Jun 13 2010
Homecoming
We put a couple of days in Prague in our itinerary simply because Norwegian have a direct flight from there to Trondheim, and it very much felt like just a transit stopover on the way home. [read more »»]
Jun 03 2010
Rome! Sweet Rome!
Since my first visit to Rome in 2005, I have claimed that this is my favourite city of the world, and returning 5 years later, having visited around 25 countries and a much greater number of cities since last time around, I was delighted that my first impression still stands: This IS the best city in the world – at least from a tourist point of view. [read more »»]
May 28 2010
Bonjour Europe!
After some exotic 4 weeks in the Middle East, we’ve finally arrived back in Europe again, 296 days since I left the very same city of Paris on my way to South America. I’ve spent almost 4 times the number of days as it took Jules Verne to circumnavigate the globe, but I have to say it was worth it! Going to Paris has been Andréia’s dream for many years, and every time we felt a little bit down or disappointed during our trip around the world, she used to ask me why we didn’t go straight to Paris when we left São Paulo, and even though her expectations of Paris might have been a bit too high, we had some nice days. [read more »»]
May 19 2010
The God, the bad and the ugly
After almost 300 days of traveling, I reached what is known to be the Holy Land – the land said to be given to the Jews by their God (and more recently: the United Nations). Both the Jews, the Christians and the Muslim all claim this land in one way or another, but who takes which role in the famous spaghetti western movie depends on from which channel you obtain your newsflashes. A piece of land, mostly desert, that has been the source of so much conflict, for reasons that goes far beyond reason, that subject to closer scrutiny doesn’t appear or behave that holy at all. [read more »»]
May 12 2010
A week in ruins
Jordan is an underrated tourist destination with a lot of interesting places to visit, especially for the history buffs: well-preserved roman cities, desert castles, several biblical sites, Wadi Rum desert, The Dead Sea, and last but not least, one of the 7 wonders of the new world, Petra. Having just experienced the desert and castles of Oman, and not being that interested in biblical sites, we dedicated most of our week in Jordan to the ruins. [read more »»]
May 04 2010
And now for something completely different
Of all the destinations in my itinerary, Oman is probably the least familiar tourist destination for western people. At least this was true for myself, until I “discovered” Oman during my visit to Zanzibar in 2008, as the island that now is a part of Tanzania was ruled by Omani sultans for about 200 years from 1698, and still feels more like a part of Arabia than a part of Africa. [read more »»]
Apr 26 2010
Dubai or not do buy
Before I start bashing on the emirate of Dubai, I have to say that the main reason why I put this place in my itinerary in the first place was that I could not find a suitable flight from Asia to Muscat from any carrier in the Oneworld alliance, so I had to find another way of visiting Oman. With Yemen and Saudi Arabia being the other border countries to Oman, my choices were fairly limited… [read more »»]
Apr 23 2010
East meets west
Travelers looking for the “real” China might be lured into thinking they have found it in an isolated minority village in the mountains, but if you by “real” talk about the China of today – not the postcard version – then the busy city of Shanghai is the real deal. This is where the hard-working Chinese people buzz around in a constant hurry, where old neighborhoods are replaced by neon-flashing monsters quicker than European governments can say “economic rescue package”, and the headquarters of the communist turbo-capitalism of China. [read more »»]
Apr 11 2010
Walking in Beijing
After traveling in Asia since the last day of 2009, we are starting to get a bit tired of variations of rice & noodles, and we have spent more and more of our lunches and dinners in more western-style restaurants. Luckily, Beijing has more than enough to offer for all other senses – enough to completely forget that you actually have to eat something! With our lunch pending, I’ll just walk you through the places we’ve been visiting here for the last 6 days, and let the pictures tell the rest of the story. [read more »»]
Apr 04 2010
Minority report
Moving north from Kunming towards our next big destination, Beijing, we spent most of the last week amongst Chinese minorities. While 92 % of the Chinese people are Han Chinese, there are also 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities. This time around, we visited the Bai of Dali, the Naxi of Lijiang and the pandas of Chengdu. [read more »»]
