were here were celebrating their victory

Swedish railways

2008-06-09T22:36:00.002+02:00

Another interesting thing I experienced was the Swedish Railways SJ.

I tried to pick up my motorbike from Lerum the first time on Wednesday last week and had to go by train. So I bought my ticket for the train at 17:17 and was supposed to be there 20 minutes later. But it shouldn't be like that. The train was canceled and so was the next one at 17:32. And 17:47 was too late for me to reach to store in time...

No money back, no nothing.

So I tried again on Thursday and this time the train was in time. I though it was probably just a one time thing that the train was late. Nothing to worry about too much. Can happen.

So I was at the store at a quarter to 6 but now they had already closed. Man I was angry!

So back by train. But not the next one, not the one after but two after because they were canceled again for some strange reason...

They third try was today. To be on the save side I left the office a bit earlier to get the train at 16:32. But no, it was canceled. Instead it left 16:47 and only to my station from there many people had to change to a bus...

I really wonder why this track is so fucked up. Out of four trains I wanted to take only ONE was in time.

My bike is back

2008-06-09T22:13:00.005+02:00

I got my bike back!!!

It was found by a moped store in a suburb of Gothenburg. They called the police. It's just strange that the store told the police that the number place was still there what it was definetly not.

Also the way they have opened the lock of the tank looked very professional. And then they have replaced the broken ignition lock with some other lock that looked somehow russian (has text in some east european language on it).

This is where the crash bar used to be. Gone forever.

Also the stuff to put the boxes on are gone.

Looks like they broke the rear break pedal and fixed it with this screw.

What me worries me most about the condition of the bike is how it feels on the road. Very wobbling and unstable. I guess they have completely destroyed the suspension.

Of course it got quite many scratches (so there might be a new painting), a broken front brake handle, and the coat of the saddle was destroyed.

Sweden is ready

2008-06-08T16:48:00.005+02:00

All houses is Sweden are decorated with the Austrian flag. Let the game begin and Austria win!

UEFA 2008

2008-06-07T22:59:00.002+02:00

The waiting is over and the games begin. Not so good for Switzerland though. I'm really sorry for them!
Ok, that's a boring post I know but I thought the picture was funny...

Andi in Sweden

2008-06-02T19:34:00.004+02:00

This weekend my brother Andi came for visit. That was very nice. I took Friday off and had some short holiday. Got some pictures of our trip to Kellö, a small island close to Gothenburg.

Very nice place!!!

Studenten

2008-06-02T19:28:00.009+02:00

It's studenen time in Gothenburg and the main street is full with young people who just finished school.

There are so many and they are so drunk that they get transported in trucks out of town ;-)

Zanzibar without electricity for 6 days

2008-05-27T11:52:00.001+02:00

I got this story from TheCitizen

No end to electricity crisis in Zanzibar No end to electricity crisis in Zanzibar

By Salma Said, Zanzibar, and Orton Kiishweko, Dar

Zanzibar was without electricity for the fifth consecutive day yesterday.A serious water crisis was looming after water pumps stalled and water vendors raised prices. Operations in some schools and hospitals that do not have generators were also disrupted.

President Amani Abeid Karume on Saturday toured the crippled power distribution facility in Fumba as government grappled with Zanzibar's worst power crisis for years.

President Karume assured the public that experts were expected in the country any time to install parts that were damaged at the station last Wednesday.

Zanzibar Electricity Company (Zeco) public relations manager Salum Abdallah told The citizen yesterday that they were waiting for experts, but denied reports the assistance was being sought from South Africa following fears that the arrival of technicians from Norway contracted for the job could be delayed.

The massive power failure which left Zanzibar without electricity originated on Tanzania Mainland where Dar es Salaam and several areas briefly suffered a blackout on Wednesday night.

Mr Abdallah said the problem began on Thursday night where transformers and other apparatus at Fumba blew up after power from the mainland was restored.

"When electricity from the mainland was reinstated, the main power receptors at Fumba were overloaded and some equipment that require experts to repair burst into flames," he said.

Zeco general manager Mr Hassan Ali said on Saturday that he was optimistic they would solve the problem "as soon as possible".

However, other sources within the company said it was not known when the Norwegian export would arrive and how long it would take to fix the problem.

Technicians from Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) travelled to Zanzibar at the weekend, but were told not to touch anything at Fumba, pending the arrival of the Norwegian experts. The Citizen learnt that the engineers have since returned to Dar es Salaam.

The blackout has badly affected the operations of businesses and various important institutions.

Pumps at Sateni water plant fell silent, causing shortages in various parts of Unguja. Hundreds of people were seen at the site colleting water in containers.

A 20-litre container of water was selling for between Sh700 to Sh1,000, up from between Sh300 and Sh500 before the blackout.

There were fears that communicable diseases could break out at Michenzani Flats, whose occupants depend on piped water, and which lack pit latrines.

Unguja residents who spoke to The Citizen said that they were disappointed and felt that the government had taken too long to act following the breakdown at Fumba.

Businesses, including tourist hotels, were also badly affected, with many reporting big losses since power went off five days ago.

People were seen flocking to the few premises that had generators to charge their mobile phones. However, those running generators said it was just a matter of days before the high cost of operating the machines forced them to switch them off altogether.

People living in some areas have had to contend with noise and fumes from generators providing power to shops and offices.

Crime has also reportedly increased during the blackout as it has become easier for muggers to pounce on unsuspecting people under the cover of darkness.

Also hard-hit by the power crisis is Mnazi Mmoja Hospital, where available generators cannot provide the hospital with all the electricity it needs.

Patients who spoke to The Ctizen said they were inconvenienced by stifling heat in the wards.

Like Mnazi Mmoja Hospital, the generators at Ugunja airport have been on and off with the air conditioners off.

Incidentally, this may affect central offices and emergency, safety and fire systems in Zanzibar if the situation is not solved urgently.

Since last year, Zanzibar has been laying a submarine cable to provide electricity from mainland Tanzania to Pemba with the financing support from the government of Norway.

Zanzibar stopped using power from diesel generators when the island was hooked up to the national grid in 1980.

What's left

2008-05-25T14:01:00.003+02:00

This is all what's left of my motorbike. It got stolen some time between thursday and friday night. I never thought that someone would be interested in an old bike like that.

Bummer!

Göteborgsvarvet

2008-05-18T14:17:00.003+02:00

That's how it looks when someone ( in this case me) runs 21km without any training. It was a desaster!!!
The top graph is the heartbeat that goes down the longer I run. at the end you see it is going up and down a lot. That's when I had to walk in between.
The next graph below (the dark one) is the altitude. As you can see it's not a very flat race.
And the blue graph represents the speed.
As a conclusion I can say it makes definitely sense to do some exercises before running a half-marathon!
I might upload some real photos during the next days...

last weekend

2008-05-12T18:49:00.003+02:00

I know, since I started working the rate of new posts really drops. But here comes a new one. This weekend I've been at Slottskoge with some guys from work. Some BBQ, some frisbee, some football made it a perfect outdoor day!

Very nice!!!

Riding the smaller horse

2008-04-06T21:33:00.005+02:00

This Sunday I was allowed to ride the pony Fredrik.

Soo small

and soo dirty

more Winter

2008-03-25T21:30:00.009+01:00

did I mention that winter came to Gothenburg?

Some pictures from eastern

2008-03-25T19:19:00.003+01:00

easter chicks ;-)

cultural reserve close to Linköping

Blondy doing some exercise

and the ghost house

winter in Göteborg

2008-03-25T19:02:00.004+01:00

Finally winter has arrived in Göteborg. Little bit late though... So probably we can expect spring around June then...

public transport completely broke down today which was not so much fun...

more about robot HQ

2008-03-14T18:15:00.003+01:00

Space Invasion

2008-03-09T18:44:00.004+01:00

I'm back to Sweden where things completely changed since I left to Austria. There has been an invasion from outer space. The space robots took over. I'm running around in my robot camouflage so they don't recognize me as human. Especially yesterday when I tried to sneak into their headquarters at Röda Sten. When I get more pictures from inside there I'm gonna post them...

mountainbiking on Pfenningberg (= Centmountain)

2008-02-24T17:22:00.004+01:00

hehehe, Pfenningberg = Centmountain, funny translation.

Today I was mountain biking the tour I used to do with my friend Harald during school time. I think we were a bit crazy at that time when we went down fields really fast and without breaking which feels a bit stupid today. But no risk no fun...

Can you see the deers in the last part of the video?

Linz again

2008-02-23T21:20:00.000+01:00

Before the working starts in march I decided to go to Austria now that I still can. I guess soon it will be not so easy any more.

Really lucky that Ryanair flies now from Gothenburg straight to Salzburg which is so much more convenient that with Lufthansa where you have to change once in between. Instead of one day it takes around 4 hours now. And the price is also like 4 times lower. Sweeeeeeet

Thank you Ryanair

goodbye unemployment

2008-02-22T17:35:00.004+01:00

Finally I managed to get a job here in Sweden and I think it's a really nice one as well. I'll work for Jeppesen as a so called TAM (technical account manager). Probably that doesn't say very much what I'm going to do but if you're really interested just ask...

I just hope I'll not get in trouble for using their logo...

A farce of a demonstration

2008-02-10T14:52:00.000+01:00

Today I fell for a call to join a demonstration against Scientology. It was made up very nicely on the Internet but nobody really joined the demo.

This three guys were the core demonstration. There were also some guys handing out cookies. What a disaster...

My mask was never used...

So maybe here in Göteborg the demonstration was not such a big success but in other places they were quite big... Australia

For some background information from an ex-scientologist go here

And if you are just interested in the raid against Scientology, future activities or some interesting but hardly legal networking tools visit the main page of the project

Illegal bar

2008-02-03T12:27:00.000+01:00

This friday I went out with some friends and we decided to visit one of Göteborg's illegal bars in the harbor area. There are rumors that this is one of the places where the mafia goes. Sounded like fun but the place was closed.

But I got a picture of the entrance. Looks cozy ;-)

Kyosha the dog-cat

2008-01-29T10:32:00.000+01:00

Watch Kyosha our cat behaving more like a dog than a cat...

KTM RC8

2008-01-29T10:21:00.000+01:00

This weekend we went to the motorcycle fare in Göteborg. They say it's the biggest in Scandinavia. And now guess who saw the new KTM RC8 and was even sitting on it...

For those who want to know more: KTM RC8

Firealarm!!!!

2008-01-12T11:35:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, when we came home from town we heard some alarm bell ringing and thought it must be fire alarm somewhere in the buildings around. When we entered our house and the elevator didn't work we got a little bit suspicious. Also the fire doors in the corridor were closed but since there was no smell of smoke, no panic and no firemen we didn't care and entered our apartment.

Well, until after some time I looked out of the window I saw this:

Firemen outside, evacuated people who waited to be allowed to go back in...

Good there was no fire for real!

The following days - sick snowboarding

2008-01-12T11:02:00.000+01:00

The days after Christmas we went to Linz to visit my parents but unfortunately I caught some stupid flu and we had to give up the plan to go skiing to Carinthia. Instead i was sweating in bed.

At least Lovisa could take a train to the alps and go snowboarding. How jealous I was...

"Weihnachten" in Austria

2007-12-24T10:51:00.000+01:00

This year Lovisa and I celebrated Christmas in Austria together with my brother's family which was really nice!

There were even Christmas tree balls with my face on it. That was very nice ;-)

Later in the evening I got the feeling Lovisa had a bit too much alcohol (just joking)...

(click at the picture to see her eyes)

Elektroniskt julbord

2007-12-15T14:55:00.000+01:00

The day after Lucia we went to another Christmas evening. Just the music was a little bit faster and louder maybe. Elektroniskt julbord at Sticky fingers

The highlight was Thermostatic! Especially the two "sound engineers" were very funny to look at...

and of course Universal Poplab the stars of the evening (I preferred Thermostatic though)

Back to Sweden into Lucia day

2007-12-13T14:40:00.000+01:00

Finally back from the Italian churches right into a Swedish church to watch a Lucia-firande (concert). A really nice tradition! The Christmas songs are really completely different to those that we have. I recognized only two...

That's Lucia who brings light into the dark time of the year

The guys are called Staffan Stalledräng. I think they are there to make it more funny with their hats ;-)

Nice to be in a church that's not full of devils like the churches in Florence are

Culture day in Florence

2007-12-10T17:24:00.000+01:00

One day before the last I went to see all the tourist spots (except the Uffici, didn't make it)

The Baptisterio, it is the oldest building in Florence (first it was a Roman temple, so really old) and until not so long everybody in Florence was baptized in there.

Again a lot of devils in the church.

Next I went to see the Coppola of the Duomo. Some wild creatures live up there

(the huge dome of the cathedral). There you got a really nice view over the city

And you are very close to hell...

Last stop was the church Santa Croce where the graves of many famous people are.

Michelangelo

Galileo

Dante

and Rossini

Sights of Florence

2007-12-07T14:00:00.000+01:00

Today I managed to get some nice pictures again...

of course Michelangelo's famous David

Hercules killing the Zentaur Nessus

Perseus with the head of the Medusa

A nice fountain at the corner of two streets

Ponte Vecchio that is full of Jewelry shops

Lunchbreak

2007-12-06T15:06:00.000+01:00

today we had the chance to go a little bit outside of Florence during lunch break. Nice view, eh?

Florence a museum

2007-12-06T11:15:00.000+01:00

I wish I had more time to look at the wonderful buildings, sculptures and paintings here in Florence. But I managed to see some already...

The oldest building in Florence, the Babptistery with the golden door to the paradise with eight pictures from the old Testament.

the cathedral Campanile

the beautiful frescos on the dome

some details like the last judgement

I've never seen so many devils in a church

these might not be Michelangelos and da Vincis but nice situations that are also part of the charm of Florence

The exhibition is running

2007-12-03T16:07:00.000+01:00

some pictures of the exhibition

the entrance

Ars Electronica, Gilbert and George

the crazy opening ceremony

people really like the piece of Sonia Cillari

Se Mi Sei Vicino (when you are close to me)

And there are also other nice things to see

probably my favorite

Artists in Italy

2007-12-03T15:55:00.001+01:00

Today I experienced something I would have never thought to be possible:

RAI International was invited to shoot at our exhibition. They arrived, took out the camera, filmed without presenting them selves, without asking about the background of the pieces, nothing.

We offered them to interview one of the main artists of the exhibition and they refused. Kind of because she is "just" the artist!

She is also Italian but lives in Amsterdam now also because artists in Italy are nothing. Here they are shit. UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Installation

2007-12-03T11:20:00.000+01:00

Actually the exhibition is already up and running but I upload some pictures of the installation process. It was not always easy to explain the local technicians what it is about if they have never worked with digital/media art before...

A colleague installing some computers in the hidden parts of the exhibition (his name is also Florian, like everybody's in Austria)

This will become the interactive installation Se Mi Sei Vicino one if my favorites!

this is already the final callibration

But the whole thing feels a little bit strange 'cause the Florence Biennale features mostly paintings. We are the aliens with our digital art. The Corriere de la Serra wrote "invasion of the cyber creatives..."

Pictures

2007-12-01T12:34:00.000+01:00

For those interested, I uploaded all the pictures on a webalbum.

Somewhere there you'll also find all the pictures from Shanghai...

Karibuni

Florence

2007-11-29T10:26:00.000+01:00

Right now I'm in Florence setting up an exhibition at the Florence Bienale. Gonna be fun. More soon...

My chambre

2007-11-27T12:30:00.000+01:00

I stay at Hotel Eden but the name is really too much for what you get :-(

My room is behind a steel fire door in the stairway

and not so nice. Especially if I have to stay there for two weeks...

On the way to Firenze

2007-11-27T12:27:00.000+01:00

Today I arrived in Florence, Italy. Flying from Göteborg via Paris. When we went over the snow covered mountains I took some very nice pictures...

Looking forward to the skiing in some weeks.

comments

2007-10-27T21:06:00.000+02:00

I just found a post about my trip to Sweden at my brothers blog.
Check it out here

Back to Austria

2007-10-27T20:52:00.000+02:00

Finally back home. What a endless trip. The flight from Shanghai to Doha was ok, because I could sleep well in the plane. Little bit scary were all the controls at the airport in Shanghai though. I have never showed my passport so many times in such short time.

After 8 hours I think we arrived in Doha. Actually we wanted to take a look at the city but they wanted 30 USD for a Visa and that was too much for us so we stayed at the airport. Outside it looked so nice and warm (dessert actually) and inside we were freezing in our jackets because of the damn aircondition. Must have had around 15°C I guess.

After the super boring time at the airport we had 6 super super boring hours at the plane to Vienna. But we made it and more important we made it through the customs. But maybe I shouldn't go too much into details here ;-)

super speed and super hight

2007-10-24T12:05:00.000+02:00

today we went with the high speed magnet levitation train from the city to the airport with 430 km/h = 267 mph. One way is ok, but on the way back our stomach felt a bit strange.

Later we went up the Shanghai Perl tower TV tower. Still strange in the stomach the hight didn't really help to make it better...

city tour

2007-10-23T13:03:00.000+02:00

Yesterday we did a walking tour through the city. We started at the tourist catch the Bund where you have a nice view over the river to the sky scrapers and a lot of people trying to sell you fake watches.

We passed a park were people were fishing gold fish... I hope not for dinner!

And then found our selfs in Yu Yuan garden which is a really old traditional Chinese place. 89 year old Mr. Bao showed us around and told us some stories of old China.

Rest at a tea house

Dinner at the street. People couldn't believe their eyes that tourists come there and eat what the locals eat.

Next we found a massage place were we got a foot massage for 3 Euro. Felt much better afterwards...

The last curiosity for the day was the seafood market where they had things I've never seen before.

last working day

2007-10-22T21:07:00.000+02:00

Yesterday we had the last day at the museum. I just had to supervise some lectures that were held by the artist which was not an easy job because I didn't get much sleep the night before. We were out at Mr. Wong's bar which as a story on it's own...

After work I went through Century Park (the biggest park in Shanghai) to the hotel to get some sleep.

But not much because at 6 the bus was already here to pick us up for a "hot pot" dinner. The Japanese found the control of the plate and started using it as a nintendo game controller :-)

Two of the Japanese after taking the Chinese schnaps. Oh, it was strong!!!

After dinner we went out for dancing and again it got very late...

opening concert

2007-10-21T05:41:00.000+02:00

After the opening of the exhibition on Friday we went to the Shanghai music hall for the opening concert with performances of MIT, AEC Futurelab and other institutions.

The music hall

this is just a small part of the technical equipment for the show

WOW, the work from futurlab was in 3d, CRAZY STUFF!!!

it's been the visualization of a traditional Chinese opera

It's done

2007-10-19T12:59:00.000+02:00

The exhibition is opened and everything is running!
I'm getting ready to go to the opening concert of the festival. There is a gigantic firework going on outside right now. I think it's on for half an hour now. They shoot out everything they have... CRAZY!!!!

briefing of the festival

2007-10-19T04:47:00.000+02:00

The charming restaurant where the briefing took place

Erwin not so happy to get the eArts cap. It's crazy technology! It has blinking lights all over!!!

The group of Japanese artists was really happy with the caps though ;-)

oops

2007-10-18T20:00:00.001+02:00

sometimes it happens that screens come down over night or that you get the really wrong cable

three days before the opening

2007-10-16T19:19:00.000+02:00

here are some pictures from our work, three days before the opening.

The screens for S.H.E.

This will become the screens for Golan Levins noodels

The "ball room" with arabesque

Room 3 of the exhibition

Bags filled with wood chips for the floor. To make you feel like you walk in the forest or a garden.

Covox and Aonami was here

2007-10-15T08:59:00.000+02:00

Covox/Aonami Asia Tour STD and Shanshui presents - "High-energy Game Boy pop Covox brings the electronic love." He released his debut, "Delete the Elite" in 2005 and in 2006 in China on Beijing-based Shanshui Records. He is joined by another Game Boy musician from Tokyo Japan, Aonami. Also performing is Sulumi AKA Sun Dawei, "one of the key musicians of the Chinese new electronic music generation." He is well-known for his pure Game Boy and IDM style. It happened at http://www.4liveunderground.com/

Some pictures I took at this fabulous concert:

Mr. Covox

Mr. Aonami

the Swedish guy (didn't get his name)

the crowd

the instruments

Curiosities

2007-10-13T15:08:00.000+02:00

some nice pictures from our trip to the city:

deserted at night

crowded during the day

with crazy people

and some police

Shanghai museum of science and technology

2007-10-13T14:52:00.000+02:00

The Shanghai museum of science and technology is the biggest of it's kind in whole of Asia. It contains three IMAX cinemas, several exhibitions and soon also an exhibition from Linz.

front view

back view

one of the many meetings

It's all about food

2007-10-13T11:16:00.000+02:00

Finally I got the card reader and here are some first pictures...

Pizza Hut the Chinese style. If the Chinese food gets too much.
Talking about Chinese food, that's what we get for breakfast. Just imagine the lunch buffet at your local Chinese restaurant

But don't worry, there are also western things available. French fries for example ;-)

And that's lunch time. Just look at the happy faces
But there are also places like Mister Donut

and Japanese restaurants...

some pictures

2007-10-11T04:47:00.000+02:00

since I can't get my pictures from the camera to the computer, here a link to Woeishi's page with some pictures.
karibuni

Shanghai at night

2007-10-10T18:15:00.000+02:00

Shanghai at night is dead. Nobody on the street, all shops closed, NOTHING. And if you ever want to go to China, don't go to Shanghai. If this town was in Europe it would be perfectly fine but in China???? Very strange!

I have a phone number: +86 1376 1923 566

Shanghai and cencorship

2007-10-09T15:41:00.000+02:00

Reached Shanghai, china today and I am really surprised what a nice town it is. Not so much traffic, the air is much better then I have expected and it's very clean....
But I already feel the censorship on the internet. I can't access any blogspot blog. But at least I can edit my own. [update: also wikipedia and google cache is not accessible.]
Here is where I am:

View Larger Map

I forgot the cable to my camera so non of the crazy pictures yet. I hope I can get something here soon to upload some pictures...

Göteborg - Vienna - Doha - Shanghai

2007-10-07T13:59:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow I'll start my trip to Shaghai where I will set up an exhibition for the Ars Electronica Center Linz. Sounds cool to go there but the flight schedule is a mess:

07:35 start from Göteborg

09:25 I'm in Vienna for 6 hours. BORING!

15:40 I'll fly to Doha where I arrive at 22:00. 2,5 hours waiting for the flight to Shanghai

00:30 the flight to Shanghai leaves and arrives at 14:40

I have no idea how long all this will really take with all the time differences but it sounds really exhausting.

I'll keep you updated...

Also to Göteborg

2007-10-02T10:31:00.000+02:00

But I am not the only one who was moving to Göteborg. Also Apollo, Lovisa's horse came to it's new stable this weekend.

The poor guy was completely sweaty after four hours in the trailer

And then he couldn't make friends with the other horses. There is one guy that is really mean to him. Sorry for Apollo...

Till Göteborg

2007-10-02T10:26:00.000+02:00

It took some time to write about that, but two weeks ago I moved to Lovisa to Göteborg. I think most of the administrative work is over and I can concentrate on the life here. So far I really like the Swedish way of live. Much more relaxed and friendly. We'll see what Sweden brings...

Cyberarts 07

2007-09-06T11:02:00.000+02:00

The Cyberarts exhibition at the O.K. Center where I was working has opened on thursday together with the Ars Electronica Festival. If you are around and interested in computer art you should visit Linz!

My brother gets married

2007-09-01T10:51:00.001+02:00

Last weekend my brother Andreas got married to Anna. Really was about time, after three kids and 6 years they are together.

Some pictures of the party:

bachelor party

2007-08-05T19:34:00.000+02:00

Last weekend my brother had his bachelor party.

Probably in a little unconventional style. Instead of drinking our brains out we were canoeing in Czech republic.

Saturday night we went out to Krumlov and picked a bar with really strange music...

A night at the camping place that was completely crowded and without rules. There was partying going on the whole night and for some people with a little bit too much booze.

We didn't stay dry all the time

But you can tell we all enjoyed it!

Highlandgames

2007-07-28T13:31:00.000+02:00

As last year, my brothers and me participated at the 2nd upper Austrian highland games which was really fun again. The most spectacular events were "down a pint"

Tossing the caber

throwing a beer barrow as high as possible

and tug of war

we even made it on the cover of a local newspaper

Back home

2007-07-03T15:56:00.000+02:00

The next days we spent in Campinas, about 200km away form Sao Paulo. That's were Lovisa worked at the University. Probably not the funniest town of Brazil and I think you don't miss something of you don't go there...

Except of the chocolate and ice-cream pizzas they make!

I tried it at the good bye party with Lovisa's brazilian friends and I really think we should introduce that in Europe as well!

Mountainbiking in Brazil

2007-07-01T15:33:00.000+02:00

The highlight of the time in Brazil was the mountainbike trip. Our guide told us that the distance would be around 20km and we would need 4 hours what I thought would be very long, but it turned out that it was for sure more than 20km and more than 4 hours...

It seemed as if our guide has never done the tour either. In the beginning he was taking it quite easy and we stopped from time to time to drink water or even jump in a river to cool down again

but soon there were no more brakes and we were just going and going in a crazy beautiful environment

We had to cross several rivers

But although we tried to go as fast as we could it got dark before we reached Lençois. The last picture before the night.

So we had to take out our lamps. The problem was just that we had only two. So first I was going without one, down steep tracks, over rocks and crazy terrain. When we got closer to Lençois and the roads got better our guide gave me his lamp. And he kept falling over his front wheel again and again. But he was laughing and it almost felt as if he enjoyed it...

Highest waterfall in Brazil

2007-07-01T10:30:00.000+02:00

The last day in Chapada diamantina was probably the coolest. First we went in a Landrover to the village Vale do Capão from where we started a 2 hour walk to the highest waterfall in Brazil. The Cachoeira da Fumaça - smoke falls. It's 380 meters high and the water flow is sprayed by the wind before it touches the ground. Looks really cool!

On the way to the waterfall

Cachoeira da Fumaça on a dry day

It goes down really far!

part 3

2007-06-30T15:47:00.000+02:00

The next place we went to was Grut Azul = the blue grotto. The name kind of fits I would say...
Looks really cool how the water can be that blue!

Then it was time to go swimming again on a nice little lake.
But the highlight on that day was this: one of the biggest stalactite cave in the world. We were surprised how big it was. This is the entrance. Probably 15 meters high and 30 meters broad. And it stayed that big! We were walking in one direction for about one hour! Thousands of years this cave has been an underground river. The cave was filled with stalactites, stalagmites and things I don't know names for...

part 2

2007-06-30T15:28:00.000+02:00

The next stop was a big rock that we climbed. Such a nice view from there! And two really nice portraits we made
That's the rock and below the gas station where we had lunch and switched car and guide again!

The trip with the 4 cars and at least 5 guides

2007-06-30T15:11:00.000+02:00

The second day in Lencois we decided to take another tour with the office next door. We started early in the morning with a little car. First we had to pick up two French girls which took some while 'cause they were still sleeping when we picked them up. After maybe 20 minutes in the car our driver stopped. We were not sure why but soon it was clear:
For some reason the closing for the cooling water has not been closed and all the water evaporated and the engine got really hot...
It took some while to fix that problem but with the help of two truck drivers and two police men we were on the road again.

The first stop was a nice swimming place at a river.
On the way to the next attraction of today we stopped again to switch car and guide. Seemed like our car was still not fully repaired.

Walking tours Chapada Diamantina

2007-06-29T18:23:00.000+02:00

What a nice town Lençois is. The decoration was still there from festa de Junina.

After a really nice breakfast we went across the street to our tourist office where we had booked our first day trip. First we went to a place quite close to the city where the kids go swimming. The really cool thing is the natural water slide. Here Lovisa is going down. Might not look fast on the video, but I tell you, it feels fast when you go down there!

In the afternoon we went up a track that led us to a nice clear pool

another swimming place where the local kids meet
That's us

Rio-Salvador-Lençois

2007-06-28T09:10:00.000+02:00

This was just a traveling day. We took the super delayed flight from Rio to Salvador. Then, our first plan was to take the 2 o'clock bus from Salvador to Lençois, but of course we were late for that so we rented a car. It was a very small place were we got the car from and the employees were kind of surprised when we told them we would like to rent one of their cars.

We were driving around 5 hours and arrived in the evening. So there are not many pictures from that day. Just two curiosities that we saw on the way. One guy transporting his huge swimming pool an a rather small trailer.

And we thought we were in Sweden when we saw Volvo Gotemburgo next to the road

UFOs in Rio

2007-06-27T12:35:00.000+02:00

The second and unfortunately also last day in Rio was very busy.First we went took the ferry to Nitéroi to visit the museum of contemporary art. It looks like a UFO. Soo cool with the sugar loaf and corcovado in the background (not on this pictures though but still looks cool)!

The next stop was Copacabana beach which was really amazing! I have never seen such a long and broad beach before. Would have been so nice to go swimming but the water was definitely too cold! Would have been fun with the really big waves though...

Instead we played a scene from Bay-watch

What a busy day... Next we went up the sugar loaf (the mountain where Homer was released when he got kidnaped).

It was getting dark already and we had an amazing view!

After the sugar loaf we went out to a really nice bar that is stuffed with curiosities and antiques. It's called Rio Scenario and absolutely worth a visit! And we were lucky, there was a band playing bossa nova, the traditional Brazilian music.

Rio de Janeiro

2007-06-26T20:38:00.000+02:00

One night in the plane and on airports we reached Rio de Janeiro. The home of Jesus, the sugar loaf and Rosario.

Ok, you know the first two, Rosario is a Orchid lover who has her own magazine on Orchids. Lovisa got to know her during the time she was working at the University and we could stay at their place.

After a nap to regain strength after the long night, there was not much left of the day, so we decided to give Jesus a visit. That guy is huge!!!

And he has a gorgeous view over the town

The sloth

2007-06-25T19:40:00.000+02:00

The last day in the Amazon jungle we went to find a sloth. Lovisa and I were still so tired and kind of sick from the night in the jungle. We really hoped to find a sloth really fast so that we could return to the camp for a nap. But this time it took hours to find one (the other days we spotted them really easily).

But after about 3 hours in the sun we got the sloth and I got a sun stroke...

That's the guy running away from us as fast as he can.

Later that day, we went back to Manaos where I got a Coke in a plastic bag (they needed the bottle) and at midnight we left to Rio de Janeiro via Sao Paulo.

Wire tree

2007-06-25T19:37:00.000+02:00

just because I like this picture so much. An electrical wire with leaves...

Hurra Torpedo

2007-06-25T13:56:00.000+02:00

This has nothing to do with Brazil but it's great anyways. The Norwegian band Hurra Torpedo...

a night out

2007-06-24T20:36:00.000+02:00

Or last night we decided to spend out in the jungle. We had to leave our save jungle hotel quite early in the afternoon 'cause it gets dark already around 6 o'clock and then the mosquitos attack without mercy.

When we reached the 'jungle campsite' we immediately had to start a fire to prepare dinner and make the hammocks ready for the night including the mosquito nets.

For dinner I had roasted chicken and Lovisa got fish. A guide told us how nice it is to have a Caipirinha in the jungle so we had to try that as well.

At night we were visited by some really naughty spiders...

Actually we didn't sleep very much that night. Maybe around 2 or 3 in the morning we both woke up nauseous. It was impossible to sleep. We don't know what it was that made us sick since we didn't eat the same. That's how we felt on the way back:

native family

2007-06-24T09:00:00.000+02:00

On Sunday morning we visited a native family.

Actually there was not much to see so we decided to explore their backyard and went on a hike through the jungle.

Where we came out some cows were already waiting for us.

Later we jumped in the Amazonas river for some refreshment but the water was so warm, there was not much freshness going on.

Dolphins and paddling on a sunny afternoon

2007-06-23T20:09:00.000+02:00

Tuesday morning we went out to catch a sloth but without success. But instead we could follow a group of river dolphins. A group of about 7 dolphins were on their way to visit their family up the river (I'm very sure that's what they were up to)...

Later that day our English friends and Luciano the Brasileiro left the camp to Manaus. Now only Lovisa and I were left in the jungle and because the weather was so nice we decided to go paddling for the afternoon. Oh, how I enjoyed it!!!

Just like in Sweden Lovisa wasn't enjoying it so much... If you don't remember that one click here

That shows quite nicely how it was like to paddle through the jungle:

jungle school and predators

2007-06-22T22:25:00.000+02:00

In the afternoon we visited a jungle school.

The kids had a football match to become the new Ronaldinos. They were really into the game and cheering for their team!

Next we went Piranha fishing. We used beef as bait and after some seconds our guide had the first one. In the beginning the fish just ate the bate from our hook and we didn't get one but after some practice we got one after the other.

When the boat was full with piranhas we went back home. It already got dark and soon we didn't see anything. Only some shadows from the moon. And that were perfect conditions to catch more animals. Demiau (our guide) was looking for crocodiles. And he really caught one from the boat just with his hands. It was crazy, we didn't see anything and he spotted this animals that are under water, just with their eyes and nose out.

grub for breakfast

2007-06-22T19:24:00.000+02:00

In the morning of the second day in the jungle we had a walking tour. We looked at walking trees. They can move a little bit by growing new roots and letting others die:

Some spiders were waiting for us along the way:

And we had a tinker workshop in the jungle

We even tried a grub that lifes in a nut. Our guide said the nut doesn't taste very good but we have to try the grub. deliciouse!!!

Meeting of the rivers

2007-06-21T20:11:00.000+02:00

The second day we started our trip into the Amazon jungle. A short trip by bus, then we jumped on a boat, crossed the Rio Negro and the Amazon river. This place is called meeting of the rivers which was not so spectacular...Then another short trip on the bus to the next boat that took us to our "jungle hotel". The English guys that went with us couldn't let go of their beer can ;-)

On the way we met a school boat
And finally reached ArarinhaIn the afternoon we went out with the boat to get a feeling for the rainforest and visited a local family that probably gets the nicest sunset ever...

Linz - Munich - Zurich - Sao Paulo - Manaus

2007-06-20T17:52:00.000+02:00

After a long flight from Zurich to Sao Paulo I met Lovisa again who was working in Brazil for two months. But there was not much time for saying hi, we had to hurry to our next flight to Manaus. The airport of Sao Paulo was a mess that day. For some reason the air control had troubles with the radars on so hundreds of people were at the airport waiting for their flight.
Our flight was quite in time, "only" a delay of two hours.
But we arrived in Manaus. Manaus reminded me a lot of Dar es Salaam. It was almost as hot and humid as in Tanzania and also the city was crowded and busy as there. But of course it is not as poor as Dar.

Booked a tour at Gero's for the Amazonas. More about that tomorrow...