Thursday, June 30, 2011

Boston or, just a few days to go...

I can't believe it... my year of exploring the world is nearly at an end. I have just 8 days to go before my flight to Switzerland. It makes me sad that this brilliant experience will so very soon come to an end. Enough of the sadness already though, there is enough time for stuff like this in the coming days.

After 10 days in NJ and NYC I have landed in Boston. I am here mainly because I didn't want to head straight up to Montreal from NYC. I am heading there at all because my flight to Switzerland leaves from Montreal. I am really looking forward to get back to Montreal. It's one of my favourite city's in the world!

I have to say I am having a really good time in Boston. I really like this city. The weather is great and I love the feel of this city. On my first day here I did a trail through the city called the freedom trail. It leads past buildings and places important to the independence war. To be honest I didn't care much for the history but the trail leads you through great parts of the city and is an easy way to see a fair bit of Boston.

I really love how the city manages to combine an "old town" feeling with modern city building. The thing I love most about Boston is the fact that there is a park stretching right through downtown. it's like a green belt, an oasis in the middle of the city. Somehow Boston manages not to feel like a super busy big city. Quite a change from my Manhattan experience.

At the moment I am keeping to myself. I do speak a bit with the folks that share the room with me but beside that, I don't think I have spoken to anyone in the hostel. I am doing a lot of reflecting about the past year and think a lot about my future. I guess it is finally time that I think about my future. One thing I am really looking forward to, is, getting my hands on some proper hardware to edit my pictures to a standard that I can approve of. Yes yes my pics are not bad but I can see so much potential in them. They could be so much more with the proper tools at my disposal.

I also have a little project in mind that I will tackle with a dear friend of mine. More about this when I get closer to finishing it.

just a few more posts my friends and this blog is history. Enjoy it while you can.

hugs to you all

some old building

you really can't get lost following the trail

old and new

old and new again

just old this time

old and new

bunker hill

jamestown

the skyline is not very flashy but I like it.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

NYC

Greetings from NYC

The last few days have been amazing. That is if you ignore the fact that I have been nursing the worst cold in the history of mankind. Whenever I think it's about to go away, it comes back to kick me in the nuts. And it keeps showing new moves. Fever, then running nose, then sore throat, then cough, then back to fever and running nose again, etc, etc. Still, my time here is precious and there is no time for lying around in bed.

The more I see of NYC the more I like it. Especially today was a very revealing day. I walked from Battery Park to Ground Zero, on to and over the Brooklyn bridge, through Chinatown, by little Italy and ended the day in SOHO. It was a truly epic walk and I enjoyed every moment of it.. although my feet tend to disagree.

I am starting to think that this will be a trip to see Manhattan and not NYC. I highly doubt I have enough time to see Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.. what a shame.. guess I will have to come back!

I am staying just outside of NYC though and getting to and back from NYC is always a bit of an adventure. Public transport to NJ is not really that easy to understand. There are multiple buses from multiple companies that seem to go to the same place but not the same stops at the same place. Add irregular departure times and grumpy drivers to that and you got a really confusing situation... well at least for me. So whenever I get back from NYC, I just hop on a bus that I think will take me where I need to go and see what happens. Usually I end up walking for at least 30min cause I got off to early, too late or completely in the wrong place. I kinda enjoy it though, lets me explore the area around the hotel ;).

ah I have so much more to tell.. being shown around NJ and NYC by a great guide. Seeing NYC from the window of a premium apartment on the 35th floor, tasting all kinds of different foods and more but I'd never get done with this post. So for now.. enjoy the pics.

stay cool .... and if you happen to have a job in IT in NY for me.. let me know ;)
tried to go for timless look...yay or nay?

View from Brooklyn Bridge

St.Paul Chapel, much more impressive than ground zero

no idea :D

more timelessness

id give a lot to have an appartement with a few like this

Appartement 1 Block from times squar? yes please!

View of Manhatten from Jersey City

Friday, June 17, 2011

Toronto

Hello from Clifton NJ... that is just 15min outside of NYC for all of those not so able when it comes to geography.

The last few days have seen me leave Vancouver, moving on to Toronto and eventually ending up here in Clifton. This post is about Toronto though. I wish I had lots to tell about Toronto but truth be told, I spent most of my time there in Bed. A cold put me there.. damn you evil cold! there is no time for such nonsense when I only have 3 full days in a city!

I did feel a bit better after a while though and did some exploring. Essentially I walked all over town..twice.. and spent two evenings watching hockey. Watching the Hockey sure was wasted time! Damn you Bruins! The second game I watched at Lorne's place though. I met him back in 2004 when I was in Montreal for 4 months. Was cool seeing him again! Thanks for the BBQ mate and if you are ever in the area... let me know!

Then yesterday I spent 12 hours in the bus to get to NYC. The ride was quite acceptable. If you ignore the fact that they cut every break from 30 to 15min. Something nice though was the fact that they had wireless Internet and power sockets. Really helps killing time with your gadgets and avoids them running out of power ;). I have to say, bus travel is a lot comfier than flying!

About the pictures, yes they should be cleaned up (too dark clouds, dirty skies etc.) but once again I am too lazy ;)

I hope you enjoy them anyway. NYC madness in the next few days my friends, prepare yourself!

stay cool


one of my all time favourit night shots. Moon is just in the perfect spot.

Love this building

what goes as times square in Toronto.. lets see the real deal!

the end of all days?

I don't even know what is in there

random shot but I liked the composition

wicked cool museum entrance

sunset as seen from Lorne's balcony

Sunday, June 12, 2011

last few days on the west coast

BLOG TIME!

I have made my way back to Vancouver and will depart early tomorrow morning to Toronto. I spent the last few days in Banff, Vancouver and on the road in between. To be honest I don't have that much to tell because I didn't do that much.

When I did do something it usually involved hockey and alcohol. I drank A LOT in the last few days, well for my standards that is. So much actually that I had to take a break from it a few days back just because I didn't want to spend another night drinking. I had some really good times though! I spent most of the time hanging out with Australians, Germans, English and everything in between. I met some truly great people while travelling around the Canadian west coast.

Cause I have to get up early tomorrow to catch my plane to Toronto I am not going out tonight. So instead I went to the watch a movie. I watched "Super 8". The movie was alright and I'd like to tell you a bit more about it but I think I can't really do that without spoiling the movie for people that want to go watch it. So it's not going to happen. Just this... it reminded me a lot of another movie done by Steven Spielberg... just with a slightly different twist.. anyone know which one I am talking about?

In the last few days I didn't take as much pictures as I could have and the ones I took are not on my laptop yet. So instead of posting a bunch of landscape pictures, this week I am posting pictures of people I met and me.I think they show very well how much fun I had these last few days.

yeah not really much more to say this time around.. hope to have more once I spent some time in Toronto. If not there, then for sure in the days following. I am heading out to NJ and NYC. Jep, this was not planned but I am very much looking forward to it!

oh I should also mention: HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROTHER! Hope your having a great day! see you soon dude!
as promised, a bear pic. Thanks for sending it to me James!

just chillin

fuuuuuuuuuun

ummm no comment

germans and swiss

more germans

even more germans and an australian too!

somtimes people just want to murder me...

Monday, June 6, 2011

Vancouver to Banff to Jasper and back to Banff

As promised here is the post about the happenings in the last days. Be prepared, this is going to be a big one!

(A) Whistler, (B) Vancouver, (C) Banff, (D) Jasper


Wow, where do I start? The last few days have been utterly amazing: I jumped off a bridge into 40+ meters of empty space. I saw lots of wildlife (bears, chipmunks, goats etc etc). I met a group of awesome people. I was outed as attention-whore (and lets be frank, I am). Slept at a hostel without running water, electricity or showers. I spend evenings sitting at campfires, chatting, listening to music. I saw amazing landscapes and walked a few great trails. All in all, just a great time! … oh and, we broke a bus and a picnic table... and no, its not my fault.

After my trip to Vancouver island I spent one night in Vancouver. The next morning I got picked up by my next Moose van. With the new group assembled, we headed for a two day one night stay in Whistler. On the drive there we spotted a mama-bear and two cubs right beside the road. Of course we had to stop for pics. Sadly I was always too late for pics whenever we saw a bear over the last week. Hopefully I will get sent a few so I can show you guys.

I already knew there was the possibility to Bungee Jump in Whistler and on the way up I decided to do it. Essentially I spent the next 48h nervous as hell (see post below for pics of the jump). Those of you that know me, know that I get jittery even if I have to cross a bridge like that. I am not comfortable with height.. not at all. So suffice to say, this was a big leap off faith for me (sorry for the pun). It was absolutely AWESOME though. I loved it and will do it again.. maybe.. some day ;). That was defs the highlight of my short trip to Whistler. I didn't do much else there and Whistler didn't appeal that much to me so I'll move on.

After another night in Vancouver my 10 day trip the Rockies started. This was the first time that we had a 23 people Bus. This is still quite a bit smaller than the Stray buses so it was all good. We spent the first 2 days driving from Vancouver to Banff. Sure there were a few nice spots on the way but nothing compared to what I would get to see from Banff to Jasper. Oh can't forget to mention one thing though... hot tuuuub!

After we stayed in Banff for one night, the group split up. From here on Moose offers a few different trips and according to those we split. I would go on the longest one they have to offer with 2 stops between Banff and Jasper. Boy am I glad I choose this one. The people in this group are just wonderful and great fun. If I had a wish open though, then I would want to have a few less Germans. No offense intended here! Fact is though that 8 of 11 people are German. It would be nice to have some more nationalities.

We spent our first night in the Banff National park in a Hostel in the middle of nowhere. As I mentioned, no running water, no shower, no electricity. As you might have guessed, I loved it! The next day we were supposed to stay at another hostel just like it but, well, plans suddenly changed. Why was this? Picture yourself driving through the Jasper National park.. your listing to music, just enjoying the scenery and suddenly there is a big shudder from the right back of the car.. it gets worse within seconds. The car dips a bit at the back, you look out the window and you see your right rear tire taking off into the woods. After the initial shock, everybody was laughing so hard! We were lucky that our driver reacted perfectly though. He got us to a safe stop. Good Job Shags!

Instead going to the wilderness hostel, we stayed two nights in Jasper while we waited for the car to get fixed. That day hadn't ended yet though. We got to the hostel and after all that excitement we were hungry so we got a BBQ going. When it was prepared we sat down to enjoy our meal at a picnic table, you know, the ones with attached benches. We hear a crack, and a bench breaks off. Again, everybody shaking with laughter. What a day! But we are not cursed, since then it's been smooth sailing!
We spent many hours hiking in Jasper and Banff national park and drove the street between those two a few times. The scenery here is just stunning and the bears seem to be everywhere. I think since I have been traveling with moose, I have seen at least 8-10 bears. No Grizzly yet though.

Right now I am sitting on the van on the way to a last lake near Lake Louise before we head back into Banff. I am in Banff for four nights and then head back to Vancouver. I will stay in Van for one more day and then I am flying to Toronto. In Toronto I meet up with Lorne that is a good friend I met in 2004 when I was staying in Montreal for a few months. I will tell you more about that a few days down the road though.

As you can imagine I have taken hunderts of pictures. At the moment I just have too much and can't process them all anymore. I just don't have the time. I will have to do lots of catching up when I get to Switzerland. This post I decided to do something else anyway.. in the last few months I have focused on landscape and I think although the scenery was great, the people I met made this last week so great, so this time there are mainly pics of the group and me. Please enjoy!

Blog you soon!

great place even better people

hummm I wonder where the tire went... oi shags do you know?

Chipmunk up close

unknown lake

lake louise

Mountain goats

having a good time

how a little snow can bring out the kid in people.. fascinating ;)

Wildneress Hostel in Banff national park

yes the lake really had that colour!