La Pasqua non ferma le notizie...

Per chi sta seguendo le mie disavventure alla ricerca di un lavoro in Danimarca: no, il jobcenter non mi ha chiamato. Ho anche provato a chiamare ma la signorina mi ha detto “beh evidentemente avranno perso il post it con il tuo numero o il tuo nome”...evidentemente.
Ora si spiegano le notizie che appaiono su alcuni giornali locali: il 97% di coloro che trovano un impiego...lo trovano con il jobcenter? Taaaa! Errore! Lo trovano fuori dal jobcenter! I nostri super compagni di Metro hanno fatto un'altra indagine di frontiera. Sono andati in Syddanmark (che comprende sia Sønderjylland che Fyn) ed hanno scoperto che solo il 3% trova lavoro tramite il jobcenter. Osservatori internazionali segnalano containers carichi di post it con nomi e numeri di disoccupati che prendono il mare da Esbjerg. Almeno non sono il solo...
Leggi la rassegna stampa danese della settimana su: http://rassegnastampadelgiorno.blogspot.it/2012/04/mal-comune-mezzo.html

Buona Pasqua a tutti!
Francesco

È proprio vero...Giro countdown

Forse sarà esagerato dire che Herning si sta tingendo di rosa...ma le biciclette rosa sono dappertutto (legate al palo, non si sa mai che un ubriacone prenda una bici rosa senza copertoni con il sellino sfasciato...)
Tutti al Giro!

Prague Day 2

Going at Bernardo’s office for lunch, I walked through what I think is one of the city’s best streets: Vinoradska, but more on that later.

Starting from the metro station Mustek, very central, I walked up Vaclavste namesti until the national museum and then, with the main railway station on my left, I waited a second before taking up Vinoradska.

I looked down, from the national museum along the avenue that eventually flows into Na Prikope. No wonder that Russians thought the national museum to be Parliament, and therefore surrounded it with tanks when they invaded the country in 1968. The national museum is not only magnificent, it dominates the town, whose eyes can’t help looking at it.

Then I walked down a passage underground, which communicated the sidewalks at opposite sides of the Museum metro stop. There smells like pizza and kebab and bakery and underground. It is incredibly lively, with students buying snacks on their way home, workers buying something to fry on a pan, employees having something to eat and a chat.

I remember in Parma, we used to have one of those, by the remains of the Roman bridge under Piazza della Ghiaia. When I was a child, I remember it was full of lights, underground, with a bar and a shoe store. I remember I used to ask myself how could a bridge stand under another bridge. It was by the underground market, with a preponderant smell of cheese. I have not been there under for a while, perhaps because last time I went, there was no store left.

Like I was saying, I repute Vinoradska one of the bests in town, because it has the splendor of Prague, without the touristic touch of the centre. The result is a truly authentic street: old people passing from the baker to the butcher with the bags of their daily shopping, mixed up with the new middle-class symbols, such as night clubs advertising “Russian Ladies Night”, and modern totems such as gay clubs.

It feels as if the “socialist architects” felt that it would be a shame to interrupt the street’s harmony, so the main street of this neighborhood, which ends in to the very graveyard where Kafka is buried, has the character of Prague which fortunately the architectonic real-socialism left nearly untouched, although sometimes they cannot hold a grip and had to leave a mark somehow.

In streets like this, time seems to have past fast. One has to go to side streets in order to get a fairer vision of how time really past: renovated buildings lay aside untouched and needing-renovation ones.

Prague Day 1 and Night 2

Where were we? Oh yes, free vodka. Knowing that you have a time and date where to be at a certain point of the day tends to organize the whole day all around it.

I woke up late, bought a sandwich at a Tesco supermarket that is now in a building that must have been a market of sort, and walk up and down on Prague’s bridges. There is no closer feeling to freedom, than eating your sandwich while walking in a beautiful day.

I feel like if the water is the true soul of Prague: the river looks the same at all times. So are Prague’s art nouveau buildings. I am amazed by how architectonically consistent this city is: all buildings may look alike one another, with some exceptions like that pearl called Mala Strana. Yet, all buildings surprise the eye with great door, carefully symmetric balconies, shining decorations art nouveau. So does the river, every wave, every moment.

Eventually, night, H&M, and free vodka.

Nothing is better than vodka to cut one’s indecisions loose.

After a short discussion

Bernardo and Marie decided who gets what: dress for her, red trousers for him.

Prague Day 1, after Night 1

However you slice it, Prague is wonderful, great vibes and great people, at least so far. The apartment's cat minds minds her own business and has not marked my luggage, yet, which is a plus (besides, in case she did, we would probably have rabbit, for dinner...). Sun is shining and that helps, too.

Tonight I have bartered off an invitation to the grand opening of a new H&M into town. 

H&M??? Why???

Well, to start, the event has captured the attention of local fashion bloggers, because it is apparently the result of a new venture between H&M and the italian brand MARNI. However, I am not going there to meet up with local bloggers and discuss of fashion...

Despite the tempting 25 % discount on all the stock, only for today, this is neither the reason why I am going...

Attracting men at a women's night is a matter of fine psychology. Women would likely prefer to be accompanied by women: no boring-looking men around, freedom of chat, interesting and interested conversation about that lovely dressed that you have been wanting for a while.

But here comes the true Czech genius: the organization offers free Vodka!

This country has a bright future ahead.

Some days in...Prague! Night one

Well events do not only is not only in Denmark, right?
After a weekend in Copenhagen, I have landed yesterday night in Prague.

The flight from CPH was ten minutes earlier and I was welcomed on the plain by the greatest anti-steward I could imagine: tall, built, with a hint of a tatoo that I could see on his neck (and which in my head it became a big tatoo of a dragon or a snake that I would see better when he will rip his shirt and hijack the plane). He asked me if I wanted something to drink. I played the macho card: "Beer". "Excellent choice, sir". So far so good.

I need some money and I decide to withdraw some cash instead of changing my Kroner at the local currency exchange office...I am an independent traveller and I have a credit card and I can take care of it.
So I choose the Unicredit's booth with instructinos in Italian (you know...heart's calling), I asked 2000 local crowns and of course the machine gives me ... one big 2000-crown bill. The bus ticket for the town is 32 crowns...

Of course, who would think that a newly arrived tourist at the airport needs small.
Luckily, local currency exchange office was still open...