personal

I am interested in all forms of traveling and the sensations they produce. Train, car, motorbike, on foot, by boat, they are all different. I am excited by getting a random plane ticket and finding myself headed for nowhere. When I travel I put my toothbrush in my back pocket. I travel by local transportation and try to mix with people. I don't mind touristy things-they are hard to avoid because they are always in front of you and it is hard to find the authentic [anything] unless you know local people. Why I travel.

July '05 : New Orleans: The city that entered my heart quicker than any other american city.
August '03: Guatemala/Belize. Caye Caulker in Belize is an island 1km by 200m, with a couple of hundred locals that live in colourful huts, unspoilt by rich tourists and the five star hotels and the western food restaurants that accompany them. There is only one bar on the north tip of the island where most people hang out during the day. It has a beautiful, peaceful beach and the diving at the reef is magnificent. I had tons of conch in soup, fried or grilled. Guatemala is hard but rewarding.
December '02: Istanbul, Turkey. I am jealous of this turkish city's multicultural character. I imagine that most cities in mainland Greece must have been inhabited by such diverse peoples a century ago. In the bazaars of the main streets one can find Turks, Greeks, Albanians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Gypsies. The main streets look majestic, the buildings are fitting of a city with such glorious past. But when one walks to the side streets, one realizes that it is only a facade. The rest of the city is dirt poor.
August '01: Spain/Romania. I was lucky to be in Catalonia during the fiestas of Patum de Berga www.patum.org and of San Jovani. These people really know how to celebrate life. Barcelona is a lively city and the desire to decorate is expressed everywhere; in statues, in benches, in walls, in churches, in the architecture of Gaudi. I preferred the moorish architecture in Cordoba, Sevilla, Granada to the renaisance architecture in those cities.
December '99: Baja California, Mexico. There is little to see in the northern half. The southern half is beautiful, the cactus forests, the blue mountains in the horizon, the oases, the beach. The food is excellent.
June '99: Costa Rica. Easy trip, Costa Ricans are used to tourists and they like them. Tons of nature to see and enjoy, rainforest, cloudforest, carribean and pacific coast, active volcanos, rivers with rafting, waterfalls, birds, lizards, plants.