Christchurch – The Experience

Later edit: after I wrote the article, a few hours ago, more replicas of the initial earthquake have been reported and right now the situation is much worse than I initially depicted it. There is a huge demand for helping people trapped under collapsed buildings, for bringing in supplies and for starting the recovering process. I left the post published in the initial form only to keep the beautiful image I was able to see during my trip alive in the minds of my readers, but my heart is going with the people of Christchurch right now. They need help to rebuild the city in the form I was able to experience it in this post.

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Author’s note: As I write this, reports from a second earthquake in Christchurch are coming in. This one was even bigger than the last one in September. The city has many more buildings down this time. But, as one who has been in Christchurch just two days ago, and experienced its peaceful and joyful side, I know they’re going to build it back again. They’re great people and they deserve a fantastic city. What you’re going to read relates to my pre-earthquake experience of Christchurch, as many parts of the article were wrote a few days ago.

I always wanted to go to Christchurch, on the Southern Island of New Zealand. In fact, I always wanted to go to the Southern Island of New Zealand and, since Christchurch is the biggest city on the Southern Island, it always made sense. So, here I am, boarding on a JetStart flight from Auckland to Christchurch (129 NZD, including a checked in 20kg luggage). I checked in online but I still had to go through the counter, to check my bag in. It didn’t take long, though, and after I passed over the security control, I was ready to go.

The domestic terminal in the Auckland airport is pretty neat, although I wasn’t quite impressed about the quantity of liter floating around. As a matter of fact, I think that terminal was the most dirty one I saw in years. It doesn’t go like this in any other area of the airport, or of Auckland, for what matters, but this is how it was.

After around half an hour, I boarded an Airbus 320 and was ready to fly. In a matter of minutes, we were up and flying over Auckland. The scenery made up for any bad impression I may have had.

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Once in Christchurch I made a short phone call to the motel I previously booked, just to confirm and ask for some directions. and then took a shuttle to it. I learned that in most airports shuttles are a way more convenient way to get to your hotel than taxis or buses. They’re small, fast, and usually cheaper than a taxi. Sometimes, if you travel in small groups, they may be even cheaper than a bus ticket.

The Aotea Motel

Once I got to the motel, I tried to check in. It took a good quarter of an hour to the owner to make his appearance, despite the fact that I conscioulsy rang a few times. To make a long story short, in just a matter of minutes I was checked in, in a small one bedroom unit (their name for a one bedroom apartment), unit that I will have to share with my travel buddy (ironically called the same as me, Dragos). The motel was pretty standard, but clean and relatively large.

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We made a short stop to eat at a local restaurant (quite an expensive one, but apparently a very old and well established one too) and then we walked downtown.

From this moment on, I started to have short, unexplainable deja-vu sequences. We had two ways to go downtown (both were involving walking, not buses) and we took the one following the local river, Avon.

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Christchurch is a silent place. It also exhales a feeling of space and well-being. There are a lot of tourists going around downtown, but they are usually polite and relaxed. Being so far away, Christchurch is selecting his visitors using a very simple filter: money. It’s really, really difficult to get there if you’re not having enough money to spend just to go to a silent place.

As we walked down, signs of the recent earthquake were visible everywhere. But it seemed that not only the locals were quite used to those quakes, but they’re also expressing their feeling towards it with a lot of humor:

the building is affected, but the church is fine...

you call that a quake?...

Downtown Christchurch

The city center is formed by a large cathedral surrounded by a generous square, surrounded by hotels, shops or cafes.

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The square is pretty animated, with fairs or other entertaining activities (I saw a huge chess game going on and some comedians too). There is also an old but completely functional tram line which encompasses the whole area. In fact, the tram line is a little bit bigger than the square, and the entire area surrounded by the tram line is formed by small shops, restaurants or cafes. Nothing has more than one level, because of the earthquakes, I presume, but the overall feeling of this center is very pleasant.

On one side of this area there is the Avon river, filled with small boats. You can actually rent a short ride on Avon, if you want to, in one of the gondola-like boats, slowly pushed by people dressed like one century ago. The overall feeling is of people having good time and enjoying life.

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One thing that you cannot ignore is that Christchurch has a much more unbalanced population, in favors of locals. I rarely experienced the same street race mix I experienced in Auckland, people were overwhelmingly on the white side.

Eating Out

You can find pretty much everything you want, from Japanese to Chinese, from Italian to Greek and from fast food to more exquisite restaurants. I tried a few of them, including a small Chinese eatery and a much more classy restaurant near the upright zone near Avon. Everywhere food was delicious and served reasonably fast.

If you’re not into eating out, you can get your food from one of the many supermarkets around. Each neighborhood seemed to have a small Chinese shop every few blocks. The problem is that you cannot always get a receipt there and you may have quite a difficult time making yourself understood.

Earthquakes

Christchurch is sitting on a long fault formed by two huge plateaus. So, the earthquakes are pretty common here, In fact, when I arrived, last week, the September quake was still spitting replicas and I actually felt a couple of them. First one came while I was sleeping, the second while I was in the shower.

Both times I felt like I was on a child swing, only I was standing. I actually didn’t know about the first replica, it was Dragos that warned me. It was like 8 AM and I was sleeping like a baby when I heard Dragos asking if I felt the quake. “They may bring in the mother of quakes, I will continue to sleep”, I said. I may have said it only in my mind though, that’s how sleepy I was. The second replica, in the shower, was almost pleasant. Just a few shakes and then nothing. It wasn’t serious enough to damage the water system or anything.

Just two days after I left Christchurch there was a really big earthquake. So big, that the cathedral tower was torn apart. Many buildings down, airport closed and phone lines closed. As I write this, they don’t yet know the real extent of the damages but it seems there are no human casualties. I feel from the people there and I also admire their courage and determination.

Activities

Back to what you can do in Christchurch – apart from living a great life as a local, that is – there are plenty of outdoors activities. First of all, there is that gondola thing. If you’re into sight seeing from a slowly sliding boat, then this one is for you. There is also sky diving and ballooning, if you really feel the need for a short shot of adrenaline.

But these are more like on the tourist side. To be honest, you can do sky diving pretty much everywhere in New Zealand, provided that you’re in a tourist area (and pretty much the entire New Zealand is a tourist area). There are some things which are part of Christchurch unique location and lifestyle culture.

One of them is surfing. You can do surfing pretty much all year round. In winter, you can also do a ski session in one of the close by mountains and then get back to city and do a surf session. I think this is something extremely rare to find.

Another thing you can do pretty much all year is paragliding. There are a few flying spots around Christchurch and a few paragliding schools, all of them pretty active. I did a tandem flight too while I was there. Needless to say it was a life changing experience (just read that blog post).

The Overall Impression

The moment I started to walk on Christchurch streets I had a very intense feeling of deja-vu. Also, I thought that somebody went very far away just to find heaven, found it, packed it up in a container, loaded it up in a plane, flew all the way up over here, unloaded it, unpacked it and gave it the name of Christchurch. Yeah, I am a little bit biased, I admit it, but the you got the main idea.

Christchurch is an incredible place to stay. As a matter of fact, despite of the recent massive earthquakes, I’m seriously considering changing my base headquarters for my future New Zealand stayings to Christchurch instead of Auckland. It’s true, Auckland is a little bit more cosmopolite, vibrant and noisy. Sometimes this mix may be motivating.

But it’s equally true that living in a city with all the modern amenities, with great food, with almost everything within walking distance, with silent surrounding and with a plethora of outdoors activities can be even more motivating.

Can’t wait to get back there. Honestly.

Taming Monkey Number Two: Done

There’s a very good chance that I’ll be in Christchurch when you read this. For the last week I’ve been in Auckland, as part of my second attempt to tame some inner monkeys. If you don’t know what I mean by this, you can learn more about why and how I ditched my New Years resolutions and also how I partially failed at taming my first monkey.

Back to my New Zealand trip. Some of you may already know that I intend to live in this country, at least partially. In the process of moving to New Zealand, a couple of years ago, I set up a company here. But I never got it to get my full focus. Sometimes I had some personal issues that I had to focus on, sometimes there were other real problems that I have to deal with and sometimes I admit I simply let it slip away. Fact is this company was never developed to its full potential. And that’s what I call a monkey.

Taming Complete

So, here I am, in Auckland CBD, trying to get a hold of what I have to do in order to move things in the right direction. For the last week I’ve been swamping myself in meetings, projections, scenarios and other funny things you do when you want to make a company move forward. And, to my real joy, almost all of these were successful.

Right now I am ready to file my first annual tax report. I also have all the financial tools required to manage the company remotely. There is one more thing needed, and that would be getting a International Tax Number, because there will be an increasing flow of business coming from US this year. That I hope to solve it somehow by the end of the month, because it doesn’t really require my presence here in New Zealand.

Not to mention that, as little as it was, this company already received a little bit of a cash, mainly from my iPhone apps business channel. It’s not like I’m going to get instantly rich from it, but it will be enough to support at least two more visits to New Zealand this year. Each visit being at least one month long. For the record, this visit has half financed by the money I already have it here. It’s the first time I’m spending money made in New Zealand for New Zealand.

Anyway, if I look at this company now, I don’t have any feelings of “monkeyness” whatsoever. The taming is complete.

It May Be Simpler Than It Seems

And that brings me back to what is to be done when you want to tame a monkey. Sometimes, all you have to do is to get up, take a plane, fly to the end of the world, solve what is to be solved and call this a tamed monkey. In other words, get up and do what you have to do.

Every “monkey” is different. The first one was pertaining to things I never lived up to. Unfulfilled promises (to my self, in this case). Incomplete commitments. The second one was not as much about lack of fulfillment, but about finishing up. Tidying up things a little. Shutting up and do stuff. As a matter of fact, during the last week, I was extremely quiet. My Twitter timeline was extremely sparse and my Facebook updates were consisting mainly on two-three pictures. Sometimes all you have to do is to step out from your natural environment and fix stuff by yourself.

I wish I had more things to write about this second monkey, but fact this this one was much simpler than it looked. Of course, I had to fly 28 hours, book a hotel, set up meetings and attend to them. But I didn’t find it complicated. Or hard. It was actually fun and relaxing.

A Little Bit Of Life In Between

Having my job done for the whole month, it’s time to think at the fun part too. As I already mentioned, this whole downshifting / downsizing thing I’m embarking into has a “compulsory” part. And that part is to still have a life while getting things done. Which, by the way, is the main goal of my productivity framework.

In fact, today starts the second part of the trip, the “pleasure” one. I’ll be heading to Christchurch in a few hours, stay there for three days, and then fly to Rotorua. After one night there I’ll be heading back to Auckland and from there I’ll fly to Hong Kong. I always wanted to visit Hong Kong and I admit I’m really eager to get there. After three more days in Hong Kong, I’ll finally head back to Bucharest.

Where, from what I read in my email messages, there’s plenty of work to be done.

Trip To Switzerland – January 2011

As you already know, I’m on a quest to tame 12 monkeys by the end of this year. But as busy as I can get while taming those monkeys, I promised myself to keep having a life. And, most important, keep traveling.

So, I spent the New Year Eve at my sister, in Geneva, Switzerland. There’s not much to tell about my staying there, other than I thoroughly enjoyed being with my family. Geneva is a rather small town and Switzerland is a very quiet and peaceful country. This year, in particular, I didn’t stretch much outside the town. But while I was doing my regular walks in the morning, I took my camera with me.

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. In this case, this post should be 15.000 words long, because there are 15 pictures in it. Just click on any of them if you wanna see the bigger version. Enjoy!

Lake Leman promenade

Lake Leman in the mist

Geneva - old town

Geneva - more old town

Geneva - even more old town

Yeap, you guessed, it's the old town of Geneva

What can I say, I love old town in Geneva

The old door on the inclined street

Lake Leman on January 1st 2011

A view of the old town from the other shore

Lake Leman lighthouse

What you wanna do? I don't know, what you wanna do?

Have you seen my watch? Think I lost my watch around here...

It's freezing cold, I'm outta here

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Being A Digital Nomad

Ever wondered what being a digital nomad means? For me, this rather trendy (and almost overused) concept boils down to something really simple: a person who’s providing value through digital channels but who doesn’t have a fixed place to work. Doesn’t have an office and most of the time doesn’t have business cards either (the new dial tone being twitter, of course). For a digital nomad the world is the office. This person can work in a coffee shop, in a library, in airports or train stations. In today’s post I’ll talk about my experience as a digital nomad for almost 2 years now.

Digital Nomad Work Places

Let’s start with the beginning: 2 years ago I sold my online business and decided to switch careers: instead of being a CEO with a nice office, I decided to be a personal development blogger without a real office. In the beginning, I worked from home. Redecorated an entire room, bought a desk and a nice chair, put some shelves around, and I was set. Or so I thought.

It wasn’t long until I realized I didn’t feel comfortable at all in this new setup. I traded a down-town office for a home-based office, but in the end all I got was still an office. And it wasn’t the location which was actually bothering me, but the whole concept of “office”.

So, I started to look after other locations for work. I did a lot of trial and error but in the end I come up with quite a nice setup. Here is breakdown of the main points I use for work now:

1. Coffee Shops

By far one of my favorite places as a digital nomad. Of course, the main feature of an appropriate coffee shop is the internet access: the fastest, the better. The second thing I try to identify in the first few minutes is the power outlet. I don’t usually work in chunks bigger than one, one and a half hour maximum, but a power outlet is absolutely necessary, because I may change 2-3 coffee shops per day and at some point I will need to recharge my laptop.

I prefer places near the wall, faced to some windows or the main entry. I like to rest my eyes looking outside or just randomly gazing at people going in and out. I drink a tea and sometimes I pick a sandwich. Some coffee shops have a really nice music and sometimes this thing alone can make a real difference.

In coffee shops I tend to do a lot of creative work: writing blog posts, commenting on other blogs, sketching projects or partnerships.

2. Real Estate On Demand

This is relatively new, only a few months, but is a major shift. I don’t know if this concept is implemented in other places but it is in the town I’m living in right now: Bucharest. There’s a place called Bucharest Hubb where I can have an office (seldom the same) a chair, internet access and some privacy. I don’t have a specific room, I sit down at whatever office may be free. Being an advisor in Bucharest Hubb board I don’t have to pay for it, but even if I would, this whole setup is not more than 100 EUR/month.

When I’m at Hubb  I’m doing a lot of meetings and administrative stuff. I meet new people, I provide advice and doing the consulting stuff. The business-like atmosphere make this a little bit more easier.

3. Back Yard

I switched the office room for my backyard. I can’t work there during winters, of course, but from early spring until late summer, I sit on a bench and just do my stuff while Bianca is playing around. Sometimes I leave the laptop on the bench and do some small gardening.

That’s the perfect place for doing research. Whenever I have to learn something new or have to dig in after some interesting concepts, doing this in my backyard seems to be the best way to do it.

4. Airports

Last year I traveled a lot and many of the trips were (very) long distance. Whenever I have to wait in an airport, especially if I was there before, I tend to use the time as working time. I prefer to relax in my hotel room or to sleep in the plane, but while I’m at the ground, I maximize my time by doing something useful.

Many of the posts I wrote last year were sketched in the airports. One of the consequences of being a digital nomad is that you’re exposed to a lot of new places and experiences and that makes for an almost endless source of blog post subjects.

I remember that last year I wrote around 20 blog posts in airports only. Of course, the same territorial strategy from the coffee shops applies to airports too: hunting for the best seat and locating the nearest power outlet.

5. Library

I was doing a lot of work in the library immediately after I sold the company, but I don’t think I’ve been there last year. In the beginning, it seemed like a nice, private and quiet place, but now it feels really dry to me. I love to hear people, to watch new faces and to be able to leave whenever I want, without signing out at the clerk desk.

However, I did some of my best programming pieces while working in a library so I might try this again pretty soon.

6. Random Places

A digital nomad adapts. I carry my laptop around almost all the time so every little pause or glitch in the schedule can be used as a time for work. For instance, I work in my car while waiting for a new meeting or sometimes even in the park, if there’s more than one hour between two of my tasks.

What Type Of Work Does A Digital  Nomad Do?

Primarily, writing, at least for me. I think 75% of my work right now is writing (in the form of blog posts, blog comments or ebooks). But there is an important 25% which is made by consulting time, programming or interaction (email or social media). But I’m sure there is a lot of other type of digital work which can be done like this: from consulting to affiliate marketing or web development. You know, the type of work which requires only a laptop, a decent internet connection, some brilliant ideas or skills and persistence.

I find absolutely mind boggling that we can create value in a structured way while being completely free to move whenever and wherever we want. A digital nomad is by no means a “rejected” or a “misfit” person. On the contrary, I think being a digital nomad is the way of the future in creating and broadcasting value. Sooner than we think, digital nomads are going to outnumber regular office suits. At least, that’s what I think.

Our work is less and less tied up to a physical location. We can talk with clients while we’re visiting Japan, we can write blog posts while we’re trekking in Thailand or we can start to sketch some new iPhone apps while we’re on a remote island from New Zealand. All these are realities, not wishful thinking. And all these are fantastic way to enjoy life more.

The Very Very Short Digital Nomad Guide To Relationships

As you may already wonder, this lifestyle has a huge impact not only on work but on relationships too. Here’s a short guide on how to manage these changes.

1. Be Focused

Anytime I have a meeting with a potential client in a coffee shop, something strange happens. First, in 90% of the cases, the client is completely defocused (because he’s on foreign land and, above that, on a place which he usually associates with leisure, not with work). Second, he become really familiar and tend to lose track of the conversation.

It’s fundamental to be focused and, while still keeping an informal style, be sure you’ll always walk out with a list of next actions. Otherwise you just spent two hours of your life pretending you’re doing business while in fact you’ve just happily procrastinated in a coffee shop.

2. Keep A Clean To Do List

Or whatever thing you use for personal productivity.  Virtual relationships (your partners, your social media buddies, your remote clients) are as real as you are. Just because you don’t have a fixed office to ground you down, this doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep them informed. Keeping a clean to do list related to the tasks you have to do which involves other people (emails, social media activities, etc) is crucial if you don’t want to become a digitally isolated bump instead of being a successful digital nomad.

3. Use Digital Icons Of Your Closest Ones

You know the wife and kids photo on your desktop? Maybe some writing tools you got as a present from a friend long time ago? Or that clipboard you received at that very special business event? All these are icons which are giving substance to your real life desktop. These are making your workplace feel like home.

As a digital nomad you won’t have a fixed workplace. But you can make it feel like home . Use wallpapers with your closest ones. Put your personal photos on a slide show using your screensaver. Keep a collection of movies handy on the desktop. And whenever you feel disconnected, take a break and enjoy your personal digital atmosphere.

4. Have A Ready Made Explanation

Many meetings I had in coffee shops went side-tracked by a wrong answer to the question: “why don’t you have an office?”. I used to tell a very long story about becoming location independent and being a digital nomad, but I realized this was hijacking the core of the meeting. Instead of being interested on the proposed topics, people started to ask more and more questions about being a digital nomad and so on.

Better have a quick and clean explanation of this and then move on. Avoid the trap of: “we’re going to set up this at my office” or alike. You don’t have an office, but the other guy doesn’t need to make a whole story out of it.

Your Life Will Never Be The Same

One of the guys who’s rising pretty fast in the blogosphere right now, Glenn Alsopp from viperchill.com said something really interesting: “I used to live around my work, and now I work around my life”. This summarizes pretty well the whole concept: the fundamental shift of this lifestyle design is to move from a work-centric perspective to a life-centric perspective. We’re all taught that we should have a work first, and then some life. Well, being a digital nomad reverses this situation: you have a life at the core of your existence and on top of it you build some work too.

This isn’t an easy process. And I don’t think it’s a process for everybody. Some people need more grounding than others. But some people, yours truly included, need a lot of variety and freshness.

Moving your life to the very center of your existence is difficult. Because it requires to answer some difficult questions like: “what do I really like to do?”. Or “if I wouldn’t have to wake up every morning at 6 AM to get to this stupid job, what time would I wake-up then? And why?”. Or, even something like this: “what would people think of me if I don’t have an office anymore? Wouldn’t I look like a pathetic jobless loser?”.

All these questions are normal questions. In order to function properly you need self-respect and a sense of social integration. Working strange hours and in strange places will not help you with that, on the contrary, will generate a very predictable alienation. But that’s a really small price to be paid once you get in the flow.

Choosing to be a digital nomad will impact your existence at virtually all levels. Leaving behind the security of a standard job and of a physical office will not be easy. You may feel confused at times or even depressed. But soon after the adaptation period something interesting will happen (again, if you are the type who needs a constant refresh of your life): you’re going to realize that the world is really your office. And that is not a joke.

You can do whatever you want, whenever you want. You can chose an “office” with a view to a sea shore, or you can chose an office with a nice relaxing jazz music.

You can enjoy your life while still providing value for others. And seeing the world in the process is a really nice add-on to this offer.

Pulltabs, MacGyver and the Road to Self-Improvement

This is a guest post from Colin Wright from ExileLifestyle.com (you can find him on Twitter under @colinismyname).

Hungry

I’m eyeballing the corkscrew at the other end of the counter. It could work. It HAS to work. Otherwise I’ll never be able to eat this damn pasta.

I’m standing in the kitchen, exhausted after 15 minutes of trying to open a stubborn bottle of olive oil, but to no avail. The cap is a complicated device, requiring the leverage provided by a frail pulltab to open, a pulltab that I immediately broke and have since been cursing in many creative ways.

There’s a steaming heap of pasta in a pot in front of me, freshly drained and quickly cooling off, waiting for me and my olive oil to whip up a quick pesto sauce so that I can mix it all together and enjoy a delicious lunch.

So close, but so far.

Minimal MacGyver

One of the issues I run into being a minimalist who travels frequently is that sometimes I simply don’t have the right materials at hand when I need them. In this case, a pair of pliers would be great, as they would allow me to grab the nubbin of pulltab left partway down the neck of the bottle and pull the stopper out of the bottle (as the creators intended).

But that’s not an option, and I’ve got to think creatively, on my feet 100% of the time. I need to be a MacGyver of the kitchen, of the road, of the mobile business world, and of any other sphere that I step into.

It’s frustrating and invigorating and occasionally embarrassing.

My plan is this: use the corkscrew to jab the offending portion of plastic, knocking it down into the bottle of oil and freeing up the neck so that the contents can flow freely.

The mechanics seem sound, so I latch the corkscrew to the top of the bottle and begin to twist the knob. The metal spiral shoots downward from the contraption, stopping briefly as it plows into the plastic stopper, and then slowly shoves it downward until, “PLOP!” it clears the neck and falls into the oil.

The Thrill of Success/Failure

This is just a small victory, but it’s one of a thousand that I’ve had since I sold almost everything I owned and started traveling 4 months ago. I’ve learned so much from every victory, and even more from each of the thousand failures that I’ve had when things haven’t gone exactly as planned.

By putting myself in uncomfortable situations, I’m slowly improving myself, making myself a better person and one more capable of dealing with big, bad situations when they arise.

It would not be the end of the world to have to eat my pasta without pesto sauce, but being put in a position where all of my needs are not immediately met – where pulltabs break and a hundred different kitchen utensils are not immediately available to remedy the situation – I’m forced to think creatively, quickly adapt to novelty and find as much satisfaction in the journey toward the solution as in the solution itself (otherwise it would be quite easy to get depressed very quickly).

On the Road

The road to self-improvement is not a straight shot, nor is it always even a road. Sometimes you have to climb mountains, tunnel under forests or build rafts to cross oceans.

So long as you learn from each and every external trial and personal ordeal however, you need not ever reach the end destination; you’ll be a better person for the experiences you go through on the way there, and that’s why the road exists in the first place.

About the author: Colin Wright is an entrepreneur who runs his branding studio from a new country every 4 months. You can read his thoughts about lifestyle design, entrepreneurship, minimalism and travel at Exile Lifestyle.

44 Tips for Traveling Long Distance

Last year I traveled more than I traveled in my entire life. I’ve been on 4 continents and circled the Earth 2 times by plane. It was an exciting time, knowing my propensity for travel as a personal development tool, but it was also pretty draining. Never having long distance trips until that was definitely a huge roadblock for me. I had to learn on the fly (sometimes, literally on the fly). Somewhere between my 2nd and 3rd trip I started to write down some simple steps I should follow, sort of self directed tutorial. For your information, long distance traveling means for me one to two weeks trips which includes at least a transcontinental flight longer than 7-8 hours.

Here is a (hopefully incomplete) list of tips I gathered last year. Looking at it, I just know there is so much more to be explored, but I can’t avoid a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment for already being in all the beautiful places I’ve been so far. If you’re an experienced traveler, this list will look like common sense, but if you’re just starting out you may find out some simple, practical, yet most of the time underrated advice.

Packing

If possible, you should automate as much as you can. I’m easily bored, so packing is just not my stuff. Whenever I can put this on auto-pilot, I put it.

1. Make A Standard Packing List

And refine it every trip. I do have a minimal packing routine and I always start by getting it done first. After my minimum is done, I try to figure out what exactly I need in rapport to that specific destination: is it going to be clothing? Or maybe some specific medicines I should carry on? Sun glasses and sunscreen? I’m usually done in one hour, regardless of the final destination.

2. Pack Light

Especially when you’re going long distance try to understand that you can’t really take with you everything. Packing light means to have a bare minimum and then a little bit of extra. But not more. Most of the stuff you’ll need in case of an emergency will be available at the destination too, so instead of carrying too much with you, better have a little more cash.

3. Have At Least 5 Kilos Less Than The Airplane Limit

Usually, the maximum accepted weight for a bag is 20 kilos. So, instead of trying to figure out how to reach that limit with more stuff from home, try to go with at least 5 kilos less. You will badly need those kilos for stuff you’ll got home from the destination. On my first trip I had to actually leave some clothes to my friends to make room for some presents.

4. Load Your Digital Companion

I use my iPhone as my travel mate. So, I make sure I load it with everything I need just as I pack my bag with clothes and personal hygiene stuff. I put maps on the GPS app, audiobooks for the plane, make sure that I have enough space for photos and even load 1 or 2 movies just in case I get bored by the inflight entertainment system.

5. Take Some Meds

It’s a good idea to have some light meds with you. Depending on where you go, taking some prophylactic shots in advance is also a very good idea. I usually carry some antibiotics, some bandaids and some digestive pills. I stick them in a pocket of my personal hygiene bag and I only verify the expiration date each time I get on a new trip.

6. Have And Use A Local Dictionary

Again, I use my iPhone for that and it does a great job. I have a number of dictionaries, especially for exotic countries, like Japan, or Thailand. Whenever I get the chance I exercise my language skills with locals. It’s one of the best parts of my long distance travels. And since I’m not a native English speaker, I can also use a plain English dictionary as well.

7. Get An Universal Plug Adapter

They have different plugs in Europe, United States, Oceania or parts of Asia. It’s better to get an universal kit that would become part of your standard list above, especially if you’re part of the digital nomads tribe, as I am. You can get adapters for free during your stay in hotels but form the 3rd or 4th travel it’s easier to just make it part of your baggage.

Planning

I like the feeling of randomly putting my finger on an Earth map, making that spot my destination. But between that gesture and the actual plane take-off there’s a little bit of extra action. It’s important and it’s about planning.

1. Book Your Flight And Hotel Together

You will get some discounts if you do that and it’s also easier to maintain the necessary documents. Having all the reservations in one plastic envelope makes it easier to access them on crowded and / or hectic airports . If your trip has multiple segments (flights + hotels) keep them in a separate plastic envelope.

2. Don’t Create A Fixed Itinerary

Most of my long distance trips have been one week long. It’s a shame to stick into such a limited time as many attractions as you can even before landing there. I usually go with my intuition and try to book some guided tours on the spot, if need will be. But most of the time I’m on myself. It’s far more flexible and much more fun.

3. Plan Your Transfer From Airport To Hotel In Advance

It’s very important to solve your transportation from airport to the hotel (or your accommodation of choice) in advance. Some of the airports can be pretty far (Narita is 1 and a half hour to center Tokyo by train, for instance) while others can offer limited on the spot transportation. A smooth transition to the hotel will also have a positive effect on your entire trip.

4. Don’t Plan Anything Important In The First 36 Hours

You’ll be pretty tired after a 9+ hours flight, not to mention that jetlag will most likely give you a hard time. I usually spend the first day and a half walking around the hotel, knowing the environment, finding local stores and transportation. Once I know my way around the hotel and I have a decent amount of food supplies in my room, I can go out and experience more.

5. Get Roaming On Your Phone

It’s far more convenient than buying local calling cards. I use it because it helps me keep all the data in a central point, not mangling with several phones at once and also keeps me for making long, unnecessary calls. On the other hand, when there’s a need to make a call, I can do it instantly.

6. Budget Your Local Currency Leftovers

You will have local currency leftovers. Meaning the small notes you end up with at the airport, when you’re ready to leave that country and don’t know when you’ll going to be back again. During my first long travels those leftovers were in the 70-80 USD range. Quite a lot. After a little bit of exercise I reduced them at around 15-25 USD, which is basically a decent meal at any airport restaurant.

7. Identify Human Connections At Destinations

Find them on the Internet, on discussion groups, on blogs. Find some people you know in advance and try establish a connection with them. Not only they will become useful guides but they will also enhance your overall experience of traveling. It’s not as much about visiting places as it is about making friends.

Destination

Knowing where you go is important, although keeping a little bit of mystery around is also pretty exciting. But there are several things I learned to do before and sometimes right after I get to my destination of choice.

1. Get Info About The Food

If you’re on a special diet, as I was back when I was a raw foodist, get as much information as you can in advance. I overlooked this step only once, during my trip to Japan, and incidentally Japan is one of the most unsuitable places for a raw vegan to be. I actually had to break my diet during that visit and even after, so now I’m a little bit cautious on this one.

2. Assess Political Situation

I don’t travel in hot areas of the world, but even if you don’t do this on purpose, traveling long distance can get you close to hot areas (if your plane has been rescheduled for instance and you have to connect on a different airport in a different country). Assessing the political situation of the closest countries on your itinerary is a good idea.

3. Read Reviews On Travel Sites

But take them with a little bit of salt. I use only a few of travel sites, wikitravel being the most important one. Most of the time I’m just trying to get in the vibe, know the local habits, the local geography and cultural norms, letting the actual discovery to occur once I’m there.

4. Look Up The Itinerary on Google Maps

Especially on long distance trips this could be a very interesting activity. When I first come to New Zealand I actually didn’t realize that I would have 2 10+ hours long flights. The segment between Bangkok and Auckland seemed like a few hours, when in reality was 10 hours. That made me a very loyal client to Google Maps ever since.

5. Follow Your Intuition

Don’t always go for the famous places. Risk your time a little. The very best moments of my travels were the unexpected ones. I searched for a floating market in Bangkok (while the real floating market was 150 km away), got lost on some mountain roads while driving in Alps and got lost in a park near Danube Tower in Vienna.

6. Search For The High Points

Literally. Every big city has a high point. I’ve been on Eiffel Tour in Paris, France, on Sky Tour in Auckland, New Zealand, on Danube Tower in Venna, Austria, on Tokyo Tower in Tokyo, Japan and so on. There’s something really special about climbing on those high points and see the city unfolding under your feet.

Flying

A big part of your long distance trip will be on a plane. Don’t overlook this because you can’t really sleep all the time. Besides, there are a lot of interesting things you can do on a long distance plane if only to make sure you’ll arrive at your destination in the best possible shape.

1. Request An Aisle Seat

Even if you’re going to be bothered by other passengers to get up and down, it will be good for your body. Not to mention that you have the freedom to get up and walk whenever you want. Unless you really want to look at the Earth from 10.000 meters every minute of your 10+ hours flight, take an aisle seat.

2. Don’t Oversleep

It’s not good for your body. Out of 9-10 hours of an average transcontinental flight, I found that maximum 3 hours of sleep are the best you can get. Oversleeping will have a very strange effect on your body and will make your jetlag fighting a little bit difficult. Try some light conversation instead.

3. Don’t Abuse The Inflight Entertainment System

Every transcontinental plane has what they call an inflight entertainment system: movies, tv shows, documentaries, music or games. From my experience one of the best combos is maximum 2 movies and 1 documentary per flight. More than that is going to have quite an adverse effect on your brain. Balance the entertainment flight with some sleep, light conversation and discrete physical exercise.

4. Exercise Your Muscles And Joints

Doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have to run to the restroom and back every 15 minutes (your flight attendants could be especially upset by such a behavior) but do try to activate some groups of muscles every half an hour. Your legs especially must be worked out, in a very discrete and effective way, but don’t forget your shoulders and neck.

5. Get On The New Local Time

Once you’re on the plane, set up your clock to the local time at the destination. If you had at least 3 weeks between your trips, it’s a good idea to get on the local time with 1-2 days in advance, in order to reduce some of the jetlag. Regardless of that, once you are on the plane, think and live by the new time at the destination.

6. Prepare For Glitches

Flying is by far one of the safest and best organized ways of traveling, but this doesn’t makes it perfect. Even flights can be delayed, or technical problems may postpone your flight with several hours or days, or you can jump into a bird. Be ready to face those situations and don’t get panicked. Eventually, you’ll get there, that’s all that counts.

7. Fully Recharge All Electronic Devices Before Getting On Board

You will need your kindle, your iPod or your laptop. During the flight, your electronic devices can be a very good replacement of the inflight entertainment system, if you can’t find something you like. Not to mention that you will need them functioning at your destination. Of course, you must switch them off during landing and taking off.

8. Take Off Your Shoes

This is not a joke. First time I saw some of my flight colleagues doing that I was quite surprised. But after 3 hours of hurting feet I finally understand. Don’t worry about walking in your socks on the plane, it’s much cleaner than you think and you’ll get rid of those socks anyway. Having healthy feet once you get down from the plane is so often underrated.

9. Keep Your Tickets And Passports Handy

Don’t stick them to the bottom of your backpack or handbag. Always keep them at hand especially when in the airport. You will need them at security checkpoints, at boarding and sometimes during the flight when you will complete arriving cards (various countries need some of those cards completed when you enter them).

10. Keep Your Tickets And Vouchers Available

I book electronically most of the time so I don’t really have tickets but receipts and itineraries. I print them and I also print all the vouchers (most of the time for airport to hotel transportation). Don’t underestimate the stress you’ll experience in a foreign airport. Make sure you can react fast to any request regarding your tickets or vouchers.

11. Get A Name Tag For Your Bags

Many airlines are providing this at the check-out desks, but many still aren’t. A name tag will have your exact name and address on it, gets attached to the bag handle and makes it much more easier to identify your baggage at the carousels.Your bag may look very much like another bag and in this case the name tag is the only distinctive element.

12. Keep The Flight Timetable Available

Again, I use my iPhone Notes app for that. For each long segment I write down my flight number, my plane type and the expected duration of the flight. It helps me gain a feeling of clarity in the middle of unknown surroundings. You may put it in a notebook or on a piece of paper. For me, it worked with the iPhone and helped me keep my head clear during 20.000+ km long flights.

13. Airports Are Part Of The Trip

I always enjoy walking inside airports, watching people and trying to get a glimpse of the local lifestyle. I don’t take airports as transitory, tasteless points in my journey. Whenever I can, I try to connect with people, to visit interesting places, to get in airport lounges or to capture beautiful pictures of planes taking off or landing.

14. Hunt For Power Outlets

Some airports have designated places for charging electronic devices, some not. Whenever I am at a coffee shop or in a waiting room, I hunt for the closest place to a power outlet. And take it.

15. Take An Extra Sweater On Board

Although many airplanes are providing light blankets, on long flights the temperature can get pretty low. Better be prepared with an extra sweater. When flying at 10.000 meters for more than 9 hours, the cold combined with the lack of humidity can be pretty nasty.

16. Get Hydrated

The air in the plane cabin is extremely dry, due to the pressuring conditions. It’s very easy to get dehydrated but it’s also very easy to avoid it. Be sure to tell to flight attendants to get you water or juice every time you need it. Some prefer to take some moisturing creme for the hands or face, I’ve been ok without it, but your mileage may vary.

Accommodation

This is something really personal, so your choice may be different than mine, Regardless of the quality of the accommodations, and of the main goal of your trip, I found out that you will always need at least those 3 simple tips.

1. Look For Basic Hygiene

I usually book hotels when I know in advance where I’m going. In 99% of the cases hotels are clean and safe. But depending on the trip, budget and local context, I can book some bed and breakfast or even a backpackers hostel. Whenever I have to choose on the spot, I usually ask to see the room in advance. Saved a lot of frustration, many times.

2. Sleep Well

Don’t overextend yourself by staying late, especially when you’ve been jetlagged. Sleep as much as you want, because you don’t want to be hit by an unbearable need to sleep in the middle of a visit to some important attraction, or even when you’re in a public spot, like a restaurant or coffee shop. Assess the room in advance and ask if it’s quiet and / or sleep friendly.

3. Make Human Connections

I split my accommodation between hotels, hostels and bed and breakfast facilities. Every time I try to make some human connection with somebody there, being the concierge, the owner of the house or just some random sleeping colleagues in a backpackers hostel. The next step for this will be of course coach surfing but I’m not sure I’m ready for it. Yet.

Field Activities

This is what you’re actually doing, the core of your trip. Of course, it’s entirely personal so the only tips here are related to your interaction with the world, and how to streamline it as much as possible.

1. Get Local Currency As Fast As You Can

If you can get it with you in advance, that’s even better. I travel mostly with EUROs and US dollars and that covers pretty much every part of the world. Be aware that exchange offices in the airports are usually much more expensive than the bank offices in the town, or have some huge commission. From my experience, it’s always better to get local currencies at a local bank.

2. Update Your Itinerary Frequently

And by that I mean let your friends and followers in the digital world knowing where you are. I am a digital media citizen and I do update my itineraries as often as I can (meaning when I get some free wifi spots, data roaming being horrendously expensive everywhere in the world). It’s good not only for letting your closest ones that you’re safe and sane, but also for personal branding. I got a few interesting followers from each country I visited after some of my long distance travel tweets.

3. Know Your Surroundings

That goes hand in hand with the planning activity which says not to do anything important in the first 36 hours. I use those hours to know: shops around, restaurants around, walking areas and public transportation areas. If there’s internet in my hotel room (99% of the cases, that is) I’m also browsing some Google Maps around my accommodation address to see the big picture.

4. Buy Day Or Week Long Public Transportation Tickets

If your planning was good, you should know in advance the costs of public transportation. In almost any of the cases, buying day long passes or even week long passes proved to be an incredible money (and time) saver. Depending on the local context you may use some exotic transportation, like Thailand tuk-tuk’s but don’t rely on them for getting fast and safe at a certain destination.

5. You Can’t Have Enough Photos

Never. Traveling long distance is such an eye opening experience, in every way you look at it. I never know when I’m going to be back there, so keeping a strong visual record will always help me remember the best I can. Most of the time I use – again – my iPhone, but recently I took the habit of carrying with me a brand new Canon 450D.

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That’s it, I hope you found it useful. If you have more, feel free to add them in the comments. Living life as a holiday is one of the best ways to live life, after all.

The Trip To Las Vegas

As you may already know, I recently attended to Steve Pavlina’s Conscious Growth Workshop in Las Vegas. The workshop in itself was a fantastic event and if you want to know more on this, you should check out the series about it. Because in today’s post I’m not going to talk about the workshop. Instead, I’ll give you a little bit of what Las Vegas flavor I experienced.

Flying To Las Vegas

Going from Bucharest to Vegas involves a little bit of effort. As in any long distance flights, I had to chose one of the biggest Europeans airports with a decent selection of US flights. This time happened to be Rome. Been in Vienna a couple of times, and also found out that for Asia, Helsinki is a very convenient link point. The major advantage in choosing Rome this time was the connection time, about 1 hour. It proved to be quite risky, as we will see.

I was at the Otopeni airport (that would be in Bucharest) at 7 AM, knowing that the flight had to take off at 8:30. To my surprise, just when we were ready to board, a young lady announced that the flight has been delayed, due to atmospheric conditions around Rome. I approached her with my ticket and asked if I would catch my connection flight to New York under these new conditions. One hour between the flights, out of which 45 minutes were eaten by the delay, that would have give us only 15 minutes to run in Fiumiccino. I still run pretty good, but I didn’t think I will make it. That was exactly the impression of the young lady who gently confirmed me that I will miss my New York connection. With no idea about how and when I was going to land in Vegas under the new circumstances, I did what every decent man would do: I tweeted about my flight delay.

I don’t know if this triggered a subtle change in the complicated mechanism of flights management, but exactly when I sent my tweet, the lady announced that the delay has been canceled. Honestly, that was a little bit of a semantic twist for me, so I asked her again what the heck that meant.. “It means we’re in a hurry to take off as scheduled, mister, we’ll be there on time”. Huh, that was close.

Once in Rome, after a 2 and half hours flight, I finally found my New York connection, after dumbly looking at some billboards for about 10 minutes. It was a flight for New York, that was clear, only it was 15 minutes earlier than I knew. I went to the boarding gate and asked the lady at the desk if this was the flight for New York. “Yes, this is the flight, but it’s closed. Everybody boarded.”  I must be looking either extremely happy, either extremely sad, because the lady said to me again: “Can I see your ticket, though?”. I handed her my ticket, preparing to ask when is the next flight after all, just to see her face suddenly starting to shine. “No, this is not your flight, sir”. I was partially relieved. “Is this not the flight for New York?” “Oh, but yes, this is going to New York”. “And still not my flight?”, I asked. “Yes, sir, we have many flights to New York, and this is not yours. Yours is boarding at the next gate”. Ashamed and silent, I started to walk backwards until I reached the new gate. When prompted to show my passport, I realized I didn’t have it. It was at the other gate. Luckily, I run still pretty fast, as I told you, so I was able to jump on the desk, took the passport, and then get back to the good gate in lest than 7.4 seconds.

Finally, I was on my plane to New York. The good flight to New York, that is.

I will quickly go over the flight itself and also over JFK airport in New York. Suffice to know I was on another plan to Las Vegas pretty fast. And there, my first shock waited silently, under the strange name of Gogo Inflight Internet. Yes, that’s right, in my plane from New York to Vegas I had my first internet connection while flying. And I must tell you it was faster than what I have back  home. Tweeting live from 10.000 meters above Boulder, Colorado, while going with 900 km/h at -51 degress Celsius is surely one of the highest points of the trip to Las Vegas.

Accommodation In Las Vegas

The workshop was held at Harrah’s hotel so I thought it would be a good idea to book my room in the same hotel. To some degreee, it was a good idea. I was really close to the workshop hall and pretty close to the Strip. Actually, I don’t think I could have been closer to the Strip then I was by staying at Harrah’s. The downside was the room itself. They couldn’t give me a 1 king bed room, so I ended up with 1 bed for me and another one for my laptop. The CPU fan got a good rest, that I can assure you.

The quality of the room was around 3 stars in Romania which is not much. Everything was clean and proper but not too much space around. Later on I realized that almost all hotel rooms in Vegas are pretty much the same (except splurge or glamour villas in the upper class hotels like Bellagio). The reason is that you are not suposed to spend too much time in the room. You don’t get to Vegas to spend time in the hotel room. You get to Vegas to spend time in the casinos. Is that clear?

One thing that should be noted about accommodation in Vegas is the air conditioning. I mean, what they call air conditioning. From where I come, air conditioning means making the air better. In Vegas, air conditioning literally means being hunted with cold air cannons in every spot they can catch you: in the room, in the hotel lobby, in the casinos. They don’t condition the air, they’re freezing it and they’re throwing it back to you in a strange attempt of modern torture. Many of the workshop attendants sadly exposed red eyes every morning, with uncontrollable tears coming up constantly, all because of this air conditioning bad joke.

Vegas Strip In The Morning

Las Vegas never sleeps. I got that from the first seconds of my walk around the Strip. Because of the time difference (9 hours behind home) I was pretty jetlagged when I arrived, so the best thing I could do at 3 AM in the morning was to go for a walk on the Strip. At that time the hotel casino (which basically took 90% of the first floor surface) was working as usual, the little Starbucks coffee shop near the elevators was open and everything seemed to function full speed. It was 3 AM in the morning. There were some security guys watching the slot machines and around 5-6 persons in total gambling. A part from the slot machines there were a few poker tables running and even some craps and roulette tables gambling full speed.

I slowly left the casino behind and started to explore. Vegas is in the desert and despite the efforts for a better weather experience the desert clime can be felt. The nights can get pretty cold and the days can get really hot. Put in this equation the wind (hardly stopped by the big hotels) and you get a pretty good idea. Everything was filled with light and the first word that came into my mind was opulence.

Eiffel Tour on the Strip

Morning reflections on Planet Hollywood

Paris. On the Strip.

In the morning, the Strip is desert and a little bit of what’s uncovered during the day gets out. The cleaning guys, the late gamblers, the service cars. Only around 4 AM you can really see who makes the city going round and round (like in who takes care of the stuff, not who’s pouring the money which makes the city go round and round).

If you stay up until 5 AM you can actually meet some of the early runners of the city. Surprisingly enough for a tourist, Vegas is a city with regular people. Some of them love to run in the morning on the Strip, for instance.

Another big difference – at least from my European background – which can be spotted really good in the morning is the size of the cars. American cars are still too big for their purpose. And that goes from limos up to the trucks. There’s a deep feeling of overextending the size of everything, which many of the Americans doesn’t get. Being raised in that environment makes it difficult for them to pick this up, but for any European getting there for the first time this is obvious. I wonder how a native Japanese sees this.

Vegas Strip In The Evening

I had a few chances to see the Strip in the evening too. Vegas is not only the world capital of gambling, but is also exposing a lot of scene entertainment. You can go to standup comedy shows, to big, shiny performances, to strip (as in strip tease) shows or to mind challenging and sometimes disturbing shows, like the Blue Man show. Yeap, you guessed, I was at that show . To be honest, I really liked it, but don’t go if you’re looking for a harmonious and entertaining performance. They have this habit of picking up people from the audience, putting them on scene and getting them through really annoying situations.

The Strip in the evening is the peak of Las Vegas. Tourists, gamblers, hookers, workshop attendants (that would include me) they all wander around, being surrounded by powerful lights, strange attractions (a gondola ride at The Venetian, perhaps?) and looking for the next manifestation of what they call fun. Most of the time, they’ll get it. Sometimes, they don’t. I saw a few times people getting up from poker tables crying. But I don’t think this is having something to do with Vegas as a destination, but mostly with human nature.

Treasure Island

Gondolas on the Strip

The Venetian

The Strip. By Night.

Vegas Casinos

By far the number one attraction of Vegas, casinos left me with the impression of one of the most efficient, smooth-running and evolved money making machines ever invented. If you looked at the casinos halls in a certain way, you could almost see money coming in, as a blue, thin, almost invisible fog, floating around form the street, getting out of gambler’s pockets, entering the slot machines, the poker and roulette chips, struggling to enter in the cashiers desks and then flowing away in the unseen Vegas undergrounds. Well, maybe I was the only one seeing this and maybe I was a little bit jetlagged. But I like that image anyway.

Luxor. Sphynx and Pyramids.

New York, New York. Only in Vegas.

Classy. A synonym for Bellagio.

Vegas Feeling

I really see Vegas as a city of every possibility. It has this potential of making things happening faster than any other city I’ve been it so far. If there is a possibility to go completely broke, Vegas will amplify it. If there is a possibility to get rich, Vegas will amplify that too. Behind the mindless fun and inhibition killing attitudes there’s a deeper energy working there. Maybe it wasn’t by chance that a workshop involving deep, sometimes disruptive changes was held there. Vegas is a good point to change your life, if you’re up to that.

Flying Away From Vegas

One of the highest points of the Las Vegas trip was the take off from McCarran airport. The taking off lane was one hundred meters away from one of the Strip ends and my flight for Los Angeles was scheduled sometimes after the dark. Meaning the Strip was all lightened up. Once we reached 500 meters, the plane made a large circle, keeping wings at around 45 degrees and making me feel I could almost touch the tops of Bellagio, Caesar’s Palace or Mirage. That was an incredible image. Of course, i couldn’t make a picture of it. Sometimes, the best moments are inside you .

Apparently, my unconscious desire to stay a little bit more in United States was pretty strong, because I had a little bit of an incident in Los Angeles. As I told you, I got from Vegas to LA, and from LA I had to fly to Auckland, New Zealand. Everything went pretty fine until we boarded on the plane for Auckland. The LAX airport is pretty welcoming and if I wasn’t so sleepy I’m sure I would have enjoying it even more. To make a long story short, once I got boarded and settled I fell asleep almost instantly. Waking up in Auckland seemed like a pretty good plan.

Surprisingly enough, I didn’t wake up in Auckland. I wake up in the same plane, listening to the standard “no panic” voice of the pilot, who said something about a bird. And about dumping fuel. And about getting back to Los Angeles. What the heck?

After the first few minutes of surprise and confusion I finally got it. Apparently, the plane hit a bird, the bird damaged the external temperature sensors and because of that we couldn’t make it to Auckland. We were going back to Los Angeles after nearly 2 hours of flying. We landed without any incidents, the airline company (Quantas, in this case) arranged a hotel for us, and a new plane was scheduled to take us to Auckland at noon the very next day.

But I just couldn’t leave the “plane – bird“ interaction without taking a picture of it.

Boeing 747-400 + a very unlucky bird

I now know that the reasons behind getting back to Los Angeles must have been different from what the pilot told us. I think it’s pretty difficult to fly a Boeing 747-400 with such a big hole in it. Not to mention that all the sensors of Boeings are in the wings, not in the front. Anyway, everybody is happy when everything has a happy end.

The Vegas Aftermath

It was a really fantastic experience. I will surely go back there. Not only because of the workshop experience, but also because of the city. Many friends told me that Vegas is not the standard american experience. In fact, is pretty far form it. There are certainly high and low spots in my internal Vegas representation, but after I drew a line and did the big math, the result was crystal clear: I’ll go back there again. Maybe after a few visits I will consume every hotel, casino, experience or show and finally get bored.

Or maybe not.

Trip To Europe: Budapest And Vienna (part one)

The trip to Europe started pretty well, without any problems other than the usual routine of keeping a 3 year old busy in a car, while driving more than 2-3 hours in a row. We entered Hungary around 3 PM and reached Budapest around 6;30 PM. Luckily, Diana searched for some hotels in advance so we had a pretty rough idea of where we have to go. We found the hotel pretty fast (thanks to modern technology, also known as GPS ) and checked in.

We were so eager to see new things that we decided to go on a boat tour instantly. I’m not a huge fan of tours, on the contrary, but we had to accommodate not only 2 adults but a toddler too. A boat tour seemed like a place where a toddler could stay still, enjoy the scenery and not get bored, all three at the same time. The tour took all in all around one hour and we had the chance to see some interesting stuff. First of all, there were the Budapest bridges (all reconstructed after being blown during the World War 2):

and of course the Parliament building:

Interesting enough, we learned that the Parliament building was simetrically perfect, made from 2 identical structures, corresponding to the 2 Parliament chambers. Today, the Hungarian Parliament has only one chamber though.

I found the boat tour a little bit noisy, not only because of the guide, an old lady who was talking alternatively English and German, but also because of the tourists, who seemed to pay little if no interest to the guide. All in all, it was an interesting activity, and I do learned a little bit about Budapest.

On the way back to the hotel we walked on Vachy Utca, one of the traditional shopping and entertainment streets of Budapest. At the end of it, we saw a group of young dancers performing in the middle of the street. And they were not bad at all:

Budapest – The Day After

Next day we planned to leave Budapest for Vienna. We had breakfast – a very good one, including a large variety of fruits and vegetables – and decided we have time for a bus tour also. We saw some red buses branded “Hop On – Hop Off” and thought it would be a good idea to try them. The checkout was at 12:00 PM and we embarked on that tour at 10:30 AM. The tour was supposed to last 2 hours. Half an hour over the normal checkout time is not such a big deal.

The problem with the bus tour was that we didn’t find place on the top platform on the bus, which was open. Instead, we had to stay for most of the tour on the lower platform, which was a little hotter for our tastes. We do had the chance to see some new stuff, especially on the hilly part of the city, also known as Buda. Some new blending with the old:

and also a view from above of the city, including a good panorama of the Danube, the main river (which goes to the Black Sea in Romania):

The bus tour was not as enjoyable as the boat tour, and I think the pressure of checking out was one of the reasons. Adding heat to it, and it made for a quite irritating experience. We were happy to leave the hotel around 1:30 and search for a place to eat. After we had lunch at a small coffee shop near the hotel, we headed for Vienna.

Entering Vienna

As for the Budapest, Vienna was one of the cities I saw from the speed of my car while driving to attend to various auto shows across Europe, back when I had the biggest car portal in Romania. Never had the chance to stop and actually seeing them. So, having at least 2 days to actually enjoy the city was a great thing.

After we got to the city, we started to look for the hotel. That was the first surprise. We actually had to look for 3 hotels, until we found one suitable. The ones we wanted were either fully booked either not offering apartments or at least rooms with connecting doors.

After searching around 2 hours, we finally set up somewhere near the old city. We were all very hungry so we just left the luggage in the room and started to hunt for a restaurant. Luckily, it seemed we reached a very restaurants rich area, we found one within 30 seconds of walking from our hotel. After having a delicious dinner (and some beer for me) we had a short walk around the hotel. Nice streets and quiet area:

Next day we decided to visit the Vienna Zoo. Famous around the world and one of the oldest in Europe, seemed like a good intersection point for all trip attendants, from 3 to “30 something” year old .

The first impression was fantastic:

That’s just one small part of the beautiful garden which surrounds the Zoo, and the whole Schonnbrunn area.

The Zoo was fantastic, but I won’t post any pictures. While I enjoyed the tour and Bianca’s reactions seeing all those exotic animals, the idea of keeping them locked for our viewing pleasure is not so appealing to me. Even if the animales had a fantastic life environment and even if they seemed quite happy with this arrangement.

So, after 2 hours of walking, back to hotel, eating and the afternoon siesta. The next objective was DonauTurm, one of the tallest buildings in Vienna (if not the tallest). One neat thing about this skytower is the fact that parts of it are spinning. The restaurant and the caffe, to be more precise. They’re spinning at a very low speed, but within an hour you’re making at least 2 complete rounds. This is a picture of an industrial area:

while this is a picture (with the Sun in the front, of course) of a residential area, took from the same window, one hour later:

The food was fantastic, the view was gorgeous, the only problem was that we didn’t plan our way back from there. The tower is somewhere outside Vienna, it was getting dark pretty fast, and we didn’t know how to get back to the hotel. We decided not to get back directly, and have a stop at Prater, the famous entertainment park of Vienna. Either way, we had no idea how to get there. And we felt a little bit lost. Despite the feeling, we did take some time to make a picture of the DonauTurm:

and another one of the beautiful sunset light:

After a little bit of searching and asking some locals, we found our way to a subway (which is called “U” in Vienna) and finally reached to Prater. That is another place from which I won’t post pictures, but this time because I really didn’t have a second to take them . We jumped together in one of the highest (yet, safest) wheels in the park. We shoot for a teddy bear at a shooting booth. We watched other people having fun. We had fun. Yes, Prater was nice. Bianca enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. Diana enjoyed it. We got back to the hotel almost sleeping.

That was the second day of the trip. By the time you will read this we will be on our way to Prague.

The Trip To New Zealand – Waiheke Island

The best part of my trip to Japan was New Zealand. I’m joking of course. After I finished my staying in Tokyo I took the plane for Auckland. I had to stay 2 days in the “City of Sails” for some business related tasks. Part of my relocation process to New Zealand is setting up a company there and this trip was supposed to add the final touches to this project.

The flight from Tokyo to Auckland was on a Air New Zealand cruise and was quite busy. Never had a flight over that part of the Pacific and this one proved to be quite a shaky one. Out of 11 hours of flying I don’t think we had 2 hours without turbulence, if we sum up all the small, 5-7 minutes of smooth going. The good part was the plane had a working entertainment system, and the captain was a rather humorous guy.

I took the opportunity to watch “Bedtime Stories” with Adam Sandler, and two movies with Will Smith, both equally bad. There was “Seven Pounds” – good plot and theme but extended way over my supportability threshold – and “Hanckok”. If it wasn’t for Charlize Theron, I would have switch instantly to “Ikegami” a Japanese movie about an orwellian, highly productive society in which people were programmed to randomly die by the age of 22. I eventually saw “Ikegami” on my flight Auckland – Hong Kong, but that’s another story.

After I landed in Auckland, and passed the security control – for some reason they thought it could be a good idea to search my luggage, because I was staying only 2 days, which was kind of suspect – I finally checked in to my hotel, 3 minutes walk from Auckland Sky Tower. The rest of the day was dedicated to the business part of the trip, and, most of it, to the jetlag, as I surprised myself sleeping without even noticing it.

Waiheke Island

I spent the next day socializing with friends in Auckland. Part of my new world there was described in another post about what you know is what you get. I had a good time seeing them again, connecting, telling stories and catching up. I was also much better from the jetlag which made me an almost bearable person.

The next day I had to check out from the hotel and take the plane on my final destination, Romania, via Hong Kong and Frankfurt. Check out was at 10 AM and my plane was at 11 PM. So I had more than 12 hours to spend in Auckland before I was actually living. And I decided to spend that time on Waiheke Island.

Waiheke Island is located north east from Auckland and is a little bit far away than Rangitoto island, the one you can see from anywhere in Auckland. Waiheke is inhabited – as opposed to Rangitoto, which isn’t – and is also famous for its wines and wine tours. Is also a destination for rock stars like Peter Gabriel and Kylie Minogue who reportedly have bought land or houses there. Haven’t seen a sign with “this is Peter Gabriel house” so I will just take this from granted for now.

The reason I’m sharing this with you is the fact that Waiheke holds one of the most precious spots on Earth for me. I already wrote about that, it’s a small beach called Little Oneroa Beach and it was one of the most enjoyable places during my first trip to New Zealand. Only the thought that I will be able to stay again on that beach made my heart go a little faster. Can’t explain this strange vibration for this place, but that’s it.

So, after I checked out I left my luggage at the hotel to be picked up in the evening and headed for the harbor, down Queen Street. I was there at around 11 AM, just in time to catch a ferry for Waiheke. The city was slowly behind us.

Auckland Harbor leaved behind form the ferry

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The Trip To Japan – Tea Ceremony

I spent the night in Kyoto in a small backpackers hostel, near Gion. It was my first night at a backpackers hostel but I find the experience quite enjoyable. I met a few interesting people and I really got to rest my feet, after what I calculated to be more than 12-13 kilometers of walking in Kyoto.

In the morning, I started to walk again and just wandered around the wonderful traditional Japanese houses until 12:30. At 13:00 it was scheduled the first tea ceremony at the tea house I just discovered the other day. I was pretty determined not to miss this.

So, at 12:30 I was again at the entrance of the small tea house, looking for the schedule. Everything seemed identical with yesterday. Today was Thursday, so it was supposed to be opened. So, only half an hour until the event. Enough time for a small walk. I breathed deeply, turned on my heels and I was almost bumped into a young lady on a bicycle. Didn’t hear her coming and noticed she had a small flower in a flower pot.

I smiled and wanted to give a Ohayo Gozaimasu salute, when she asked in a crystal clear English: “Are you here for the Tea Ceremony?”. Definitely, my odds were much more positive than yesterday. “Yes” I answered with joy. “Well, I wait you here in half an hour” the young lady said.

Tea Ceremony House

After 30 minutes here I am, opening the door of the little house. Took off my shoes and made my entrance in a room  covered with tatamis, traditional Japanese mats. Inside there were another 3 persons, a lady in between ages and a young couple. I sat down and introduced myself. The lady proved to be from Australia, mate, and the young couple from Great Britain.

The house was made on wood, an old traditional house, almost identical with the ones I photographed the other day on Shimbashidori street. On one of the walls of the first room there was a small and simple floral arrangement. The room was continued with another one, on which there were some tea tools, like pots and other things I couldn’t name.

We chatted a little and then a young lady in kimono entered and saluted. (more…)

The Trip To Japan – Kyoto

After 3 days in Tokyo, on Wednesday I decided to go to Kyoto. As always, I made loose plans, the main idea being to get to Kyoto as fast as I can and then take it form there. I chose to ride the Shinkansen, because between Tokyo and Kyoto are more than 450 km (some maps are crediting this distance with around 500 km) and a trip with the bus would have taken 7-8 hours. By Shinkansen I was there in 2 hours and 15 minutes. Just for your information, the average delay of trains in Japan was last year within 6 seconds. That’s right, 6 seconds.

The Shinkansen ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto costs 12.700 yen, or around 125 USD. That’s one way, by the way, and there’s no discount for round trip. So, the transportation to Kyoto and back to Tokyo costed around 250 USD. I left my hotel before 9 AM, took the JR Yamanote line from Shinjuku, and changed for Shinkansen at Shibuya. At 11:30 I was in Kyoto.

The Nozomi Shinkansen is impressive.

Nozomi Shinkansen entering Kyoto Train Station

Not only from the outside, with a very snaky appearance but also from the inside, where it looks more like a plane than a train. You won’t feel more vibrations than in an usual train and the only clue that you’re going with 300 km/h (a apart from the mind blowing scenery running before your eyes) is that your ears are clogging a little when you enter tunnels. A little bit like the feeling of starting to go down for landing when you’re flying. (more…)