AK's weblog

Danke, dass ihr mir meine An- und Rückreise nach Berlin zum 23C3 jetzt schon vermiest. Nicht nur, dass ich mein Bier nicht mehr im Handgepäck mitnehmen darf, und die im Duty-Free-Shop gekauften Getränke ebenfalls nicht konsumieren darf, nein, jetzt werden voraussichtlich auch noch die gesamten Kontrollen wesentlich strenger und (für mich) anstrengender. Al Kaida soll nämlich um die Weihnachtszeit zuschlagen. Und wofür diese Panikmache? Wieder für den Arsch. Investiert das für den Kampf gegen den Terror verprasste Geld in die Herzinfarkt- und Schlaganfallvorsorge, da kann man mehr Menschenleben damit retten, anstatt Reisende zu schikanieren und faktische Getränkemonopole an Bord der Flugzeuge zu etablieren. Takbir!

I'm going to travel to Berlin on the 26th, to 22C3, so here's some basic information for the people who are interested in it. I'm going to take a train from Linz to Vienna at 13:50, arrive in Vienna at 15:35. From there, I will take the bus to the airport, and departure from there at 17:50. The plane will arrive at Berlin Tegel at 19:15, and presumably Nico will pick me up from there. Due to the usual christmas stuff, it is very likely that I will not be able to read my email until getting some connection in Berlin, so for important things it is better to contact me via cell phone. The number is +43 699 1777 8107. See you in Berlin!

This year's Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin lasts one day longer than the years before, it now goes from December 27th to December 30th. As I would like to be at the event for all 4 events, I decided it would be quite a lot of stress to travel back to Austria on 31st, I would be tired, and New Year's eve celebrations probably would be too much for me. So thanks to Nico, I can stay at his place and thus will celebrate New Year's eve in Berlin, and return on January 2nd. I'm already looking forward to it, as Berlin, with its unique charm, is probably my favorite city.

A nice side note to this is that I will (as usual) travel by plane, as it is (mostly) stress-free, and quite affordable. I don't even mind spending a few extra euros on having a nicer journey than by train from Linz to Berlin. And the question is whether flying really costs more than going by train. I don't know, the last time I went by train to Berlin was in late 2002 (19C3), and that was a group of 6 persons or so, and it was before the big reform of the german railway pricing system, and I still had to pay about EUR 120,-.

Anyway, when I was searching for the right flight, my first choice was Air Berlin, as I used them several times before (Chaos Communication Camp 2003, 20C3, 21C3) to get to Berlin, and remember them to be reasonably priced. Well, not this time. That is probably because I got my holiday relatively late (my fault), making it impossible to get a cheap seat. Well, next airline. HLX. They fly Salzburg - Berlin and return, so that would have been a good option. If they only were a bit cheaper. Well, last resort, let's check those airlines that are not among the well-known no-frills airlines like Ryanair, Air Berlin, HLX, EasyJet, and so on. Well, a quick check at Austrian Airlines, a well-reputated airline that also well-reputated for its usually high prices. Well, not this time. EUR 148 from Vienna to Berlin and back. Very nice. And the first time that I will fly with something other than the usual Boeing 737, namely a Fokker 70. Berlin, I'm coming!

Isotopp reminds me to update my travel map. Here it is:


create your own visited countries map

As reported previously, I made a trip to London, starting on the 10th of November, and arriving back in Linz on 13th of November. First of all: my fears of being arrested or detained during arriving in or leaving London were totally without reason. Entering London via Stansted Airport was flawless. All that happened was that the woman controlling my passport had to grin because of the old and bad photo in it.

After picking up my bags, I took the A6 National Express bus to Golders Green, where I was welcomed by Paula, who lives just around the corner of this subway/bus station. We had supper, spent some more time chatting and catching up all the things we had to tell each other, and then I went to bed.

The next day, Friday, I woke up early, had a quick breakfast, and after Paula's advice, I bought a 1-day bus pass at the 24/7 (!!) store on the other side of the street, and took the 13 bus. The 13 bus directly brings you to the center of London. Actually, I didn't know where I should leave the bus, nor did I have any map or was able to read the names of the bus stops, and so, when a lot of people left the bus, I told myself to leave the bus at the next stop, and bang!, I was standing on Trafalgar Square. Now that was a direct hit!

On Trafalgar Square, there is, well, a huge pillar with the statue of Admiral Nelson, with two fountains nearby. You can go up the stairs, and you'll be at the National Gallery. It looks pretty nice, but that isn't all of London, and since I could see the Big Ben just down the street, I decided to walk there.

After probably five to ten minutes, I came to closer to it, and then I saw Westminster Abbey, too. Oh, nice, all the sight-seeing stuff in London seems to be so close together. I crossed the bridge, took some pictures of Big Ben, but then turned around because on the other side of the river it seemed that some of the uglier parts of the town began. Then I went on to Westminster Abbey, photographing the main entrance. Since the entrance fee was horrible, and because it wasn't allowed to pictures inside, I decided not to enter it, and to continue my walk.

I came across a little book store, where I just looked around a bit. After some looking in the computer book section (which wasn't too interesting), I stumbled upon "Schott's Sporting, Gaming and Idling Miscellany", a successor of the "Schott's Original Miscellany", of which I own the German translation. I bought two of them, one for me, and for my uncle and aunt, who bought me the Original Miscellany. Curiously, the cashier, who seemed to be a Frenchman, was really nervous, and after paying he though that I hadn't paid yet and refused to give me the books until I told him that I did pay and that I could show him the bill.

After even more walking through some pretty boring parts of London (mostly banks and pubs), I came to some area that seemed to be more open, and bingo! I was at Buckingham Palace. Wonderful. So many tourists. I looked like this strange change of the guard was going on, which I didn't attend, and so I went further.

Suddenly, I came to a crossing where quite some police was standing, and several policemen advised all the cars on a near parking lot to leave. Then, they totally closed down the street, evacuating the remaining people in there, but without any hurry. This was a somehow scary scenario.

Anyway, I went back to Trafalgar Square, and while going there, I met a really funny Australian, probably 60 years old, who I had a small chat with. He told me that he paying 300 pounds per night for his hotel room, and thought that this would be a fair price for some privacy in this city. Well, fortunately, I lived for free in London, 300 pounds would be definitely way too much for me...

After some more walking, I decided to buy some food, and went for a Tesco sandwich. In fact, that's what I liked so much about London: you get those sandwiches everywhere, and always such a huge selection of wonderful, tasty sandwiches. Unfortunately, it was basically impossible to get sparkling water at that Tesco. But hey, life isn't perfect.

Back at Trafalgar Square, went the other direction than before, but actually, there wasn't much more to discover, so I decided to walk some of my route a second time, where I discovered that I missed Downing Street before.

Downing Street itself was a big disappointment. When you see Tony Blair opening the door and talking to the press, everything looks so relaxed. But in fact, Downing Street is totally blocked by huge steel gates, and visitors have to go through two search points.

Reaching Trafalgar Square yet again, I had the good luck on my side, and found a 5 pound note on the ground! With that money, I decided to have one more sandwich, at Pret, namely a sandwich with smoked salmon, and a "chocolate goddess" cake (which really deserved its name!). I wrote some postcards, and then I took the bus back to Golders Green, where I spent some time resting and watching TV.

British (terrestrial) TV is actually quite boring, except for one thing: one channel (ITV, iirc, but I'm not totally sure) brings three episodes of The Simpsons: at 18:00, at 20:30, and at 21:00, with some British TV series and two episodes of Friends in between.

In the evening, Paula and I met with some Argentian guy she knew, and his girlfriend. We went to a pub, having some drinks. And here I saw one of the things that sucks great about London: the pub closed down at 11 pm! Yeah, that's right. A huge party was going on, lots of young people dancing like crazy, and then at 11, the music was turned off, and no more drinks were sold. We left, with me being a bit angry, and went home again.

The next day, I met with Richard, who I went to school with, and who now studies in Cambridge. We drove to Tower Bridge, where we also had lunch, and where I tried to make some contact with typical English cuisine: Steak & Kidney Pudding. Even though this sounds not to good, it is wonderful: some dough, pudding-shaped, with small pieces of meat and liver and a wonderful sauce inside, and some vegetables and mashed potatoes with it.

Then we proceeded to walk up River Thames, where we watched a wonderful firework, and then went home again. And as evening programme, we decided to have a pizza. Paula's flatmate also had a guest, so I was the only man in the round. The girls and I watched two movies, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Although they warned me that these would be movies solely for women, I actually enjoyed them, not only because of their simplicity (both movies basically consist of the dialogues of a man and a woman), but also because of the thought-provoking insights it gives on the feelings of the two characters.

The next day, that is Sunday, I had to get up relatively early, to catch my bus back to Stansted. But it was totally chaotic, and although the personnel at the information desk at Golders Green that I would just have to "jump on the bus" with my open-return ticket to Stansted, this wasn't the case, as it was totally overloaded. A lot of people were totally pissed off, including me, as we all had to catch our flights. Then, they sent in another A6, which was totally empty, and everybody was happy. Well, until everybody was inside the bus, but the bus wasn't driving off. That made even more people get pissed off, because they were waiting for more passengers to board. How crazy is that?! So, finally, we were going to Stansted. I had no problems catching my flight, but several others had to hurry. This was so totally fucked up.

At Stansted, check-in and security checks went very smoothly, with a very friendly and polite security personnel. The flight was also very smooth, and very diverting, as a very friendly Indian, who said he is working as software developer for the IAEA in Vienna, was sitting next to me, and so I arrived on Sunday at about 4:30 pm in Linz.

One more word about England: the English seem to be crazy about CCTV, but not in a (from the view of someone who is in favor of privacy protection) positive way: you will find CCTV literally everywhere, and along with CCTV warning signs (including contact information). This is so absolutely sad, because you read about it that in London, CCTV is deployed on so many places in the inner parts of the town. But in reality, it is much worse than you can imagine! The cameras are really absolutely fucking everywhere, on every building, sometimes open, sometimes well-hidden, even in the buses! When I went home on Friday afternoon, I was in a bus that had eight cameras installed! And you could even watch what they were recording, as there was a flat-screen installed that constantly between the cameras. So fucked up.

Anyway, I documented all that with a few pictures, which you can view here.

Tomorrow I will fly to London, spend a few days there, and return on Sunday. I was invited by Paula, who lives there for almost half a year already, and of course, I gladly accepted the invitation, and booked a super-cheap flight (Linz - London and back for as much as EUR 60). So, some days with probably lots of sightseeing lie in front of me. And I will meet my former school colleague and good friend Richard, who studies in Cambridge since this term.

There is only one thing that bugs me: I'm paranoid. Totally paranoid. They could get me. Because I put this online. And they are allies of that respective country. But I want to feel the thrill of not knowing what will happen when I enter the UK (remember, they never signed the Schengen treaty, they only take part in the Schengen Information System).

Update: there are always things you don't think about when travelling to another country, like the shape of power plugs they have there. Let's see whether I will get such a universal connector to be able to connect my good European plugs to the British system.