Merida is a town in the southwest of Venezuela. It is situated in a mountainous area and thus it is somewhat cooler than most other towns. Therefor it has become a popular tourist town both among foreigners and locals. We decided to go to Merida partly to go on a tour to Los Llanos, which we have told about in a previous entry on the blog, and partly to see the town itself and enjoy its sights. One of the main tourist sights in Merida is the teleferico (the cable car). In the off season it is not running on Mondays and Tuesdays. Since we originally planned to go on a Monday this forced us to stay slightly longer in Merida than we thought we would. Because there is no way we would leave without ... read more

We have now started our vacation trip. The destination this time is Venezuela. We first arrived in Caracas. We have heard a few horror stories from Caracas such as people getting robbed already at the airport, Caracas being the city with the highest murder rate in Latin America and taxi drivers being criminals. Well, the last statement maybe isn´t a surprise. Taxi drivers are criminals all over the World. But the over all crime rate is supposed to be very high and not even in the airport a tourist can feel safe. We decided to play it safe and stay only a very short time in Caracas and make sure to stay far away from all dodgy areas in the city. We only stayed 24 hours to give us time to arrange things for our future ... read more

One day we made a trip to the city Šiauliai in northern Lithuania. Outside this city is one of Lithuania's most remarkable places, the Hill of Crosses. This is a place we have wished to visit for several years and finally we now had the time to do it. In the countryside a few kilometers outside Šiauliai is a a place called the Domantai Hill, though it is known better as the Hill of Crosses. There are actually two hills there and they are practically covered with crosses. Nobody really knows when people started to place crosses on this hill. It is well established that the locals have used the place for worship and as a memorial for their loved ones for over 150 years. Wikipedia states that it is believed that this unusual way of ... read more

I have just come back from a quick visit in Tallinn, Estonia. Strictly this was not a holiday because I was there for a conference. But I had the opportunity to spend a few hours in Tallinn and tried to make the most out of them. I decided on spending the time on visiting two different sights. First Pirita, an area on the coast of the Baltic Sea just north of the City Centre, and then the Old Town. The Old Town is easily the biggest tourist attraction in Tallinn. Most parts of the Old Town dates back to the Middle Ages. Tallinn was one of the cities in the trade union the Hanseatic League. To walk around among the well preserved houses in the Old Town sometimes makes you feel like you have been warped ... read more

The Three Gorges are Gorgeous Still I could add. But I guess they aren't what they used to be. Let me explain: In the south of China the Yangtze River flows though a mountainous area. The river has over millions of years cut out a series of deep gorges through the mountains. These gorges are well known for their scenic beauty. The combination of the fast flowing water of the river and the more than one kilometer high mountains towering on either side makes a scenery that is absolutely breathtaking. Add to it a little picturesque hamlet here and there, a few onethousand-year-old temples and clouds hugging the mountainsides and you get a marvelous landscape. No wonder that many ancient, and also more modern, Chinese painters and poets have drawn inspiration from the Gorges of the ... read more