Hello my fellow travellers! When I came back from two weeks in Japan and Qatar, after over 40 hours awake and on the move, I booked a trip to Gdańsk in Poland flying from my local airport in Växjö. It was only EUR 20 for a return flight so I figured that even if the season wasn't exactly right for the destination it should be nice enough anyway for that cost. Plus that I haven't been to Poland since 2009 anyway so I figured it would be nice to go back there. This was my first time flying from my local airport but I knew it's a small one, even so I made sure to arrive in good time before the flight but it was quite unnecessary as it only caused me to wait for quite ... read more

Hello my fellow travellers! I decided to have a leisure start in the morning because the rain was really pouring down. I woke up at the same time as Trung did but I decided to wait for a while and leave later as long as it was okay with him. He had no problems with it, if I just waited an hour or so the building would be empty and no one would notice me leaving anyway and I didn't have to worry about locking up. I decided to do so and hope for the rain to ease up, at least a little bit, because my shoes and socks are still wet since yesterday and I had no desire to make them even worse. At this moment I only had like one pair of socks left ... read more

Hello my fellow travellers! Yesterday I had a wonderful and relaxed time together with Junko and Bárbara in Fujieda and Shizuoka, enjoying a tea ceremony (chanoyu) and I was able to purchase both a kimono and a pair of hakama (trousers). Today it was time to continue my journey though and so I said my goodbyes to Junko for this year as I stepped on the shinkansen (bullet train) going west. I left together with Bárbara who was heading towards Kyoto while I stepped of in Nagoya to switch for a train going to Matsumoto. On the train station in Shizuoka she said that she was going to miss me, but I told her to look at it from the positive side. Now my befuddled face wouldn't drive her mad anymore. However, she said she was ... read more

Hello my fellow travellers! Today Bárbara and me left quite early to have as much time as possible in Takayama before we had to return to Shizuoka. First we took the shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagoya where we switched to an express train bound for Takayama. When Junko first asked me to go to Takayama with Bárbara I read up a bit about the city since I didn't really know much about it beforehand. I learned that the Takayama Festival (Takayama Matsuri), which is the third largest festival in Japan, is held here at this time so that's why I switched my plans around to allow for this excursion. However, Junko's and Bárbara's plan for this trip was for us to go to Shirokawa-go to see the historical villages spread out across that area. However, because ... read more

Hello my fellow travellers! Today we started out very calmly, we slept in and then ate a relaxed breakfast together before we left for Kakegawa to celebrate the annual Kakegawa Festival (Kakegawa Matsuri). It's a festival that dates all the way back to the Edo period (1603–1868). Before we left Shizuoka we stopped by an electronics shop where I picked up a new memory card for my camera so that I could resume taking pictures properly. The cell phone takes at a similar quality as my compact camera, but it lacks the zoom capabilities which I use quite frequently. As we arrived in Kakegawa we took the scenic route up to Shôkichi's home which is located beautifully atop of a mountain with a gorgeous view of the valley below. It's in a very picturesque location, nestled ... read more