I’m back in Amsterdam where they celebrate the Saint Nicholas’ eve today. This guy is the basis for the more familiar Santa Claus, but originally this eve was the celebration of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children.
About one year ago, it felt like a good idea at the time to cross a third of the world in 37 days. A 12000 kilometer journey by train, ferry, horse, bus, Shinkansen, tram, subway, taxi, foot and swan boat. Going from Gothenburg to Tokyo by train is one of the longest routes available. It spans across nine time zones and seven countries. The largest part is the Trans-Siberian railway from Moscow to the Pacific, the world’s longest railway with 9238 kilometers.
Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall was opened and Germany was reunited about a year later. I remember reading about it on 9th of November 1989, maybe a bit too young to fully understand the impact of this monumental event.
I just got back from a trip to the French Riviera with my colleagues. We had an entire house in the countryside at our disposal, complete with private pool and large kitchen. It was situated at 500 meters above sea level, so we could see all the way to the cities of Nice and Antibes as well as the Mediterranean. Another nice feature was the palm tree with a few resident squirrels.
A few days ago I was driving around in Denmark with friends. We discovered an unusually large dune by the horizon and drove there. At sunset we climbed the dune with sand flowing into our eyes and throats. As we reached the summit we discovered the old lighthouse Rubjerg Knude, built in 1899 at the top of Lønstrup Klint.
I recently got back from a roadtrip in Denmark where the main topic was German bunkers from World War II. I believe we saw almost a hundred of them and entered several dozen. For some it may seem like a wierd vacation but it’s a very real part of history which we always need to learn more about.
If you want maximum travel experience in minimum time, a classic roadtrip is the way to go. The freedom of roaming with a car is simply unparalleled. You are free to choose between the packed freeways and the lonely dirt roads, and wherever you end up it cannot be stated enough that the journey is the goal in itself more than the actual destination, as TS Eliot almost put it.
For some reason, I often tend to end up in large cities during my travels. While nature is bold and beautiful, there is something alluring about old man-made cities where people have lived for generations and every corner has a history. These are my favorite ones.
I love to spend time in cities, immersed by the creative chaos of mankind. This year I’ve seen a fair share of them: Tokyo, Marrakech, Ulaan Baator, Novosibirsk, Seoul, Amsterdam, Beijing, Inverness, Irkutsk, Kyoto, Moscow, Oban, Perm, Incheon…
I walked alone in the streets of Tokyo and felt like Godzilla. I almost started humming on “Big in Japan” by Alphaville as I was a six-foot-five gaijin in a sea of short Asians. After deciphering the glyphs of the subway map I managed to find my way and the correct sum to pay for various zones.
