Let‘s talk about Germany. There is a certain predictablity about Germans that seems to be unique to this ethnic group. It is a specific behaviour exposed when a basic, well-spread question is being asked when people meet: how are you?. The same applies for latin-american verbalisations like „¿Qué tal?“.

Did you know that? Germans tend to react quite confused when you ask them these simple, standard and probably mostly meaningless questions. The reason is that in German conversation superflous things are better left away completely so any other question that is actually asked is considered to be of some sincerity.

This is where the trouble starts. German logic demands that if „how are you?“ is actually a serious question it demands a serious answer. But what should you say? Well, there is the physical aspect: how do I feel now? What does my stomach say? Is this slight hardening in my shoulder muscle worth considering? Then the psychological aspect: am I happy now? Could I feel better? What is the relevance of all of this in this specific moment? Aaaaargh!

All these questions come together in a split second. Because Germans are so busy evaluating all this in a single moment it takes a while for them to react and even that adds to the overall confusion as the asking person would have expected nothing but a simple „fine“ or something like that (we can never be sure). And the answer was never considered to be important anyway. But now he looks into the eyes of the insecured Teuton that tries to react as correct as possible but is simply not capable of deciding on what to say. It is a desaster, everytime. In short: we hate it.

The only comparable construct in German is called „na?“ and means basically nothing. It just matters how you say it. It is generally ok to simply answer with another „Na?“ (also being put as a question) and you‘re done.

Football is by far the most popular sport in Europe. And yes, dear visitors from abroad, we call it football and not soccer, although the word was born in London once (ask the Word Detective or Wordorigines.org to get more information on this).

Germans are surely among the most passionate devotees in this area. But for a long time, being interested in football was not really considered to be hip amoung the k3wl people. This has changed in recent years and now there are new magazines popping up complementing the old ones and during the last world championships a real craze was going on.

Root of all devotion in Germany was the winning of the world championships 1954 in Bern, Switzerland known as „Das Wunder von Bern“ (the wonder of Bern). The Germans were total mavericks but defeated the favorites, the Hungarians in a suspenseful game which gained cult status in Germany last but not least because of the now famous live radio coverage by Herbert Zimmermann.

This year, the craze seems to culminate. There is movie in the works telling a (probably boring) family drama situated around the match and – best of all – some film students have created an excellent remake of the game called „Die Helden von Bern“ (the heroes of Bern) using LEGO figures. This is great, check out the animation even if you have no clue of german of all. It‘s worth it.

If you like LEGO-style animations, Brickfilms provides a lot more of that stuff.

It‘s party time again. Like every year, the Nation Of Gondwana is scheduled to take place at July 12th/13th. This time it is going to be at Schloss Dammsmühle, close to Berlin. You find an interactive route description starting at Berlin Alexanderplatz here.

Nation Of Gondwana has a track record of being the alternative party event at Love Parade weekend. It is an outstanding open-air event with an interesting line-up of DJs (most notably: Sven Dohse and Der Dritte Raum) and is renowned for its outstanding and very funny performances at the event.

There is photo archive of Nation Of Gondwana 2002. Project Blinkenlights was doing its experimental Bushfire installation there as well.

On my last trip I have photographed some objects that you might want to use as a desktop picture.

Rome Airport

Apart from the little details there are also some major differences to be found if you compare european countries. Well, actually I can‘t really compare them all but Italy has a slightly different approach when it comes to traffic. Or to be more precise: traffic lights.

While a red traffic light in Germany is considered a rule it is more seen as being a recommendation in Italy. A red light means something like: „you might probably want to stop as there is a good chance for competing traffic from other directions“ while in Germany it means simply „stop“.

This might sound scary first but the good thing about it is that it produces much „optimized“ traffic on the one hand and less superflous stops on the other hand. It also has the advantage that people will never expect a green light to be a undisputable sign of a clear way. I don‘t really know how pedestrians fit in this game but it might be the same with both systems.

Italian traffic somehow mimics Internet standards: there are recommendations and you usually do fine folllowing them. There is, however, room for optimizations that might make you ignore one of these recommendations without actually doing any particular harm to the whole concept.

Great ice cream is being served at Via San Quintino 31. This is a traditional, sicilian ice cream maker. That place is so crowded that the counter is organized like your local registration office. On entry you take a ticket with a number and then you wait until your number is on display. A friendly crowd of nice ladies is at your service on three counters at the same time. Never seen an ice-cream shop so busy.

My recommendation: Granite, which is basically flavoured crushed ice. You get it in all colors. I chose coffee and lemon (one after the other, of course) and I can understand why this place is as popular as it is. And it‘s open until 1 in the morning.

I am about to finish my trip to Italy. As usual, these vacancies give you some new impressions and hopefully new conclusions.

I closed my day with a visit to a restaurant deep in the suburbs of Torino. The restaurant is called „Manhattan Pub“ and if you will be in Torino once, I can only recommend going there (Via Giachino 46). I just participated in the biggest and one of the best-tasting Pizzas I ever had. The pizza for six people covered the table completely and delivered on my dreams without compromise.

My italian friends fetched me at the ground station of the mountain railway to Superga. What followed was a high-speed drive through the streets of Torino. Seems as if everybody feels like driving a Ferrari all the time. So Italy is also delivering: be prepared to discover the stereotypic behaviour that you probably have in your mind when you think about this very special place in Europe. Meanwhile, the back-seat passengers where busy exchanging Amore.

There are some things where Italy really excels. One is food, the second is the devotion to discussion (the use of mobile phones is beyond what I expected) and the third is the warmth that people use when communicating with each other. No comparison to what I am used to in Germany. Especially when you relate to the computer scene.

The hackers here seem to be much more integrated and „normal“. Of course, there is nerdy behaviour, but it is either taking less precedence or there is simply not the same amount of necessity in developing it as in Germany where the nerds seem to be much more distuinguished than the scene over here. But it is just a first impression and I may be also completely wrong. Take it as just one more reality to choose from in your daily life.

I left „El Barrio“ and took some time out to explore the center of Torino. It is deserted. It seems if everybody has left the city or was expelled for some other reason. Quiet Earth.

Most of the shops are closed. It comes to my mind that this is a deeply catholic society. So everything is closed on sunday. Well, not everything but downtown Torino is not the place I would recommend to my friends on christian holidays.

The city is pretty dense. Huge, monolithic buildings, one after the other. Small roads. No much free space although here and there some small parks have been thrown in. It‘s like a „buy two and get one free“ offer. You go for the bonus but in the end you just get the initial offer. So I leave the center and walk my way along the big road towards the river Po. It is getting nicer and nicer then. And greener. Public football places, kids playing. Every now and then a refreshing public water supply.

I finally I found my way to the Superga mountain railway station. I spend EUR 4,13 on a return ticket (8000 Italian Lira). I enjoy the trip with the ancient cable car and on the top I am being served with a beautiful view on Torino. Well, it could be better as the weather is a bit dizzy today.

On the top of the mountain there is basically a church and a couple of shops. A classic tourist trap. The church is under reconstruction so you can‘t get in anyway. I dont‘t care as I am fed up with churches anyway. I rarely visit even museums when I enter foreign cities. It is so boring. The shops offer a a mix of fan articles for the two big J‘s: Juventus and Jesus. I guess most people go for Jesus, with Juve securing a strong second place. While I was shaking my head, hacking on my log a bit and listening to the disgusting pop music that poured out of the bar‘s shrieking loudspeakers some people were folding out flags and were generally spending too much money on useless stuff.

I am spending some of my money on some useless paraphernalia as well. I am not too unhappy with it as I am able to bring it down to a reasonable price. Then I have to leave. My tourist job has ended. I am going to rejoin with some of the Hackmeeting guys in hope for a delicious meal.

My flight leaves at 7 in the morning. Hope I will find some sleep before.

The Hackmeeting has come to end. Traditionally this is done by assembling everybody in a huge discussion circle to talk about how everything has been, what should have been better and what is next.

The next Hackmeeting is going to be in Genua. And there are plans for an additional, trans-national event that much more addresses crowds from other countries calling for participants from Croatia to Spain, from Italy to Germany. And probably everybody else.

As I said before, this is important. Don‘t know if my presence has stimulated anything but focusing on international events is a good thing. We are trying to do this at the Camp as the dutch hackers have been doing it for more than a decade now.