What does it do, you say? Well it enables you to simply send an MMS message from your phone to a contact in your address book called Škljoc and the photo will be automatically uploaded to your Facebook wall in a few moments. Then your friends can marvel at the sight of the squirrel that just grabbed your nuts*, for example. Couldn’t be simpler.

So just add the Facebook app, Škljoc will send the contact to your address book and you’re good to go. It’s free, which means we don’t charge you anything, apart from the MMS that your mobile operator charges you (or not if you have that sort of a deal). The only catch is that it only works with Slovenian numbers at the moment.

Try it out if you like the concept, let me know how you feel about the app.

*This blog does not condone squirrel abuse, even if you must, please keep your nuts and squirrels private.

I started off at Mobitel where I was a subscriber since the I started using a cell phone (apart from a short stint at Vega), but I had to change subscriptions due to a change in packages. I’m an iPhone user so good data rates and bandwidth are important to me.

The Simobil fiasco

So I tried Simobil, as they had slightly lower prices and the majority of my friends were there. Network coverage was a bit worse, as were the mobile internet speeds, but nothing that I couldn’t tolerate with the lower prices. But shortly after I left Mobitel, they introduced new plans for students which equated the ones at Simobil and even bested them in terms of included data (1GB per month is plenty). The price incentive was gone, but why change for something that similar. Then I went abroad for two weeks. I took care to check out the data rates for the Netherlands and Belgium, seeing how they were waaaay to high, I opted for a package with which I bought 10MB in advance as I knew I’m going to use at least that much. I took care to always check out the used bandwidth statistics on my phone when using the data. In the whole time I went a bit over the quota, but still bearable by my calculations. Home a few weeks later, I get a bill for 180€ which of course included a lot more data than what I had used according to my statistics. Of course I complained to Simobil, first by e-mail, then when that proved fruitless, by snail mail, with no avail. At every part of the process the support staff were completely unhelpful, they didn’t bother to present any more proof beside the bill with the listing that I got at first. No logs, no bills from abroad, their own statistics, nothing. At every step of the way the basically just kept repeating that my request  for more information cannot be granted and to pay the bill. The signatories on the support responses kept changing but none of them would produce any new information. In the end I had no choice but to give in as any legal course would take a lot more of my time and nerves and they are not worth it. But to this day, I get all riled up if someone asks me about my opinion regarding Simobil. I cannot stress enough that I don’t recommend Simobil to anyone, if for nothing else, because of the sheer incompetence and arrogance they displayed in my dealings with them.

T-2 fail

T-2 are new as a mobile operator, but they are already my ISP for my home fiber internet connection. While they are mostly great in that regard, their mobile operator side is a completely different story. The subscription per month is only 4€, so incredibly cheap that I had to try what’s it all about. I knew that their network is only 3G, they have only a few central areas covered, but in the rest of the country, the network is provided by contract by Mobitel. The catch is that you can’t get any data apart from calls and SMSes when hosting on Mobitel’s network. I could almost live with that if the signal wouldn’t keep dropping in buildings even in areas that are supposed to be well covered. Apart from that constant switching which had a extremely detrimental effect on my phone’s battery and my nerves, MMS sending to multiple recipients wouldn’t work and I constantly wouldn’t get SMSes sent to me. Sometimes they appeared later on during one of the switches to Mobitel’s network. Anyway, it was a complete technical fail and I gladly escaped after only a month and a half.

Mobitel

So now I’m back at Mobitel, which turned out to be the only decent mobile operator suited to my needs in Slovenia. It’s only been a bit more than a month since I’m back but so far the experience has been good. Recently we went hiking to Stol, a mountain just a bit over 2000m in altitude. With surprise I noticed a good 3G signal and decided to do a speed test. Here’s what I got:

Mobile bandwidth Speedtest on iPhone at the altitude of 2236m.

The view from Stol, the very same place where the test was conducted. Line of sight is pretty good.

Disclaimer: this post isn’t sponsored by anyone, nor do I own any stock in the mentioned companies. My main motivation is solely the utter contempt I feel toward Simobil and T-2’s mobile operations.

Moldovan government and the main square in Chisinau. A new liberal coalition was just forming when we got there, just after the second round of elections where the communists (in name only) lost.

The main church of Moldova, right vis-a-vis the government. The great majority of the country is Christian orthodox and on weekends, this square is full of newlyweds.

Selling cheese at the truly vibrant market of Chisinau.

Plenty of vegetables at the market as well, people from all around come to sell.

You can get a really nice quick lunch for a Euro or two.

Main boulevard, nice and clean, with electric buses which have been here for decades.

Mixing old with the new. Post office in front.

The boards and Lonely Planet were promising a lake full of swimmers, rowers...

...what you get is not quite as advertised. The lake was polluted and emptied a few years ago.

That lead to a certain level of frustration. Let's hope they fill it up again soon. Are you listening, new government?

Exploring the city, while using some quirky optical illusion. Or is that supposed to be a national symbol?

Partying at night with friends from Moldova. Clubs are pretty awesome, relaxed and always with something going on.

The gobnik/čefur cultural elements seem to be amazingly internationalised.

Our hotel room, pretty good for 18€/night. And that's only half of it, there's another bed and a large fridge on the other side.

Moldova has wine of incredible quality at laughable prices. Of course that warranted a visit to Milesti Mici, a famous winery with 170 km of underground tunnels. Wine tasting & debate with a friendly Russian with dubious stories is mandatory.

World War II memorial with honorary guard scorching in the sun. Every 15 minutes another guard comes to wipe the sweat from their foreheads as they stand still.

Memorial to the soldiers who died in the war Afghanistan. The previous one, back when the USA were sponsoring the Taliban and Soviets fighting (occupying) them. Oh my, how the tables have turned.

A Soviet-era jet. They didn't leave the keys in, I checked.

Yes, iPhone is available in Moldavia while we in Slovenia still wait. In fact Orange has their most modern 3G mobile network there.

Orhei Vechi, monasteries carved in stone next to a river meander.

The dwellings of an orthodox monk.

The dwellings of goats.

If you ever wondered, cows indeed are fond of bananas.

Spectacular views.

Fishing old school, like with phishing, they also use the nets.

Wandering off on the green fields.

The friendliness of our Moldovan friends really cannot be overstated.

Oh but there is more…

The body will most likely have its constitutive meeting on 4 November, one day after being formally announced by President Barack Obama and Jose Manuel Barroso during the EU-US summit due to take place in Washington.

From the EU commission side, the energy council is set to include the commissioner for energy, Andris Piebalgs, the commissioner for external relations, Benita Fererro-Waldner, and the commissioner for science and research, Janez Potocnik. The EU’s top diplomat, Javier Solana, as well as Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt and energy minister Maud Olofsson on behalf of the EU presidency will round up the European delegation.

The US side will be represented by secretary of state Hillary Clinton and the secretary for energy, who also has science and research in his portfolio, Steven Chu.

Source EU Observer – New EU-US energy council to be set up early November

While I understand the underlying historic an political reasons for this approach, it still doesn’t bode well in terms of expected efficiency.

I won’t get into any more detailed descriptions and rather give you some photos which you’ve been clamoring for.

Bucarest, Romania

Passage in the centre of Bucarest, home of numerous middle eastern coffe & nargile places, thus a nice chillout place.

How a city as large and as important doesn't manage to get it's electricity cables underground is beyond me. It's like this all over the place.

Police union on strike in front of the Romanian Ministry of interior (ex-communist central commitee building). Who's watching the police when they go on strike. Well the gendarmerie of course.

Currency exchange at the Bucarest train station ripping off IBM's logo. You'd trust IBM with your money why not us? Or is it more like: "We only rip off the big guys!"?

What Ceaucescu lacked in taste and compassion he certainly made up in scale.

Conversations beyond what this blog is able to handle.

Impersonating the Japanese at the location of Ceaucescu's last pre-shotinthehead speech.

EU seems to be promoting marijuana together with Pepsi in Romania. Strange bedfellows.

- Tomatos 0.20 €/kg
- Watermellons 0.15 €/kg
- Box of ciggarets 0.5 €, Marlboro 0.7 €

You get the picture. We did some more walking around seeing a Jewish synagogue (there used to be a lot more of those before WWII) where we put on the black cap and took a quick peek at the Toras. Lonely Planet told us of a lake in the north of the city with locals swimming, rowing, enjoying all kinds of recreational facilities… Yeah right, all that was leftt was a bush covered valley. They dried it up 3 years ago due to water pollution when all the fish suddenly went belly up.
All that was left was to observe the natural beauties of Chisinau which comprise of the incredible greenery of the city but mainly its’ female inhabitants. A quick nap, shower and we were ready for nightlife. We met with Elena who Ivor knew from a conference and her friend Tea. We hit it off splendidly right from the start and proceeded to a great night cruising the city’s bars and clubs…

Saturday, 1. August 2009:
Still in Bucarest, previous night and the hardships of travel took a toll, extending our sleep almost until the early afternoon. We managed all the necesseties, grabbed a coffee at a bar full of locals. They could easily tell we were tourists. You might think that the cameras, Lonely Planet guide, lack of knowledge of the Romanian language or our inquisitive looks were a giveaway. No. We were the only ones not drinking alcoholic beverages at 12.00.
We split up with Jan and Ivor going to the national history museum, where, according to them, practically all the items were replicas and the biggest attraction was the massive neoclassical building the museum was housed in. Sanjin and I went to the Ceaucescu’s Palace of the people, where we first started with the part housing the Contemporary art museum. Since we didn’t get the right entrance right away we had to take a 5-10 minute walk to the other entrance. Yeah, it’s THAT big. The museum itself turned out to be a dismal experience for the most part, much of it comprising of 50-something year old “artists” discovering Photoshop for the very first time believing they have something to offer. While that might be just fine otherwise, the problem is that they are embraced by the “artistic establishment” and hosted in galleries accros Europe. There were some rare gems though in this sea of self-congratulating manure. Rare.
The teracce cafe on the top revealed the true vastness of the palace estate in the heart of Bucarest and the slight chlorine aftertaste of the Romanian filled Kinely Tonic. My outpouring of criticsm might not have gotten that message through but the visit was quite an entertaining experience in whole.
We signed up for a guided tour on the other side if the palace where the parliament is housed, but we were running a bit late, which we could not afford since it was the last one that day. We therefore took a taxi which brought us to the other side of the building. Crazy, I know. Ivor & Jan were already there, the guide led us through the tour. Just a few facts, read the rest on Wikipedia. 4 billion $ to complete, 10% still not finished, all the materials had to be from Romania, 400 architects worked on it, already falling apart in some areas due to shoddy work, maintenance, a looot of houses destroyed to build the boulevard in front of it, second largest building in volume – after Pentagon…
After that we met with Flavia once more, slowly got to the bus station where we booked a trip to Chisinau. It costs 65 Romanian Lei or 20 € (it’s a bit more in Euros) and takes app. from 20.00 to 7.00 in the morning to get there. It was a bit hot on the way, mostly because of the low powered air conditioning, but also because of the beautiful ladies which seemed to all have found a way on our bus (more on the reasons in later posts). The guessing which one of them might be a lady of the night during the stops, combined with tech/political/phillosophical debates during the drive kept us entertained throughout the journey. Black humor helped us during the unnecessarily long but otherwise uneventful border procedure. In the morning we discovered how wrong our preconceptions about Moldova really were, but more on that next time. Don’t you just loooove cliffhangers?

I can’t yet add the photos whch aren’t on my phone, so you’ll have to live just with the sushi photo for the time being.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. We started our joint trip by gathering in Ljubljana this thursday morning, then travelling by car to Belgrade. We met up with Ivor’s girlfriend there, chatted a bit with her family in their apartment, left the car there and headed for the train station in full gear, meaning sweating our backs on backpacks in the scorching summer sun. I fueled up with a ham & cheese filled čevapčič on a loaf. Now really, who’s bright idea was it to put ham in minced meat? Meat inside more meat. That only makes sense sexually.
Later we procured some rations for the long train ride to Bucarest. We chated up a friendly conductor and by proxy quickly got into the sleeping cart at half the price. Some nice words and bribery will get you a long way.
After passing the rather picturesque and sunflower-filled fields of Vojvodina, we’re at the point where this writing meets present time. Rushing along star lit, urine wetted Romanian rails, hoping to wake up in Bucarest the following morning.