deviantART: by:iznogoud

Self promotion

=iznogoud http://interlive.daportfolio.com/ http://iznogoud.deviantart.com/journal/21042128/ http://iznogoud.deviantart.com/journal/21042128/ Tue, 12 May 2009 00:58:42 PDT

Miguel Rosa

Rotterdam or anywhere

I'm trying to find people from those countries from whom I can get some help to do description of photos in the native language - in the style of the first ones I already published.

You can find me on Facebook: [link]
____
2009 Spain, Andorra, France, Netherland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, ...
____
2008 Australia and New Zealand with one step in United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore. Also to Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Bulgaria and Serbia (and one step in Czech Republic).
____
2007 Switzerland and Italy (and one step in France).
____
2006 Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Serbia and Spain.
____
2005 Angola.

Most of my gallery is about these trips. The journey log is in my previous journal entries.
____
My first Marathon:
Location: Lisbon
Date: 7th December 2008
Distance: 42,2km
Time Run: 3h33m28s (11,9km/h)
Position: 352 out of 1001 participants.
Trainning: 324km ran in previous 2 months.
Experience: ran 16 distances longer than 20km in previous 2 years.
Wishlist: to experience half and full marathon in other capital cities of the world.

Featuring Artists

http://iznogoud.deviantart.com/journal/21033235/ Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:45:22 PDT

This year I've already been to 17 countries, did 14 plane trips, worked with 14 different currencies and tried to communicate in 11 different languages. The places I've been to in my 'Kanguru' trip (the other side of the world): London (transfer), Hong Kong (transfer), Melbourne (+St. Kilda), Philip Island, Wellington, Rotorua, Tauranga, Auckland (+Rangitoto, +Waiheke), Sydney (+Bondi, +Manly, +Cronulla), Blue Mountains, Surfer's Paradise, Brisbane and Singapore (transfer). The places I've been to in my 'Matchka' trip (to eastern Europe): Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Krakow, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Wieliczka, Warsaw, Vilnius, Trakai, Riga, Jurmala, Sigulda, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Sophia, Rila, Belgrade, Novi Sad (+Neradin, +EXIT).

After the great trip of Interrail in 2006 I knew I had to do it again. So, in 2007 I started making plans. The "must visit" places were where my brother and my friends are living. So Russia, Serbia, Poland and Belarus were the points I should try to visit. Initially I thought of doing a 2 month trip and to be able to do that I took only 2 weeks (minimum required) of holidays in 2007. But at the end of 2007, a friend started to talk about going to Australia and when I heard that, I joined the team. But to travel to the other side of the world is not easy: because we need time and money. So in the end the team was only with 2 elements. And for Eastern Europe I couldn't find anyone to go with me. Anyway I decided to split holidays in two: 3 weeks for Australia and 5 for Eastern Europe.

Kanguru Trip:
From Portugal there aren't many options available to travel to Australia. British Airways/Qantas seemed to be the best option. We knew that we had to spend a lot of time in planes, so we tried to avoid waiting more in transfers. We ended buying ticket from Lisbon to Melbourne through London and Hong Kong and the way back was Sydney through Singapore and London. My friend had only 2 weeks holidays, so he returned sooner. We also went to New Zealand during those 2 weeks and the 3rd week I went to Surfers Paradise. So, overall I did 10 plane trips: Lisbon - London - Hong Kong - Melbourne. Then Melbourne - Wellington. Then Auckland - Sydney. After Sydney - Gold Coast. And Brisbane - Sydney. And finally Syndey - Singapore - London - Lisbon.

Also had one long terrestrial travel from Wellington to Auckland with overnight stops in Rotorua and Auckland. We used the FlexiPass which is a ticket of trip hours. The minimum was to buy 15 hour with the purchase of the Pass that we could charge with more hours. We spent about 13 hours for the New Zealand, north island trip. No time to visit the South Island. By travelling to the other side of the world we find some curious things like these: the farest point from my hometown was Auckland and from my birthtown was Wellington (Porirua to be more precise - 19700km away).

The time it took since I entered Lisbon airport and exited Melbourne Airport was 31 hours. And it was the same from Sydney to Lisbon, because although the trip time was shorter, I had a two hour delay in London because of the famous Terminal 5 startup. Also because of that my luggage arrived only 3 days later and with missing objects. And by the way: the BT/Qantas plane that took me to Melbourne was the "Longreach" plane that in the month of July had an emergency landing in Manila after an explosion made by an oxygen bottle. So, I didn't got a surprise visit to Manila like those passengers did

!!!

Taking into account the timezone: 11 hour diference from Lisbon to Melbourne, we took 31+11 hours to travel. We started at 5 in the morning in Lisbon, saw the sun rise at 6h44 already in the plane for a day that lasted 9 hours (the shortest day of my life) and next a nigth that lasted 7h20. The second day lasted 10h20 and we exited Melbourne airport at around 22h30 localtime of the second day.

The only problem was my stomach because of plane food. On the way back I had no problem with food but got two very big feet. After a few days they returned to normal. They say we should walk in the plane but I was in the window seat and had two nice old people next to me, so I didn't want to bother them too much. As for my weight I gained 2 kg at the end of trip. And instead of having short days and nights, I had a 19 hour night - the longest night of my life.

I also did 5 timezones (Lisbon/London, Hong Kong, Melbourne/Sydney, Surfers Paradise, Wellington/Auckland... ]]> =iznogoud 2006 Journey Historical Record http://iznogoud.deviantart.com/journal/21018322/ http://iznogoud.deviantart.com/journal/21018322/ Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:02:28 PDT
Weekend holidays in Portugal was with co-workers, Spain was with family and the rest was Interrail trip travelling alone but meeting friends in some of the places. It was my first time in every place except for Serbia (2nd time in Belgrade and Novi Sad), and Spain (2nd time in Toledo, 3rd in Granada, 5th in La Manga).

Traveled by plane from Lisbon to Prague and the way back from Belgrade to Frankfurt then Lisbon. Between Prague and Belgrade did Interrail and besides plane and train I also traveled U-Bahn (metro), S-Bahn (tram), city bus, tourist bus, taxi, car, bicycle, boat and my feet.

Spent a total of 3300Â (77Â/day average). About 50Â in Porto Santo (all trip expenses paid by company), 500Â in Spain and the rest in Central Europe: 90Â with ticket planes (bought with free miles), Interrail global pass was 550Â, hotels were about 1000Â and the rest: food, other transports, museums, souvenirs, etc. For the time of holiday I think I didn't spent too much but also wasn't cheap. Tried to manage without being concerned about it cause the most important was to have a good time in every place. But maybe next time I'll try not to spend so much in hotels!

I felt safe in every place. Police was present in important public places, specially because of World cup. Taking into account my past experience as a tourist I am glad not to have had bad experience with stolen goods and specialy because I had no previous experience doing interrail and travelling alone.

I met many friendly people which was one of the best experiences on this trip. I made some new friends and had nice chats with portuguese, brazilian, british, german, spanish, bulgarian, french, croatian, slovenian, serbian, italian and norwegian people (uff). That's the good thing about Europe. This is the european year for mobility and I hope it will be easier in future for people to live and work anywhere in Europe.

The Euro currency is almost everywhere but still I had to exchange to other currencies: CZ Koruna, SI Tolar, HR Kuna and YU Dinar. Not a big problem, and what is left can always be a souvenir or useful for next visit. I was able to use my mobile everywhere except in Serbia where automatic roaming didn't work. Also as souvenir I collected some newspapers (maybe one day I can read them) and 24 maps of cities and countries.

I took 1600 photos (3,24GB) - an average of 37 photos/day. These photos are available as Bubbleshare albums ([link]) and some were posted on Deviantart ([link]). Please have a look at it - an image can be worth a 1000 words.

Now my impressions of each place I visited:

Portugal: was good to be with co-workers and not talk about work. Porto Santo is a desert and only good for beach. We did some sports like Kart racing and Slide. And had a good time at night in some bars.

Czech Republik - Prague: The river-side is beautiful. Very nice monuments: the Powder Tower, Old Town Hall, Astronomical Clock, Petrin Lookout Tower (smaller version of Eiffel Tower), Church of St. Nicholas, Old Town Bridge Tower e Lesser Town Bridge Tower. The Strahov gallery and Strahov library are amazing. The Karluv Most (Charles Bridge) is very nice to cross and also to take a rest and enjoy the scene. Good food and drink (beer). A lot of tourists specially from Italia and Japan. Czech women are very beautiful. Walked a lot, felt safe with police everywhere and took many photos. Saw Ferraris (my favourites) and I had the nice surprise of watching the making of movie scenes in front of the national theater. Its a city I hope to see again - its not a big city but takes a little of the beauty of Paris and a little of the magic of Barcelona.

Germany: now I understand why the Deutsche Bahn is "Die Bahn". If all public transportation were like them, we wouldn't need cars. They keep the schedule to the minute, are well organized being possible to get all information we need, nice connections with other cities, surrounding countries and other transport connections. Everything was thought for bikes, disabled people and business travelling. And last but not least its a comfortable ride. Germans also did well with the World Cup preparations and almost everything was ok to receive foreigners. I really liked to see so many bikes in the streets of the cities and also the enormous gardens they have. One detail about cars is that they can choose the plate they want. And good cars they have - also saw some... ]]> =iznogoud