Ein Jahr im Himmel aber stürmisch am Ende

Meine Engelin, 2011 war wirklich ein Jahr im Himmel mit dir, wir haben so viel zusammen gemacht, dass es ist schwer, das Beste zu bestätigen. Ich versuche trotz unseres Jahr in Frankfurt heute zusammenzufassen.

Zuerst möchte ich über Reisen schreiben. Reisen gefällt dir nicht aber du hast es gerne mit mir gemacht. Ich muss dir dafür ewig danken. Wir sind nach Köln, Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, Würzburg, Brügge, Dresden, Nizza, Monaco, Mechelen, London (für ein NBA Spiel), Slowakei (dreimal), Norwegen und Ablanque (Spanien) gegangen. Die Reise nach Norwegen war ziemlich hart für dich, aber endlich haben wir sie auch genossen.

Aber nicht nur haben wir gereist. Wir haben auch so viel zusammen in Frankfurt gemacht. Erinnerst du dich an die Rosen bei Palmengarten? Und am Grill, der im Bullworth gekauft wird? Wir sind zusammen zum Schwimmbad gegangen (meistens Freitags abends), wir haben so viele Japanische Restaurants entdeckt,... Kurz gesagt: ich kann nicht mein Leben in Frankfurt ohne dich verstehen. Mit dir wird einfacher, im Ausland zu leben.

Ende 2011 hat uns hart geschlagen. Unser Traum in Frankfurt wird zerbrochen und du musst in April zurück nach Bratislava. Das hat wie eine Bombe in unserer Beziehung gefallen. Plötzlich haben wir bemerkt, alle die Defekte, die wir vergessen hatten. Kleine Defekte sind riesig geworden und nach Vordergrund gekommen. Wörter wurden missverstanden und Stillen haben unerwartete Bedeutungen gehabt. Viele Tränen sind gefallen und schlaflos Nachte sind gekommen.Ich hoffe, nein, ich wunsche, dass wir zusammen alle Schwierigkeiten besiegen können und dass ich nächstes Jahr, in Dezember 2012, wiedermal über ein Jahr im Himmel mit dir schreiben kann.

Danke schön für in meinem Leben zu sein, meine Engelin.

Frankenstein

This semester, in my studies of English Language, Literature and History, within the subject of English Literature, I must read the novel "Frankenstein", by Mary Shelley, who wrote the novel with just 20 years. The novel has been versioned too much and the it goes much beyond the image the cinema, among others, is given to us.

The creature is benevolent at the moment of inception. It is the refusal of other human beings to accept him, starting by his creator, Viktor, what drives into an spiral of crime and violence. At the moment when the creature opens his eyes, it is him the benevolent and Viktor is the one who refuses any contact with him. Such is his disdain that he does not give any name to his creation. It seems that Mary Shelley adopted the idea, quite spread at that time, that society corrupted human beings, who by nature are born benevolent, even in the case of somebody built from corpses.

Nature plays an important role in the novel, which is mainly set in the Alps and Scotland, two impressive landscapes. The fight between the creature and his creator ends in the way to the North Pole, which provides a perfect background, amidst the powers of the nature. In this sense, Frankenstein is a perfect example of a novel from the Romantic movement.

But there are many more features there: feminist argue that the unnatural birth of the creature results in pain and suffering in Viktor, for breaking the rules of nature; the complex narrative structure may imply that the author wants to distance herself from the content of the novel; uncontrolled advances in science, without due care to their consequences, may be openly criticised;...

As you see, much more than a big head with two nuts in his neck.

To Amélie

I first knew of your coming to the world in summer 2008, when your mother had to rush into a hospital after an intercontinental flight to Canada, as she did not know she had Joaquin and you with her. Then, after quite tough pregnancy you were born on 15 December 2008, some weeks before foreseen. But that was not the start of an easy life. You had a very difficult start, you were so small and not yet developed, so you had to stay in hospital some more months. I have saved in my brain the picture of your brother Joaquin the first time he saw you...

But your life was not going to be easy. You were always connected to machines for breathing and for feeding, sleeping was a torture for you. The first time we met, you hardly noticed me, as I could feel how sick you were. But it did not matter; your parents, and everybody around you, gave you all the love they had, because, in your case, a trip between Frankfurt and Mechelen was worth only for touching you, only for getting a smile from you: they were scarce, like diamonds, but true, and one had to keep them as treasures, like diamonds.

Yesterday, though, after months of quite good evolution, which brought some optimism to us, you decided to leave us. Why? Was it written to be your destiny? Were you tired after a tough three years of life? Your brother to be born in a few weeks will not meet you, your brother Joaquin will not see you while both of you grow up, your parents will not take care of you, ..., I will go to Mechelen and you will not be there. The void you leave on Earth, which you created in just three years, is enormous, Amélie, but I am sure you will cover also an enormous void up there in heaven. I hope you can find there the rest you did not have among us.

From there, you will watch us. From now on, take care of your parents and brother as they were taking care of you on Earth.

Now, you have become inmortal, Amélie: I will always have you in my mind.

Tempête parfaite

Parfois on est dans un rêve, où le bonheur nous fait penser seulement au présent et pas à l'avenir. On devient aveugle et uniquement est important le aujourd'hui, où tout est parfait. Toutefois, il y a une semaine une nouvelle nous a réveillé et a changé nos vies. La destruction au weekend a été immense: un trou noir dans nos coeurs, que a absorbé le monde autour de nous. On n'est possible de souffrir plus en deux jours. Lentement, après un lundi horrible, nous avons mis nos coeurs en ordre: les dernières deux jours ont été plus faciles et les sourires ont retournés à nos visages. Mais ça ne veut dire que tout soit résolu. Nous avons encore beaucoup de défis dans l'immédiat mais on ne peut pas souffrir tant. Il ne faut avoir peur: nous sommes ensemble et le temps nous aiutera.

High Tatras, one year later

The silence in this blog during one week was caused by my business trip to High Tatras, in Slovakia and subsequent stay during the weekend in Bratislava. Last year I also made the same business trip to High Tatras, with enormous amounts of snow and other difficulties (see the post http://antsanch.blogspot.com/2010/12/in-slovak-mountains.html).This year was different. My plane to Vienna was not delayed and was not landing amidst a snow storm. I could take the taxi easily and drive without further problems to Bratislava, where I had time for a quick, although not very nice, lunch. Then, we took the van to High Tatras, with no snow in the horizon. This time we took the highway to Banska Bystrica, which was completed just few months ago. One could even smell that it was brand new (like in cars).

From Banska Bystrica to Ruzomberok, we faced some difficulties in going uphill to Donovaly, a sky resort, which were under a snow storm, which took by surprise trucks drivers, which soon found themselves trapped in the snow or trying to go downhill. But our driver is a master of driving under snow; I would like to see some Formula 1 drivers driving in such conditions. For a few seconds, I had the perspective of a truck going backwards downhill and my window was too close to its expected way. There were a few seconds only, but certainly it was an experience hard to forget.The remaining of the trip was easy and quick. Of course we had some snow in Starý Smokovec, but it was fully under control. The stay there was very pleasant, specially the visit to the spa area one day after the sessions of the seminar were over. For the way back, we took the same route and this time the trip was easy... Well, not that easy, in the new highway I mentioned before, we felt the need to stop for a visit to the restroom but the highway is so new that there are no petrol stations yet! So we had to wait 50 kilometres for the next petrol station, in the oldest part of the highway.

Concerning my stay in Bratislava, it was very nice, as usual. I somehow do not feel like a tourist there, even if I cannot feel like a native either. For the first time in my life I ice-skated and I enjoyed like a small boy. I even managed not to fall down a single time and in the end I was able to skate on my own, hands-free and, needless to say, not very fast.

However, not everything those days was nice and wonderful. The weekend was a period of great turbulences in my heart, but that story belongs to a different post...

El cambio climático está aquí

Hoy es 4 de diciembre y todavía no ha nevado en Fráncfort. En mi primer invierno en Fráncfort, en 2008, recuerdo perfectamente la primera nevada: el 14 de noviembre. Y el año pasado por estas fechas, ya me había tenido problemas para aterrizar en Fráncfort viniendo de Malta por la nieve y estaba volviendo de Eslovaquia, de unos días de nevadas de verdad y frío polar. Este año, en comparación, apenas hemos tenido temperaturas bajo cero un par de días y de la nieve, por ahora, ni rastro.

Pero es que no es solo esto. El mes de noviembre ha sido el más seco que se recuerda en Alemania y en algunos sitios han empezado a restringir el uso el agua (supongo que con las lluvias de este fin de semana, esto cambiará). Y al frío le costó mucho llegar: a primeros de noviembre se podía andar por el centro de Fráncfort con un jersey, sin necesidad de abrigo.

Todo esto para indicar que algo está cambiando en el clima. Según la gráfica que adjunto a esta entrada, la volatilidad (o divergencias) de las temperaturas parece haberse disparado en los últimos años, en comparación con los años de los que tenemos indicios (me pregunto quién mediría la temperatura en la Edad Media). No sé si es parte de un ciclo natural de altas y bajas temperaturas o de si el hombre está ayudando a acelerar el proceso, pero está claro que ya no hace el frío de antes. La gran cantidad de contaminación que genera el ser humano (y más ahora, que el "desarrollo" se está extendiendo por Asia, el continente más poblado del planeta) puede tener algo que ver, porque sería muy extraño que llenar nuestros cielos de gases nocivos no tuviera efecto alguno, pues si así fuera los gases no serían nocivos, sino inocuos.
En fin, en conclusión, que negar el cambio climático es, actualmente, de miopes, pero sigo pensando que exagerar sus efectos sea quizá de apocalípticos (también conocidos como asustaviejas). Y a ver si esta semana consigo ver algo de nieve en Eslovaquia.

Errore fatale

A volte la nostra vita ci sembra così bella e perfetta che non ci rendiamo conto che gli altri intorno a noi non sono così felici. Un comportamento che ci sembra eccellente è una fonte di tristezza infinita. La felicità propria ci rendi cieci a quello che l'altra persona sente. Quando scrivo "felicità propia" forse dovrei scrivere "egoismo". L'altra persona, quindi, soffre ed è infelice, ma uno no lo vede, dato che solo la nostra felicità è importante.I cieci non sono solo quelli che non possono vedere, ci sono anche cieci che non vedono il cuore di quelli che amano e che non si rendono conto delle loro tristezza. Sembra che io sono un cieco della seconda categoria: veramente vergognoso. Adesso devo fare tutto possibile per non diventare cieco di nuovo: la prossima volta potrei non essere così fortunato.

Witches in Belgium

Last weekend, I spent with Andrea and my parents some days in Bruges, whose name in Spanish is "Brujas", our word for "witches". I cannot help finding traces of the Spanish stay every time I visit Belgium: maybe they are not so evident for others, but, in my case, they make me feel a little bit more comfortable.

We had a quite long trip by train, going first to Brussels on ICE and taking then another train to Bruges. From there, it was easy and quick to find our hotel (Grand Hotel Casselbergh, highly recommended if you find a nice offer in Internet, otherwise...). For the way back, we had two hours in Brussels, so we decided to go for a walk around Grand Place.

Bruges is called "Venice of the North" and it is true that it belongs to the limited group of cities which can be compared with Venice in equal terms. Its medieval city centre is perfectly preserved and, after some minutes of walk, it is easy to feel like long time ago. The canals surrounding the city centre also contribute to create this charming atmosphere. Central landmark is the tower of Belfort (by the way, it strongly reminds me the Dark Tower of Mordor, from Lord of the Rings) but Bruges is full of cosy corners, as you can see in the other pictures of this post.

As in Venice, one can also feel that the best years of Bruges are long gone. Somehow, the city has a decadent air, although not so strong as in Venice. Being probably too demanding, sometimes it even looks like a medieval Disneyland, given the huge amount of tourists that it has on weekends and the few "real life" that one observes. Nevertheless, this is only when we are too demanding: in overall terms, the city is really fantastic.On Brussels, there is not much new to say, since we only stayed around the cathedral, the Parc, Galeries de Saint Hubert, the Grand Place and the Manneken Pis. The latter is only remarkable as a symbol of the city: do not expect more from it because you will be quite disappointed. On the other hand, the buildings around the Grand Place are simply breathtaking: something you do not find easily in other places in Europe.I must say that the positive tone of this post is due also to the fact that we had blue sky along the weekend, something which is highly improbable when travelling to Belgium. With blue sky, life and cities are definitively more beautiful.

Gefährliche Implikationen

Vor zwei Wochen habe ich in Kino den Film "Contagion" gesehen. Das ist ein interessanter Film, nichts aussergewöhnlich aber nur ein schöner Film über das Ende der Welt dank eines Virus. Über die Rolle gespielt bei Jude Law möchte ich aber Law heute schreiben. Im Film spielt Jude Law die Rolle eines Journalistes, der im Internet die Regierung und wie sie die Krise handelt sehr stark kritisiert.

Zuerst zeigt der Journalist den Einfluss, dass falsche Nachrichten durch Internet bekommen können. Der Journalist hat keinen materiale Beweis über das, was er sagt, aber das hat keinen Preis für ihn: es ist ganz frei, weil niemand fragt ihm zurück, wenn sie sich als falsch heraus. Das ist ein neues Phänomen unsere Zeiten. Durch Internet kann man Millionen Menschen erreichen, die keine Frage stellen, um komplizierte Theorien über eine Verschwörung der Regierung zu erklären. Man sagt, was Menschen hören wollen, und es gibt keinen Grund, um eine weitere Erklärung zu geben.

Der Journalist in "Contagion" erzählt auch, dass die Krankheit mit alternativen Medizin geheilt werden kann. Hier find man eine negative Beziehung zwischen die Lüge, die der Journalist verbreit, und die alternative Medizin. Man kann schliessen daraus, dass alternative Medizin eine grösse Lüge ist, weil sie nichts gegen das Virus machen kann. Aber das ist nur halb wahr: alternative Medizin kann nicht alles heilen und hat natürlicherweise Grenze. Sie ist nutzbar für langfristige Krankenheiten, nicht für etwas so kurzfristig wie ein Virus. Diese Annährung an alternative Medizin ist ziemlich negativ eingestellt.

Dort sind nur zwei Beispiel über Ideen, die etwas versteckt in den Filme sind, aber die sehr einflussreich sein, um bestimmte Ideen bevorzuzugen oder abzulehnen.

Amenaza atunil

Hoy concluyo la serie de entradas sobre el viaje a Eslovaquia de hace unos días con la descripción de un desagradable incidente que sufrí en el control de seguridad del aeropuerto de Fráncfort. Este trance no me gusta nada en absoluto y lo considero algo estúpido, pero tras lo ocurrido hace días mis sentimientos se han incrementado.

Resulta que intenté pasar dos latas de ventresca en aceite de oliva y saltaron todas las alarmas del aeropuerto. El empleado de turno me dijo con una sonrisa que no las podía llevar, después de rebuscar y revolver en mi maleta como si fuera un sabueso. Me tocó discutir con él, porque precisamente en el anterior viaje a Niza había llevado dos latas de ventresca y no saltó ninguna alarma por ningún sitio, y la situación me parecía surrealista, especialmente cuando me chillaron que no abriera la lata allí porque podía ser peligroso. En el fondo, sin ser físico, creo poder afirmar que la ventresca no es líquido.

Todo esto me lleva a pensar por qué en el aeropuerto hay que pasar por este trago tan desagradable de vaciar tus bolsillos, de comprimir tus líquidos de aseo en recipientes minúsculos, de rezar para que la hebilla del cinturón o la pasta metálica de tus gafas no suponga un cacheo en toda regla, cuando en otros medios de transporte, no existen controles de este tipo: ¿existen este tipo de controles en las estaciones de tren?, ¿en los puertos marítimos? A todo esto hay que añadir la actitud de algunos de los trabajadores del aeropuerto, que más parecen estar tratando con ganado o con terroristas en potencia que con seres humanos como ellos.

Ciertamente me parece una medida estúpida, destinada únicamente a calmar los miedos de la masa y a darla una falsa sensación de tranquilidad, pero sin resultado aparente. Lisa Simpson utiliza un razonamiento lógico muy poderoso que puede extrapolarse a este caso y con el que acabo esta entrada de hoy: en Springfield no hay osos pardos porque Lisa tiene una piedra mágica y realmente funciona, porque, ¿cuántos osos hay a la vista en Springfield? Ninguno. Basta con sustituir "osos pardos" por "ataques terroristas", "piedra mágica" por "restricciones a los líquidos" y "Springfield" por "Europa" para empezar a dudar de la eficacia de esta medida.

Three countries in one day

On the way back from Bratislava to Frankfurt, we decided to drive the 800 kilometres between both cities, going through three countries in our trip: Slovakia, Austria and Germany.

The first part of the trip, from Bratislava to Passau, did not offer much to comment. The trip started with a sunny day, but just after five kilometres we entered into the realm of fog. Out of the 400 kilometres driven, only the huge refinery in the outskirts of Vienna (several kilometers long) and the views over the abbey in Melk, the town of the young apprentice in "The name of the rose" and the abbey upon which the book is supposedly based, are to be mentioned.

We decided to stop in Passau, the city of the three rivers: Danube, Ilz and Inn. The city centre is really cosy and nice, but what really defines the character of the city is the water. Obviously, such a situation was perfect for trade and gave the city also an strategic position in times of wars. The views from the castle in Passau are supposed to be breathtaking, but we did not have time for a walk uphill of 20 minutes.It is possible to walk really close to the rivers Danube and Inn. In that walk, we discovered that there are sticks hanging close to the river, to rescue people who may fall into the stream. If they are still there, it is because there is the need; otherwise, you could not find them every 50 metres.Once there, the trip got a bit boring, although we could easily make stages of 100 kilometres each, as Regensburg, Nürnberg, Würzburg and Frankfurt are separated by more or less 100 kilometres each. I do not know why, but driving in German highways is not what I enjoy the most (I would certainly say the contrary). We could finally make it to Frankfurt after eight hours driving and I could feel like at home.

Long weekend in Bratislava

Last week I spent four days in Bratislava, Slovakia. It was all in all my fourth visit there in one year, so it seems it is becoming a familiar place to me (I must admit I feel really well in it).

The trip did not have an easy start, but I would describe the incident in the security check in the aiport in a different post, because it was so bizarre that it deserves its own minute of glory.

Once on the plane, we were placed in the wrong row: row 14. I warn you: avoid row 14 when flying with Niki from Frankfurt to Vienna. Let me explain why: the service on board was divided in two: from row 1 to row 14, and from row 15 to row 28. So, we had to wait almost 45 minutes for our strange sandwich and, then, as the flight Frankfurt-Vienna is not very long, it was time to land. So, when the crew was announcing that we should put our table in vertical position, we were starting to bite our sandwich, hungry like piranhas in the Amazonas.

But we managed to survive this strange flight. Once in Bratislava, we went to Cunovo and Danubiana. Cunovo is near the border with Hungary and it is place for training of kayaking and similar sports, where Slovakia seems to be quite strong. Danubiana is an open air museum of modern art, in a peninsula over the Donau, which has interesting works (to the extent possible, remember it is a museum of modern art) and, needless to say, offers spectacular views of the Donau. At this point, I would like to make a short mention to how a real river looks like and not what we have in Guadalajara, be it Henares or Ablanquejo.In Bratislava, I could find this time a lot of tourists in the city centre (and even a flying-man, see picture above), so it seems that the city is becoming quite trendy now for visitors. This time, as I am becoming familiar with most of the tourist attractions of the city, we had to innovate and we went to a museum with a strange passage: it has books piled on both sides and, thanks to a lot of mirrors, it gives the impression of being a neverending pile of books. It is really interesting from an optical point of view.
The rest of the time was devoted to non-touristical actitivies such as going shopping to a commercial center or to go bathing to an indoor swimming pool. In this sense, we were passing very often by one of my favourites features of Bratislava: a bus-stop on top of a bridge. I simply cannot help loving it, that is so amazing!

In approximately one month, I will be back to Bratislava, for business reasons. Let's see what I report then...

De vuelta a los karts

Ayer por la noche fui con los compañeros de trabajo a correr con los karts, en un circuito cubierto a las afueras de Fráncfort. En mi caso, supuso la segunda vez en mi vida que me ponía al volante de uno de estos pequeños bólidos y creo poder confirmar, llegados a este punto, que la Fórmula 1 no se ha perdido ningún piloto de primer nivel en mi persona.

Al contrario de lo que pasó la primera vez con mis amigos de la universidad (aún recuerdo cómo eché a Javi contra el muro en una curva lenta, con toda mi intención, je, je, je), esta vez no tuve un comportamiento especialmente marrullero. Más bien al contrario, hice un trompo nada más empezar, lo que me dejó relegado immediatamente (perdería medio minuto hasta que me pusieron otra vez en la pista) y pronto empezaron a doblarme pilotos. En nuestra carrera había un grupo de cinco "profesionales" alemanes, que no era la primera vez que estaban en ese circuito, que nos sacaban 15 segundos por vuelta, con lo que estaban doblándome cada dos o tres vueltas. La verdad es que verme rezagado tan pronto hizo que me aburriera bastante porque básicamente tenía que remontar posiciones, sin tener una verdadera lucha con nadie, y tampoco podía dedicarme con ahínco a hacer una vuelta rápida, porque siempre tenía que dejar pasar a los "profesionales" (¿quién sería el "listo" que inventaría eso de la bandera azul?).

A todo esto hay que añadir las limitaciones de mi coche, que juraría que no me giraba bien en las curvas, con lo que tenía que tomar una trazada muy abierta, no siempre óptima. En otras curvas, era yo el que tomaba una trazada alternativa, más bien porque me las tragaba. Además, tras diez vueltas, los brazos comenzaron a quejarse por la dirección de los karts (están malacostumbrados a la dirección asistida) y empecé a tragarme más curvas, sencillamente porque no tenía fuerzas en los brazos para girar el volante. A mis compañeros les pasó lo mismo, o sea, que no estoy solo en esta lucha.

Pero aún con todo esto, creo que tampoco me lo tomé con tanta pasión como la anterior vez. El gen competitivo sigue estando ahí (me hace picarme conmigo mismo nadando en la piscina, lo cual me parece el colmo), pero en esta ocasión no me hizo ir al máximo: interiormente sé que podía haber conducido más al límite, muy poco más, quizá un 5%, pero no estaba dándolo todo. Será que con la edad se va haciendo uno más conservador...

Des hommes spécials

Il y a quelques jours un torero espagnol a été blessé dans son visage par un taureau. Les images avec la corne en entrant pour son joue et en sortant à travers l'oeil sont vraiment apeurant. Cette fois je n'ai le courage de mettre une photo ici. Un collègue torero, avec des autres, lui a porté au hôpital dans l'arena et est rentré a tuer le taureau, qui avait blessé le collègue. Ce qu'il a vu dans le chemin au hôpital doit avoir été horrible. Avec des larmes dans ses yeux, il l'a fait. Et cinque minutes après, il a dû s'occuper de son taureau. Une fois fini, il a pleuré comment un enfant, mais sans cri, sans spectacle, sans honte, sans excuse.

Ce que je viens de décrire nous peut donner une image du matériel spécial avec lequel les toreros sont fait. En laissant de côté se on est en favour de ou contre la tauromachie, on doit reconnaître le courage et l'honneur que distinguent aux toreros. Beaucoup entre eux ont eu des coups de cornes très graves et quelques jours plus tard ils sont retournés à toréer. Quelques, en saignant assez, ont refusé d'aller au hôpital jusqu'à ils ont fini avec leur taureau. Rien à faire avec footballeurs et des autres sportives qui exagérent leurs douleurs toujours que possible.

Donc, d'ici, mon admiration pour les toreros: des hommes très, très spécials.

A bit of glamour in Cote d'Azur

Monaco is only 20 kilometres away from Nice and linked via a direct bus line going parallel to the coast. Therefore, it was almost compulsory to spend one day in the city of the millionaires in the Cote d'Azur.
Our arrival was a bit strange because the bus left us just in the beginning of a tunnel. We needed some time to understand that round the corner the real city started. First, we visited the old town, where you can admire the cathedral and the Grimaldi palace. Nevertheless, do not expect too much from them: these are modern buildings with limited historic value. From that point, though, on top of a hill, one can have good panoramic views of Monaco.

Something very surprising of Monaco is that all the buildings are very close to each other, on total disorder. There seems to be no authority to put a little bit of coherence in that development. Monaco is quite hilly (see picture above), so in many place there are public elevators to take people up and down. Prices of the houses are totally crazy: we checked in a real estate agency that they were asking 2 million euro for an apartment of 56 square metres. Ahh, I forgot to say that most of the houses of Monaco are empty, because their owners just use them not to pay taxes in their countries of origin, not for daily life.

The aquarium of Monaco is one of the most famous in the world. It has a beautiful collection of fishes, although the area with sharks is not so breathtaking. Anyway, there one can admire yellow fishes, poisonous fishes, walking fishes, small fishes,... From top of the aquarium, the views are really impressive.During our walk through Monaco, I could walk along some parts of the Formula One circuit. I must admit that the area of the swimming pool is quite scary: the road is just one metre away from the water. We were in La Rascasse, in Mirabeau, in the way uphill to the casino, in Santa Devota, in the entrance of the tunnel,... It is hard to imagine that Formula One cars are driving there, in streets which are not particularly wide.The area around the Casino is specially nice for walking, although with care, in order not to be run over by a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. In general terms, I must admit that I liked Monaco a lot and that I would not mind to have a house there...

Nice is nice

No, I am not stating the obvious in the title of this post, it is just a simple trick with the name of the city in France which I visited last weekend: Nice.The main attraction of Nice is its splendid Promenade des Anglais (see above), which goes for some kilometres parallel to the sea. It is probably one of the most famous walks in the world, with hotels having private beaches in front of them. Hotels there are quite expensive and the same happens with restaurants. One does not pay for the service received but for the situation of the service. Furthermore, what is not so often reported is that the beach itself has no sand, but stones, and that the water is pretty deep soon. So, in the end, maybe not everything is so perfect there...

Nice has also a remarkable old town quarter (Vieux Nice), with a lot of narrow streets full of cosy shops and markets. However, the massive amount of tourists strolling around it may give the impression that everything is just a huge entertainment area for tourism. Some of the buildings, although remarkable, seem to benefit for their situation more than for their artistic and cultural value.

If there is a name one has to bear in mind while in Nice is that of Masséna. He, coming from Nice, was a field marshall of the French army in times of Napoleon and he has given its name to an enormous amount of places in Nice: a square, a street, a space, a museum,... I do not want to minimize his achievements in life (which are for sure well beyond what I will achieve in my own life), just to highlight his presence in Nice nowadays.

The area around the harbour is also worth a visit. In our case, we had to stay there longer than expected because a storm caught us by surprise and we had to seek cover there for a while. This time, luckily, we did not buy an umbrella, as we did in Bergen, Paris and Heidelberg. Once the rain was gone, I had the opportunity to go back to my childhood, to the time when I was three years old and I spent hours in Ibiza watching cars going out of a ferry boat. I cannot explain it, but even today I cannot help feel intrigued and amazed by such an usual thing.Nice Airport is very close to the sea and the planes always take the approaching to it over the beach, so it is quite common to see them landing at any time during the day. The airport itself, although the second largest in France, is quite shabby and not very comfortable: there are queues everywhere and it seems that it is well beyond its capacity. It is a pity that a beautiful and enjoyable city like Nice gives such a disappointing last impression to its many visitors.

Ciao Laura

Oggi è stato l'ultimo giorno con la mia collegha di ufficio Laura, dalla Finlandia. Lei è arrivata a maggio 2010 e, quindi, abbiamo condividito ufficio per un anno e cinque mesi, cinque giorni alla settimana, dieci ore per giorno. Così diventa veramente difficile non essere oggi un po' triste; ho passato più tempo con lei a Francoforte che con qualsiasi altra persona.

Laura è arrivata a lavorare con noi, dopo trenta anni di carriera nella Suomen Pankki. Dal primo giorno ha avuto una grandissima illusione, insieme a, purtroppo, una mancanza totale di conoscenza delle statistiche e di la più minima capacità organizzativa. Ha fatto cose per le quali ancora oggi non posso trovare una spiegazione: imprimere un documento e dimenticarlo nella stampante, affermare qualcosa e proprio il contrario nella stessa frase, assistere a conferenze senza avere idea di quello che viene discusso. Però devo dire che ha avuto sempre una parola amable con me e ha portato con lei la sua esperienza di litigare con altre divisioni. Per la sua età, è diventata una seconda madre per me, qua a Francoforte, sebbene a volte il "figlio" doveva avere cura della "mamma".

Adesso comincia una nuova avventura, in Finlandia, che, data la sua età, sarà l'ultima nella sua carriera. Desidero che tutto vada molte bene con lei, con suo marito, i loro cani, le due figli, la casa vicino al mare,... Sicuramente ci ritroveremo presto, sia in una riunione a Francoforte o in Finlandia.

Quando un cambio è per migliorare, uno deve essere felice nel cuore, sebbene sia triste nella faccia. Tutto il meglio per te, Laura.

Conduciendo sin cabeza

Aprovecho que esta mañana Vettel se ha proclamado campeón del mundo de Fórmula 1 por segunda vez para describir en esta entrada el comportamiento de algunos compatriotas míos detrás de un volante, a partir de mis experiencias del fin de semana pasado en los alrededores de Guadalajara. En este link (en inglés) hay una guía de comportamiento al volante muy interesante: http://www.wikihow.com/Practice-Zen-Driving.

Empezaré por lo más polémico: los motoristas. Cada cierto tiempo organizan los "moteros" manifestaciones y concentraciones para protestar por el elevado número de accidentes mortales que sufren cada fin de semana, culpando de ello al mal estado de las carreteras y a los afilados quitamiedos. No digo que no tengan razón (que la tienen, por supuesto), pero tampoco estaría de más escuchar alguna autocrítica a su comportamiento en las carreteras secundarias. Ir en grupo de cuatro por una estrecha carretera de montaña apurando todas las curvas está bien, pero igual es algo peligroso si te encuentras con un coche en sentido contrario. Y lo mismo digo de adelantar coches a 120 km/h sin visibilidad. No me explico qué extraña reacción química impide a un motorista quedarse detrás de un coche en una caravana circulando, digamos, a 80 km/h.

También en una carretera secundaria observé cómo dos coches venían picados uno con el otro, siguiéndose a escasa distancia y adelantando todo lo que se les ponía por delante sin importarles las señales de tráfico o el recorrido de la carretera. Por el espejo retrovisor, pude ver que en los dos casos iba al volante un chico (un machote, que conduce mejor que Alonso y Vettel juntos) con su chica, por lo que deduje que se trata de algún tipo de pique entre amigos. Ya hay que tener el cerebro pequeño (y lo digo por los cuatro: los machitos y las acompañantes) para hacer algo así. La de dinero que habrán invertido sus padres en su educación para acabar así... Realmente no me salen ni los calificativos.El último caso es el del "voceras". Explico la situación: un conductor de Barcelona casi atropella a un hombre en un paso de peatones no muy bien señalizado (el de la subida del Corte Inglés, junto al Colegio Ocejón) y tiene que frenar bruscamente. Puede pasarnos a todos, uno va despistado, no conoce la ciudad y se cree que los semáforos funcionan (cuando en este cruce de Guadalajara no es así; habrá que preguntarle a la NASA). Lo que no puede ser es empezar a insultar al peatón como un energúmeno. Este caso me recordó a tantos de los que aparecen de vez en cuando en la prensa de peleas por discusiones de tráfico: realmente muy triste. La grandeza de las personas está en reconocer los errores y en admitir que no se sabe algo. Lo que este conductor hizo fue justamente lo contrario.

Lamentablemente, mucho me temo que estos no son tres casos aislados, sino que se trata de comportamientos bastante comunes en España. Tampoco son comportamientos exclusivos de nuestro país, pero a mí lo que hagan los demás países me trae sin cuidado. En el caso español, me preocupa la extensión de estos comportamientos entre la gente joven: ¿en qué nos estamos convirtiendo?

Weltweite Konferenz

Letzte Woche habe ich an einer weltweite Konferenz über "Legal Entity Identifier" in Basel teilgennomen. Unglücklicherweise hatte ich keine Zeit um weiter entfernt von Hauptbahnhofplatz zu gehen. Deshalb werde ich heute nicht über Basel schreiben (kein Foto, tur mir Leid), sondern über was ich in der Konferenz gesehen habe.

Erstens sollte ich über einen blinden Mann erzählen. Wir waren in dasselbem Hotel und ich konnte ihn sehr oft treffen. Es ist aufmerksam für mich, wie der Mann von Deutschland nach Basel gefahren ist: man muss sehr mutig sein aber wirklich mutig. Er hatte einige Schwierigkeiten (zum Beispiel, er konnte ein Abend nicht die Tur des Hotels finden) aber diese sind kleine Dingen. Ich kann nur mich darüber bewundern.

In der Konferenz gab es viele Menschen aus Ferne Osten (China, Japan und Korea). Manchmal glauben wir Europäer, dass sie sehr ähnlich sind. Nein, nein, nein. Sie benehmen ganz anders and sie sprechen miteinander seltsam; d.h., die Japaner sprechen zwischen sie, aber nicht mit den Koreanern. Ich weiss es nicht, wie es möglich sein können, aber jeden Tag habe ich mit einem Japaner gesprochen: eine seltsame Attraktion?.

Endlich sollte ich auch über den Zugreise von Basel nach Frankfurt schreiben. Dort hat ein Mädchen aus Amerika mit mir über Investitionen in ETF gesprochen. Ich hatte ein Buch über die Finanzkrise, um im Zug zu lesen ("The big short", von Michael Lewis) und sie hat (korrekt) gedacht, dass ich etwas zu tun mit der Finanzwelt habe. Sie ist eine Ingeneurin bei ExxonMobil und sie hat mir ihre Investitionstrategie in ETFs (mit täglichen Trading) erklären. Wow, ich wusste es nicht, dass ETF so populär in den USA sind. Immer wenn ich etwas über ETFs brauche, werde ich diese Mädchen benutzen.

Diese Reise nach Basel sollte eine der letzte Geschäftreise in 2011. Das war ein Jahr voll von Geschäftreisen, aber jetzt kommt der Winter und es ist besser, nicht so viel herum Europa zu reisen.

Sobredosis de coches

El fin de semana pasado estuve visitando la Feria del Automóvil de Fráncfort, que se celebra cada dos años y que es una de las más importantes del sector. Es, además, la segunda feria más importante que se organiza en Fráncfort, tras la Feria del Libro. La feria estuvo abierta al público en general los cinco últimos días, lo que hizo que, especialmente durante el fin de semana, estuviera llena de gente.

Como casi todo el mundo, mi primera intención era visitar los stands de aquellas marcas más alejadas de mis posibilidades: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche,... En esta ocasión, se puede decir que seguí a la masa, con lo que me encontré con que, por una parte, no era posible acercarse ni tocar los coches, además de que la aglomeración hacía insoportable estar en el pabellón. Resultaba curioso como cinco metros más allá no había ningún problema en un stand de una marca con menos glamour.
Parada obligada fueron también los stands de Honda y Peugeot, por aquello de que son los coches que ahora tengo. En el stand de Honda, aparte de comprobar cómo el Honda CRV no ha cambiado absolutamente nada en dos años, se me cayó el móvil debajo de un coche de exposición (Honda Civic) y tuve que hacer un pequeño alarde para recuperarlo, como se puede ver en la fotografía, je, je, je.
Los stands de marcas alemanas estaban también atestados de gente. La cola a la entrada del pabellón de Audi nos hizo desistir pronto, pero tampoco BMW o Mercedes tenían mucho espacio libre.

Así que nos dedicamos a otras marcas menos atractivas en teoría, pero que también tenían cosas que ofrecer. En Subaru tenían un chasis transparente que permitía ver el interior del coche con el motor, el chasis, el depósito de gasolina,... Volvo trajo un barco de la Volvo Ocean Race y era posible subirse a él y tener la sensación de navegar por Fráncfort. El stand de Infinity tenía una réplica del Red Bull campeón del mundo de Formula 1 del año pasado, lo mismo que Renault. En Renault y en Volkswagen tenían un prototipo de una especie de coche eléctrico de una plaza, más parecido a una moto que a un coche. En el stand de Suzuki, tenían además motos, como se puede ver en la fotografía.

Y esto es lo que puedo contar de la Feria del Automóvil de Fráncfort. La verdad es que no llevaba ningún tipo de objetivo a la misma, más allá del de disfrutar y ver lo máximo posible. Creo que conseguí con creces mi objetivo ya que esa misma noche, cuando cerraba los ojos, se me aparecían coches flotando... Ya lo he superado, creo.

Au-revoir REM

Il y a deux jours REM a announcé leur séparation, après plus de veingt ans ensemble. Les dernièrs ans ont été aussi très difficiles, une fois les grandes chansons étaient déjà ici et l'âge tombait sans pause. REM a été une modèle pour groupes comment Nirvana ou Pearl Jam, grace à leur comportement et la tranquilité avec laquelle ont accepté la popularité.

Mais REM est plus qu'un groupe de rock de comportamente impecable. Ils ont été mon première groupe de rock (grace essentiellement à deux Alfonsos, mon cousin et le collegue dans les Salesianos). On pouvait dire que ils m'ont accompagné dans les dernières veingt ans: da quand j'était un projet d'adulte jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Combien des jours j'ai etudié avec leur musique au second plan? Il n'est pas facile accepter qu'une pièce aussi importante de ma jeunesse est allée pour non retourner jamais.Comme hommage, ici sont leur mieux dix chansons, sans ordre, seulement comment ils arrivent dans ma tête:

• Losing my religion (Out of time). Parmi leurs premières hits et sans doute un hymne.
• Everybody hurts (Automatic for the people). Un autre hymne, un chant contre la tristesse et la dépression. Émouvant.
• It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (Document). Une chanson foue et aussi très positif.
• What's the frequency Kenneth? (Monster). Qui avait dit che REM ne pouvait pas avoir des puissantes guitares électriques?
• You are the everything (Green). Simple, mais émouvant et avec beaucoup de talent.
• Be mine (Automatic for the people). Un hymne parfait, imbattable, sensible: un vrai plaisir.
• Shiny happy people (Out of time). Une autre chanson foue de REM, aussi plein d'énergie positive.
• At my most beautiful (Up). Une chanson d'amour qui montre que REM aussi peux faire des grandes ballades.
• Bad day (In time: The best of REM: 1988 - 2003). Une chanson dans le même style de "It's the end of the world...". Fou mais j'ai l'aime.
• Man on the moon (Automatic for the people). Plein de rhytme et de force. Avec des autres chansons elle fait de Automatic for the people une classique indispensable.

REM, Stipe et amis, merci pour entrer dans ma tête via les oreilles.

First experience in Poland

This week I have spent two days in Wroclaw (Breslau in German), in Poland, in a seminar about financial regulation. Wroclaw, which belongs to the Silesian region and which was a German city until recently, was totally destroyed after the Second World War and its population actually suffered the consequences of the war (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wroclaw#World_War_II_and_afterwards). Nowadays, it is one of the most dynamic cities in Poland (the forth one in terms of population).As also happens in Bratislava (and probably in many other cities in former communist countries), Wroclaw is architectonically full of contrasts: ten metres away from the modern buildings made of iron and glass, there are grey blocks of houses from the communist years, which in most cases are pleading for some rehabilitation. It is a rather strange phenomenon, but it may just highlight the quick transition from communism to capitalism in these countries. More shocking for me was hearing the dubbing of films on the TV: the same male voice makes the dubbing into Polish of all voices, regardless whether they are male or female characters. I guess this is also coming from the past years but, believe me, it is quite an experience.Apart for that, Wroclaw is watered everywhere by the Oder River, which later determines the border between Germany and Poland. The silhoutte of the cathedral (see picture above), with its two towers, is a classic image of the city. It is also worth a visit to the Town Hall and the square surrounded it, probably one of the largest one in Europe. The city is also full of churches (made with bricks, not with stone), what shows the strong religious devotion of the Polish. The city centre shows a lot of coloured houses and a walk is quite pleasant there. In a more banal domain, the football stadium was opened just the day before my arrival and some games of the incoming Euro2012 will be played there.Going to the conference itself, there is not much to tell. It was attended by more than 300 people from all around Europe. It was a bit more boring than I expected. Nevertheless, I could study the behaviour of some of my fellow attendants. For example, I could observe how Spanish bankers were easily to identify: they are already following the look created by Mario Conde twenty years ago... The same happened with Spanish women, all of them seemed to be standardised in their clothing and behaviour. When will they evolve (if ever), especially the men?

Just a last remark concerning the airport in Wroclaw. It is rather small and it only has a duty-free shop. That shop mainly sells alcoholic drinks, which were massively bought by the Polish taking a plane. When I say massively I mean several bottles per customer. It reminded me of a similar situation in the ferry from Tallin (in Estonia) to Helsinki.

On the financial crisis

It has been long time since I last wrote about the financial crisis and that could make somebody think that all the big mess is over. Wrong assumption. In the last days, we have witnessed some movements in the financial crisis, which are taking the situation close to the darkest days of 2008, when Lehman collapsed bringing the whole financial system close to collapse as well. Differently to 2008, the core of the crisis is situated now on the European Union. But let's put some thoughts together in relation to the most recent chapters of this novel.

The largest and most urgent problem now is the solvency of Greece and, by extension, the survival of the euro (the second currency in the world after the dollar). Regarding the Greek tragedy, there are critic opinions from some countries (let's call them "AAA-countries") which demand tremendous austerity measures in exchange of some financial aid, with interests beyond 5% (more than aid, I would call this loans). At the same time, Greece must reduce its indebtedness radically in the short-term. In one word, we are asking Greece to achieve the impossible: with such strong austerity measures we are killing the potential growth of the Greek economy and then the Governement cannot get revenues from the taxes and the indebtedness rises and we demand more austerity measures and... It is true that for years Greece was not an example of efficiency and productivity but, on the other hand, they are asked the impossible.
The AAA-countries argue that these austerity measures are some kind of punishment for Greece, which was living on credit beyond its possibilities up to now. The latter is absolutely true but, in my opinion, one should be more pragmatic in this issue. First of all, almost everybody agree with the fact that Greece should never have entered into the euro area, because it did not meet the criteria in Maastricht. Once this mistake is made, there is no point in going around it any more. By the way, these AAA-countries also benefited largely from the inclusion of Greece in the monetary union and their banks were quite eager to enter into businesses in Greece. In a monetary union, what happens to that country has the characteristic of being quickly passed to the other members of the union and that is what European policymakers should look at first. What is at risk is the European Union, not a single country, and the short-sighted solutions defined by European leaders seem not to be fully aware of the situation. It is necessary to flood Greece with money, so that it can meet their commitmments and to make disappear the doubts about some other European countries (Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Belgium and even France).

Lastly, let me conclude with a short reference to the "competition" between Spain and Italy. Some years ago, on the top of the bubble, Spain overtook Italy in the measure of GDP per capita, what was received with joy in Spain and in Italy with a lot of concerns about the methodology of the data used to measure the GDP per capita. At the beginning of the crisis, it seemed that Spain was the next country after Portugal, but latest developments in the markets have dramatically changed this perception: CDS spreads and spreads with the German Bund are higher in Italy than in Spain, with a tendency to widen this gap. In other words, now it is Italy the next one in the queue. Needless to say, such a situation is simply unacceptable for some Italian colleagues of mine, who are now shocked when they see their country behind Spain. A small victory for us, but victory, je, je, je.

I mercati finanziarii del XXI secolo

La settimana scorsa ho frequentato un corso d'estate su "Behavioural Finance" a Madrid, per Harrison Hong. Secondo me, questa crisi ha mostrato che i modelli e le teorie economiche classiche non servono a modellare la realtà economica. Una nuova linea di pensiero economico e questa di "behavioural finance", dove si guarda il comportamento degli agenti nei mercati finanziarii da una prospettiva diversa: non come un agente razionale chi cerca di diversificare il rischio ma come un agente soziale, sotto la influenza degli altri.

Cosí, gli agenti non entrano nel mercato perchè cercano una certa diversificazione dei rischi o per assegnare capitale. La principale ragione è semplice: entrano nel mercato a scommettere, a guadganare dei soldi e andarsene via. Quindi, può spiegarsi la crescita nella rotazione dei titoli nei mercati o la maggior partecipazione delle famiglie, per non menzionare fenomeni come il "high frequency trading". Una parola molto importante in questo mondo è "momentum", che significa entrare nel mercato, in periodi di tempo molto brevi, per approfitarsi della tendenza negativa o positiva, ma con l'unico obiettivo di guadagnare un piccolo margine.

Anche, ci sono modelli che provano a spiegare comportamenti come i manager che non capiscono le transazioni nelle quale è messa sua banca ma che vengono fatte per imitazioni di "guru" delle finanze o per iniziativa dei colleghi più intelligenti che i manager. In 2008, sono molti a dire che i manager delle banche americane più importanti non riuscivano a capire i rischi delle loro banche, dopo averle imbarcate nei transazioni complesse con i derivati. Altri teorie e modelli si concentrano su spiegare la influenza degli amichi e della famiglia nelle decisioni di inversione o su la formazione di bolle nei mercati o nel credito bancario.

Per saperne più: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_economics e http://www.behaviouralfinance.net/.

Nuevos puntos de vista

Esta semana pasada he estado en Madrid por motivos de trabajo. Por las mañanas he tenido una serie de reuniones mientras que por las tardes he asistido a un seminar de Harrison Hong (http://www.princeton.edu/~hhong/, no confundir con Harrison Ford, juas, juas, juas) sobre Behavioural Finance. Ha sido realmente una sensación nueva para mí estar en Madrid alojado en un hotel, pudiendo tener una perspectiva de la ciudad, más cercana a lo que un turista ve.

Bajo el nombre de Behavioural Finance se engloba una nueva corriente de pensamiento económico que cuestiona la hipótesis de los mercados eficientes y que trata de explicar los movimientos en los mercados financieros partiendo de comportamientos sociales de las personas y tomando como base que todos nosotros entramos en los mercados a especular. La crisis actual ha puesto en duda algunos de los principios básicos de la teoría económica de los últimos tiempos y esta nueva rama de la economía parece haber surgido con fuerza para contestar algunas de las preguntas que todos nos formulamos. Este curso me ha permitido por unos días cambiar el chip y adoptar un punto de vista diferente, después de estar tanto tiempo centrado en temas más prácticos.
Por otra parte, estos días he estado descubriendo Madrid como turista. Por primera vez en muchos años, he pasado al parque del Retiro y su estanque. No me llevo una imagen muy grata del evento, porque había dos personas a voces y no tenían muchas ganas de dar por terminada su discusión sobre quién estaba alimentando a las palomas. Mucho me temo que igual siguen por allí, dándose voces e insultándose (algo muy español, por cierto). También me he acercado, aunque desde fuera, a los Museos del Prado (la ampliación le da un aspecto realmente soberbio) y Thyssen, así como a la Plaza de la Lealtad, al Paseo de Recoletos y la Glorieta de Cibeles.

He encontrado, no sé si por el cambio de perspectiva antes mencionado, una ciudad diferente en muchos sentidos: más abierta al turismo, más consciente de su belleza (a destacar aquí la fachada del Palacio de Comunicaciones), más limpia, más segura (he visto policía por las calles) y más agradable para vivir. Pero esto no significa que me haya seducido del todo: hay cosas que mejorar y muchas.

September in Litauen

In wenigen Tagen fangt die europäische Basketballmeisterschaft in Litauen an. Für das erste Mal gibt es 24 Mannschaften in der Meisterschaft, was sieht ein bisschen zu viel für Europa aus. Zum Beispiel, die sechs ex-Republiken von Jugoslawien sind da und Länder wie Finnland, Portugal oder Georgien, die nicht viele Tradition in Basketball haben. Vielleicht irre ich mich, aber die erste Woche wird nicht grandiosen Spielen haben. Zum Beispiel, in den esrten zwei Tagen muss Spanien gegen Polen und Portugal spielen und es gibt Spielen wie Montenegro-Makedonien oder Belgien-Georgien.

Durch diese Erweiteriung ist Italien zurück in einer Meisterschaft, nach manche Jahren ohne sie dort. Italien war einer Macht bis zum ungefähr 2000 (auch italienische Mannschaften, wie Virtus Bologna, beherrschten den Kontinent) und dann, wenn Bargagni, Gallinari and Belinelli sind zum NBA gekommen, hat die Mannschaft plötzlich von internationale Turnier verschwunden. Europäische Basketball braucht Italien zurück, aber die Frage ist wie es Italien zurückgekommen.

Gross Britanien ist auch eine grosse Frage. Vor fünf Jahren gab es keine britische Mannschaften. Als London die Olympische Spiele von 2012 gewonnen hat, sollte die Mannschaften gegründet, weil sie muss in Basketballturnier teilnehmen. Aber die Mannschaft ist viel mehr als das, manche Spieler (Freeland, Deng) sind wirklich stark und sie können viele überraschen. Achtung mit den Briten.

Trotz der Erweiterung zu 24 Mannschaften und die neue Kandidaten wird die Meisterschaft wahrscheinlich von zwei Länder dominiert (Spanien und Litauen), mit andere Kandidaten kurz hinten sie (Griechenland, Türkei, Serbien, Frankreich, Russland). In zwei Wochen haben wir die Lösung da...

A jewel in the shores of Elba

Thanks to an incredible offer for a five-stars hotel (the brand-new QF Hotel) and a nice price in the train ticket (almost five hours from Frankfurt, though), we spent last weekend in Dresden, a city which was devastated in the last days of the Second World War, when it was clear that Germany had lost the war, with a bombing which killed more than 100.000 civilians (ask Churchill for further details): an action which should shame mankind.Afterwards, the DDR did not have neither the money nor the intention to rebuild most of the mounuments destroyed in 1945, so it was not until the unification of Germany that the city started to get back the former brightness it used to have in the XVIIIth century, when it was the splendid capital of Saxony. Our trip started with a walk from the train station via Praguerstrasse. This street has turned into a huge commercial hub in Dresden, with modern shops at both sides. Nevertheless, the three Ibis hotels are there to remind visitors that comunist architecture once ruled the place.

After just ten minutes, we arrived to the Frauenkirche, close to which we had our hotel. Frauenkirche was destroyed after the bombing in 1945 and it was reopened again in 2005. Until then, its ruins remained there as a symbol of the bombing by the allies in 1945. The area around it is still being restructured but one feels really, really well there: everything has been made with taste and care. Another points of interest are Zwinger (a tremendous baroque palace which now hostes six museums), the Semperoper (which appears in Germany for a TV-ad of beer), the Japanase Palace (with its nice sculptures supporting the columns), the Dreikönigekirche (and the lovely area around), the Hofkirche,...

The atmosphere of the city is somehow different to that of a city in Western Germany. First of all, there are no immigrants from Asia or Africa: almost everybody is white. Secondly, the proportion of people with tatoos or piercings is incredibly high; even young parents with children have them. Some of the faces and the factions are truly Prussian to me, rather different to the Western Germany faces I am more used to see. It may sound racist or old-fashioned or whatever, but, 20 years after the unification, one still feels the difference with cities in Western Germany.The most typical view of Dresden is probably that which Canaletto put in his famous painting and which I tried to replicate, probably not with big success (see below). That weekend, the city was celebrating its big festival and there were people and attractions everywhere. I think that most of the population of Dresden (around 450.000) was there, because it was difficult even to walk.In our way back to the station, we also tried to visit Volkwagen's Glass Factory, but we should have booked a tour in advance and we had to just stay behind the glasses. By the way, in that area, not much is said about how the company was founded and about how it grew in its first years of existence... Also by chance, we found ourselves walking towards the football stadium together with a lot of people with yellow and black T-shirts, fans of Dynamo Dresden, which was playing at that very same time. This year they will play against Eintracht Franfkurt, in Second Division, and some of you may be surprised to know where my preferences lay.

Santé pour tous, mais gratuite?

Dans le contexte de la crise de la dette actuelle, on parle souvent sur la situation de la santé publique en les pays européens. Une des expenses plus importantes dans le budget publique est toujours les services médicaux. Pour s'approcher à ce problème, on pouvait dire que il y a deux extrêmes: la situation où le service est totalmente gratuite et la situation où on paye pour tout.

À mon avis, la deuxième situation n'est pas acceptable dans le point de vu de la justice sociale et de la équité. L'idée selon laquel on est guéri seulement s'on paye à l'avance me produit doleur et est moralement écoeurant. Mais, on doit aussi ammettre que l'alternative contraire n'est pas financièrement possible. Dans la théorie economique, quand une marchandise n'a aucun prix pour le consommateur, ceci a tendance à le abuser et à consommer plus de ce qu'il a besoin; donc, les coût montent en flèche. On a beaucoup des exemples en Espagne où les services médicaux sont mal employés. Ce comportement me semble, aussi, moralement regrettable.
Donc, quelle est la meilleure option? Pour moi, c'est la mis en application d'un petite paiement chaque fois qu'on utilise les service médicaux. Comme ça, les services ne sont pas gratuites, mais avec un coût, ce que fait que les consommateurs n'en abusent; mais, simultanément, le petit paiement permet tous, et pas seulement le plus riches, de se profiter de les services médicaux. Ici, la grande question est comment calculer ce petite paiement. Il devrait être inclusif et abordable par la majorité de la population, simplement symbolique, mais suffisant pour y'éviter l'usage impropre.

Bien que ce ne soit pas une solution optimal (bien sûr qu'il y a des autres solutions plus beneficial pour tous), avec la crise actuelle, je pense (crains) qu'il est (soit) plus que possible à court term.

Storia di Venezia

Questi giorni d'estate, ho letto un libro in italiano, comprato a Venezia, sulla storia di Venezia, la città del leone marziano. Il libro, scritto da Alvise Zorzi, chi ha un cognome tipicamente veneziano, sebbene diventi a volte un po' nazionalista, ci mostra un racconto fedele della appasionante storia di Venezia.

Tutto comincia con la divisione dell' Impero Romano in due: Occidente e Oriente. Venezia, più vicina a Roma che a Constantinopla, è rimasta, però, dentro dell' Impero Romano di Oriente. Con il trascorrere del tempo, Venezia è riuscita a ottenere più independenza e riesce a entrare come invaditrice in Constantinopla, dopo tantissimi guerre ed scaramuccie. Venezia aveva il controllo del Mediterraneo Orientale senza discusione: le sue colonie si stendono fino a Cipro e le sue commercianti, come Marco Polo (e tanti altri sconosciuti), hanno arrivato fino a Pekino.

Il sistema politico di Venezia è diventato anche una piccola democrazia, dove il Doge veneva eletto dai Consigli (niente di avere una dinastia di re) e dove la separazione tra Stato ed Chiesa era totale. La giustizia attuava in termini impensabili (diritti dei sospetti, condizioni nelle carcere,...) in quegli anni. Questa struttura, però, è diventata molto complessa, con un numero crescente di comitati ed organi di controllo, lo quale ha, anche, creato una leggenda nera intorno alla vita politica veneziana.

E poi, quando Venezia era nel vertice più alto dopo anni di dominio nel mare e nel commercio, sembra che l'ozio e la inattività hanno preso il governo e i veneziani hanno dimenticato come sono arrivati lì. Quindi, Venezia è entrata in una dura e lunga fase di decadenza, la quale ancora si sente nella città, che adesso non è niente che un' attrazione turistica di primo livello.

Anche di questa triste storia si possono prendere conclusione valide per la situazione attuale, supratutto sulla struttura politica e i suoi vertù ed imperfezioni.

Violencia gratuita

Sin duda, dejando aparte la crisis, que lleva camino de pasar a ser parte de nuestras vidas muy pronto, las dos noticias del verano han sido la horrible matanza de Noruega y los incidentes de los últimos días en Londres. En ambos casos, el denominador común es que se ha tratado de actos de violencia gratuita a manos de gente educada en Occidente. Esto nos muestra que algo se ha hecho mal en la sociedad occidental de los últimos años, para permitir que se engendren estos comportamientos violentos y este desprecio por la vida en jóvenes, que tampoco parecen tener razones de mucho peso que puedan remotamente justificar estos comportamientos. Lo que está claro es que la paulatina vanalización de la violencia en nuestra sociedad occidental parece que ha empezado a inmunizarnos contra ella, a algunos más rápidamente que a otros.

Beyond the Polar Artic Circle

It is a bit difficult to write these days about Norway, but one does not choose what happens around him. As a Spanish politician once said, we cannot leave terrorists to define what we do and what we do not do. So, let's write today about our last stage in our trip to Norway: from Leknes (in Lofoten) to Tromso.

Our stay in Leknes was very short and limited to its airport. The airport is extremely small, so after walking five metres we got our luggage, five metres more and we got our rental car. Finally, five metres more and we were in the parking! This time we got a Toyota Verso, quite a big and complicated car, with a lot of lights in the dashboard. After driving just 50 kilometres, we arrived at Henningsvaer, our first destination.
Henningsvaer is known as one of the most beautiful villages in Lofoten by every travel guide in the world. Bridges connecting it to the other islands were only built in the eighties, so one can say that it has been isolated until recently. As we drove through it, it was completely full of tourists, out of control, going from one side to the other of the road. It was quite an stressful drive of just two kilometres.

Our accommodation was used during winter by some fishermen and the smell of fish could be really felt there (so much that I had to throw away some shoes for the shower because the smell they got was unbearable). That evening we decided just to go for a walk and to sit in front of the sea and relax. After some minutes, we saw something bright under the water and we thought it could be some kind of plastic sunken buoy under water. After some minutes, we realised that it was a medusa, approaching us with only God knows which intentions... It was really big and scary: a very persuasive invitation not to swim there.

The next day, though, I managed to get my legs into the Atlantic Ocean, in a beach on our way to Andenes, the most northern village in Andoy island. I have to admit that the water was not so cold as I expected (remember we were around parallel 68º North), maybe less cold than in Iceland, two years ago.

The trip to Andenes was quite nice, crossing a lot of islands and with always scenic landscape. In Andenes, we rented a very nice apartment, for our own use for two nights. It was an invitation to be at home as much as possible, and we enjoyed our days there a lot.

In Andenes, we could feel the fact that there was no darkness in the whole day: there is the same light from 8pm till 8am. It is quite a strange sensation, the mind (at least, mine) knows that something is not normal, it keeps on like waiting for darkness to come, but... Thanks to the mask that I took with me, I could sleep during our days in Norway.We had also booked a whale watching trip in Andenes. When we went there, the crew was hesitating about the conditions of the sea but they finally decided to sail. Bad decision, since soon more than half of us were vomiting (I was one of the tough guys there) and one man even had to be taken to the hospital in ambulance. In the end, the majority of us just wanted to come back, without caring at all about whales. The crew should feel they did something wrong because they gave our money back without any question. This is the second time I try to watch whales (first one in Iceland) with limited success, will there be a third time?

On the way to Tromso, final destination of our trip in Norway, we took a ferry to Grellyfjord (the ferry was moving also, but the situation did not reach the critical levels of the previous day with the whale watching), which turned out to be quite a nice fjord, whose water is of a beautiful colour turquoise (see picture below). From there, we drove through forests and hills to Tromso, with a lot of traffic signs warning drivers against mooses, but we did not meet any. In this area you can really find that nature is really hostil to the human being.Tromso was our final destination in Norway and we did not make much there. Honestly speaking, the city has not so much to offer (somebody called it "Paris of the North", probably one day he was totally drunk). It is a starting point for further expeditions to the North Pole, but in our case it was the starting point to the way back to Frankfurt, via Oslo. As final picture, you can see a Hurtigruten boat going under the bridge in Tromso, probably the most interesting attraction in the city.