Content Preview: rss
63 days ago
A few months back, I received an email from some book company in the Bay area, asking for my permission to use a photo I took in Louvre Museum back in 2008. I was told it would be used in an iPhone App. Not having an iPhone, and too cheap to pay for an iPhone App even if I do, I knew I might not be able to see how it would look like. So it was a pleasant surprise to see my picture in some of the screen captures in iTunes App Store, with my name credited at the bottom of the picture. It's nothing to brag about, but I'm quite pleased with it. :) MSN Sync from http://www.lightrelay.com/?p=13164 days ago
Surprisingly quite a few of my friends had been to Barcelona. I don't think it is one of their top European destinations (like Paris or Italy), but it seems to be a good place to start their Mediterranean cruises. And I heard only good things about Barcelona from them, except to watch out for pickpockets (not that any of my friends got picked.) With that in mind, I actually started to worry if I had too high of an expectation for Barcelona. Day Zero - Click from Amsterdam to Barcelona I amazed myself when I look at how I planned my weekend trip to Barcelona (and also Madrid one week before.) I booked the flights a week before I flew from Toronto to Amsterdam, that is less than two weeks before going to Madrid, less than three weeks before going to Barcelona. My flight to Madrid was with KLM, which is quite reliable, but the one to Barcelona was with Clickair, a Spanish low-cost airline I had not heard of until I started shopping for air tickets. But price was quite attractive, ...367 days ago
Having been to Belgium, Berlin, and Paris in winter time, I decided to go somewhere a little warmer. So I set my eyes on Spain, both Madrid and Barcelona. One of the coworkers I went to Berlin with a month before had been to Barcelona. So I thought we go to Madrid this time, and save Barcelona for next time when I know I would be travelling by myself. Day Zero - Flying KLM from Amsterdam to Madrid We had a pretty late flight going from Amsterdam to Madrid; we didn't get to Madrid until 11:30pm. Best thing about late flights is that they are usually cheaper; bad thing is that they are so late that most public transportation out of the airport were unavailable by then. So there weren't many options, either shuttle vans or taxi. If it were up to me, I would take the cheaper option, the shuttle van. But by that time, shuttle vans run only once or twice every hour, and my coworker just wanted to get to the hotel as soon as possible, so we took the taxi instead (which was very ...434 days ago
Early on when I was on assignment in Holland, I remember thinking I wanted to explore places in Europe that is somewhat less popular; I thought the chances of me going to those places on my own are pretty slim. So first place I visited outside of Holland was Brussels and Bruges in Belgium (not exactly unpopular, just relatively so.) And then I joined a couple of people in the Holland office, and went on a road trip to Berlin in Germany (still sort of less popular.) Naturally the next place I visited was Paris... (I know, it's only the most popular destination in the world.) Ok, it's not exactly my idea. It just happened that a colleague of mine, Aaron, was on assignment in Paris for a couple weeks. So I thought it would be great to meet up with him in Paris. Technically speaking, I have been to Paris once before, but I don't think it really counted; it was a day-trip from London a couple years ago, and it's not that I had a bad experience, but I was there for so little time, I ...468 days ago
For my first weekend trip outside of Netherlands, I thought I should go somewhere close, some place where I can take the train to. It turns out the obvious choice is Brussels in Belgium. I like the idea of going there, since it is not anybody's top choice of European destination, but I didn't know much about Brussels. I only know that it is the capital of European Union. Then someone from the office mentioned that Bruges, a city not far from Brussels, is a popular tourist destination as well. So my plan is to stay in Brussels for the weekend, with a day trip to Bruges. Skimming through some of the guidebooks I got from libraries, they seem to suggest spending one day in each city, so I figured I can just follow the books without much planning. Day Zero - Train to Brussel-Noord: Hotel, Grand Place and St Catherine Square Train ride from Amsterdam to Brussels takes about 2 hours, but the fare was a little more than I expected; just a bit cheaper than plane tickets. I caught a ...
