I had been told that the old city of Königsberg was gone and that the present city of Kaliningrad was nothing to write home about. But I have decided to write home anyhow. Kaliningrad is a fascinating place seeing that almost all the inhabitants are immigrants from Mother Russia. This old Preussian stronghold which fostered people such as Immanuel Kant, is today a Russian exclave in the center of Europe and enclosed by EU and NATO countries. Here in between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea, everything is in cyrillic, people speak nothing but Russian and the reminder of grotesk Soviet architecture is everywhere. The people of Kaliningrad But though the people of Kaliningrad are citizens of Russia, and vivid supporters of the Russian ice-hockey team, they also seem very European. In difference to Little Moscow ... read more

Do you know the supposedly American expression of "a good burn", often used by the character Michael Kelso in "That 70's show"? Well in Lithuania they really like a good burn. Having lived in Vilnius for a little more than two months, I have become quite accustumed to the Lithuanian version of a good burn. I live in an apartment block between Neris and the old town, and in the driveway into the yard we previously had several large plastic containers for garbage use. But one morning coming down the stairs, my colleague and I noticed that the containers were no longer there. Instead, we found some small sculptures made out of melted green plastic and a huge black spot on the wall. Our containers had, you might say, experienced a good burn over night. Today, ... read more

The old man tries to speak to me in Russian - I try to respond. My minimal Slovene glossary come in handy now. He asks me where I am from. I answer Daniya. He says something about Daniya and gori (mountain). I laugh and make the motion of flat. He gives up and leaves me to my own thoughts. I sit quietly and rest while looking down upon the village of Kazbegi. I sit at Tsminda Sameba, the church that represents Georgia in every tourist brochure. Mt Kazbeg is on the West site of the church and the village at the East, - right under my feet. 14 kilometers to the North lies Russia. I am in the heart of the Caucasus Mountains. On the border between Europe and Asia. The drive to Kazbegi As I ... read more

Today was the first day we got out of Baku for real, and got to see something different from the buildingboom of the metropol. Our destination was Ganja, the second largest city in Azerbaijan and situated approximately 320 km to the east of Baku. I had previous to my travel heard that the pictures of the present president as well as his father, the former president, are hanging everywhere. I had not seen much of this in Baku and quite thought that people had been exagurating the number of pictures hanging around. But here in Ganja, they hang on every corner, three meters high on every officiel building; Heydar Alijev and his son Ilham shaking hands looking prestitious and important. Except from the tremendous amounts of colourful pictures of presidents, Ganja is a rural town with ... read more

Since I've subscribed a whole lot of you marvellous people back home to my blog, I have to be extra good at writing interesting stuff. So lets start with what I am best at - complaining Copenhagen Airport: Usually one of my all time favorite places. The atmosphere of people going away on holiday, bustling around in long lines while chatting about things to do at their destination point and of people arriving, being welcomed with (perhaps too many) Danish flags and kisses and hugs. But today I didn't like it. As CPH becomes larger and as more and more companies do their entrance with cheap and low budget flights the turmoil comes, and gone is the fascinating atmosphere of traveling. I had ordered my ticket with AirBaltic, going to Riga at 8.40. Two desks were ... read more