Cape Town and beyond

I made it to Cape Town and have to say it’s a very nice city… or I just get that impression after staying for 3 weeks in the countryside, more or less…

Anyways, the flight was good; I can just recommend Air Namibia, good food and lots of space for tall people. The first day I was just walking around the city, and going to museums, very recommendable is the District Six museum, about the area District Six and the forced reallocation of all inhabitants during Apartheid.

I spent the next day completely on a tour to the Cape Peninsula, which is very beautiful (but can get very windy, as we had to feel). We were 10 people on the trip and also did some biking, which was quite adventurous, due to the wind, some got almost blown over and the group got very split up. Nevertheless, it was a very funny trip and the Peninsula is an awesome place to see, lots of wildlife and beautifully colored flowers.

Yesterday I was hiking up table mountain, which one should just do if you’re fit… it’s quite steep. I’ve spent the rest of the day (being atop at 12:30) on the top, as the plateau is quite big and you can walk around a lot up there. Oh, and I had some pretty good and cheap lunch up there, Pizza + Drink + Ice, for just 7,90€ and the view while eating is indescribable. As yesterday was Monday, Cape Town has been dead, almost, I wanted to get some local food, but almost all restaurants were closed… and the one open was booked out… so I ended up in an Irish Pub and had Irish Stew… at least somewhat local to me…

Today, which was my last day, flying to Moscow tomorrow, was ruled by bad weather. I did a trip to the very beautiful Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, while it was slightly raining. Then moving on to a wine valley, it was just freezing. The next and final stop on the tour was Camps Bay, which normally should be quite beautiful, but it was just windy and cold as hell. Instead of enjoying the beach I just had an Ostrich burger (yummy), and walked around for a bit before heading home. BUT the worst weather just started, I wanted to go for dinner (to the closed place), but now it is just pouring rain… let’s see if I will ever make it there.

Back to Windhoek

My tour has come to an end and I’m back in Windhoek. Summarizing I can just say it have been fabulous 14 days in Namibia. Seeing uncountable animals in their original habitat was amazing. The landscapes were beautiful as well, as prove some pictures are shown below. I can just recommend to everyone to come here once and enjoy the views I have.

Some more photos can be found in the German Blog, enjoy!

I don’t tell many stories here, as I think the pictures will speak for themselves… hence I’m not able to put all the impressions in words anyways ;-)

But a short one from last night has to be told, at the place where I as staying they had a little springbok and a warthog running around, which was no major problem as both were very friendly, as long as they don’t get jealous on each other. At one point I pet the Springbok and the warthog saw that. So he sneaks up from behind and tackled me… quite funny, as I was completely unaware of his attack :-P Later that night I got into a little fight with the Springbok. Quite impressive how strong they are.

As this will be my last night in Windhoek, the plan is to go out one final time, before flying to Cape Town tomorrow… the next update will follow from South Africa! Until then, enjoy the pictures.

Impressions of Namibia

The first week of my trip in Namibia is over. After the days in Windhoek, which have been quite funny, especially the nightlife ;-) I went north towards the Etosha National Park. Trip was funny, even though the bus ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere, but after a short break of 4 hrs we finally moved on. In the park and around I've be on some safaris to see the wildlife. Now I'm at the coast in Swakopmund and the further plan is to go south the next days into the desert.
And to keep the boring text to a minimum here are some impressions from Namibia:

Dik-Dik

Dassies

Ostrich

Oryx

Giraffe

Warthog

Namibia

So, I reached my first destination, Namibia, after feeling like canned tuna during the 10hrs flight.

First impression is, that it is quite an interesting place, people are very laid back, just not the cab drivers, they use their horn all the time to get the attention of possible passengers. Even it is just for a ride around the corner. This can get a bit annoying... The few days I will spent in Windhoek are enough the see whatever there is to see in this city, which is not that much... a handful of sights and museums, that's about it. But the restaurants are quite good, lots of food, the African cuisine is pretty meaty. You can get whatever there is, Crocodile, Zebra, Oryx and so on. If I'm running out on things to do, I can still try out the different things this cuisine has to offer ;-) Or go shopping; there are shopping malls everywhere... and prices are about the same as in Germany... so not really an option to save money... well we'll see.

Attached is a map for my route during the next weeks, where you can also see, where I'll be going after leaving Namibia.

For today, the plan is to go to some Museums and escape the heat, even though it's Winter, it is still up to 25°C + X and just sunny... I haven't seen a cloud since I'm here.

And off again

It's been ages since the last post, but folks, nothing special happened since March, at least nothing of interest.

Since I've been back from Spain the only thing I've done has been working, studying, working and studying and so on.

But these days are finally over and it's time to travel again. Tomorrow, I'll be flying to Namibia, Africa. I'm gonna spent some time in Windhoek, the capital, and thereafter travelling around the country, before moving on to South Africa. So far the plan, before I have to do some work for university again... but this will not be in Germany and not in Africa. So, if you wanna know where I'll be the next weeks, keep on reading the updates here ;-)

Even bigger journeys are planned for the next 12 months, so there'll be something interesting, funny, ridiculous, etc. to write about again... and post pictures as well, as it will be too boring without ;-)

Working in Spain

After I left the Isle of Elba, I went to Genova, but not without stopping at Pisa, to visit the famous tower, quite impressing. In Genova I meet a friend, Massimo, and stayed with him the next days. We had an awesome time in Genova and went on a day trip to ‘5 terre’, a very cool place, where you can see 5 very little villages at the seaside! Unfortunately I couldn’t stay longer in Italy.

Now I’m in Spain, Mecina-Bombaron, for a field project about mountain ecosystems. The village we live in is quite small; there are 2 bars and nothing else, so not much about nightlife here. That’s why we basically watch Spanish TV at night, quite funny, because it is super badly dubbed, but mostly we’re watching sports, the only thing that makes sense if you don’t speak the language.

Working in the Sierra Nevada is quite hard, very physical, but fun too. We’re basically digging holes and analyzing the soil and vegetation to study effects of climate change. We’re also taking samples of plants for further analyze and working in a mapping campaign, for another research project. So far everything is as I expected it to be. The only unexpected is the weather, one would think of sun if you go to Spain, which there is, we had some sunny days. But we are having snow here as well. As proof there is picture of yesterday.

I’m gonna spent one more week here, before I will leave and go back to Malaga, for my last 3 day of holidays. After that my 7 week Euro trip is over and it is time to go back to Germany.

Italy - south to north

The days spent in Rome have been awesome. Beautiful city and lots of stuff to see there. Very impressive was the Vatican, it’s crazy what you can see there, especially the museum and the Sistinian Chapel. If you got a chance go there, it’s worth queuing!

After Rome I've been to Florence, very beautiful city, absolutely recommendable. Weather was awesome, sun and no clouds. The only bad point about this trip so far is that is super hard to find Italian who speaks English. Even on a university party me and a friend have been to in Florence the only people we could talk to were some Spanish guys, the rest was either to shy or unable to talk to us...

Now I’m on the Isle of Elba and I figured out why Napoleon was send here. It is absolutely boring here, at least at this time of the year. The island is basically dead, besides the few inhabitants. This doesn’t really make work more fun. The Mapping Campaign is going good so far, even though my groups area is super boring… anyways today is the last day, some presentations to be held and then we’re off. I will go to Pisa tomorrow to check out the Tower and then to Geneva to meet my friend Massimo, where I will stay for two ‘relaxing’ days.

On Tuesday I will head for Malaga to my next work project in the Sierra Nevada.

More to come…