Please assign a menu to the primary menu location under menu

travel blog

adventuregeneralphotography

One month in Asia already…

IMG_20181203_104258.jpg

It’s unbelievable that I’m now more than one month in Asia already. On the other hand, I’ve seen so many places and met so many nice people that it could be also two or three months. So let me tell you about my last few weeks.

After the lantern festival in Shiang Mai, Ahmed and me took the night bus back to Bangkok. A normal bus ride that turned out to be a really funny story. We booked the VIP Bus with food and wifi. We left Shiang Mai at 8 pm and were supposed to arrive in Bangkok at 6 am. After that we booked a flight south to Krabi because we wanted to spend some days on the beach in Ko Lanta. But let’s get back to the bus ride. When we got on the bus, of course the wifi was broken. At first we joked around that the food would also be broken. When the bus stopped at 3 am and there was no food everybody was just shaking their head. The bus driver said that they just forgot to stop at the food place one and a half hours ago. When the bus stopped one and a half hours later at the food place we couldn’t believe it. We where only two more hours away from Bangkok and the bus driver decided to turn around and go all the way back to the food place. Everybody was so pissed, that nobody got out of the bus. Especially the ones with a flight or another bus shortly after were really angry. Luckily for us it was not that big of a deal. When we arrived in Bangkok at 8 am, two hours later than planned it was actually better for us because we could sleep two more hours. A couple from Canada that was sitting behind us missed their flight though. Ahmed and me just relaxed a bit, had breakfast and then we went to the airport to catch our flight to Krabi.

We spent one night there and then took the minivan to Ko Lanta. Ko Lanta is a beautiful island and although we already planned to stay there for five nights, we extended our stay to one week. The hostel and the people where so nice so we really had a good time there.

If you ever happen to be in Ko Lanta, check out the Hub of Joys Hostel. It’s only three minutes to the beach, great breakfast and amazingly friendly staff. Most of the days we rented a scooter and explored the beautiful beaches on the island. In the evenings we were just playing cards in the hostel. In the common room there where always people around.

After Ko Lanta we spent one night on the party island Ko PhiPhi. It’s a beautiful island but one night was enough for us.

Everything there is just for tourists and all the tourists are there to get drunk. Not really our kind of traveling. After Ko PhiPhi we spent two more nights in Krabi before it was time to say goodbye to Ahmed. The last evening, we went to the tiger cave temple. It’s a temple on top of a mountain and the view is amazing. It takes 1260 stairs to get to the top. We watched the sunset and then we climbed back down again.

The next day in the morning Ahmed flew to Bangkok from where he had his flight back home.

I want to thank you Ahmed for being part of this trip. I enjoyed traveling with you a lot. You are awesome.

After saying goodbye to Ahmed I continued my journey alone. I took the bus and then the ferry to Ko Tao, which is mostly known for diving and exactly the reason why I was going there. I did my Padi open water diving license.

In three days I learned the theory about diving, did a lot of skill trainings under water and mostly I saw amazing wildlife under water. The great thing is, that all the fish never learned that they have to be scared of us humans, so they are not afraid and some curious ones come really close. After two already great days, the highlight was on the third day. My diving instructor told me in the morning, that there might be a chance to see a whale shark that day. Guess what, we really saw a whale shark. I cannot believe how lucky I am during this whole trip.

My diving instructor is on Ko Tao for four years now and he told me that he saw a whale shark maybe six or seven times in those four years. I’m just incredibly lucky and thankfully another girl brought her gopro so she sent me some pictures and videos.

While being on Ko Tao, my friend John, who I met in Tallinn and then again in Poland and also in Vienna during my time back in Austria, texted me to tell me that it’s too cold in Europe to cycle so he decided to come to Asia as well. He booked a flight to Singapore and I told him about my plans of going to Borneo first and then celebrating Christmas in Singapore so we decided to go together to Borneo.

We met at the airport in Singapore a couple of hours after he arrived there and then we flew to Kota Kinabalu.

We stayed two nights there, went to the beach and played volleyball with the locals. It was great fun. After that we took the bus to Sepilok, where we visited an orangutan sanctuary and also a rescue center for sunbears, the smallest bears on earth. It was nice to see how they help the animals so they can be released to the wild again.

After that we did a river cruise on the Kinabatangan river. It took three days and two nights and we where in the jungle in the rain forest. We did river cruises, jungle tracks and night walks. We saw a lot of monkeys, a couple of crocodiles, a wild orangutan, a lot of birds and much more.

Now John and me, we’re back in Kota Kinabalu where we’re going to spend the next three days and then we’re going back to Singapore to spend Christmas over there. I’m already looking forward to that.

Here are some more pictures of the last weeks:

One of the best sunsets I’ve seen so far

Everybody loves ice-cream

Wearing the raincoat for style reasons
That’s the sign for whale shark
Playing volleyball with the locals

Jungle tracking

adventurephotography

New continent, new adventure

IMG_20181120_172445.jpg

It’s been some time since the last post and a lot of things happened in the meantime. I participated in an Erasmus+ project in Poland, then I spent three weeks back home in Austria and last week I started my new adventure here in Thailand, Asia.

But not so fast… Let’s start with the project „thanks but no tanks“ in Stegna, which is near Gdansk in Poland. The main topic was nonviolent communication. Luckily my best friend Liam was also participating so I was very happy to see him again.

The whole week was very interesting and a lot of fun. We met people from all over Europe and it was a perfect ending of my first journey through Northern Europe. I want to say thank you to all the amazing people I met on the project. It was awesome. Hope to see you again someday.

I ended up taking the bus home from Gdansk, since I already had the ticket and I didn’t even need to pay for it. What is more, I was really looking forward to coming back home.

My trip through Northern Europe was nothing else but awesome. So many amazing people, new experiences and just one of the best things I’ve ever done. I ended up hitchhiking with 165 different cars for a total distance of almost 13000 kilmeters.

Since this Blog is more about my travel stories I don’t want to go too much into the details of what I did during my three weeks back home. I just want to say that I had a great time there. It was my sisters prom, I met up with many of my friends and family and it kind of felt like holidays back home. Another thing that I really liked was, that two new friends that I met along my trip through Europe came to Vienna to visit me. Joyce from Hongkong, we met in Lithuania and John from the Netherlands, who I met in Tallinn.

I really enjoyed it and I also started to get more and more excited for my next adventure Asia. On the 14th of November we had our flight to Bangkok. Wait… Who is we? We that’s Ahmed and me. Ahmed is a very good friend of mine and he asked me in August if I would mind if he would join me on my trip to Asia. Of course that would be amazing I answered.

So here we are, ready for our journey to Thailand. I’m very happy to have him traveling with me because it’s my first time in Asia and I saw on my journey through Europe that I always enjoyed it more, when I was traveling together with someone else. We only know each other for a couple of months but he is so easygoing so I was sure from the beginning that this will be great. We’ll travel together at least for the first three weeks and then Ahmed might fly back home but that can also change.

Saying goodbye at home was hard again. Matthäus, Liam and Hoa brought us to the Airport.

By coincidence my grandmother was also on the airport that morning and we managed to meet up to say goodbye once again.

Then we flew to Düsseldorf first and from there, with a six hour delay to Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok the next day at noon and really felt that my body was shocked by the temperature. It was more than 30 degrees. Ahmed booked a hotel for the first two nights in Bangkok. That was perfect so we had some time to explore the city, see some temples, try some streetfood and relax.

After that two days in that busy city, we took the night train north to Chiang Mai and from there the minibus to Pai. Pai is a small village in the jungle, surrounded by mountains. It’s very touristic but still beautiful and way less noisy than the big cities. After Bangkok that was perfect. There are beautiful waterfalls, view points and spots to watch the sunset. We rented a scooter so we were able to explore the whole area around the village. Riding the scooter was so much fun. But you really need to be careful because first they drive on the left side and second they drive like crazy here. Traffic lights are more like a recommendations and the zebra crossing are only decoration on the road.

We spent three nights there and now we’re back in Chiang Mai. The plan is to stay here for three nights to see the Yeepeng Festival and then continue to the south of Thailand to the islands.

On the first evening, there were already a lot of people but not so much going on, so we decided to take that chance to see a local muay thai boxing fight. It was interesting to see. On the second evening of the festival it was just wonderful. I felt like in a fairytale. We were there with some more people from our hostel and it was unbelievable. The night sky was full with lanterns. See yourself:

The start to this new adventure was perfect and I’m already looking forward to the next weeks.

Some more snapshots of the last weeks:

generalpeople

Three months and friends from all over the world

IMG_20180929_153220.jpg

The last weeks were so busy that I didn’t find time to write my blog. This is why now it’s going to be a longer post because so many things happened.

The last post I ended with coming to Riga and Riga was great. I spent five days with my friends there. We went to the Sigulda national park, watched a horror movie in the cinema, went out in Riga’s underground, watched the sunset at the light house and much more. A big thank you to Irina, Kristina and Andrey for that awesome time.

Irina, Kristina, me and Andrey partying in Riga

After Riga I continued alone again. Every time when I spend some time with other people it feels strange to be alone again. Nevertheless I wanted to enjoy this time being alone because soon one of my friends will come to visit me in Vilnius. Before that I hitchhiked to the west coast of Latvia. On my way to Ventspils a young couple picked me up and although they did not want to go to Ventspils, they decided to make a daytrip there and show me around so they drove me all the 80 kilometers to Ventspils and we spent the afternoon together.

Agnis and Elina

I found a great place to sleep in my tent next to a lake and the next day I continued to Kolka, which is a small town in the very north of the Latvian west coast. I arrived at noon and it felt like I was stranded on a lonly island. No other people, just me and the sea. The weather was great but still after some time I got bored. In the movies this looks like a big adventure but in real life after not even two hours I was so bored that I decided to head back south. I catched some rides fast but I couldn’t make it all the way to Liepaja. In Jurkalne I decided to stay for the night and it was the best decision that I could make. The place I found there was without a doubt the best place that I slept in the tent ever. There was a big sand beach, perfect weather, no clouds and a beautiful sunset in the sea. In that night I decided that this would be my last night in the tent because it cannot get any better than this. See yourself:

Paradise in Jurkalne

The next day I continued to Liepaja where this guy picket me up and on our way we stopped at some shops because his job was to sell alcohol to those shops. At one point he asked me if I already tried the best Latvian beer. I declined so he came back with a bottle of beer for me. That was not what I expected at 11 am.

After that I spent one night in Liepaja, the next day I continued to Lithuania to Palanga, spent another night there and then another night in Klaipeda. As I stayed in hostels from now on, I met more people there. In Palanga I met a couple from Lithuania and they offered me to take me to Kaunas two days later. I agreed so I continued the next day to Klaipeda, where I went to see the sand dunes in Nida. After one night there, where I met a nice girl from Hongkong, the couple from two days ago, Aidas and his wife picked me up and took me to Kaunas, where we went to see Žalgiris Kaunas, one of the best basketball teams in Europe. It was great fun and cool atmosphere in that modern arena.

In Kaunas I also found out, that the pope Francis was about to come to Kaunas the next day. I decided to wake up early to see that event. When I arrived at 8 am in the place where he would hold a holy mass at 10, there where already 70000 people there. Luckily I was able to get a free ticket and then I also entered that area. It was unbelievable what a big thing that event was. After one and a half hours of waiting he arrived. In his papa mobile he drove past me but he didn’t stop for a hitchhiker like me.

In the afternoon I met up with Joyce again, the girl from Hongkong that I met in Klaipeda. She also wants to go to Vilnius after Kaunas so she decided to join me for hitchhiking from Kaunas to Vilnius. It worked well and in Vilnius we met very cool people in the hostel. One day we rented a car and Joyce, Sam and me, we made a road trip to the hill of crosses.

Sam, Joyce and me at the hill of crosses

It was so much fun in Vilnius. We met Victoria and her brother Daniel from London and even after this few days we had so many inside jokes we kept laughing about. #blessed

Daniel, Victoria, Joyce and me in Vilnius

I spent four days in Vilnius and then Lukas came to visit me. He was my first stop in Linz back in Austria and now we’re going to hitchhike together for 10 days. We stayed one more night in Vilnius and the next day we started our adventure. First we only went to Trakai, where there is a beautiful castle.

Then we wanted to go to Poland to Gdansk. It was already afternoon and it was very cold. We waited at the main road from Lithuania to Poland but not many cars passed. After two hours of waiting a Russian Maserati stopped. We couldn’t believe it.

This guy told us that he would go all the way to Warsaw so we decided that we would also go to Warsaw. I texted Emilia, a friend of mine from the Erasmus + project in Turkey. She said that we can stay at her place and that’s what we did. Even though it was Sunday, we went out in Warsaw and luckily Emilia was free the next day so she showed us around in Warsaw. We met up with some friends from Lukas and also John, the guy from the Netherlands that I met in Tallinn.

John, Lukas, Emilia and me in Warsaw

We stayed one more night and the next day we hitchhiked to Gdansk. It went really well this time. Gdansk is a beautiful city. Unfortunately it is already very cold and Lukas and me we’re both a little bit sick. We met up with Sam again. He is also traveling through Europe. Then we tried to hitchhike south to Krakow. We were not lucky that day and at 5 pm we were still only 170 kilometers away from Gdansk. Luckily one guy stopped that went all the way to Warsaw so we ended up in Warsaw once again even though we didn’t even want to go there. Emilia was so friendly and hosted us again. We went out for a karaoke night and the next day Emilia joined Lukas and me to hitchhike to Krakow together. I was a little bit afraid that nobody would stop for three people but we were lucky and in the afternoon after four different cars we made it to Krakow.

In Krakow I was impressed how many people were out in the streets. Even at 2 am but the semester has just started and there are more than 200 000 students in Krakow. I stayed three nights in Krakow and went out every evening. On Monday Lukas had his bus back to Vienna.

Thank you Lukas for joining me on this trip. It was nice to walk along with you.

After I brought Lukas to the bus station I met up with Milena, another friend from the Project in Turkey. I love it when I have friends in different countries of the world. We also met John again and then we went out with Livia from Romania and Samantha from Singapore. It was a fun evening.

Milena, Livia, John, Samantha and me

After that I hitchhiked to Wroclaw and Poznan where I spent one night each. On my way to Gdansk, where I arrived yesterday, an 80 years old guy picked me up and he even invited me to a restaurant for food. There’s no age limit for picking up hitchhikers.

It is funny that at the same day I got invited a second time for food. In the evening one guy invited me to his house a little bit outside of Gdansk before he dropped me right in the center at my hostel. These are the special moments that I’ll remember for a long time.

Tomorrow on Saturday my best friend Liam is coming and we’re going to participate in another Erasmus + project here in Gdansk. I can’t wait. Gdansk is now my last stop for the trip in Europe. After the project I’ll head back home. I’m looking forward to seeing my family and friends again.

I’ll keep you updated on my plans for what’s coming next.

Here are more pics from the last weeks:

Not sure if Austrian flag or Latvian 😛
Sunset at the light house in Riga

Sam, Joyce and me on the road trip to the hill of crosses
Lukas, Emilia and Samantha in Krakow

Getting invited to someone’s house for food is unbelievable. So many nice people out there.
adventuregeneralpeople

Whaat? Already two months…

IMG_20180915_140554.jpg

It is unbelievable how fast the last two months passed. But I made so many amazing experiences and met so many people that it could also easily be four months. In this post I will tell you about my experiences in Estonia.

But first there is one more story to be told about Finland. On my way to Helsinki, this woman picked me up.

She told me, that she was a teacher and also a musician. What I didn’t know was that she was actually really popular in Finland. How did I find out? She was car number 100 so I posted an Instagram story about it. Then some people that I met earlier in Finland answered to my story. See yourself:

Her name is Kristiina Brask. That’s what I love about hitchhiking. You never know what kind of amazing people with different stories are awaiting in the next car. Many people ask me if I ever had any bad experience with hitchhiking so far. If you’re waiting for some awful stories now, I have to disappoint you. So far only nice people stopped for me. Maybe I’ve just been lucky but I like to think that only nice people stop for hitchhikers so there was not a single car, where I was scared or anything.

After one night in Helsinki, I had a ferry to Estonia, to Tallinn. I choose a nice hostel in the middle of the old town. Tallinn impressed me right from the beginning. The old town, a lot of street musicians, small streets and just a great atmosphere. I met some people in the hostel with whom I spent the evening and the next day together. There was John from the Netherlands, Konstantina from Greece and three guys from Germany. In the evening I went to a football game with the Germans between the two clubs from Tallinn. Although there were not so many people there and mostly children, there was a good atmosphere.

After the game we did a pup-crawl. It was a funny evening and we came back to the hostel late.

The next day Juliane came from Austria to visit me. I picked her up from the airport in the afternoon. We didn’t really have any plans, what we would do for the six days together but the idea was to hitchhike around Estonia a bit. Well sometimes things happen differently. We ended up spending the weekend in Riga because the guy that picked us up went all the way to Riga so we decided to go to Riga as well. There we met up with my friends that I know from the erasmus+ project in Izmir. Read about the project here.

Kristina, Andrey, Irina, Juliane and me in Riga

What else did we do in Riga? We did a free walking tour, went to a crazy czech bar and went to the beach in Jurmala.

On Monday we drove back to Tallinn with the same guy that took us all the way to Riga on Friday. Toms has had a party weekend and was super tired so I offered him to drive. He agreed immediately and so I drove all the way back, while he was sleeping on the back seat.

In the evening we hitchhiked to the Lahema national park where we spent one night in the tent right next to the beach. Besides the many mosquitoes it was a perfect spot.

The next day was my birthday and I was more than happy not to spend it alone. We hitchhiked back to Tallinn and spent the afternoon with sightseeing and mainly eating. A perfect day.

Birthday cake

In the evening we met up with Liis, a friend of Juliane from her time in America. We went to a nice sushi place and had a great evening.

The next day it was time to say goodbye again.
A wise man said once: Happiness is only real when shared. This is one reason why I enjoyed travelling together with Julie so much. It’s just great to have someone around that is as adventurous as you and you can do crazy things together.

I brought her to the airport and stayed one more night in Tallinn. This time I stayed with a guy that I found through couchsurfing. After that I traveled around Estonia a bit more. I went to Narva, which is right next to Russia. That was very interesting for me to see. Right in the middle of the city, there is a river and on one side you have Estonia and Russia on the other side.

In Narva in the hostel I met a guy from the Netherlands with whom I drove around for one day and after that I met up with Liis again. Her parents live not far from Narva and she offered me to host me and to show me around a bit. I stayed for two nights and I got a private guided tour through the monestry in Kuremäe, we went mushroom picking and the best part: I got invited to do a presentation about my trip in a local school. Liis` mom is headmaster there and so she organized, that on Monday morning, we would do a presentation there. Liis spoke about her time as an AuPair in America and I told them how I started and what experiences I made so far. The students from 13 to asked a lot of questions and I really enjoyed it.

I want to thank Liis and her parents again for everything. Thank you for being so kind and spontaneous, for showing me around and giving me the chance to speak about my trip to inspire others.

Then I spendt two more days in Estonia. One night in Tartu and one night in Pärnu. In Tartu I had a free night in a hotel because they have a cooperation with the school I did the präsentation in. After that I left Estonia and now I’m again in Riga meeting up with my friends here again but I’m going to tell you about my adventures here in the next post.

Thank you for reading. Here are some more pictures of the last weeks:

Funny things happen while hitchhiking
Football game in Tallinn

First time hitchhiking for Juliane
Sander my couchsurfing host in Tallinn
Traveling around Narva with Gidi from the Netherlands
Estonia on the left side, Russia on the right
Tartu or Pisa
generalpeoplephotography

Nice people everywhere

IMG_20180817_231851_508.jpg

After Norway I continued to Sweden. I wanted to go straight to Stockholm because I knew that on the 15th of August I was going to meet Evelina, a good friend of my best friend Liam on Aland, which is the island between Stockholm and Finland. It took me two days to hitchhike from Oslo to Stockholm.

In Stockholm I stayed in a hostel for two nights because in the cities it is difficult to find a place for the tent. Evelina recommended me the Crafoord Place Hostel. So this is where I went. The next day I took part in a free walking tour, where a guide is giving a free tour for around two hours and in the end you can tip him if you want.

Free tour Stockholm

It was a very interesting tour, we learned about the history of Stockholm and the original story behind the stockholmsyndrom. The best thing was, that I met three other people that were also traveling alone. Jorge from Spain and Judith and Alina from Germany. We got along very well from the beginning so we decided to spend the rest of the day together.

Jorge, Alina, Judith and me

In the evening we went out and one guy from my hostel, Marco from Italy joined us as well. It was a fun evening. We tried Mead, which is some kind of alcohol made out of honey. It was a funny evening.

Especially Judith’s story was interesting. She was studying in Vaasa, Finland and after that, she decided to drive back home to Germany on her old bicycle. She really recommended me to. go to Vaasa when I’m coming to Finland. She is writing about her trip for a german newspaper and after a couple of days she sent this:

So funny to see your own face laughing out of a newspaper.

For the next day I had an overnight ferry to Aland. Aland belongs to Finland but people are speaking Swedish there. I expected a ferry and was surprised when I came to the harbor and a big cruise ship was waiting there. It had 11 decks with restaurants, spa and casinos on it. I had a small cabin with my own bathroom in it. I slept very well and we arrived at Aland early in the next morning. Evelina was already waiting for me to pick me up. I had four great days on Aland. Evelina showed me around the island, we explored new areas, did some hiking, watched an amazing sunset, played god for some ants, visited an old castle, tried some Aland specialities and much more.

Thank you Evelina, you’ve been a great host and I really enjoyed spending time with you. Also thank you to your flatmates Thoa and Oona for letting me stay at your place for three nights.

On Saturday in the afternoon my ferry to mainland Finland left. Since I had no other plans, I tried to hitchhike north to Vaasa after one night in the tent a little bit outside of Turku. On my way, a woman asked me if I was hungry and then she invited me to her place and made me some food. What a nice surprise. This was the first time, someone who picked me up, invited me to their place and it shouldn’t be the last time. After eating, we discussed what the best route for me would be and then I continued north.

Thank you so much!

I made it to Pori and then Yyteri where I was surprised to see a big sand beach. I found a great place for my tent and then I met two french girls who were also looking for a place to camp so they joined me.

After swimming in the sea the next morning I continued to Vaasa.

Judith, the girl from Germany that recommended me to go to Vaasa, asked a friend of hers if I could stay at her place for one night so I had a place for the night. It was great.

A big thank you to both Judith and Luca for being so spontaneous and friendly.

After Vaasa I didn’t continue north but more to. the middle of the country. The next stop was Tampere. I was quite lucky and found a guy from Gambia that took me nearly all the way to a gas station a little bit out of Tampere where he bought some food for me.

I have the feeling that I only meet the nicest of the nice people. And if you think it cannot get any better than this, then you’re wrong.

I waited about one hour and was already looking for a place for my tent because it was getting quite late and it was also cold. It was frustrating because many cars passed and no one seemed to recognize me. And then the following happened. A guy stopped and said that he would only go to the city center. I thought: „at least I’m not at this shitty bus stop anymore. Maybe I find someone in the city that takes me a bit outside of Tampere where I can put up my tent.“

So I got in the car and on my way to the city, I asked him, if he knows a good place to sleep in the tent. After some thinking he said: „You know what, actually you can stay at my place.“
I couldn’t believe my ears. „Yes I have three boys but they are at their mothers place so there is a whole room free.“

So this is how I met Harri. He is 39 years old and loves all different kind of sports. For the rest of the evening we had food together and then we played Fifa on the Playstation.

He had to work the next day so I thought I also need to leave very early in the morning but he said that I could sleep as long as I want and as he was only working until 1 pm, he asked if I wanted to stay longer and we could go to sauna together. All of the people I met so far here in Finland told me, that I can’t leave the country without having been to a sauna here. So that’s exactly what we did. We also played disc-golf together. In the end I stayed from Tuesday until Saturday in Tampere. We went to a Lenin museum, played Minigolf (I know I lost… just by one shot), football, went to a funpark where we tried the biggest roller-coaster… I felt like a child again.

Thank you so much Harri for everything. It was a pleasure to spend time with you.

One day before I left Tampere I found out that one good friend of my cousin is doing her semester abroad here in Tampere so I texted her if she was free and since she didn’t had any plans we met for one afternoon. Such a funny coincidence.

Miri and me

I have four days left in Finland. On Tuesday I booked a ferry to Estonia to Tallinn so I need to be in Helsinki at latest on Tuesday. Finland was amazing so far but I am also really looking forward to Estonia.

Thank you for reading and thank you to all the people who made this trip so amazing for me.

As always, here some more pictures of the things that happened during the last weeks:

Trying berries in the wild with Evelina

Pirvate island in the sunset

Lenin museum
Minigolf result
Italy or Finland? Magic sand beach in Yyteri