Weekend in Geneva, Switzerland

After our day trip to Ferney-Voltaire we spent the rest of the weekend wandering around Geneva. 

Tünde wanted to ride the water taxi so we did a couple of laps across Lake Geneva. 

We also stopped by to see the Marronnier de la Treille which is the world's longest bench.  It was built in 1767 the 180 wooden boards measure 120 meters (413 feet) in length.

Of course we had to have fondue for dinner and Natalie knew a great place at Bains des Pâquis.  Fondue is always fun and this was so good.

On Sunday morning we visited Bois de la Bâtie which is city's largest zoo and Tünde enjoyed seeing all of the animals.

My flight back to Vienna was in the afternoon so I left the ladies at the train station and made my way to the airport.  I had a window seat and had a great view of the French Alps.  

At least I think these are the French Alps.  Maybe it's Switzerland but I'm pretty sure it's France.  

Either way, it was great spending time with the Chicas.

Ferney-Voltaire, France

During Christmas we all planned to up in Switzerland to visit Natalie.  On Friday night I caught a flight to Geneva.  On Saturday morning Claudia and Tünde arrived and we spent the weekend together.  Yeah for more whānau adventures! 

After picking them up at the airport and breakfast at the hotel we went to France.  Geneva is on the French border and we caught a 10 minute bus to Ferney-Voltaire.

Ferney-Voltaire is in Southeastern France between the Jura Mountains and the Swiss border.  

Back in the 14th century is was Fernex and over the years the name changed to Fernay, Fernaj, and Fernai.  The city is home to around 9.800 people.

The French writer and philosopher François Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire, lived in Geneva for almost two years.  At the time Geneva was a Calvinist city and theatre was forbidden so he moved to Ferney in 1759 where he ended up becoming the city's patriarch.  He lived here from 1759 to 1778 before returning to Paris shortly before his death.  Voltaire built the local church, a theatre, set up potteries and a watchmaking industry which helped increase the city's population to over 1000 people.  In honour of Voltiare's patronage the city changed it's name to Ferney-Voltaire in 1791.

The Church of Our Lady is the largest neoclassical religious building in the region.  It was consecrated in 1826.

The Fountain of Voltaire dates back to 1628.  In 1988 it became a registered historic monument.

The city hall and WWI monument.

WWI Memorial

It's a cute little town and well worth a short day trip.

On Saturdays there is an open market and we spent lots of time walking around and sampling lots of goodies.  

So much incredible cheese, produce, and wine.  Tünde loved the pomegranates we picked up.  

The town cemetery is less than a 10 minute walk from the centre of town.  

The town's main attraction is Voltaire's house.  The château was built from 1758 to 1766 and it is open to visitors from May to September. 

The house is interesting and well worth checking out.  

There's also a garden to stroll around.  I'm sure that it looks better in Spring and Summer.  But you can't go wrong with the view of the Alps. 

We enjoyed our short day trip to France.  After lunch at an Indian restaurant we walked across the border and caught a bus back to Geneva to continue our city break.

Don't Torrent In Germany

A few years ago I wrote about torrents which is a file sharing technology and Bittorrent is the most popular p2p/file-sharing technology in Europe.  

Abmahnung

Torrents aren't illegal but it is illegal to share copyrighted files via Bittorrent.  Germany is very strict about this and there is even an industry there of private law firms enforcing this by sending out an Abmahnung - basically a cease and desist letter.

It's almost an expat right of passage in Germany to be issued an Abmahnung, and the hefty fine, during their first year.  Downloading a single song or movie can cost €300 - €1000.  Each year there are around 500.000 fines issued.  It's a big business for legal firms.

In Germany, ISPs are required to record information about customer's online activity and keep it for at least 10 weeks which these private law firms then use the chase down who's downloading what.  The copyright holders of the actual songs or movies are good with this because it keeps people from just downloading their stuff for free.

Torrents work in a way that you actually download and upload at the same time.  Be sure to use a VPN to to mask your IP address so that you can download anonymously and most importantly...make sure that your VPN is turned on.

So here's what happened.  While in Berlin for Christmas, I opened my laptop to look something up and didn't realise that my VPN wasn't turned on.  My shared torrent data while I was online.  I din't even think anything about it.

Well Claudia's dad received a 13-page Abmahnung showing that a copyrighted TV episode was downloaded from his IP address from 14:20:50 to 14:21:02.  12 miliseconds.  Not even a full second.

So her dad had to contact a lawyer and send a letter basically stating that it wasn't him and that he'll make sure that it doesn't happen again, blah blah blah.  There was also a fine for €570 which I paid.  An expensive lesson for sure.

Bank Symbols

Czech banks have these things called symbols over here.  There are variabilní, konstantní, and specifický, variable, constant, and specific, symbols.  It must have been a Czechoslovakia thing because these symbols only exist here in Czechland and Slovakia.    

Example account number and bank code

First a bit about account numbers.  When you want to make a postal, online, or mobile payment the first things you will need to know is the account number and bank code of where the money needs to go.  Most account numbers are ten digits long.  Then every bank has a four-digit number to identify it.  

In Czechland no one thinks twice about giving out their account number.  In the USA, people would freak the heck out if you asked them for their account number.  People would assume that it would be used for identity theft and that they would loose all of their money.  Over here, the only thing you can do with an account number is deposit money in to the account.  You can't take money out of someone else's account.  It did take me a while to get comfortable with this but now it's no deal at all.

A variable symbol is an optional ten-digit number.  This is used when the payee needs to differentiate the incoming payment.  If I buy something online and opt to pay with a bank transfer, then the company will tell you to put the invoice number as the variable symbol.  That way they can identify the money I transferred to them from the all of the transfers other people made.  

When I pay my yearly waste fees, the city authorities have you use your birth number, with the slash, to identify exactly who the payment is from.  If a friend picks something up for me at the store and I transfer money, then there's no need for any variable symbol.

However, if the sender doesn't put in a variable symbol when they were given one then the receiver may not be able to correctly assign the payment.  This caused me a problem when I first moved here.  It was time to pay my Czech credit card bill.  I paid it online with the bank's website.  I put in the bank's account number and bank code, and paid the amount in full.  Later I received a telephone call from the bank reminding me to pay my bill.  I said that I already paid it, they said thanks and that was the end of it.  The next month the same thing happened again.  I finally figured out that because I had not put in the variable number the bank could not match up my payment to my account.  I had no clue what a "variable number was".  When I asked I was told that a "variable number is a variable number".  Just because the bank's customer service agent and I both spoke English it didn't mean that we were speaking the same language.  Lesson learned.  But since this only exists in Czechland and Slovakia, I surely couldn't have been the only expat to make this mistake before.  Why didn't someone explain what it was?    

So a variable symbol is optional but in reality, you need to use it frequently.  Of the three symbols, the variable symbol is the most often used.

My mobile payment screen

A constant symbol is an optional four digit number that is also used for bank payments.  It used to be mandatory but was made optional when Czechia joined the EU.  It seems to be used more when paying taxes.  If it's provided then I use it, if not then no worries.

The specific symbol is also used to uniquely identify the payer and it is a maximum of ten digits.  Again, if it's provided then I use it, if not then no worries.

In addition to the variable, constant, and specific numbers, I can also add an optional text message for the recipient and one for me when I make a mobile payment.  With all of these fields there should be no question about about who the money came from and for what.  And yes my Czech mobile banking is in English.  

Åland Islands

At the end of the month I'm headed back to Scandinavia and this time I'll visit the Åland Islands.  I swear that I go to places that most people have never heard of.  

The Åland Islands lie halfway between Finland and Sweden.  It's an archipelago of almost 300 habitable islands.  Though only some 80 islands are inhabited.  There are also about 6200 skerries and rocks.  Just under 30.000 people live here with about 90% of the population all living on Fasta Åland.  The capital and largest city is Mariehamn.

Here's the story... 

From the late Middle Ages until 1809 Sweden and Finland were united.  Following the Treaty of Fredrikshamn of 1809, Finland and the Åland Islands were given to the Russian Empire.  After WWI when Finland gained independence, the islands wanted to become a part of Sweden but Finland wouldn't let them go.

In 1921, the League of Nations ruled that the islands would remain under Finland but as an autonomous territory.  The islands are neutral, people here can not be conscripted in to the Finish armed forces and no military troops or installations are allowed on the islands.  The islands have the right to maintain the Swedish language, their culture and local traditions.  Fun fact...this was the first international agreement that the League of Nations ever achieved.

In Finnish it's called Ahvenanmaan maakunta and in Swedish it's Landskapet Åland but Swedish is the only official language here.  So I'm going to a part of Finland where no one actually speaks Finnish.  They have their own parliament, flag, and police force.  The Åland Islands are even an associate member of the Nordic Council.  Since 1984 they've been issuing their own postage stamps so I'll be sure to send out some postcards while I'm there.

2020 Czech Eurovision Entry

Eurovision 2020 is coming up in a few months and this year it will be in The Netherlands.   Last year, Lake Malawi came in 11th place which is the country's second best finish.  Mikolas Josef finished in 6th place in 2018 which is Czechland's best finish to date.

2020 will be Czechia's ninth shot at the Eurovision title.  Česká televize had received 152 submissions to be the country's official entry.  Interestingly, of the 152 entries, only 72 were from Czech musicians.  Somehow the 152 was whittled down to seven.  The selection process was made up of combination of an international jury panel of ten former Eurovision entrants and a public vote made on the official Eurovision Song Contest app.

Here are the results...

In 7th place is Pam Rabbit with "Get Up".  Pam Rabbit was born in Armenia and came in 4th place during last year's selection process.  In 2018 she was a backup vocalist for Mikolas Josef during the Eurovision finals.

©PamRabbit Official

In 6th place was Olga Lounová with "Dark Water".  She started acting in TV and movies in 1998 and she released her first album in 2011.

©Olga Lounova

In 5th place was Karelll with "At Least We've Tried".  Karelll isn't well known on the Czech music scene. However he was the first Czech to take part in the Los Angeles MUSEXPO.

©Karelll

In 4th place was We All Poop and their song "All the Blood (Positive Song Actually)".  The group formed specifically to compete in this year's competition.

©WeAllPoop

In 3rd place was Barbora Mochowa with "White & Black Holes".  She also came in 3rd place during last year's selection.

©Barbora Mochowa

In 2nd place was Elis Mraz & Čis T with "Wanna Be Like".  Eliška Mrázová reached the 2014 semifinals of Nova Hlas Česko Slovenska (The Czech-Slovak version of The Voice).  Čis T is a hip-hop artist from Bratislava who's released 13 studio albums.

©Elis Mraz

And 1st place went to Benny Cristo with his song "Kemama".  Benny Cristo is a Czech of Angolan descent and since 2013 he's had 11 top ten hits here in Czechia.  He's also a professional jiu-jitsu competitor and in 2009 he made the finals of SuperStar (the Czech-Slovak version of Pop Idol).

Here's the official Eurovision bio about him that I found out on YouTube.

©Eurovision

Here's Czech Republic's official entry for the 2020 song contest.  "Kemama" is short of "Ok mama" and the song is entirely in English.

©Ben Cristovao

Benny will perform in the second semi-final round on 14 May.  Fingers crossed! 🤞

Update:  Eurovision was cancelled this year due to COVID-19.

Svůj

I'm still working on my Czech.  Sometimes I feel like things are starting to come together and other times I feel like I'm going mad.

One of the peculiarities of Slavic languages is the use of "svůj".  It's a reflexive personal pronoun that basically means "one's own".  You use svůj in a sentence when the possessor is also the subject.  Clear as mud, right?

Řídím moje auto. = I drive my car.  

People will understand you but this is incorrect.

Řídím svoje auto.  = I drive my (own) car.  

This is the correct way to say this.  It's because the thing being possessed "car" is possessed by the subject "I" so you need to use svůj.

Using svůj can remove some of the ambiguity we sometimes have in English.  For example:

On vidí svého otce.  = He sees his father.  Meaning his own father.

On vidí jeho otce.    = He sees his father.  Meaning not his own father but the father of someone else.

So I concede that using svůj makes sense.  If only it was just svůj.  This is where Czech grammar gets fun.  First you need to know if the word 'being possessed' is masculine, feminine, or neuter because there are three genders in Czech.  Well actually 3,5 because if a word is masculine, you need to know if it is animate or inanimate.  You also need to know if you're talking about something in the singular or plural.

Then come the grammatical cases.  All seven of them in the singular and all seven of them in the plural.  So depending on how svůj fits in to the sentence grammatically it could actually be svůj, svá, svoje, své, svého, svoji, svojí, svému, svou, svém, svým, sví, svých, or svými.

02/02/2020

Today's date is written the same forwards and backwards, for everyone in the world.  The last time that this happened was 909 years ago.

In the USA, the date is written Month/Day/Year.  In most of the rest of the world the date is written Day.Month.Year.

In China, Japan, Korea, and Iran the date is written as Year-Month-Day.

Today's palindrome date of 02 02 2020 works for the USA, Asia, and the rest of the world.  The last time this happened was 909 years ago on 11/11/1111.  

This won't happen again for another 909 years on 03/03/3030 and then another 1.010 years later on 04/04/4040.

The UK Left the EU

Well Brexit finally happened.  Yesterday, after 47 years, the United Kingdom officially left the European Union. 

Now starts the transition period which will last until 31 December 2020. Everything should stay the same for the rest of the year.  

27 EU members minus the UK

The UK has to continue following EU laws and continue putting money in to the EU coffer.  The big difference is that the UK no longer gets to vote in the EU Parliament.

EU citizens are still allowed to live and work in the UK.  UK citizens can still live and work in the EU.  At least until the end of the year.  Then there need to be agreements on the rights of EU and UK citizens residing in each other's territory.  For example, what happens to all of the British who have bought homes and retired in Spain?

The UK and the EU will have to agree on a new trade deal.  Plus individual trade deals with the rest of the world.

The biggest sticking point is going to be the Irish border.  The Good Friday Agreement opened the border and put an end to the Troubles.  

During the Troubles there were only 20 border crossings between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.  Today there are 208 border crossings.

It's quite the mess.  The UK wanted to close its borders with the EU.  Now Northern Ireland is the new physical border between the UK and EU.  No one wants the Irish border closed or a return of the Troubles. 

Pre-Brexit vs My Future UK Prediction

Who knows what the end result will end up looking like?  Personally I think Brexit will result in the eventual breakup of the UK.  Eventually, the two Irelands are going to end up as a united Ireland.  Scotland voted to remain in the EU during the last referendum but they voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU so it's just a matter of time before Scotland eventually leaves the UK.  The future UK will probably just be the United Kingdom of England and Wales.  This is just my personal opinion.  I don't have a crystal ball but this is what I'd bet on.