Friday, August 31, 2012

I asked my parents for a camera for my 18th birthday...

I asked for the best one, they were able to afford. They were not able to buy me anything very sophisticated. The analogue pocket camera I was presented was still not bad one for mid nineties. I have used it for a long time, the last time in 2009. This summer I decided to take the old lady again with me for chasing snap shots. And I am so glad I reactivated it - I just DEVELOPED a film at a photo store, they gave me a cd with my pics (as you remember 36 shots on a regular film - a retro thing to do!). Look at this shot. Compare it with other pics of Boxter, the Knabstrupper horse from the post a few days ago. The old lady (still old lady being the camera) did pretty well on a blurry day in competition to the digi cam. I am proud of it/ her. However apart of zooming a bit, you cannot do anything. You cannot even switch off the flash.


old analogue camera presenting Boxter, the leopard horse!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Today, in the morning hours in the Eilenriede...


...a new species, unknown yet to the science, has been spotted...



It hangs there, observing the surroundings with its big scared eyes...


...and although it makes the impression of being very shy...


...it is not. It hangs around, on a tree, in attendance of something to happen.


Monday, August 27, 2012

Commuting back and forth in the Ukraine

So, you know about my passion of the game of memory and combining two identical corners of different cities into a memory set. And as Lviv is a twin city of Cracow, it would be a good bridge to carry me back to my Ukrainian story to have a picture of a horse carriage from Lviv... Wait a minute! There is one! 


But this snapshot is an obvious media manipulation.


There are no tourist carriages in Lviv. This one has been used on a movie set on Rynok (main square) when I accidentally passed by with my camera.

What tourists rather spend their money on are "Kumpel Tours" - "Buddy Tours". During a buddy tour every body but the driver may drink beer.

What you can also always do when a bit tipsy, take a tram. They are in a bad shape (you can look it up in a previous post about Lviv) and they sway you like a boat on a sea for the roads, mostly covered by cobblestone, are all bulky from years of exploitation. It will bring you in a very good mood.

Just make sure you do not run into the traffic as a unthoughtful pedestrian. Zebra crossing is meaning nothing. Cross the road where you want and count on the kindness of the drivers. According to insiders, when the car has plates from Lviv and area, it will stop and let you cross the street. When the driver comes from Kiev it is a lost cause. However, you should be always careful, so the local tour guide: there are enough stupid blond women in the city, who have their cell phone in the one and their little dog in the other hand while driving. This apparently causes injuries.


The cars on Ukrainian streets reflect contrasts that Ukraine consists of:


Sometimes you need to think twice which is a tourist attraction and a movie set and what is for real:





You know which is which? Of course, it is easy. And the hay trailer is of course commonly used transportation in farm areas. And this will take our journey to the most exciting part of our little trip here. The highways. 





This is a highway:

This is a car going in the proper direction.

And this is a car going in the wrong direction because the road is less bumpy on the other side:

I do not want to lie to you. The way the roads look like and the drivers drive in the Ukraine was not such a big shock in the end. Poland 20 years ago looked exactly the same, my father never drove differently.

Some manoeuvers were very familiar to me:






Sorry for the quality of the pictures. Bumpy road and the cossack driving style are for sure two good reasons. And then I admit I was also sitting at the most deadly seat on the bus and from some point on you only can cope with the situation thanks to some stronger alcoholic products which are good and necessary in the Ukraine. Have a look at what was going on here:

Yeah, we are taking over, the cars from the opposite direction are taking over, there are cows crossing (in assistance of a babushka) the street. What you do not see are the two village boys sitting on a small motorcycle on the right edge of the road driving in the wrong direction.


What is a good medicine against psycho drivers in all eastern European countries are good looking female passengers. When a young woman sits next to the driver in the bus it means for him an honor that only a bus driver may receive. But one unspoken part of the special treatment is that the girl is in authority. He will stop for her anytime she needs to go to the rest room (this kind of consideration is not self-evident in the countries of eastern Europe) or when she desires to buy something and she can effectively hold him back when he drives crazy. 

This is how a Ukrainian woman tames a Bohdan-Chmielnicki-look-alike bus driver.
Please, note the decoration: among the flowers the holy icons. Them and the beautiful Ukrainian woman are the two factors determining the well being of passengers on the bus.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Horse and ... Cracow


Cracow installed horse carriages copying Vienna before tramways have been introduced - as a form of public transportation. Throughout the 20th century the carriage remained in the city landscape turning slowly from a common transportation into a self evident motif on Rynek. Nowadays Cracow is world's capitol of horse carriages. Only tourists use them. And as there are countless tourists in Cracow, there are countless carriages. It used to be a male domain to drive a horse carriage till young women discovered that they can make more money then men in this profession. As drivers they are more popular among the visitors then their male colleagues as they more frequently speak foreign languages and ... are better looking. So some of the male drivers at least found themselves a female colleague to share the job. Here some impressions of what is going on on tourist routes in my favorite city.


















Saturday, August 25, 2012

Leopard complex and Boxter from the protecting hand


Apparently, the most valuable color pattern when it comes to a horse is leopard. The genetic precondition is being called leopard complex and it emerges among only few breeds. One of the breeds is called Knabstrupper after the place in Denmark, where the breeding line has been founded. In Europe of the early modern days, it used to be a fashion and status statement among aristocrats and kings to have a perfectly trained horse. Spanish horses appeared to be the most capable of being trained to perfection so Spanish schools of riding has been founded - a kind of elite schools for horses. The most famous is the one in Hofburg in Vienna where Lipizzan horses perform some breakneck horse acrobatics for visitors. The second oldest one is in Bückeburg where this glamorous Knabstrupper named Boxter is one of the stars in the horse dancing ensemble.


Apparently, the ancestor breed of the Knabstrupper - the Frederiksborger has almost died out after the French Revolution. In the wake of leaving behind status symbols of absolutism the representative horses lost their popularity. The leopard patterned breeding line has been saved by a conservative Danish major Villars Lunn who collected all horses he could to renew the breed. In Knabstrupp.


Boxter from Bückeburg proves that major Lunn has done a good job. Sorry! The full name is: Boxter aus der schützenden Hand. Boxter from the protecting hand. I wish I had a whole day for a photo shooting with him but he is a star so I have to be happy that at least I had a glimpse!


Friday, August 24, 2012

A tourism quiz


The pictures below represent three famous tourist high lights, one in Germany, one in the Netherlands, one in Poland. Who knows which is which and what are the places? I'll follow your guesses on facebook.