Ralph2006

I got injured in South Africa, spend 36 hours on a bus in Mozambique, wondered what the fuss is about in Malawi, hunted lions in Tanzania, didn't get robbed in Kenya, saw gorillas in Rwanda, nearly drowned in Uganda, got a coffee addiction in Ethiopia, marveled at pyramids in Egypt, played Indiana Jones in Jordan, froze my a** off in Germany, went downhill in Italy, laid on the beach in Thailand, travelled VIP style in Malaysia and had a Singapore Sling in Singapore just to return to where I started. Yep it’s over. 7 1/2 months gone and I'm back to normal life. Well almost. There is the little problem of finding a job but hey the summer is in full swing and there are beaches aplenty. (Update: as I was lazy this is (unfortunately?) not ... read more

After a crueling 12 hour bus journey using three different busses we finally arrived in Georgetown in Malaysia. Georgetown is one of those famous cities which once we the powerhouses of the world and now have sunk back to obscurity again. The former glory can be seen in some of the houses the local merchants build here and most impressively in the Easter and Oriental hotel. The E&O was build and owned by the same brothers which later opened the Raffles hotel in Singapore. I was excited like a little kid when I saw in our guidebook that they have Tiffin on every Saturday. That all despite the fact that I, until this day, have no idea what Tiffin is but I want it anyway. To my disgust and disappointment Tiffin had been cancelled which caused ... read more

The benefit of travelling is meeting lots of people which somehow after a couple of days think they like you and then offer accommodation in case you ever come to their hometown. This was also the case with Jens which I met and travelled with (remember the 36 hour bus ride) in Mozambique. Little did he know that one day we will turn up on his doorstep in Cologne. That in short is the story how we ended up visiting Cologne (Jens was in fact excited to see us and he actually mean it when he invited me) Cologne is mostly famous for its massive Dome (I’m sure it’s the biggest in some category) which amazingly survived the second world war undamaged which is surprising as everything around it was levelled. The other two claims to ... read more

I said this about many places but we really didn’t intent to go to Italy to go skiing. The closest we ever got to plan a visit in Italy was Kellie's wish to rent a villa in Tuscany and learn cooking from an Italian Nona. Anyway I convinced her that December is not the best time to visit and sit in a cold villa so this plan was off the table. The reason why we went to Italy was me not planning anything (see that's a good thing) and being really surprised that after I told friends that I will be in Stuttgart sometime in the New Year the reply was “but we won’t be”. Wasn't a good conversation until he mentioned that they go skying and that there is a chance of some space being ... read more

Amman is certainly by far the most boring capital city we have been too. It is just too modern, the streets are clean, the traffic jams are small, no chaos, the people are friendly and there is not too much to see or do. We only went to a Roman theatre, Walked up to the old fort, marvelled at the third highest (126 meter) flagpole in the world and had some decent food and sweets. As usual the main ingredient in desserts or any sweet in the Middle East is sugar, sugar and more sugar which is then topped off with sugar water or honey. One of the local specialties which does not only contains sugar is made out of a mozzarella like cheese base with a crunchy top drenched with sugar water. Grown adults were ... read more

It’s a long story why we headed back down to Eilat at the Red Sea and it has to do with border crossings and visas and I spare you the details. More exciting (for me) was that the trip involved a car and me behind the wheel. I really miss driving around and being able to stop wherever we like. So we boarded our new four wheels and headed south again. One of the things not to miss when coming to Israel is to float in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea has a very high concentration of salt and other stuff which makes the water a lot more dense than the usual salt water. Ein Gedi was our chosen point of entry. The Dead Sea is actually in danger of disappearing and the water level ... read more