Germany

One Year Ago: Photo Time Capsule, Part III

The last month (of travel last year) was an interesting collection of friends from half a world away. I was with Charlie by this point (beginning of July) in Italy where we met up with his friend Andy, who’s from Germany but Charlie actually meet in Ecuador.

While in Italy, we also met up with James, who know both Charlie and me from Seattle, and Mark — who James knows from his time at Occidental.

I left Charlie in Italy and continued on to Switzerland where I met up with Quinn, a best friend from Seattle, at L’Abri. We then continued north and to hang out with Remo and Gunther, who first stayed with my family over 13 years ago in Seattle when Remo was in school.

After traveling with Quinn a bit, Charlie met back up with us in Prague (just in time for the tour). We finished touring together in Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany: Three great friends half a world away.

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18.0 mm || 1/8000 || f/3.5 || ISO800 || NIKON D70
Firenze, Toscana, Italia


DSC_2495
18.0 mm || 1/60 || f/3.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Firenze, Toscana, Italia


DSC_2559
18.0 mm || 1/200 || f/4.0 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Aigle, Canton de Vaud, Schweiz


DSC_2654
18.0 mm || 1/13 || f/9.0 || ISO1600 || NIKON D70


DSC_2683
29.0 mm || 1/60 || f/4.0 || ISO200 || NIKON D70


DSC_3186
18.0 mm || 1/3200 || f/3.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Praha, Hlavní město Praha, Česká republika


DSC_3248
18.0 mm || 1/15 || f/3.5 || ISO1600 || NIKON D70
Kraków, Małopolskie, Polska


Halt! Stou!
70.0 mm || 1/500 || f/4.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Gmina Oświęcim, Małopolskie, Polska


DSC_3414
18.0 mm || 1/125 || f/3.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Kraków, Małopolskie, Polska


DSC_3509
18.0 mm || 1/1000 || f/3.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland

via the Photojojo Time Capsule

This weekend is going to be ridiculously awesome! This evening, Carly and I are going Buzz Putting1 with a bunch of friends to celebrate Beth’s birthday. Then tomorrow we’re going to have breakfast and enjoy the Blue Angles — whom I haven’t been in town to see for the last two years — then a Polish wedding, a bachelor party2, all topped off with lunch with Jon and Kristen — who are getting married in less than a month — on Sunday!

Pyramid Formation Turn
190.0 mm || 1/2000 || f/6.3 || ISO400 || NIKON D70


Pyramid Formation
190.0 mm || 1/2000 || f/5.6 || ISO400 || NIKON D70


Bottom Side Pyramid Formation
70.0 mm || 1/2500 || f/9.0 || ISO400 || NIKON D70

Anyway, that wraps up the Photo Time Capsule series; hope you enjoyed the tour!

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  1. “combining the best of childhood and being 21+” ↩

  2. sans Le GF ↩

Dateline: Berlin, Day 2 — Sandeman Tour, Again

Berlin, Germany
31 July 2009

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60.0 mm || 1/1250 || f/4.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


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18.0 mm || 1/640 || f/3.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


The Steles
70.0 mm || 1/1000 || f/4.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


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70.0 mm || 1/1000 || f/4.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


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18.0 mm || 1/3200 || f/3.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


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18.0 mm || 1/640 || f/3.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


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18.0 mm || 1/30 || f/10.0 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


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18.0 mm || 1/125 || f/22.0 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


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18.0 mm || 1/2500 || f/3.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


DSC_3509
18.0 mm || 1/1000 || f/3.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


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70.0 mm || 1/2000 || f/4.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


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18.0 mm || 1/1600 || f/4.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


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18.0 mm || 1/1600 || f/4.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


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22.0 mm || 1/1600 || f/4.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


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18.0 mm || 1/125 || f/22.0 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


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18.0 mm || 1/2000 || f/3.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


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38.0 mm || 1/1250 || f/4.2 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


DSC_3534
18.0 mm || 1/60 || f/3.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland


DSC_3537
62.0 mm || 1/3200 || f/4.5 || ISO200 || NIKON D70
Berlin, Bundesland Berlin, Deutschland

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Updated Itinerary

Progess is being made! I’m calling this Itinerary v0.2. It appears that the only country that will need a visa is Russia. Thus, I’m going to going to start my travels there since it will have to be the most planned part of this trip. I talked with Jeff last night, as he had traveled to Russia several years ago, and got some good information on places to go. I’m hoping to have trip start and end dates locked down and reserved by the end of March, along with all the Russian parts locked down and reserved. 

I also talked with Quinn and Charlie, both of whom have indicated they would at least be interested in doing some traveling with me as well. I have calls in to Katelyn and Erin, both of whom have been and are currently in Turkey, respecitvely.

Below is a list of places that I think I would like to visit, in roughtly the order that I would visit them. I’ve also added notes (mostly to myself) about things I’d like to do there. I think this seems like a more managable list than previously. I’m also trying to setup a framework of things to do, however still allow the trip to progress organically.

  • Day 1: 
    Seattle, Washington 
    Dulles, Washington, DC
  • Airplane/10 hrs/UA964
  • Day 2: Moscow, Russia12
    • Red Square
    • The Kremlin
    • GUM
  • Airplane/1.25 hrs/$60 USD/Rossiya – Russian Airlines3
  • Day 6: St. Petersburg, Russia45
  • Bus/6 hrs/€30 ($40 USD)/EuroLines
  • Day 10: Tallin, Estonia6
  • France:
    • Paris, France (Paris Air Show – 15 to 21 June 2009)
    • Toulouse, France7
    • La Barre, France8
    • Vélizy, France9
    • Bidos, France 10
  • Italy:
    • Rome, Italy
    • Venice, Italy
    • Grottaglie, Italy11
    • Agnone, Italy12
  • Switzerland
    • Arbon, Switzerland
    • Interlaken, Switzerland13
  • Austria
  • Czech Republic
  • Poland
  • Ukraine
    • I’ve heard you can visit Chernobyl…could be cool.
  • Hungary
  • Turkey
  • Germany -> Seattle (UA8718)

Alternates:

  • Sweden14
  • Denmark->Seattle (UA9394)
  • Romania
  • Macedonia
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  1. http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/east/moscow.htm ↩

  2. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/russia/moscow/sights ↩

  3. http://www.anywayanyday.ru/en/ ↩

  4. http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/east/petersbu.htm ↩

  5. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/russia/st-petersburg/sights ↩

  6. http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/scan/tallinn.htm ↩

  7. 787 Production Stop: Groupe Latécoère ↩

  8. Birthplace of Jean-Luc Picard ↩

  9. 787 Production Stop: Messier-Dowty ↩

  10. 787 Production Stop: Messier-Dowty ↩

  11. 787 Production Stop: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/275606_italy28.html ↩

  12. We visited Agnone a couple of years, it’s where my maternal great-grandfather was born, and  I’ve wanted to return here to just spend a few days hanging out ↩

  13. I’ve heard this is a must ↩

  14. 787 Production Stop: Saab ↩

The Quest Continues

“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu

I’m thinking that maybe I should start making weekly updates on my summer plans. To follow up on last weeks report, I’ve prayed and thought long and hard about Messenger and Engineering Ministries International and I don’t think those would be good matches for me.

Messenger is really a community-based missions trip and I think me not returning to Colorado next year is not inline with that goal. eMi seems to be more of planning organization rather then a doing organization. I’ve been planning for the last five years, I’m ready to do.

I’ve talked to a couple friends I have in Switzerland (Remo and Günther) and Germany (Philip). One thing that I’ve started to look into is using RyanAir and Eurail to travel. RyanAir would be nice and fast, but I think is ultimately unfeasible to use on a regular basis because they only fly into cities with airports. Once I get to a city, I’d need to find some mode of transportation if I wanted to explore anything more than walking distance.

Eurail could be the ticket, though. I could get the 21 country pass and travel to just about any city of a decent size. Sure, it would be slower, but the sheer number of cities available make it completely worthwhile. Besides, Europe is that big. $1039 buys me two months of travel. I’d also probably consider 15 days of travel in two months for $709. If I did get a Eurail pass, I would probably just visit a lot of cities, spending as many days I wanted in each city (sleeping at a hostel, presumably), and then catching the next train to where ever. To this end, I have a phone call with Jessica planned tonight to

But I haven’t given up on a mission trip yet! My search is progressing and I talked with Lance who suggested an organization called Serving in Ministry. It looks like SIM has some really interesting short term mission trips, including a photography/videographer position; I’ll definitely be checking them out some more.

Flatiron’s Community Church may also be planning on sending a college group to Afghanistan over the summer. I emailed Ron, the Director of Missions at FCC to see what the deal on that will be.

I did finally call the Department of State today to see if there were any special travel restrictions that I needed to observe. They didn’t seem to have a list, so I’ll probably just keep an eye on the Entry/Exit requirements for countries I intend to visit. (Side rant: Why doesn’t travel.state.gov work with Google Chrome?)

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