My recent summer was mostly spent in Asia, with the longest time spent in Japan. Since it was boiling hot down in central Japan, I made an unexpected change in my plans and went up to Hokkaido, to see a bit of the wonderful scenic north and cool down a bit on the mountains. I […]

Sintra is a gorgeous getaway trip from Lisbon in Portugal. It combines many lovely attractions to keep every type of tourist happy, old forts, scenic views, nature hikes, funky estates, castles, and an old Portugese town with cafes and shopping. The last attraction I visited in Sintra before heading back to Lisbon was the Quinta da […]

A nice weekend or daytrip from Sapporo towards the east of Hokkaido is the Furano-Biei area with some gorgeous natural scenery and local culture. One of the examples for a fascinating natural phenomenon is the over-commercialized Blue Pond near Biei. It’s basically a pond, which due to minerals dissolved in the water looks bright blue. Getting there […]

20 minutes from Maastricht towards the east is the hilly area of Valkenburg, with some odd attractions. Turns out, that the uncommon Dutch hills were used for all sorts of strange ventures. In some instances, local entrepreneurs just dug the hills for building materials and through that created a large array of underground tunnels, later […]

It’s been a few years since I last visited Taiwan, and it’s been even longer since I last visited the area around Keelung. My former visits were very memorable and arriving in Taiwan I was filled with nostalgia about almost everything I saw. On my last days before heading out not knowing when I’ll be […]

Last year I came in to Vancouver to attend a professional event taking place during the summer. I made a very late decision to come, and so the hotels were running insane rates with very low availability. To my relief, a former-classmate friend who is now working at Simon Fraser invited me to come stay […]

To wrap up my posts about my getaway trip to Panama last year, the final post is about a wonderful boat-trip from Bocas del Toro to nearby islands to do some dolphin watching. In two little fishermen boats we went to dolphins bay where dolphins like to come hang out. For the entire duration of our visit […]

I think most people visiting Israel are pleasantly surprised by how nice the beaches are in the coastal cities. Tel Aviv, the vibrant energetic heart of contemporary Israeli cultures, boosts a very long coastline with some fine beaches, but those tend to get rather crowded and loud. For the more ‘posh’ and sometimes laid back […]

My trip to Cancun in Mexico was absolutely gorgeous. It has gorgeous beaches (#2), extraordinary pyramids (Chichen Itza and Tulum), and an endless array of natural and tourist attractions. To wrap up my series of posts from my visit to gorgeous Cancun the final post is from a daytrip to the beautiful island Mujeres (Isla Mujeres) with […]

I spent most of the summer in the city of Sapporo in the northern Hokkaido province of Japan. I did not expect to, but the hot and humid ~35c weather down in central Japan left me no choice. I knew absolutely nothing about Hokkaido before booking my flight and heading out, and only after I […]