Budapest and Vienna (day 10)

I' m right now in Budapest. Using the internet in Vienna was not a good option because it is very expensive.

But let's go back to Vienna.

On Monday 27 of June I took a Euroline daybus from Munich to Vienna. If you travel with Euroline then the old times of Europe with borders are back. You will know you will cross a border, because you have always passport control yeahhhhhhhhh.

Travelling by bus is not that bad, you can sleep,see the houses change when you cross the border, see around, read a book, look what other passengers are doing.

In Vienna I stayed at Markus place (his mothers place had more room, so we stayed there). I met Markus a couple of years back when I was doing my Vipassana Meditation course in India. We kept contact and he just returned form a two years holiday. I was great to meet him again after such a long time. The mother of Markus has this great Coffee machine making the best black coffee.

Next day I went with Markus early into the city. (Markus mum gave me lunch paket with some peers, Austrian bread with schinken great.) Markus had to work. For me it was easier to travel with him to the city. One thing is sure, Vienna is as expensive as Amsterdam. The prices are the same and in the restaurants you have to pay for the toilets. First I went to the Vienna history museum I got a free ticket.

Vienna is nothing if you did not try the Sacher Torte. The best place for this is the Sacher Hotel the place were it all begun. In this hotel they made the first Sacher Torte.

Some other remarkable things are Pest monument. A monument against the pest. The pest raged trough Europe killing more then 30% of the whole population. Around 25 milion people were killed. In Vienna around between 70000 and 120000 people where killed.

I will update this tomorrow hopefully with some pictures.

Munich (day 7)

Munich is a city full of churches, naked people and newly old buildings. About 60% of the buildings were destroyed during the second world war. But a lot of these buildings are rebuild since the war.

The beer and the food is great and cheap. You can have a meal from around 3,50 Euro that is a normal, one dish meal. Try this in Amsterdam, although most dishes in Munich are around 6 euro. Halve a liter beer is cheaper then a halve liter of Coca Cola. Water is as expensive as a beer. What a strange city. This is the city of beer and the October festival. Halve a liter of beer is around 2.35 to 2.70 and a full liter around 5 euro.

Naked people???? All shops are closed on Sunday. Munich is part of Bayern (not known to be very liberal). But if you walk in the central city park (the English garden) you see completely naked people sun bating. This park is right in the city centre how weird.

This is also the city where I tried my first dorm hostel.

What did I do in Munich, just what normal tourist do. Church in church out and drink beer in this case mostly Augustiner beer this beer is great. This brewery exist since 1328, a very old brewery.

I took a free backpackers tour trough the city.

By the way if you realy don't know what to do for the weekend or the rest of the week you should visit the Deutches Museum, This museum is large; the permanent exhibits alone cover a floor area of 55.000 m². If I had more time, I have, but I'm in a hurry to go to Iran and Pakistan.

OnMondayy I will go toViennaa.

More info:
Lonely Planet Munich
Hostel Munich

Munich (day 6)

This Morning I arrived in Munich.

The last days I have spent in Marxell (Thomas place) , this is a small place near Karlsruhe in the black Forrest. I met Thomas for the first time in New Zealand and we kept contact after that. So it was great to see him again. Because he was working (what normal people do) I went a couple of times to Karlsruhe. In Karlsruhe you have this amazing interactive museum for Video art . It is a great museum to spent an afternoon esp. if the temperatures, outside are above 35 degree in the shade.

Yesterday I went to Baden-Baden. Baden - Baden is well known for their smelly water also called a spa. You can swim in it and you can drink it and smells and taste slightly as rotten eggs. I had a taste of this `healthy` water and was not that bad, it was a bit salty, which is great on a warm day. Its nice green place, with a beautiful park. Baden Baden is also the place to see rich old people in very expensive and fast cars.

Later on that day I went to Gengenbach which is about 30 minutes south of Baden Baden. I met there Garreth and Katrine. Last April or so I was in London to visit them. I met Garreth for the first time on Fiji and it is great to meet him again. Later on that night Thomas arrived so we had our reunion again.

Till Monday I will be in Munich and then on to Vienna and Budapest. I Hope to be in Istanbul at the end of June.

On the road (day 2)

Yesterday I took a nightbus from Utrecht to Karlsruhe. This morning I Arrived at Thomas place (near Karlsruhe, Maxel) and I will stay there for the next couple of days. This evening I even supported the German team against Argentine.

Well I'm on the road to India now and it feels great.

Last night in Amsterdam

last picture,
originally uploaded by mjrijnen.

Here some pictures of Domien, Wilfred en me in Amsterdam. This was my last night drinking in Amsterdam in my neigberhood "de Pijp". De pijp is 1 van de leukste buurtjes van Amsterdam

The Tannemaatjes

The Tannemaatjes,
originally uploaded by mjrijnen.

Woensdagmiddag bij de Familie Tannemaat thuis. Op de achtergrond Berry en Peter Stadelman en op de voorgrond de fam Tannemaat.

On the 20 of June I will hit the road

I just booked a overnight bustrip to Karlsruhe for Monday the 20 of June.
So Thomas I will be at your place on the 21 of June.

On Monday I will hit the road and start my overland trip to India.

Roughly my journey will start in Amsterdam then on to Karlsruhe, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Sofia and Istanbul. In Istanbul I will "plan" the route trough Turkey to the border with Iran. But as always when you travell, routes are subject to change. But this case you can say my route is South East.

But first I have to move all my stuff to Apeldoorn. After that I have no house anymore, what a shame. Unemployed and no house how bad can it be?

Anyway I have taken some pictures of my neigberhood. Click on the picture to see the rest of the pictures.

8 days and counting

I will leave the 20 of June, heading to germany.

I also placed some new pictures of a trip to Ireland in 2004.

Pakistan visa (14 days left)

Today I got my visa for Pakistan. This only took 1 day. In the morning you bring your passport in the afternoon you have you password back with a visa. In between you try some herring. Go to Dubbelman??? for the most famous kroket and have a "Broodje bal"

shanty, shanty shanty

I've got my visa for Iran

This time I arrived early at the embassy, last time (27 of May) there were more than 25 people in front of me (2,5 hours waiting time).

But today I was 45 minutes early and only 10 people were before me. It took about 1,5 hours and then they said it is not ready it takes ten days. Today it was the 11 day who is making a mistake? They told me to wait. After waiting for another 45 minutes they came back with my passport and a fresh visa for Iran.......yahooo....

Tomorrow I go to the Pakistan Embassy this will take only one day.

According to the website of the Iran embassy it takes about 4 weeks to process a tourist visa.
If you go to Iran one tip use a tourist visa agency in Iran then it will take less time (the same time as a business visa about 10 days). In this case I used the services of http://www.key2persia.com

Tai chi weekend

I had a great weekend doing an entirely weekend tai chi. I learn to work with a tho? A tho looks like a small sword. It is a different form than Tai chi. It started all on Friday evening. 2 hours of working with the sword and the last 30 minutes doing tai chi, I was broken. The temperature in the sport centre was very high.
Saturday and Sunday we did more work with the sword, Tai chi and Qi gong, it was a great weekend. Today is was doing Tao Yin in the morning, part of the Tao yin was a kind of massage. After that I did tai chi I never sweated that much.

It was a great weekend.

My trip

As you noticed there is lot of tai chi on this site. Although this is not a site about Tai chi, but a blog about my coming trip to India over land. On Tuesday I will go to the Iranian embassy and maybe I will get my visa. Then around the 20 of June I will start my trip. My first destination will be Aachen

My first day off

My first day of my holiday started with a slight headache. Due to a great evening last night and drinking to much beer. Anyway I was great to meet you again. So the day started very slowly. In the afternoon I went a nearby Italian restaurant to have some great cappuchino and a sandwich, hello world.
Later in the afternoon I bought my travel insurance.