First week in Greece

I haven’t written much in the past week. I have been busy searching for a car, and I have no Internet @ home, so I have to visit some Internet Cafe places all the time. The problem here in Greece is that everybody smokes cigarettes, even in public places, they really don’t care about those who do not smoke, like me… But this is about to change. From 1:st July, there will be a new law forbidding people to smoke in public places. I want to see how this is going to be implemented… There will be so-called “smoke-police” visiting random places to see if they are smoking or not. Anyway, I don’t think this is going to work at all. In my opinion, something like 90% of the Greek population smokes, which will be really hard to make them stop, and that sucks.

Now on to the pictures. This is snowy Alpes from the airplane from Zurich to Thessaloniki in HDR. Thanks to the auto-bracketing in the camera, I’ve shot 3 pictures with different exposures really fast. Otherwise, I wouldn’t make these pictures as the airplane is moving in something like 800 km/h.

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I found some bugs to shoot. The first one is a feature, not a bug ;P

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My cousin and her other grandmother were on visit this week. The one to the right is my grandmother.

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My cousin poses.

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Me and my cousin.

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And finally, what Julian has been waiting for… my car :)

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At the Airport

So, now I have to wait for 1 hour at the Hamburg airport…

Nice car, a new Z4.

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Yesterday I was flying with the InnoGames official helicopter!

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Greece here I come!

Last Day

So… today is my last day in Hamburg. Tomorrow I fly to Greece and will stay there for a while until I get bored ;-)

My impressions?

  • The weather in Hamburg can change 20 times a day.
  • Germans need to learn English.
  • The people at InnoGames are awesome! It’s a great environment to work in with fun people all over around you. You actually have fun at work! I’d love to work there if I didn’t have my studies, but I have to prioritize a few things in life.

And a few pics from the today.

Nino in HDR!

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A cup of coffee.

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Sunny street.

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Sun sun sun!

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Bye Germany!

Annoyed

Hamburg is a really nice city, but a thing happened today that annoyed me really a lot.

As most of you know, I like digital photography. I actually love it. So this is why I decided to upgrade my digital camera. I found a great deal for a Nikon D700, including the battery pack at Media Markt for 2200€ here in Hamburg, so I thought I’d go for it.

I arrive at Media Markt and grab a seller. I ask him if he can unlock the locker where the D700 was to take a look at it (I was determined to get it anyway). It was impossible to have a conversation with him, as HE DIDN’T SPEAK ENGLISH (which is a major problem in most of Germany). I also asked him if they had other FX-lenses (full format) besides the little 50mm thingy, which they didn’t. Come on! You sell Nikon D700, and you don’t have any FX lenses? This is nothing compared to what happened later…

After much struggling and hand movements with him, I got the Nikon D700, the 50mm lens, and a camera bag. He gave me a piece of paper and told me to pay for it. So I did… I go to the cashier and give her my VISA card. Guess what? THEY DON’T ACCEPT VISAS! Oh my F*** GOD! They wanted me to go to the bank, withdraw cash and come back and pay them. CASH? WTF? What happens when somebody wants to buy the 40000€ big-ass TV? Should they walk around with 40000€ in cash? This is insane! It’s not even Sparta. It’s insane! If you don’t accept Visas at Media Markt, go and close the f*** shop.

So long for my frustration… Here are a few pics from Hamburg.

Buss station in Hamburg in HDR.

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A few pictures on my way from home to InnoGames.

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The building where InnoGames GmbH resides.

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Me and Nino at Inno (heh, it rimes).

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A small party at Nino’s place. Nino and Tim.

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Eike and Nino.

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Hendrik and Unknown German Lady.

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One of my bosses birthday was yesterday, Hendrik, so we all had some cake. The room that you see in the back is where “The West” is being developed ;-)

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Clocks for every community. Yes I put there “Athens” myself ;-)

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Nino working hard…

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Me working even harder…

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Frustration!!!

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Hamburg

So now I’m in Hamburg at the InnoGames office. It is interesting to see how all the people here work together, the developers and all the other “soft”-guys and girls (cause developers are hardcore ;))

Before I left, I fixed my server to be able to update this site =)

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The train station in Copenhagen.

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The train to Hamburg actually goes on a boat for 45 minutes! I didn’t know that, and I looked quite confused when they asked us to get out.

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This is where I sleep. Over at my homey’s place (Nino).

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This is my tiny notebook that I’m writing you from.

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Nino himself working.

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Domi working.

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Saara working ;)

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This was Nino and me when he was showing me around at the developers’ place. Cool guys, but they didn’t know about Balmer’s peak! Of course, I gave them a lecture.

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Guess what, they had a Greek Tribal Wars poster in the middle of the corridor!

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More info coming up later, stay tuned!