Journey
Trip to Haifa
Sunday, June 26th, 2011 | Journey | No Comments
In this post I`ll try to sum up the 14 days in Israel in form of a diary to remember as much details as possible and to give you a chance to order my impressions:
Day of arrival… Flight was long but ok. The drive from Tel Aviv to Haifa of another 3 hours by Israeli “Marshrutka”-Taxi a big fault (by train only 1h). Exhausted we arrive in our holiday flat. Its not far from the beach and most of our neighbours are originally from Ethiopia …
Day 1.
First day at the beach in Haifa, just relaxing and watching the people (no European tourists at all!!) mostly coming from Russia or US visiting their relatives or friends. Then in the evening my first “Shabat” with delicious fish and vegetables and afterwords relaxing on the terrace with a wonderful view to the sea and the green vegetation which is typical in the northern part of Israel.
Day 2
Trip to Cesaria, a living place of the upper class Israeli with a rich historical background. Half-lying in the “Beach Bar” with some live Jazz music in the background, waching the sea and the sailors you can really forget your reality in the rainy Germany and just dream of becoming rich one day…
Day 3
Again at the beach. Realize that the third official language in Haifa (besides Hebrew and English) is Russian. That is very comfortable for us and we feel homelike. On the way back home a short look into a russian food shop, small but with a good sortiment of some delicious russian snacks and foods – feel safer with shopping it then the ”other” food because its still difficult to read in Hebrew. In the afternoon a short but impressive walk through our neighbourhood looking for a cashpoint to get more Shekel. Talking with a man in a park (also a Russian immigrant) we learn, that our neighbourhood has some more cultural diversity than we assumed first. We like the people here. It`s very easy to get in contact and get some help. I examine the architecture of the apartment blocks in Neve David (our place) with about 8 to 13 floors they differ from those ones you can see in e.g. Eastern Europe. Because of small earthquakes (my suggestion) almost all of the blocks are built on a kind of cement stilts, the walls are very drab coloured with small windows and grills infront of it. In the evening most of the people are outside sitting and talking. Some men are walking to the small synagogue to get together to the evening prayer. Younger men with Kipas are hanging out and smoking cigarrets…
Day 4
Sightseeing in Haifa: Museum, of Israel Navy and immigration, cable car to the monastery “Stella Maris”, Ben Gurion Avanue. , the Metro with its 5 stations and the Zoo. I think we`ve already seen most of the touristical places in Haifa for this city is not as popular for tourists as it does Tel Aviv, Elat or Jerusalem.
Day 5
Went to Rosh Hanitra by car, near the Lebanon boarder. I take a nice pic with the soldiers. Nevertheless it`s a really strange feeling to be at a boarder of a country which is still not in peace with Israel.
Day 6-7 Time at the beach, then eventually get to the car station to rent a car to feel more mobile and to do some trips around Haifa.
Day 8
Decide to visit the old city of Acre (an hour drive to the north of Haifa). The city walls and all the buildings are mostly built in the Ottoman period in the 18th century. The prison in the old Citadel and the Hamam bath have been used a long time until the middle of the 20th century. Around midday we start to walk back to the car but suddenly get into a crowd of Arab men. Police men stop some streets and the traffic. More and more people come from the narrow streets of the old city, now mostly women in black dresses, all of them crying and shouting. Then some men are carrying 4 coffins in the crowd…we better keep some safe distance to this unpredictable event. Later we find out it is a funeral of 4 young men who had an accident a day before in Haifa, all of them belonging to one family in Acre. We try to get out of the city as soon as possible to avoid any conflicts due to my snow-white summer dress.
Day 9 At the beach we try to sort our impressions from the days before and plan our trip to the See of Galilei tomorrow.
Day 10
The weather is cloudly and its not too hot (locals would say it`s cold). Our destination is the Sea of Galilei near the Golan Heights and the Jordan Valley. We plan to do a round trip with some stops starting in Capernaum. Coming to the sea we are just overwhelmed by its beautiful landscapes. The view from the northern point radiates a very special atmosphere of calmness and peace. We find a very calm place signposted for groups of pilgrims to pray at the holy coast where Jesus lived and preached.
Then getting back to our car we are just shocked… One of the car windows is broken and my bag is stolen…Unbelievable. Obviously those holy places are much more dangerous then the “normal” ones in our atheopean ghetto. Sadly we have to interrupt our trip and go back to Haifa with some fresh wind from the open side-window. The only good thought is that inside my bag have been just a few chewing gums, a bottle of soap bubbles and my sunglasses.
Day 11-13 Stay at the beach, eat at the beach and just walk in the evening to avoid more unpleasant adventures. Nevertheless, Israel- we like U and hope to come a second time!
See the pics here:
Closing of the legendary “Cherkizovskij Market” in Moscow
Thursday, July 30th, 2009 | Journey | 1 Comment
The news about the closing of the legendary market in the eastern part of Moscow near by the international hotel complex “Izmajlovo” spread like a fire. The market of the size of about 200 ha is existing since the early 90-ies and emerged to be the biggest one in Europe with approx. 100 000 persons employed. Most of the people involved into the production and distribution chains come from China and smaller (Central) Asian countries having no legal residence permit. The daily turnover of this market is estimated to be more than 200 000 US-$ per diem. The management of the market remains in the hands of the Izmajlovo clan – Telman Izmajlov, his two sons and his nephew- since 1989. Shortly, Mr. Izmaijlov attracted attention by opening the most expensive and luxurious hotel resort in Turky inviting prominent guests from all around the world.
Cherkizovsij Rynok
The latest news report just a “preliminary closing” of the market because of ” failors of sanitary and dealing norms”. In fact, the market is considered to have a criminal touch in terms of the way of making business and the trading goods. The missing certifications and other documents for many goods are then the simplest delicts. A closing of the “Cherkizovskij market” has been tried several times since 2001, but without any success.
Is the current situation more authoritative then it has been in the past? Now plans to build a sport and entertainment center as well as a modern shopping center, instead of the shabby market hall, the kiosks and the large parking for the trucks with (illegal) goods, becoming more and more realistic. Shortly the Chinese deputy secretary of trade who visited Moscow and showed interest in finding a con-sens regarding the destiny of the over 60 000 Chinese who worked at the Cherkizovskij market as well as the goods to the amount of 5 billion US-$, which are still in the area. He confirmed that the Chinese government is willing to invest about 1 Billion US-$ in building a new shopping-center as well as a large-scale logistic center and customs terminal. This project would take at least two years in case of the final clarification of the matter.
Until then hundreds of police officers are patrolling around the housing estates to prevent a rising of criminal incidents. It`ll take some time to stabilize this tense situation with thousands unemployed Asians who are just hanging around the Metro stations and nearby “Izmajlovo Park” awaiting the issue.
Week-Trip with Kid!
Friday, April 25th, 2008 | Humour & Stuff, Journey | 6 Comments
Now I have to forget about my usual holiday trips without children! Now starts a new age of holidaymaking together with my little son Leon! He is cute But extremely active! It already starts at the airport, a naughty running little boy draws the passengers attention and lets mummy getting red and angry when he`s poohing in his Pampi but there is no place to change the nappy! The unruly urge to discover the new vicinity at the new place – the sand, the see, new people and playgrounds – lets mummy to remember the accustomed sweet idleness an to try to make the Kid to take a little nap. NO chance! From sunrise to the sunset at 10 p.m. the sweet little running doesn`t even think about it! No morning-coffee, no sitting-around-and-planning-day-trips, no naps, no lying on the beach, no romantic sunsets with a holiday-lover and no alcoholic dinks!!! Those sacrifices have a name – the overwhelming and boundless Mother Love!
Study Trip to Prague 2008
Monday, March 3rd, 2008 | Journey | No Comments
This Prague trip has been something special! This time I went to Prague not to make some sightseeing with the usual tourist attractions like the Karlsbrücke, Prague Castle, Apostel`s Clock and the Jew Quarter. This time it was completely different!
Our group of 10 students ( all prospective Dipl. Geographers) plus our supervisor Mr. Dr. Waibel went to Prague to make some scientific research about the effects and structural changes the transitional process, which started with the Velvet Revolution in 1989, had caused in tourism, retail and industry.
The first weekend we were running through the city and the Metro stations with an average speed of 9km/h (our Navi proved it!). For Mr. Waibel didn`t look back very often to check if everybody is still on board, some of us who couldn’t`t or wouldn`t run, walked through the old City of Prague and admired the historism and art nouveau fassades of the old buildings or just enjoyed the great weather! Our “city guide” Veronika emerged as a former hotel executive who made guidance in the “Top Hotel” but not in the city…Does`t matter! 
In the evening on Sunday we had our first meetings in our “conference room” at Pension “Lucie”. It was now we noticed how much work it would be the next week!!! The tourism-group had to change their concept completely and worked now on the business tourism in Prague. The retail-group was also a little bit rattled by the unexpected criticism of Mr. Waibel. Only the IT-group had already its first two interviews on Monday. The next days we decided to meet in the evening and talk about the results of the day. Already on Thursday some of us got ill. The hypothermia while running in and out into hotels and shops doing surveys was the one of the reasons for illness. Nevertheless, our timetables were getting full. We ran from one interview appointment to another, just the IT-group had a temporary shortage and wrote about 200 emails to get some appointments. They hit all records, sitting about two days and half nights in their room in the same position with their laptops, typing and googling! On Friday evening we went to “Pravek”, a restaurant at the Metro station “Andel” which we noticed already on Saturday. The interior decoration of “Pravec” looked like the a stone-age cave with mammoth tusks and old paintings at the walls. The dishes` names like Jurrasic Globe, Mammoth or Pangeasteak are also quite funny, cause you don`t really know what you get , but it was really tasty!! After dinner some of us, Mr. Waibel (or by now just Michael) inclusive, walked over the Karlsbrücke to Stare Mesto to a night club named “Bombay”. It was OK, but nothing spectacular besides high prices and the dancing part on top the podest. Just the Taxi afterwords exceeded our budget! Next time no taxi!
On our second weekend at Prague we planned to go to Pilsen on Saturday and to visit the Jew Quartal on Sunday. Of course we went almost directly to the famous Plsen brewery. Before we could taste the beer we had to endure a exergerated media show about beer and then an incompetent guidance for about an hour. We looked forward to sit down in the brewery pub to drink more Pilsen beer but it wasn`t our day. Two wedding parties have been celebrating in both of the brewery Pubs! The toughest of us, this was Michael, walked in and sat down in the vestibule. We drank our beer but soon the staff noticed the uninvited guests and we were booted out:) In the evening nobody of us had the power to go out in the City neither fancied to to sit in the “Lucie” Bar with the unfriendly barmen, who was badly tempered because “the Germans” didn`t get wrecked every evening at “Lucie”. So everybody went to bed. On sunday all groups should finish their final presentaions and to report to the other groups. Especially the tourism-group which contained five persons had to struggle for an agreement. The conclusion of their work was, that tourism plays an important role for Prague but there are many difficulties at different levels. Here are some (incomplete) results of our group-workes:
Tourism (Jonas,Klaus, Margit,Gunnar,Dagmara)
First, there is no visible superior strategy for tourism development on the part of the state authorities. Second, the categorization of hotels in Prague has no common basement, that means every hotel tenant acts on his own discretion e.g. the stars-categories differ enourmously. Third, the trend for the future indicates the growing importance of family tourism and not as estimated of congress tourism. And there is no noticable crowding out in the backpacker sector.
Retail (Betty, Paulina, Martin)
The market for shopping center is full. There is a strong tendancy for building shopping malls in the City and not like in the end-90ies at the periphery. The location decision is dominated by the location and not by landprice. The choice of the right marketing strategy learning from the competitor is predominant. There is no direct competition between the shopping malls on the greenfield side, neither between the greenfield and the city. The new build city shopping mall “Palladium” has generated positive effects on the retail in the near vicinity. The role of the city authorities is marginal and constrained.
IT-Sector (Sakura, Simon)
The IT-sector in Prague is not developed very much yet. There exist no networkes between the IT-companies.
(I hope you`ll complete my short summary
All in all we did a good job, I think. Everybody of us learned a lot for the future and especially for the work on our diplomas.
Sunday evening most of us left the Pension “Lucie” to spend a pleasant evening in the famous Cafe “Slavia” at the Moldau opposite the Opera house. This cafe is famous for its Absinth (this is the green high proofed stuff). The interior design is art deco, elegant but strict. Famous is also the Viktor Olivia painting we called “The Absinth Woman” (actually it calls “The Absinthe drinker”), it shows a drunken old man with his Absinth glass on the table and a young, naked, green and transparent woman sitting on the table. Maybe some of us would have seen green, naked women after drinking some more glasses but it was already 11p.m. and the cafe closed. We decided to go somewhere else but had to leave also the next bar at 2 p.m. Now nothing was left besides the “Bombay”. The night ended after a couple of Bloody Marie`s, beers, Absinth`s and dancing at 5 o`clock in the morning. The right time to take the metro and not the taxi.
This was our somehow different Prague trip! I hope you enjoyed to read!
I`m waiting for your comments and for some good photos for I don`t have any!
Got Online!
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 | Journey | 3 Comments
After a long time of concidaration I dicided to go online and to start my own homepage! Basically it`s to order my things which I accumullated at the PC over the last 5 years. Thats papers for university, presentations, photos and stuff like that! Certainly this page will be a place for communication with my family, friends and colleagues! Let`s get started then!