Most Liked Travel Blogs (264)

"One of the Caribbean’s best-kept secrets. Off the coast of Venezuela the small group of islands offers one of the clearest waters you’ve ever seen."

This is my country... My home... My love... I love you, Venezuela!... With every single bit of my heart...

Pet Peeves? I've got a few (dozen) and I'm sure you do too...
Top of my list this month relates to driving and aggressive drivers because the world doesn't have enough.

There was a time when we only had red and green lights. I was probably a kid when they added a yellow light to let drivers know the red light was only a few seconds away. The timing on the yellow varies depending on the length of the intersection and it allows drivers ample time to get through safely before the light turns red.

What's worse is the multi-lane left turn where they have an arrow (or arrows) and typically when the lights turn red, on coming traffic has the go-ahead. That doesn't stop 5 or 6 cars from pushing through their left turn on a red light, forcing oncoming traffic to wait.

Please, Department of Transportation, deputize me and set me up at a busy corner with full ticket recording video machines (and a full length bullet proof body suit) to catch offenders at an average of 5 for every 4 minutes it takes for the lights to cycle.

I'll work for commission. Tickets for running a red light are $75 and and 10% seems fair. That calculates to 48 tickets per hour or $360 per hour. I'll show up on rush hour morning and night 5 days a week. That's enough to quit my day job!

I haven't seen a driver's handbook in a few years, but a car approaching an intersection to make a left turn, is to remain stopped until they can safely complete the turn. You can be ticketed for crawling out and stopping diagonally along the median waiting for the other side to clear. While everyone does this, they've been doing it for years as though it's correct. The same thing goes for a right turn on red. They leave out a small detail of AFTER FULL STOP.

U-Turn yield to right turn. I was making a right (with a right turn arrow) and had to brake or a driver making a U-Turn would have hit me. Yeah... the sign (he ignored) was clearly there.
That's probably the same skill-set for the people who make U-Turns on a red light.

The most irritating and dangerous is 'charging the intersection' aka anticipation turns. Back to the 6 lane road with turn lanes and wide median. You're driving along in the outside lane, no one behind you. A driver from oncoming traffic wants to make a U-Turn (or left turn) and starts his turn BEFORE you reach his car. That means he's already 110 degrees into a 180 turn. If someone in front of you shows down and you hit the brakes, the driver making the synchronized U-Turn has a good chance of hitting your rear side.
I was in the middle lane when someone made a wide right turn into my lane at the same time another car was charging the intersection. Anticipation of a disaster, I leaned on the horn and both drivers realizing their stupidity, cut back avoiding a 3-car collision.

That should qualify my pet peeves for the month of December. Stay tuned there could be a cameo later in the month.

It's that time again - where a random Dane tells you all about his plans for his upcoming USA trip. This episode is all about being online in the US.

I deleted the previous blog, because I have come across some information that made the blog obsolete! Basically, I was talking about data plans in the USA, and how I had to buy a new sim card once I land in the USA. As it turns out, my phone provider offers something called World, which gives me 80 gigs of data at home, and 25 gigs of data in the USA.

How much is 25 gigs of data, I hear you ask? Well.. It's 277 hours of social media usage, which is what I am going to use it for. I need to update my family and my friends, so 25 gigs of data is plenty. I probably won't have time to watch YouTube videos. But just as a precaution, I have asked my phone provider if I will have the full 105 GB of data, or just the 25 GB.. There's free WiFi everywhere in the US, but I would prefer to not use that. Safety, and everything.. I could get a VPN, though..

In any case, me switching to World will solve the biggest hurdle. That also means, that all my research into sim cards in the USA has been for nothing.. Well.. If I one day decide to take a longer holiday there, then it might be the best option, but for one week? Yeah, my World subscription is enough.

The next step is to buy some small kitchen gadgets, note the price on them and then pack! 17 days until I start that process..

I have forgotten how to pack a suitcase properly.. Send help..

Edit: My phone provider confirmed that the 25 gigs is what I have available, and not the full 105 gigs. Still, 25 gigs is enough, for sure

Here we go again - another installment of your favourite blog ever: Planning the trip to the United States of America.

In this blog: Papers. Specifically which papers I have to have in order.

In these troubled times, we all need to be a bit more safe and secure, which I have no problem with. I need two pieces of paper for my USA trip.

Document one is the following: Proof of Covid-19 vaccination for non-citizen non-immigrants passenger disclosure and attestation to the United States of America. What this essentially is, is a document where I say if I am vaccinated against Covid-19, if I am exempt from vaccination or if I refuse to be vaccinated.

The second document I need, is my vaccination disclosure form, where it says how many shots I have been given, and when I was given them. I am fully vaccinated and boosted, so that's not going to be an issue once I get to the gate in Copenhagen. I need to present these documents there, before I check in.

For that, I need a printer. It just so happened, that there's a few at work, so during today's VERY quiet afternoon, I printed everything out, and signed what I needed to sign.

Now I need something to carry the documents in. I don't want to fold them or bend them out of shape, since it doesn't look professional. I want my trip to go as smooth as possible, which means I needed something, like a pocket folder. Luckily, one of the supermarkets here had that in stock.

So now, everything is set. My next order of business for my USA trip, is to pack my suitcase and head to the airport. My plan is to pack in 25 days, on the 30th. That gives me a few days to go through everything and make sure I have what I need when I travel. It's been such a long time since I have flown, that I have forgotten what to bring.

Passport, money and travel documents, as well as the ticket. I can check in 48 hours before my flight, but I think I'm just gonna wait until I get to the airport. I am that kind of traveler who arrives HOURS before my flight. In this case, I am making it so I am at the airport at half past midnight - plenty of time to settle down and calm my nerves. I always do that. Head to the airport in the middle of the night, just so I don't have to stress. It's much nicer to just arrive a few hours before the flight.

Given that my first flight is at 6:35 am, I have to be there at 4:30 am anyway, so it makes even more sense that I arrive that early.

It's all getting very real, very fast. I am very excited!

It's yet again time for your favourite blog - reading about a random Dane planning a trip to the United States of America. This episode is all about what happens the first few hours after I land in Washington DC.

The original plan was to be picked up by my friend, but work has gotten in the way of that, so I have been to Google Maps to see, how I can get to her place by myself, without having to deal with cabs. I found the PERFECT route, and since I am from a country where public transportation and metro is a huge thing, I will find it incredibly easy!

The route I have found takes me from Dulles to East Falls Church and then the bus further on to my destination. And yes, before you ask: I WILL be that annoying tourist with a itinerary on a piece of paper, with a confused look on my face.

So my day of traveling looks like this: Airport at 1 am at the latest. Flight to Frankfurt, Germany at 6:35 am. Layover for about 2 and a half hours. Boarding my flight to Washington at 10 am, flight departs at 10:30 am. 9 hours later: Touchdown in the USA! My first test awaits me: Clearing US customs.

From what I can gather online, and through friends and family, they ask a few questions: Where I am flying in from, what I do for a living and the famous "business or pleasure?". Note to self: Don't say Copenhagen when asked where I am flying in from. Frankfurt, is the correct answer.

Once I clear customs, I have to find my suitcase and then I am ready to start my holiday! I still need to figure out where the Silver metro train is located, but according to Google Maps, it's a short, 11 minute walk away. Next, I need to get one of those SmarTrip cards. I saw a video on YouTube where it clearly tells me where I can buy such a card. I just don't know how much to put on, since I have no idea how much I need. I might just put $20 on it, just to be safe. I don't want to run out of money.

So to sum up: I am in the air for a combined 10.5 hours, if everything is on time. The journey from the airport to where I am staying is another 1.5 hours, so that's 12 hours. Finally, there's the customs line, which can take about an hour. We're now up to 13 hours. Then I have to include the wait time at both Copenhagen and Frankfurt airports. 1 am to 6:35 am is 5 hours and 35 minutes, and the wait time in Frankfurt is 2 hours and 35 minutes, for a combined wait time of 8 hours and 10 minutes.

Add that to my flight and wait time at Dulles, and we're up to 20 hours and 10 minutes - almost a full DAY of traveling. When I arrive at my destination, I am SO going to sit down and relax!

"The Catatumbo Lightning in Venezuela has captured me from the first moment I set foot in Ologa, the fishing village in the heart of Lake Maracaibo. What locals call the "Relampago de Catatumbo" is also known as the everlasting storm, raging on in up to 300 nights every year with intensities reaching multiple flashes every second at a time.
Just 15 kilometers NW of the camp lies the one point on earth with the most lightning strikes, here up to 250/km2 are registered every year.

The Catatumbo Lighting is not just a Guinness World Record holder but also has been immortalized in the flag of Zulia, where people proudly call it the "Maracaibo Lighthouse" after saving Maracaibo on multiple occasions from nighttime ambushes of foreign naval fleets. But Catatumbo is much more than just lightning, it's an overall crazy place filled with amazing people, incredible wildlife, beautiful flora and unbelievable light scenes on an almost daily base. All these things coming together have made me fall in love with this place and after visiting 3 times I feel a deep connection to the Maracaibo Lake - It has become my second home. A ferocious and unforgiving home but the best home I could possibly imagine. This film shows the highlights of those three trips, all in a very cinematic fashion. Some of the lightning videos are indeed the real time, but many others are slightly shortened in order to look the most impressive, but everything you see in here did actually happen and wasn't altered using any After Effects etc."

This is Venezuela... Zulia... Maracaibo... My country... My home... My love...
It's impossible not to fall in love with this blessed land... How can I pretend not to be as proud as I am, of being a daughter of the most breathtaking and incredible place on earth, so full of natural miracles and wonders it's even hard to count them all... Enjoy!...

"La Tortuga Island (in Spanish: Isla La Tortuga; "La Tortuga" means "the turtle") is an uninhabited island of Venezuela, the largest in the Federal Dependencies of Venezuela. It is part of a group of islands that include the Tortuguillos and Cayo Herradura. Isla La Tortuga has an area of 156 km2 (60 sq mi)."

Venezuela... My country... My home... My love...

Venezuela is definitely a land of contrasts... A land blessed in every way...

"Médanos de Coro" in the state of Falcón... Our own mini "Sahara"...

....both of us staying mostly in hostels, backpacks on, using public transport, (including the Wuhan-Shanghai cruise, before closing of the gorgeous gorges), but of course never on China Air.
Wonderful people, scenery and food. Beijing-Moscow train trip of a life time.
But watching things change there, we have been loosing interest in going again. Once, high in the bucket list, perhaps to teach, as a certified teacher, and NOT of English, as so many unqualified ones do. And by immersion, to learn Mandarin, ideograms and all, along with some study of ancient acupuncture texts.
B U T---
Oz FT and ABC ( the later once great, now dreadfully lib PC), pair of reporters finally allowed to leave for home, after a little time under interrogation in lock up. Expats always say these stints with police were a delight. Valid charges---not so much.
All have seen my blogs and posts here, and elsewhere, simply stating the truth, good and not so much, about the downsides, VERY downside, of the wannabee Communist one party, workers' paradise state. As here right now.
Perhaps someday again, but not with current rule.
Great material and military progress in the PRC, over the decades, even with the many murderous, heavy handed, government blunders. But it'll take time for things to change, and then only after the cure of the great fear, VERY great, of the peoples' thinking, via higher ups in the Party.
Hope is often eternal. Great people can do it, if properly ruled. Hopefully with minimal violence.
King George learned the hard way.

I checked online weather at the local TV station and their top story was the demand for COVID testing exceeds the supply for tests.

There is a testing site less than a mile from me at a county park. I've noticed all week a single file line backed up about 2-1/2 miles. That's got to be a wait of 4 or 5 hours to get to the front. Many of the county sites have run out of test kits and forced to turn (angry) people away.

After that news clip played, they switched to a story about distress on the open seas as several cruise ships have reported multiple cases of COVID and being denied access to ports they were scheduled to visit.

Obviously, people are thinking the pandemic is nearly over and it's okay to return to a normal life.