Subscribe to this blog25 March 2008
Recipe of the day: Mixed cans
Just before the final kitchen cleanup everything must go.Everything.
So here's today's recipe which consists of the remaining cans in my kitchen. As it turns out, the contents were surprisingly tasty. In case, you find some old cans in your kitchen - here's what you need:
Ingredients:
- a can of aspargus
- a can of tomato sauce with chunks
- a can of coconut milk
- a can of red beans
- some left over Roquefort cheese (yes, the stinky one!)
- a can of tuna fish in salt water (not oil!)
- some hard, crusty bread
Preparation:
Open all cans and mix the contents together in a pot. Add the Roquefort cheese. Stir for 20 Minutes. Serve with a smile and some hard bread from last week.
Enjoy!
Labels: Preparation
posted by Reto at
18:45
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24 March 2008
Echoes Silence Patience & Grace
It is now eight days since documenting visa week. So this week was cleanup week in my old flat. I still live here for a couple of days, though. Yeah - sleeping in a sleeping bag on the floor. Looks like I definitely can't wait to leave.
For those of you interested in junk inventories, here's the statistical data of what I leave behind:
Waste for which I had to pay a "waste disposal fee":
- 5 filled plastic bags at 110 litres each (small, non-recyclable items)
- 5 filled plastic bags 60 litres each (small, non-recyclable items)
- 1 bed
- 1 table with four chairs
- 1 cupboard
- 1 motorbike helmet
Recycling contains stuff which I was able to bring to the recycling center (without paying any fee) during several trips by foot:
- 160 kg electrical items, such as laundry machine, iron, old radios, cabling and a hair dryer (sic!)
- 75 kg books
- 28 kg metal
- 22 kg paper for shredding (my bookkeeping went back to 1984, sigh...)
- 15 kg clothing
- 15 kg of VHS tapes, software
- 13 kg newspapers, magazines
- 7 kg crockery
- 5.5 kg glass
- 1.5 kg plastic
Sold a lot of stuff, before going to recycle and eventually afterwards throwing away:
- 1 television set
- 4 computers
- 1 printer
- 1 game console
- 1 DVD recorder
- 250 CDs
- 200 DVDs
- 2 satellite receivers
- various kitchen items
- various smaller electronic equipment (W-LAN router, hubs, etc.)
- various furniture (sofa-bed, TV-stand, DVD-rack, CD-rack, etc.)
Thanks a lot to all of you who have bought this stuff (and contributed to financing the trip): Boban, "Dalchi", Domenic, Fred, Erich, Marcel, Michi, Rolf, René, Silvia, Steff, Thomas and Yannick. I hope that I haven't forgotten anyone.
Keeping personal items which fit into 15 regular-size ("banana"-)boxes, plus two suit-cases (except for the stuff which I'll take along the trip in my backpack).You are about to scratch your head about how I dealt with stuff to which I was really attached? Well, there were two items, which I was foo-fighting about whether to keep them or throw them away: My childhood teddy bear and my vinyl record collection (which uses about a dozen out of the mentioned 15 boxes).
Last Thursday was definitely a challenging day and a major milestone in planning: Removed the last furniture for the junkyard during my lunch break with the help of some guys with a moving truck (who arrived on time - lucky me). After that "break" I went back to the office to cleanup my desk and to bid farewell. This was also my last working day. At five, I dropped the mentioned boxes and suit-cases off at my nephew's house using a rental van (and playing the "being-stuck-in-the-Easter-holiday-traffic-jam" game together with tourists on the Swiss highways). Aside this small delay caused by the traffic, everything went well and as planned.
So here I am now in my flat, full of echoes and silence. Cleaning with patience and grace all the rooms. Looks like I'll be ready for the handover to the new tenant next week.
Today's riddle: What is the name of the band and the album to which I am listening right now? If you get this one right (and if we meet before departure), I'll buy you a drink. :)
Labels: Preparation
posted by Reto at
17:19
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14 March 2008
Рето в Берн
Reto in Bern.
This was visa week. Whew - lots of travelling and queueing. But I got all the necessary documents for the start of my trip. My passport currently contains the visa for Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. I still need to decide where to get the Chinese one (Zurich, Almaty or Ulanbataar). Most notably, the Mongolian visa will be done while staying in Irkutsk, since the Embassy here in Switzerland is just too far away (sic!).
Under normal circumstances, I might try to send the Mongolian application by mail - but Easter holiday is taking away valuable processing time at the Embassy. Moreover, since I'll be moving out from my current flat the week after, there is an obvious and serious risk in not receiving my passport back in time before leaving.
Surprisingly, getting all the visas for the European and Central Asian countries was a smooth process. Although sequencing them in the correct order was complex when I started planning the journey through the silk road, every puzzle piece drops into its proper place now. These were the three rules, I observed in applying for a visa - maybe they will be useful to some other fellow travellers:
- Be early at the Embassies. Aim to be the first in the queue in the morning.
This rule is best explained by taking the example from the Russian Embassy in Bern. My train was late and I arrived at there at 9:10h (visa hours are from 9h - 12h). Which resulted in me being about number 10 in the queue. Which further resulted in a wait time (outside the building) for roughly one hour. Since I had paid the express surcharge in advance, I could directly pickup the "business" visa after waiting for one more hour. When I got out of the building with my visa at 11am, I was amazed to see people still arriving in the queue. There must have been at least 100 people waiting at that moment. - Make sure that you have all documents. Double check before you leave home.
There is plenty of documentation on the Embassy websites and in travel forums about what documentation is needed to process a visa application. There is even a visa information hotline at most Embassies for the Internet-challenged. However, while waiting for my passport processing, other people went up to the counter and it was absolutely stunning to witness how unprepared some of these tourists are.
On top of not being prepared, we met one lady who was furious, because the helpful guy at the counter "only" spoke Russian, English and French. She only spoke Swiss German.
In the case of the Russian Embassy, there is some confusing/conflicting information about which documents to present. This is especially a problem when you doublecheck the requirements both in English and in German. While the English version of the site asks to submit two application forms and two photographs signed on the back, the German version asks for one form with the picture glued to the application. So I went with two forms, two pictures signed on the back - and a glue stick.
Now - before you start to giggle because I might be "overprepared": The Chinese Embassy in Hanoi will refuse to process your application if the pictures are stapled instead of being glued to the form.
In the end, it was one form, one picture - glued (plus the other documents, such as health insurance policy, HIV certificate and last - but not least: The business invitation letter from Russia). Therefore, even conflicting information, such as it was the case here, doesn't provide room for excuses in showing up unprepared. I actually wasn't the only one bringing a glue stick to the Embassy. At second thought, this might be a practical joke the Embassy staff is playing with us.
Well, I have to admit that there was also a portion of luck (or a guardian angel? "Schutzengel", hence the pic) contributing to this week's success story: Since the representations often don't update their holiday closures on their websites, it was by sheer luck that the Kazakh visa went so smooth. Next week, their representation in Bern will be closed until after Easter holiday. This being communicated through a door notice - not their website. If that happens to you: It's just bad luck or a guardian angel with bad karma. I won't blame you on not being prepared... - Don't forget to take an umbrella to the Embassy.
Well, it can rain outside the various Embassies - where the queues usually happen. Since I got my umbrella, this was a perfect opportunity to share it with a young lady and have a chat. Queueing was therefore quite entertaining.
This was especially true for the Belarus representation, where I showed up outside the regular visa office hours. Stating a "Dobraha ranku" (Belorussian Good Morning) surely didn't get into the way - I got the their visa within 15 Minutes. Absolutely fantastic and in record time!
Sure I'll be encountering blockheads at Embassies during my journey. It will be another experience to see how I'll be dealing with such situations then.
Oh - before I forget: Found a new potential career path while waiting for the Russian visa: Amongst other professionals, like travel agents, I met two guys working for different large multinational companies. They were depositing passports in batch for visa processing. It seems that they make a decent living by queuing for their company expats.
Anyhow, my current experience of the "first contact" with the people of the respective nations was pleasant. Consequently, I am super stoked: I can't wait to leave here and go visit their countries.
Labels: Preparation
posted by Reto at
17:58
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01 March 2008
Current Location
Starting April 1st 2008, the GPS tracking map below will be updated automatically whenever my phone finds a free Wireless Internet connection. This is made possible through the fantastic tool from Mobile GMaps and their GMap-Track function. Their tool basically uploads my current position whenever I am connected to the Internet while determining my GPS position.
Obviously, this location tracking won't work for disconnected places like the Gobi desert or the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh steppe.
Nevertheless, I'll try to catch along the route as many data airwaves as as possible - to serve as an incentive for all of you to come back to this page.
Labels: Preparation
posted by Reto at
23:20
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