Out Of Europe - Now In Syria

This is my first blog entry on the road to cape town. We had a busy week travelling through Europe and Turkey. It's quite interesting to write on a computer with Arabic windows XP. We are now at Cairo hotel in the little town Hama.

Until now we had a very smooth travel. We started last week at centrail railway station in Graz. The ride to Istanbul was two days and the route was through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and finally Turkey. We found quite quickly an affordable hotel nearby the railway station. The train ride was very relaxing. With slow speed and antique trains we left good old Europe behind.

Turkey was great and easy to travel. After two days sightseeing we took a "direct" bus to the city of Aleppo in northern Syria. We had to learn that direct means only to change the bus two times and the overall length of the ride got longer and longer. In total 22 hours. We where lucky to already have a visa to syria. The time of the boarder was two hours endless waiting.

In Aleppo we've stayed at a hotel in middle of the old city. It was much more eays to communicate with the locals because English is more common then French. Staying for two days was a good decision. It's great to get fascinated by colourful souqs and the arabic surroundings. We even had our first experiance in a hamam (bath house). Of course Edith had to go to an other hamam then Walter and me because of the strict gender separation. Getting scrubbed and washed was a very new and strange experiance - but it was worth it! We felt very clean and relaxed afterwards.

After Aleppo we've got a private driver to reach the remote sights of upper Syria. Wonderful old ruins and a great landscape. It's better to express these impressions with pictures. I'll upload them as soon as I get a faster Internet connection in the next city.

Tomorrow, after a city stroll, we take a bus to Damascus. As Friday is the holy day in Islam we don't yet know if it will be easy to get a bus but as usual we are very positive about that. We all fell very comfortable on the trip and can't hardly await the adventures of the next day.

Ready To Go - Goodbye Austria

 

Before I leave tomorrow I'm now going through my backpack. I've never been on such a long, continuous road trip before. Usually I have a home base where I can leave some stuff behind. The challenge now is to get rid of some things to reduce the total weight. Especially in the beginning the backpack will be full because of the cold climate. Even in Istanbul the temperatures are below zero now.

Tomorrow the journey starts at 18:30 at the central train station in Graz. The next stops are Zagreb, Belgrade, Bulgaria and finally Istanbul. We'll arrive probably on Sunday at the central station and will stay there for a night. Then we have to find transportation to Syria. Depending on what we get the destination could be Aleppo or Damascus - enshallah!

I try to maintain this blog as often as possible. I just don't know how easy it will be to find an internet cafe in the middle of Africa. But that is also a reason for the travel - to find out how it is and share the experience!

Final Preparations

 

Aaah! It's already late in the night and I still have a lot of travel preparations to do. I also must write some important emails and also my backpack isn't cross-checked. In three hours I have to get up because I have to take the train to Vienna. As you already may guess the reason of this journey is the Sudanese embassy. They have failed to prepared the visas in time and so I have to go there and pick them up. If I fail to get the visas we will have a delay of a week at the begin of our travel - We can't take that!

It's getting now pretty cold in Austria. Actually it's -9°C. At the late afternoon I was driving on my bike home. I can't remember when I else had this pain in my almost frozen fingers - terrible! At our first big stop - Istanbul - It's also not too hot. Just around 1°C. I'm really hoping to enter hot zone very soon.

Today - After travelling to Vienna and back - we want to celebrate new year at the hotel Daniel in Graz. It's organized by our event agency zeiger and will be very special. On two floors - lobby and conference room international and local DJ's will do the best to provide us a good start for 2009. Time to get to bed now and enjoy 3 hours of deep sleep...

Time For A Rest

December is quite a hectic month. It begun with snowboarding, various events and now moving to a new apartment. Today I've rented a van to transport the heavy and bulky furniture between old apartment, storage and new apartment. Even moving is exhausting, it's also exciting because of leaving old things behind and a new life at a different place starts.

In 10 days the big travel to Africa begins. On January 2nd, on a Friday evening, my travel companions and I will be on the Balkan express to Istanbul. Of course that depends if we get the visa for Sudan in time. It was a big headache how to get this particular visa. The best training for the conditions in Africa! I had to go to the Sudanese embassy in Vienna and apply for the visa. The first tricky thing was that the embassy - open from 09-16:00 was in fact only reachable at the early morning. Then I failed to speak to them because of the holy hajj. They were off duty! Finally I've got a friendly officer on the line and asked him to send me a visa application form via email. Unfortunately that failed because:

o) The embassy didn't have an official email address
o) They didn't have an application form
o) The crappy email address was misspelled
o) The processing speed obviously was one email per day

I've decided to search the internet for an ad-hoc application form and found one from the Sudanese embassy in Berlin. At the embassy I told them this is a very good official form and because it’s so nice I will use it. The officer agreed and accepted it. I have rounded up the fee for the visa and made me a friend. Next week I'll call the officer again and ask him to not forget sending me the passports.

Beside of the administrative stuff I have now finally packed my backpack. It's the first time I have a professional one. A few days before departure I'll check my stuff again and hopefully sort out some useless stuff that's just extra weight. The biggest brick will be the camera equipment. But I don't care - I'm sure it's worth it! You'll soon be able to judge...

Press Conference Swatch Snow Mobile 2008

Last Friday I had a nice day in Vienna. I've been there for two tasks: A visit in the Syrian embassy for a visa and a press conference. Syria is the only country on the travel that doesn't issue a visa on entry. The visa fee is 32€ for a single entry. Visas will be a cost driver in general on our tour through Africa. The entry visas at the borders will be in this price range or even higher.

The second reason for the travel was as mentioned the press conference. I will attend the Swatch Snow Mobile event in Saalbach-Hinterglem. To promote the event a special location for the press conference was chosen: A wind tunnel! This wind tunnel is designed to test and develop machines that have to resits harsh conditions like trains. It is even the largest wind tunnel in the world! Different climates can be simulated - From -50°C to +60°C; wind, snow rain - everything is possible there.

The press conference itself was more or less standard. Short statements from the organisation, sponsors and of course some local VIP's. I've shot about 250 photos to cover the whole event and chose later the favourite 10 best. The preparations on site have already begun and I'll be on site on Thursday to continue my job.

It Smells Like Snow

From the final week of work to the first without: It feels a bit strange not to get up early in the morning - But anyone who knows me is aware that my busiest hours are always at night. Today I've received my new snowboard. It's a Nitro MFM pro and it will serve me well soon in the mountains. I plan to go in December snowboarding to Salzburg. The same set-up as last year: Swatch Snow Mobile 2008 and Rave on Snow. That's a week full of entertainment and start of the winter season in Saalbach-Hinterglem.

Of course it's not only fun at the moment. I'm spending a lot of time to get prepared for the travel. I have to get my equipment together, check travel details, visa and prepare everything for the leave. Now as Africa is calling I'm paying more attention to the news. We have a lot of "hot" countries on our route. Today the IAEA has reported that Syria has started a nuclear program. Syria is one of the countries that make it difficult for travellers to transit the country. There are travel restrictions and a visa has to be issued before the travel. Other African countries have special conditions e.g.: Sudan: 60 Journalists imprisoned last week, no freedom of press; Kenia: post-election troubles; Somalia: Pirates, No government; Zimbabwe: >1000% Inflation....
In central Africa the rain season ends now. During our travel we expect to have decent weather. I just hope there are not too much mosquito's. Especially in Africa so many diseases are transmitted by these bloody beasts.

Now I'm going to pack some of my stuff into labelled boxes. Today I pack my records. They will fit into 4-5 large boxes. I should really rip the records and sell them off - I moving too often to carry them around!

Final Week Of Work

It's getting really busy now! Next Friday will be the final day in the office. That will be a big change after a busy time at a chaotic company. I'm now dealing with tax declarations, insurances and other preparations for the travel time. Before I leave to Africa I'll plan to go snowboarding and starting over again with some decent journalism. I want to pass on my travel adventures and I'm sure I have some exciting reports from some exotic destinations.

The Africa journey is now scheduled for January 2nd 2009. Starting point is Graz central station going down south to Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria....
80 days, probably more than less, are calculated for the travel. I still have to check if I need some extra medical preparation. I've heard something about yellow fever and other stuff. I'll try to do it the old fashion way - with a bit rum here and then. I'm also very excited to cross the equator this time in Africa. I already have been very close to the equator, in Ecuador.

At the weekend I'll try to take some pictures of Graz - If the weather is fine. I want to have full control over my camera to deliver the finest travel pictures.