Archive for May, 2009
The world's weirdest hotels – Telegraph
Das Park Hotel, Linz, Austria
Who would have thought concrete could be comfy? These renovated sewage pipes are, thankfully, clean and functional and sit on the banks of the Danube, making them a perfect post-industrial bolt hole.
Capsule Hotel, The Hague, Netherlands
Unusual but indestructible, these orange “survival pods” were previously used on oil rig platforms and can be floated in different locations. A James Bond version boasts a DVD player and a Martini-making set.
Albania Standard of Living in 1980's
In the late 1980s, the average pay for an Albanian worker was about US$89 to US$104 monthly at the official exchange rate of US$1 to L6.75. The government supplemented low incomes by annually allocating about 25 percent of the annual budget, about L4,000 (US$595) for each family, to the population’s cultural and social needs, including everything from price subsidies for necessities like children’s clothing to library construction. The state provided free education and health care and absorbed 65 percent of tuition for day care and kindergarten and 18 to 35 percent of the cost of meals in worker cafeterias.
Alfred Moisiu – Wikipedia
Moisiu was the main architect of the bunkerisation of Albania. He was appointed by Enver Hoxha to fill Albania with bunkers, a legacy that Albania has until today.
Quando il bunker diventa colorato
Ma musica è cambiata ma siccome costa un sacco di soldi toglierli allora la gente che si è inventata? Li usa. Eccone uno fra i più grandi sulla spiaggia di Durazzo: tutto colorato è diventato un piccolo pub dove la sera i giovani accorrono per bere una birra. E’ una foto altamente significativa dell’Albania che cambia e anche un gridolino di speranza per tutti i bunker, fisici e virtuali, del mondo (e ce ne sono ancora tanti). Basta una spruzzatina di colori e il monumento alla guerra diventa un luogo addirittura di festa.
From Nazi Bunker to Artistic Haven
The 3,000-square-meter interior space, which once sheltered 2,000 people from flying bombs, now holds 80 contemporary works by artists.
Zero stars: The Null Stern Hotel in Sevelen, Switzerland, offers basic accomodation in converted nuclear bunker for £6 per night | The Sun |News
BEDS are on offer for just £6 a night at the world’s first zero-star hotel – based in a converted NUCLEAR BUNKER.
BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | Philosophy and recycling in Albania
The story is told – standing on top of the rubbish heap – matter-of-factly, with no hint of bitterness. It is one of the remarkable things about Albania and many other societies that have endured years of tyranny.
It is as if people are often just glad to have survived; there is no time for looking back or settling old scores.
via BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | Philosophy and recycling in Albania.
More Soviet Prison, Handcuffs are included in the room rate, sir | Travel | The Observer
Wrong. No comforts are laid on, at all. This ‘hotel’ proudly bills itself as ‘unfriendly, unheated, uncomfortable and open all year round’. But that’s the point. A stay here is reality tourism writ large, a chance to experience at first hand (albeit handcuffed for part of the time) the brutal, degrading regime of a damp, rotting red-bricked naval jail built in 1905 to house the czar’s mutinous sailors. New management took over in the 1970s: the KGB.
via Handcuffs are included in the room rate, sir | Travel | The Observer.
