A polite coffee

At a café in Sibiu, Romania:

One coffee – 6 lei

One coffee please – 3 lei

Good morning, one coffee please – 2 lei

Polite, as I always am, I get a really good deal here. 2 lei are 50 US-cents.

Modern art exhibitions are so bad that even the “art” tries to run away

This happened in Toledo, Ohio, but the Red Ball will soon come to a city near you. You can’t escape it! But maybe someone could shoot it. After all, that’s the fate of animals who escape from the zoo.

Artists are so creative these days! A big piece of plastic, who would have thought of that?

The last sliver of sunlight

A few minutes ago in Târgu Mureș, Romania:

Airport in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

The hangars at Cluj-Napoca airport in Romania look like this:Ok, there is also one of these modern blocks of concrete now, like you see them everywhere else. But I appreciated that the old hangar hadn’t been demolished. That way I could spend the waiting time by indulging myself in memories of old times with Junkers airplanes and zeppelins.

(Auf Deutsch.)

I will give a TEDx Talk on 12 September 2015

“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes,” said Andy Warhol in 1968.

That premonition came true 20 years later with the TED conferences. Including the independently organized TEDx conferences, there are now several of these events every day, all over the world.

Now, it’s my turn. Finally. On 12 September 2015, I will be one of the speakers at the TEDx conference in Târgu Mureș, Romania.

The motto of the day is “Seeds of Change”, so I will obviously speak about the massive changes in my life that lead me from being a busy lawyer with my own company to the globetrotting, relaxed life of a hobo. In my speech, I will address the why and the how of change, and I hope to motivate some of you to try something new as well.

But don’t attend the event for me. You should mark that day in your calendar because of all the other speakers, each of them more famous and more interesting than the other. In the breaks between presentations, you will have a chance to talk to us in person.

All you need to do is register for a ticket. For a full day of information, entertainment, networking and free beer, it’s only 69 Lei (= 15 EUR). Flights or trains to Târgu Mureș are affordable and convenient as well, so there is nothing to stop you from this once-in-a-lifetime chance. Order your ticket now; there are fewer than 100 places left!

Film Review: “Nebraska”

If only film studios would realize that with the budget for one science fiction or vampire film they could produce 10 road movies, I would go to the cinema more often. When I saw the trailer for Nebraska, I was excited. Finally a road movie again, and then about that northern part of the US where I haven’t yet been, but where I would so much love to travel myself.

 

Woody Grant is retired, drinks too much and shows signs of dementia. When he receives one of those sweepstakes letters from a publishing house in the mail, he thinks he has won a million dollars. To collect the prize in person, he sets out to walk from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska. He doesn’t get far, but his son David – who knows that there won’t be any prize – feels sorry for him and volunteers to drive his father to Nebraska. David seems to realize that anything that gives his father’s life some purpose, even if it’s only for a few days, is worth the effort.

And off they go on the typical road movie trip. Long drives on straight roads, motels, some talk in the car or in a bar, a quick stop at Mount Rushmore. Because the film is shot in black and white, the landscape and the little towns look even more barren and poor than they may be in reality. It definitely doesn’t look beautiful and that is one problem of the film. Road movies are also carried by landscape. Here, the landscape takes a back seat and the actors take over.

That’s not too bad because the actors are the strong side of Nebraska. Bruce Dern as Woody delivers a very convincing performance, as do most of his relatives. With some of the old folks that they meet on the way, I wonder where you can cast actors like these. My favorite one is John Reynolds as Bernie Bowen:

 

But the problem of the film is that even these actors don’t get to say or do much. If you watch the trailer and the clip above, you have already seen most of the film. In between there is a lot of silence, a lot of driving, a lot of nothing really. When Woody and David visit Woody’s brother and his family, whom they haven’t seen for 15 years, and they hardly exchange any words before they fall asleep on the couch or silently stare into the TV, this serves to illustrate how empty some people’s lives are and how family and hometown are not necessarily the best places for a good conversation.

But at other times in the film, the absence of action and dialogue just makes the time go by very slowly. There is just not enough happening for a film of 110 minutes. I don’t need to watch several angles of a Subaru cruising down a black and white highway. Great acting is wasted by making the film purposefully slow and depressing. And then there are no real surprises. When you first see Woody’s nephews hear of the supposed prize, you already know that they will try to rob him. It’s no surprise that many of his old acquaintances ask him for money. And of course father and son finally get to spend some time together. I wish somebody would have written a better script with at least a few twists and turns for these memorable actors who surely would have mastered more of a challenge.

If you want to watch a good road movie, I recommend Don’t Come Knocking (at least it is colorful) or Elizabethtown if you want to add the estranged family aspect. I also consider Flashback and Borat road movies. Or you go for the classics Grapes of Wrath, Duel, an early masterpiece of Steven Spielberg, or The Wages of Fear.

Going into the Mountains in Iran

The Iranian capital Tehran was much bigger than I had thought. Chaotic traffic, honking mopeds, cars driving straight at you on the wrong side of the road, danger to life when crossing one of the large avenues with eight lanes. Estimates for the population in the metropolitan area of Tehran range from 11 to 15 million. Smog, noise, smell and the heat in summer deprive you of your will to live.

But then you raise your head, look across the skyscrapers all the way to the horizon, and life feels good again. You see the mountains which begin just to the north of the city and next to which even this gigantic metropolis looks like a village for dwarfs. Nature triumphs over man and concrete.

“Mountains in Iran? There is only desert and maybe a few old rocks scattered around.” Thus goes the thinking of many people, for whom the Middle East is one giant black hole from Morocco to Persia, which they are too afraid to explore. Like almost all countries of a similar size, Iran offers everything from sea to desert, cities, forests and mountains. Proper, high mountains even. The Alborz mountain range reaches an altitude of 5,600 m (18,400 ft).

Mount Tochal, the nearest mountain, rises almost 4,000 m (13,000 ft) above the city. You can see it from almost any point in Tehran, which provides both great inspiration as well as a handy reference point when you are lost.

Because I am more of a mountain guy than a city guy, I was overjoyed when several people invited me to a hike into the mountains on my first stay in Tehran in December 2008. With a few new acquaintances I met on a Saturday morning, but before we embarked on our adventure, we stopped by a halim restaurant. Actually, restaurant is too fancy of a word. Situated at a busy crossroad, the doors were wide open despite the cold wind, metal tables and chairs criss-crossed the small shop. Most of the guests were middle-aged men, of the type taxi driver, fruit stall owner or football fan. There was no menu, you simply called out “yek, do, se”, one, two or three for the number of bowls of halim that you wanted to order. You get the best food at places that don’t need menus because they offer only one kind of dish, I learned that day.

The halim reminded me of semolina porridge, but it was hotter and more viscous. There were bowls with sugar and cinnamon and I made generous use of the latter. It was the perfect breakfast before going into the mountains: filling, warm, pleasant and tasty. I would have liked to stay longer, but the place was very busy and more hungry guests were already scrambling for the tables. – Later, I learned that halim is made of meat, onions and wheat or barley; a recipe which I still cannot reconcile with the sweet taste of my recollection.

Time to get going! Tehran is growing constantly, also towards the north where it is already hugging the mountain slopes, so you walk through the streets until you suddenly find yourself on the path towards Mount Tochal after leaving the last house (and a paintball field) behind. But if you came to seek solitude, you would have done better to go to the mosque. Thousands of hikers are out and about, among them hundreds of young people. I am impressed because the European and North American contemporaries of these fit young Iranians are still in bed at this time of the day, and they will spend the rest of the day in front of a computer instead of hiking in the mountains.

I keep straying from the path, climbing above rocks and between waterfalls, while my well-behaved Iranian friends stick to the path.

They are getting slower, they need more and more breaks, they breathe heavily (we are already above 2,000 m). It takes me a while until I catch on to two more lessons in the eye-opening and mind-expanding educational program that my journey in Iran shall turn into:

• As soon as I expressed my interest in going to the mountains, that was a done deal. I am the guest, after all. Whether my hosts really felt like it was irrelevant. If I had preferred deep-sea diving or an opera, they would have been excited about that as well. Iranian politeness is the exact opposite of German directness, which shall lead to many misunderstandings to come.
• The teenagers and young adults aren’t actually that much into mountaineering as it had seemed to me at first. For most Iranians, the big advantage of the mountains is that there are fewer police officers to be seen. Here, the girls can push back the mandatory headscarf even more than they already do in town. Here, boys and girls can hold hands before getting married.

I had of course wanted to go all the way to the summit of Mount Tochal, but I can see that I can’t pull this off with my friends. And honestly, I may not have the appropriate clothes for climbing a 4,000-meter mountain in winter either. Spending hundreds of Euros in sports shops is not my kind of thing, I rather copy the style of the Mallory Everest expedition in 1924. But those guys died in the ice.

At 2,400 meters we call it quits for today. Here is the second of seven teleferic stations (and a stall selling hamburgers and hot dogs), and we trundle back down to town in a wiggly cable car. But my eyes will wander back to these majestic mountains many times over the coming days.

By the way, if you are ever in the area and you appreciate mountains: Pakistan is right next door and has some of the highest mountains of the world; another underrated mountaineering paradise.

(Zur deutschen Fassung dieses Artikels.)

Twitter share price below IPO price

Less than two years ago, when Twitter went public, I was the lone voice warning you against buying their shares.

Then the share price initially went up like a rocket and I didn’t get a show on CNBC. Now however, the share price of Twitter has dropped below the IPO price, vindicating my warnings.

Obviously, my advice had been intended as long-term advice.

Easily Confused (9) Army Recruitment

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Reality:

Hopeful Ducks

Unfortunately, we had no food for them. Actually, we were beginning to get hungry ourselves, so the ducks should be happy that we didn’t take one of them with us.

Photographed in the Central Park in Cluj-Napoca, Romania by my brother.