290/291//356: Berlin

Little trip for tattooings.

As always when I travel to a different city it is very easy to do new things. It's a little harder when you arrive late on friday, got a full saturday and then leave again early on sunday. Still, there is so much new stuff around that I don't have to think a lot to find something.

I tried two new coffee places, a new restaurant, was at a "new" metro station, bought something at a new shop and so on. Nothing much to say about the coffee places but the restaurant was really good. I randomly walked past that ramen bar and decided to go in to try it. It was pretty good I have to admit! Since I like making ramen myself, I always like to compare. Mine are good ( I like to think) but these were really good. If I get the chance next time I am in Berlin, I will go there again. Since it will be probably in autumn and my project will be done by then, I won't feel like I need to try a new place.

I have one more session left on the tattoo so I will be back in Berlin soon. I think this time around I will stay another day or two to really take in the city. It is such a cool place that it is a shame I don't get to do much when I am there. Bad planning on my part.

145/356: Unintentional Visit to Brussels

For day Nr. 145 I had a few rather unplanned firsts.

On the night from Sunday to Monday it was quite windy in England. Some might even call it a storm. So my first first of the day came along when I tried to get to London Heathrow Airport with the tube. the tube didn't run because there was stuff on the tracks. So instead I took the express train. It got me there in 15min but at the cost of 20£ I think it is rather pricey.

When I got to London Heathrow, I received a text from Swiss Airlines telling me that my flight got canceled because of the wind. They had already placed me on a flight for 8pm. Since it wasn't even 10am yet and I didn't feel like wasting the day, I asked at the ticket counter if they could put me on anything earlier.

I was quite surprised when they had me on another flight within minutes. I ended up flying to Brussels and then onward from there to Zurich. I was glad to be able to be on that flight because it got me back to Switzerland at least five hours earlier.

So I ended up flying with Brussels Air for the first time. It was my first (short) visit to Brussels and Belgium. My first time at the Brussels Airport and my first time eating there. Sometimes something unexpected happens and I don't even have to work for these new experiences.

 fancy little train that Heathrow Express.

 Another shot of the train.

 Trying the new Airline. Nothing special to note here.

 Cloudy day and indeed very windy. It was a bumpy ride but short too, so no problem.

Just a shot of the terminal at Brussels Airport.

95/356: FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO D'ITALIA

Onward to the reason why I visited Italy for two days. I went there to attend the Formula 1 race in Monza.

I really enjoy watching the races on a lazy Sunday afternoon and have thought about visiting a race for a while now but never had something that pushed me to do it. With this ongoing project of mine I finally got around to do it.

There is one simple reason why I picked Monza as the place where I would attend a race. It was the last race to be held in Europe this season. So it was either Monza or wait for next year. Monza has a great and long tradition so we decided to attend this one. 'We' because I went with a long time friend of mine.

We got to the circuit early on Sunday morning and then watched the GP3, GP2 and Porsche Supercup races, or parts of them. But of course the highlight of the day was the F1 race that started at two pm.

Two of the things that really stuck out to me were the sound of the cars and how international the crowd was. I could identify at least four or five languages and there were many more which I wasn't able to place. And the sound the F1 cars make, oh my, it gave me goosebumps. Seeing it on TV is nowhere close as intense as it is live. I am not a giant petrol head but I really enjoyed that roaring.

The race itself was interesting because the Sauber team (Swiss owned) had a car start in third place which was then able to finish in fifth place. This is by far the best result they had this year. Nico Hülkenberg, the driver, had a Mercedes just behind him during the whole race so it stayed interesting. Ferrari getting a car on the podium and one in fourth place really helped as well. That, as you can imagine, made the Italians really happy.

F1 is a sport which is best when watched on TV because they can instantly switch to the place on the track where the action is. When you are actually there, you only see a little part of the track and the big screens are usually not that close to you. I enjoyed the whole experience but it was probably a one time thing. The tickets were also pretty pricey so that doesn't help.

sorry for the sub par pictures. As you can imagine, my phone is not really equipped to take photos of speeding race cars. 

 The train station we got off at already had a very famous name.

 The GP2 race. The cars a little weaker than F1 but still plenty fast.

 Warm up rounds of the F1 race

 The owner of this little blog.

 The cars approaching the 'Variante del Rettifilo'

 The tribune where we were sitting

A Ferrari Fan cheering on his team.


Race on!

94/356: Milano

A short visit to Italy was just what I needed to round of my holidays.

I know that I have been to Milan before but from what I can remember I have only seen the train station so far and even then I didn't have time to look around. I was used to Swiss punctuality when it comes to trains and got caught off guard when my trains were late and I had to catch the next one.

This past weekend marked the first time on which I actually got to see a little of the city itself. It wasn't much though. A friend and I arrived around 6pm on Saturday evening and would be leaving again early next morning. The reason for this short visit will be in Post 95/356.

We walked from our hotel to the Duomo, had dinner and walked back again. That's about the extend of my visit to Milan. Still, there were plenty of firsts in those few hours. It was especially interesting to compare the Duomo to the Dom in Cologne. They are similar in size and took about the same amount time to build but the similarities end there. Where the Dom in Cologne is dark, brooding and rather depressing, the one in Milan is playful, bright and generally more cheerful.

Sadly I didn't get to experience the best part about Milan, the shopping. Next time I go I have to bring the time and money to shop till I drop. It is one of the fashion capitals of the world after all.

 The Duomo on the walk back from the restaurant.

 Frontal view of the Duomo.

 No idea but it looked cool.
 

 The plaza in front of the Duomo.

 

 

In Milan they tend to build very big buildings.

A little teaser for post 95/356.

79/356: Cologne

I managed to solve my picture upload problem and therefore I am able to post earlier than I thought. Rejoice!

On friday, shortley after lunch I made my way to the train station and boarded a train towards Basel. After arriving in Basel I met up with a good friend who also used to be my flatmate. We boarded another train and headed straight on to Cologne. 

I have been to Germany on many occasions but never to Cologne. At least I don't remember ever being here. Since we arrived quite late I didn't get to see much yet. We are staying in an area which seems to be a little funky but has a cool vibe. 

The reason why I am in Cologne will be revealed in post nr 80.

A building we passed on our walk to the hotel

These guys are right opposite the hotel

The hotel facade, it's not that bad around here..

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