Flashbacks of 8 months meeting people

The end of a new year (can you remember it was new?) is almost passing just like these almost 60.000 kilometers that I passed so quickly. And I am still on the road finding my long detour back home. Whether this home is my home-country our a new home will be told by time, but 8 months were not enough to find this place. This flat world is not small enough.

Pretty much every day I think back. I think back of my family at home who lived without me around for the last 6 years, I think back about yesterday, about last week and last month and I think back of many other beautiful, sad or difficult moment. Mainly the happy ones though!

During my travels I met many people. I made a bunch of new friends of which a few I consider as potential best friends, and perhaps my Facebook friends got almost doubled since I left.

Feeling numb in Chengdu

Photo: Chengdu, China - 06/11/10

Six months after my departure, I found myself on a big airbus a319 heading for the airport of Chengdu, located more or less in the middle of China. This country was among my list of countries to which I have been curious when I was a child.
China, is a whole new experience for me and it is so different than the countries where I have spent my last 6 months! To be starting with the temperature, I was nervous to not have enough clothes to protect me against the winter cold. From the moment I left home, I spent walking in 30 up to 42 degrees celcius. And now suddenly I would step into 15 degrees. Brrrrr, as at night and in the morning it will be around 4 only.
During the flight I was reading one of Paul Theroux's travel books, which I bought the day before. Coincidentally in his book he was traveling to China in 1986 ;) I thought that would be reading in style. I was reading a chapter in which he, together with a group travelers, he crossed the border by train from Mongolia into China. One of the guys from the group was screaming through the train that the border police had taken two guys for questioning as they were carrying an edition of 'the economist'.

The three Flamencos of Spain - Part 3

Photo: La Alhambra, Granada, Spain - 15/05/10

See also:
The three Flamencos of Spain - Part 1
The three Flamencos of Spain - Part 2

It's been some time ago already, but that last flamingo was still out there waiting for me to be given shape, colors, a character and simply to be written about. While I am sitting in the train in Italia. To give you an image of my situation, it's the train from Pisa to Roma. It's 19:23h and this is a nice ride along the coast with the last sunshines warming my right cheek in this cold air conditioned coupé. I would take a photo so you could see me again wearing my blue jumper. I really dislike airco! The people who have been traveling with me are in any sense aware that I simply hate airco! Outside it's 30 to 40 degrees and you arrive somewhere inside, BAM! 15 to 20 degrees! Now that is cold after 1 week non stop in these temperatures! A t-shirt would not be sufficient. Nor shorts! Hence the blue jumper. Ah wait I am going to show you anyway!

The 3 Flamencos of Spain; Part 2

Having started with he biggest and most touristic Flamenco, it was time to move on to the second: Córdoba.
Happy as I can be, I bought myself a train ticket in the train station of Sevilla Santa Justa. This would be my first train trip in Spain and afyer spending the last few hours walking around in the city of Sevilla, I found myself returning to the train station. Exit Over-tourism!

The 3 Flamencos of Spain; Part 1

After leaving my dear friends in Lisboa, Paulo and Alvaro dropped me off at the train station from where I took the train to Faro, located at the south coast of Portugal. To me famous for beauty of the English golf players ;)
Once arrived at the platform of Faro station - a glance at the clock told me it already started pointing out the hours in the late afternoon - I hoped to still be able to catch a bus to Sevilla.