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

A Taste of Canada

Welcome back!

I send you warm greetings from Vancouver. I have left Anchorage and Alaska two nights ago and now wait for my travel around Canada to begin. The Bus will pick me up tomorrow morning. Can't wait! First leg of the trip will be over to Vancouver Island. Everybody that knew I was going to Vancouver and knew this region, told that I absolutely have to go to Vancouver Island and spoke of it like it's the greatest place in the world... we shall see! After Vancouver Island it's back to Vancouver for one night and further on to Whistler.


I really like Vancouver so far. Not the best city I have seen on my trip but is quite a sight. I am eager to get back into nature again though!

What else? not much really, I haven't had that many exciting adventures in the last few days. I wanted to postpone this post till later tonight or tomorrow but a) the Canucks play in the conference finals tonight and I expect to be too drunk to post later tonight and b) I don't want to spend my first evening on my moose trip hiding behind my laptop... If the Canucks win though, prepare for some epic pictures.

Speaking of pictures. I was planning to post more today but I just wasn't happy with the results I got of most of them so you will have to do with the few that are here.

On a side note, I have started applying for jobs in Switzerland, a sure sign the end of my trip is coming ever so closer :(.. better enjoy the hell out of my last few weeks!

till soon my friends!

Vancouver Skyline

Skyline Vancouver

Gastown

More Gastown

and then some

Exploring Oahu

Aloha

First of let me say two things; I am sorry for the delay of my post and sorry for the "not up to the standard" pictures. I have been on the road more or less all of the last 7 days. I had tons of fun and met many great people but sadly that made me loose focus on my photography.

There are many problems in the pictures I am posting this week. Some are generated during my post processing and I am just too lazy right now to remove those, others are just plain beginner's mistakes. I didn't focus on composition and made silly focus and exposure mistakes. Alsoooo I guess sometimes you just have the magic and sometimes you don't. I will just keep working on my photography and I am sure I will make further progress ( I hope).
Don't judge me for my laziness. After all this blog post took me well over 75min.

What have I been up to that distracted me from blogging and photography? Simple question, simple answer. I have been road trippin all over Oahu and met up with my buddy Francis. I can't tell you how awesome it was to see a face from back home. Let's just say somebody was very confused when he got to the hostel and got hugged out of nowhere by a strange tattooed guy. It's so great to catch up with him and exchange stories from the last few months.

On the downside.. and yes (sorry francis) there is a down side. I can't do what I want anymore. I can't be as spontaneous anymore, as I used to be during the last few months. But hey, I can do just that, in just over a week. For now, travelling with Franics is the best.

What were we up to? We signed up for a few tours organized by the hostel. These were very cool. They took us all over the island with a merry band of people. We had so much fun ( I am just going to speak for us both here). Essentially we were driven from beach to beach, which, was awesome. BUT I would have liked to see something more than just beaches.

Yesterday was definitely one of the highlights of this week. We rented a car with some other people and drove around the island by ourselves. We were lucky enough to have somebody with us that has been living here for a while. He showed us the little, hidden and unknown spots of Oahu. If you hike to a waterfall and the way has at least 15 "Area closed" signs, you know your onto something good. Silly me has all the shots of this great place out of focus though. You may kick me.

On a side note I feel like I am getting fatter by the minute. It's incredible how much unhealthy food I eat here. On top of that, the servings are really big and tempt you to eat more than you would usually. I am really starting to get sick of burgers. Just give me a salad or some steamed veggies. Please!

And as a last little tidbit.. I have booked my flight to Anchorage (Alaska)... despite an outrageous price. I can't wait to get there!

a typical view on one of the many beaches on Oahu
Turtle's at turtle beach.
An old ww2 bunker on top of a small hill.
The view inland from the bunker.
Simon posing and enjoying the sight from the bunker location.
The merry band of traveller's on the tour.
Last thing I thought I would visit in Hawaii was a japanese temple.. but then, when I was in Japan my photography interest was rather lacking and I looked forward to test my new technics on a temple.
sunset i guess.
oh hey there francis, having a good time?

Oahu, Hawaii

Aloha

I have left Fiji behind and safely arrived on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. To be precise, I am currently in Honolulu or to be even more precise, in Waikiki beach. Probably one of the most famous surfer spots in the world and no, I have not yet done any surfing.

I have big news considering my photography further down so bear with me, or if your not interested in what i have been up to, skip that part altogether.

My last few days in Fiji were dominated by a lot of rain so sadly no interesting stories or pictures from then. To be honest I stayed in the hostel most of the time and waited for my flight to Honolulu. To be fair, it wasn't just a little rain, it was a bloody monsoon.

All in all I really enjoyed my time in Fiji. Lazily lying in a Hammock and reading for two weeks, it was good! I couldn't have done it any longer though. It did start to get boring.

I have such a massive jet lag right now. It is so massive that I have lost all sense of time. I left Fiji at 9:45 am on the tenth of April and landed in Honolulu at 6:15 pm on the ninth of April. I am from the future dude's!

Although Hawaii is a south sea island, you can instantly feel that it belongs to the U.S. of A. Everything is bigger; the roads, the meals, the drinks and well sometimes the people as well (no offence meant). Reminds me of a insider joke i had with my family when I went to California in 1998. Do you guys remember?

Tomorrow I will head to Maui, which is a 30min flight from Oahu. Maui I will explore by myself before I fly back to Oahu to meet up with Francis. For you who don't know, Franics is a good friend from Switzerland who will travel around Hawaii with me for 2 weeks. I am really looking forward to see a face from home. First time since I have started my travels!


Now about that photography thing. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I have been getting into photography a lot as of late. So much actually that I would like to make it my new career. I am a realistic guy though and I know, doing so, will be very hard. The nice thing about photography is, that I can easily pursue this in my free time while working a different job. Maybe one day I will be able to go full time with photography.. wish me luck!

I have set up a website where I showcase and sell my photographs. You (or anyone interested) can buy prints on paper and canvas. The site would offer a lot more options but for now I will limit it to those. Note that the versions I have on my blog are inferior to the one's on my new site. Those photographs have superior post processing and resolutions.

if your interested please head on over to Simon on SmugMug.

thanks for reading..

For all my male readers ;)
no comment
As I mentioned, things are big here.
Surfing is one of them.
Hotels is another one.