A Public Service Announcement to Ornithophobes

I had no idea that some authors can be so highly valued. Take, for example, the horror genre. One of the most prestigious of its representatives is surely Edgar Allan Poe, the writer of "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Raven". Now witness me walking around in the city of Wroclaw, or Breslau, as the German name is. I'm looking for the Museum of Natural History, minding my own business and what do I see, when I look suddenly behind me?

This...
...and this!

In the poem "The Raven" E.A.Poe describes a crow that says "Nevermore!" most ominously. Are they stalking me? I decide to continue, I pick up the pace a little, but not enough to catch the nice red sports cars whooshing by me almost completely ignoring the afternoon rush hour.

No chance of catching up.

I finally find the museum, but it does not console me, I can't get in! Look, there's a huge bird guarding the door! Is there no safety in this city?

No way am I going to get in under those watchful eyes!

I better head down to the river, I need to calm down. The river flows quietly. But what is that sound? Let's see, it's coming just around the corner. Here's the view from the bridge (extreme closeup, look with care):

Birds in a feeding frenzy

There is no peace in this city. I better ask the little people for help. They are known to chase away big birds. They aren't too bright, though. Here you see two of them moving a rock, by both pushing from opposite directions. They've been at it for years. The rock hasn't moved yet.

Push, push, maybe one day it will budge!
Some of the little people take it more easy, especially when one of their brethren has gotten rid of the birds.
In the nighttime, some of the little people take out their broomsticks, climb on street lights and drive the birds away.

They can apparently turn large African animals to sheets of metal, too.
Rhinos are less dangerous in this form.

After my animal adventures in Wroclaw, I'm happy to return to literature, in the safety between the pages, where anything can happen, but nothing can happen to you. That's why the horror genre is so popular. It feels dangerous, but isn't.
I never knew writers could be so highly valued. To name a whole country. Wroclaw is a big city in Poeland, you know.

Homecoming

The trip to Finland is over. We took a cargo ship from Helsinki to Travemünde and I have to say that it was a very comfortable way to travel. There wasn't much to do, but we didn't need much. We watched an episode of "Green Wing" on QualiBook and went to sauna. There was breakfast, lunch and dinner from a buffet and not too many people. Everybody had their own tables, which kept everything in order. It was excellent!

We got out of the ship around 9PM and had still over 400 km to drive. It was full moon and the pictures Virpi took with long exposure from the moving car are hilarious. Rarely can you see a stretched moon. We reached Bochum well before 2AM on Monday morning.

I've been working on the two websites. Www.Tick-the-Code.com is still very much under construction, but I've also made (invisible) changes to www.qualiteers.com.