The hardcore party style continued on Saturday! ;-) After having been in bed by 10am, I slept for a few hours and only to woke up to meet up straight away with DC salsa friends. We arranged to car pool to Pensauken, New Jersey. There in the middle of nowhere, just outside of Philadelphia, is the Stardust Ballroom. The reason we wanted to go was the occasion of their Final Good Bye as the area is being reconstructed and the Ballroom to be torn down. At around 6:30 pm we took of from Washington DC (Rockville, MD actually) and drove [View Full Entry]

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How do you define the word "hardcore dancer"? My DC friends Steve asked me that question and we discussed the subject. We agreed that focussing your entire work & social life around salsa is pretty much "hardcore". I guess todays schedule qualifies me too: I had heard of Frankie Martinez's "Abakua social" some time ago but hopping over from Europe just for that seemed a bit exaggerated. I was intrigued though, knowing that Frankie as a DJ would make for priceless music offerings. Currently being on vaccations in Washington DC, I am not that far away from NYC and hopping [View Full Entry]

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PARTY - "Ceviche" - Joanna & Vangie's opening night North America » United States » Maryland » Silver Spring By Dancing Nomad May 24th 2007 Stef, the dancing nomad Hola a todos! This nights event was super [View Full Entry]

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Hello! I guess i should mentioned that me having the opportunity to bugger off the ship at every port we stopped at, is NOT the regular thing. Seems I got a lucky streak and nice collegues who want to welcome me with this gesture. As well there is usually NOT an overlap, meaning even though there is a complete new person coming onto the team, the team member who leaves does not stay to do sort of an introduction briefing. But I do have it....lucky! Today it was a rather brief on shore stop for me. I finished work at 12 [View Full Entry]

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I was so lucky. I had time to go on shore again. This time as an escort on a passenger shore excursion. Free of charge! ;-) It was a short 20 min ride to Orient Bay Beach, crossing from the dutch part of the island named St. Maarten over to the french part named Saint Martin. I spent a little over two hours at that lovely beach. Relaxing in the shadow of a beach umbrella ($3) and listening to the the waves. Free fruit punch and a dip in the sea made the excursion a definite success. Cool & lovely! [View Full Entry]

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Jan 21st / Jan 22nd ms noordam sunday, jan 21st 2007, 4pm just came back from onshore. first time i had set foot onto tortola, island of the british virgin islands. we had docked at around 12 noon at the wickhams cay cruise dock in road town harbour. i first ate lunch with jhoya (collegue) at the lido restaurant on lido deck (9) and then changed from white day uniform to compfy cotton dress and sandals. i packed my bag with my camera, usb sticks (in case i find an internet cafe), a towel and swimm suits/bikinis, cash and id. next [View Full Entry]

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january 17th / january 20th hi. jeez..kinda adventure of its own. i flew on wednesday, 17th january 2007 from berlin tegel airport via frankfurt to newark airport (new york city). i arrived in the late afternoon and had a very smooth immigration process. all went fine and i even got my luggage. that had been a real concern because my stop in frankfurt had been extremly short. the berlin-frankfurt flight had been delayed and still no direct gate-to-gate transfer was provided. so i just asked if i could join some people who had this service for their flight to dallas. the [View Full Entry]

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Yes, I know. Holland? Again? You see, the last trip was really too short and I missed out on a few recommended salsa venues...! And besides, I had planned this travel-marathon to see if I can tire myself out a bit. ;-) So what did included my "Holland II" trip (as I nicknamed it) ? On Thursday November 16th, I got once again onto a train to Amsterdam, leaving from Berlin-Ostbahnhof and managed NOT to struck up an conversation with anybody. I arrived and was happy to feel a bit home already, knowing exactly where my bus was leaving, having a [View Full Entry]

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Wow...what a great trip that was. I never had much of an intention to go to Warsaw...simply wasnt calling me. But I went as I had the premonition of the congress going to be a nice one. Right I was! Originally I had booked myself into a hostel but for the heck of it I checked out the fellow couchsurfers of Warsaw. One profile really intrigued me...some super, genius-like-smart "powerfrau" named Paula. So I requested a couchsurf and got lucky, meaning invited... What a wonderful host and excellent conversation partner she is. An open to new undertakings...she simply joined me for [View Full Entry]

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Munich - November, 3rd - 6th Why Munich? A bunch of reasons! 1) to visit my friend Silvia 2) to finally see the city itself 3) to dance up a storm at the Munich salsa congress. Did things work out as planned? YES! :-) Weather was cold, but dry and sunny for the most part. Though I am not great at doing sightseeing in a doggedly or thorough way, I did some. I managed to tick off the Chinese Tower / English Garden, Marktplatz / City Hall, Frauenkirche and the Hofbräuhaus / Augustinerbräuhaus. The highlight was, of course, the Munich salsa [View Full Entry]

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