Snow near Adriatic sea...

[axy]

I think I saw a picture online one time with skis attached to a scoot.

Snow chains would be great!

Hi, axy. My friends have came and left. Sadly, they did not have a great deal of time to spend this trip so we did not even turn the computer on while they were here. I hope you had a nice holiday. Do you celebrate St. Stephen's Day as well? I read about it on Wikipedia and wondered. If you do, I hope it was a nice day for you. (I don't know who St. Stephen is, but then a lot of folks probably don't know who St. Valentine is either.)

Wow, on the globe it looks like you are possibly closer to Germany than Albania!

Hi,

it is not exactly officially celebrated, but there is St. Stephen's day. It is a bit more of a festivity for those whose name is Stephen/Steven and those that are avid church-goers .
We have a local "version" of that name in our language.

The closest country to mine is Slovenia, some 25 kms to the west is the border.
Then, there is 70 kms to Italy, a bit more famous country.

Albania is to the east, approx. 950 kms to the east, so it is quite far away. There are many other countries between us and them, like Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia...

450 kms to the German border from my city, border to border probably around 300 kms.

The thing is that in 1000 km circle around my city, you have Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia etc.
European countries are relatively small. It's not like central USA where if you travel 5000 kms to the north you can reach Canada and if you go to the south, you can reach Mexico and that's it.

[ts1]

Not far away from the Adriatic sea:
After only 1 month of winter our winter services have surrendered. Budget for this winter nearly exhausted: snowplough, gritter and salt are rationalised for highways.
Our national dept and economy measures aren't any more adequate for a "real" winter.
Even the national railway CEO advised the passengers not to use the train and switch to other means of transport (for us a big sensation!).
Common commuters have to wait for a natural solution on March (or April?) - or fight with the elements.

3 days after the last snow fall I brushed the snow of the scooter and pushed it onto the road. Blue shines the ice:

Empty parking area appropriate for playing in the snow:


Official minimum temperature in our town was -18.4°C (meteorological airport station), another message was -24°C direct above the snow (usually lower temperatures than at the offical altitude of 2m above ground).
That's already cold, but nothing serious. Official all time record was -45.9°C at Funtensee meteo on Christmas Eve 2001.

[axy]

Just the other day I was listening to local radio and they were talking about salt prices going up in Germany.
A lot of salt is being imported from Bosnia and Greece.

[old mod]

It is looking like a record breaking( COLD ) winter, in parts of the UK last week -27C, today it's 9c, i bought my city 125 late November and have only done 200K! Can't wait for better weather. May chance the salty roads tomorrow, how does everyone else cope with corrosion?

[axy]

It is looking like a record breaking( COLD ) winter, in parts of the UK last week -27C, today it's 9c, i bought my city 125 late November and have only done 200K! Can't wait for better weather. May chance the salty roads tomorrow, how does everyone else cope with corrosion?

Buy a new scoot every few years.

[Rianna]

Hi,

it is not exactly officially celebrated, but there is St. Stephen's day. It is a bit more of a festivity for those whose name is Stephen/Steven and those that are avid church-goers .
We have a local "version" of that name in our language.

The closest country to mine is Slovenia, some 25 kms to the west is the border.
Then, there is 70 kms to Italy, a bit more famous country.

Albania is to the east, approx. 950 kms to the east, so it is quite far away. There are many other countries between us and them, like Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia...

450 kms to the German border from my city, border to border probably around 300 kms.

The thing is that in 1000 km circle around my city, you have Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia etc.
European countries are relatively small. It's not like central USA where if you travel 5000 kms to the north you can reach Canada and if you go to the south, you can reach Mexico and that's it.

Wow! So many different cultures so close together!! Yes, you definitely have the advantage over us there! Your location is favorable for travels to other countries. I did think it looked about 1,000km to Albania on the globe. I could not estimate that Germany was that close, though! You don't drink that German beer do you, axy? I hear it's very strong. That could be a lie, though.

I do imagine it was a bit easier to get parts for those Italian scooters you had considering the nearness of Italy to your country.

[Rianna]

Nice pictures, ts1. My, you certainly have the snow this year! And the cold!!

[axy]

Wow! So many different cultures so close together!! Yes, you definitely have the advantage over us there! Your location is favorable for travels to other countries. I did think it looked about 1,000km to Albania on the globe. I could not estimate that Germany was that close, though! You don't drink that German beer do you, axy? I hear it's very strong. That could be a lie, though.

I do imagine it was a bit easier to get parts for those Italian scooters you had considering the nearness of Italy to your country.

Exactly.
And that's why Italian 50 cc scooters are favorite targets for thieves. Usually underage delinquents...

[ts1]

You don't drink that German beer do you, axy?

There is no "that" German beer. Germany has more than 2000 breweries (mostly small ones), each beer has its own style and taste. As in our neighbouring countries.
The most common beers have about 1/2 as much alcohol as light or medium wine, strong beers about the same level as wine.
But in the extremes (additional brewery processes) you can get alcohol-free beer (becomes more and more popular) or something like liquer.

[axy]

There is an online Croatian shop where you can buy beers from all over the world.
Among them, there are a few German beers and even one from USA.

http://www.beershop.hr/

The problem is that I do not drink alcohol (had a beer or two and a liter of wine in the past decade).

[Rianna]

LOL! I don't drink alcohol either, axy. I've had less than you in the past decade.

I hope you have a happy year in 2011!

[Rianna]

Hi, iz kog grada si jasam zhivio u Zagrebu 10 godina  inace sam iz skopje.. pozdravljam te  .....

[axy]

Hi, iz kog grada si jasam zhivio u Zagrebu 10 godina  inace sam iz skopje.. pozdravljam te  .....

Pozdrav, bratko!
Iz Rijeke.

Rianna, now we have located your friends.

[Rianna]

We Have??

That is funny.

It may be more correct to say that You have located them, axy. I have no idea what any of that says!

I am glad you didn't tell me they were bad words.

I love languages, and studying languages, but I can only speak in one language (English) and read and write in two languages and yours is not one of them. From the previous two posts I only understood, "Hi" and what you typed after my name. I did think that I remembered seeing Zagreb or something similar on a map one time, though. When I speak with them again, or if they come for a visit I will tell them of your message. If I am asked what it says, I will say that it says and and if they want to know more they will have to take a look.

[axy]

We Have??

That is funny.

It may be more correct to say that You have located them, axy. I have no idea what any of that says!

I am glad you didn't tell me they were bad words.

I love languages, and studying languages, but I can only speak in one language (English) and read and write in two languages and yours is not one of them. From the previous two posts I only understood, "Hi" and what you typed after my name. I did think that I remembered seeing Zagreb or something similar on a map one time, though. When I speak with them again, or if they come for a visit I will tell them of your message. If I am asked what it says, I will say that it says and and if they want to know more they will have to take a look.

"Pozdrav bratko" means "hello, bro", but "bratko" is not Croatian word for bro, it is a Macedonian word. Your friends are from Macedonia, the most southern ex. Yugoslav state that became autonomous after its dissolution in 1991, bordering with Greece. The difference between Croatian and Macedonian language is quite big: one can claim that the difference is like the one between cockney British and langauage spoken in Louisiana. 

Furthermore, he asked me what city I was from and said that he lived in the capital of Croatia for 10 years. I told  him that I am from Rijeka, the city where I live.



And you are right, Zagreb is the capital city of Croatia. It is our local version of Washington DC.

http://www.zagreb.hr/default.aspx?id=1979