Traveling is to come to different places, get new impressions, meet new people and encounter different cultures

I have now visit all continent except for Antartica, even if Egypt might be a bit of a cheat for the whole of Africa. I will remedy Africa with a four week travel in Kenya and Tanzania this summer though.
Year 2000 I mainly spent in Australia studying and traveling the beautiful county. I did spend most of the time in Melbourne enjoying all the festivals, the Formula One Grand Prix and the lovely city (except for the long rainy winter and their bad drafty cold housing). I also did some trekking on the beautiful island of Tasmania, visited Adelaide, the Great Ocean Road, Aires Rock, Darwin, Perth, Sydney during the Olympics, Brisbane, the east coast, some diving in Cairns and Cape Tribulation. It was an excellent stay in this huge country with so much to see and experience.

Autumn and winter of 1999 I went on the adventure of my life. I visited some 15 different countries on this journey. I went to Istanbul (Turkey) where I joined a group of about 18 other travelers. This trip was organized by the English company Encounter Overland and lasted for about 4 months. We traveled with a truck from Turkey through Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, India to Katmandu (Nepal). Take a look at the route from Turkey to Nepal. From there I continued on my own to Bangkok (Thailand), traveled through Thailand and Malaysia to Singapore. From Singapore I flew to Bali, for some more diving before I did hit Australia.

You can see the whole route and also read the travel reports from the whole journey.
Spring of 1999 I went on my second Interrail through Europe. This time I did visit more countries in the eastern part of Europe which have the advantage that they are a little bit cheaper. During Easter I took the train down to Berlin (Germany) where I spent most time in the interesting eastern part. I did then continue to Vienna (Austria), Budapest (Hungary), the great city Prague (Czech), the two charming small villages Kutna Hora (Czech) and Cesky Cromlov (Czech), the cultural minature-Prague look-alike Krakow (Poland), the sad places Auschwitz (Poland) and Birkenau (Poland). Before I went home I also went to Volksdorf, Hamburg (Germany) to visit my grandfather who lived down there. As usual I was very lucky with the weather and the spring sun shone and it was just perfect temperature for traveling. I did travel by myself which has the disadvantage that you don't have anyone special to share your experiences with but the advantage that you meet so many interesting and friendly people. Please read the few reports from this journey.

Summer of 97 Johan, a friend from the military and an ex flat mate, and I went to Iceland and the US. All together we traveled for 10 weeks of which we spent three days on Iceland and the rest in the US. Iceland was an incredible beautiful and interesting country. We rented a car and drove into the country side where we camped for two wonderful days. We saw a enormous waterfall, geysers, boiling mud pits and a fantastic nature.

In the US we started out from New York, NY, my favorite city. We took the Greyhound up to Boston where we spent a week with Ori a very good friend of mine who I met in Japan. We looked at the beautiful and calm city, partied and bought a pretty nice car for nothing. We went to Cape Cod and then to Pennsylvania where we visited my host family Mizikar whom I stayed with for five years ago. My class of 93 in Ford City had a 5-year reunion which I joined. Then we stayed with Dave another good friend up in Erie. Continued up to the Niagara Falls and went through Canada to Michigan where Johan had some relatives with whom we spent some very nice time. We then continued west to all the national parks like Bad Lands, Wind Cave, Mount Rushmore, Devil's Tower, Yellow Stone, Arches (my favorite), Canyon Lands, Mesa Verde, Bryce Canyon, Zion and Grand Canyon. During this time we mostly did camping and made our own food. After the national parks we visited Flagstaff, Las Vegas, some relatives, Shelby my girl friend from my US High school year (who had moved to Tucson), Mexico, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Fransisco. We drove almost 1000 American miles - 16000 km - which means that if we would have driven straight we would have been able to cross the US four times.

All together it was a wonderful trip. US is an incredible country with a magnificent nature. And it's really the beauty which made the trip worth cause it's not a cultural experience. Sorry Americans but it feels you have a lack of history and culture in your country, but on the other hand it's also a pretty new one.

Summer of 97 I went for my second time to Japan. This time I studied Japanese at Gifu University. Gifu is for Japanese standard a very small town, only 400 000 people. But if I say they only got one dance floor you might get the point. We studied and did some smaller trips to learn more about the culture. Instead of traveling around in Japan I went to Korea after the studies to visit Eun-Suk who is a very good Korean friend I met in Japan. I also spent some more days in Tokyo to visit some old friends.
We had a week of from the military October '96. So three friends from the military and I headed for Italy for a week. We drove down by car and visited my grandfather in Hamburg and stayed a night in Phorsheim in Germany. In Italy we lived in a very small old village up in the mountains not too far from the sea. We also went to Monaco to visit the Casino. A great trip!
Summer of 95 I went to Tokyo, Japan. I stayed there for three months working at the IFC (International Friendship Center). I did some teaching in English, had conversation practice with over-class Japanese and arranged some parties and trips. I had the opportunity to visit some embassies and to make a lot of smaller trips to Chiba, Nikko, Yokohama and Kamakura. Not to forget my trips on the the bike within Tokyo itself which was a great experience everyday. I always found new and different streets, buildings, shrines, temples, pagodas, toris, nature, parks and people everywhere I went. I also made a longer journey to visit Hiroshima (the Atomic Dome), Miyajima (one of the most beautiful places on Earth), Kobe, Nara, Osaka and Kyoto. My stay in Japan was very worthwhile with a great deal of fun, adventure and new friends. Too bad I didn't learn too much of Japanese.
Summer of 94 I Inter-railed in Europe with Karin, a very nice young lady and an ex-girlfriend. We visited Hamburg (Germany), Amsterdam (Holland), Paris (France), Porto, Lisbon, Cascais, Lagos (Portugal), Madrid, Barcelona (Spain), Avignon and Paris (France). We traveled some 30 great days with excellent weather. It was a wonderful trip with many beautiful places and very nice people from all over the world.
The school year of 92/93 I went to the US as an exchange student. I lived in Ford City,PA and Mount Pleasant, PA. Within the US I made some trips to Pittsburgh, Chicago, Washington DC, Florida and to the Niagara Falls on the border of Canada.
When I was about ten years old my family and I went to Budapest, Hungary. It was a very beautiful country very rich of culture.
Since I was a kid I have traveled to Germany a lot of times while my mother is born there and my grandfather lived in Hamburg till he passed away in 2000.
I've also done some trips to Italy, Austria and France for skiing which I'm really fond of.
I shouldn't forget to mention Denmark. Copenhagen the capital of Denmark is just two hours away. It's a very nice city where You can shop, go to "Tivoli", drink a beer at the many bars in the harbour "Nyhavn" or just buy beer to take home while it's a lot cheaper in Denmark than Sweden. Skagen is also a very beautiful part of Denmark which is really worth a visit with it's beautiful seashore where two seas are meeting each other.