almost a diary, photoblogging, traveling

King and Queen of… Sweden.

King and Queen of... Sweden.Finally a holiday experience that will impress my grandmother, who is, among many other things, fluent in all things concerning “European royalty.” Well, I suppose as fluent as reading women’s and celebrity magazines will get you in this respect.

So on my way back to Stockholm airport, I saw a tall guy with an earpiece standing in the middle of a road I had to cross. Then the royal carriage appeared and King and Queen of Sweden passed on their way to the annual opening of the Swedish Parliamentary session. Not sure, but it appears to be something like the “Queen’s Speech” in Britain.

Remembering what GWB’s visit to my home town had been like in February this year – remmeber, people who lived close to the place where he met with Chancellor Schroeder had to pass the entire day behind closed curtains not to risk being shot by US secret service snipers on the next building – I was mostly surprised about the relative lack of royal intrusion in people’s lives.

Where Bush had 3 motorways closed as well as airplanes diverted, King and Queen came, greeted and went to the Parliament with amazing royal understatement – despite the impressive amount of cavalry accompanying them.

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almost a diary, photoblogging

Hej! from Stockholm.

Hej! from Stockholm.Despite my still serverely limited mobility I made it to Stockholm for the first bi-annual afoe stakeholder meeting.

Too bad that only a couple of fistfuls came to Sweden this weekend, but it’s great to finally meet some of the people I’ve blogged with for two years now.

Too bad as well that I won’t see as much of Stockholm as I would like because of overly frequent foot-caused coffee breaks.

Too bad, too, that almost all of those coffee breaks are taking place in self-service coffee shops. Waiting is a apparently an activity limited to rel restaurants in Sweden…

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oddly enough, photoblogging

Red Light Cab.

Red Light Cab.

It’s probably hard to see, but this cab is featuring an advertisement for a brothel – Germany’s biggest, if I heard correctly. Never seen that before.. and it’s located in Cologne, easily a two-hour drive away. That would be an obscene cab ride in so many ways…

Clicking the image will take you to my flickr account. The picture was taken with a SE t610.

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Economics, Germany, photoblogging

Ladenschluß.

Ladenschluß.Shopping from midnight to 4am, in Germany. It’s possible – at least for promotional reasons. Last Saturday, a couple of hundred of local retailers celebrated the “night of the senses”, during which shops were allowed to open. Apparently, the project’s revenue was satisfactory, as 100,000 people decided to postpone their shopping from Saturday afternoon to Saturday night. Interestingly though, the shop-closing-law exeption was one of the measures intended to indemnify local retailers for the loss of revenue suffered during George W. Bush’s visit to Mainz in February. So, even inadvertendly, the American government is advancing their economic agenda…

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oddly enough, photoblogging

Land Of Confusion.

thai-massage-pussy-magazine

Around the corner from a friend’s place is a new thai-massage parlor – quite a luxurious one, judging from looking through their shopwindow at night time. And also one where actual thai massages take place. So, in order to clearly position themselves on the employment market for certified thai masseuses, the job-ad hanging in their window clearly states “no sex”. Unfortunately, I’m sure the magazine lying on the waiting room table next to the window with the ad might confuse at least a few potential applicants…

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