Bookings, beaches, box-office

The last days have been perfect, I only spent time at the beach, booking stuff for my trip, and getting tix for the Film festival. By now I have a pretty good tan, just about managing to avoid a sunburn. I’m either at Banana Beach, where the waves were so enormous the other day that I […] Read More

Beach days

My friend Susanne from Brussels has arrived on Thursday. I know her for about ten years, and it’s fun to catch up, and enjoy Tel Aviv together. We first walked around the craft market and the Carmel street market, and got some cherries and a 4-kg-Melon, for the beach. The beach was our main destination […] Read More

To the Black Sea

Sabine and I got up early today, skipped breakfast and headed for the ferries, to get on the boat along the Bosphorus. We had to be there early to score a seat with a view… However, we were a bit lost with all the ferries on offer, and all the guys trying to sell us their […] Read More

Thermal

It was a long day in the car. I underestimated the time it would all take, even if I only drove about 225 kilometers. Most of it was on tiny, windy beach-mountain-beach roads that took forever. I also did not factor in how much time I would actually like to spend in various spots, so […] Read More

Rangitoto hike

Finally got my act together and set the alarm clock to 9 am. So I would make the Rangitoto Ferry at 10.30. The weather looked ok, warm, with lots of clouds, maybe not the worst to hike up a volcano. The Ferry took half an hour and let us ashore at Ragitoto‘s Ferry Terminal. I […] Read More

Pasifika

This weekend Auckland was all about the Pacific Islands. Pasifika, a two-day festival was held in the Western Springs Park. Creating a parcours throughout the green and around the lake, the Pacific Islands presented themselves with numerous stands, stages, entertainment, food, information, arts and crafts… Held since 1993 it has become the biggest festival of its […] Read More

Beach day

Another day at the beach… Waiheke left me knackered, so I scrapped my plans to go visit and hike around Rangitoto today. I needed something more mellow… On to the ferry to Devonport again and over to Cheltenham beach to be lazy in the shade and a bit in the sun. It was windy, not […] Read More

Waiheke

When I first heard about Waiheke Island I thought they were talking about Hawaii. Many names here, taken over from Māori, have a hawaiian ring to me. I only recently found out that they are indeed all related. Funnily, all those polynesian micro-islands in the pacific have been discovered and settled way before the two main […] Read More

Heatwave

It’s been announced for several days, and now the heatwave that has torched Perth and Adelaide has arrived in Victoria. Yesterday the temperature in Melbourne hit 34 degrees, but it’s a dry heat and you could actually bear it. I spent time at the pool again, doing only a couple of laps, because it was […] Read More

Montevideo in the sun

This is the result from the afternoon walk through sunny Montevideo, pretty much the same places as yesterday, just with blue skies. The buildings in the centre are impressive, even in their run-down state. It wouldn’t need much to polish it up just a bit, without turning it into a fake Disneyland. However, it all […] Read More