Photo Story: Berlin Streetscapes

Berlin (germany) might not be the first city one thinks of in terms of grand metropolitan architecture. Sure you have the icons placed, like Brandenburg Gate, the Wall, the Fernsehturm  and some celebrated churches and bridges. But this is not London, no Roma ,not Paris, not Madrid, nor Vienna, when it comes to grand old architecture and boulevards. And whilst some examples of still shine through in memorial placed of grander times, like the ruinous old Wertheim complex, till recently used as the Tacheles Kunsthaus, more buildings of that era are gone.

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Am I too old for backpacking?

Today people live longer, stay younger and one doesn't seem to age mentally only physically in terms of more wrinkles and perhaps a less sharp short term mind. One more than likely only lives once so should seize every moment to enjoy what is closest to them regardless of age.

Backpacking is a style of travel more than an age restricted type of travel in my memory but I wonder what others think. I know there are such things as Flash-packers who might skimp on accommodation and food costs and spend more on operations which to me makes a lot of sense. A bed for the night is simply a bed for the night especially if you changing accommodation each night. And a meal is simply a meal. It is the experiences on those journeys that mean the most.

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2016 TRAVEL PLANS

We are now three months to go before the year 2016.  Post those travel plans then!   wink

My 2016 travel plans:

March - April:
Moscow (russia)- Airline tickets are paid off, but still need to get a visa...
St. Petersburg
Berlin
Prague
Krakow
Short stop in:
Amsterdam and Paris(france)

October - November: (hosting EmyG)
 South West (Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado) - national and monument parks
California iconic cities and national parks -- give EmyG a tour

December:
Christmas in the Philippine: no tickets yet, but most likely!
Beijing - 72 hour free visa (for the children) - tentative

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Useful websites for travellers

These are some of the most useful websites I use on my travels:

For meeting and exchanging info with fellow travellers:

www.travbuddy.com

www.couchsurfing.com


For general info about destinations travels:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page

http://www.roughguides.com/

http://www.routard.com/ (in French)

http://en.arrivalguides.com/

For currency conversion:

http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/

To know the time anywhere in the world:

http://www.timeanddate.com/

For rail travel in Europe country and the world, includes links to national railways in countries in Europe and the world:

http://www.seat61.com/

The German Federal railsite is very good as it provides a timetable for all trains in Europe. Just enter your start and arrival travel points and the desired date and time of travel (works in English, German and a number of other languages):

http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml

For mapping, GPS and navigation (works in many languages):

http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/ … mePage.htm

For air travel to and from Ireland and in Europe:

http://www.aerlingus.com/cgi-bin/obel01 … /index.jsp

http://www.ryanair.com/site/IE/

http://www.aerarann.com/

Others will know of other useful sites so maybe they can add them here.

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Cheapest Place You Have Ever Traveled

Cambodia is quite cheap. You could get interesting meals for $1 and Khmer massages for $6-8. I bumped into a few people who were balking at $5/night hostel rates because they could find $3 rates if they tried hard enough.

Vietnam is also cheap. Provided you eat where the locals go and not where the foreign tourists are.

SE Asia. India. China. Taiwan.

Bolivia and Peru. Most of Central America other than Belize.

Syria and Egypt.

Most of Eastern Europe with 'Bulgaria' and 'Romania' probably cheapest.

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Restaurants in Japan

If you want to enjoy good beef, I'd recommend "Kagayaki" in Minowa, which is close to Asakusa or Ueno. I have been wanting to visit this place but have never made it because it's always fully-booked.
It's not really a high-end restaurant and your budget is 5,400yen/person for all you can eat and drink. But the quality of beef is super. A5 ranked wagyu beef is offered here. I've never heard of any bad reputation of this restaurant.
http://tabelog.com/tokyo

I also would like to recommend some good restaurants in Yokohama. Recently I enjoyed a very very best Unagi (grilled eel fish) ever at the restaurant called "Noge Oden" for my husband's birthday. We were totally blown off! My husband loves Unagi and he knows lots of good restaurants but he couldn't remember any better Unagi than this restaurants! What we had was Shirayaki (plain grilled unagi seasoned with salt and served with wasabi) and Kabayaki (unagi grilled with Japanese BBQ sauce) of natural eel fish, which is very rare. Especially Shirayaki was really beautiful. Highly recommended if you ever come to Yokohama! Budget never exceeds 10,000yen per person.


The next door of "Noge Oden", there's also a very nice tenpura restaurant called "Toraya". (Masters of the both restaurants were classmates when they were going to school)
They also make very good tempura, sashimi and some traditional Japanese dishes.
http://tabelog.com/kanagawa/
It's not a high-end place either but I think their choice of ingredients is really great.
They have contract farmers to keep the quality of veggie at great level and master and his brother goes to market themselves to choose the best fish and shrimps for the day.
My favorite is Kuruma-ebi (big shrimp) tempura and I've never had any better kuruma-ebi than this place so far.

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first time in india

- dress modestly. Buy light local clothes with long sleeves and which completely cover the legs. Goa and some other beach areas and maybe Mumbai etc can be exceptions but in general India was very conservative in my experience.

- I preferred the south, though the main tourist sites are in the north

- India is not the country to go to. However, there are exceptions such as Goa (which is often completely different than ther rest of India) and parts Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore etc. If you want to party, Goa is the place to go but I don't think that time of year would be good.


- I much preferred smaller places such as Pushkar and Hampi  and the countryside rather than the big cities, most of which were awful in my opinion.

- the people are very friendly and welcoming. On an individual level or in small groups, lovely. However, the crowds can be completely overwhelming. You can expect to be stared at continuously. This is not necessarily threatening but it certainly can be disconcerting when you are not used to it.

- electricity failures could be common when I was there Feb-June 2008. They never lasted long in general. Many places have backup generators for air con.

- accommodation could be very cheap and very good. I was very happy with nearly everywhere I stayed in in India. You can see reviews of many of them on my profile. You need to go down a few pages of my reviews.

- food is superb and cheap. Often very cheap. I preferred southern cuisine. No beef, no pork anywhere. Many places were vegetarian and some eg Hampi vegan. I rarely ate any meat during my stay in India.

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