Categoria / Category Europe

In Adventure, Cycling tour, Europe, Cycling & Diving in Catalonia 2003 On  23/03/2003  One comment

I decided to go on a bike tour organized by Carles from amics de la bici. We left Barcelona on a Saturday morning. We took the train to Ripoll where we started the journey. By the arrival at the train station in Ripoll, Albert was waiting for us with some white cloth meant to do flags for peace. We did the flags and placed them on the bikes.
The trail was constructed on some old train tracks. After about 10km we stopped at the old train station from Sant Joan de les Abadesses in order to keep the group together. We went in town to visit the historic center and have some coca (sweet bread typical from the region). A few kilometers later we stopped for lunch. Picnic on the grass. Awesome!

After lunch we continue to Olot stopping a few times in order to keep the group together. There was some way up, way down and flat paths. Sometimes there was no effort, it was only to sit on the bike and observe the landscape. By arrival at Olot we stopped to visit an area of an old volcano...

In Eastern Europe 2002 On  27/12/2002  No comments

Veja abaixo os posts da viagem pelo leste da Europa em 2002

• A chegada em São Petesburgo
• São Petersburgo e Peterhof
• Moscou
• Sergiev Posad
• Klin – Museu do Tchaykovsky
• Trem de Moscou – Varsóvia passando por Belarussia
• Varsóvia
• Berlim
• Praga
• Viena
• Bratislava
• Budapeste

In Turquia 2002 On  21/12/2002  No comments

See the posts on Turkey (2002)

• Istambul
• Gallipoli/Gelibolu
• Bodrum
• Pamukkale
• Ephesus

In Asia, Europe, Turquia 2002 On  24/09/2002  No comments

Recommended by a German friend I decided to see Ephesus. The city near by is Selçuk. I only slept a night there and could notice that they are prepared to tourism. Every time I asked for information they answered with kindness. Many of them spoke English, a sign that they are used to foreign tourists.

I woke up early to visit the ruins. The day was cloudy, ugly… It would be a difficult day, how could I photograph rocks without shadow and volume? Gray days always make me sad.

I walk around the ruins without a guide. Once in a while I would stop and hear a guide from a tour group. Sometime I would have the explanations in Englih, then in French or Spanish, even a Portuguese group I met. Brazilians unfortunately not. Germans, there were many, since I don’t understand the language I would wait for the next group. For me this is the perfect way to visit the ruins, I can go by myself at my own pace...

In Asia, Europe, Turquia 2002 On  23/09/2002  No comments

Pamukkale is a visually interesting place, from far away it looks like a white tip mountain. There are white terraces that were formed by the thermal waters rich in calcium bicarbonate. The water as they go down they deposit carbon dioxide in the soil. This creates some incredible white shapes. Scientist say the terraces started to be formed about 14 thousands years ago. The name Pamukkale means “cotton castle” in Turkish. For them the mountains looks like a castle made with cotton, for mi looks like made of ice.

In the same area there are ruins from an ancient city. I visited the amphitheater that it is behind the thermal baths. The place looked abandoned, unpreserved. I seams a piece of history was being left behind, being forgotten. Unfortunately I didn’t find much information on the place.

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In Europe, Traveled places, Turquia 2002 On  22/09/2002  One comment

One of the reasons to come to Turkey was to relax on the beach on sunny days. I chose Bodrum to do that. When I got there I was homesick. I missed the white sand beaches from Brazil. There wasn’t a sand beach but a pebble one, not comfortable to lay down.

I spend a day diving. I haven’t been diving for more than a year and I really need to. The dives were great, not for what I saw but for the fact of being underwater again. This make me happy. I decided I have to dive more often. I liked to see that in the boat there were many Turkish couples diving. It wasn’t like in some Asian countries that I had been diving and in the boat there was only foreigners. When I see local people also diving I have the feeling that they are also enjoying their country, not leaving only to the foreigners.

Next day I visited the castle in Bodrum. It houses the museum of marine archeology. I imagined the archeologist’s work diving and finding objects lost 2000 year ago. It must be incredible...

In Asia, Europe, Turquia 2002 On  20/09/2002  One comment

Once again I arrived in a new country with sore throat. Since I was really tired I decided to sleep the whole morning. In the afternoon I left the hostel to see the city. My lunch costed 7 millions, I realized it would be difficult to get used with the amount of zeros on the Turkish lira bills. The waiter told me to be careful in order to not be cheated. He said it is common to trick tourists that aren’t used with the money. I asked if I should be careful with him. He answered: “NO, not me. I’m talking about the others. I’m honest”.

I visited the Aya Sofia, a church constructed in 532 and during years it was the biggest in the world. There were times that its mosaics were covered because the Islamism prohibited the images. Today it works as a museum. The place is impressive…

After I went to see the Blue Mosque, a mosque constructed in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Its towers and domes made it the most famous one in Istanbul. The tourists enter through the side door...

In Asia, Europe, Turquia 2002 On  19/09/2002  One comment

I was invited by a travel agency to do a tour in Gallipoli (Gelibolu in Turkish), I would go with two more Australian girls. We left early in the morning since the place is far away. After two hours driving we stopped to have breakfast and continued to Gallipoli. We did a quick stop in the small city, we saw the port and continued to the war museum.

This area is known to be a good defense place in Turkey. It is a peninsula easy to regulate the ships going in and out. The most important historical event was during the World War I when many Australians and New Zealanders (Anzac – Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) died. They landed on the wrong place and were vanished by the Turkish army who was waiting on the top of the hill. For me what it is interesting here it is the amount of monuments, cemeteries and museum commemorative to the world war I. Every few kilometers there is a monument explaining the war. They even have trenches on exhibition...

In Europe, Eastern Europe 2002 On  08/08/2002  No comments

I arrived in the train station by the end of the afternoon, it was like getting downtown São Paulo. I went to the underground part trying to find a place to get money. There, it was dirty. There were street sellers everywhere, lots of people in a hurry, others observing, a little suspicious for me. The police was agitated, I think something had happened, because they were walking from one side to another, unquiet. I went to the closest hostel I could find. It was a little messy and dirty. I was tired to try to find another place, so I stayed there.

Next day, it was cloudy and raining. I walked all over town, for about 6 hours. I started in “Pest”, the cathedral, opera, commercial town. Then I crossed one of the bridges to “Buda” and walked by the river. I visited some Turkish bathes. The city seamed to be beautiful but it had no glitter, it was opaque. Maybe because it was raining and the days were gray...

In Europe, Eastern Europe 2002 On  07/08/2002  No comments

My visit to Bratislava was a little fast, I had just two days to get a sense of the place. I liked the city because there weren’t so many tourists as in Prague. The old town is full of restaurants and bars. I walked through the small streets. Since it was cloudy I couldn’t photograph that much. At the same time, I thought people was friendly. Many would speak with a smile, it looks like they were happy with tourists. There was a day I had no coin to pay the tram and a girl paid for me, she didn’t accepted my money back. That’s what I call hospitality…

The castle is by the Danube. It is more modest than the one in Prague but has a great overview of the city. There one can have an idea of the communist Slovakia. From the top I could see almost the whole city. It was good to “appreciate” the buildings, all similar on the other side of the river. There were a lot of them, lots of uniform rectangles. They looked like a toy by its symmetries.

I stayed only two days in town but I liked, I ...