Saturday morning early we started out in Prague. 5 people in a car and 4 on the train. The destination was the city of Dresden in Germany.

With Christmas fast approaching a trip was organized (Thanks to Sarah and Michael etc.) to check out the city and its legendary Christmas Market. The Christmas market in Dresden has existed since 1434 so its one of the oldest around. On every corner throughout the city booths offers Christmas decorations and other knick knack but more importantly glühwein and all sorts of delicious foods.

After the Christmas market we continued on through the city. First through the Altstadt which is dominated by the newly restored Frauenkirche. The church was bombed during World War II and wasnt resurrected until 2005.Very beautiful both inside and out.

Later in the day we went to Neustadt on the other side of the River Elbe where a whole different revitalization is taking place. What used to be a run down area is now a busteling neighbourhood with loads of kneipen (pubs), cafes and cozy shops. A really cool place with a nice atmosphere, interesting people and buildings and businesses. Here is a picture from the Kunsthof Passage which is 5 backyards connected filled with shops and creative architecture. Have a look at these pictures to see what Im talking about. Here we are at a glühwein booth at one of the backyards under the stars and red laterns:

Neustadt was also where our hostel was so we checked out the shopping, dinning and a drinking here before calling it a day. We had a really nice dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. Here is the whole table (sans me).

The next day we walked some more in the town, did some Christmas shopping, saw the church from inside and headed back to Prague.

Thanks guys for a nice weekend!

I recently got contacted by a publishing company because they wanted to use one of my pictures for a book. They said it is going to be used in a re-edited version of Roadside Americana.

Roadside Americana is a beautiful 130-page, color, hardback coffee table book that features dozens of quirky and offbeat places and events in the United States and Canada. This book inspires curiosity and a taste for adventure! Our travel books in general are big, coffee table titles that display beautiful imagery and lively write-ups.

Pretty cool if they end up using my picture

The picture above is from a road trip I took in the fall of 2005. I rented a car and in four days drove the 2000km around Lake Michigan. The trip brought me through some of the more remote areas of Michigan and Wisconsin and in the middle of nowhere I saw this huge chainsaw. It turns out that it is (supposedly) the biggest running chainsaw in the world – 7 meters long and with a V8 engine inside.

I made the trip alone and it was fun doing a real road trip in a brand new car. It was a great escape from daily life in Ann Arbor were I lived in a house with 20 people with constant partying. So four days of solitude on the road was welcomed. Here is a couple of the other pictures from that trip:

Music is Virus by Mikael Simpson.

See the video at blip.tv.

Update the video is here:

I never realized how privileged I am being pale and having a Danish passport. Going in and out of countries have never taken me a long time. This time was quite different however. Apparently there was a stamp in Mehmets passport that wasnt right so it took almost 2 hours before they finally let us through. That set us back quite a lot in time and it took us until Friday afternoon before we reached Breda, Netherlands were we met up with Aytek another of Mehmets friends.

All three Turkish guys works for ExxonMobil so in we got the tour when we went to pick up Aytek. Here are Murat, Aytek, [Aytek's coworker], Mehmet and [another coworker].

Friday night we spend in the old and beautiful city of Bruges, Belgium. Here are the guys in front of the Belfry Tower from 1280.

Femi and I crashed at a hostel in town while the other guys went on to met another friend. Saturday the next stop was Antwerp were we stayed for the afternoon walking the city and getting some true Belgium fries.

And then it was on to Amsterdam with the Red Light District, coffee shops and canals everywhere. We all had a blast and ended the night at the night club Escape which must be one of the biggest in Amsterdam.

We ended up with two 50 euros parking fines and since we couldnt find a hotel or hostel we slept in the cars. Everyone was tired so it wasnt as bad as expected and Sunday morning we went for a short walk around Amsterdam before driving the 10 hours back to Prague.

Another awesome weekend is over so fast!

[ Update 13/9] Murat just uploaded his pictures and there are gems like this two:

Last weekend I joined the local chapter of IAESTE on a trip to Southern Bohemia. We were 50 people from about 20 different countries so there were a lot of different talks and a good atmosphere.

Friday we drove to a camp site on the Vltava River were we camped for the night while making Czech sausages and drinking pivo around the camp fire.

Next morning we got up and got suited for a canoe ride seven kilometers down the river.

It was a warm day with temperatures up to about 35 degrees so it was great day for cruising on the river. I think Dennis and I capsized 4 or 5 3 times during the sailing because we had to get through a couple of falls which we werent very good at.

I ended up getting my camera wet so no more pictures from me that day. Instead Im borrowing some from Dennis who was a bit more thoughtful with his camera.

We sailed until we reached Cesky Krumlov which is a really magical town with a huge castle overlooking the town. The centre of the town itself is also very beautiful. The city center is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Here is one of Dennis pictures overlooking the town from the castle.

Sunday we went to see the real Budweiser brewery in esk

I participated last year and will try to see if I can produce another 7 videos this week. Some of the videos will probably be old material but I promise that it will be material that I havent published before so hang in there this week and enjoy

The first video is from the start of a roadtrip I did with my parents a year ago. The trip went from Wisconsin through Michigan to Niagara Falls. My plan was to making a movie about the whole trip but I ended up just taking photos instead. But here is the first (and only) episode of our travelougue.

My blog posts about the trip are here (all in Danish):

• Det gode skib Freedom
• Livet på landevejen
• Michigan og Canada

Technorati Tag: videobloggingweek2007, vlogging,videodk

Med køreledninger der falder ned, gamle skinner og cola-dåser er det langtfra altid at en tur med DSB er så glidende, som man burde kunne forvente, så hvorfor ikke blaffe?

Der er ikke så mange der blaffer i Danmark, selvom det er en billig og nem måde at rejse på. Jeg tror en af grundene er en (ubegrundet?) frygt for at det skulle være farligt, men de blaffere jeg har talt med har ikke haft ubehagelige oplevelser. På Hospitality Club diskutere et par af de erfarne oplevelser og holdninger til faren. En anden grund kunne måske være at man ikke har lyst til at tale med ukendte mennesker. I USA er smalltalk i bussen, supermarkedet og ved fodgængerovergangen meget almindelig, men det er ret sjældent det sker i Danmark.
I USA er hitchhiking stort set ikke eksisterende i dag, hvorimod det i 60erne var ganske udbredt.

Jeg har selv blaffet i Danmark omkring et dusin gange og har kun haft positive oplevelser med det.

Det eneste problem har været at man ikke kan vide på forhånd hvor lang tid det tager at komme fra A til B. Som hovedregl er jeg dog kommet frem til min destination omtrend samtidig (+/-1 time), som hvis jeg havde taget DSB. Min sidste tur fra København til Aalborg tog 5:30 time, DSB tager 4:20-5:00.

Positive ting ved at blaffe er prisen, jeg har endnu ikke betalt en øre for at rejse. Derudover møde man næsten altid nogle spændende mennesker (og et par kedelige).

Jeg blev i går spurgt efter nogle råd til hvad man skal tænke på når man blaffer, så her min tjekliste:

• Hav noget lyst tøj på og se ordentlig ud (hvis det kan lade sig gøre)
• Brug ikke hat eller solbriller
• Smil og skab øjenkontakt med dem der passerer
• Lav et skilt med din destination eller et delmål (KBH, Aalborg, Jylland, Kolding)
• Få fat på et gratis kort over danske motorveje Kan downloades her eller findes ved alle rastepladser.
• Sørg altid for at komme af ved en tankstation så længe du kører på motorvejen. (Det er så meget hurtigere)
• Ved tankstationer gå rundt til biler og spørg om du kan få et lift
• Hav tålmodighed

Hvis man gerne vil vide mere om at blaffe, har følgende ressourcer været til stor gavn for mig:

• Highway.dks afsnit om blafning. Siden virker ikke for godt, men Google kan hjælpe.
• Digihitch. Et stort engelsk site hvor mange af de hardcore hikers skriver.
• Yahoo Hitching group. Her kan man følge hvad der sker omkring blafferlivet og der er også en del diskussioner om fare og hvordan man promovere blafning.
• Wikipedias indlæg om hitchhiking. En god kort introduktion.
• Min favorit blafferlitteratur
  

Hvis man ikke har lyst til at blaffe er der også to danske sider der formidler samkørsel, hvor man kan få et lift og deles om udgiften; Pendler.net og GoMore.dk.

Efter at have kørt med Ramashis bil i fire dage var vores færd sammen (og mit hjem i hans bil) ved at være ved en ende. Det gik for alvor op for mig, da vi sent torsdag kørte ned fra et af bjergene, der tegner sig på østsiden af San Francisco. Fra at have kørt i relativ mørke åbnede der sig et lyshav foran os og vi kan se ud over meget af det, der kaldes Bay Area.

Jeg har ikke brugt lang tid på at forberede min rejse til vestkysten, så der er en anseelig grad af improvisation undervejs.
Jeg havde et par venners venner jeg kunne bo ved, men jeg havde ikke fået svar fra dem endnu, da vi nåede St. Louis, så i stedet startede jeg med at kontakte kollektiver. Vores hus er en del af den nationale organisation NASCO, og derfor prøvede jeg at kontakte andre kollektiver fra samme organisation, for at se om de kunne huse mig. Imens vi var på landevejen, ringede jeg til en række forskellige kollektiver, og endelig lykkedes det mig at finde et sted i Berkeley.

Så vi var på motorvejen på vej mod lysbadet af San Francisco og jeg havde skriblet nogle vejvisninger til et sted, hvor jeg tror jeg kan sove og så er det tankerne kommer Hvad laver jeg her? Hvad er det jeg har gang i?

Motorvejene i Californien er hurtige, så jeg nåede ikke at tænke så meget før min afkørsel kom. Huset jeg skulle overnatte i hed Oscar Wilde House og da jeg kom, var de godt i gang med en open-mic/karaoke aften, hvor folk optrådte med forskellige ting. Folk tog godt imod mig selv om jeg ikke kendte nogen af dem og jeg kunne sove på en madras i deres tv-rum.

Dagen efter gik jeg en tur rundt i Berkeley og på University of California campus, som ligger flot midt i Berkeley bydelen.

Om aftenen tog jeg ind til San Francisco for at se promoveringen af vloggercon i AppleStore, hvor jeg også mødte Andreas fra Aalborg.

Senere samme aften fik jeg kontakt til Lyn, som også boede i San Francisco, og hvor jeg kunne låne et værelse for de næste par dage. Lyn har studeret i Stockholm i et par år, så han kunne snakke svensk og da jeg vågnede lørdag morgen blev jeg mødt af et Dannebrog udenfor mit vindue.

Der bor ca. otte i huset, som er et typisk San Francisco hus fra begyndelsen af forrige århundrede her med Jennifers boble i forgrunden. Så bliver det ikke mere Californian.

(Dette indlæg er en uge gammel. Jeg er tilbage i Ann Arbor, men har først nu haft tid til at opdatere, så der kommer et par opdateringer de næste par dage)

Her er en lille video fra køreturen til vestkysten:

Click here to go to Google Vide to see this clip.

Technorati Tag: videobloggingweek2006.