Yellow is the new black

In the dark time of the year I felt not safe on my bike and so I decided to wear a bright jacket. At the beginning of fall, I bought a yellow jacket that I have been wearing since and with that I feel safer. That’s great. But there is more to run as a human banana than I initially thought. When I go with a group to a crowded place, nobody gets lost because I will serve as a beacon. If I get lost I have to go to a visible spot and wait till someone in the group finds me.

Where is Waldo? 

Another thing I noticed, people ask me more often for directions. They notice me more and I can’t hide. After all, a yellow submarine is a contradiction.  

Arches

The Forth Man

Hello or Grüß Gott as they say in Austria. I was in Vienna for some days and I'm going to write about now. It's another travel post and it will contain some magic. But I promise not to post about Harry Potter again.

Snowy-owls in the Natural History museum Vienna. No connection to Harry Potter!

My friend Anies told me Austrians are more easy going than Germans. Germans are aware that there is Austria but sometimes ignore it. For the reader from the US: Austria is for Germany what Canada is for the US. O those Austrians!

Some weeks ago my brother Soheil and I longed-for some culture and we went to the opera, to the magic flute in Hamburg. I was not an opera guy but the magic flute did not change that. The word "but" was misplaced. I was not an opera guy and the magic flute did not change that. Weeks later I went to the city where Mozart composed this master piece.
Mozart was born in Austria and lived and died in Vienna. To use the 'Canada equals Austria' metaphor again: Mozart is for Germany what Justin Bieber is for the US. (In this moment a fatwa against my live is issued by classical music muftis and by teenaged girls)

Staircase or Stiege in Mozart House in Vienna

I reported from my travel to Madrid where I couldn't understand the language. And here again another language I don't understand. I'm just kidding or as the Viennese says: Ich schob einen Wuchtel. Actually, I was singing in Vienna with Austrians. I was adding the German accent to the else Austrian music.
Bottom line, Vienna is a beautiful city with lovely people. Let me also give a shout-out to my host Anies. Goodbye or as the Austrians say Servus. Servus is not just goodbye but also a greeting like Aloha in Hawaii. Wait, did Austria just went from being Canada to being Hawaii?

One Foot, two Feet...12 Toes

Did you ever wake up early in the morning and while half asleep you let your gaze wonder around. Once it felts on your feet, you think you noticed six toes on one foot. Suddenly, you feel alerted and in panic mode you start to count the toes on each foot and feel relieved, when you find out noting changed over night. You still have the usual five on each of them. Did that ever happen to you? No! So, it's just me than.

The Bright Balloon

I was in Madrid for almost a week. I flew the same day Bayern Munich played against Atlético Madrid. There were some Bayern fans in my flight from Hamburg. Probably, you think now that's weird and I have to agree with you-Bayern Munich fans who live in Hamburg, that is weird.

In Madrid I attended a training for coordinating community building. The details of the training would be beyond the scope of this post. Nevertheless, I want to share one learning. A group of people playing with a bunch of balloons is all you need to explain the world.

The conference was attended by people from different European countries, and therefore, we had translations in all different directions. We didn't always need translation. We studied material, that was available in the different languages and when we read out load, we read in the language we had in front of us. So, one person read in English, the next continued in Spanish and the next in French and so on.
Not everything was good. The food was bad. IT WAS BAD. We had freedom fries everyday. And everyday they were bad. Everyone was wondering how such a simple thing like fries can be done wrong. But the cook always managed to make them soft and tasteless. Tasteless was most of the food we got during the training.
That's it for this trip. Now that the summer is over, I will post more often...I think.

PS: Bayern Munich lost the game against Atlético. Did I have to tell that: No. Did I want to tell it: You bet.