A pain to make because the layers have been baked with a top heat oven, one layer over the other – but oh, the glorious result! The colours haven’t been tampered with, it’s an accurate impression of their intensity.

Forgetting stuff
Some things are prone to being left behind when moving around. When handling these, take extra care to put them back and take them with you:

• towel
  After showering one usually puts these someplace to dry. If the place is not in an obvious place, it’s very easy to forget. Lots of forgotten towels in hostels stress this point
• showering products
  If they are left in the shower while drying off, there’s a big chance the next person will enjoy free shower gel.
• media like usb sticks
  This is a point when using other people’s computers or internet cafes. Always be careful to take all your items with you!

Of course there might be more items like this. I tend to have a quite loose connection to some of my stuff, so some just leaves occasionally. Also see the bag point below!

How to fix this:
First thing to decide is whether you actually really need the item in question.

• If you don’t, it’s all good and you will travel lighter in the future.
• If you need an item of the kind (like a towel, not neccessarily this towel), there are several ways to go. In case it’s too much trouble to get the original thing back (see below), you can get a new one. Some hostels have a“free stuff” box with things other people left behind for one reason or another. Maybe a friend has a spare one. If not, well, it’s the shop option. Some countries have social stores where you can pick up things for real cheap (great for “grandma” items and household things), otherwise it’s the convenience store.
• If you actually need the forgotten item (like the usb stick with all your data), you will want to get it back. Here’s what to do:
  Where did you leave it? – Get into contact with the people who run the place as soon as possible and find out whether they found your stuff. If they haven’t, make sure they know what exactly you lost and how to contact you in case they find it. If they have, horray! If you’re still nearby you can just go get it.
  But if you’re farther away there might be better options: Have it posted. If you’re on the move without a fixed address you can have it sent post restante to a post office along the way. This post office will keep it for a period of time and you can go get it with your ID. The trouble here is to figure out how to pay the postage and how to make people go through the trouble of posting something.
  Another option is to find a traveller still in the location you left your item planning to travel your way. Promise them some money, tell them where to pick up your item and inform the people holding the item about your plan. You can find out about travellers either by phoning hostels in the area or over the internet (eg travel forums or the couchsurfing website). Of course you’ll have to put some trust into the person you choose and it’s not an absolutely safe method. However, I’ve had some good experiences with this when I left a usb stick at an internet cafe a few hours away, so it can work.

The last to possibilities lead to stress and eventual money and/or item loss, so the best way is not to forget anything vital in the first place. It still happens though, but maybe it’s just me..

The Bag Trap
One lesson learned dearly: When done with getting stuff into and out of the bag during travels, always close it. This especially applies to moving places and locations with steep borders like mountainsides. If the pack falls over while you’re busy doing something else, things can easily fall out and away. I lost a nice torch and some food on a mountain, some stuff on the subway and an old mobile phone on the plane that way.
If things are lost like this, it’s hard to nearly impossible to get them back.

Missing information
When travelling free floating, it can happen that vital parts of information are missing. The exact location of something, a time for the bus to arrive or hours of opening.. as my travelling style can be quite random at times it is hard to anticipate what information will be needed.

What to do:
A first thing to get is a basic map – I usually stop at the tourist office since they have decent maps for free. They also have information and can help, but they mostly know about big and expensive tourist attractions and big hotels. The next thing would therefore be to find an internet café where most information can be gathered. However, finding these can be a task in itself, so researching in advance while still on the net somewhere else can help greatly. If all else fails I can, of course, still try and randomly ask people – if the question concerns the area shop keepers are a good first guess.

Still, not having information can lead to stressy times, so I have to make sure to have all the information I know I will be needing on me, either on paper or on my camera card.

I’m sure I forgot some mistakes, but since they will happen again I’ll just extend this account when that happens. You might not be as scatterbrained as me, but hopefully you can get something out of these tips. And what are your mistakes that you’re prone to repeat?

Nowadays that everything is discovered and connected, we don’t even need to leave our houses to see the world. TV, internet, books.. they all show photos of every conceivable place, in the first two cases sometimes including sounds. We can join other people’s discoveries from our couches.

If we intend to step out of the door ourselves, however,  it quickly becomes a  mission to visit all the things we have seen on TV and, in a way, know already -  a complementary experience of “the real thing”.

However, in my eyes this lessens the spirit of discovery and adventure of travel. Having too much specific visual information about any given place before actually going makes travelling a litte less exciting and memorable. Of course, it’s still the real thing as opposed to a photo, but still, you’ve seen it before. The best experiences and discoveries on my travels, however, were the unexpected ones, the places I had no idea existed – therefore, before leaving, I will not look at more than the inevitable amount of pictures.

So, how to find out where to go, you ask?
One of the best ways to gather information about those travel-worthy locations is to talk to other travellers, find out what places they liked and why, and consider whether you’d like them too (!) and then eventually go there. You will get a lot of other tips too, and you might be pointed into directions you hadn’t considered before.
This way you will get a good level of information: You will know where to head for an interesting time, you will know how to get there and what to do there, but the images in your head won’t be the same.

Thus, even if all places of the earth are explored already, it won’t matter, because it is the first time you discovered them. There won’t be any medals and (official) naming of places, of course, but how important is that?
If you had no idea what the Taj Mahal looked like and went there on recommendation – what a revelation! Of course sights of this size are hard to miss, but some slightly smaller ones are not quite so well-known. And creating your own photos without all the perfect guidebook pictures in mind can be refreshing too.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you prefer to scout places via photos beforehand or not?

PS: Of course seeing the one or other picture won’t fully spoil the experience. I’m talking about big photo books and documentaries and some travel guide books here.

Travelling, you meet even more people in their traditional clothes, and not just for special occasions. And most of the time, it looks fantastic! Dark skin goes extremely well with bright colours, lighter brown with the intricate design of saris – the whole thing simply fits together very nicely.
If a white, western person wears these styles, however, it usually looks quite odd, like they dressed up. The most natural thing sighted so far are the Scottish and their way of wearing kilts.

Yet, the other way around has become a natural thing. Western attire is worn by people around the globe; jeans, skirts and t-shirts have become universal. About the only thing that may elicit a chuckle are things like the habit of some arabs to mix their white long tunics with shirts, ties and suit jackets.

I guess this fact is due to the massive export of western culture since colonisation times, by force, movies and business. There are two sides to this: Of course there always is a sort of sadness in seeing another culture soak in or even take over. But if handled properly, it may also enrich and diversify the first culture.
To the people of the exported culture, this does not happen. Unless conventions like way of clothing have not at least partially been assimilated, any member of society following them will stand out. In this case, they might be seen as romantic fanatics, trying to be someone they’re not, and thus be ridiculed and not taken serious.

This I see as a loss for the exporting culture – Western culture in this case. Being an obvious member of it inhibits you from taking over most of other cultures’ traits, while the other way around there are more elements of choice – though, of course, there still is the danger of the new culture taking over completely.

(Yes, I just want to be able to wear a sari or kimono on the streets without funny looks.. :P)

It also  is one of the few German places with decent hostels I found so far. Maybe I’m just totally spoiled by New Zealand’s hostels..

This is the place where the Palast der Republik (Palace of the Republic) stood. This was an important political and cultural building back from the German Democratic Republic. It had to be taken down because it was build with asbestos (and it was quite ugly). I have some old pictures somewhere, just have to digg them up..

And this is the same place from another angle. I love the grassy heart and wonder how this has been accomplished. More street art – or city art, rather, I guess..

The Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor). “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Yes, this gate. :)

And now have some Berlin street art. I just wish everyone would put some work into their graffitis and not just scribble some letters..