100 and out!

Folks, this is my 100th post here, and that is as good a time as any to make it the very last one.

Ok, I am not saying goodbye to blogging, but I am saying goodbye to Blogger. This blog ends here and now, and moves to it's new home at oceankid.wordpress.com.

© FreeFoto.com

This blog started as a travel-blog when I traveled to the remotest parts of the Sahara, to view a spectacular solar eclipse. I am still quite fond of those early posts. Those days in the desert left some unforgettable memories, and led to several subsequent posts related to africa.

Total eclipse at Waw an Namus
March 29, 2006

Another memorable moment of this blog was The Tandem Story Experiment which resulted in two rather morbid stories. Speaking of stories, another favourite post was when I was had to set the record straight after a long absence from blogging. And for some strange reason this little tag from Soraya reamains vivid in my mind.

If you wonder why I am moving from Blogger to Wordpress, I must say that in comparison Wordpress is sooo much nicer to use. I will be happy to elaborate, if anybody asks me, at my new blog.

And that's it. Adieu Blogger.

99...

really close now!

98...

warmer...

97...

getting warm

A Full Circle

All good things must come to an end.

And that, I am afraid, applies to my little trip too. My last three days on Tenerife were great, but blogging... well I just did not find the time and energy. Now it feels a bit strange to write this closing post from home. Anyway...

The island of Tenerife, has slightly less than one million inhabitants. You can drive a full circle around the island in less than four hours. Yet - as I see it - this little island contains two entirely different planets.

The south has places like Las Americas and Los Gigantes, which I blogged about recently. It is quite warm, and the beaches are fantastic. It is dominated by mass tourism, and a lot of people really like it. But the first time I crossed the mountains, to the north was: true joy.

The north is considerably cooler. The beaches are less spectacular. Of course there are loads of tourists, but the vulgarity of mass tourism does not exist here. The coastal landscape is also IMHO a lot more interesting, and there is not a house on every coastal square metre.

The main town of Puerto de la Cruz is quite pleasant for walking, driving in it is quite a b*tch but worth the effort. It is a nice day to spend a lazy day.

Puerto de la Cruz

Through the eyes of Palestrina55, Creative Commons license

And the small village of Taganaga in the remote north east is really pretty, and the drive to it takes you through rain forests as well as fantastic serpentine roads. If I ever return to Tenerife, Taganaga will definitely be a must-see-again.

Taganaga
As seen by meteomara, Creative Commons License

And: "That's all folks!" The time has come to close my last chapter on Tenerife. My next post is due soon. It will contain another major closing...

Looney Tunes ©Warner Brothers

Photo Time

There is so much stuff I haven't mentioned at all. And just to mention a few...


...my grand day out when I drove around the island in order to mount the peak of Teide, the famous volcano rising some 3718 metres above sea level.

Teide, from below

But unfortunately, the Teleferico (skytrain) was closed that day due to strong winds. So this is as far as I got:

The end of the line

But that was not so bad, as my road trip gave me some fantastic views of Tenerife's volcanic landscapes:

The long way home

La Orotava is a nice little town on the north coast, with pretty houses...

...and a meticulously kept garden...

...with exotic flowers:

or is it yet another proof of alien life forms?

And in the charming mountain village of Masca,

I bought some fresh oranges from this farmer:

The major town of La Laguna, offered many nice walks:

The Old town of La Laguna

But I would like to finish of with a few pictures of Garachico. I arrived here, some 9 days ago, and the place was so pleasant and relaxing, that all my half-plans to keep island-hopping simply evaporated:

Arriving into town along the coast

Small town life

Church bells marking every half hour,
surprisingly nice

And the shady town square, peaceful without being dull

And maybe just maybe, if you turn that last photo upside-down, you will see where I shot that space-ship a few days ago...

Another Trip, Another Time

Still in Tenerife for a few more days but: I needed a little break from my holiday - great feeling by the way - and Tom Q is a great photographer and lost-and-found fellow blogger in more than one way. Some time ago he proposed this Flickr meme: “It works like this: if you use Flickr, go to the sixth page of your photostream and pick the sixth picture there, then post it to your blog.”

Olive oil, candied peanuts and a dustpan
What else can you need on the road in the Sahara?

I took this photo at a market during my trip to Libya in March/April 2006. Not sure exactly where but I think somewhere on the road east of Ubari: Garagara, (or maybe Murzuq) is my best guess...

View Larger Map

My Flickr posting is not nearly as prolific as Tom's but I do have loads of pictures tucked away on old hard disks, half forgottern CF-cards, and who knows where else? Perhaps I should pull myself together and post my best photos to Flickr.

Strange Fellows

I haven't told you about my fellow passengers, have I?

Most of you are familiar with the first one. I had him neatly chopped in 12 slices and shrink-wrapped into 4 DVDs.

Dexter is IMHO the best TV-series ever made, at least the only one which has maintained superb screen-writing (great characters, clever dialogue and and nail-biting plot-lines) for four consecutive seasons. I thought I might need some distraction on slow days so I decided to bring season 1 with me.

Now, if you have missed out completely: Dexter is a forensics expert with the Miami police department. His professional specialty is blood. His main hobby is: killing people. He is mass murderer with a twist: he only kills really bad guys who have managed to escape justice. He is clearly a deeply disturbed person (due to a childhood trauma), but he follows a very strict morale, or "code" as he calls it himself. So if you haven't yet, I warmly recommend you to check Dexter out. Buy it, borrow it, download it, steal it, whatever.

And then...

The other guy in my bags is Böddi. Now, "who the hell is Böddi?" you might ask. Well, I had him evenly spread-out over 427 hilarious pages.


Stormland (Swedish details, and an English translation of another novel) is a highly entertaining book by Hallgrímur Helgason. Just like Dexter, Böddi has failed (or refused) to adapt to the norms of society. He lives in a tiny town, in the outbacks of northern Iceland. And I can tell you, he is one angry dude. He does things his own way, and loses every job he gets. On his blog he spews his sarcasms over everything he detests about Iceland and the people in his hometown. He then experiences an unbelievable string of unfortunate events, and slowly he starts to lose his grip on reality. But his anger remains unbroken. It then escalates to a Gargantuan confrontation with society. He decides to take them all on, single-handedly, from a horse-back. Epic stuff.

The book was written in 2005, well before the global economic crisis and the total collapse of Iceland's financial system. So it can be seen as a quite strong and prophetic story on the dark side of the heedless greed that was prevailing in Iceland (actually, not only Iceland (and actually not only was)) before the crash. If you have a soft spot for dark humour, I recommend it warmly.

* * *

It has struck me that we have a few things in common, Dexter, Böddi and me; Dexter loves the Atlantic ocean and often goes out to sea. Böddi often stares at the ocean and contemplates. And the Atlantic is just what made me come here! Even though I do not particularly mind traveling on my own, here I am constantly surrounded by happy couples, which reminds me of my status, and makes me feel a tiny bit like Dex or Böddi. And then, all three of us are travelers of different kinds. Dexter along with what he calls "his dark passenger", Böddi with his horse, and me with my little rented Fiat Punto!

Close Encounters of the Weird Kind

At least a few true movie buffs will understand that title….

In any case, I can tell you the Aliens are here:

Not my photo, but note the size of the earthlings at the stern

This spaceship-like sea vessel is owned by the Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko, gossip here. I had to fix some paperwork and go to Santa Cruz, capital of Tenerife, this mega-yacht was anchored there. If you have £200 million Sterling to spare, you can have one of your own.

But that is not all. I have further proof that the Aliens are here. Here is what I saw next to my hotel the other night:

Alien life-forms, arriving in Garachico, Tenerife, January 2010

El Bonbon

My favourite drink here (well, one of them) is bonbon:

El bonbon

Bonbon is an espresso with condensed milk. (If you have discovered the joys of Vietnamese Coffee, then you are familiar with condensed milk.) Here you see the milk at the bottom of the cup. As you see it is extremely thick, it does not mix at all until you start using the spoon. Also it is very sweet, so there is absolutely no reason to add any sugar. Maybe not your cup of tea, but I warmly recommend you to give it a try when you get a chance.

Punta de Teno

Today I received another warm welcome by the authorities:

"Do you really want to die?"

After passing that rather ominous sign, I drove through some of the most dramatic landscape I have ever seen. The narrow dwindling road just barely managed to cling on the nearly vertical mountain walls., Above me I had spectacular cliffs almost disappearing into the clouds, and below me over a hundred metre drop.

Tenerife's Land's End

Punta de Teno really made my day. It lies on the very northwestern tip of Tenerife. Very much like Land's End in England. Far away in the mist you can discern the silhouette of Gomera Island.

Time

One of the greatest luxuries while being on the road is to have plenty of time.

Time to relax completely and forget about itineraries and stuff. To have entire days without any musts. Days to read a lot. Days to enjoy a long siesta. Days to absorb impressions from the trip. Days to just breathe. Such small things make the whole experience so much greater.

Garachico

So, it seems I have found myself a new harbour for the night...


Garachico, is an old town that lies on the north coast of Tenerife. (And behold: most signs are in Spanish.) I found a very pretty little hotel with yet a breathtaking view, this version of it is 20 minutes old:

The town has a native population of 5-6000 people. And with three (or so) hotels in town, tourism is no big thing here. People actually live here, which makes the atmosphere so much nicer.

Internet access in mega-touristy Los Gigantes was surprisingly hard to come by, and impossible after 6 p.m. But now I have it from the hotel terrace so maybe, just maybe, my posting will be less erratic. (Scary thought: could it be that my addiction brought me here?)

This post will end here, because I am hungry. I just got here after having spent a fun day with all the attractions at Siam Park, where the slightly morbid Wave was a lot of fun:

And in case you wonder, that is Siam as in Thailand, yes. Apparently the German business guy who built it has good relations with some Thai princess or so.

Los Gigantes

I have always had a soft spot for sea views.

And the moment I saw the photos in the web-ad for the apartment I was lost. Can you guess why?

I took these pics from my terrace. So my apartment has a stunning view and every night I fall asleep to the soothing sound of the ocean. Just lovely.

Unfortunately, Los Gigantes as a place is less uplifting. It is a very friendly place, but it is a super-touristy resort. A lot of people love this: The restaurants have menus in at least six languages. There are more signs in English than in Spanish. In the evenings he Irish pubs are showing Premier League matches on huge screens. And the streets are filled with echoes of Lady Gaga and karaoke versions of Bono and Frankie boy. Urrrgh!

I have always wondered why people bother to travel thousands of miles just to see, eat and do the same stuff they do every day at home. Me not. So it is not without a bit of remorse that I leave this fantastic apartment and view. But I need something else.

Back soon.

Welcome to Tenerife

Most of you know that I love independent travel and despite the fact that I usually scoff at people who plan every little detail ahead, I did book my apartment for the first week. I really wanted an ocean view and I started searching online and saw some fantastic places, but when I realized that almost every place I checked was already booked, I had to forget my principles.

So before I left home, I knew I would stay *somewhere* in Las Palmas for two nights, before taking the ferry to Santa Cruz, Tenerife. There I would take a cab to Los Gigantes, where my apartment was waiting for me. Turned out that there is quite some distance between the two and the ride would have cost me quite a lot maybe €100, but Jason, my apartment-host was kind enough to offer me a free pick-up and ride in his car. All I had to do was to hop off the ferry and find him in his “red Ferrari T-shirt”. Piece of cake, right?

By now, you may have guessed that the answer to that question is no...

Just after getting off the ferry, I saw this guy waiting in a red T, ok it wasn’t Ferrari but I had to check. Turned out he wasn’t my man waiting for me. So I had to keep looking. So I was walking back and forth, with my rather heavy bags, in the outdoors arrival area, looking for this guy. Nobody. Went outside to check the parking. Nothing. Went back in. Maybe he was there somewhere after all, perhaps in the cafeteria?

A man suddenly grabs my arm, gently but still decidedly:
“Policia. Documentos por favor.”
“Typical.” I think to myself. Here I am just looking for a dude I have never seen, and the cops think I have something fishy going on. “Not to worry. They will release me in a sec.” Right?

So this guy has got a woman and another guy in his company. All three in plainclothes, and suddenly I am surrounded. Like I would make a run for it, sure, but quite intimidating, nonetheless. Anyway, they make me show my passport, ferry tickets and whatnot. They hold on to all this stuff while I try to explain that I have a pick-up waiting for me. But they are not too keen to understand English, nor my (attempts at) Spanish.

And then they ask me, (still holding on to my papers), to grab my bags and follow them inside. The joke starts to wear thin as they usher me into a tiny wooden booth. And when the officer in charge pulls out a pair of rubber gloves, and puts them on I think to myself: “This is not happening. This is NOT happening.”

They start looking through all my stuff and the search is not finished when my phone rings, it is my rental guy. They refuse to let me answer it. Then I beg them to pick it up just to let the guy know, but they refuse that too. And those gloves have me quite spooked. Perhaps I have seen too many hard-boiled movies. Who knows? The guy in charge uses the gloves to go through my bags very thoroughly, but he never touches me. I can tell you one thing: when they are done and hand me back my papers, I make a huge inaudible and invisible “Phew!”

Back outside, I find my guy. The Ferrari T is black not red, and he had been a few minutes late, so that is why I didn’t find him, and that presumably, what had attracted the cop’s attention. No problemo, after a few minutes I can laugh about the whole thing, and we have nice long drive around the half of Tenerife, from Santa Cruz to my apartment in Los Gigantes.

My Canarian Adventures

Despite a ridiculously prolonged absence from this forum, this particular blogger is still breathing…

…and at this moment I happen to be breathing the ocean air of the 28th northern parallel, and to be more precise: the air of Los Gigantes, Tenerife, of the Canary Islands. But getting here was not without extracurricular events.

As I landed in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, my original plan was to: rent a car at the airport, find a hotel with the airport services, chill down in Las Palmas for two nights, and take the car on ferry to Tenerife. I mean seriously, the touristiest place on the planet, how hard can it be to find a car, and a hotel, without advance bookings? Yeah right!

As I landed: no rental cars available. OK. “But where can I book a hotel?” I was recommended to try the agency in the upstairs hall. Surprise surprise: closed for Christmas holidays. OK no worries. Next Black-Adder-like-brilliant-idea: let the cabbie find a hotel for me. Yeah right!

I also had this bright idea that I wanted to stay away from the touristy (near-the-beach) parts of Las Palmas:
“So cabbie,” (in rather broken Spanish), “please find me a hotel in Barrio Vegueta [the Old Town of Las Palmas]”
He gives me this look and: “No hotels in Vegueta!”.
Me incredulous (like being told, no hotels in Gamla Stan, the old town of Stockholm): “No hotels in Vegueta??”.
“Nope. None. So where you go?”

Fairly certain that he is putting me on, in order to take me to his uncles place miles outside town or something, I insist he takes me to the market at the centre of Vegueta.
“Whatever.”
But when we get there, there really are no hotels in sight.
“So where you go?”
“Well, anything nearby.”
“Nothing nearby.”
“Right, something a bit further off, towards the centre.”
“Aha further off, well there’s Hotel Parque.”
Saying: “Sounds like a terrific idea!” Thinking: “Thanks for finally understanding me, bloody nitwit!”

Anyway the Hotel Parque is totally full. But they recommend the Tryp a few hundred yards to the north. And I enter that four-star-lounge, thinking “uh-oh, this will cost but wtf, I’ve had enuff of this.”
“No rooms Sir. We are fully booked.”
“”
“Sir?”
“eh really?”
“Yes, afraid so.”
“Ok anything nearby, that you know of?”
“Not really.”

At this moment I begin to envision myself spending the night underneath a palm tree, and on top of my bags. But then the other lady behind the counter notices my predicament:
“You could try the Pension Perojo.”
“Uh-huh?”
“But it’s a pension, not a hotel. It’s not far from here.”

So from the prospect of staying in a four-star-megacomplex I move through hyperspace and (finally) get a room in place where the shared bath has a sign like this:

Dear blog-guests I challenge you guess the price in Euros, that this place cost me. Points will be awarded.

Then, finding and booking the ferry, was not without challenges either, nor was it easy to find any internet access. I found it very surprising that it was much easier to find internet access in Tripoli, Libya than it was in the mega touristy town of Las Palmas. But the problems were not insurmountable. And then: my arrival in Tenerife was not without the warm welcome of the harbour police. Keep your eyes open, for my next post.

Before letting the curtain fall I would like to thank my boss Jörgen (bless his gentle heart) who predicted that I would be knifed to death in Gran Canaria, “because I have read that is what they do to Swedes there”. Thanks to his unselfish alert, I kept my eyes open and nuthin, totally nuthin, bad happened :P

Life

Life

On our journey through time
For a while we visit this earth
We laugh, cherish and dance

Suddenly we may leave
And disappear into the wind
Like grains of Sahara sand

Reading 2

This blog might perhaps not be the fastest place on the planet! But my visitor log reveals that some of my dear online friends have not given up on me, despite my rather erratic posting frequency.

Today I saw a visitor from a new country, Botswana. This of course brings back happy memories of one of my favorite writers: Alexander McCall Smith, who writes absolutely charming books. I blogged about him a while ago, here. So my dear visitor from Gaborone, if you come back here, please let me know who you are.

Gaborone, as seen by emster214

As for my other readers/bloggers I have another question: Very few of my real life friends read my blog these days. (It was different in the beginning when I was travel-blogging as a way of staying in touch. ) Today I have a nice little circle of online-friends, of whom I have met none, (well OK, very few!). How is this for you, do you have many real life friends who read your blog?

As for my own life, it is presently rather full of not too good family related troubles. Such things hardly help me find the time or energy to post. Let us leave it at that.

Of Music And Chess

Well, another hiatus. Well, another year. Welcome to 2008. Thanks for stickin’ by.

Those of you who have not played a lot of chess might find it hard to see a natural connection between chess, and music. No matter, I think there is one. Music has the ability to transport your mind to another universe, to a world where other laws and values rule. To a world where you can find peace. Chess, sometimes does the same.

I may have blogged about this before, but when it comes to music I can warmly recommend one specific source: Radio Paradise, is a web-radio station that I cannot help fall in love with. They describe themselves as an “eclectic rock music station”. You may say that you are not “really into rock”. But these guys will play an amazingly broad selection of music. You may hear anything from the Beatles to the Chemical Brothers. If you love David Bowie, Calexico, Jethro Tull, Aimee Mann, Roxy Music, Björk, Beck, REM, Tom Petty, Tori Amos, Goldfrapp, and such, you should check it out. Or if you just like to be musically surprised, to hear a lot of new bands that you never heard of, you should click that link. The cool thing is not only that they play very cool music but if you listen for a couple of hours you begin to notice that they mix it in a really cool way that adds up to more than just the separate songs. Now the really great thing is that it is 100% commercial free. It is all working through voluntary listener support. Try it!

As for chess: a year ago I wrote that my goal for 2007 was to improve my rating by 200 rating points. 200 rating points, is a tall order, approximately you would win 4 out of 5 games against someone 200 points below yourself. So it is a significant improvement. Now, one year later the result is [drum roll please]:

230 rating points. Of course I am happy with that. For this year I hesitate to set a new goal because another 200 rating points is quite unrealistic. Anyway, the interesting thing is that my improvement did not chiefly come from intense study or training. Most of it came from a psychological shift, in my attitude towards the game. I have grown more, confident, careful, less risk prone, and most of all, more patient and persistent.

That might be a good lesson, for all of us, in all areas of life. Trust your decisions, stay patient, and do persist.

The Kite Runner

Mo blogging has been rather silent for a month. Not the first time. Now...

I started reading this book while visiting San Francisco. It was electrifying to read the opening paragraph of the book where the narrator is overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge [me myself and I being there, quite a coincidence] and saying: " I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment..." here I end my quote because I warmly recommend you to read the book.

A boy is born in Afghanistan in the mid 1960's. He grows up in a country: then rich, well organized, civilized, and beautiful, a fully functioning society. He sees the "revolution" where the Afghan leftist rebels overthrow the monarchy, and a total disintegration of a peaceful society, followed by a period of turmoil, followed by the Soviet invasion, then the undignified Soviet withdrawal, followed by the extreme islamist mayhem, followed by 9/11 and all.

With all this historic turmoil as a background, all the personal experiences, family hardships, and difficulties are painted before us in a painful, yet very down-to-earth image.

I can only say: Get it. Read it.