Hey folks!

Long time since my last blog entry. To be honest,  i decided to just write blog entries from now if something really special happened or when i am abroad somewhere in this world.

SO - the current reason for a blog entry is qando, the new public transportation app for Vienna and and its surrounding regions. qando was one of the main parts of my recently finished thesis and i am really proud of what happened in the last days!

qando was after 2 days on the first place in the austrian appstore’s 25 - top free.

In the last months i was working for Fluidtime Data Services GmbH in Vienna. They supported me with my thesis an gave me the chance to develop an iPhone application based on a powerfull webservice they have produced. I can not go more in detail because its sort of an industrial secret, nda and stuff like that - you guys know what i mean ;-). But it was definitly an application which totally fits to the aim of my thesis.

What is qando?

You can calculate a certain route from one address or special bus-, tram- or metro-station within vienna or the “VOR” region (VOR is the public transportation organisation of the eastern part of austria) to another place. As result you can see a calculated route which shows you exactly where and when you have to switch lines, busses, trains, metros and even nightbuses or if you have to call a taxi. A Realtime Feature shows you the remaining minutes you have to wait for a certain vehicle within vienna. For example: If its raining you can wait inside your flat until the realtime feature tells you that the next bus is coming in 3 minutes then dress up, put on you dirty shoes and catch the bus ;-). You can store all those selected routes and realtime queries under your personal favourites. Even more features are available! But now enough - my english is too bad to go more in detail. Get more (german) details under www.qando.at.

qando is not just availble  for the iPhone! You can use it on every common phone which supports java, on blackberries and even on windows mobile phones (it looks actually not like a Windows 98 application ;-)) - just download it under www.qando.at or from your mobile phone from m.qando.at

Over christmas i went home to austria for 2 weeks to celebrate christmas with my family and new years eve with my friends. I really enjoyed it instead of being punched together in crowded bars in amsterdam like last year.

This weekend my sister dani and her flatmate florence visited me here in amsterdam. On friday i picked up my sister at the trainstation an brang her to our official, postponed Nulaz christmas party at michiels (one of my bosses) place. There was lots of dutch, french and swiss cheese, spanish tortillia, chiniese shushi, austrian kaiserschmarrn and much more international stuff to beat.

Next day, btw it was i think the coldest day since i am here in amsterdam, my sister and me tried to do some sightseeing. After 2 hours we gave up because it was definitly to cold. So we drank a view beers and waited for flo, my sisters flatmate from switzerland. After picking her up and some italian dinner we went to some bars to get some fun. The annoying thing in amsterdam is that if there is no official party in one of the big clubs, everthing is closed after 4 am. We found a small bar just around the corner at rembrandtplein which was actually a black gay bar :-O and ended up there.

Next day we finally did some sightseeing and at the evening we had some special dutch dinner with stamped potato and meatballs - heavy stuff!! Even on this sunday evening we managed to go out up to 4 o’clock in the morning - crazy swiss people! Of course i missed to come to work at a proper time the next day :-P.

Anyway it was a very nice weekend and i am looking forward to the next weekend.

Last weekend i visited my father in frankfurt germany. I took the ICE highspeedtrain which is quite expensive if you ask at the trainstation in amsterdam. They recomended me a ticket for 168 euros :-O. Which was definetly too expensive. So i asked a german guy on the boat and e voila’. I got a special german trainticket via bahn.de for 120 euros.

The combination of old buildings and new skyscrappers in frankfurt looks really amazing. Also the christmas market in frankurt is indeed to recommend. See some pictures:

I just added a short rollover of our awesome scandinavian trip to youtube. Check it out:

The last 2 weeks have been just awesome. First Mandi, Olli and Mike visited me in amsterdam. “We” had a lot of fun checking out nightlife, eating ICS Nudln on the boat and not going to clubs :P. On friday evening we went by plane to Stockholm and checked in a pretty good hostel (IYHF - Friedhemsplan). We had a room for our own and also a flatscreen. In the evening nina and andi came to stockhom and joined us for going out. We went to a club called “Snaps” where we got our first expereiences with swedish girls - of course just staring at them ;-).

After wasting ourselfes we tried to smuggle nina and andi into our hostel because the last train back to their hometown was around midnight. But the guy at the reception caught us and kicked the girls out after 2 hours sleeping in the lobby. He was actually a nice guy but the boss of the hostel saw us trying to smuggle them in our into the hostel and so they had to go to the trainstation to wait for their bus to Västeras, which was our next destination on the trip.

After one day sightseeing in Stockholm and visiting the Vasa Museum (again:P) and Absolute Icebar we took the train to Västeras. Andrea picked us up and brought us to their studentflat where we spent the next 4 days. We had a lot of fun with playing cards, preparing Marshmallows on perfumed candles and walking around in this not really busy but nice city. We also went to the Skybar which was on the roof of the highest building of the city (nice nightview over the city).

One day we went to a city called Örebrö, probably just because of the name :-P. But anyway there was a nice Castle to look at and a coffehouse to drink a cup of coffee.

Next Day in the evening we packed our backpacks and went back to stockholm. Target: Vikingline Ferry Terminal. We took the Night(Party)ferry to Turku. Actually it was not really the most crowded partyferry in the shipline but we had fun. especially Mr. Jägermeister Mike. No comments about that. I was really surprised about the Boatband. They were like 9 people performing some old fashion songs on a small Karaoke stage.
We really appreciated the toll free shop on the boat which offered cheap prices for drinks and spirits. After lot of dancing and discussing with some weird finish guys we had a sort of after midnight dinner in front of our cabin(thx girls for offering us a table :P).

Next day - in the early grey morning we picked the train from turku to tampere. As i could remember turku wasn’t that great in my previous trip last year, so we went further to visit Stoni the “wulf” stoaprenner. He is currently doing his erasmus semester in tampere an he offered for all of us a place to sleep.

After a short nap in the afternoon we started to prepare for party. Stonis flat is quite big so we could all fit together in his kitchen to play some drinking games. About midnight most of the students tried to pick the last bus to citycentre. I never saw so many erasmus students crowded together.

Next day we tried to make some serious sightseeing but the shiddy weather forced us to eat some serious food at Golden Rax Pizza food. This All you can eat Pizza Buffet is famous in finland for getting really full and exhausted of eating.

The last evening we decided to relax and stay at home to celebrate a kind of pyjama party and watching a Bud Spencer and Terence Hill Movie.
The last day we spent in Helsinki where we had to say goodbye :-(. The girls went back by ferry back to sweden, the boys back to austria and myself back to amsterdam and back to reality.

I really look forward to a reunion with this guys for christmas. Thank you Andi and Nina for living four days at your place! Thank you olli, Mandi and Steed for visiting me in amsterdam and joining the trip, thank you stoni (wulf) for offering an accomodation in you flat and thank all of you for this awesome trip.

PS: Mandi already made a slideshow about this trip. See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gMuVrjmAgg/. My video will be ready soon - i hope so.