Sep 8, 2012

summer buli tour - part 2

[continued from here]

croatia was the most expected part of the trip (good weather, beaches), but after a day in krk island and a night in cres island, it started to rain.. we still were woken up by police for camping illegally another time before leaving to the istrian peninsula, where we found out the weather wasn't supposed to get better for another 3 days..

so we decided to cut our losses and head back north, where the weather wouldn't be better, but we could try to couchsurf and visit cities, instead of not enjoying beaches.. found another emergency couchsurf in rijeka and decided to leave to ljubljana in the morning..

but of course, it couldn't end there.. when we woke up, the sun was shining again.. change of weather, change of plans.. it didn't make sense to backtrack down to the south, so we went to italy instead..

we spent the day in sistiana beach, then found a river next to grado, where we made friends with 3 italians and were invited to their (parked) boat.. sat down, had some fun conversations, wine, cheese and salami..

another day on the beach in lignano riviera and it was already our last night in "the wild".. we finally made a fire by the beach, had some wine and played the guitar, until it started raining..

last day of the trip, two weeks went by so fast.. we headed to munich, where we had found another couchsurf.. went to a beer garden, had a maß, met friends from barcelona.. and that was it.. early flight to barcelona the next day..

it's incredible how far you can go with a simple "yes" (or how i like to say, a "why not?").. i mean, this one took me to at least 6 different countries this time, but more than this, with only two weeks worth of experiences, good and bad, i know i came back a different person..

i didn't take my camera this time, but there was a camcorder and with about 270 shots, there was enough material for 3 videos.. my first try at editing, and i love it, check them out (you must see all of them to get the whole experience.. and make sure you do it in HD!)..

tschüs!






summer buli tour - part 1

facebook conversation on monday, august 13th:

laura: would you be interested in doing a roadtrip?
i'm going to do a roadtrip with 2 friends and we're still looking for 2 cool people to join us.

me: actually, i am 
when, where and how?

laura: We're planning to do the trip from the 21st of August till the 7th of September
we'll start from Germany (Hannover) and want to go to South-East-Europe

me: i wanna go... if i can make it work, i'm in

...

the following day, after arranging a few details, i booked my flight to prague, to meet laura and 3 other german girls on their way..

i had a very rough idea of the plans and conditions of the trip, but that's what made me do it.. a spontaneous adventure was what i wanted, and it was an incredible experience..

i won't write about every day's experiences, or it can get boring..roughly "drive, see some place, get lost, find a place to sleep, camp, repeat".. rather, maybe i'll just talk about some interesting parts of the trip..

so six days later i was on a plane to prague, still without knowing exactly how i was going to meet the girls.. once i landed, i had a message from them, asking if i was ok to get a rideshare to dresden and meet them there instead.. why not?

i got to dresden, and after some wine by the river elbe, we slept in one of the girls' friend's place, which would be one of 4 actual flats we slept in during the whole trip (the rest was camping)..

after visiting prague and camping next to lake slapy, we found holašovice, a UNESCO world heritage village, the interesting part being their own little stonehenge, and our interesting part being a little car mishap..

while leaving the site, we backed up into another car parked behind us.. we had to find the owner, exchange insurance information, call the police (just to make sure).. also, it started to rain at this time, and we were stuck there for maybe a couple of hours.. no big deal, though..

next two days were also rainy, so one night we found a last minute couchsurf in vienna, and the next, with no good option to camp, we drove to csém, a little town in hungary, right next to the border with slovakia, and knocked on some random people's door to ask to camp in their garden (gardensurfing?).. and the first try was already successful!

after a day in budapest, we took a hitchhiker on our way to balaton lake, and camped in tihany peninsula.. next morning, we were woken up by the police, saying we we were camping in an illegal place, and we had 10 minutes to pack up and leave.. we did it with a couple of minutes to spare..

we spent the afternoon in lido beach, then we first tried to cross the border to croatia at night, and they wouldn't let us in, because the van had the headlights off for 30 seconds (!) between the EU and the croatian controls, so we went back and tried the other control, on the border with slovenia.. and we were in!

[continues here]

Sep 7, 2012

no more travels? i don't think so

i just noticed it's been 8 whole months since i've written a post here.. you'd think it's a travel blog, and since it's been quiet, it's probably because i haven't traveled all this time.. 

but HELL NO! actually, i've been traveling quite a lot this year!

firstly, after the mini winter trip i last talked about, i went to andorra, on a mostly failed mission to go snowboarding..  we were a group of 8, rented a van, an apartment and the equipment, got the weekend pass.. and then there was a snow storm and we were stuck in the flat, playing games and watching tv! but good times anyway..

in may and in july and did two quick visits to amsterdam, just for the weekends, nothing big... and with the weather much better than the first time, i could enjoy my time more properly..

and then there was the pearl jam euro tour in early july.. this one was definitely worth a few posts, but i got lazy (summer, barcelona, holidays, you know...) and never wrote about it..

in short, 4 days in berlin, 4 days in oslo, 3 days in copenhagen.. meeting old friends, making new friends, and of course, seeing my favorite band kicking ass 3 more times (14 and counting so far)!

after that, since i was already in scandinavia, a little train ride to västervik, in sweden, to spend the weekend, visit my friend and bandmate honey (yes, i have a band: THE MINUS TWO), and to play 3 gigs (one little open air festival, two in a bar)..

and when i thought it would be all for my summer, because i was both broke and out of ideas, there was this invitation for a spontaneous road trip through europe, with a van and 4 german girls.. posts to follow (summer is almost over, i'm getting back to working mode)..

meanwhile, here are some photos of the other trips.. enjoy!

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andorra

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andorra

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brandenburg gate, berlin

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in berlin, with a lithuaninan i met in paris =)

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next to blå, a bar/club in oslo

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braSil, portugal, sweden, canada, italy.. everyone in oslo to see pearl jam \m/^o^\m/

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vigelandsparken, oslo | christiania, copenhagen

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pearl jam rockin' copenhagen

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THE MINUS TWO posters in västervik

Jan 8, 2012

germany

and then there was germany, the last country in my mini winter trip.. and there's where winter got real!

i was there for 4 days, mostly with rain, and i wasn't going to stay in, so i adventured myself and got wet.. wet, cold and sick! like i said on the post about belgium, if only i knew what was about to come...

anyway, i was able to enjoy.. my couchsurfing host was great, we cooked a lot (spanish omelet, german auflauf and some sort of asian creation with western ingredients), listened to good rock and roll, talked about arts.. good times..

i wasn't adventuring myself alone.. i met another couchsurfer who hung out with me every day i was in germany.. we didn't see much of hamburg, as the day we met was the most rainy, but we did manage to see the beautiful rathaus (the town hall), the saint pauli landungsbrücken (harbor) and the mönckebergstraße (commercial area)..

next day we took a train to lübeck, 1 hour northeast of hamburg.. it is a beautiful medieval city, with a lot of gothic churches and historical buildings.. we went up saint petri's church tower for a panoramic view of the city, including a great view of the holsten gate (one of the original city gates)..

20 minutes from the city there's the borough of travemünde, a harbor town in the baltic sea.. it was 5ºC, but as soon as we arrived, the sun decided to show up for an hour, and it almost felt right to be on the beach (but not really)..

on my last night i still met a group of couchsurfers in reeperbahn, home to the hamburger red light district and center of the city's nightlife.. we saw an early music performance at a bar, and when we left the streets were (kinda) crowded.. it seemed like a great party, but i was sick and had to go home.. maybe next time..

just like in amsterdam, i had one last free morning, and the weather helped a little bit, so i could at least take some pictures.. i visited pretty much the same places as before, plus the lake binnenalster..

when i was on my way to the airport, there wasn't a single cloud in the sky, and by the time i was boarding my flight back home, the day was the most beautiful of any day of this trip..

well, i saw gorgeous places, i met amazing people, i ate great food.. we can't have it all, can we? so the bad weather was just one negative after so many positives.. it made (almost) no difference! *cough, cough! time for my medicine..


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the rathaus (town hall), hamburg

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having some auflauf with my CS hosts

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next to the lake binnenalster, hamburg | the sun (when i was leaving)

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view from the tower of saint petri's church, lübeck

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the holsten gate, lübeck

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the beach, travemünde | rain + sun, lübeck

amsterdam, netherlands

after a couple of days in belgium, the next stop was amsterdam.. and for new year's, no less!

as expected, my time there was pretty crazy.. i was hosted with 3 other great people from couchsurfing, and after a free 4-hour walking tour (given by a kiwi couchsurfer), we got home only to find people were already there for the huge CS NYE party our hostess was throwing..

well, about the party, i'm going to leave it to your imagination.. i'll just say it was.. memorable (what i remember of it, anyway!)

the weather was bad when i was in belgium, but it was a little worse in amsterdam.. still, during most of the tour, the worst it got was some intermittent light rain..

we still managed to see/walk through dam square (with the royal palace and the new church), the red light district, spui, the jewish district, nieuwmarkt, chinatown.. which is almost all i had on my 'to see' list.. all that with some interesting information and fun facts/stories given by our guide..

did you know every year around 10 thousand bicycles are removed from the canals of the city? did you know the longest bridge in amsterdam is right beside the narrowest house? did you know there's a church in the red light district (this one is pretty well known)? well, yup.

also, after the NYE party, we managed to go to the leidsplein, where the nightlife happens.. it was crowded, despite the rain.. most of the clubs and bars were charging unreasonable entrance fees, so we ended up leaving after a while.. and the battle for a taxi was a hard one (no worries, we won!)

i still had a free morning before taking the train to hamburg, and the weather helped for a couple of hours, and i could finally take some pictures.. blue skies, sun and all.. but by the time i was leaving, heavy rain and even some light hail.. crazy amsterdam..

i lost my voice there, and it didn't come back for about a week.. also, i'm pretty sure that's when i got sick (i finished the mini eurotrip with a nice cold), but still, i loved the vibe of the city, and i'll definitely be back, hopefully with some sun!

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the good old cliche shot (sorta)

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dam square: the royal palace and the new church (actually, the oldest one in amsterdam)

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church | canal

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statistics say there are 3 bikes for each amsterdammer

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street art next to the few remaining squat houses

Jan 7, 2012

belgium

so for new year's, i decided to do a mini eurotrip, going to belgium, netherlands and germany in 10 days..

following recommendations, i skipped brussels and took a train to ghent, a university city about 1 hour northwest of the capital.. the weather wasn't great, cold and windy, but if i knew how worse it would get the following days, i wouldn't have complained..

ghent is a cute city, with a very compact center.. i saw everything i planned to see in just about 2 hours walking.. the main places are the sint-baaf cathedral, sint-niklaas church, the gravensteen (a medieval castle) and the beautiful patershol district behind the castle..

the city wasn't exactly empty, there were tourists, but i heard normally it's full with students, but because of the holidays (and the exams week ahead), the locals weren't really out and about.. i went out for a beer with my couchsurfing hostess and her brother, and now i can officially say belgian white beer is the only one i actually like (so far!)..

next day i took a train to brugge, only some 30 minutes away further northwest.. the city is more well known, so there were a lot of tourists, but still, i was blown away.. it's the most beautiful city i've seen so far..

the center is also quite walkable, and the medieval streets, the canals, the gothic architecture, it's all so amazing i was walking around wearing a big, silly smile.. people must've thought i was crazy.. but oh well..

brugge has some historical places (the basilica of the holy blood, the burg square, the grote markt), but i think just getting lost and appreciating the beauty of the city is where the magic is.. there are also four windmills along one of the canals bordering the main part of the city..

when i was already tired of walking, i met another local couchsurfer for some hot chocolate (with belgian chocolate, delish!) and went to see some other parts of the town i wouldn't have discovered by myself, like this great underground beer cellar with some interesting beer labels..

i spent only two days in belgium, and it was a destination i almost skipped, but i'm glad i didn't.. i met some great people, and some of the most beautiful cities i've been to so far.. and tried good beer! it's a win-win+win!


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korenlei, ghent | ghent by night



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werregaren, awesome graffiti alley in ghent

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korenlei, ghent

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brugge

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markt square, brugge

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the begijnhof (the convent), brugge