The highlight of this year has been the trip to Japan. 9 days, intense, Japanese-tourist-style ;). Below is a slideshow of selected (269) pictures. For the story that goes with them, you’d have to check the Romanian blog, here. I won’t take the time to translate them, it’s too much, took me a year to…
In the attempt to get things here up-to-date, here’s a quick look at the winter season 2008/9. Nothing much happened, except work and skiing week-ends. I re-visited some places I’d been before, and tried out some new ones. In short chronological order: I ended 2008 with a trip to Zermatt, to see the Matterhorn, a…
I spent only one day in Bucharest, so there was not much time for pictures. But, since I passed the Athenaeum anyway, couldn’t help taking a piktcha. Or 2. By the way, a story I heard from a friend – on holidays in Switzerland, they stayed at Hotel Ibis. They had pictures on the walls…
August 2008 The “Pro Etnica” festival I stumbled upon in Sighişoara is a fine thing. Most minorities in Romania send artists who perform on a scene in the main square of the medieval citadel, songs, dances and what not. The crowd is not as big and crazy like at the medieval festival, creating a very…
August 2008 Constrasting with the crowded capital, always in a hurry and pointedly materialistic, a oasis of beauty and color, with historic and spiritual focus, but without losing the atmosphere and energy of an “important city” – that is Krakow for Poland, and that is Braşov for România. I’m pleasantly impressed by Braşov (read: Brashov,…
July 2008 A small city lost in the Transylvanian hills, on the road from Târgu Mureş to Turda-Cluj, Luduş is completely off the touristic track. Even for Romanians – as for foreigners, I don’t know if you need more than two hands to count foreign tourists who’ve evere been there. But for those related in…
I had very few images about Turda in my head. Knew that it has some chemical industry, a football team that won once the Romanian cup while playing in 2nd league, that it was an old roman city, and – that was about it. My cousin told me about the thermal baths, and then I…
July 2008 Unlike Sighişoara, Târgu Mureş doesn’t have, at least in my books, too much of a “touristic” conotation. Top of mind I know only about the medicine univesity, and picture many blocks of flats. That is, till yesterday. You can’t cover much in any city during a one-hour stay. Still, I think we covered…
The mini-series on Romania was born out of the question that bugged me during the Northern trip: “how does all this compare to what we have at home?” In short, if you look at size, architecture, importance in European history, it doesn’t. We don’t have anything like the urban architecture of the city of Tallinn,…
For those interested, some logistic details of the northern trip, never know when they can be useful. Accomodation I stayed in hostels, with 2 exceptions, when I reserved lastminute and didnt find any beds in hostels. Most reservations were made through hostelworld.com, one through booking.com and one through hotels.com. I recommend reserving beforehand. If not…
8/9 august Maybe it’s better that I missed the train. It would have been an 18 hours ride, no sleeping wagon. Would have gone mad. Nevertheless, at the moment I was very frustrated. Had thought the train is at 22:54, but it was 22:45. I checked on the way to the train station, at 22:44.…
7 august I had thought of various titles for this post, but after being there I felt there is no room for any metaphor, or any subtlety. Yes, we all know the story. Nazis killed ~6 million Jews and other nationalities in concentration camps during world war 2. Problem is, we cannot think in numbers.…
Aug 7th, 2008 In the movie “The Terminal”, Tom Hanks plays a Polish man who gets blocked in an airport terminal because in his country a separatist group declares independence of the “Republic of Krakozhia”, with guns and turbulences. I still don’t get it. Is it a joke on the Polacks? If it is, I…
Aug 5th, 2008 Expectations and “first contact” were pretty grey, but changed radically as soon as I left the hostel. I had no idea where I was, so I went to the right, where the Medias-fan at the hostel told me that i would find tourist info. And up the street it was – wow.…
Aug 5, 2008 Scandinavia is no adventure. Not even the Baltix are an adventure. Arriving at 6am, after a torturing night in the bus, to an unknown place, suburb-looking, where almost everything is closed, nobody speaks any language you might understand, the local language has nothing to do with anything that might sound familiar, you…
Aug 4th 2008, 09:00 I’m in the Eurolines bus Riga-Vilnius, and have wireless internet. I can’t imagine how that works, but it works. I have no idea what to expect in/from Vilnius. I have heard nothing about the town, except for the football team Jalghiris Vilnius, which sounds like something industrial, i picture “grey”. The…
Aug 3 First impressions of Latvia were Finlandlike: lakes and forests. At least that’s as much I could see from the bus, when waking up just before arriving in Riga. First surprise, in the bus station – i can’t draw money, from 2 different cash machines. Hm. It’s raining. Maybe that’s why people on streets…
Aug 2 The day started leftfooted. Couldnt fall asleep last night, so woke up late, credit card machine at the hotel didnt work, so i lost 10 vital minutes, ultimately i reached the harbor at 7:31, the boat was at 7:30. So I had to wait for the boat at 9am to finally cross the…
August 1 The 1000 lakes are actually more than 180000 (one hundred and eighty thousand!), and this morning i didnt know what to do with them. There i was in the middle of Karelia, the Lake District, and i wndt have liked to leave without checking them out, at least a little. One option was…
July 31 I dont know exactly why i expected this trip with so much excitement. Maybe because it’s “off the beaten path”, maybe because everything is “on the edge” and has to work perfectly within narrow margins for it to happen, donno, but i was bursting with excitement. Train was at 7:15am. Well, yeah, had…
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