Dangerous Wildlife

For the most part Mallorca is not dangerous. Sure there are gangs robbing public busses and sometimes there is police armed with MGs patrolling the streets, but that's just humans.. !
So at first I thought that's it. But then I learned there is actual dangerous wildlife here.

The first, which I have not actually encountered yet, is the common snapping turtle. I never saw turtles as a source of danger until now. These ones are supposedly capable of biting off your hand and they are also fast moving!
Not the slow helpless thing I had in mind when I thought of tortoises. They even have claws, surely the only thing missing would be spikes on their shells.(Image is courtesy of Wikipedia)

Then there are Thaumetopoeidae caterpillars.. When I was a kid it was: "Look a caterpillar" not "Stay away from caterpillars! They are dangerous." How so ? Well it doesn't bite off anything it just has nasty bristles which easily break off to become airborne death threats. That is, if you breathe those bristles in. Just coming into contact with them isn't enjoyable either, resulting in rashes and pruritus.
You can see a nest, of which I have seen many today, on the image (which is also courtesy of Wikipedia).

So even turtles and caterpillars are dangerous!

Time passes quickly when days are so short. Almost 2 weeks now, since I last posted. Time for a birthday post!

Of course most days I worked - we only work when the weather is good (which is most of the time) but we also went hiking again.

Trash was to be found at many places ( there was a microwave oven in the midst of a forest...). This is just another example showing that most people here care little about nature. They are also rather trigger happy with chemicals here, which has lead to the demise of many a roaming cat here. They seem to have little respect for animals in general here. The streets contain quite a few dead hares, chickens and cats. Those things which once were animals have been driven over so often that they are little more that a thin layer on the street and it is almost impossible to figure out which animal such a thing once was..

I really should register with one of these picture sharing sites to be able to post all of the pictures. I have a few higher resolution pictures now which were taken by my uncle (no, I don't have a good camera now).

I feel older now. Not a birthday post anymore. I'll have to go to sleep now and continue soon!

Incoherence

I have been on the Balearic island called Majorca for a week now and didn't yet manage to write here. When I arrived it was getting dark already and so I just 'settled in' that day.

(if you want a google maps link where you can walk around here(in 3D) tell me via facebook, mail or some other means) The next day I started working, and did the same for the following days. Everybody has a pool around here .. kind of strange considering we aren't that far away from the sea.
On Saturday then my relatives here were going to hike with some friends and I joined them. We walked along a beach and picniced after an hour or so. Then on our way back we walked past a sun bathing topless woman(She actually had been there when we came already [maybe she thought her skin was looking to young] and greeted me[people here seem far more likely than Germans to greet] just lying differently, leaning against an old bunker and nobody seemed to notice her then. There also was a cliché-weirdo, wearing sunglasses and sitting about 15 metres away, constantly staring at her). So everybody (actually mostly the women, but not only) started complaining that there would be a nudist (FKK on German) beach nearby. Beforehand (the women) suggested that I go bathe nude in the sea... Well that much for coherence in behaviour.
Later then I checked Online - they were wrong  - that was actually the nudist part of the beach. Now I can tell everybody that I have been on a nudist beach. :D

The next day I rode an old bike to Palma - well actually almost rode through Palma!

The locals don't seem to care much about signs here. There was no sign indicating that I was in Palma and names of streets aren't given at every crossing. The only reason I stopped was because I couldn't imagine El Arenal being that huge! Then after I finally found indications that I was in Palma I got lost a bit in the streets and had to head back already because there was a storm predicted. Apparently even here people think of Bavaria when hearing Germany. They have "Oberbayern" here(meaning upper Bavaria, however this also means something like "in the deepest woods". Ober is similar in meaning to "Uber".)
It wouldn't have made much of a difference though, if the storm wouldn't have been predicted for that time, since it was getting dark at about the same time the storm came and the bike doesn't have lights etc.. so I'd have returned at about the same time no matter what.
In the end I realised I wasn't cool enough for biking .. so I cooled down somewhat:

(The wind and salty water proved quite nasty when I was close to the beach with the bike - I had red eyes when I arrived in Palma)

To be continued.

The Start

So the flight goes today. Originally I wanted to post beforehand, but in the end time somehow flew away and I still have a bit to do before I can board the plane, so I'll keep this short.

I'll have to get the last vaccination shot today, unfortunately I forgot to call the pharmacy yesterday to ensure, that they'll have the vaccine on store. I hope I am in luck, at least they said, they normally do have the vaccine and I should just call to be sure..

Then I'll still have things left to pack, for example this Laptop I am currently writing on. I decided to take it along in the end, (probably being a bad idea) which cost some extra time yesterday moving data around..
Well I'll better stop now and call the pharmacy.

I'll finish off with this image:

Translation: Tame birds sing of freedom, wild birds fly !

P.S. A small tip: you can subscribe to the RSS feed to always see when I wrote something new.

Stalkers and how they live

Among the 'bad' things that have happened to me already, one was to be stalked. Maybe it wasn't that bad in comparison - I think I got away just before it would've gotten bad. The worst that happened to me was to be held in a (public transport) bus and - well I don't remember what it was, the stalker said. I just wanted to get away.
That was also almost the last time I crossed the stalker's path. I once was under siege at home after that, but didn't really care, since the door was shut and I turned music on loud, so I didn't hear what was shouted. Then I moved away and my stalker hasn't found me since then(and hopefully has given up). I am not sure for how long I haven't been stalked now. I think it really started when I was about 18 and ended a few years later, with a short break, because I had also relocated at that time and my stalker had to catch up.

Today I heard by chance about that stalker's living conditions. Apparently the room is filled with piles of paper and this person is now incapable of heating the oven in that room, probably because of those piles of paper are in the way... From what I heard it seemed poverty had stricken.
This is all really strange because IIRC that person is a university alumnus and also sent me 2000 - I think it was €uros already - for one birthday(I didn't take the money).
That just shows how sad lives of real stalkers are. It isn't a nice experience to be stalked, but stalkers are ruining their own lives too...

Advertisements

I presume some have noticed the addition of ads.. I thought it might be a good idea as additional source of income, while I am on my way through the world. It may be just a few extra pence, but anything helps.

I am wondering though is this too much already ? I have only added Google ads so far and was considering adding an Amazon.com link too.
So, what do you think, are those ads too much already ? I prefer to not scare people away, to keeping the ads, if you think they are too annoying. Oh and I'd also like to know whether some readers would prefer to also have the posts written on German ? (Spanish may be an option for the future. :D )
Würdet ihr bevorzugen, wenn ich die gleichen Texte auch auf deutsch verfasse, statt nur englisch?