I proceed to use my opportunity to travel along the land of numberless legends. This weekend our aim was south of Germany along rivers the Neckar and the Rhine, specifically Heidelberg and Worms. We gathered a team of co-workers in number 4, bought 1day-5person-ticket (http://www.bahn.de/regional/view/bundesweit/bahnregional/erlebnis/erlebnis_in...) and started our journey. By the way, don’t buy tickets at the desk of DB Service, you will have to pay 10 euro more than in the case of using ticket machine.

Out first point of destination was Heidelberg. Yeah, here lies some history. It is considered the earliest evidence of human life in Europe was in Heidelberg area. Just imagine Heidelberg Man lived 1 million years ago. I suppose it wasn’t any ‘homo’ or ‘sapiens’ – if I remember aright only 80 000 years ago proto-man started to use odd capacity of brains. But nonetheless it’s exciting. 500 years before Jesus birth there was a Celtic fortress and place of worship "Mountain of Saints". Both places can still be identified. In 40 the Romains deployed there a camp and built bridge across the Neckar. There started long history of the city. Nowadays it is a nice not very big city spread over picturesque banks of the Neckar. We were lucky to walk along the river and observe how harmonically mixed modern parts of the city and ancient one. Yeah, that is definitely the place which worth to visit. It has some especial atmosphere which you will be pleased to restore in your memory. The major sightseeing in Heidelberg is the Castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg_Castle). That is amazing mix of styles from Gothic to Renaissance located at a high rock above city’s vanity. If you are down the castle at the square fancying if it is worth to climb, leave all the doubts. Your reward when you get over the endless main street of the old city and climb the rock will be priceless. You can also use funicular up to the very top though. Ok, what makes the castle so original? First, marvelous views from the hill plus inner architecture, plus remains of castle gardens. You know I wonna come back some day there and spend some hours relaxing at the lawn above that God-blessed land amongst the ruins which still keep memory of numberless great stories that once happened there. Ok, after Hiedelberg quite inspired we directed to Worms still using our group ticket. Ha, that came out there is no train directly to Worms and we had 2 changes at Mannheim and Frankenhal. Out of the last place we traveled by a pretty over-crowed bus. That’s the only case when something reminded me my native Belarus here in Germany. Eventually we reached Worms and I should say it very contrasted Heidelberg. Some provincial not so touristic town. However that is one of the oldest places in Germany. The town existed long before Roman times though they came there in 14BC. But what is most exciting that is the place whence “The Song of the Nibelungs” (famous epic poem of Middle High German) comes. So we found museum of Nibelungs and pretty long remained wall. Since main rail station appeared to be so small and it seemed there was no information center we hadn’t any guide or map. We just get to old city somehow and turned to the Rhine direction just to see view for the river. It was good intuitive decision. Near the river we found Nibelungian bridge and, coming close, totally hidden from the town side a cosy place on the quay with many restaurants among bushes of fragrant lilac. On the way to home again we didn’t find a direct train. So we got to Mainz Hauptbahnhop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainz) in the hope to take S8 to Frankfurt. It wasn’t going to happen. There was something wrong with the line. And we had kind of excursion on the city by bus on the way to a stop of S9 which delivered us in Frankfurt pretty tired, but as for me, happy and full of positive emotions.

You can fine photos out of the trip at http://picasaweb.google.com/web.sbelarus/
and vidos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9h2f6QL4yY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA9vsWLH72w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwzLw2YwtQw

When unexpectedly to me happened 4 days of holiday because of Easter I though how to fill them in. My brother and his wife came to me and after the first day was given for acquaintance with Frankfurt we decided travel to Luxembourg. I was anxious thinking of possible difficulties on the way there but wrongly. I came on Hauptbahnhof in Frankfurt, asked ticket seller about some cheap way to get to Luxembourg and back and got after a minute sheet with certain plan and bought that ticket of holiday. If you don't know it means you can take 4 people with you on the ticket and travel everywhere in Germany during the day. The ticket costs about 35 euro (and some sum out of German board). The sheet we had was very detailed with 2 changes on the way and we usually waited about 6 minutes on a station before change. It was regional express 2nd class - the cheapest option here. You can explore prices and routes by yourself using www.bahn.de, www.traffiq.de, www.rmv.de. But in my case I was positively impressed - even cheap German trains are more comfortable then most expensive Belarusian.
Well, the train adhered the Rhine most part of the trip and it was incredible. Just imagine a picturesque river between rocks, on which straight amidst nothing but stone you can find castles so magnificent that it makes you think it was built by some fairy giants. I was so shocked that the idea to make some pictures came to me only when we missed the most majestic ones.

Well, we had stops in Konlenz and Trier. Both have enough sighseeings to explore, especially Trier. But we had not time for it and after departure from last one we heard French speech. Here the place where I should a little introduce Luxembourg Great Duchy. That is unusual country. The richest one in EU and at the same time one of the smallest ones. People speak there 3 languages French, German and Luxemburg. The last one based on French and Flemish. It means when you read a newspaper you can find there articles on all the three languages on a page. They have saturated history and what is curious they still ruled by a duke (monarch). On the contrary they were one of founder of the European Union and have several institutions of the European Union, including the European Court of Justice, the European Commission, the secretariat of the European Parliament, the European Court of Auditors and the European Investment Bank. More then 200 banks are located in Luxembourg as well as headquarters of Skype, Yahoo, eBay and others. When we came to the city the view we saw was astonishing. Numberless bridges on prodigious height and picturesque nature. Leaving the rail station and crossing a bridge over Petrusse valley we came to Notre-Dame cathedral and crypt. Then we took Citysightseeing Luxembourg bus and really enjoyed quality of excursion. We listened guide through headphones on our native language and sound background was amazing, like theater performance using some great music. We had another hour before the train back, so we took as well Petrusee Express, a little funny tram to discover Petrusse valley. The only what I can say is when you are beneath those outgoing to the sky pillars it came to mind not people but gods were to build that.

Having such a great experience we started another trip next day, this time to Cologne. It one of the biggest and oldest cities of Germany . By amount of art galleries it the second in the world right after New York. More then 5000 years ago Celts had here a site. 2000 years ago here was born Agripine, wife of Rome emperor Klaudiy and mother of emperor Neron. By her request Cologne became Roman city and started quickly to grow. In 1164 Cologne received relics of kings (the Three Wise Men of the holly Bible). It was put in golden ark and still is kept in the Cologne cathedral. Well, when we just arrived at Cologne rail station the first what we saw was the cathedral. It is so killing impressive that after you can not take in something else in the city. But the cathedral… I have no words. It is majestic, unreal huge and refined. Inside it is even more impressive. You like find yourself in the universe of God, where vaults are as high as heavens and decoration are as inspiring as the smile of the Blessed Virgin. Nearby we took Hop on Hop off bus and visited main sightseeings of the city but as I have said that was not so great after the cathedral.

So, there are a lot of great places around to visit. Since that appeared to be so easy and nice to travel here, it just needed some time and a good company to read page by page that wonderful book of the name Europe.

P.S. You can find some pictures out of the trips at http://picasaweb.google.com/web.sbelarus/

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao6LtgIqGR4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7VY1H9FKw8

That's singular I'm in Frankfurt now 3 months and have not written anything how I'm exited to live here. If saw my posts added from Belarus you can imagine how happy I'm here in Europe. Hmm, when we are really happy we don't narrate about to much. Maybe this is a fear to lose all suddenly gained happiness, I don't know. Sometimes seeing Belarus when sleeping I wake up and look perplexedly around I found myself in Frankfurt ask "is that real or some dream". In fact I am not so calm even here and fear all the time that dream of being here some day for some unknown reasons will cancel.

It doesn't really has sense to tell you about my delights here, I suppose you who reads this are likely out of exUSSR and you have all these pleasures since childhood and that is normal for you. For you, but not for me, and I am going to put some thoughts here for me, cause I feel one day I will want to restore all these emotions.

So, first what make me exited is another culture here in Europe. That's what I believe most of emigrants aspire after. Just to compare in exUSSR everybody is always in fight whatever aim is to reach. Do you need to take a bus? Fight for it! Are you going to visit a doctor? Fight for you turn, otherwise they kick off you out of the line and that's for sure (there is fully paid clinics, but those are for huge money and, what a paradox, they have not really qualified doctors). If you are on the way to home and the home is not in very center, be ready to fight with completely drunk fellows who will demands some little money, alcohol or whatever. There is such a Russian proverb: for a fight all means are suitable. One of the most effective is cheating. E.g. there is no way to rent an apartment but only using agency. It does not matter how well-known and expensive it is they give you a pitiful story for apartment owners to win over them and if you want an apartment you should play given role and be part of the fraud. Well, what about basic stuff, to have some food for instance? Ha! Check if it is not expired. That is common practice in Belarus they put all the expired goods right before your eyes to get rid of them ASAP. When this is not a big problem in Minsk where hypermarket culture has come in regions that is very actual.
But when you are not a fighter, when you can't lie to people, you are out of community as I was.
And now here, the city of population 600 000 has metro (subway) with so bifurcated system that is comparable rather to Moscow with dozen millions of population. Minsk of 2,5 million inhabitants has only 2 routes of metro. When Soviet times it was allowed to build metro only for cities with population above 1 million. So to say such a big city as Odessa still hasn't metro and Prague of Czech being under Moscow control was obliged to include all the villages around to gain declared 1 million to lay the foundation of metro. And yet public transport here in Frankfurt is not overcrowded. If you even have not a free sit, at least you have enough free space around. In Minsk using major lines of any public transport morning and evening you are squeezed by other people and when summer other sweaty stinking people . By the way you should there not only fight to get to a bus, but to get out of the bus as well (people just have no room to let you go and you task to compress them to make your way). Yeah, whatever said, my favorite horror in Belarus is public transport.
Ok, people here smile to you and say Good day. In Belarus you can hear "Здрассе", but a smile at the same time hardly. In Frankfurt is very felt freedom of wearing, of style. You can wear whatever you want and will fit this mob of any colors. My wearing a hat caused me a lot problems in Minsk because I was even with it out of common urban style. What else? Everything. Residential areas are really created to live in. A lot of flowers, grass, lawns, everything is decorated and so neat like toys. It is not loud and everybody rides bicycles. BTW, I've bought one today too. Gee, to tell it would take too long. Not for this post today.

I've watched Babylon A.D. and really enjoined the movie. That's a fresh fiction. Main character Turov (Vin Diesel) starts his way in the middle of 21 century in New Serbia, a territory of Russia. On his hand you can clearly see tattoo С.Л.О.Н. That's common for Russian criminals who has been imprisoned. But in fact they do it on fingers, not on hand itself. The movie shows new Russian reality as a total anarchy. Buildings are ruined, the most sealable goods on markets are weapon, people are poor and scared to each other and dangerous. What's curious about future is all the digital mass media have logo of Google and paper-like maps based on Microsoft Surface.

Vin Diesel for all the movie speak of course English, but at the beginning there was a little episode where he bargains for a rabbit in New Serbia on Russian at that without any accent, though not so hard when using the only word:

-Сколько?

- 5 рублей

-Сколько?!

- 4 рубля

- Ok

- Большое спасибо

- Спасибо

But seller woman speak with noticeable accent, as solders lead who captured Turov. He uses common Russian informal idioms, but not aright. However it should be said voices on background speak Russian perfect. It even sounds like professional translation. I notice it gets popular to mix a little of Russian in new movies. In "Last hope" Stiven Seagul said some words on Russian, but perfectly I still remember his saying "Здрасьте" like any native. Coming back to Babylon, Mr. Gerard Depardieu pretends some Russian accent in his English. Actually that is more like Arabic accent with all those soft "e" (Theese ess not about trrust.. ), but some stuff goes pretty natural "We arr the same… A girrrrl". They bring out clearly refuge camp of Russians in Vladivostok and inside Russian train to get to that point. I like sank into the reality of motherland, brrr. With a certain hyperbola, but still too natural. And enormous contrast with America, that's like we ex-USSR people can see it.

So for the movie subject, that's usual rubbish, if you excuse me for saying so. That's about personal choice of a professional killer, about what does it mean mercenary and does it leave a place for humanity. Diesel plays just amazing, as far as girls. The idea of a new born human being, artificial one is not so original. So that's why Babylon, to reach the Gods by our creation. But you know Babylon tower crashed and there is some sense in it I think.