Munich or München...and no! this isn't about Oktoberfest

I had to make a short trip to the capital of Bavaria for some private business and I reserved a day for some sightseeing. Born and raised in Germany I don't mind rainy weather. Sure, it is not very brightening walking under the pouring rain but then again it is just water. But I was lucky enough to catch a sunny day on my arrival. I took the bullet train from Berlin (ICE) and arrived in Hauptbahnhof München in the evening. I love them train rides. You always get to meet interesting and chatty people. This time I had the luck to meet a young traveller from Canada. His parents had moved to Canada from the Phillipines and that must have been tough I thought, considering the weather conditions and cultural differences of both countries.  He didn't speak any German so I tried to help him out with the fastidious railway system since it can be complicated sometimes here in Germany, especially when you're a foreigner. When I arrived the first thing I see stepping out of the train station some hobos fighting over beer, both drunk of course. Nevermind the sweet smell of alcohol of these friendly lads. After all this is a city famous for its Oktoberfest. Although it's called Oktoberfest I never understood why it starts in September. Well, I guess that is another unsolved mystery of the universe and I don't feel like wikipedia right now. What an ignorant smuck! Anyway, the hotel Wallis Garni is situated in the city center, maybe 300-400 meters away from the train station. It is surrounded by all these friendly institutions that try to take your hard-earned cash by means of scantily dressed females, oh yeah and they do have blokes in jumpsuits waiting at the door, mostly of balkan or turkish origin. Stripclubs! The hotel is a 3-star hotel and it has a good location. Breakfast was surprisingly well and the rooms were tiny but clean. The only problem I had was the internet connection for which you received a wifi-code for each day. If you make your reservation over booking.com you get the internet for free otherwise they charge you 5 Euro a day. From the hotel you can walk to the Marienplatz where there is the typical shopping spree. You also get to see the beautiful city town hall where Bayern Munich celebrates its championships. Oh how I hate those bavarian fuckers! But I have to admit that they won everything last year so I guess they're that good. There are many things to marvel at here in München. The beer, the city, the friendly people. I didn't have much time but I had to see the incredible BMW museum. It is fascinating to see how the car industry developed in 80-90 years. The building itself has an interesting architecture and I suggest you take some time to see it. The entry costs around 9 EUR but it is worth the money.

Town hall in Marienplatz

OccupyGezi...time for a small revolution in Istanbul!

Well, instead of writing about places I visited it is time now to write about the city that I live in. However, this will not be a post about the touristic places of this beautiful city. This post is about the resistance of Gezi Park. A little park in the center of Taksim square that was about to be demolished just because RTE wants to build a shopping mall there so he can cash in more money. There is not a single politician that I trust..every single one of them just wants to fill his pockets and daze you with his/her tongue in cheek promises and lies. This one is the worst of them. He is not only a retrogressive opportunist but also a grand provocateur. The whole deal about the Taksim is about putting up an inheritance of his islamic roots because that is the place where the islamists started their uprising on the 31st March 1909 demanding the Shariah regime! He just wants to put a symbol of his islamic roots and abolish piece by piece all signs of Atatürk, who was a western-oriented leader that wanted his people to be at the same level as other western civilizations.
Anyways, the whole resistance started with a harmless, peaceful protest..people where sitting at the park trying to protect the trees when the police intervened brutally with tear gases trying to smoke out the protesters. They came in big with water cannon vehicles and an incredible amount of tear gas attacks. You can all see the pictures at Tumblr under Occupygezipic.
But they didn't know that this would be the trigger for an epic demonstration that would last several days in all over Turkey. People from all classes who were tired of the tyranny and bullying attiude of RTE came together and protested with everything they had..pots and pans..making noise just to be heard. Today is the 7th day and the bully hasn't understood anything..he keeps talking about his 50% blinded with power trying to downplay the uprising. We will stay our ground. we will never retreat, nor surrender! Resist Gezi!

Rome...wine, pasta and other cliches.

It was nice and everything you get to hear about it is true. A marvellous city with a lot of culture and unfriendly italians; well at least one of the receptionists at the B&B Hotel Trastevere and the fat lady at the ticket counter at the bus station and the bearded woman at the kiosk next to the hotel..come to think of it..all of them were women..! So I assume my comment requires some further analysis. However, the city itself is full of tourists that are attracted by the Hollywood propaganda that it is a romantic city...with hot italians..my ass! Forget about that crap. Although it is a beautiful city with splendid samples of architechture that men ever built it is also a very expensive city with slick italians that try to screw you at every possibility they can. Paid fifty euros for two tiramisus, three coffee and one bottle of water at a Restaurant called Sabatini near the Viale di Trastevere. Stay away from that place! No tip for you sir, hell no! But of course it was my fault..should have asked for the prices in the first place. Been to more than 40 countries and 150 cities worldwide and still there are times when you act like a simple 'guiri'. *

But not all was bad..the bar next to the hotel offers nice coffee for fair prices and free internet. The hotel was also very clean and good located. Fair pricing here too. I could write some more about this city but you'd probably heard or read all of it somewhere else. One warning I have to make anyway: Be careful of pick pockets as the city is full of stories. One German lady warned us at the hotel claiming that her camera was stolen..what can you do? Just be careful and always negotiate!  Oh by the way..screw 'Eat, Pray and Love'! 

* Wonderful spanish street slang for tourist. 

Catalunya...along the Costa Brava

This is a shot I took when I was visiting some friends in Barcelona. We made a  trip with our families along the Costa Brava and the villages there are some of the most beautiful places I've seen in my whole life. The region has so many things to offer..museums, natural parks, art, beaches, wine and food, history etc. I won't go into further detail since such info is everywhere available on the net. We went to Cadaques, Begur, Blanes, Tossa, Palafrugell, Lloret de Mar, Girona, Pals and some other places that I cannot remember.They were all splendidly beautiful but I liked Begur and Cadaques the best. I think the picture was taken at the Sa Tuna beach in Begur ( I'm not so sure though).
If you want to party you can go to Blanes or Lloret de Mar but be prepared for the hordes of English, Dutch and German tourists on top of each other. Hey, I am not judging..if this is your thing you can find it there too. I prefer the company of friends and family, un bon café amb llet, sound of waves crashing on the beach..what else can you ask for?

Sarajevo..too many graves!

I stayed at Hotel Europe while I was there for my business trip and the first thing that caught my attention looking from my room's window was the number of white graves on top of the hills. When the war in Yugoslavia took place I was doing my vocational training in Germany and frankly spoken I wasn't really aware of the cruelties that were happening at that time in that part of Europe. Sure, I had friends who had escaped from war..Croats, Bosniaks or even Serbs with whom I shared a classroom but still I didn't pay any attention to their tragedies. I was caught in my own small world. Now almost 20 years later I've got to see Belgrade, Skopje and now Sarajevo and I started to think about this war that was in the heart of Europe. Most fightings took place in Sarajevo and that is clearly visible..still..you can see houses and buildings with damages and holes caused by artillery or machine guns. I took a taxi from the airport, which is reeeaaallly small, to the hotel and chatted as usual with the taxi driver. Friendly guy who spoke quite well English. We chatted about football, the high unemployment rate in Bosnia, economic crisis and ended up again with football.
The hotel itself was situated next to the old Ottoman-market and it was quite nice. No complaints here. Food was great. I visited some possible customers but as it is everywhere you have to compete with Chinese products or in my case with Italian brands. In my line of business, which is the HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) branch quality is of course quite important; however if you can offer quality products with competitive prices than you probably have a good shot to sell your stuff. Of course,often it is not that simple as there are other factors involved in the sale process: maybe a competitor has a good personal relationship with the client or maybe you don't speak the same language and the client has a hard time explaning himself. Or the client thinks you don't have enough technical knowledge and you won't be able to help him when he's having technical problems..etc. So many factors. Well, the Italian brands have good products and competitive prices so it was hard for me to convince the buyer why he should buy a German product that is produced in Turkey when it has the same quality and is about 10% higher in price. Part of my sales strategy is to be completely honest with the client. Of course you can buy the cheaper product with the same quality level but the 10% you'd pay is not for the quality of the product: it is for my service because I will be at your disposal 24/7; there will never be a moment where you try to reach me or my assistant for any matter that is important to you and we won't be there. This will not happen. You will always get the truth.
So this strategy worked almost always for me as I was lucky; of course there are times where you cannot convince everbody but being honest is in my humble opinion one of the strongest tools in sales. You don't want to rip-off your client; no sir, you want to grow together and support each other. Then it will be really hard for competitors to get in between with you and your customer/partner. But hey, if you have time go see Sarajevo..it is still a nice city with nice people..

(view from the Europa Hotel)