Happy new year!

Posted 1 January 2008 - The Hague (NL):

The PhotoLogiX/DailyPhoto/Us Europeans one-man show sends you the best wishes for a refreshing 2008!

Thanks for the good wishes and encouragements, of which this one was my favourite:

Un grand merci a toute l'equipe de Us Europeans, pour nous avoir fait vibrer avec toutes ces aventures europeennes. Felicitations surtout, au journaliste, au photographe et a l'ensemble des organisateurs

Photo: New Year`s Dive at Scheveningen

(© The Hague - NL, January 2008)
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Change of years

Posted 2 January 2008 - The Hague (NL):

The change of years left its marks in The Hague. Nr 1: Exploded bus stop in Scheveningen:

(© The Hague - NL, January 2008)
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Play around

Posted 5 January 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Another crossroad, this one from my own city. I really like how some photos are quiet and seem to be free of any noise. Photos that don`t put themselves to the forefront and quickly go unnoticed. Because it`s always those kind of photos that leave the viewer free to decide and play around with the different elements. There`s always something about to happen.

(© The Hague - NL, January 2008)
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Messy message

Posted 7 January 2008 - London (UK):

From the Dutch clay to the metropolis of London.. A bit of a turbulent flight, and a sad goodbye. Seven months of travelling ahead. It`s a long time but it will fly by like the previous five and then I will have to start working on serious stuff again.. The laptop is back empty and so are the energy reserves. Time to relax and keep up with the writing. Meeting some friends tomorrow and am staying with one. Next stops: Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester

(© London - UK, January 2008)
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Streets of London

Posted 8 January 2008 - London (UK):

London has been nice to me today! I first slept and wrote yesterday`s article, then left for Oxford Street, Hyde Park and Notting Hill. I also needed to make sure I exchanged some old English bank notes and bought a bus ticket to Southampton. After I did all that, I cooked dinner at Sipke`s place and we went out in the evening to meet Vilda, my first CouchSurfing host who at the time lived in Kaunas (LT) but shortly after my visit moved to London.

(© London - UK, Jan 2008)
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Fr London to Soton

Posted 9 January 2008 - Southampton (UK):

I left busy London this afternoon and exchanged it for much quieter Southampton on the South Coast. I`m visiting Sinéad and Alex, and it`s nice to see them again after we last met in The Hague back in April.

Today was the first day I was told that I was not allowed to ask anybody questions and I got also sent off from metro station Victoria when I was taking photos there. Here`s one I took before being told to get lost:

(© London - UK, January 2008)
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Mirror imaged

Posted 10 January 2008 - Southampton (UK):

Even though driving on the left-hand side is something I can easily get used to, the whole mirror-imaged traffic system does confuse me a lot when I am just walking around. I tend to look at the opposite side of the street, then read an upside-down Look left then forget I should be reading the text on my own side of the crossing which reads look right. Anyway, all too complicated for my small Dutch brain. Here`s one of Southampton`s avenues, actually called The Avenue, with some nice office villas along the pavement.

(© Southampton - UK, January 2008)
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Temps pourri

Posted 11 January 2008 - Bristol (UK):

I`m heading for Bristol today and wonder what I will find there. (Updatum: rain, rain, rain and wind) The Couchsurfing website is having some trouble and I am not sure where I can stay and for how long. But it`s weekend, there will probably be nice people around in town. Photo: another Soton street.

(© Southampton - UK, January 2008)
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Wales rules

Posted 13 January 2008 - Cardiff (UK):

One of the coaches owned by National Express took me from English Briton to Welsh Cardiff this morning. I had never been to Wales before and must say that I have, so far been, impressed by Welsh modesty, friendliness and common sense. The weather has proved a little less convincing: lots of rain and dark clouds. I hope tomorrow will be better, so I can actually post a photo of something Welsh. This photo is another visual proof of yesterday`s visit to the Cheddar Gorge in South West England. I spent yesterday afternoon walking under and over the cliffs with Alex, a guy I met earlier on my trip in Tallinn.

Program for the next days: stay in Cardiff for one more day, then take the train to Manchester on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I will be flying off to country number 14: Cyprus.

(© Cheddar - UK, January 2008)
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Media attention for Us Europeans

Posted 14 January 2008 - Cardiff (UK):

Back in December, I was reporting about how media attention for Us Europeans was slowly picking up. Things always take some time and the results of some meetings I had in Luxembourg, Brussels and The Hague are starting to show. EU news website Euractiv has integrated my articles into their blog section and I was invited to write a guest entry on the blog of Ms Wallström, the Vice President of the EU, in charge of Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy. You can view my post by clicking here.

In the meantime, the trip goes on. I arranged my sleeping places for the coming nights and can start looking forward to the Mediterranean part of the trip 

(© Pontypridd - UK, January 2008)
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Annoyed

Posted 16 January 2008 - Manchester (UK):

Am annoyed today because very tired and need to hurry up getting to the airport in time, it`s too dark outside to take photos and it has so far proved impossible to find a place to sleep in Cyprus, where my internet connection will not work and so I may not be able to do my daily updatums, of which the last ones were crap anyway and all of this is annoying. Hopefully the weather will be a bit better over there.

(© Southampton - UK, January 2008)
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Arrived in Cyprus

Posted 17 January 2008 - Paphos (CY):

Reporting from Cyprus with some delay: All is well. The sun shines in abundance, and I have so far found my way around the expensive hotels and private transportation between cities. The flight from Manchester to Paphos was a lengthy one, and turbulent at times.

Cyprus is very popular as a package-holiday destination, which means it has many expensive hostels and restaurants, but hardly any infrastructure for budget travelers like myself. I had not received any reply from the three Couch Surfers in Paphos so left Manchester with the anxious idea of not having anywhere to stay. Fortunately, the one-woman tourist office at the airport reserved me a bed in a cheap Paphos pension.

Now, I only needed to find a way to actually get there, and the only available option was by taxi. Much to the anger of a group of local taxi drivers, a friendly Briton was willing to give me a ride. He actually dropped me off in front of the pension, which turned out to be far from luxurious but largely sufficient. I even had some money left to buy myself dinner and then left on a long trip to dream land. I got to bed at 22h (English time: 20h) and slept for more than 12 hours. A welcome night of sleep after ten days of unexpectedly tiring Britain.

Photo: Paphos lighthouse and amphitheatre

(© Paphos - CY, January 2008)
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Taking it easy

Posted 18 January 2008 - Limassol (CY):

Hello all! It`s my second day in Cyprus and everything is going well. As I was writing on the Us European website, I was surprised to see houses with water tanks on their rooftops. Here`s some visual proof of that. And it`s not just these two houses, it`s almost every single building having similar facilities.

This morning, I took the one and only daily bus from Paphos to Limassol. I was again a little worried about finding a place to stay. I am traveling without a guidebook or anything, so just rely on luck and common sense to find places for the night. The Couch Surfing website is back online but the concept is not widely known in Cyprus and the few people to whom I wrote requests have not replied. Anyway, within 10 minutes of leaving the bus, I had found myself a nice guesthouse for the coming three nights. An old man told me about the place and said it was clean and cheap. Well, both are true. 10,15 Euros (result of the recent conversion to Euros) for the night is not expensive and the corridor of the building smells very clean. A bit too clean, because the smell makes me think of the many hospital visits to Bas during his hospital stay back in 2005.

Surfing couches is a pleasant activity and a perfect way to get to know people. In trying to keep up with the daily writing, it`s not very easy. It usually requires me to stay up (much) later than my hosts or wake up (much) earlier. I therefore take advantage of my lonely stay in Cypriot guest houses to fill up my batteries. Sun and fresh air will do the rest :)

(© Paphos - CY, January 2008)
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Cyprus weekends

Posted 19 January 2008 - Limassol (CY):

Today was another sunny day along the South coast of Cyprus. I went for a walk to the harbour and back through the outskirts of Limassol, which actually looks like one big outskirt: hardly any tall buildings and very little difference between main connecting roads and small side streets. The city centre is very quiet too, and all shops closed at 15h today.

I am curious what Sundays are like in Cyprus. Strong probability nothing is happening at all..

I took below photo well before 3 o`clock, it`s a small snack car along the side of the road (as you can see..)

(© Limassol - CY, January 2008)
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Kerosine for sale

Posted 20 January 2008 - Limassol (CY):

Stange guys these Cypriots. One in every 10 shops is a petrol station, and most of them sell Kerosine! Not for aeroplanes though, just for heating houses. Days may be quite hot thanks to the sun - Cypriot nights in winter are quite cold!

(© Limassol - CY, January 2008)
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Divided capital

Posted 21 January 2008 - Nicosia (CY):

Hello from Nicosia! The capital of Cyprus is an interesting place. When I got here in the morning, I was randomly looking around to see if I could `happen to find` the local youth hostel. Soon after, I found out that the main shopping street ended halfway and that I could not go any further. Barriers and barbed wire fence marked the beginning of the occupied area. The situation made me think of Berlin, except that I never saw Berlin before the wall was torn down.

I continued walking to the West, trying to follow the border. Some parts (like the photo below) were indicated as buffer zones under protection of the United Nations. Interesting detail: many signs referring to the UN looked very funny because UN was not systematically spelled in capitals. un authorised vehicles only looks a lot different from UN / Authorised vehicles only.

Crossing the border is allowed, I will go and see the other side of the city tomorrow and write about how Turkish Cypriots feel about the division of the island.

(© Nicosia - CY. January 2008)
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Cold nights

Posted 22 January 2008 - Nicosia (CY):

Another message from Cyprus, where the days are reasonably hot but the night very cold. I slept in an almost abandoned youth hostel last night. Like the guest houses in Paphos and Limassol, there was no heating. Even with socks and a T-shirt on, I shivered my way through the night. All else is fine: I met some nice people in town and can surf somebody`s couch again for the remainder of my stay in Nicosia - either Thursday or Friday. Photo: UN Buffer zone between the Republic of Cyprus and the occupied area.

(© Nicosia - CY, January 2008)
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Renting cars and caste pirating

Posted 23 January 2008 - Nicosia (CY):

I met some nice people from Finland, the US and The Netherlands here in Nicosia yesterday and we decided to rent a car to go see the mountains. Which is what we did today. Some nice driving, on the left hand side of the road of course, and we even illegally entered some fortress at full moon and all. Dark and scary, yet very interesting.

(© Trodos - CY, January 2008)
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Northern Cyprus

Posted 24 January 2008 - Nicosia (CY):

A second excursion into the Northern half of Nicosia. These are the flags of Turkey (left) and the self-proclaimed `Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus` (right), referred to as `occupied territory` in the South of Cyprus.

Leaving the island

Posted 25 January 2008 - Larnaca (CY):

Today is my last day in Cyprus. After a nice stay at Dino`s place in Nicosia, I am now visiting Elena and Mariana in Larnaca. They took me to the salt lake next to the city (photo including mosque) and we cooked two nice meals. Tonight 03:45, I will fly away to Vienna. From there to Bratislava and then to Rome on Sunday. Hope to catch up with the Us Europeans articles in the meantime.

Continent crossing

Posted 26 January 2008 - Bratislava (SK):

Hectic times! I arrived in Vienna this morning at 06h00 after taking off from Larnaca at 03h40. From there, I took a bus to Bratislava. I was invited to stay with Barbora and Anastazia, the two sisters I met first in Klaipeda (LT) then in Riga (LV). Barbora and Anastazia`s boyfriend Marian were waiting for me at the bus station. We walked around Bratislava`s Old Town and then to Barbora and Anastazia`s place outside the city. Their mother cooked a few wonderful things and we walked around the village for a bit. In the evening, I tried to catch up with my articles but could`t help falling asleep every now and then. Altogether, a long but nice day. Off to Rome tomorrow, Hocus di Pocus ;)

No more flights

Posted 27 January 2008 - Rome (IT):

My stay in Vienna barely lasted one hour and my stay in Slovakia hardly over 24h. I did have a wonderful stay at Anastazia`s and Barbora`s place. I tried to speak and understand some Slovak to converse with their parents but did not get too far with that. In spite of that, I felt most welcome at their place and very much enjoyed all the wonderful food their mum prepared and was continuously preparing: soup, schnitzels, Slovak doughnuts filled with jam… Jum jum.

This morning, Anastazia, Barbora and Mariane took me to Bratislava airport from where my flight for Rome was due to leave at 12h40. Contrary to the Cyprus flights, this one was mostly calm and pleasant. And didn`t last long – just a little over an hour. Bratislava – Rome Fiumicino was the last flight of my entire trip. From now on, I will only be using road transportation or ferries (Italy – Malta vv, Italy – Greece and possibly Poland – Denmark). That`s quite a relief, I always feel relieved when I get off a plane.

So for the next couple of days, it`s Rome. The former capital of the civilised world, but little of that still remains today:

Rome vs 2.0

Posted 28 January 2008 - Rome (IT):

Walking around in Rome today, with some memories of the 2005 trip to the same destination. Unlike this time, that trip had been paid for. It was actually my first and only paid-for photo project abroad. Some photos I took back then are still online, you can find them here.

Old style portrait

Posted 29 January 2008 - Rome (IT):

I haven`t been posting too many photo of people since I left on this trip. I think it`s got something to do with the digital camera and the way it deals with light surfaces and depth-of-field. After 2.5 years of digital photography, I still think that some type of photos are more suitable for analog recording. Anyway, here`s an old-style PhotoLogiX photo, but I did take it today. In front of Saint Peter`s Cathedral.

Benedict XVI

Posted 30 January 2008 - Rome (IT):

Paid a visit to the Pope`s weekly Wednesday audience today, and am writing a report about that on Us Europeans (article 30/01/2008)

Chaotic Naples

Posted 31 January 2008 - Naples (IT):

Hello from Naples! Some waste collection has been done since the waste crisis ended a few weeks ago. But that doesn`t mean all is well-organised here. Here`s a random snap shot from a random square in random Naples.

Happy new year!

Posted 1 January 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Explosive

Posted 2 January 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Change of years

Posted 2 January 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Play around

Posted 5 January 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Messy message

Posted 7 January 2008 - London (UK):

Streets of London

Posted 8 January 2008 - London (UK):

Fr London to Soton

Posted 9 January 2008 - Southampton (UK):

Mirror imaged

Posted 10 January 2008 - Southampton (UK):

Temps pourri

Posted 11 January 2008 - Bristol (UK):

Cheese town

Posted 12 January 2008 - Cheddar (UK):

Wales rules

Posted 13 January 2008 - Cardiff (UK):

Media attention for Us Europeans

Posted 14 January 2008 - Cardiff (UK):

Annoyed

Posted 16 January 2008 - Manchester (UK):

Arrived in Cyprus

Posted 17 January 2008 - Paphos (CY):

Taking it easy

Posted 18 January 2008 - Limassol (CY):

Cyprus weekends

Posted 19 January 2008 - Limassol (CY):

Kerosine for sale

Posted 20 January 2008 - Limassol (CY):

Divided capital

Posted 21 January 2008 - Nicosia (CY):

Cold nights

Posted 22 January 2008 - Nicosia (CY):

Renting cars and caste pirating

Posted 23 January 2008 - Nicosia (CY):

Northern Cyprus

Posted 24 January 2008 - Nicosia (CY):

Leaving the island

Posted 25 January 2008 - Larnaca (CY):

Continent crossing

Posted 26 January 2008 - Bratislava (SK):

No more flights

Posted 27 January 2008 - Rome (IT):

Rome vs 2.0

Posted 28 January 2008 - Rome (IT):

Old style portrait

Posted 29 January 2008 - Rome (IT):

Benedict XVI

Posted 30 January 2008 - Rome (IT):

Chaotic Naples

Posted 31 January 2008 - Naples (IT):

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