Corsica 2007
It's been 1 week ago that we've come back from Corsica and here comes finally some impressions accompagnied with a couple of photos. So, "we" that is Jeff (Canadian), Amelie (French), Alessandro (Italian) and me (German) :-) A nice bunch of youngsters on our way to have a lot of fun for 4 days! *lol*
We started after work on Friday, 04/05/07. The cabines in the ferry were quite cool though a lot smaller than I thought and definitely no option for people with claustrophobia. We arrived early morning in Ajaccio, and started our trip towards the souths, passing Propriano and heading for Bonifacio which is the very most southern city in Corsica.
The next day my little car would fight a lot, a lot to climb up the roads to the north of Corsica which seems to be a totally different country. The landscape changed from cliffy rocks to redish mountains. We stopped for the Canyons of Piana and arrived in Calvi where we had good pizza, a nice walk at the harbour and an even nicer hotel.
The day after, we tested some Corsican wine in Patrimonia, saw the wonderful little touristic city of St. Florent, had a good sunbath at some of the wild beaches and arrived in the city of Bastia in the very north where we later on took the ferry to go back to Nice.
To sum up our trip: I'm really confident that we made the very best for the little time we had :-) We drove 700km to see the whole island - from the north to the south - , ate some good Corsican food like sausages, agreed on the fact that Corsican people are really unfriendly and rude (they jostle in the streets :-( ) , but most importantly we had a wonderful mix of nationalities, languages, genders, weather circumstances, landscapes etc. etc.
So I'd say whenever you have the possiblity to visit the little island, grab you car (a powerful one for the little mountain roads though :S) and enjoy :-)
La Môme - Edit Piaf
I am more than overwhelmed. I honnestly recommend the movie about the life of Edit Piaf to all of you. Yes, it might be a film that suits rather the interests and expectations of women, but it is more than worth the price of a cinema ticket.
I expected to see a better biography of Edit Piaf, but I was positively surprised by the different themes that centered poverty, love, success, alcohol, drugs, sadness, loneliness etc. Marion Cotillard acts her role as Edit Piaf wonderfully. Yes, I admit that I did burst out in tears several times and yes, I was deeply mooved, first stumbled down the stairs when leaving, then went into another cine hall instead of taking the exit and finally stepped into shit on the street. But after having seen his movie, everything is just excusable.
Swiss army knife
It is unbelievable! I might be sort of rebellious, but since the new security rules for hand luggage have been established in November 2006 I have heavily doubted that this procedure brings any kind of advantage. I understand that we all shall fight terrorism and vouch for universal peace, but honnestly this plastic-bag-thingy is really a pain in the ass and doesn't do any good.
It happened today that I passed the security control in Berlin Airport in order to get my flight back to Nice. Rather accidently I saw that the lady in front of me in the security control was about to unpack her bag. It seemed that she had some forbidden piece of hand luggage. Her rummage around her purse attracted my attention. She finally handed a Swiss army knife of 10cm length to the security controller.
I was astonished. How would you dare to take an army knife on board if you are not even allowed to take a lipstick which is not wrapped up in plastic bags? Well, I learned my lesson. The security lady looked at the army knife, pondered some 5 seconds and then handed the knife back to the traveller with a wink and the words "Normally this one is too big, but I'll make an exception."
Excuse me??? This woman is allowed to take a 10-cm Swiss army knife on board, whereas I am supposed to put my 100ml bottle of water in a plastic bag due to security regulations? Honnestly, if I was a terrorist and wanted to kill somebody I would rather try the Swiss army knife instead of a vague toxic liquid. I even fade out the fact that you need to know what kind of dangerous mixture you need in order to actually harm someone. Frankly spoken, these security people are so much concentrated on their plastic bag rule that they miss the real point. I would like to emphazise on what I read in the recent book of Michael More - The common terrorist is not the one that you can intimidate with these kinds of rules. In 99% it is the person that you know already, that is to say a relative, neighbour or some other person that wouldn't wait for a magicien to brew a dangerous liquid - Unbelievable!
For the precious reader that doesn't know the above expression, I kindly ask to click the link in order to find the German translation.
You all know that Germany is most probably the nation that cares the most for the protection of our environment compared to our European neighbours. We are always teased about the hugh amount of dustbins that file through our kitchens in order to separate the various types of garbage. I won't deny the fact that the French often tell with all their proud that the 2nd word they know in German that follows the translation for *shit* is *Umweltverschmutzung*. I guess they find it quite stupid that Germans attach so much importance to something that they cannot even spell. Well anyways, the background for this story comes here with the following experience:
It happened only today that I bought ski-equipment in a very famous (and I could swear the MOST famous) sports shop in whole France notably Decathlon. I hereby admit that I paid 240 Euros (well, you don't do such an investment every day). But now, guess what the woman behind the counter told me when I asked for a bag "Désolée, on ne donne plus les sacs" which means as much as "I am sorry dear client, but we do not give bags any longer to our customers" Puzzled as I was, I grabed my clothes and left. It took me 1 minute to understand that I had just paid more than 200E and this lady at the counter is telling me that I have to buy an additional bag for 0,15??! Sorry, but considering this situation with all my respect for the cheese-baguette-reincarnation, the French really missed the basic rule in "Treating customers accordingly".
You should have pictured me with the whole of my ski-equipment (pants, jacket, gloves, glasses) that (for those that don't know) takes some space. What bothers me the most is that I even get a f* bag, if I go to Pimki or Orsay. And they would even provide one, if I had only bought a necklace (not that I do :-).
But dear God, this French logic - I don't get it. Contrary to that, this morning I had to step 3 sec. on the 1-Liter-Milk package in order to squeeze it through this tiny hole in the garbage can, designated for this purpose. Honnestly, I wonder which Frenchmen is as disciplined to do the same with every single plastic or paper article. So this is your way of *Umweltschutz* dear French?! As long as you don't provide plastic bags in shops any longer, you've done your very best in order to stop global warming? Bravo! (for skype users - fubar)
Race Tiger on tour
It's taken a while for the winter to come back. However, once the snow begins to fall the scenario down here at the Côte is always the same. Seems that the people need some sort of compensation to contrast with the hot summers :-) The websites of the various ski resorts become the most visited internet pages for a couple of days, the webcams that broadcast the latest images are regularly checked and the people run amok buying tickets and spending their time with cleaning shoes and packing cars.
It is at that special time during the year that the Race Tiger (me being nicknamed by some friend) meets her companions in the mountains and races down the slopes :-)
Have a look at the photos or visit the webpage of Italy's wonderful ski resort RISERVA BIANCA LIMONE PIEMONTE SCI.
