india

it’s been a while now since i returned from india, indeed a bit more than a month. and the concept of time in my mind is a bit blurred, as it happens. eventually, you tend to sink into everyday reality again, no matter how much of an eye opener a trip abroad can be.

two and a half weeks are of course not enough to see anything in that great country. but at least you get a taste. i’ve been wanting to go for a very long time, more than 6 years now, and i finally got the opportunity. and it is as beautiful and overwhelming as I thought it would be.

2 and a half weeks with a week in kerala, 4 days in pune, 2 days in goa and another 3 in mumbai, i have to say we did our best to see as many and as diverse things as possible. from the beaches of goa and panjim to dharavi, from the indian wedding of rohit and carol to the backwaters and the tea plantations in kerala, from elephanta island to cochin.

t was my first time in that land, but definitely not the last one.

το πέρασμα.

η πτήση ήταν πρωινή και φτάσαμε στο γιβραλτάρ στις 9.30. δεν είδαμε και πολλά, μιας και κουβαλούσαμε τους σάκκους μας και η μετακίνηση δεν ήταν εύκολη. πάντως όλα όσα ξέρει κανείς για το γιβραλτάρ ήταν αισθητά. ο επιβλητικός βράχος, οι ιστορίες γύρω από την κυριαρχία στα στενά, και η γνώση ότι είμαστε στην άκρη της ευρώπης, και μόλις μια ώρα απέναντι είναι η μεγάλη άγνωστη, η αφρική.

ρίξαμε λοιπόν μια ματία στο βράχο και πήραμε ένα ταξί για το algeciras, αφού περάσαμε τα σύνορα της ισπανίας πεζή. από εκεί πήραμε το ferry για την ταγγέρη. αργότερα εκείνη με ρώτησε γιατί πήραμε πτήση για το βράχο αφού δε θα μέναμε, και το ίδιο βράδυ θα καταλήγαμε στο μαρόκο. η απάντηση ήταν απλή: ήθελα να διανύσω τα Στενά και να περάσω απέναντι. πάντα είχα έναν ενθουσιασμό με τα σύνορα. δεν ήταν τόσο η σφραγίδα στο διαβατήριο - σαν τρόπαιο - αλλά περισσότερο το ότι νιώθεις πραγματικά (ή και όχι, καμιά φορά) πως περνάς από χώρα σε χώρα. έτσι, όταν πρωτοσκέφτηκα το ταξίδι στο μαρόκο, η πρώτη προσμονή ήταν αυτή του ταξιδιού στο καράβι. αυτή η αίσθηση πως δεξιά σου είναι ο ατλαντικός και δεξιά η μεσόγειος, πίσω σου η ευρώπη και μπροστά σου η αφρική. και πως αυτό δεν είναι ένα απλό σύνορο, είναι ένα πέρασμα σε έναν άλλο κόσμο.

έτσι κι έγινε. το ταξίδι της μιας ώρας δεν ήταν και τόσο συναρπαστικό, αλλά φτάνοτας στην ταγγέρη, και με την απαραίτητη στάμπα εν πλω στο διαβατήριο, αμέσως καταλάβαμε πως τα πράγματα εδώ είναι διαφορετικά. πέρασαν 16 χρόνια από το 1992 που ήμουν στην αίγυπτο, αλλά οι εικόνες ήταν πια ζωντανές και πάλι, μα και παρόμοιες. πολυκοσμία, πολυχρωμία, φασαρία, σκόνη, άνθρωποι που πουλάνε ό,τι μπορείς να φανταστείς στο δρόμο, με έντονα συναισθήματα στο πρόσωπο. χαρά από καλοζωία ή και ατελείωτη θλίψη από δύσκολη ζωή και πολλή φτώχεια. παραδοσιακά όμορφα σπίτια, αλλά και εκτρωματικά κτίρια, σε μια προσπάθεια πρόχειρης απομίμησης της ευρώπης του '80.

κι η παραλία εκεί, να σου θυμίζει πόσο διαφορετικά είναι τα πράγματα στην άλλη πλευρά. να σε κάνει να αναρωτιέσαι αν ο κόσμος που κάνει τη βόλτα του εκεί, κοιτά απέναντι προς την ευρώπη με αδιαφορία, με προσμονή, ή ονειρευόμενος μια ευκαιρία για καλύτερη ζωή.

η πρώτη μέρα λοιπόν, περιελάμβανε απλά εξοικείωση με τις πρώτες εικόνες στο μαρόκο. χαλάρωση, φαγητό στο όμορφο ριάντ (ξενώνα) μας, βόλτα στην αγορά και την παραλία της ταγγέρης, λίγο κρασί.

με την εξοικείωση ήρθαν και οι πρώτες συζητήσεις για το διαφορετικό της χώρας. πώς είναι εδώ οι οικογένειες, τι επιτρέπεται και τι όχι να φορά κανείς στο δρόμο, αν οι ντόπιοι "κλέβουν" τους τουρίστες, τα δικαιώματα των γυναικών, γιατί στο δρόμο συναντάμε κατά 90% άντρες, από τους οποίους οι περισσότεροι, νέοι και παλιότεροι, απλά παρατηρούν τον κόσμο να περνά μην κάνοντας τίποτα, με ένα άδειο βλέμμα. οι εικόνες αυτές, μαζί με την πολυκοσμία, τη φασαρία, μια διερχόμενη νεκρώσιμη πομπή με τραγούδια (!) εκεί που πίναμε τον καφέ μας, και η ομορφιά των σοκακιών της πόλης, σημάδεψαν την πρώτη μας μέρα εκεί.

έπρεπε πια να αποφασίσουμε πώς και πότε θα φύγουμε για το φες το επόμενο πρωί. είχαμε πια περάσει απέναντι και το ταξίδι είχε αρχίσει.

travels with herodotus

what a great book!

my first encounter with ryszard kapuscinski just totally drew me into his world. an amazing book blending a few of my favourite topics: travel, history, the modern and the ancient world, discovery. if you come accross it, read it!

one of my favourite parts...
"...For all intents and purposes, [such people] do not grow attached to anything, do not put down deep roots. Their empathy is sincere, but superficial. If asked which of the countries they have visited they like best, they are embarrassed - they do not know how to answer. Which one? In a certain sense - all of them. There is something compelling about each. To which country would they like to return once more? Again, embarrassment - they had never asked themselves such a question. The one certainty is that they would like to be back on the road, going somewhere. To be on their way again - that is the dream."

and yet another one of the many gems and anecdotes hidden in the book:

"...Croesus personally received Solon and ordered his servants to show him his treasures, and, certain that the sight of them astonished his guest, he queried him: "So I really want to ask you whether you have ever come across anyone who is happier than everyone else?"

But Solon did not flatter him in the least and instead cited as the happiest of men several heroically fallen Athenians, adding: "Croesus, when you asked me about men and their affairs, you were putting your question to someone who is well aware of how utterly jealous the divine is, and how it is likely to confound us. Anyone who lives for a long time is bound to see and endure many things he would rather avoid. I place the limit of a man's life at seventy years. Seventy years makes 25,200 days...No two days bring events which are exactly the same. It follows, Croesus, that human life is entirely a matter of chance...

"Now, I can see that you are extremely rich and that you rule over large numbers of people, but I won't be in a position to say what you're asking me to say about you until I find out that you died well...Until [a man] is dead, you had better refrain from calling him happy, and just call him fortunate...

"It is necessary to consider the end of everything...and to see how it will turn out, because the god often offers prosperity to men, but then destroys them utterly and completely."

iceland

ok, so this is not such a recent trip, but the posting has been pending since the end of march when i came back from the extraordinary island of iceland. and i couldn't not post it, since this is one of my best trips recently, and also one that i would recommend if you wanna see a "different" country.

i was of course lucky to go at the end of march, for a few good reasons. the day lasts for about 13 hours, not too short, not too long. it's not too cold at that time, although it's still below 0 degrees, but you can still see all the icy landscapes. and it's considered off season, which makes the sky high prices a bit lower, at least on accommodation.

6 days gives you a good idea, but may not be enough if you want to explore more than the standard stuff. i wouldn't do iceland on a weekend though, since you'd only see reykjavik.

3 stays in the capital, 2 stays in akureyri, with trips from both of them, allowed us to see a good part of the country. major highlights are the golden circle, though not so much the geysir, godafoss, lake myvatn, the blue lagoon (worth doing on your way to the airport, really relaxing), both towns we saw had their own beauty. reykjavik has great nightlife and its unique architecture, invites you to walk around and explore it. people are friendly, art is everywhere, and so is design, which shows from restaurants and cafes to hotels and dorms. akureyri in the north had the beauty of a small place that has everything compact, but still manages to keep life exciting for the 17,000 inhabitants and visitors.

we were unlucky not to see the northern lights (apparently some other people saw them the night before we arrived) and not to have a few more days to explore the west fjords, the little island on the arctic circle, do whale watching or see the glaciers and do a bit of jet skiing on them. but you can't have everything in life now, can you?

all in all, i thought it's an impressive country. having to fight the natural elements, ice, cold and earthquakes and volcanos, the icelanders have managed to turn this country into a modern and exciting place, while preserving its uniqueness and beauty. the natural beauty and wonders you see in this country, and the effort the residents have put in order to live with them, are the things that impressed me the most, and make this place a must see.

hope you manage to set foot there and enjoy it!

istanbul / κωνσταντινούπολη

it's been a little over a week since i am back from that amazing city. the city a lot of people through the ages have been passionate and fought about. the city that stands between europe and asia. a giant and a beauty, at the same time. the city my grandfather was born in, 100 years ago. istanbul.

it was only a 3-4 day trip, which leaves me with only positive impressions and memories. walking down sultanahmet. visiting Agia Sofia. going for a hammam. eating mezes in the little streets around istiklal. walking around the spice market. seeing the blue mosque. having turkish coffee on the galata bridge. recognising familiar words here and there, words which have now been absorbed in the greek language. meeting old [and good] friends. seeing a bit of the nightlife. nargile at top hane. seeing the view at night from the top of the marmara hotel in taksim. sensing so much tradition and history in the air, in a modern, crowded city full of young, energetic and friendly people.

this city you only have to promise one thing to: return.

travel plans

finally some travel for 2008! for the first time since i returned from my xmas holidays, i am going on a plane again in only 6 days from now. let me know if you are somewhere around these places on the right dates:

thessaloniki: 27-28 feb
istanbul: 29 feb - 3 mar
iceland: 21-26 mar
the netherlands (amsterdam & den haag) 29 mar - 1 apr

see you there?

the stuff jealousy is made of

Δύο Έλληνες, ένα τζιπ και μία περιπέτεια 800 ημερών.

around the world on a landrover in 80 days! god, i have to do something like it one day!

greek article

english website.

la bella italia #2

well, i've been to italy a few times in my life, but most were in the earlier years (as a kid or transiting :-), so i think i am able to enjoy it more now. after the trip to alghero, sardegna, in october, i took the opportunity to go to firenze for the first time in my life, in december.

unfortunately that was only for 2 and a half days, full of rain. but i can tell you that the city definitely lives up to the expectation its name creates. got to practice my italian a bit, ate so much prosciutto, gorgonzolla, peccorino, pizza and pasta/meat that i can't even begin to describe, walked on the coblestone streets of florence and caught a glimpse of the extraordinary palaces filled with masterpieces in that city. there's so much art to see over there it would take you weeks to appreciate it all. the medici family did a good job of collecting all of that.

also met a good childhood friend who's setup up there for the past few years and is now on his way to become a rock star :-) but more on this on another posting.

all in all it was a great 3 days and i am looking forward to exploring more of beautiful tuscany in the future with a car and better weather.

images from Oman

i know i know, it's a bit late for all these postings now, but better late than never, no?

well, here's the story: my friend Valia, who lives in muscat, had sent an open invitation a few months ago to celebrate her birthday over there. Valia is an old friend from the 1990's aiesec times and i really wanted to go, though i didn't have any days of left from work. surprisingly in the beginning of october i managed to put my final 3 days together and tadam! booked my tickets to spend 4 and a half days in the middle east, mid november.

i was so much craving for a "different" destination (not that i spared myself of those in 2007, including china, malaysia, singapore and thailand) and there i was, enjoying the sun, swimming, celebrating my friend's birthday and being in a different world, in november, when it was cold all over europe. i hadn't been to the middle east [save for egypt in 1992] before, and i enjoyed every minute of it.

oman struck me as a country with beautiful landscapes, friendly people, a strange political system (a very progressive sultan), modern infrastructure and a capital developed in traditional architecture but with quite a bit of anarchy there. the recent history of the country is quite impressive. the current sultan basically lifted the isolation that the country had been into for decades, started training, founded schools and universities, made a more secular state than before, invested in infrastructure and started making a business out of oil and tourism. that's not bad at all for 37 years, when previously the country only had a handful of schools and about 11 km of road strip.

all of this has brought a certain pride to the omani people, who nevertheless are very tolerant and open to foreign people. the biggest contrast that impressed me was the fact that tradition and modernisation so far seem to be going hand to hand. the religious feeling is there, the traditional way of life and dress is there, but so is the education, the training of the workforce and the modernisation of the country. i haven't visited the wealthy neighbours to have a measure of comparison (UAE), but it seems to me that oman is progressing without necessarily selling out to the west.

if my impression is right, i wish it lasts for long. eitherway, it's a country worth visiting.

la bella italia

did i forget to mention i was in beautiful sardegna on the weekend (and monday) of 6-8 october?

just the perfect place to be in europe after a freaking intense summer at work. 30 degrees, sun, sea, off season, good food and scenery, and great company. hadn't been to italy for a few years now, so got to practice my italian as well, while bidding farewell to a friend who's moving to a better island than ours, namely australia! some good laughs there. enjoy.

new york, new york

never been to that city, but yet it's been on my mind for the past few days, including the song...i must add it to the 2008 list, somehow!

Start spreading the news
I'm leaving today
I want to be a part of it, New York, New York
These vagabond shoes
Are longing to stray
And make a brand new start of it
New York, New York
I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps
To find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap
These little town blues
Are melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there
I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you, New York, New York.


I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps
To find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap
These little town blues
Are melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there
I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you, New York, New York.

what's the plan

too many travel destinations for 2008 already, and too few holidays. sooner or later i have to start realising some of them and also filtering down, as not all of them will fit in one year, quite obviously. to name a few:

india (weddings & leisure)

australia (weddings & leisure)

the czech republic (I can’t believe I still haven’t set foot on that country)

morocco

berlin

iceland

greece (family)

oman

hong kong & macau

and these are just the ones i can think of as of now, i’m afraid a few more might be added to the list soon…got to get my act together and make a good plan for the year, securing some of these but also allowing a certain degree of flexibility as well…

photos from the trip

...are finally here, uploaded. check them out (click on photos, login doesn't require full registration on kodakgallery.com, only e-mail and passwd)

China

Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)

Thailand (Koh Tao)

Singapore

summer travel plan

- july 7-8: athens (chryssa's & socrates' wedding)
- july 20-22: rotterdam (ai transition party)/amsterdam
- september 1-2: oslo (kristin's wedding)
- september 14-16: amsterdam (vivek's & lonnie's wedding)

except for the fact that this is essentially a wedding tour (well, i am at this age when everyone around me is getting married and envious of my unmarried status :-P)...

...i am looking for a destination (and company) for the august bank holiday (25-27 august). i don't have holidays till october (no coincidence that all the above are weekends) and that's just about my only chance to go swimming and catch a glimpse of the sun - so i am thinking southern europe. sicily or sardinia could be a good option - not swamped (like ibiza) and i haven't been there. any ideas are welcome. it's 3 days.

i still have to fit prague somewhere in 2007, and potentially a couple of other european or north african destinations. οψόμεθα.

the trip

well, it's long gone now...i've been back to london for some 12 days now already. and it's surprising how being busy and moving houses and getting back to your daily concerns almost makes you forget (so fast) about great times you've been having - even though it hasn't even been two weeks since i came back.

so, well, i think it's not a good time anymore to post full stories of the trip. should have done that two weeks back. but my method for overcoming stress, rage, frustration these days, is to consciously think back to the times in china, malaysia, thailand and singapore, the friends i met, the places i saw and all the new experiences, and SMILE.

such different places, and quite a few days of staying there, i just will go into listing some moments from the trip, which, as said already, was much more than what i was expecting.

some selected moments in chronological order :-)

- staying at sathe's place even though he was not there
- finding out that in a 15+ million city like shanghai you can't count on your english to survive
- meeting aiesec alumni i knew of before and new friends, randomly in a party in beijing and in shanghai. devrim, chris, birtan, fulvio, da li, to name a few
- the great wall of china. need i say more?
- amazing food, when i had smn there to help me with ordering :-)
- KL - such a chilled place. couldn't take my eyes off the petronas towers, which explains so many photos of them
- playing scrabble late at night at pilli's with her and caro
- seeing a salsa bar full of chinese people skillfully dancing to salsa tunes in KL! surreal experience, but i guess salsa is a global phenomenon by now
- 36 hour trip in extreme temperatures and humidity, from KL to Koh Samui. train, bus, night boat
- snorkelling in thailand - so beautiful down there
- hanging out with a few people we randomly met in thailand - sunsets at the beach bars
- the best airport in the world: koh samui! you have to go experience this yourself!
- nights out in singapore and catching up with lots of friends
- ktv with ying, chao, brenda, ceci
- being the only backpacker in a plane full of people with suits, on the way back, transferring from amsterdam to london on an early morning flight.

i am forgetting a lot but the purpose of this is not to remember everything. the overall feeling i have is that i do not regret a single moment from these three and a half weeks, and that all was kept in good balance of seeing new places and meeting my friends. surprisingly, it all worked, and i just wanna say a big thanks to all of you that made my life easy. to all friends we hanged out with - my home is your home, whether in london or anywhere else on this small planet. see you soon.

some last photos from singapore and thailand

singapore skyline - friends in singapore (bulan, cha0, pedro, brenda, thomas, vega, liv, ying) - view from brenda's place - tasos & jervina - signpost at mrt - last night in thailand with the koh tao gang - coolerst airport in the world (koh samui - outdoor!) - nangyang island postcard - last sunset in koh tao...

the stories to follow during the weekend!

from Thailand with love

this is actually the chill out part / kind of greek island /part of my holiday. after 36 hours of travelling, we made it to Koh Tao island, and well, it's rewarding to be here even for three-four days only. malaysia - well, KL really - was a lot of fun. i find that place much more relaxed than the other asian capitals i've been to, but at the same time modern and relatively easy to navigate.

met with caro at the airport and stayed at pilli's and fabian's place, which was great. but basically we got lazy, and we only just saw the main sights f the city, spent time watching movies and discussing, and of course expored the nightlife. highlights would have to be the scrabble games, the salsa bar filled with chinese people dancing to latin american tunes (completely surreal but they were actually very good) and of course the petronas towers. a fantastic place to be indeed.

monday night we took the train to hat yai, where we reached after 15-16 hours. got the bus to surat thani, which was quite an experience as even the aircon cannot counter the heat in this country. we then relaxed there for a few hours, till we finally got the 8 hour night ferry to Koh Tao, along with alice and brian, whom we met on the train from KL...and the fun is about to begin...

well, i'm off to the beach now :-)

some more China photos

enjoy! now back to shanghai and soon to go on an excursion, before descending to kl on friday!

from china with love

i have been in this fantastic country for 5 days now - since i landed on sunday. and basically i have so much to write that if i start now i am gonna need a book and miss out on seeing more. i'll try to summarise though:

i landed in shanghai on sunday the 6th, after some 15 hours on the plane. very quickly you realise that china is more like another planet than another country. i left to beijing on tuesday and returning to shanghai this saturday after having seen the main sights. so far i definitely want to thank all people i met here for their hospitality (tzyy, sathe, carol, carlos) and others that have helped me a great deal before the trip (jenny, ying, sathe again etc.). i have met quite a few ppl that i had heard of before and finally got to hang out with while here and others who were friends but now are my friends as well. i might be forgetting smn so apologies in advance.

china is a fascinating place to be. you can see that in shanghai, that everything is moving fast and the modernisation of the country is going forward. but i'd prefer the term modernisation to westernisation as the underlying principles of the chinese are still based on their tradition, which i deem to be a good thing. beijing is more laid back in my perception and you can see the olympics coming, as there are olympic related works and mention everywhere. shanghai is also a big construction site, due to the constant growth of the city, but as they say, they may be larger in population, but it's a taller city in terms of buildings, as i found out for myself, and therefore smaller in size than beijing. that makes beijing a huge city, which i found out by walking for about 3 hours on the day i got here, for what seemed on the map to be a 15 minute walk. both places are a lot of fun, and for the fanatics (jenny?) - i am not able to choose yet :-) but there's plenty to do and see in both. the rest of the country i haven't seen yet.

other than that, the trip is so far everything i wanted it to be, only the duration for such a big country will always be short. the culture is so different, the language barrier is there but you would always get around and that's what i was looking for, a place different than europe. so far have seen plenty of museums, met different friends, been to tian'anmen square, forbidden city different parks, the ming tombs and the Great wall of china, which is really something. i also went out and enjoyed the nightlife for 3 evenings so far, and will be doing more of that, while currently trying to filter out which "non city" places i will visit. finally, i have been walking for more than 8 hours every day that i have been in china, and have used a bit of public transport as well, but prefer walking as i can see things first hand. i consider riding a bike here a bit dangerous, as everything moves so fast and the traffic in beijing is on the unpredictable side! :-)

there's so may moments and images to describe, but i won't go on for now. will probably go for this after i am back to london.

that's all for now, i'll let the photos speak for themselves, and don't know how my internet access will go from now on, but will try to keep it coming. see you all soon.

copenhagen

after a period of relative blogging inactivity, i am back with some images from the 3-day trip to copenhagen. i have to thank matt and diego for the suggestions of where to go and what to do, cause it turns out that in 3 days you can only do so much in such a city, and especially when the weather is cold enough not to be helping you out.

anyway copenhagen is beautiful. i had only been on the airport on transit in the past (on the way to the legenday ipm2003 in talinn) and decided i have to properly set foot on this country after this long while. it looks a bit like stockholm in its architecture, the canals and the people give a certain amsterdamish feel to the city (though the danes are more beautiful people than the dutch, i have to say :-) and everything works as efficiently as in germany (i.e. public transport). the cafes and bars are all very different to each other and put certain effort to look different and offer an original environment, more like the coffee experience in greece (without the weather). it's also a fun city with plenty to do at night and during the day - though a bit pricy at times ...

pity i couldn't see different parts of the country, but this three day break was enough to freshen up and see what i think is a beautiful and interesting city! recommended experience!

the first step

today i booked my flight from london to shanghai and from singapore to london. 5th of may and 28th of may respectively. non refundable. i took my risks. and as a friend says, unless you book your flight, you will never start planning a trip. and it truly feels this way.

nomads in shanghai, get in touch!, since i'll be spending about a couple of weeks at your side of the world. will do some research on where to go over the weekend. lets meet up!

see you all there!

see you on the 18th of May in KL!

i don't want to sound too optimistic, but after a couple of phonecalls this weekend, it seems like my asia trip in may is coming to shape. thanks caro, and see you on the 18th in KL!

now the things to do is confirm the rest of the destinations, tickets and of course the days off from work! but it should all get done within this week! so cool!

dublin & st. paddy's

it's time i wrote something about my weekend in ireland, which is hard to describe but in a couple of words was great!

first of all i should say i scheduled this trip 5 months ago, in hope that i would find smn to go with on the way. it appears the only thing i did since then was book the tickets and nothing else, so last minute i was left alone, and with no accommodation. a couple of e-mails later, i had a place for friday (kritika's) and saturday (irish mc), whom i thank both for hosting!

st paddy's was lots of fun, as were all the new people i met while being there. combined with the rugby 6 nations, there was admittedly lots of alcohol around, lots of drunk people (i think i've never seen so many in my entire life - but a friend at work today said it's because i haven't been to australia), lots of laughing, lots of people staying in the same flat (18 i think?), some dancing and lots of good conversations - aiesec related and not. leprechauns, guiness, people dressed up in green etc all inclusive. and of course, re-discovering how small the world is through the common people we know.


it's not surprising to say that - although i regret not staying longer (i definitely have to go back when the weather is better) - i enjoyed myself so much and got a bit of the vibes of that country, ireland, on which i set foot for the first time. irish people are very friendly, and that's not because of drinking (only :-). i literally started meeting people from the moment i landed at the airport. the first impression dublin gave me was similar to the uk, but that's superficial and only on the surface, probably related with things that i have associated with the uk (architecture and driving on the left etc). but it's definitely more easy going, as are the people, and more fun than london (or so it seemed to me). it's also a smaller city, and with much more open spaces it occurred to me.

on sunday, believe it or not, aine, bruna and i went to the irish history museum, after walking around the city and having our bagels for brunch. after that it was time for visiting the jameson distillery and have some irish coffee at the brazen head (oldest pub in dublin). before i knew it i was on my way to the airport and back to london. it appears that although i returned back home exhausted, my batteries were fully charged, just from the excitement of meeting all these new people and having a different weekend in a new country.

i guess i ought to do this kind of thing more often :-)

[awaiting more photos]

travel planning

today is march the 1st (καλό μήνα)

on the 16th i am going to ireland for the weekend (st. patrick's celebrations). i have a place to stay on friday, i don't have a bed for saturday night the 17th of march (any suggestions are welcome but from what i can see online there's not much left - or that i can afford - to book). any nomads in town, by any chance?

on the 5th of april i am going to greece for easter. will be back here on the 10th.

on may is my - pending - long trip to asia. for the time being it looks like i will be leaving the uk on the 4th or the 5th. going to china, staying there for a couple of weeks. shanghai, beijing, travel and then of to thailand or malaysia for a week. i wanna get some sun and swimming, as i don't have summer holidays due to my job. the trip ends with 2-3 days in singapore, to meet up with all friends who currently reside there. there is nothing booked and i need company for thailand and travelling in china. if you are travelling during that period, lets try and combine. i am back to london 28th or 29th may.

in july i am spending the 1st weekend in greece, since my cousin is getting married, and 15th september i am in the netherlands once again, for vivek's and lonnie's wedding.

in between all these, and excluding the summer when i will be messed up with work, i wanna try and get my ass over to barcelona, copenhagen, prague.

post october i should have like 5 days of holiday left. which i still don't know what to do with, but things might change if i don't manage the asia trip in may. lets see how much of this can be realised. so far the only tickets booked are to ireland and greece (x2)...

is it too late to say...

...that i had a great time in NL for new year's and in GR last weekend? those were 7 days to remember for 2007, and we haven't even been through the 1st month yet :)

rotterdam new year

just wondering...any nomads around in rotterdam or nl in general anytime close to the new year? i am in r'dam/a'dam from the 29th dec through to the 2nd of jan.

get in touch.

a great weekend

a weekend that included a lot of good features. mostly drinking and hanging out with friends. volodi, sathe, adriana, hanna, goncalo and andreia, amit - didn't get the chance to catch up with maria though. my first time in brussels after the summer of 2004. planning out my trip to asia for may. chatting about everything and anything. finding out that i pretty much know how to get around in brussels after 4-5 times that i've been there. seeing that the spark and good company with friends is always there, even if you haven't met in a while. a bit of good food, good brunch, good belgian beer and dancing. planning out a couple more trips around europe, since it's the easiest of things to take off and spend your weekend skiing in switzerland or chilling in spain. walking around the city and enjoying the [non rainy] weather.

random events of the weekend:

1. upon arrival, volodi is waiting for me at midi. we take a cab to go find the rest of the gang, and we accidentally meet them on their way there (they were walking). imagine the surprise on rohit's face when he heard me shout his name on a brussels street.

2. we (of course) had the unavoidable flash back on our ai year, and talking about what everyone is doing now. one of the people i haven't seen since july is kene. and knew nothing of his whereabouts. imagine my surprise when, upon getting out of the victoria coach station today, i heard a voice calling my name. it was kene!

3. i caused two people to get back in touch after 6 and a half years.

not bad for a weekend...now lets see how the week ahead will bring!

.nl [punt nl]

surprise ! ! ! ! ! ! ! i am off to the netherlands for new year's eve! that's 99% sorted now, i only have to organise xmas chez moi in london! looking fwd to it! already 4 scheduled trips for the 1st three months of 2007!

becoming a tourist again

with the opportunity given by my friend kostas who is visiting for the weekend, i will visit a lot of touristic and non touristic places in london once again, primarily the ones i haven't been to in years. buckingham palace & big ben (1991), london eye (never been on it) etc etc. i think this weekend, will be one good opportunity to catch up with what's happening in the city, after having been out of it for 2 consecutive weekends. there's also the beer festival (always interesting), camden market which i wanna visit now i got some cash in my pocket, and a few more interesting events going on.

looking fwd to it all.

mama, i'm coming home

well, not home as in my hometown, but greece anyway.

and not for long, only for the weekend.

i have only been away from greece for 45 days, yet it seems like i haven't been there in quite a while. i am looking fwd to a very good weekend.

:)

a weekend in lisbon and much more than that

a weekend which felt more like a week, it's been so full of joy that i keep running with the same energy after barely having slept for 3 days in a row...! (and with the anticipation of my flight to athens in 4 days as well)

preparation

friday evening i left work at 5pm, went for drinks with my colleagues. i still couldn’t believe i would be going to portugal. just to put things into perspective, when i booked the flight 2 months ago, i hadn’t yet moved to the UK, i didn’t have a job confirmed, and i was broke and approaching my credit limit on my card (i am officially there with my last minute airport shopping last nite). went home, packed, left to gatwick, where I got at 1:30 am. tried to get some sleep before boarding the plane at 6 am.

before i knew it, it was 9:30 and the plane touched down in Lisboa aeroporto. i had an irritating kid next to me playing PS2 and elbowing me for the entire duration of the flight, but that didn’t matter much since i was too happy to bother.

straight after landing I took a cab to the hotel where i was right on time to check in and take the bus with the rest of the people staying there to be on time for the wedding (10:30). when entering the bus i was in such a daze from the amount of friends i hadn’t seen in quite a while that i didn’t know whom to greet first. i was really the last person to arrive, just half an hour before the wedding...

the wedding

...soon enough we were outside the church waiting for the bride (Anya) and groom (Pedro a.k.a. Pita). it was all in all an exciting experience. at the same time a new experience for a lot of us. just to mention a few, Sathe said he had never been in a Catholic wedding before (like myself), Pinar and Evrim said they had never seen a wedding in a church before, and soon after the wedding was over (no, we didn’t put up flip charts or divide in groups…!) we started discussing about different types of weddings and customs in our countries (of origin).

the wedding was really nice, with not a lot of people as compared to greek standards, which made it an even warmer event. at the same time the amount of internationals and familiar people around made everyone feel at home, it was just impressive. the priest even addressed the guests in english at one point, also mentioning that maybe we don’t understand a word of what is happening during the ceremony, but we will for sure understand when the couple says “I do” (or “yes”, in portuguese fashion) to each other.and we did! i also realised some similarities we have with the Greek orthodox wedding – for example throwing rice to the couple after the ceremony is over. to my surprise i could understand quite a bit of what the priest was saying in portuguese, thanks to my rusty italian and my christian background as well (also quite rusty, to be honest :-). i think after a couple more years of going to other people’s weddings I will be ready to run the show myself!

it was midday and about time to go to the place where the celebration was going to take place, in Sintra.

the celebration

the setting was very very nice, and started off with drinks and snacks and photo shooting. it looked a little bit like an AIESEC conference since we soon started taking pictures of the bride and groom with AI 02-03, AI 03-04, FTF, MCPs 01-02, AIESEC in Portugal etc etc. but it was lots of fun (of course) and lots of catching up to do, among great food and company, celebrating such a great event! there was some dancing happening in the evening as well. everything was perfectly organised to make everyone feel at home, and that takes exceptional skills for a couple that doesn’t live in portugal, to get the wedding so well organised while living at the other side of the world, in singapore.although this was a portuguese wedding, the international element gave another tune to it as well, since there were at least 30 of us there. i felt really privileged to have been invited and had a great time. When the bride’s family gave a speech (they are from Kazakstan) listen to this: the speech was being translated from Russian to English and from English to Portuguese. How cool is that? :-)


we came across a few interesting customs as well, such as the arrival of the couple on a coach and the fact that they handed out gifts to all the guests present. the party finished at about 1 am (if my memory is right, cause we lost track of time way before that, imagine drinking for 12 hours).

Lisboa

of course we went downtown lisbon for drinks after that, and ended up back in the hotel no earlier than 2:30 am or so. i have to admit that I didn’t see much of the country or the city, but that was not the purpose of my trip there, under the circumstances of not being able to take days off work. from what I saw though lisbon is an impressive city with nice architecture and wide avenues, and the people are cool and laid back.

i have seen a portuguese wedding though, and that tells me more about the people than a tour around the city.

but not having seen enough of the country, is no more than a good reason to come back.

the Atlantic

on sunday it was time to leave, but before that we arranged to go to the seaside. we went to costa da caparica along with rajiv, ripun, brenda, vaibhav, yumna, szymon, kshama, and all i can say is that i realised how much i miss the sea in my summer. it was a great feeling! costa da caparica is a coast that has 18 consecutive beaches, and you go from one to the next using a coastal electrical train (quite cool!)

the atlantic was fun, though swimming was not a lot of fun with big waves coming along and the temperature of the water was rather low. but it was fun to have my first swim (and sunburn) for the year, and possibly my only one in the summer. and i was a bit disapointed no sharks were around to add some excitement :p

but at least i can now officially state on my cv i have swam in the atlantic ocean. great, now i only miss just another couple of thousand places around the globe only.

after that, it was time to say my goodbyes and go.

the return

picture this:

• i left the beach at 15:00.
• got on the electrical train at 15:05
• got on the bus back to lisbon at 15:20
• arrived in lisbon at 16:05
• took the metro and walked to the hotel, where i got at 16:25
• took a cab to the airport at 16:45
• boarded the plane at 18:15
• landed at 21:00
• took a train at 21:20 to victoria
• took the tube from victoria, had to change once to get to liverpool street...
• ...where i got a train back home at 23:10 and after walking for 10 minutes arrived home at 23:35.

(NB: there is no time difference between portugal and the uk)

Conclusions:

1. travel today is very complicated, though it seems simple
2. there should be a plane from costa de caparica to my place. it would save me at least 3 hours.
   

more photos from the weekend are here.

i had an unforgettable time in portugal and hope to see all you guys sometime very soon again! thanks for everything, and wish pedro and anya a lifetime of happiness!

pinkpop

the red hot chili peppers on stage:
Pinkpop rocked, and it was the best way to close my two weeks stay abroad (UK & NL). The festival itself must be the event during which I have been among the biggest number of people, which I suspect is close to a six digit figure.

The trip from Rotterdam to Landgraaf lasted almost 5 hours, with an incredible 3 hour traffic jam in the last 10km of the distance, during which I found out that Landgraaf is right next to Kerkrade, where Euro Expro 2001 took place. So well, it’a always about returning to the same old places, isn't it?

After missing the first few acts due to the traffic jam, we finally managed to enter the site around 3 pm.
Bands that we saw, along with Jelle and Pascal:
- Deftones (not impressed)
- Keane (found out I knew half their songs without actually knowing the band itself)
- Nickelback (Need I say more?)
- Franz Ferdinand (my first touch with Scottish rock from Glasgow and they were quite cool I can say) and finally the festival ended with the
- Red Hot Chili Peppers, whom I wanted to see live for at least the past 4 years, and I finally did. I can say that they live up to the expectations easily and if I get the chance to see them play live again, I will do it for sure. They are playing in London within this month actually and they're much better live than their live at slane castle dvd :)

Unfortunately I missed Morissey who was on the other stage, but if we split our schedules with the other guys we wouldn’t be able to meet again – but Franz Ferdinand who was playing at the same time was a happy compromise for me since I am not a fan of Morissey, I was just curious to see him on stage. Other things I didn’t like: I had to stand for almost 7 hours (but you can’t really avoid that in a rock festival, can you?) and the incredible quantities of garbage everywhere which case a disgusting visual impression.

The impressions are great and it seems that Pinkpop has made a remarkable come back, since it had started to fade out during previous years. It was also the only dry Pinkpop of the past 20 years at least, since there was no rain. And it was all in all a fantastic experience, though I had to rush straight to schiphol for my 05:30 flight back to Athens.

If anyone has photos/videos/anything from Pinkpop this year, I would be happy to see them – let me know. the ones on the pinkpop website are only of the people attending, not the bands.

london trip

i think my priorities were achieved, and i am very happy with the trip which was both a lot of fun and an eye opener.

being a tourist:

• i went to tate modern which i loved, and i have to go back at some point.
• went to the british museum
• walked around the center, thames, st. paul etc.
• went for my favourite walk around camden market
• generally roamed in london and connected the different areas in my mind

meeting friends:
i saw a lot of vivek, fotis, maria, diogo, karthik, ksama, evrim, rado, karan & alina, yumna, jenny and i might be forgetting smn here. but it was all too cool to catch up after quite a while. and it's so exciting to feel i might be connecting with a lot more ppl soon.

on top of that i have already some positive news for my quest for a job abroad. but i am not announcing anything until things are final...in the meantime, enjoy some london photos :)

travel plans

it's been a long time since i've had a travel schedule for countries other than gr. in fact, more than 10 months, since last july when i did everything possible to get a special permit from the army and travel to NL.

it was about time. May 23rd dimitris is in london, spending five days there and flying to the netherlands (May 29th), where i'll be spending time in rotterdam and amsterdam. the final leg of the trip is not yet defined but most probably i will be flying back to athens from brussels around the 6th of June.

apart from the serious part of the trip, which are a few interviews of course, i am trying to combine meeting friends and having some fun. so anyone up for a beer or the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Pinkpop festival (June 5th), do e-mail me.

i might be unlucky missing my 2001 MCP reunion meeting in Egypt these days (or rather not unlucky but broke) but i guess i can combine work hard/play hard in europe as well :)

Λονδίνο, Άμστερνταμ ή Βερολίνο...

...έχεις ξεχάσει πού ακριβώς θέλεις να πας, λέει το τραγούδι. η αλήθεια είναι πως στα 2 πρώτα είναι πολύ πιθανό να καταλήξω για κάποιο καιρό, και θα το ξέρω σύντομα. για το τρίτο δεν ξέρω.

γενικά όμως έρχονται πολλές στιγμές που σκέφτομαι ότι υπάρχουν ευκαιρίες για δουλειά και φοβερή ζωή και εκτός ευρώπης, και πως δε μεγάλωσα και τόσο πια για να τις κυνηγήσω και να ζήσω κάτι τελείως διαφορετικό. ούτως ή άλλως όπου και να πάω, μόνος δύσκολα θα ξεμείνω.

οψόμεθα...