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Delek Delek - Derek Seto

Derek's Travels

Map Legend: 8%, 23 of 263 Territories

Where I am from

Where I am now

Where I've been

Visual snapshot of where I have travelled to.

Hi there!

Most of you will have been directed here by me - so thanks for coming! If you weren't, then thanks for coming anyway!

I am Derek, and I'm a Kiwi currently living in London.
In June 2007, I left home to set off on a 4 1/2 month sortie around Europe via the USA, and set up this blog so that all my friends and family could keep track of where I have been and the shenanigans I would inevitably get up to.
In the main it has been largely successful, and I have ended up putting a lot more effort into it than I originally thought, and updating and maintaining it has suddenly become a passion of mine and something I don't mind showing off ;-)

Travelling, has also become a passion of mine, and the aforementioned sortie has since inspired me to see as much of the world as I can.
And the fact that I'm now based in London will now mean that there will be many, many more trips on the agenda!
Therefore I decided that I might as well keep this up - so any trip that I make from now on deemed blogworthy enough, will have it's very own entry in this blog be it a weekender or another 4 1/2 month bender.

The blog starts from the first entry in New Zealand before I left the country, and the following 32 entries thereafter follows my journey through the US and Europe, with each blog entry giving vivid and detailed accounts of everything that happened along the way, as well as providing a little bit of background and insight of each place.

These are my travelling memoirs, my treasured memories of the places I've been, the people I've met and the experiences I've had - and it is my great pleasure to share them with you.
I hope that you enjoy reading them and that you take something from them, be it travel advice, a dash of inspiration, images of lands far away, or just a plain good read.

Enjoy!

Cheers,
Derek

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Joined on: June 14th 2007
Last Login: April 10th 2008

Blog Entries: 32
Photos: 592

TB Code: [blogger=40820]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by Delek-Delek, order by Date newest first.

By Delek Delek
October 31st 2007

The End - For Now...

Europe » United Kingdom » England » London » Kilburn

Through The Window Pane...
...is the stunning ancient port city of Dubrovnik, the 5th most beautiful city I visited on my whirlwind trip.

After travelling 35,066km, to 55 cities, across 17 countries, in 129 days - to say that this has been an incredible journey and an amazing experience would obviously be an understatement. Once I had arrived at my cousin's place in London NW6, I have to admit that relief was the overwhelming emotion, as perhaps rather unsurprisingly, I was all travelled out. In saying that though, with the English weather and winter upon us, I'm sure it won't be long before my feet get itchy again. Reflecting on the last 4 1/2 months, I feel that a review and a re-cap of [View Full Entry]

By Delek Delek
October 23rd 2007

Operation World Cup Final

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris

The Eiffel Tower
Dressed up for the World Cup.

So this was it - Paris, our final destination, the icing on the cake, a glorious finale to 4 months of travelling, 4 of the most fun and exciting months of our lives. Well, that was the script anyway. When I was lucky enough to land tickets to the Rugby World Cup Final, it was all set up - now the All Blacks just had to do their bit, and make the final. They of course choked against the French, and after knocking us out, the least the French could've done was make the final themselves so as to create a [View Full Entry]

By Delek Delek
October 16th 2007

The Mussels From Brussels...

Europe » Belgium » Brussels-Capital Region » Brussels

Town Hall
Davies' stunning photo of this gothic masterpiece, the highlight of the Grand Place.

...are tiny! Gimme the big juicy New Zealand ones any day. Although if anything, they're slightly more flavoursome - though not enough to justify their size! I always enjoy coming to Belgium, especially for the food - scrumptious chocolate, tasty mussels, crisp fries (with mayonnaise!), delicious waffles and fantastic beer is always readily available. Davies commented on how Belgium is lucky to be famous for it's food - or else all they would have is a couple of good female tennis players and errr....Jean-Claude Van Damme ;-) "The Muscles'" hometown though, is a nice city, and I have fond memories of [View Full Entry]

By Delek Delek
October 13th 2007

Back In Berlin

Europe » Germany » District of Berlin » Berlin

Berliner Dom & TV Tower By Night
Berlin: A unique city with eventful past and an exciting future.

The first time I was in Berlin last year for the football World Cup, I had to say that I wasn't that impressed. The city seemed too big, we didn't seem to have the best time there, and it seemed to lack the party atmosphere present at all the other World Cup host cities. I didn't really spend quality time there though - it was mainly just a stop to watch football matches. Therefore this time, with four days up my sleeve here, I was determined to see the city properly and find out why it is regarded as one of [View Full Entry]

By Delek Delek
October 9th 2007

Perhaps The Most Beautiful City In The World...

Europe » Czech Republic » North » Prague

Prague Castle & Charles Bridge
The postcard shot of Prague.

Everyone we had talked to about Prague all used the same word when describing it - beautiful. So we were to find out for ourselves whether Prague would indeed live up to all the hype. So it was October 6th, 2007 - does everyone remember this date? If your memory needs some jogging, then read on... As a final gesture to Andreas for letting us stay Davies decided to cook up a hot breakfast for everyone. I didn't think it was necessary, and thought that we should confirm our hostel via email before getting to the train station in time for [View Full Entry]

By Delek Delek
October 5th 2007

Oktoberfest!

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich

Inside The Tent
Typical raucous atmosphere inside an Oktoberfest tent.

The train I was supposed to catch from Strasbourg was full - bugger. Luckily though, there were a series of trains I could catch without a reservation that left half an hour later. So after almost missing my connection to Karlsruhe because I was on the wrong platform in the tiny town of Appenweier, there were finally no dramas from Karlsruhe to Munich as I received a text from Andreas - the guy who was generously putting us up at his apartment for the Oktoberfest. It read: "I will wait for you at the platform - I am wearing a stripy [View Full Entry]

By Delek Delek
September 30th 2007

Sexy Strasbourg

Europe » France » Alsace » Strasbourg

Les Ponts Couvert
Beautiful shot of the formerly covered stone bridge taken from atop the Barrage Vauban.

My journey from Tampere to London was an arduous one. The flight was around 2 hours and 40 minutes long. After half an hour going through immigration (things would be so much easier with an EU passport) and baggage pick up, the bus from London Stansted Airport to Victoria Station was 70 minutes and then after waiting 20 minutes for the night bus, it took a further 25 minutes to get to Nicola's flat in Ladbroke Grove. I finally arrived at the flat at 3am - which would've been 5am Finnish time. So as you can imagine, I was absolutely exhausted. [View Full Entry]

By Delek Delek
September 25th 2007

An Unexpected Last Hurrah

Europe » Finland » Tampere

I Got Some Pussi In Finland
Proof of my ever-growing maturity ;-D

Having managed to work out Tallinn's tram and trolleybus system, we managed to get back to the waterfront to catch our 12.00pm hydra-foil back to Finland. However, out of the 4 terminals at waterfront, none of them were for the Linda Line. Where the hell is it? It's 11.30am. The girl at the info desk in ferry terminal A, then tells us that the Linda Line terminal leaves from the Linnahall, 700m back in the direction from which we came. 700 metres?! She says once we see it, we can't miss it. Well, I hope she's right because it is 11.35am [View Full Entry]

Tammerkoski & Finlayson Building By Night

By Delek Delek
September 23rd 2007

My Exploits In Estonia

Europe » Estonia » Tallinn

Alexander Nevski Cathedral
In my opinion, the highlight of Tallinn.

Everyone we had talked to about Estonia had told us only good things about it - namely, things are cheap, the chicks are hot and the nightlife great, an undiscovered diamond in the rough. So needless to say we were keenly anticipating what may be waiting for us in Tallinn. Our ferry to Tallinn was going to be something a bit different - we were going to take a hydra-foil, which is basically a tanked-up inflatable raft that goes very fast. OK, so it’s a bit more than an inflatable raft, but you understand the principle. However, given the relative size [View Full Entry]

By Delek Delek
September 20th 2007

Architecture In Helsinki

Europe » Finland » Etelä-Suomen lääni » Helsinki

The Cathedral & Senate Square
Helsinki's mighty white Russian-baroque cathedral and the statue of Emperor Alexander II in Senate Square in the foreground.

Have you heard the new album from Architecture In Helsinki? It's fantastic. Will defiinitely have to get a copy when I get back to London. Anyway, the actual architecture in Helsinki is not bad either. A lot of baroque, as tends to be the case in Scandinavia, as well as many neo-classical buildings. In a nutshell, it's part Scandinavian, part Russian, but definitively Finnish ;-) The same thing can be applied to the culture here in general too - more liberal and westernised than Russia, but not quite in the same way as Denmark and Sweden. The constant clash of the [View Full Entry]