I do it the Arabian way

     On Tuesday I had some work in Dubai. Exactly it was a blood test. Everybody who wants a work visa has to pass through chest x-ray and gives blood sample to test it for HIV and other sicknesses. So we drove with Elsa my Filipino colleague to Dubai office from where Nilo took us to the clinic in the old town. There we should meet Envac’s local sponsor Sultan. Basically his function is artificially created for local people by the government. A person like him is needed to have a company in UAE and he then acts as a contact person between the company and the government in things like visa, labor cards and another state related documents.

            The appointment was at 10am and he wasn’t there. But we didn’t expect him to come on time. He is an Arab, so it is absolutely unthinkable that he comes on time. We also saw a huge crowd of Pakistanis and Indians waiting in several queues for registration, x-ray or the test. “Better to wait an hour for him than be waiting six in the line with others” said Nilo and that was a clear sign of something Arabic in the air.

We were lucky. At 10:45 he came typically dressed in white robe with those two black rings on his head holding the hood and winked us to follow him outside on the street. I was always wondering what they do in a shop where is written “Typing” on a signboard. After passing several of those unidentified shops right next to the clinic, Sultan lead us to the last one, gave them some forms and our passport copies, they immediately stopped working on the other’s forms and started filling every detail into our forms. Now it was clear what they do. They earn their living by filling various forms for lazy or maybe illiterate people.

After ten minutes there we moved back to the clinic and show started. First we went to the registration room. Imagine a huge room with many rows of chairs for waiting people, in front of them like ten counters with an Arab behind the glass and a big display with the sequence number. Behind the chair lines a desk with another Arab giving such numbers. Sultan picked one and I saw with the corner of an eye 2000 something. I looked on the displays where there was something around 1300. “Oh no…we will be here forever” I was thinking when I for a first time heard mysterious and whispered “COME”  from Sultan who seated us to the first row. Before I could have looked around what was happening on the display in front of me blinked 2066 out of nothing and I saw Sultan going to the window. After a minute I heard another“COME”  spoken in the same cryptic way and we followed the white robed figure.

We shortly stopped by an importantly looking uniformed policeman. There was a line too to him, but Sultan just come to him, told him an obviously funny joke, they both laughed, he got a stamp and we moved again. “COME”  and we followed Sultan like in trance along a looong line of poor black moustache laborers directly to the x-ray door. “YOU GO”  said Sultan to Elsa when the door opened. Nobody said anything and whole the line was just silently watching how they are being jumped. I tried to avoid angry looks saying “Without him you would be so dead” and felt so small and bad. “YOU GO”  like during an airborne invasion and I was inside. Imagine being there as a doctor and doing the same chest x-ray the whole day in frequence one per minute. I would go crazy!!

“COME” sounded in my ears again and with eyes downcast to the ground I passed once again the voyage along the waiting unfortunates. At least at the blood test I waited humbly with six others. But there were also six doctors so I didn’t wait at all. Damn:) “COME”   and we were out. The whole procedure took about 20 minutes and I felt like after a rollercoaster ride.

Now I have to wait two weeks until I get my visa stamped in the passport. Hopefully and assuming that I don’t have lungs cancer or AIDS. And after that I can go try to get other documents necessary like the labor card and the identity card. But I can’t imagine myself doing it without Sultan :)

Chapter 1: The great apartment search - Third round

  On Monday I left the site office around 3pm. Kamil had work to do, so I drove alone full of thoughts about that the whole apartment issue is more complicated than I had expected. I placed a high hopes in this tour and also during daytime it is better and more positive to see the houses and my budget rose by another 10000!!

            Ali came on time so I joined him and the same property owner like yesterday in his mafia SUV. The presence of the owned should have been a warning, but I didn’t care and was enjoying the ride through a beautiful and quiet villa neighborhood. First visit didn’t work because the guy who should let us in was sleeping and not even multiple calls woke him up. So we moved on to the next house.

            Same nice neighborhood full of beautiful new villas. But there was also one which even from big distance was clearly old, uglier, broken and obviously didn’t belong there. And guess what? We stopped directly in front of it!! Through rusty broken door in a peeling white wall I stepped on a big yard full of construction material and broken furniture. Good for children to play football, but for me there was no use of it. What a surprise!! Inside the building was a construction site too. Ali explained me the problem then. People owning villas in the city buy a new one somewhere out of the city and divide the old one to small apartments for renting. They are no architects so sometimes they build weird things like when you have footsteps in the bathroom, or balcony with no door to access it.

            So the first apartment that day was far the best I’ve seen. OK room with normal bathroom, kitchen ready in three days in the corner and one small window to small balcony without access. But still I felt like I wanted something better. Things improved when they shoved me a common roof space. There were chaotically placed air conditioning devices and satellites, so there were no big free space, but I started thinking that I could actually live here.

            In positive mood we moved to another house. This one looked very promising. But when we entered it was a huge construction site. Bricks and mortar everywhere. We almost got dirty when passing through freshly rendered corridor. Again one of the home-made villas. There were like ten different studios available and among them one was a hit. In third floor they had a nice room with small balcony to the garden, one extra window on the other side and big bathroom. There was still a wall between the room and the bathroom and the door was to the corridor. “In three days we break that wall, put new door instead and wall up the old ones” ensured me the owner so that I was not worried!!

The roof space was nicely stair-step with even more AC and satellites even more chaotically placed that there was barely a space for a deck-chair. But I liked the place and it actually was what I was looking for. The price 95000Dhs was negotiable so I was really considering.

            Unfortunately for Ali I had one more ace in the sleeve before I wanted to make a final decision. Anyway…We woke up the first guy and went to see his place. The same construction site and one apartment for rent with a weird architectural invention. Corner kitchen created by building a 1,5m high wall in the living room so badly that when you put a kitchen unit in, there won’t be any space for a cook. “People from Bangladesh have never seen a kitchen in their lives so they can’t know ho to build one” joked Ali. “If you take it, we tear down the wall for you. No problem. In three days” seriously added the owner. Very funny company :)

            With better feeling of at least some sureness I went to the hotel.  The next round of apartment sightseeing is awaiting tomorrow so better to sleep well.

Chapter 1: The great apartment search - Second round

I was hired because of the Al Raha Beach project, which is the biggest project in Envac history. But like all projects also this one needs a signed contract. When I was visiting UAE in July the Al Raha Beach contract of Envac pipe installations for the whole development was about to be signed. As time was flowing I heard several guaranteed rumors about the project signature. In August, in middle September, when I was in Sweden, last week and yesterday. But it is probably nothing strange when you are dealing with sheikhs. Today I’ve heard another guaranteed news. It will be next week. Like every week J And because I was sitting in Yas Island, I wasn’t assigned to a specific task, so I was just going through drawings, studying and waiting for the contract to be signed.

It was good because could focus on finding an apartment and be ready for work in Al Raha. So it wasn’t surprising when on Monday called a property agent, because I had called to so many of them. I with Kamil we arranged a visit of the apartment on 6pm after work.

After the first experience with Abu Dhabi properties I lowered my requirements. Now I was looking also in outskirts in Muroor area and I rose my budget to 70000Dhs in order to find something prettier and more human.

It started very well. An agent with shirt and tie in black SUV came and took us to see the apartment. His name was Ali and he was born in Pakistan but lived long time in Italy. Actually he wasn’t a Pakistani anymore, because all the time he was complaining about habits and life style of his fellow brothers. How they are slow, lazy, how they take prayer as an excuse to not work or how they are dirty and lousers. Very nice man and he seemed to understand our wishes.

A bit lulled we stopped in a nice and quiet street close to 23rd street in the location he promised. But the bigger was the surprise when we saw the house. Exactly the same style as the previous one. But after the big white wall there was a construction site. They were renovating the villa and there was mess and dirt everywhere. A bit preoccupied we stepped into the apartment that was like 2 meters high, 4x3 meters big room without windows with miniature bathroom and probably no kitchen. Fortunately there was another apartment in that building. With expectations of an improvement we stepped into high and big room, but also without windows!! It has a bathroom but there were nothing. “Three days sir” said the villa owner. Anybody even after only one week in this country couldn’t believe this man. Nor did we. The price of 80000Dhs was just a last nail into the coffin of this man and whole journey. When we left Ali was calming us and promised to give us a tour tomorrow around some apartments with windows.

Chapter 1: The great apartment search - First round

You know this feeling when you wake in the morning with the head burning from inside, with eyes scanning the unknown environment around your bed and erased brain trying to slowly put pieces of yesterday puzzle together. I bet you do. And you probably also know what usually happens when there are two dance clubs in 17^th floor, Arabic and African discotheque in 2^nd and Irish pub in the basement of your hotel :)

This happened to me on Saturday around 12am. Few minutes after my awakening rang the door bell and room service wanted to take my laundry that I didn’t have and even if I did, I wouldn’t have remembered at that time that I had it. But he also gave me a newspaper with property classifieds pages. I though that it was a kind of sign pushing me into action in The Apartment problem solving and I started to read what is available.

My first intention was to find a studio or one bedroom apartment as close as possible to Al Raha Beach where I will be working for maximum price 5000 Dhs a month. The day before Kamil told me that usually they want to pay one year rent, which means 60000 Dhs a year. Quite a surprise, because 60000 Dhs is a hell lot of money!! Locations were that set to Al Shahama or Khalifa City A or somewhere close.

After ten minutes of staring into the newspaper I found one according to my requirements. I called the guy and he told me that we meet at 2pm at Abu Dhabi International Airport and go see the flat. Great!! First try, first hit. A called Kamil, who was in the same situation as me and we drove to the airport.

 I am a patient person. The fact that I knew that I would need a lot of patience here made me even more patient. At 2:45 I had to admit that this quality makes me a perfect person to this environment, at least for now because I don’t know what kind of elephant patience I will need in the future. After those 45 minutes of waiting at the airport and trying to reach him he finally answered. But as a professional property agent he told us that he didn’t have the car and we should meet him at Mafraq Hospital!! OK than, what should we do. We drove there. After a couple of circles around the terminal and forced turns because of roundabouts under construction we reached the right highway but in wrong direction. “Doesn’t matter, we go that way and turn here to this highway and we are there” I said. The problem was that the highway crossroad was under construction too and in such a ingenious way that it was completely impossible to get to the other. So we had to drive another five kilometers to the next exit, do the double roundabout trick of getting from A to B and return five kilometers back to finally drive where we wanted. One more DRT and we stood in front of the hospital. After five minutes called that agent that he is here and we should follow him, after which came a car, made a fast 180° turn and started leaving again. We followed him. After a missed turn to the highway I started to doubt, that we are going where I though the apartment was.

There we met one of the exciting natural phenomenon. A sandstorm. Everything around got compactly orange and yellow and the visibility was around ten meters. Actually it looked very similar to a snow storm.

After 15 minutes in the storm we stopped and I knew that something was wrong. We definitely weren’t in Al Shahama where we were supposed to be, the house wasn’t how I wanted it to be and even the agent wasn’t like an agent should be!!. Fat black Indian with black dirty shirt and slippers. From outside the house was a typical white Arabic one-floor house with white wall around. We stepped in through broken rusty door and came to a small hall. Actually the door to the apartment were new plastic ones, but behind it, it was a complete mess. Low room without windows full of broken furniture and dirt in the floor. Kitchen was even dirtier with questionable cooker and with a thick layer of black dried oil all over. I don’t remember how was the bathroom, but imagine something in that style. I wouldn’t take it for free, but I am no Pakistani but European so I was offered a generous price of 50000Dhs!! I am so out of here!!

Here is a link for the bigger image

In cases of a great despair often comes a great laugh and we were laughing all the way back :)

Chapter 1: Hotel hopping

Let’s see…Count for yourself in how many hotels (no hostels or another cheap accommodation) you have stayed in your life. I in my case it can surely be counted on fingers of one hand. But thank to last three weeks this number at least doubled. Two weeks in Spar Hotel in Gőteborg, one night in NH Hotel in Vienna, three nights in Premier Inn in Dubai and finally yet undetermined amount of days in Howard Johnson Diplomat Hotel in Abu Dhabi. 

The last one is certainly the best one. 15^th floor with a great view, spacious two-bed room with kitchen and bath. More than enough. Only disadvantage is everyday party 17^th floor dance club, but I am fine because during an excursion to pipe bending workshop in Gothenburg they provided us with ear plugs J But on the other hand the breakfast is very very poor and a ride to work takes almost same time as from Dubai.

Yes, the Arabian traffic. I had to deal with it sooner than I wanted to. Right on the second day I picked my “sport” car at the Dubai office and had to drive to Yas island site office. I was not scared, only a bit worried. But I was there once in July and I had a map, so no problem. And I missed a turn right on a first highway multilevel crossroad.

But before I continue, I let you solve this puzzle. Try to count how many kilometers I have to drive from A to B? The fastest correct answer receives a special reward that can be picked up here, means here in UAE :)  P.S. Be fair and do not read further until you solve this puzzle :) 

Here is a link for the bigger image

It was just for a small illustration of how is the driving here. So I missed a turn. But nothing was lost. At the next crossroad I proved some knowledge of Arabic driving habbits, made a U-turn and hooray to the highway to Abu Dhabi. The Sheikh Zayed road or The Sheikh Rashid bin Maktoum road is a main 4-6 lane arterial UAE highway. I don’t know where it actually begins or ends, because either Sheikh, Zayed or Maktoum is every second structure here. Everything that I know is that it connects Dubai and Abu Dhabi, that in Dubai is almost always jammed, that it has no curves, that the speed limit which nobody cares about is 120 km/h and that it changes shape and parameters because of road works that often like Czech government its heads.

But this basically I described every road here. Everything is huge, magnificent, but usually kind of hasty. The road system is a bright example and I think you will hear about it a lot here!!

Anyway…I made it on a first try to the site office, picked up a Singaporean colleague Kamil and at the evening we drove back to our hotel in Dubai. It was dark already and few kilometers before Dubai the traffic was denser and denser. I was driving slowly and looking for a right exit which I remembered was somewhere near a main port highway. I saw a lot of signs indicating an exit to Jebel Ali free port zone, but I wasn’t still sure so I kept driving. Suddenly I saw a right sign and shining highway bridge in front of us told me that I had to exit. I was in the lane most on the right so next to me on the right was only the exiting lane and it was almost at its end. Fast indicator light, and before I could have looked to the mirror and turned as a lightning passed on my right in the exiting lane a car and returned back to the highway directly in front of me!!! Shit!!! Dammed bastards!!!

In here is completely normal to overtake cars from the right, because the roads have so many lanes and everybody is driving in whichever one of them. It is not rare to be overtaking from exit lanes or emergency stopping lane. But this was caused probably with a law, that if a local Arab driver has an accident with a non-Arab driver, it’s always the non-Arab’s fault whatever happened!!!

Never mind…I made to the other highway and was approaching the eye of the storm. Imagine two frequented multi lane highways crossing each other. What is the worst thing you do to make a crossroad? Yes, correct….a roundabout!! And because they are big highways we need even bigger roundabout. This one has a diameter about 500 meters and is actually elliptic. And what happens when you built a roundabout connecting two roads 24 hours full of trucks? Yes, correct… you create 24 hours long traffic jam. And if you want to redone the error you’ve made? Yes, correct…you put traffic lights there!! And what happens if you put traffic light on a roundabout? Congratulations…you’ve just created the worst crossroad ever :D

Terrifying view. From miles away we could have seen lines of blinking orange truck lights going to infinity on all sides. We joined the show about three kilometers from the eye and started to watch a light play of AWDs, which were like a chaotic cloud of fire-flies trying to find a shortcut through the desert. Hospoda hořela hodinu. No, seriously, we were there like an hour. And if you think that I was stupid and didn’t take another way, be sure that there is really no other way and everybody has to go through the eye.

Fortunately I drove there only two times so the theater didn’t get that boring. On Friday, which is along with Saturday a weekend here, I packed my things, said goodbye to Dubai and did my hopefully last hotel hop. 

Chapter 1: First steps

First of all thanks for a positive feedback I am receiving from you. I was writing a lot lately because there were things to write about and I had time for that. But as you certainly anticipate, and anticipate right, I finally reached my goal and arrived to UAE and therefore I don’t know how the frequence of next posts will be. But I will try to keep up the good work and style and write about everything that I will think is worth of telling. This is what blogs are for, right? So let’s kick it off!!

Previously on JIRI….

Like an empty beer can floating in the vast ocean of faith. Like a toy of an evil puppet master, JIRI has been played hard. But he was never broken. His iron will and steel determination let him crack the chains and overcome all obstructions. But as he finally reaches the dreamed but unknown shore, new ones are rising. Will he fall down while climbing them and his will get rusty? Will he overcome these also and find eternal happiness? Let’s find out….

The day D, hour H and minute M. These numbers were changed like hundred times, but after more than three months of counting the timer stopped on 11.11.2008 at 7:55 am. At this particular moment I finally stepped on hot Arabic soil in Dubai international airport. But I felt no extreme joy. More than that I felt worried, because in next weeks or months there will be a lot of unpleasant things to do and problems to solve. But after that the plan is clear. Enjoying the life on the sun :)

Right after my arrival there was a first problem to solve. I didn’t know if somebody is coming to pick me up or not. It got worse when the only person in Envac I was able to call wasn’t responding, so I waited 45 minutes and than took a taxi to the Premier Inn hotel. Problem solved.

There were many other problems to solve and still are, but right during my first day I managed to solve two of the three most important ones, The Car problem and the Phone problem. With the phone it was very easy. I just went to the biggest mall in the world and bought a prepaid Etisalat SIM card. There for a first time I got caught by the prices of things. I always thought that because here I get the same salary like in Czech Republic but in dirhams (5,1 CZK= 1 DHS), I could determine if the price is high or low just by comparing it with the price in Czech Republic. First days I definitely acted like that. The card cost me 160 Dhs that was cheap. I also bought 100 Dhs credit because I thought 10 included in the card price, was too few. Cheap. Than I realized that one minute of calling is 0,45Dhs!! I definitely didn’t need that much credit. I also bought a good map of Abu Dhabi and Dubai for 45Dhs each. Nothing. I dined a pizza with Sprite for 31Dhs. Zero. But if you calculate how much is it in Czech crowns, is not that cheap anymore. Now after a week I know that the level of cheap and expensive is somewhere much lower and with this attitude I would live like a celebrity, what I don’t want to.

 With the car problem I got a bit lucky. I tried to investigate whether I could get an UAE driving license by transferring the Czech one. I called the Traffic department and they said no. Fortunately the Traffic department was across the street so I went to ask them there. They closed in the meantime, but in a small side office a guy told me that as soon as I have my visa stamped in the passport I can get the license, which should be in two weeks. One on one. It was looking grim, because without a car you are like without legs and one arm and without a car you basically can’t start solving the third essential problem, The Flat problem. But you have to get a car from a car rental agency, so they have to know if my Czech international driving license is enough for driving UAE roads or not. So I picked one, picked a cheapest car they had (2050Dhs a month) and asked. Luckily they were fine with documents I had and they even had the car I chose. So now I am driving silver Mitsubishi Lancer and feeling free as a bird. I still don’t know if I am really permitted to drive here, but as soon as I don’t have an accident, it should interest nobody :)

Very fertile day.

Chapter 0,5: The Luck Pool Theory

Magic players, we have a theory. It’s called The Luck Pool Theory and I will explain it to you. Every game of Magic is influenced by two factors, the player’s skill and luck. There is an eternal discussion how much each of the factors influence the game, but this is not a topic now. The Luck Pool Theory says that every player has an imaginary pool where luck is stored like gasoline. During every game that player plays, he is either filling the pool by having bad luck in the game or emptying the pool by having good luck. If there is a serie of games where that player is having bad luck, his pool is filled up to the edge and in the next games he will have good luck because the pool cannot be filled more. And on the other hand after a set of lucky games, the pool will be empty, so he will have bad luck in the next ones because he cannot draw more from the pool. I think this is a very wise principal and works also in the real life and I will show you how.

I can say that I’ve been flying a lot during last years. To USA, Barcelona, San Jose de Costa Rica, Las Palmas, Madrid and I don’t know where else. One would say that is a lot of kilometers for some trouble to happen during the flights. Lost baggage, missed planes, natural disasters, etc. But no. Not a single problem during all of them.

Until this July when I flew to Dubai for a first time. I didn’t tell you the story, but the essential visa to UAE I got not until Istanbul, where I was changing planes. If I got it one hour later I would have missed the plane and stayed with nothing in Turkey. I got it in time so nothing happened at all, but I should have remembered this theory and it would have been more than clear to me that my luck pool was empty and something bad was about to happen.

And it did, when I canceled my first flight to Dubai, because of the visa. It continued by canceled flight to Gothenburg due to fog. Nevertheless I made it with the second, which was nothing more than emptying the pool to the bottom again. So with the empty luck pool I boarded the flight to Vienna. I landed in Vienna without any complications. So far, so good. In a good mood I spend eight hours waiting at the airport, happy that my wireless card worked again. About 10:30pm I said “See you tomorrow in Arabia” to my friends on ICQ and headed to the gate.

“Where is your visa sir?” asked me the guy at the check desk. “I have it at the Dubai airport” I replied with confidence. Then like an ice cold shower hit me his answer “You need to have a copy of your visa or you cannot go!!”.

And because I didn’t and the guy was relentless, I am writing this from the Airport Hotel in Vienna, drinking beer from the minibar, waiting for the visa copy to arrive  at the morning and with the luck pool already half full hoping, that the next flight to Dubai tomorrow at the same time will take me finally there.

Chapter 0: It's over ....man!!

The second week here in Sweden, was about lessons and trying to do something for the individual design mission. Days were only with small variations basically like this: I woke up at 6:45. Stayed another 10 minutes in bed partly dreaming, because in the room was so cold. After some necessary morning routines around 7:15 I left the hotel towards the pier from where a boat at 7:30 took me three stations to Lindholmen to our classroom. I had my first cup of coffee.

Yes, A CUP OF COFFEE!! I never drink coffee, but because there was no possibility to buy Magic Man energy drink for 30 euro cents, I had to somehow inject myself to stay awake during the long day. Actually that was not a real coffee. It was half coffee and half milk and a lot of sugar to taste as much as possible like cacao. There was a free supply of this delicious drink during the whole day so I had several ones. But it wasn’t without consequences. After like four big cups my heart rose on frequence and I felt like a heart attack was trying to steal my life. I don’t plan to commit suicide, so after that I started to drink water.

Lessons started at 8:00. Some of them were really interesting, some of them less, but one thing they had in common…first coffee break around 9:30. My breakfast time, because when I had found out last week that in addition to free coffee they served free sandwiches and cookies, I gave up hotel breakfast to sleep 20 minutes more.

12:00 and lunch time. We had a free lunch at a restaurant downstairs. I was kind of fast food, but a very good one, every day offering a soup, a fish meal, a meat meal and a vegetarian meal. And to that you could take any amount of various vegetable salads. Light and healthy. But this was nothing unusual. Swedes seem to like a healthy life style. You can always see them running on the streets or at least riding a bike and low fat vegetable alimentation fits perfectly to that style. Typically nice, slim and good-looking Swedish girls are the proof :)

Good food is one thing, but this does not entitle them to steal in the restaurants!! And it’s legal!! OK, it is not exactly stealing, but it it’s a very big minus for Sweden. What it is about? When you go to the restaurant, basically in the center and a better one, you HAVE TO put your jacket to a cloakroom and you also HAVE TO pay for it a price of a half of a beer. Even when I am writing this at the Vienna airport, I am getting angry. So nasty!!

Lessons ended around 4pm and then I took a boat back to the hotel switched on the TV and spend two hours either with writing, slowly progressing with my mission or watching stupidities. Then with the classmates living in the same hotel we went to have a dinner to some restaurant nearby. After that I went back and keep working or watching some TV crap. Whole my life I don’t have a TV at home and I am so happy about it. These two weeks proved that TV is an evil hydra trying to steal my time and somehow I am weak to resist. Only solution is to throw that infernal device away. Only then I can be free.

Day by day the week was passing and suddenly there was the end of our training, final test, mission presentation and course evaluation. The day before somebody came up with an idea to go for a dinner to the city, because it was our last day. So we went to play pool and had a hamburger in an Irish pub. Bar hopping is for previously stated reasons very expensive fun, so after the second pub we all went home to tune our missions. Like always it would have needed a couple more hours to finish it to perfection, but at 2am I had to switch the TV off and go to sleep.

But on the Day D everything went smoothly and I was told that I did a great job. Very well then :) Mission accomplished.

As Randy, my colleague from Dubai told me “Here in Sweden everybody is so cool and nice”. And have to agree with him. All of the Scandinavian classmates, teachers, Envac colleagues or people around make kind of friendly environment that pushes the others to behave in the same way, to not spoil it. If not the cold and jacket fees, great country with great people :)   

To be continued…

Chapter 0: Love or die!!

Sunday program wasn’t my idea, but it liked it very much. Visit of the Volvo museum in Gothenburg. Basically here is a biggest part of the whole factory. Very nice and easy Sunday trip.

As the day before we met in the hotel hall at 9:30 and because somebody dug up an information that the museum is opened from 11, we wanted to spend this gap with something. I immediately checked the city map and proposed a short two kilometer walk across the longest and highest bridge in town. Sun was shining, so we were taking pictures, stopping for nice panoramic views and progressing slowly, like picking up mushrooms along the way, to the museum.

Because of the bus schedule, we could have stayed either one or three hours. Bad hours for fine visitation. First we saw a movie about Volvo history. After this short film everybody had to believe that Volvo is the biggest, most famous, most innovative and most successful company in the world. Volvo was founded in 1927 from a separatist division of SKF, Swedish ball bearing factory. During its history started manufacturing also trucks, city busses, marine engines, aircraft engines, tractors, rally cars, race cars, experimental cars, haulers, graders, excavators, loaders, pavers, compactors, coaches  and I think there isn’t a single thing that Volvo haven’t produced in its history.

Volvo also gave to the world one of the greatest invention of all times like the three-point seat belt in 1959, the duo-prop marine drive with a counter-rotating propeller in 1982 or the rearward-facing child seat in 1967!! I think now you have to be convinced too. I tell you, greatness is addictive. And the greatness of Volvo even more. You just can’t resist.

JOIN VOLVO OR DIE!!!

After a while it was more than clear that I would have to stay. The others left…there is nothing more to see they said, when I was in the second exhibition hall!! So I kept admiring everything what was there, especially several editions of the Truck of the Year and one of the first rally cars. Also standing in front of a jet fighter Viggen with one of the most powerful jet engines ever made was impressive. The engine is of course manufactured and designed by Volvo.

But the most time I spend examining the VVCC with the unique VAAC system. Oh you don’t what it means? You are probably not a Volvo fan as I am, yes? It’s really interesting and revolutionary system which can actually save us from certain death one day.

JOIN VOLVO OR DIE!!!

All right then. I will be nice to you today. Volvo Versatility Concept Car is a study of a powerful 250hp predator with a fuel consumption only 6,5 l / 100 km and exhaust gasses cleaner then the air. That’s why it also has the Volvo Ambient Air Cleaner system.

 A filter cleans the air incoming to the engine and when it gets full it releases the toxic particles from air to the engine where they are burned. And you won’t believe this, but the filter is running and cleaning the air even when the car is stopped, using power from solar cells on the roof!! One VAAC system can clean the air from two dirty cars. Unbelievable!!

Three hours passed like a one and suddenly I was walking home with a feeling, that I am somehow enriched…

Chapter 0: Boundin'

Beautiful Saturday morning welcomed us fresh and ready at the bus terminal at 10:30. There was one bus going at 8:45, but we smartly chose not to rush things. As a pay off for yesterday I revealed to Patrick our plan for today and because they wanted also to go somewhere but didn’t know where, he with Divon and Fish joined us too.

One hour ride was quickly over because I wasn’t that fresh and fell asleep. So my second morning was even more beautiful than the first one. A soft fresh sea wind blowing into my face, crystal clear blue sky above and a towering fortress on a horizon. Flawless!! We used a ferry to get to the island and I had to urge my friends to a faster pace, because I really wanted to be already standing on the top of the tower.

Carlstens Fortress in Marstrand was built around 1680 for protecting the city, because it used to be an important commerce center and its harbor never freezes. That was a reason why a big part of Swedish navy was stationed here. The fortress was also used as a prison and prisoners were working on the fortress improvements and repairs.

In the entrance hall I once more got a lesson about how small the world is when the man behind the desk turned out to be Czech from Varnsdorf, who moved here in 1950. He didn’t speak much Czech, but I suspect him that he was playing it!!

The fortress was interesting with a lot of special features like The Secret Tunnel, but there was no chance to reach the very top of the tower. Grrr…but anyway…the view was magnificent.. But after a while I was already thinking how I will go to walk around this small island.

With Marc and Iker we split up from the Chinese. Or better they split up from us. But it was nothing new, because they all are doing it whole two weeks. The have breakfast together, they are sitting together, they go for dinner together, they are almost speaking only to each other. Maybe it’s because they are not that good in English. But it doesn’t matter to me. They are nice people.

After a while of walking a trail I found out, that Marc and Iker are not that excited about rounded, flat and white boulders rising up from wet moss and bushes, which were seducing me to be hopping from one to another. Lunch and a bus to Gothenburg were more important things for them so we split up too.

 At last my outdoor soul could have broken free completely and I was running, jumping and climbing trail-free around. I got blinded by this freedom, not taking care about a lot of other people walking orderly the trail and woke up from my frenzy not sooner than when I had cleared the whole island to the other side. Actually this had one more purpose. Just before I left Czech Republic I had bought new hiking shoes from USA on the internet. And this was a first time I was wearing them. So I had to test them. And test them hard.

 

It was still too early to go home so I hiked along the only access road to the town out of it as planned. I wanted to reach a bridge or something what was connecting the island to the mainland. But because I was sleeping on the way here, I had no idea what is really there. If you know the project The Atlantic Way in Norway, you know what I was looking for :)

After another hour and a half of playing an outdoor equipment testing inspector and an orienteering runner at the same time I got the place where the Swedish Atlantic Way should have been. To my disappointment, but just a tiny one, there was just a big bridge. But it was compensated by a dramatic sunset. After the bridge, there was a bus stop. Completely satisfied and happy I boarded the bus and with the Chinese already sitting inside, and which I lost directly after we got to Gothenburg, I ended the day sleeping in the seat like I had started it… 

Chapter 0: Running men

On Friday we all were facing our first weekend outside home countries. Actually not all of us. For the numerous Scandinavian group it was just a normal weekend so they fled like university students to their families and wives to Stockholm, Malmő or Oslo.

For me it was different. I felt like I am obliged to not to stay at the hotel for the whole weekend. Actually is a common feeling I get when I am abroad. I have a lot of energy, will and determination to be always doing something and to be using the time for something meaningful. And especially here were the impulses very strong as long as you have to wear a jacket and a hat even in your hotel room. So better to get moving.

I wasn’t alone willing to do some activity during the weekend, but I was the only one with an idea what to do. So with Marc from Barcelona and Iker from Bilbao we went to visit Gőteborg  tourist information in the middle of a huge shopping mall. There was a typically nice and good-looking Swedish girl behind the desk. With a good intention but a bit of apprehension I asked her where I could go hiking to the nature. She wanted to send me to the outskirts of Gőteborg to some park but  from an uneasiness of her voice and her face expression I knew, that she had no idea what I wanted. So I changed tactics and ask for some nice place to visit !outside! the city and she immediately provided us with a tip for a nice trip to a fortress in the coastal village of Marstrand. From my previous research on the internet I was thinking about that place before, so her fast reaction was just a routine and maybe the only tip for a bit more active visitors. It’s so hard to be different J

The forecast for tomorrow was positive, so we were leaving the office satisfied. After a minute I was coming back, because I forgot to ask for a cinema program, when a duo of young a bit darker men ran around me and dropped something to a trash bin. When I came closer I saw a brand new DVD laying on a top of the bin. Further inspection showed that it was a Playstation 2 game with the DVD still inside!! I knew that they threw two thing away, so I looked inside the bin a found another. I didn’t hesitate and pulled the other one out of it. I immediately hid them in my jacket, because they were certainly stolen a short while ago a I didn’t want to have problems J

According to this, does anybody know if the missing hardware key in the box is an important feature for playing the game? Because I don’t understand why anybody would steal something and dump it right after!!! (write it as a comment please, that I could dump it again :)

That evening we ended in a pub having dinner and a few beers. The Czech beer culture showed up as usual, today in addition powered by a great sorrow of my broken WIFI card. Suddenly I had fifth beer against my colleagues one and they were about to leave. To bad if you want to drink to grief and there is nobody around to pour troubles to. Fortunately there were Divon and Patrick from our group too, so I said goodbye to the Spanish and joined the Chinese for one more. After my ten minutes long monologue I realized that they weren’t actually drinking with me and they didn’t even have a drink in front of them.  So I released them and they gladly left me with a beer almost full. Too bad!!

But indeed it wasn’t a waste, the last beer. Sadly sitting in my bed half an hour later and staring at the dead orange light that should be blinking, Patrick and Anson came with a spare USB WIFI device which they had extra. That they have heard about the tragedy and I can borrow it. Hooray…and the day was saved.

Chapter 0: What shall we do with the frozen sailor

Swedes are Vikings from their history. But they fight and argue with Danes and Norwegians who actually is the True Viking. All of them say that they are. But I believe that the Danes are the ones  :)

Anyway…The fleet of various ships in Gőteborg is worth of a Viking nation. Starting with a boat taxi I take every day to “work”. It’s so nice to spend the first fifteen minutes of the day in a warm, spacious and quiet ship. Forget the Prague subway. This is a different public transport.

But as you know, I am no Viking and I was raised on the slopes of Mt. Jested (just 7836 meters shorter than Mt. Everest) so I was much more attracted by a small rock close to our classroom, almost the only higher point around.

The first day I didn’t have time to try an ascent because we ended as scheduled around 6 pm and is was already dark. So I went to the hotel and was preparing for the next day. On Tuesday after the visit to nearby Envac installation we were done at 3 pm, so I didn’t hesitate even a minute and climbed up.

The view was stunningly beautiful. Completely clear purple sky with orange sun just touching the horizon far away in the North Sea. Dark shapes of huge harbor cranes in Volvo factory towering to the sky and it seemed like they wanted to support the falling sun and prevent night from coming. Breathtaking. And why am I describing this to you instead of showing some pictures? Guess why…I forgot my camera at home!! Stupid!!

From Wednesday became usual that we finish classes earlier than scheduled, so I got a second chance and I was prepared. It wasn’t that breathtaking as the other day, but not that bad either. 

Sweden is more or less like Czech Republic. It gets dark at 5 pm, there is the same unpleasant cold, around zero degrees, there is usually no snow during the winter (at least at the southern part of Sweden) and it rains often. A little, but often. This week was an extraordinary good weather without any rain and more or less clear sky, but the temperatures around zero remained. And it’s getting worse because at the morning there is a white frost on the ground.

On Thursday we end the day in a collection station in the city center, so I decided to return to the hotel on foot across a large park here with a small ZOO on the top the central hill. Just at the park entrance a typically nice and good looking Swedish girl with a microphone stopped me and asked me a question “What are you looking forward right now?”. I didn’t want to think a long time about an answer so I quickly replied what came on my mind first: “I am looking forward to the hot weather in Abu Dhabi where I will start working next week”.

If you want some spicy story about what happened next, I disappoint you. There wasn’t any. And during the walk to the hotel I was thinking if I was honest with my answer. And already wearing all my at least a bit warm clothes, I had to admit that I was!!