http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/ ... 33,00.html

Six centuries ago,
Serbia heroically defended itself in the field of Kosovo, but it also defended Europe.
Serbia was at that time the bastion that defended the European culture, religion,
and European society in general.
Slobodan Milosevic's 1989 St. Vitus Day Speech

About four weeks ago, Israel was attacked by Hezbollah. Two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped, five others were killed.

Today Israel is in the middle of a war, which is understood by some as an act of self-defence. The Lebanon gets destroyed and faces a major humanitarian, social and political crisis. The good, the bad, the civilians - people die every day.

Five years ago, about 3000 people died in the World Trade Centre attacks. Since then we had bombings in Madrid, in London and several other attacks and attempts. The Western World, the free World is under attack by terrorists, who have a fundamentalist Muslim background.

Today US and European troops are in Afghanistan and Iraq. Both countries are staggering towards civil war. People get killed every day, by fanatic believers, by panicking and cracked-up soldiers, by people who are afraid.

In 1989, Slobodan Milosevic held a speech in which he linked a battle, that took place in 1389, to the political situation in former Yugoslavia. I remember that everybody in the rest of Europe shook heads about this reference. Milosevic was already then a shady figure and not long after, he was stamped as a war criminal.

And today? We talk about defending our values, the clash of civilization and the spirit of the free world. We are afraid of the Muslims. We do not only have the right to defend ourselves - we have the obligation to defend ourselves even without being attacked. And if we are attacked, then we do not only have the right to overreact, we are forced to overreact. We have to put fear into them. War is the only language they understand.

Doesn't that sound as if Vienna would be under siege again? And that we should consider to march to Tours and Poitiers once more?

Or does that sound more as if it is time to shake our heads again? To hold our weapons. To prevent us from becoming the beast, that we think the others are.

Stop taking our values as an excuse to betray them.

Stop manipulating us.

Stop the war in Lebanon.

The trip

I kept a very short log of last weeks cycling trip with the camera and flickr-posting function of my mobile phone. Below you find the entries and some more pictures re-posted.

It all worked very well, also due to my bike, which at no point gave me any trouble or problems. It just stayed with me for six days and about 580 kilometers. The main reason why I ended the trip then was, that my sitting organ could just not be convinced anymore to have further contact with the saddle of the bicycle. Going further was a very tempting thought, but I was strong enough to resist it.

The Road

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Day 1: Tuesday, July 25th 2006 - from Helsinki via Porvoo to Loviisa

Today I started on a cycling trip towards Eastern Finland. I started at 13.00 from my home in Helsinki, with two fully loaded bags at the back of my bike.

Already last year i went by bike to Porvoo. It is a very beautiful city and they built some modern wooden buildings there since then, which really fit in very well with the old ones.

I arrived in Loviisa, which is about 90 kilometers East of Helsinki, around 20.00. It's a nice town too.

For the moment i am just exhausted and tired. I have not done a longer bike trip for quite some time, so my body keeps telling me that it needs a bit more training. We'll see how the next days turn out to be.

Anyhow the route was very beautiful. I followed the kings road (road number 170) and it was not much traffic there. The temperature was quite high, around 27 degrees. But the landscape was just fascinating. Still i could not convince myself to stop and take pictures. The cycling was just too good and i could not stop. Anyhow, once you stop, sitting on the saddle again is pain (at least from a certain distance on).

The last longer cycling trip i did was in 1999, through all of Austria. Quite a while ago.

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Sunset in Loviisa

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Day 2: Wednesday, July 26th 2006 - from Loviisa via Hamina to Virolahti

A perfect place. A perfect moment. Close to Hamina

I am very tired now and will keep this short. I went from Loviisa to Kotka and on to Hamina. After a break i went on to Virolahti, where i stay this night in a hut. Seems there are no hotels around here.

The next day, when I awoke, I layed for at least 20 minutes under both blankets and did not dare to move. It was unbelievable cold in the hut. From that on I only took hotels for the night.

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Sky, Trees, Land

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Wooden House in Hamina, Finland

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Day 3: Thursday, July 27th 2006 - from Virolahti via Lapeenranta to Imatra

That's what my map calls an unsurfaced bicycle road. They did not indicate that it means to push the bike instead of riding it. Did an 11km detour to see the Russian boarder. It was not visible, maybe Russia joined Schengen without me noticing it. Or the map again promised too much. Cheers :)

Today i followed the Via Karelia, first North to Lapeenranta and then North-East to Imatra. It was just great cycling, easy and good. The landscape was nice, but today i was more concentrated on moving on.

After more than 9 hours and nearly 120 kilometers i arrived in Imatra. The day was not so hot, which made it easier to cycle. Nevertheless there was a lot of wind coming from the North, but it did not manage to block me.

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Seagull in Imatra

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Alvar Aaltos Church of the Three Crosses (Kolmenristin Kirkko) in Imatra

Even before I started the trip I had in mind to visit this building. It was maybe the only goal I had for the trip. It is located outside of Imatra, along a quiet road, sorrouned by pine trees and birches. I came there on a Friday morning and everything was absolutley silent.

One of the most impressive things I ever saw in a church is how the altar receives light. The window in the ceiling is a hole for light, that falls onto the altar. Like in some pagan places of worship, where the light fell on a specific point at the day of midsummer or midwinter.

The whole Church of Three Crosses seems to be built only to emphasize one thing: Light. Every window is different, the light has so many different sources. Most likely the light falls even during the dark and long Finnish winters through that hole in the ceiling. Imagine a cold day in February, the nights are still longer than the days and then the altar gets enlightend.

And then - the window is not straight - that makes the shadows also uneven. The shadows of the crosses look different than the crosses themselves.

I have no clue about architecture, I do not believe in God and yet I stood there and could not grasp it.

All my pictures of the Church of the Three Crosses can be found here.

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Day 4: Friday, July 28th 2006 - from Imatra via Ruokolahti to Sulkava

I started at 11 and took it slowly. For nearly an hour i visited the church of the three crosses in Imatra. An amazing building, one of the most impressive i have ever seen.

For more than 90 percent of todays route i say no sign of civilization, besides cars and the road. No town, no filling station, no coffee place. It was wow!

The last 35 kilometers were only hills. Never before in my life was i that happy about growing up next to the Alpes. Finally, after 107 kilometers, i arrived in Sulkava.

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Day 5: Saturday, July 29th 2006 - from Sulkava via Rantasalmi to Varkaus

Today i was close to giving up. Shortly after Sulkava came another 12 kilometers unpaved road, my right knee started to hurt and shortly after i got a cramp in my right leg. So i decided to take a hotel in Rantasalmi. But when i arrived there, the town did not really attract me. So i took something to eat, a coffee and a beer (for muscle relaxation) and went another 45 kilometers to Varkaus. It was then again much easier than thought.

My sitting organ emits pains that i never thought possible. The easiest is to just stay on the saddle. The moment i get off it, all hell breaks loose.

The landscape today was beautiful again. I was happy that the hills got less steep. I say cows today and there was fresh cut grass - i have not seen that form of earning yet in Finland. It reminds me very much of my home.

Most of the time on the bike i was singing all kinds of songs and had conversations with me. There was nobody around. As it was saturday there were even hardly any cars. So i sang along and entertained myself.

Varkaus has the bigger building that i remember in Finland. It is this hugge factory, that you can see on the picture. It supplies the whole city with a certain sour smell. At least i assume that the smell comes from the factory. Or maybe i started smelling. :)

It was a good but also a hard day.

A nice weekend to all of you.

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Industrial Building in Kuopio

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Day 6: Sunday, July 30th 2006 - from Varkaus to Kuopio

I sit at the market place of Kuopio, the sun is shining warm, after it was cloudy and fresh most of the day. When i started in Varkaus it even rained for a while. Although i only went 82 kilometers today, i felt them quite heavily. But it still was fun to just go further. At the moment i am not sure whether i will go further from here or back to Helsinki by train. At the moment the sun is the best thing.

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Juha Leiviskäs Männistön Pyhän Johanneksen Kirkko, Kuopio

In a way this church was the ending point of the trip. I learned from the travel guide that it exists and walked there on Monday morning. Also here the impression was overwhelming.

All my pictures from the Männistön Pyhän Johanneksen Kirkko can be found here.

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Day 7: Monday, July 31st 2006

On the seventh day God rested and I decided to go back. I spent the day in Kuopio and took the train back to Helsinki in the evening. The train ride took over 5 hours and my bike and I arrived save at home around 23.00.

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Market Place in Kuopio

All my pictures from the trip can be found here.

I finally decided to do a cycling tour. Not sure how long I will survive out in the Finnish wilderness, but I try to go as far as I can.

As it is rather hard to write this blog from my mobile, but very easy to post pictures from the phone to flickr, those who are interested in my progress can follow it at http://www.flickr.com/photos/georgmayer (only pictures from my phone's camera will be available until I return)

Once again: have a nice summer!

It has been now two weeks since my last entry. Too many things happen during this beautiful summer, so updating the blog is not really possible.

After being in Montreal, Canada for a week of work I went down to New York where I spent a week of holiday. The good thing about New York is, that everything intelligent about it has been said already hundreds of times and as I do not want to add something stupid to it, I can happily stay silent.

The weather in NY was extremely hot. I am not a friend of too high temperatures. 25 degress Celcius is the border, after which my mood starts to change. Now I am back in Finland since a week and here everything is perfect, besides my inability to adjust myself to the local timezone.

But no complaints - my holidays just started. This might lead to further silence on these pages for one or two weeks. Let's see.

So for the moment I go on wishing you a happy summer.

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• Black&White Picutres from New York (Flickr)
  
• Colour Pictures from New York (Flickr)