The end

This is it my friends... the last post on the blog.

What an epic journey the last year was. I can't even start to describe how great it was. I have experienced so many things, met so many new friends and just had a blast. If you ask me what my highlights were, I would be hard pressed to give you an answer. I was about to make a list of a few but to be honest there are just too many to list and I would probably forget about half. Many people I met asked me if I had a favourite place, a country I enjoyed most. So far my answer has always been Japan but I think each and every country, every city or town I visited had it's own unique and great experiences. Some places I loved for the people I met, some for the nature, some for the vibe of the cities and some for a million other reasons.

I am so grateful for every day I had and I will cherish each and every one of them until the day I die. I am sure I will bore my grand kids with stories of this trip. I'm sure my relatives don't realize yet but this trip will be all I will talk about for a long time to come... sorry about that folks ;)

It feels like I left Switzerland just yesterday. I am pretty sure this is a good sign. Actually I would love nothing more than to leave Switzerland tomorrow and do it all again.. but then again, there are so many more places I want to visit. I think I caught the travel bug. Will I do something like this again? I don't know, only time will tell. Right now I am focused on finding a job and getting back to earn some money. Once the cash flow is established again, I am sure I will start saving again... maybe for another big trip eh?

You might wonder; "Simon do you feel different now? Do you think you changed?" To be honest, I don't feel like I have. Sure I have more experience than before but I think overall I am the same person. Although, I might not have noticed... I guess my friends and relatives will tell me a few weeks down the line.

I posted 88 times in the last year and had an overall of over 6500 unique hits. I wanted to say thanks to everybody that stopped by on my blog. Without you all stopping by, this would have been a rather pointless endeavour. I am glad you came along for the ride for a little bit.

Just because I discontinue this blog, doesn't mean I will never blog again. I have plans to establish a photography blog but how, when and where are things I still have to think over. I will let you all know once the plans are solid. I still have lots to learn in that department (photography that is). Especially the post processing is something I will have to look deeper into.. sadly my netbook is not good enough for this and I will have to wait till I get a better computer before I can get serious about it. The lines are open, donations are now accepted :-p

One last thing, a big thank you to everybody I met. You all made this journey so great. Without the people I met all over the world this trip would have been rather dull. I hope to meet you all again somewhere, someday. If you ever pass through Switzerland, do let me know, you are always welcome to crash at my place!

I close with the words that inspired me to do this trip at all:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain

so long and thanks for all the fish

This is it....

montreal skyline

.... the end my friends... or nearly. At least I can tell you this, this is my last post from abroad. I am not quite done with my blog just yet. I have a post or two planned when I am back in Switzerland. I want to reflect on my last year and stuff like that.

Right now I am a bit more than 24h away from the end of my trip. It makes me sad to think about it. I thought I would leave Montreal on thursday and not tomorrow.. then I got told that I am wrong and I am leaving tomorrow... I don't know why but that made me really depressed. I know it's silly because it's only a day less. But still it's true. btw, thanks for reminding me that I am flying on the 6th.. you know who you are :D

In the last few days I have been walking around Montreal, went to see the Jazz festival and spent lots n lots of time just sitting in the park, reading and enjoying the sun. You might think I am wasting my last few days but as you might know, I have been here twice before and I really enjoy not doing much at the moment. I enjoy living the easy life in this great city.

so no more time wasting with blogging, time to go out and enjoy the weather. I promise there is a lot of text coming in the next post or two. If you don't intend to stick around for that, thanks for reading my blog over the last year. Whereever I met you, whoever you are, I hope to see you again!

stay fresh

Random painted house near rue St.Deniz

the famous tam tam in Parc Mont Royal

another view of the city

big church?

big house?

nice house!

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.

NYC in pictures

no words, just pictures

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

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!

Vancouver Island

I send you greetings from the nicest hostel I have ever stayed at. I am at the moment in Whistler and the hostel is really nice... but enough of that, it's time to tell you all what has happened in the last few days and that doesn't include Whistler just yet. I wanted to post all this yesterday but the Internet at the hostel in Vancouver sucked major donkey ass.. yes that bad.. so with one day delay, here is the newest info on my travels.....

The last few days involved big trees, beautiful cost lines, an island, and lots n lots of rain.

My travels took me far a 3 night stay on Vancouver island. On the first day we (6 other travellers and me) drove to Ucluelet (B) where we stayed for two nights. Then we went on to Victoria (C) which is actually the capital of BC.. bet you didn't know that! After one night there we headed back to Vancouver (D).

How was Vancouver island? As mentioned above, really rainy but overall really beautiful. Some in the group went whale watching, some went to explore Tofino and some went canoeing. Me? I went for a little 3 hour hike on the wild pacific trail. I am so glad I made that decision. The Trail leads right along the coast and the views were just stunning (see below). I can't believe the Moose driver didn't mention the trail when he told us what there is to do around our accommodation.

Victoria was not that exciting.. sure it had a few nice houses but well.. meh! I Spent the day I had there with walking around and soaking up the sun. Oh yes, forgot to mention that the weather got better n better. The highlight was definitely eating dinner at ReBar. Probably the best vegetarian meal I ever had! And don't get me started on the strawberry rhubarb pie... yummy!

We then left the island again and I enjoyed Vancouver for a night before I started my journey to Whistler today. I have been travelling with Moose Travel for a few days now and I am not totally won over yet. I love the fact that the buses and groups are a lot smaller than when I travelled with Stray in NZ. But still, I am still a bit sceptic. I can't really say why exactly but it just doesn't feel right yet.. Maybe this is because I have been travelling in near total solitude in Alaska. I can probably tell you more in a few days :)

I guess that's all for now.. as always enjoy the pictures and thank you for coming back here every now to see what I have been up to! I appreciate to see that the blog is actually read.

stay happy!

Part of a Totem... or whatever you want it to be

wild pacific coast

more wild pacific coast

big trees...

A storm is coming

I just loved sitting here, watching the waves crashing against the rocks

a big hotel in Victoria

Parlament building or something ;)