Beijing - Ulaanbataar - Beijing - Sydney -> Why?

My flatmate Noreen decided to take two months out for traveling. Two places she wanted to go to were Mongolia and Australia, partly to have a holiday but also to follow her routes of being a Hazara. The Hazaras are a minority Muslim community that inhabitate Central Afghanistan, however are said to be of Mongolian descent.

Noreen, Carmel and I always wanted to make a documentary about the Hazaras. They are widely unknown, yet there are so many of them spread all around the world. Apart from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq one of the largest communities is in Australia. And as our ex-flatmate Carmel lives and works in Sydney now, plus Noreen having family over there it only lend itself to visit. I spontaneously decided to join Noreen on her trip for 3 weeks... to do some filming, and I always wanted to go to Mongolia... and I couldn't say 'no' to seeing Carmel again after not seeing her for 1 1/2 years! So I was very excited!

Mongolia March 2008 - Yay! :)

You can only get to Mongolia via Beijing, so I also decided to check out Beijing a little. I flew into Beijing and stayed until the following evening the first time round. Then I flew to Ulaanbataar, capital of Mongolia, to meet Noreen who had been out there already for 2 weeks. On our way back we took the Trans Mongolian Railway, a 30 hours trip back to Beijing...

The TransMongolian train - my best train ride ever.

Ah Beijing! This is at the summer palace.

We spent another 4 days in Beijing and then flew to Sydney, my final leg and Noreen's start of a 4 week stay, before visiting Tokyo. I stayed for a week. And saw Carmel again!!! Yay!

My postcard picture of Sydney.

The rest of 2007... 3

In October I had to go to Amsterdam to present a project from my workplace SMARTlab. I'd never done that before, so I took extra care of preparing, making a nice and neat power point presentation. I had to talk for half an hour and thought that was really long - in the end I totally overrun, and had no idea whether I had been talking any sense. Plus we had to sit in a panel and answer questions about technology in the new digital age! Well I survived and could enjoy the rest of the weekend.

I'd decided to stay as there was also a Capoeira meeting going on, and my teacher Simon happened to be invited. I don't think I would have gone otherwise...

But it was good to see Amsterdam again, and to chill out there. Again it was too short of a stay.

The rest of 2007... 2

My trip to Niesky, my hometown in Germany, was for one week in the beginning of August 2007. I'll mainly explain it with the pictures I took... once I am able to upload them.

I went a bit earlier than Taey as I wanted to be there for Anja's birthday party. Anja & Georg happened to be in Germany at that time. Or lets say I partly planned my trip so that I could see them, as they are not very often in Europe. We had a fantastic picnic in the Zoo in Goerlitz. And I couldn't wait to see my friend Olivia and her new flat in Goerlitz, so after the picnic I went to visit her.

After Taey arrived my parents and I mainly showed her the area but we also did a trip to Dresden. On that day happened to be some sort of a summer festival so the town was packed. But it was good to see Dresden so lively, and we also had a peek at the Open Air Cinema which was just along the River Elbe - very nice. When we decided to go we were sent off by fireworks...

The rest of 2007... 1

Now, it being a year later :/, I want to sum up the rest of my travels in 2007. Two more trips are most memorable - going to the States in July and my trip home to my parents, Taey joining me, for a week in August. Other than that I think I just had to go several times to Ireland. Oh and I went to Amsterdam to present one of SMARTlab's projects!

But this post I shall dedicate to my States trip.

Reason for going there was for work actually - surprise, surprise! I got invited to collaborate with Kate Brehm, a puppeteer from NYC, on one of her puppet shows. This one being called 'My Name is Hal' (http://imnotlost.net/HAL/). After preparations in London we went to the annual Puppeteer Festival of America, this year being held in Minneapolis and staged one version of the show.

Once the show was done I rented a car and drove down to Iowa City to see Anja & Georg. I wanted to go along the Mississippi, and had especially put some right old good country songs on my iPod to get the whole of the feeling. Loved the whole journey, traveling along the river, taking my time. The drive was a bit longer than going straight to Iowa but altogether only 6 hours.

It was very hot in Iowa City, so I spent most of the time chilling out, going swimming with Anja and reading in their back garden. One day we went kayaking, something I've always had wanted to do. They dropped us off somewhere along the Iowa River and we kayaked until we got onto the Mississippi. I was so happy that I actually got the chance to kayak ON the Mississippi as well - how cool! :)
It was a little sad that the Iowa River was so dead. There were actually a lot of dead fish and I've never seen/experienced so quiet waters as there was literally no life in it.
Oh and of course we had a BBQ at Anja's house as well... So I got to know a few of Anja's friends which was great. Oh and I got to see Anja's University as well, where she is still slaving away trying to finish her Phd! We also went on a bike ride, so altogether those 5 days I spent there were quite sporty! But a good preparation for more competitions back in the UK!

I drove back to Minneapolis by the fastest route, so that took about 5 hours. When I got into Minneapolis buckets of rain came down the sky, so bad that I couldn't see the road anymore. I don't think I've ever driven in such conditions. Luckily it didn't go on for that long. And as soon as I got back to London the bridge I had just driven over collapsed - you might remember from the news... So that was a bit freaky.

Great trip though - just too short!