[{"content":"Date: 2019-06-26 to 2019-06-28\nThe train ride from Berlin to Bruxelles was really hard, so I won\u0026rsquo;t recommend it to anybody going the same way.\nFirst I took the ICE from Berlin to Cologne overnight. Actually it is not a night train, so you have just normal seat and every station the announcement of the stop is waking you up. So when I reached Cologne I was very tired, but I had some time to spare till the connection to Bruxelles, therefore I went for a coffee and some cake.\nGetting on the train to Bruxelles I still was tired, but cake, coffee and view was good.\nWhen I arrived in Bruxelles I stored my heavy backpack at the station and used the rest of the day exploring the city, eating chocolate cake, and enjoying some great days there. And finally learned how Van Gogh really lost his ear \u0026hellip;\n","date":"17 July 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/bruxelles/","section":"Travel","summary":"The train ride from Berlin to Bruxelles was really hard, so I won’t recommend it to anybody going the same way.","title":"Bruxelles","type":"travel"},{"content":"","date":"17 July 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Categories","type":"categories"},{"content":"In 2018 I set off from Berlin and kept going east by train — through Poland and the Baltics, across Russia and Mongolia, over the Tibetan plateau and down into southeast Asia. This is what I wrote along the way, with the photos attached.\nEvery trip below has coordinates, so the map traces the route in the order it happened. Click a marker to jump to that stop.\n","date":"17 July 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/","section":"Trails on Rails","summary":"","title":"Trails on Rails","type":"page"},{"content":"","date":"17 July 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/travel/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Travel","type":"categories"},{"content":"","date":"17 July 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"","section":"Travel","summary":"","title":"Travel","type":"travel"},{"content":"After the end of the journey in Ho Chi Minh City, I finally got back to work. The impressons of the last 6 months helped me to see some things in daily life differently.\nBut actually I missed travelling a lot, this kind of self defined lifestyle is really great.\nSo in the end of June it was time to travel again \u0026hellip;\n","date":"17 July 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/journey-continued/","section":"Travel","summary":"After the end of the journey in Ho Chi Minh City, I finally got back to work. The impressons of the last 6 months helped me to see some things in daily life differently.","title":"Journey continued","type":"travel"},{"content":"The train I went down from Hanoi to Hue had the splendid name Reunification Express 3. I checked in early enough in Hanoi, that I could take some nice pictures.\nThe soft-sleeper cabin consisted of 4 berths. Well the mattress was harder, and because it is warm normally in Vietnam we only got a thin blanket. For that night it was much too thin we had heavy rainy weather outside and only 13 degrees. It was really cold on the trains.\nSo the best train sleeper award on this journey goes to China Railways. Mattresses are nice and you get thick blankets. And railroad lines are better maintained than in Russia or Vietnam.\n","date":"12 December 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/night-train-to-hue/","section":"Travel","summary":"The train I went down from Hanoi to Hue had the splendid name Reunification Express 3. I checked in early enough in Hanoi, that I could take some nice pictures.","title":"Night train to Hue","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-12-07 to 2018-12-11\nAfter I picked up an infection my days in Hanoi were not so funny. Most time lying in bed with fever. I even went to doctor to check whether I got Malaria from mosquito bites in Laos. The doc found out that it was a bacterial infection, so I was some kind of relieved not having Malaria, but the side effect was that the toilet in my hotel room became my favourite place for the next days :-(\nEven in the few times I was sightseeing in Hanoi I found some really nice places and even had great dinner at the Hanoi Home restaurant, which was really delicious.\nA really awkward thing was watching the train just going through a street in Hanoi:\n","date":"11 December 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/hanoi/","section":"Travel","summary":"After I picked up an infection my days in Hanoi were not so funny. Most time lying in bed with fever. I even went to doctor to check whether I got Malaria from mosquito bites in Laos. The doc found…","title":"Hanoi","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-12-03 to 2018-12-07\nSapa itself is not worth visiting it is a dirty and very touristy city in the North of Vietnam.\nBut the landscape around with all the small valley and villages and the famous ricefields is amazing.\nI did two hikes one down the valley in South East direction which is really famous. So I went to the Cat-Cat village, paid entrance there walked there around and was not so really amused by all this touristy stuff there, visited the site with the waterwheels and the headed down the valley. After a while I was almost alone sometimes I met pigs or dogs and just one other trekking group. It was an awesome experience and I really enjoyed it, except the way back. Do not try to go back on the street!\nThe second hike was up north in some parts the trail of the Vietnam Mountain Marathon of 2015 until Ta Phi village. There I visited a cave and met nice local people from the Mong tribe. I would recommend this trekking tour - sometimes I had to search a little bit the path, but I had no severe problems to find it. The route is amazing because you cross some small passes, which are nice viewpoints for enjoying this amazing rice terraced landscape situated in front of you.\nThe bad thing is that on all hiking paths you see the pollution of plastic and even the river coming down from Sa Pa was foaming like you can see on following image:\nAnd the cave tour was very special. Thanks to the Mong ladies they guided me through.\n","date":"11 December 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/sapa/","section":"Travel","summary":"Sapa itself is not worth visiting it is a dirty and very touristy city in the North of Vietnam.","title":"Sapa","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-12-01 to 2018-12-02\nDien Bien Phu is very famous for the battle between the French and the Vietnamese, which ended the French reign over Vietnam in 1954.\nSo I visited there the D1 hill and the soldier cemetery.\nNowadays Dien Bien Phu is more a transit town.\nI just made a short stop for one day there and then continued with the night bus to Sa Pa.\n","date":"9 December 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/dien-bien-phu/","section":"Travel","summary":"Dien Bien Phu is very famous for the battle between the French and the Vietnamese, which ended the French reign over Vietnam in 1954.","title":"Dien Bien Phu","type":"travel"},{"content":"In the morning I went to small pier in Nong Khiaw and bought a ticket to Muang Khua, which is another small town in the north of Lao. From there it should be easy to get a bus to Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam.\nThe boat started at 10:30 from Nong Khiaw. Till the first stop the boat was very full, so full that water came in and I think even the driver was anxious that there is too much load on the boat and got quite nervous.\nBut after that it was a relaxing trip, just once we had to bypass a dam by bus.\n","date":"8 December 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/travelling-on-nam-ou-river/","section":"Travel","summary":"In the morning I went to small pier in Nong Khiaw and bought a ticket to Muang Khua, which is another small town in the north of Lao. From there it should be easy to get a bus to Dien Bien Phu in…","title":"Travelling on Nam Ou river","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-11-27 to 2018-11-29\nFrom Luang Prabang I went up by public bus to Nong Khiaw. I was lucky to get the bus because it departed 30 minutes ahead of schedule and was quite full.\nNong Khiaw is a little town with some shops and a lot of trekking companies.\nAfter signing up for a tour on the next day I hiked up to a viewpoint. The view over there was really good, but there was a lot of mist down in the river valley. The path is quite challenging uphill and runs through dense forest.\nNext day I went on a two day trekking tour. So I stored my big bag at the guesthouse where I stayed in Nong Khiaw and used my daypack for the two days.\nFirst we went up by boat the Nam Ou river and the guide showed me different plants they use for medicine or to eat.\nHe was really knowledgeable. After about two hours we arrived at a village where we had lunch, then we headed back to the river and took the boat to the village where we had the homestay over night. It was interesting to be there and they even made great handcraft there like weaving silk.\nThe next day we went down the river again, had a little tour through a jungle part near the river and hiked up to a nice waterfall.\nAnd then headed back to Nong Khiaw by kayak.\nIt was a nice tour but not very challenging and most time you sit in the boat going up.or down the river.\n","date":"6 December 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/nong-khiaw/","section":"Travel","summary":"From Luang Prabang I went up by public bus to Nong Khiaw. I was lucky to get the bus because it departed 30 minutes ahead of schedule and was quite full.","title":"Nong Khiaw","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-11-24\nI hiked with Laos Adventure Tours to the waterfall and did a kayaking back to Luang Prabang.\nI cannot recommend going with them. The company is very unorganized. First the guide I should have gone did not show up, we did a long tour through Luang Prabang to get 4 kayaks and finally when we should start the tour one kayak was missing.\n","date":"2 December 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/hiking-to-tad-sae-waterfall/","section":"Travel","summary":"I hiked with Laos Adventure Tours to the waterfall and did a kayaking back to Luang Prabang.","title":"Hiking to Tad Sae Waterfall","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-11-22 to 2018-11-27\nLuang Prabang is a wonderful town and charmed me with it\u0026rsquo;s beauty and relaxed lifestyle.\nOne of my favourit spots there was just besides the Mekong. Nothing is more relaxing like watching this river and the boats on it.\n","date":"2 December 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/luang-prabang/","section":"Travel","summary":"Luang Prabang is a wonderful town and charmed me with it’s beauty and relaxed lifestyle.","title":"Luang Prabang","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-11-21 to 2018-11-22\nFrom Guilin I went 6 hours by train to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province. It was just a transfer stop, because I headed directly to the south bus station and was happy to get a ticket on the same day with the night bus to Luang Prabang.\nI had already taken some night busses in my life like in Europe and South America, but this one was a surprise. They really built beds into the bus.\nAfter we went off, I got comfortable with the bed, it was nice and just after one hour we made a short stop and I had my last Chinese dumplings (饺子) for dinner at a petrol station.\nBack on the bus the highway in China was really good and so I slept well. After a break in the night, where the drivers slept as well we got to Mohan border town on the Chinese side. There we had a longer stop until 9 am when we finally headed to the border.\nWell on Chinese side they were again very curious what an Austrian is doing here, but finally after some chat - I even could use one of my selected Chinese phrases again: 我是奥地利人\nIt was funally so perfectly pronounced that the border guard asked me if I speak Chinese. But I was sorry to tell him I only can speak some phrases.\nSo after the Chinese let me out we walked to the Lao side of the border which was not that far.\nFirst I had to pay 1$ tourism fee and then I filled out the visa on arrival form. I already had taken a passport photos in Beijing, which is another hilarious story, and so I handed over the form and the photo after three offices nodded an smiled at me doing lots of writing and stamping I was the proud owner of a 30 days visa for Laos.\nSo finally I filled out the arrival form and headed for the real customs check and there was no problem so I finally was in Laos.\nAfter the checkpoint we had to wait a while, because the bus had to be checked.\nBut at about 12 pm we headed again southward to Luang Prabang.\nThe roads in Laos were not that nice with a lot of curves and were really bumpy. Lying on a bed was not that good idea. Some other travellers around me already got sick, but my stomach was strong.\nAt about 2pm we made a break for lunch I Oudamaxi. There I had noodle soup again, but as well bought some interesting new stuff to eat.\nIt is some kind of sweet sticky rice filled in a leaf.\nWell it was really tasty.\nSo finally after 26 hours bus ride we reached Luang Prabang, where I headed straight to my hostel - happy to have a none moving bed again and a proper shower.\n","date":"30 November 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/nightbus-from-kunming-to-luang-prabang/","section":"Travel","summary":"From Guilin I went 6 hours by train to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province. It was just a transfer stop, because I headed directly to the south bus station and was happy to get a ticket on the…","title":"Nightbus from Kunming to Luang Prabang","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-11-19\nAttention: The old hiking route from Yang di to Xingping is closed or at least not supported any more. You cannot do the first section of this path because there are no ferries going through the River from Yang di to the Langshi side of the River and there is no ferry from the Langshi side to Quanjia Zhou.\nBut I did the second part of the hiking path which was really amazing.\nFirst for a \u0026ldquo;yinguo ren\u0026rdquo; like me - even though I am actually an \u0026ldquo;aodili ren\u0026rdquo; - who is not speaking Chinese it is not quite hard to find a way from Guilin to Yang di pier. On every corner around the Guilin train station there are people who are selling trips to Yangshou and so I spoke to an old lady there to get a bus to Yang di. So she showed me a way through several streets to a booth of a small travel company, there I bought a ticket (40¥) to \u0026ldquo;Yang di lu\u0026rdquo;. This is the crossing of the main highway with the small street to Yang di. There I waited a little bit for a bus to Yang di pier which is about 11 kilometres away from the crossing. It costed 10 ¥.\nWell on Yang di pier I could confirm that the route is not open anymore. So I nearly got comfortable with the idea to go by \u0026ldquo;bamboo\u0026rdquo; boat, which is actually a boat made of plastic tubes, down the river.\nBut then I met a men who said he is driving me by car to Quanjia Zhou, so that I can hike the path from there. First he wanted to have 150 ¥, but after a little bargaining I paid 120 ¥. So we headed to Quanjia Zhou. Actually the trip was really cool in some king of sightseeing car and he stopped and showed me the best viewing points on the way - so it was really worth the money.\nAfter this trip I was really looking forward to hike the path. I found out that the path is not maintained any more, but most times it is only putting some plants aside and stairs are already broken, but no real serious climbing is needed.\nAnd the views there are amazing like small waterfalls amazing views on Li River with the limestone mountains. And the rotten path with the rotten buildings which formerly may be restraunts make the way really special.\nAfter about two and a half hours I came to the village called Lengshui, because there are still people living the ferry there to the other side where Xingping is, is still operating. I paid the 30¥ so they shipped me to the other side.\nThere I expected a path near the river which is very crowded, because at the ferry station there were lots of tourists, but no one except me was going this way. So there were some obstacles like broken bamboo trees, but again nothing serious.\nSo I finaly gut to the famous 20 Yuan view ans arrived in Xingping. Form there I headed back to Guilin by bus and train.\n","date":"23 November 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/hiking-li-river-%E6%BC%93%E6%B1%9F/","section":"Travel","summary":"**Attention: The old hiking route from Yang di to Xingping is closed or at least not supported any more. You cannot do the first section of this path because there are no ferries going through the…","title":"Hiking Li River (漓江)","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-11-17 to 2018-11-21\nI had bad luck with the weather - it was raining nearly all day long except the day I did the hike along the Li River.\n","date":"21 November 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/guilin/","section":"Travel","summary":"I had bad luck with the weather - it was raining nearly all day long except the day I did the hike along the Li River.","title":"Guilin","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-11-17\nGoing by train from Xiamen to Guilin I had to change train and stations in Guangzhou. So I had there about 4 hours to spare. Therefore I went to Shamian island and the old city centre.\n","date":"21 November 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/guangzhou/","section":"Travel","summary":"Going by train from Xiamen to Guilin I had to change train and stations in Guangzhou. So I had there about 4 hours to spare. Therefore I went to Shamian island and the old city centre.","title":"Guangzhou","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-11-14 to 2018-11-17\n","date":"21 November 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/xiamen/","section":"Travel","summary":"","title":"Xiamen","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-11-10 to 2018-11-14\nHuangshan is famous for its mountain with cloud structures. During the days I was there I had only cloudy sky - never seen the sun and a lot of rain.\n","date":"14 November 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/hiking-huangshan-%E9%BB%83%E5%B1%B1-mountains/","section":"Travel","summary":"Huangshan is famous for its mountain with cloud structures. During the days I was there I had only cloudy sky - never seen the sun and a lot of rain.","title":"Hiking Huangshan (黃山) mountains","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-11-09\nOn Friday the 9th of November I went to Wuzhen, because it is a famous water town. So I took the train to Tongxiang. At the station there the first thing which was really awkward was that they checked my bag again at the exit. This was the first time since I was in China. And then I went to the bus stop for the local bus. The stop had a special entrance \u0026hellip; next surprise they checked my bag again there. The next check was then short before I went on the bus. I wondered why are they all so paranoid here.\nI went with the bus to Wuzhen and then walked through the town to the entrance of the scenic area of the watertown. Something strange was going here on, because when I went in I was stopped by three security guys and they wanted to see my security batch. Well I have no batch, that is why I wanted to buy an entrance ticket. But they told me then that here today is the World Internet Conference and I won\u0026rsquo;t come in without a security batch.\nWell bad luck, so I turned around and took some pictures outside the scenic area in the town.\n","date":"13 November 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/wuzhen-...-or-internet-what/","section":"Travel","summary":"On Friday the 9th of November I went to Wuzhen, because it is a famous water town. So I took the train to Tongxiang. At the station there the first thing which was really awkward was that they…","title":"Wuzhen ... or Internet what???","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-11-07 to 2018-11-10\nHangzhou once praised by the poets in ancient times to be one of the most magnificient places on earth has developed in a modern mediocre Chinese city. The flair and glamour of the old times has nearly gone, just around the lake there are some spots where you can imagine that it must have been beautiful.\nI visited as well the Dadou Road, because it should have some old buildings. There are some reconstructions of old buildings - just for tourists. It has no charm.\n","date":"13 November 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/hangzhou/","section":"Travel","summary":"Hangzhou once praised by the poets in ancient times to be one of the most magnificient places on earth has developed in a modern mediocre Chinese city. The flair and glamour of the old times has…","title":"Hangzhou","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-11-06\nI went on a round trip with the magnetic levitation train from Shanghai Longyang Road to Pudong Airport and back.\nThe roundtrip ticket costs 80¥ and the train runs every 15 minutes.\n","date":"10 November 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/maglev-shanghai/","section":"Travel","summary":"I went on a round trip with the magnetic levitation train from Shanghai Longyang Road to Pudong Airport and back.","title":"Maglev Shanghai","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-11-05\nSuzhou is a town in the west of Shanghai. It is famous for its small waterways and gardens.\n9\n","date":"6 November 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/suzhou/","section":"Travel","summary":"Suzhou is a town in the west of Shanghai. It is famous for its small waterways and gardens.","title":"Suzhou","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-11-02 to 2018-11-07\nI had a bit a hatd start in Shanghai and had to switch the hostel, because at the other one it was really messy and owner not really showing up.\nMy second choice then was better, at the centre near to the Bund.\nCooking Dumplings # Another good idea was going to a dumpling cooking course, which was really funny and interesting.\n","date":"6 November 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/shanghai/","section":"Travel","summary":"I had a bit a hatd start in Shanghai and had to switch the hostel, because at the other one it was really messy and owner not really showing up.","title":"Shanghai","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-10-28 to 2018-11-01\nAfter one more sleeper train from Chengdu to Yichang and a crowded train I arrived in Zhangjiajie town. It was 18:30 and still dark, so I had contacted my hotel near the Yangjiajie entry of the park, to pick me up at the station. After a really off-road like journey over one hour, we finally reached the hotel.\nMan was I am happy to have a real room with bed again which is not moving like on the sleeper train. The hotel and the staff were really nice and prepared dinner for me.\nNext morning I talked with the hotel manager Lucas to give me some hints for the planning of my hiking routes. He was really nice, but the estimated times on his map were for Chinese hikers. Well Lucas himself told me last day, that most Chinese tourists do not like hiking, they only want to get to the famous spots. Knowing this, it is no wonder that in the park there is a complete bus system, cable cars to the peaks and even an elevator.\nWell I picked up the schematic hiking map from Lucas and started my adventure. And it was a really impressive one. Well I hiked up the mountains, because I had a lot of time and it was really worth it because there are a lot of viewpoints on the way. But I was really the only one on these paths which made the experience even better. Because when I reached the top I had the Chinese hiking style again with a lot of people and queues to the famous viewpoints. It is really stunning to be there and see these unbelievable stone pillars. But as soon as I left the common route, which was with the elevator down, I was alone again on the stairway downwards. When I was down in the valley it was 3 pm, so I decided to explore it a bit. Well suddenly this bit was 2 hours and it was getting dark. I decided to take a more direct path which looked good in the beginning, but after half-way it turned out to be abandoned, and the surrounding apes made crazy sounds, so I felt a little creepy going there. But the path was amazing and so after a while I felt like Indiana Jones. So I hiked up a lot of stairs to a pass, where I was rewarded with an unbelievably great sunset view. I enjoyed my time there even though I was in a hurry to come down to the village back to the hotel, because night was coming.\nSo After this rest I hiked really fast and reached the hotel at about 18:30. So I hiked a path estimated for 3 hours in one and a half including a rest at the pass — not bad.\nNext day I started again early morning and did a great tour around in the park with about 11 hours hiking.\nAnd on the third day I relaxed a bit and made my laundry and going to the huang shan village in the afternoon.\nSo finally the day of departure came. This time I took a bus back to Zhangjiajie town, but I had a lot of time till my train was departing, so I decided to go up to Tianamen mountain. It is very famous because of it looks like a gate and some wing-suit flyers already used it in red bull spots to fly through. But I did it this time the Chinese hiking way. Going up by cable-car, driving by escalators inside the mountain to coming out at the gate and finally going back by bus. Never had such an artificial mountain experience ..\n","date":"6 November 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/hiking-the-sky-mountains/","section":"Travel","summary":"After one more sleeper train from Chengdu to Yichang and a crowded train I arrived in Zhangjiajie town. It was 18:30 and still dark, so I had contacted my hotel near the Yangjiajie entry of the park…","title":"Hiking the Sky-Mountains","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-10-27\nAfter two nights on sleeper trains I arrived in Chengdu. I had to catch another sleeoer traib that night, so I left my luggage at the storafe at Chengdu East Station and headed directly to the Panda Base.\nChengdu has a very good metro system, so I took the subway and one bus to the base which is approximstly 10 km outside the city.\nThe base is a big reservat in the north east. First I decided to visit the museum, where they showed the history of pandas in China and how they support them and developed reproduction techniques.\nThen I went to the pandas and it was great seeing this cute bear eating bamboo.\nYou can see there pandas of different age and red pandas. Really awesome - love these animals!\nAfter the base I headed back to town. Actually Chengdu has about 11 million inhabitants, and so I got directly stuck in one of the biggest shipping streets. There were too many people. So I decided to take some pictures in the centre, and check something go eat and then going back to the station in the evening.\n","date":"4 November 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/pandas-in-chengdu/","section":"Travel","summary":"After two nights on sleeper trains I arrived in Chengdu. I had to catch another sleeoer traib that night, so I left my luggage at the storafe at Chengdu East Station and headed directly to the Panda…","title":"Pandas in Chengdu","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-10-21 to 2018-10-25\nI arrived in Lhasa on the 21st in the evening. And the first impression when driving in taxi to the hotel was the Potala Palace properly light up in the night. It looked so amazing.\nI shared a room with Roy, an Indian from Calcutta.\nNext day I went with the group on a tour to see Drepung and Sera Monastery. We saw there a lot of statues of Buddhas and of an Indian who was invited to cleanse places from evil ghosts. And yeah the first Tibetan who got enlightened. I liked his statue best, because he was looking like a funny man. Very interesting was the monks preparing for their exams in the Sera monastery.\nNext day we went to the old city centre and saw a lot of prayers walking round the Jokhang temple. Jokhang is one of the holiest places in Tibet. The prayers usually end their journey here.\nIn the afternoon we went up the amazing Potala Palace. The Potala has an older part, painted in red and a newer part from 17th centuary painted in white. Special fact is that the white colour is made of yoghurt and honey. The painting is done by Tibetian communities from different parts. And let me put is this way I won\u0026rsquo;t let them paint my flat, because they are more spraying the colour than painting on the wall and so the colour is almost everywhere — not only on the wall. In the palace every Lama built his own room for sleeping, and welcoming visitors.\nWe saw there the graves of the Lamas too.\nIn the evening I went out with Roy, my Indian room mate to have dinner and take some pictures around Jokhang Temple at night.\nOn the 24th after so many temples and monasteries, we went to Yamdrok lake which is up in the mountains at 4400 metres. There I saw Yaks. The locals there wanted to take a picture me riding on the Yak, but this is not my style of travelling to take these kinds of photos.\nOn my last day in Lhasa I have to wait till my train back to central China departed in the evening. So Nick a Swedish friend from the group and I went to Summer Palace in Lhasa.\n","date":"31 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/lhasa-and-yamdrok-lake/","section":"Travel","summary":"I arrived in Lhasa on the 21st in the evening. And the first impression when driving in taxi to the hotel was the Potala Palace properly light up in the night. It looked so amazing.","title":"Lhasa and Yamdrok Lake","type":"travel"},{"content":"I went from Xi\u0026rsquo;an to Lhasa and in Xining I had to change to the Tibet Train.\nThe train cars are equipped with oxygen outlets, further more the cars are standard Chinese train sleeping cars.\nI took a hard sleeper which was fine for me.\nNext morning when I woke up we were going through these fascinating landscape and had an unbelievable clear blue sky. The train went then up over 5000 metres above sea level to go then down to Lhasa (3762) again.\nJust amazing.\n","date":"26 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tibet-train-to-lhasa/","section":"Travel","summary":"I went from Xi’an to Lhasa and in Xining I had to change to the Tibet Train.","title":"Tibet Train to Lhasa","type":"travel"},{"content":" Date: 2018-10-18\nNear the city Luoyang at the shores of the Li river there are the famous Buddha caves.\nI came from Xi\u0026rsquo;an with a highspeed train - it took only 90 minutes early in the morning. Then I went by taxi to the entrance of the cultural zone.\nAt the shores of the Li river there are small caves with Buddha statues engraved in the rocks.\n","date":"26 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/longman-buddha-caves/","section":"Travel","summary":"Near the city Luoyang at the shores of the Li river there are the famous Buddha caves.","title":"Longman Buddha Caves","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-10-16\nAt the hostel in Xi\u0026rsquo;an I got the tip tjat hiking Mount Hua Shan is really beautiful. First I made some plans how I can get there and buy the tickets with my very limited Chinese language skills ;-)\nBut I found a Chinese woman, who was staying at the same hostel and wanted to go to the mountain too. So it would be s lot easier for me, because she can manage the buying of the tickets and the Chinese conversations.\nThank you Maggie without you it won\u0026rsquo;t have been that easy to get there and back to Xi\u0026rsquo;an.\nSo we took an early morning bullet train to Hua Shan North, from there is a free bus going to the tourist centre of Hua Shan Mountain. There Maggie bought two entrance and bus tickets for us and we went by bus to the Hua Shan North base station. From there we took the cable car up, because we wanted to do all the five peaks up there.\nOn the mountain station we went up to the north peak, then we had a longer tour through a lot of steps to the Central peak. The mountain scenery was really impressive. And the special touch was that there are Buddhist temples just near the peaks.\nFrom the central peak we again had to walk a lot of steps up and down and up again, had to climb up a sky latter and finally reached the east peak. Then we ha to go down again and then went again a lot of stairs up to the south peak, which was the highest point with 2150 metres.\nFrom there we hiked to the west peak - and so we finally have managed to go to all peaks. The whole tour took us about 5 hours with breaks.\nFrom the west peak we took another cable car down, which was really impressive because it crossed a valley and went up a mountain on the other side and them finally drove down tho the base station. From here we took the bus back to the tourists centre.\nAn finally took a bullet train back to Xi\u0026rsquo;an from Hua Shan North.\n","date":"23 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/hiking-mount-hua-shan/","section":"Travel","summary":"At the hostel in Xi’an I got the tip tjat hiking Mount Hua Shan is really beautiful. First I made some plans how I can get there and buy the tickets with my very limited Chinese language skills ;-)","title":"Hiking Mount Hua Shan","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-10-14 to 2018-10-20\nI lived in a hostel by the city wall in Xi\u0026rsquo;an. It was a perfect location in the centre and I could reach subway in a few minutes. The staff of the hostel was really nice, when I arrived they invited me for a special dish for Xi\u0026rsquo;an which is cold rice noodles with a spicy sauce. I liked it very much.\nFor a foodie like me Xi\u0026rsquo;an is the place to be. In the centre there are several markets, the biggest is the muslim market. There are small booths selling various kinds of food like Chinese Hamburger, seafood, different types of skewers, fruits, freshly prepared passion fruit juice, various kinds of teas. You can smell this try that - it was like a wonderland for me.\nAnd Xi\u0026rsquo;an has an ancient city wall, where you can walk on. But most of the city is rather modern. In Xi\u0026rsquo;an you find as well small shops and big shopping malls.\nA bit outside of town is the site where the terracotta army was found. It is really an impressive museum and you can see that there is still a lot of work on-going.\n","date":"23 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/xian/","section":"Travel","summary":"I lived in a hostel by the city wall in Xi’an. It was a perfect location in the centre and I could reach subway in a few minutes. The staff of the hostel was really nice, when I arrived they invited…","title":"Xi'an","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-10-12 to 2018-10-14\nPingyao is not so popular in Europe, but it is one of few cities in China which has an old city centre dating back to Ming Dynasty. The centre is circumvented by an ancient city wall too.\nWhen I came first into the centre it was like going back several centuries. Really old small roads, little houses with typical Chinese style roofs. It was like in a film about old China. The houses have usually small backyards.\nActually Pingyao was in ancient times the financial centre of China. So there are museums in the city about ancient banking system an money transport.\nBesides that I visited the city wall - you can partly walk on top of it, the ancient government building.\nFor all these and more sightseeing spots you can buy a ticket in the town.\nJust when I have been there the International Pingyao Filmfestival started, but for the first days tickets still were sold out.\nIn my point of view Pingyao is very touristic and some kind of an Old-Chinese fantasy wonderland.\n","date":"20 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/pingyao-living-in-a-museum/","section":"Travel","summary":"Pingyao is not so popular in Europe, but it is one of few cities in China which has an old city centre dating back to Ming Dynasty. The centre is circumvented by an ancient city wall too.","title":"Pingyao - Living in a Museum","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-10-11\nOn my last night in Beijing we got to the Quanjude restaurant for eating kǎoyā\nroasted duck, in western world also known by Beijing Duck. It was an awesome restaurant with dinner show and a really delicious duck.\n","date":"19 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/eating-%E7%83%A4%E9%B8%AD-in-%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC/","section":"Travel","summary":"On my last night in Beijing we got to the Quanjude restaurant for eating kǎoyā - roasted duck, in western world also known by Beijing Duck.","title":"Eating 烤鸭 in 北京","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-10-09\nWei and I decided to meet again in Beijing to hike the Great Wall together. We selected a part where we had not to much tourists, but which is beautiful because of the lake near the wall.\nWell everyone knows hiking with me keeps always some surprises, because I like to take the off beaten tracks. So we took a nice tour along partly closed areas of the wall an even climbed up a construction site.\nThank you Wei for your confidence in my route.\n","date":"19 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/the-great-wall/","section":"Travel","summary":"Wei and I decided to meet again in Beijing to hike the Great Wall together. We selected a part where we had not to much tourists, but which is beautiful because of the lake near the wall.","title":"The Great Wall","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-10-05 to 2018-10-12\nBeijing was quite a surprise to me, because I heard really bad things about air quality and pollution there. But I stayed there for one week and hat clear sunny weather - no smog. The cars in the city looked very modern.\nI lived there in a hotel in the middle of the hutongs. I expected to see a lot of poor people there, but most people living there nowadays count more to middle class. Some streets in the hutongs are becoming more and more a tourist attraction with a lit of food shops, restaurants and small tourist shops.\nOn 6th of October the last day of \u0026ldquo;National day\u0026rdquo; I went to forbidden city and summer palace. But even the tickets of forbidden city where sold out. So I took some pictures of it from a park with a hill in the north of it. In summer palace too where many people, so that taking pictures of some spots was quite hard.\nLater this week it was a little bit better, so I went back to the Forbidden City on Wednesday. Still many people, but it was really great to see all the small palaces and squares.\nBeijing has several big parks and palaces, so I visited too Tiantan park with the Temple of Good Harvest, one interesting Temple of Confucius, where they had an exhibition too about his life and work.\n","date":"19 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/beijing/","section":"Travel","summary":"Beijing was quite a surprise to me, because I heard really bad things about air quality and pollution there. But I stayed there for one week and hat clear sunny weather - no smog. The cars in the…","title":"Beijing","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-10-03 to 2018-10-05\nShenyang is a modern city, but in the centre there is the old forbidden city of emperor\u0026rsquo;s times.\nIn Shenyang I slept in a capsule. The hostel I really cannot recommend: one dirty bathroom for many people, hard to find, staff smoked and I was sleeping in the entrance room. But the capsule was nice:\nI was in Shenyang during National Day (actually it is a national week - 6 days of festivity), where a lot of Chinese Tourists as well were in the forbidden city palace. It was sometimes like kung fu fighting for a good picture.\n","date":"13 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/shenyang/","section":"Travel","summary":"Shenyang is a modern city, but in the centre there is the old forbidden city of emperor’s times.","title":"Shenyang","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-10-01 to 2018-10-03\nHarbin was a nice start for China. Even more that Wei, the Taiwanese woman who I met at the border, helped me to get comfortable with Chinese customs and the language. Harbin is a nice town with a small old town city center, and lies on the shores of a river with an island in the middle. On the island there is an amusement park. You can get their either by cable car or ship.\nUnit 731 # On Tuesday we went with a friend of hers from Harbin to the site of Unit 731, which was the name of Japanese army base near Harbin during Second World War. The site was used as test an experiment base on biological warfare. They did tests on plague, anthrax, cholera bacterias including field test on local population. Very hard and sad stuff.\n","date":"8 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/harbin/","section":"Travel","summary":"Harbin was a nice start for China. Even more that Wei, the Taiwanese woman who I met at the border, helped me to get comfortable with Chinese customs and the language. Harbin is a nice town with a…","title":"Harbin","type":"travel"},{"content":"It showed up that leaving Russia was not so easy. The bus I wanted to take was not going on Sundays. So on the 30th I went with a night train to the tow Ussurirsk, because I found out that there are daily busses to China. Well when I was there it was far too early, so I had to wait until the bus station opened.\nFinally, at 7 am the counter opened, but the woman said just in rude Russian that she does not have any tickets. Well I was really frustrated, but a Chinese man and woman, who were as well there told me I just have to wait. I was just thinking of going by taxi to the border and see how I can come across to China, because it was the last day of my visa period.\nSuddenly at 11 am there suddenly were tickets available. I was so happy to get one.\nFirst we drove to the border town Pogranichny, made a short stop and then got to the Russian border station. There we had to leave the bus and walked through the exit procedure.\nWell the Russians had some problems with my last name, but finally I got through. Then we went on with bus to the Chinese border station, which was actually looking more like an entrance to a big hotel. Again my passport was very interesting, but they were nice and friendly. When I finally got through I found out that the bus was not waiting for me any more. But a woman from Taiwan, who I met on the bus before, did and helped me to catch a taxi together with her to the train station of the Chinese border town Suifenhe. I had pre-booked the tickets through a Chinese travel agency and only had to request at the counter that they may print my ticket. It worked well. She bought as well a ticket for the same train and after 7 hours on the train we arrived in Harbin and one hour later we finally reached the hostel. I was so tired, but happy to be there.\n","date":"2 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/leaving-russia/","section":"Travel","summary":"It showed up that leaving Russia was not so easy. The bus I wanted to take was not going on Sundays. So on the 30th I went with a night train to the tow Ussurirsk, because I found out that there are…","title":"Leaving Russia","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-09-28\nFinally after three days on train from Irkutsk I have reached Vladivostok.\nA freight-tain derailed on Wednesday just before my train an destroyed the tracks, so we had to wait 12 hours until the problem was fixed.\nVideo of site of the accident when my train finally passed:\nSo what\u0026rsquo;s coming up next?\nI have to leave Russia on the 30th og September, because my tourist visa ends. So I will go to China!\nStay tuned!\n","date":"29 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/at-the-other-end-of-transiberian-railway/","section":"Travel","summary":"Finally after three days on train from Irkutsk I have reached Vladivostok.","title":"At the other End of Transiberian Railway","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-09-22\nCircum-Baikal is an old part of the Trans-Siberian railway. It was once famous for the nice path along the Baikal lake and lots of tunnels.\nAs one part was flooded due to better protection of Irkutsk against floodings, there is only the part remaining from Sludyanka to Port Baikal.\nI did a round trip by train, steam-train, boat and bus from Irkutsk organized by Tutu-Baikal.\n","date":"25 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/steampower-along-circum-baikal/","section":"Travel","summary":"Circum-Baikal is an old part of the Trans-Siberian railway. It was once famous for the nice path along the Baikal lake and lots of tunnels.","title":"Steampower along Circum-Baikal","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-09-20 to 2018-09-25\nIrkutsk is my favourite city in Siberia, it has some flair with a mixture of old and new buildings, nice Squares, nice paths along the riverbank.\nAnd it has nice restaurants, bars - I really can recommend to visit the Edison Craft Bar.\nI had a good time there.\n","date":"24 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/irkutsk/","section":"Travel","summary":"Irkutsk is my favourite city in Siberia, it has some flair with a mixture of old and new buildings, nice Squares, nice paths along the riverbank.","title":"Irkutsk","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-09-17 to 2018-09-19\nNovosibirsk is the capital of Siberia an has some representative buildings like the opera. During the time I was there, there have been a lot of construction sites, so walking in the city centre was more an obstacle run with lots of dust and smoke.\n","date":"23 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/novosobirsk/","section":"Travel","summary":"Novosibirsk is the capital of Siberia an has some representative buildings like the opera. During the time I was there, there have been a lot of construction sites, so walking in the city centre was…","title":"Novosobirsk","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-09-15 to 2018-09-17\nIf the cities are not that big I usually decide to hike to the hotel. Just to see the city and get more of the people who live here. Well Omsk with 10 km to the hotel was really a hard hike with a big backpack. I nearly twisted my ankle so I got to know Omsk the hard way.\nThe other thing is that I had to give up some hope and my girlfriend and I ended our relationship.\nNot the best memories bound to that town.\nWell Omsk itself has a nice historic and good renovated city center with a cathedral, a theater and some museums. But the center is rather small. In Omsk there are several bridges - one was modernized so not useable, because in Omsk is the junction of river Irtysch and Om.\n","date":"23 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/omsk/","section":"Travel","summary":"If the cities are not that big I usually decide to hike to the hotel. Just to see the city and get more of the people who live here. Well Omsk with 10 km to the hotel was really a hard hike with a…","title":"Omsk","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-09-12 to 2018-08-14\nEkaterinburg is a modern city with some skyscrapers and a nice lake in the city center. There are only a few old buildings, which are nowadays mostly museums.\nBut what I did not know was that Boris Jelzin was here a long time governor. So they have built a great modern museum in the name of him. I visited it and it was really great to see all the facts about the recent history of Russia. You can get an audioguide in English at the reception which leads you through the exhibition.\n","date":"23 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/ekaterinburg/","section":"Travel","summary":"Ekaterinburg is a modern city with some skyscrapers and a nice lake in the city center. There are only a few old buildings, which are nowadays mostly museums.","title":"Ekaterinburg","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-09-09 to 2018-09-11\n","date":"16 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/kazan/","section":"Travel","summary":"","title":"Kazan","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-09-05\n","date":"11 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/nishni-nowgorod/","section":"Travel","summary":"","title":"Nishni Nowgorod","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-09-01 to 2018-09-08\n","date":"11 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/moscow/","section":"Travel","summary":"","title":"Moscow","type":"travel"},{"content":"From Kiev I took a night train to Moscow. It was coming from Chisinau. In Kiev it departed 3am in the morning and reached Moscow at 4pm. I selected the train, so that I could be sure, that when we reach the border my Russian visa will be valid. It started on the 1st of September.\nIt was the first time to me going in a 3rd class open compartment carriage.\nMy first experience on the train was really great. It was in the middle of the night and a fellow traveller from the other upper compartment helped me to lift up my bag to the luggage store above my bed.\nIn the morning when we reached the border I had to fill oit the immigration card, but did not have a pen. After some words in broken Russian another traveller borrowed me his pen.\nWhen the Russian immigration control came my fellow travellers helped me to explain why I am here.\nAnd when I left the train the sleeping car conductor gave me a clap on the shoulder and wished me a nice trip.\n","date":"11 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/%D1%81%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B9-%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%87%D0%B8-%D0%BA%D0%B9%D0%B5%D0%B2-%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B5-%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%80-%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B2%D0%B0/","section":"Travel","summary":"From Kiev I took a night train to Moscow. It was coming from Chisinau. In Kiev it departed 3am in the morning and reached Moscow at 4pm. I selected the train, so that I could be sure, that when we…","title":"Спокойной ночи Кйев - доброе вечер Москва","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-30\nI think everyone who grew up in the mid 80ies remembers the Chernobyl disaster. All this insecurity, lack of knowledge and nowadays we know it was only the sacrifice of more than half a million workers, that Europe did not become completely uninhabitable.\nSo I went there with a group tour and a lot of respect. On the site I was really puzzled how near we got to the former disaster site, which is now covered with a big metal constructi9on called the second sarcophagus.\n","date":"9 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/chernobyl/","section":"Travel","summary":"I think everyone who grew up in the mid 80ies remembers the Chernobyl disaster. All this insecurity, lack of knowledge and nowadays we know it was only the sacrifice of more than half a million…","title":"Chernobyl","type":"travel"},{"content":"2018-08-26 to 2018-08-31\n","date":"8 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/kiew/","section":"Travel","summary":"2018-08-26 to 2018-08-31","title":"Kiew","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-24 to 2018-08-26\nI was lucky and came into town on 24th of August, which is the independence day of the Ukraine. So the whole town was vibrant and moving. They had several stages in the city centre where bands played. It was wonderful.\n","date":"8 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/lwiw/","section":"Travel","summary":"I was lucky and came into town on 24th of August, which is the independence day of the Ukraine. So the whole town was vibrant and moving. They had several stages in the city centre where bands…","title":"Lwiw","type":"travel"},{"content":"Sometimes it is hard to find words. I tought I was well-prepared because I had in school good teatchers and lessons about the Holocaust and Nazi regime.\nBut just standing there, I was deeply shocked. And then just after Auschwitz visiting Birkenau and seeing the vast dimensions of the concentration camp \u0026hellip; what a horror.\nIn my opinion every Austrian and German should see this.\n","date":"6 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/auschwitz/","section":"Travel","summary":"Sometimes it is hard to find words. I tought I was well-prepared because I had in school good teatchers and lessons about the Holocaust and Nazi regime.","title":"Auschwitz","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-21 to 2018-08-24\nCracovia is wonderful vivid city, but very touristic. My favourite part of the city is Kazimierz. It is near the castle the quater where formerly mostly jews lived. There are still Synagogues there. I liked the bars, restaurants and cafes there. But what I like most are these small squares, which really give this part of the town a unique flair.\n","date":"4 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/cracovia/","section":"Travel","summary":"Cracovia is wonderful vivid city, but very touristic. My favourite part of the city is Kazimierz. It is near the castle the quater where formerly mostly jews lived. There are still Synagogues there.…","title":"Cracovia","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-16 to 2018-08-20\nStayed in Berlin for few days at my friend Corinna\u0026rsquo;s place, because I subleased my flat till end of January.\nIt was a wonderful stay, had some nice chats, went running. Even went to sports event at Olympia Park and practiced athletics.\nSo it was perfect to reorganize my bag, put some things out and leave them in Berlin and picked up the mighty new credit card ;-)\nThanks for organizing the sublease and picking up my mails to my friend Claudia!\n","date":"4 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/break-in-berlin/","section":"Travel","summary":"Stayed in Berlin for few days at my friend Corinna’s place, because I subleased my flat till end of January.","title":"Break in Berlin","type":"travel"},{"content":"","date":"4 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/sport/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Sport","type":"categories"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-13 to 2018-08-16\n","date":"4 September 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/vilnius-and-trakia/","section":"Travel","summary":"","title":"Vilnius and Trakia","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-11\nOn saturday I had rainy weather in Riga. So I got to the railway museum.\n","date":"28 August 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/rainy-day-in-riga/","section":"Travel","summary":"On saturday I had rainy weather in Riga. So I got to the railway museum.","title":"Rainy Day in Riga","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-10\nOn friday I had the next orienteering competition.\nThe location was a little bit remote so the organizers provided a shuttle service from the railway station in Sigulda to the campsite.\nMost of the checkpoints were placed on spots in the swamp. And like in the rest of Europe it had not rained there recently. So the swamp was pretty dried out. So it was like orienteering in a forest with a lot of undergrowth and few significant terrain structures. So good compass work was your friend - well it is not my friend as I must confess. And the second checkpoint already was some kind of catastrophe to me. And it continued that way. So had a bad race. And was finally happy to finish the race in time.\n9\n","date":"27 August 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/dry-swamp/","section":"Travel","summary":"On friday I had the next orienteering competition.","title":"Dry Swamp","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-09\nAfter two day with orienteering competitions, I had one day free. So I decided to go for a short visit to Talinn. So I took the bus at 6 in the morning and drove up 4 hours to Talinn. Slept most of the time in the bus. Talinn is a very interesting city. It has one very modern parts, but as well real old city centre with defence walls on a hill about the upper part of the old city and down the hill the lower part. All parts of the old city you have narrow streets with neat small shops and cafes. In the old town there is in the upper part the president\u0026rsquo;s palace. At the lower part you have the main square with an old Gothic city call in the middle. Really awesome! A bit outside the old town there is the harbour and the modernized storehouses where now are stylish cafes and bars. Wonderful city, but I had to go back to Riga in the evening — again a 4-hour bus ride.\n","date":"25 August 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/short-visit-in-talinn/","section":"Travel","summary":"After two day with orienteering competitions, I had one day free. So I decided to go for a short visit to Talinn. So I took the bus at 6 in the morning and drove up 4 hours to Talinn. Slept most of…","title":"Short visit in Talinn","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08\nGot up early that day at 5:30 to take the train to Sigulda. 3 kilometres outside of Sigulda was the next Orienteering event.\nSo when the train arrived after 80 minutes drive I had to walk a bit to the orienteering camp. On the way suddenly I saw a big building. When I got nearer, I recognized well yes that must be the bob sled run. Standing there I was quite impressed about the first curve.\nThe camp was as well in some kind of winter resort. In summer, it is mainly used by mountain bikers. The course was very interesting, great topography with lot of altitude, dense wood. In the last part there were some bingo controls in very dense forest with a lot of undergrowth.\nAnd well yes I learned don’t try to run in to deep mud: I was just running up a small creek because there was my second but last control, and suddenly I sucked in deep with both feet. I got out but the mud pulled me out of my shoes. So now I had to be quick and managed to recover my shoes from the mud … phew.\nAfter all this action I sat down took a breath and took on my completely muddy shoes again. Then I finished the race, just happy to come out of it with all my clothes on ;-)\n","date":"23 August 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/sigulda-and-the-mud/","section":"Travel","summary":"Got up early that day at 5:30 to take the train to Sigulda. 3 kilometres outside of Sigulda was the next Orienteering event.","title":"Sigulda and the Mud","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-07\nThe next orienteering event within the Latvia-O-Week was a forest sprint in the Ethnographic Open Air Museum. So I took a public bus to the museum.\nThe event there was really cool. At the finish they had a medieval band playing old Latvian songs and a lot of people in traditional Latvian costumes. And everywhere were old houses, boats, a windmill. I put my clothes under a medieval market booth which was not in use and went to the start.\nMy race was not good I had problems with the first two controls and with some controls at the end of the race. But well was fast enough not to be ranked last.\n","date":"21 August 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/orienteering-in-the-ethnographic-open-air-museum/","section":"Travel","summary":"The next orienteering event within the Latvia-O-Week was a forest sprint in the Ethnographic Open Air Museum. So I took a public bus to the museum.","title":"Orienteering in the Ethnographic Open Air Museum","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-05\nThe National Library of Latvia is an impressive building, just opposite to the old town on the other shore of Daugava river.\nThe Start of the competition was in the basement.\nI was really puzzled when I got that map:\nI needed about 15 minutes to get out how I can reach my first control point. Never had such a map before \u0026hellip; uff.\nSo I got upstairs till the 12th floor to hange theee the staircase and went down again. I exercised through a lot of stairs this day.\nAfter I finished the first course I got a second map which was at the same level of difficulty.\nSo it took me more than 3 hours until I gave up \u0026hellip; could not see any stairs anymore \u0026hellip; sorry.\n","date":"15 August 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/indoor-orienteering-in-national-library-of-latvia/","section":"Travel","summary":"The National Library of Latvia is an impressive building, just opposite to the old town on the other shore of Daugava river.","title":"Indoor Orienteering in National Library of Latvia","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-04\nAfter I had participated in my first competition at Kronvalda Park in Riga, I went to the World Orienteering Championship Sprint Finals on the main square in old town in Riga. There was start and finish of the race for each runner. It was really impressive to see how focussed the elite runners are. And a lot of runners do have their own fan club, so there were a lot of spectators from Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, etc. They really rocked the square and made a good atmosphere.\nThe first highlight was then to see the start and tremendous finish of Maja Alm. She won the women\u0026rsquo;s race.\nAfterwards heavy rain started, which made the course even more challenging for the men\u0026rsquo;s race, because the cobblestone pavement got really slippery.\nFinally, Daniel Hubmann was the best and the swiss spectators celebrated him. It was really great to see all the famous orienteering elite runners there. It was really an awesome event - well with a lot of rain, but who bothers.\n","date":"15 August 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/woc-sprint-finals-in-old-town-riga/","section":"Travel","summary":"After I had participated in my first competition at Kronvalda Park in Riga, I went to the World Orienteering Championship Sprint Finals on the main square in old town in Riga. There was start and…","title":"WOC Sprint Finals in Old Town Riga","type":"travel"},{"content":"Besides the kind reader of this blog now might know that I am a train nerd. My second most beloved hobby is orienteering.\nWhy orienteering? # It is mostly a sport directly in the nature. This is the old challenge how to survive in the wild. It is not a \u0026ldquo;me versus nature\u0026rdquo; thing, because in most cases you are faster when you find out how you can use nature to find your way through an undergrowth part or use a trunk as bridge through a river.\nThe other challenge is that you have to be in good physical and mental shape. The physical shape for running and the mental part for orienteering: identify features from the map in reality, realize errors early and adapt your course.\nIf one of these two components is missing, you suck. And these two components are very hard to align with each other: If you run to heavy the mental capability sinks because the oxygen is consumed by the muscles for running.\nThat why I like orienteering so much: it challenges me and it makes me happy to be in nature.\n","date":"15 August 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/orienteering/","section":"Travel","summary":"Besides the kind reader of this blog now might know that I am a train nerd. My second most beloved hobby is orienteering.","title":"Orienteering","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-03 till 2018-08-13\nWhen I first came to Riga with all its buildings of 19th century, it reminded a bit of down town Vienna. Then I encountered this old wood-made houses in between the other buildings which gives the city really a unique touch.\nWell the first thing after a shower I went to the old town in the city centre. Well this mixture of buildings from medieval ages, art nouveau, small streets unique but very touristy shops, restaurants and bars. First I circled through the streets gut to the Blackheads House then to the dome square, which mostly looked like a big beer garden with teddy bears. Afterwards I went down to Daugava river. On the other side you see a big Latvian flag and a great modern building — the national library. The other really cool thing is you still have the big market halls in Riga. Here you find really cool things to buy and eat. One of my really favourite spots there. I liked it very much just going through the town to the market hall just for breakfast or lunch. The market is still open on Sundays — even other shops in Riga stay open.\nIn Riga, you can really find food in any price category. Once I even was at the famous self-service restaurant called \u0026ldquo;Lido\u0026rdquo;, they have really good food!\nThere are now popping up as well the micro-breweries with different tastes. I went to two of them: Alkimikis and Labientis. Both had great beer any an interesting variety. At Alkimikis you even can get good food as well!\n","date":"13 August 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/riga/","section":"Travel","summary":"When I first came to Riga with all its buildings of 19th century, it reminded a bit of down town Vienna. Then I encountered this old wood-made houses in between the other buildings which gives the…","title":"Riga","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-03\nIn the morning got up at 5am. Did not get a lot of sleep that night, because it was really hot in the room. And the other guy came back drunk at 2:30 and snoring all night long. So I was happy to leave the room.\nOn the way to the commuter train station I bought something to eat right in front of it, because there was an old lady selling home-made rolls. That would be fine for the long bus ride.\nComing to the main bus station there were not many people, so I set outside right at the platform and enjoyed the morning sun. When the bus arrived I checked in my luggage and went to my seat. The seat besides mine was empty, so I could use the extra space. The bus drove eastward to Bialystok first to pick up some people. I used the first part of the right to get some sleep. And at each longer stop I went off the bus to stretch my legs.\nRight before the border to Lithuania a young lady came who booked the seat besides me. Well could have been worse.\nWe made a stop at Mariampole and Kaunas. And finally after 12 hours ride reached Riga.\n","date":"11 August 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/traveling-to-riga/","section":"Travel","summary":"In the morning got up at 5am. Did not get a lot of sleep that night, because it was really hot in the room. And the other guy came back drunk at 2:30 and snoring all night long. So I was happy to…","title":"Traveling to Riga","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-02\nSo the first stop on the tour was Warsaw. When I got on the Eurocity train in Berlin I was really exhausted, the heat, carrying the big bag. Bit the nice thong was that I had the first hour of the train ride a cabin on my own. So I could stretch my legs and recover. One of the interesting things is when you drive into a city I always try to examine the buildings and to get a glimpse on people just to develop a feeling how it might be living there. Well Warsaw is one of this big very communist style cities with satellite towns with prefabricated concrete buildings. When I then got off in Warsawa Centralna I stood just before the Pałac Kultury i Nauki (short: Pkin). What an impressive building. The city center is well structured, and on big Crossings you have underpasses for the pedestrians. Well sometimes going in such underpasses makes me feel a bit awkward. But when I came to the first passage there was a polish hard rock band playing just in the spot before with a lot of spectators. So I enjoyed the music there for a while and then moved on to the hostel where I had booked a bed. My roommates there were two women and a men. In Warsaw temperatures were nearly the same like in Berlin (about 35 degrees), so the next thing I did was taking a cool shower and then went off for a decent meal – it was already 8pm. The next day I passed by the Pkin and went to the old town of Warsaw. It was rebuild in the 1950ies after the Nazis completely destroyed it after the polish uprising in 1944. I found a really charming old town with a castle, old churches, nice cafes and restaurants and some shops. Well spent there a while and then went through the city to get to the bus station to buy a ticket to Riga. Yes you read correctly a bus ticket. It is a pity that there is no train connection to riga on weekdays. But there is a EU project to rebuild the baltic railway line (http://www.railbaltica.org). After a tip of my friend Henry, that there is a viewing platform at Pkin. I went there in the evening and had a great view over the city. Thanks a lot for the hint!\n","date":"10 August 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/first-stop-warsawa/","section":"Travel","summary":"So the first stop on the tour was Warsaw. When I got on the Eurocity train in Berlin I was really exhausted, the heat, carrying the big bag. Bit the nice thong was that I had the first hour of the…","title":"First Stop: Warsawa","type":"travel"},{"content":"Date: 2018-08-01\nA 6 months journey should be well-prepared. A lot of things must be organized.\nWell the first thing is to develop a travel plan. My first thing coming into my mind was China. Well big country, lot of people and a very interesting culture. Always wanted to see big wall, forbidden city, terracotta army and feel how it might be living there. Well the next thought was flying to china would be long and boring. So are there other ways and every train nerd like me immediately knows yes there is one of the last really amazing train dreams of going to china by the transibirian railway. Well I then decided not to do the trans-mongolian which would lead me directly to Beijing. I found it better to go all way till Vladivostok and then go to china through Harbin. The main reason was that I don\u0026rsquo;t want to handle the big town Beijing right at the start of my China adventure.\nWell the rest filled up during the planning process. So I decided to stay 60 days in China - as tourist it is the longest visa you might get easily. Well Russia only gives 30 days tourist visa. Then after a while I found out that at beginning of August there is the World Orienteering Championship in Latvia. Well this is what I needed for a great start. Well I am not that good in orienteering that Austrian National Coach might ever call me in the national team, but around this event there is as well the Latvia-O-Week. So I will run my own competitions and see what the real cracks do in their races at the championship. What a perfect first highlight for my journey.\nSo plan got adapted again.\nThe next thing is getting 6 months free time. Well my first thought was of just quitting the job, but this has some administrative implications, but I was lucky that my boss understood that this is an important thing to do for me and supported me on getting a leave of absence for the 6 months. So thumbs up: I will have a job when I am back in Berlin.\nWell I am not that good at preparing things long term, so I am doing things right at the spot and sometimes a bit late. But well I did some trekking tours in the last years, so I know which things are important.\nFirst \u0026hellip;. Go to a dentist: I had to break up a hiking tour in Ladakh in 2016, so that was a must do Second \u0026hellip; Go and get all vaccinations. This was a thing I really was postponing until it was nearly too late. So I had a tough vaccination plan to do in the last two weeks. Second \u0026hellip; (well it is equally important) getting all visas needed. Well getting a 60 days Chinese visa is not that easy, but worth an own post perhaps later. Third \u0026hellip; getting the flat subleased to have more money for the journey (well not so really done yet but still hoping it might get done in next days) Forth \u0026hellip; clean up the flat and store your stuff somewhere, so others can live there. Fifth \u0026hellip; get all things packed. Well I have an 80 litre backpack. But I definitely have packed in too much and not well enough. So at my first stop I repacked it with the help of my friend Claudia. Thanks a lot for supporting me! And well First \u0026hellip; say goodbye to your friends. Well and because I met someone very special recently this was the toughest part - ❤ you. So I went off leaving 6 years in Berlin behind and hoping for an amazing journey.\n","date":"7 August 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/leaving-berlin/","section":"Travel","summary":"A 6 months journey should be well-prepared. A lot of things must be organized.","title":"Leaving Berlin","type":"travel"},{"content":"I love to go with the old smokey ones as well as the new high-speed ones.\nI really like the interesting experience on night trains and a good breakfast in the morning. And in my opinion it gives you the big advantage of arriving in the centre of a city. Ever gone to Milano for a nice Italian coffee in the morning?\nSometimes there are interesting station buildings, interesting modes of operation, interesting railway paths (e.g. in mountains with all the tunnels and bridges).\nIt is always very interesting to find out how interesting railway engines work, especially if it is a funicular or rack railway. My first encounter with rack railways was the Schneebergbahn in Austria. It was amazing for me to go up the mountain with a steam-engined train with all the noise and smoke.\nWell and then one of the biggest advantages of that way of travelling that you can use your time productively or enjoy the moving landscape, or read a book, chat to other travellers, walk around the aisle if you like to stretch your legs, go to the dining car for a snack or meal. A train is some kind of its own ecosystem.\nOne might add it is sometimes travelling by train is rather unpredictable: you have to wait for connections, there are delays, sometimes they are crowded with people. Well that may happen. The best thing is to accept it, take it easy and adapt your plans.\nSome people state that reading schedules, plan routes is time-consuming. But to me this is one of the most interesting parts in the whole process. An as far as I work for a company which designs scheduling software for railway companies, there is as well a professional interest in how railway systems work.\nWell I must confess: I am a train nerd.\nWeißeritztalbahn in Saxony, Germany AVE highspeedtrain from Madrid to Toledo, Spain Funicular in Lisbon, Portugal Funicular in Lisbon, Portugal Rack railway Schneeberg, Austria Train in highlands of Myanmar Goteik Viaduct in Myanmar Actual time train planning in Myanmar Station Atocha in Madrid, Spain Nighttrain from Lisbon, Portugal to Madrid, Spain ","date":"1 August 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/confessions-of-a-train-nerd/","section":"Travel","summary":"I love to go with the old smokey ones as well as the new high-speed ones.","title":"Confessions of a Train Nerd","type":"travel"},{"content":"Hi — I\u0026rsquo;m Leo. In 2018 I travelled from Berlin to southeast Asia overland, almost all of it by train, and wrote it down as I went. Those posts and their photos are what this site is.\nThe writing is unedited from the road, typos and all. I like trains, long distances, and orienteering.\nGet in touch: info@trailsonrails.info\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/about/","section":"Trails on Rails","summary":"","title":"About","type":"page"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/series/","section":"Series","summary":"","title":"Series","type":"series"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tags","type":"tags"}]