There are new photos in the gallery, taken at the Dragon Boat Festival in Taiwan | View album

A few weeks back I flew from Korea straight to Taiwan where I’m based in Hsinchu. Funny enough it’s the exact same city I went to during my masters theses about three years ago OMG time’s flying, it has been four years already!
Usually I’m staying at the Sol Hotel which is conveniantly located right downtown.
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Initially they said three weeks, then six. Six weeks turned into three months and eventually I ended up staying in South Korea for half a year. An exciting time and in some ways for sure eye-opening – which in my opinion holds true for whenever you live as a stranger in a strange land for a while. I’m now going to try and shed some light on my personal experience with the country and its people as well as provide some general information. | Read the rest of this entry …

Searching the web for weekend destinations in Korea I stumbled upon a few weblogs that described a camping trip to an uninhabited island off the west coast. The information was very sparse, especially regarding the exact whereabouts and how to organise a trip but that only made it sound even more adventureous and we snapped at the first chance and literally set sail towards Sa Seungbong-Do from Incheon.
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IF you fly at all!

It could have been a great week: On my way back from Korea, Lufthansa had decided to upgrade my seat from economy to business class for free. Good stuff! Plenty of room for my legs and a massage chair make a long distance flight so much easier to bear :-)
Only five days later I was sitting in a plane from Zurich to Frankfurt again. When the pilot announced a 30 minute delay I got a little worried about my connection but there was still hoping – until I got off the plane way past boarding stop. And of course at the security check they had to swipe my camera equipment for explosives. And even though I told the woman that I had to run she sent me to the checkpoint where the officer asked her why she had brought me over. Her reply: “I’m so bored, I wanted to do something!” – thank you soooo much, bloody idiot!
So yeah, obviously I had missed my plane by a few minutes. An hour later, while waiting for the shuttle bus to a hotel, I witnessed the discovery of a bunch of suspect packages. The police blocked the whole area but then my bus left so I don’t know if there was really a bomb or not.
Now I’m sitting in the lobby of the NH Hotel Möhrfelden, my new flight is tomorrow via Munich – let’s hope the weather doesn’t act up again!

Want to get out of Cheongju for a bit? Get some sun and enjoy the beauty of nature? In about an hour the bus headed for Hwayang-Dong brings you to Songnisan National Park. Get off at the stop for Hwayang Valley and hike along the river for about 20 minutes. You’ll get to sandy beaches and smooth rocks where you can sunbake or go for a swim in the river. | Read the rest of this entry …

Every year during spring time many Asian countries are organising festivals where they celebrate the time of the cherry blossoms. Only for about two weeks the trees are in full blossom, and around this time there are a few annual cherry blossom festivals in Korea, too. I hadn’t been in the country at that time but thanks to a relatively cold spring, the time of the blooming started a little later then expected. You can see the cherry trees in various places all over Cheongju, for example along the river that runs all the way through the city. | Read the rest of this entry …

A little while ago Christina and I took a day trip to a town called Danyang near Chungju. Photos are already up but here’s now a little report about the trip. | Read the rest of this entry …

There are new photos in the gallery from my recent trip to Danyang | View album

After five months of Kimchi and Korea, my vacation was more than welcome (don’t get me wrong, though, I had and I’m still having a great time in Korea, it can just be, well, exhausting at times). Luckily Thorsten and Alex were able to join in for some climbing and it didn’t take much to convince us that Sardinia would be the perfect place to go. However the trip started with a moment of shock when we discovered that Alex’ VW leaked some oil and a mechanic advised us not to use the car as there was immediate danger of fire. As you can imagine we weren’t too impressed at gave it a shot anyway. And in order to come to the point – the car was just fine and never caught fire! | View gallery | Read the rest of this entry …