Picture time!

Alright then, picture time! I selected a few pictures that I thought give an image of what I have been up to so far. And ofcourse there was london first...








No need to explain all the sightings probably. I've seen most of them, the big ben, buckingham palace, the tower bridge, the london eye and so on.

With the following Macao pictures I sort of want to show the big contrast that the city has. There are the skyscrapers, the casinos and the occasional park. Well, I think pictures tell more than words...



















The last picture is from the view from my balcony. The part where I live is really the bussiest part of Macao, with lots of narrow streets and a lot of traffic. Although most buildings could use a paint job, I still think it has its charm. Macao might feel very western, It's still has an eastern twist to it that makes me like this place!

Finally in Macao!

Like the title might suggest, I finally arrived in Macao! As I am typing this, it is my fourth day in this city now. Jamie and I set of for London on Tuesday from Dusselsorf. Arriving at dusseldorf I received a phone call from Jamie, telling me that we are at the wrong airport! I couldn't believe it, the right airport was still an hour away and wasn't even close to Dusseldorf! Germans...
We finally arrived on the right airport, still in time to catch the plane, and set of to London.

LONDON BABY!
London is such a cool place. Wherever you go you will find something that catches your eye. We met up with Pete, a guy I worked with on Sardinia and he showed us around. After getting the hang of the tube system (took us a bit) we saw most of the famous places on the first day, such as the big ben, westminster abby, the london eye and so on. After having some problem in the hostel in the evening, we used the second day to see the last bits we missed out on on the first day and prepared to go to China! We were flying from London Gatwick to Hong Kong international airport with OasisHongKong. After a long flight (11+ hours!) we finally landed int he far east, the first time ever! And just to sum it up; London is highly recommendable!

CHINA!
We arrived in Hong Kong at about 7:30 Holland time, which was 15:30 local time. I didn't have a real jet lag or anything, I had a hard time sleeping on the plane. Everything went really easy when we got of the plane. We picked up the tickets for the ferry at the stand of the company and they claimed our luggage for us. We took the ferry to Macao at 18:00 and arrived around 18:45. We went through customs and took a cab to the university. This also presented to first communication conflict. I found out that there are only three words the average chinese speaks in English which are ' thank you' and ' bye bye'. It is quite hard explaining where you have to be while making combinations with those three words...
Eventually we arrived at the school at about 20:00. Two students met us there to show us our new homes for the next 5.5 months. We live in a tall building, a five minute walk from the university. I can tell that this is a relief after my great experiences with the Dutch railroad company.
The appartment has all the things I need; a kitchen, living room, bathroom, balcony, television, wireless internet and a washing machine, and only 90 euros a month! Nothing can beat that in the Netherlands that's for sure.
Life is really cheap over here. I met some more exchange students over the past days, and their main advice is not to do any kooking and just eat at one of the many restaurants Macao has. Today dinner cost me 30 dollars, which is about 3 euros. And it was a complete dinner, unbelievable...
The last three days I saw a lot of macao. The city is quite compact with a lot of skyscrapers. One could walk from one side to the other in approximately an hour or a bit more. On this small piece of land live 440.000 people, which causes the streets to be packed during the day and still be busy during the night. My first impression is that Macao is a very diverse city. There is a lot of glamour going on in the Sands casino (it's so huge) and there is not so much glamour going on in the little streets and ally's surrounding our living environment. It's not really poverty that you see, it's just really busy and a bit dirty at places. The first time I really realised I was in Asia was when I visited the market for the first time. It's hilarious to see how much goods can be displayed on the streets. In most cases it's hard to find the salesmen behind everything. Crossing a street is also an adventure on its own. First of all there is the driving on the wrong side of the road thingy, which is sometimes a bit complicated, and then there is the thing with the cars and scooters that will not stop for anyone. Passing the streets means you just have to pick a point to basically throw yourself for a car that isn't driving to hard. It will make him slow down in most cases...
I still have to say that Macao has a more relaxed feel to it than the Netherlands. Sure, the streets are busy but the people are more relaxed and take it easier than where I come from. It's more south-European. I didn't expect that but I'm pleasantly surprised.
The school I will have to go to (first day tomorrow), is located on a hill in a park. Going to that place is being in a completely different place. It's really peacefull and clean, which is quite pleasant coming from the busy city streets. I'm now looking forward of going to school and meeting some new people.

Yesterday I went out with a group of exchange students and some friends of them. I can say that going out here is great fun, and really expensive. The stangest thing is that nobody is drinking in the bars or clubs, a lot of people drink a lot on forehand to avoid the high prices that are charged for a simple drink. Maybe an idea...
We arrived back at the appartment at about seven in the morning. I slept until half past four. It is now 0:43 local time which means 17:43 back in europe. It's really something different being almost on the other side of the world.

pictures will come as soon as possible! Here is a first impression...

January update

Well I came back from my holiday in Bosnia last Sunday. The holiday was great in spite of a few setbacks. The biggest one was the lack of snow upon arrival. This could easily be the worst winter ever when it comes to the amount of snow in the ski centres. however, not counting the snow issues, the holiday was great. We met some old friends of my dad and my aunt and uncle from Croatia were there as well. In the end it turned out we were lucky, it started snowing! I had two days of snowboarding left, which at the moment was enough for me...

When people think of Bosnia, most will think about the war and the landmines. This is ofcourse a very logical reaction. However here are some pictures that might help in getting a better image on the country.

Not too bad is it? I can say that the mountain areas of the country are really stunning, and is definately an area I would recommend everyone to visit.

This is the holiday house of Pero, my dad's cousin.

And to end the story for today a picture of me and sister, taken on the top of the mountain when the tracks were finally opened for snowboarding and skiing.

Next: The big trip to China (9 days left, and counting). It's coming really close now and I'm really looking forward to it. The next post will probably be from Macau. I hope I can find a decent place to post and upload pictures so I can give an impression of my new living situation.