Serra de Estrela or "Shit, it´s so cold here!"

Wow - the second entry: Here you see one of my road adventures and the movie. With Ian's car we went to the Serra de Estrela, mountains north of Lisbon. Surprisingly there was snow and not the expected 15 degrees we had at night in Lisbon. Also some wolfs and one of the impressivst natures in Portugal! You will find pictures in the future at my flickr account on the right bar of this blog. Give me some time...!



Thx to the komuna blog for the realisation of this video...

Morocco Part Uno: The desert (Finally!)

Well...before we start some words to this blog and the last weeks (months)! Yeah when i see the last entry from march, i ask me finding myself in May what happenend? Because Google bought blogger.com and their problems of modulating the blogger.com software to the Google Accounts, it was not possible to upload anything and my blog is a dazzling display of creativity, which means i want to upload pictures. Of course the support staff of Google was so slow cauze many bloggers had these problems! Because of this you lose the good mind of working on a blog...
But now, after weeks (months) i finally can upload pictures and can not wait to tell you about my Africa trip and the great weeks in Portugal/Lisbon.

My first chapter is the desert, our impulse to go to Morocco: One night in this unreal, hostile environment. We wanted to figure out the complete silence, the place on earth were is no live, no light, no sign of human being...and we found.
Well...Of course we did a tourist thing, with a paid guide playing some african drum music, preparing us a fine dinner and telling us things about this place....but we were satisfied, dunes so high that it takes you half an hour to climb them, camels that give you a ride, a sunrise with breathtaking color palette and the damn frostiness in the night!

So here you go: The best pictures of the dunes of Merzouga...More in my flickr pictures on the right side


Only two colors are dominating this environment; Sandy and sky-blue...At night the temperature is around 3/2 degrees, during the day 30/40 depending on the season!




It is so hard to climb these dunes, but it is worthwhile for the view and the fun to jump and trundel down, like i the old days when we were childs...Ahh and if you want to ride one day a camel, buy a good butt protecter. 8km on a camel hurts like hell and you are looking forward to descend from this calm but cruel animal.

Obidos

Yeah, i am a little bit to late with writing this review about the "city" of Obidos; i know too late to but the pictures up, too late to write about Portugal; My audience wants satisfaction.
I can not apologize!
Nevertheless i proudly present the pictures of this day in Obidos. A small mediaevil village, encircled by a walkable city wall from the old times. Ahh yeah...please don´t take notices of the christmas trees.



Inside of the wall you find a small, tiny city with lanes, fruit trees, and the typical spirit of a non Lisbon city in Portugal. There is nothing up! But i can image how great silence can be, if there wouldn't exist tourist like me, who are on a "I have to take a picture rush". What i want to impress, there are a lot of tourists.





I think this picture is in so many photo albums. It is made for that!

Goodbye Braunschweig - Where is the connection?

To bid farewell is one of the things you have to get used to during an Erasmus Year. Yesterday the first member of Erasmus Lisbon 2006/2007 left us alone, in the coldness of this city without heaters. We will miss Aleka, may you have a great time in Kreta (Greece)! More about her farewell here, I could not have said this better myself.
In order to distract us from all the "saudade", Mr. Prestige (Italy) decided to write a song about Braunschweig, his favourite name of a city in Germany. Furthermore he likes German, studied it a wee bit in Italy and wanted to verbalize his feelings. I helped him a little bit and in the following video you will see me on the DJ board, while Roman is doing the Beatmachine. All that spontaniously; only a small Pimp-Up later.

Enjoy "Braunschweig - Ist das Geilste" the homage to this city.

Picture of the Day II

Cause time is running out and plenty of things to do i can only spoil you with this nice view from the tram number 28 in Lisbon. More than 100 years old and still running like hell, it is the tourist attraction number one to have a ride with this "transport" system.

Within a short time: Reviews about Obidos, Fado, Metro,...

My favourite graffiti

 
Picture of the day

Porto

Why not spending one weekend in Porto, clandestine capital of Portugal and beside of Lisbon, with 400.000 people the only large city? Why not doing that with many nice people?
No sooner said than done and faster than David Odonkor the Pensao Estoril was booked for me, Jordi, Roman, Michi, Laura, Susan, Anna, Tobias and Lolo a visitor from Autria. We wanted to pick her up at the airport in Porto.
Lulled in the beauty of Lisbon, we came to a city who seems much more older and completly different. First Porto is so cheap, you pay sometimes half the price in restaurants than in the capital. Second, the houses, the facades are much more colourful, pictorial.

Porto is so different: The dialect, i can not tell you why but i really had less problems than in Lisbon while talking with the habitants of Porto, who are - by the way- absolute friendly, organize maps, explicate things about the city,...
Lisbon and Porto are city enemys, rather the north and the south don't fancy so much, like in Germany or in Italy, where you have a different mentalitly. One guy in front of a café told me:
Porto=Working
Coimbra=Study
Lisbon=Be lazy

The view from the other side of the river. You see the reason why Porto is World Heritage Site. 

Such a nice city and than a comercial for Pearce Brosnan, Mr. Ex-Bond, who envelopes the nice church.

After only two hours of sleep, cause the cracking good club scene of Porto casted a spell over us, but still fit to see the city (Well, the others were still in their beds, protected by the sandman)

A must-have in Porto, the obligatory port wine testing, down in the cellars, where the old wine is. This one is from 1890. They never clean them, because dust is good for the quality.
A great weekend; our group did a lot of party and showed Erasmus Porto who wears the pants; Jordi, Michael, Roman and me were watching Wresting, are now dreaming of the "Baptista Bomb", while Laura, Anna, Susan prefered the model big brother "8 oceans" and Tobi was jumping over walls and walls, without shoes and mobile phones, just for adventure; but this is another story of crazy Portugal
...ahh...and Lolo....yeah where the hell is Lolo? Anybody seen her?

More pictures on my flickr account (right side bar, perhaps Lolo is there?)

Rally Dakar - The Start in Lisbon

I alwalys thought this famous race through Africa starts everytime in the City of Love Paris, but the starting point changes every year. So, it's not Paris - Dakar, it is called Lisbon Dakar 2007. The race starts here, passes the desert and Timbuktu, the legendary city in Mali and ends in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. In between are thousands of kilometers of desert, mud and sand. Only 50% of the participants manage to arrive in Dakar.

I am not the crazy motorsport fan, but when such a huge race starts in your city, well...you should visit the action. Even rising up with the sun was no barrier for me.

There are three categories: Cars, Trucks and Motorbikes. Every vehicle has another concept to win; a big engine, trustiness, acceleration, robustness...


This is a VW from Germany.



The elephants of the Dakar Rally, the Trucks

The start was in Belem, a highlight of Lisbon.

The next episode: Görn meets Jutta Kleinschmidt, the Winner of Paris Dakar 2001. Who will be the next VIP on my camera?



Coming to the end, Multimedia-Jörn presents again some youtube videos from the start.

Görn meets the eagle

The next episode of "Görn meets...". This time: The eagle of Benfica Lissabon, a famous mascot of this long tradition club. Sadly, (s)he didn´t talk.

Christmas in Lisbon

The year is all over - Time to look back, the rearviewmirror of christmas in Lisbon. First there was the official Universidade Nova Christmas Party, with a heartbreaking speech about the "University of freedom". More cognitions: "We are a new university, because we are not so old"... Anyway .. the best part was the buffet and the student band. Unfortunately, my video has no sound but you can see the funny dance performance:



Lisbon is totally soaked in christmas, in the Shopping Centers is the only music about green trees and mens with red hats and white beards ... And it's still going on, Christmas last breath is beyond the 26. of December, the Big Day is the 6. of January. Lisbon's street are full of lights, sponsored by VW and other companys, the biggest not real christmas tree of Europe is here as well (the biggest "real" one is in Dortmund) Some impressions:

Back in Lisbon

 

Back in Lisbon. I had a great time in good old Germany, drinking some excellent beer, eating a lot of delicious food from Mum and meeting wonderful people in the bar of my hometown.
This video is dedicated to the people from Mainz here in Lisbon, a trash Hip-Hop Band and their Video "Directly from Mainz, the number one".

2006 war..

Haare länger oder kürzer?

Da ich mit dem Rucksack unterwegs war einen Hauch kürzer.

Kurzsichtiger oder weitsichtiger?

Mache mir Sorgen um meine Sicht, doch das fortschreitende Alter hat noch keine Wirkung gezeigt. Muss ich jetzt hier klicken??

Mehr ausgegeben oder weniger?

Mehr definitiv. Glaube dass ich das durch WM und Lissabon gut und gerne als Partyjahr abstempeln kann.

Der hirnrissigste Plan?

Spontan mich für Lissabon anzumelden

Die gefährlichste Unternehmung?

Chillen am Sandstrand bei Mainz, während Zeus seine Wut auslässt und der Blitz ca. 20m neben mir einschlägt

Die teuerste Anschaffung?

Laptop

Das leckerste Essen?

Die kompletten Weihnachtstage waren ein Schmaus

Das beeindruckenste Buch?

Nachtzug nach Lissabon

Der ergreifendste Film?

Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen. Ich habe geweint

Die beste CD?

Die neue Strokes Platte war spitze

Das schönste Konzert?

Pearl Jam in Lissabon.

Die meiste Zeit verbracht mit…?

Jonathan und den lieben Österreichern

Die schönste Zeit verbracht mit…?

...allen Menschen die mit mir gelacht haben

Vorherrschendes Gefühl 2006?

eine Sinuskurve

2006 zum ersten Mal getan?

im Dezember am Strand gesessen

2006 nach langer Zeit wieder getan?

mich für Deutschland gefreut

Die wichtigste Sache, von der ich jemanden überzeugen wollte?

Dass man sich einfach mal nen Wolf auch über Kleinigkeiten freuen muss

Das schönste Geschenk, das ich jemandem gemacht habe?

mmh vielleicht einfach mein Besuch in Deutschland

Das schönste Geschenk, das mir jemand gemacht hat?

Lissabon von Mr. Erasmus

Der schönste Satz, den jemand zu mir gesagt hat?

What, you are sitting while you piss? (Andrea aus Italien)

Der schönste Satz, den ich zu jemandem gesagt habe?

Hey, you are the singer from Muse?

2006 war mit 1 Wort…?

Anstrengend. Aber von dem guten Gefühl bestimmt, dass wechselnde Winde auch spannend sind. Irgendwie habe ich es geliebt....also GRANDE

 

Shortest entry for this times

Merry Christmas to all the visitors of my blog.

Last post from Lisbon 2006

Bis gleich
See you later
Ate já

Ihr könnt mich unter meiner alten Handynummer und über E-Mail erreichen. Freue mich...

It is so cold - Está muito frio - Es ist so kalt

I know I know, some days without posting and my fanbase is protesting heavily against this 
week of laziness. Nevertheless, i had good causes for staying in bed.

1. I was ill, so I needed something warm....
2. ...well, warm. I think there is no word for warm anymore in my word pool. While writing this lines for you, I can not feel my fingers, my knees are trembling with coldness, but I will finish it...

The average temperature in my room is about 13/14 degrees, I have a small hole in my window. More facts: I can sit outside in the sun wearing a t-shirt, i don´t need winter jackets, it is 10 C° at night, but Portugal wants heaters. It is so damn cold in here...

That is my normal position in front of the computer, freezing like Ötzi:

But somebody in "Worten", a specialty market for electric appliances, had pity with me and present me my heater, called "Heatflow II". Now it is beach party time in my room...

I hope the portuguese post office will never send the electricity bill.

Einfach nur Évora

Évora, UNESCO Weltkulturerbe und von daher doch ein Muss, habe ich doch den Plan aufgestellt alle Erben zu besuchen. Die Stadt mit 50000 Einwohnern für Portugal recht groß, man bedenke Porto und Lissabon sind die einzigen Großstädte, besteht aus einem historischen Stadtkern, römischen Ursprüngen, verschiedenen Kirchen und man kann laut Reiseführer "die blaue Blüte des Alentejo Tales mit ihren himmlischen Farben und ihrer treuen Güte entdecken".



Also auf auf, die Sachen gepackt, den verdammten Sandmann aus den Augen vertieben und über die große Brücke eine Stunde Autofahrt ins Alentejo Tal.
Évora ist, wenn man den Lissaboner Metropolen Dunst gewohnt ist eine "Abwechslung", so klein, so ruhig, irgendwie ist Évora einfach Évora. Schöne Ecken, angemahlte Häuser (etwas das mehr und mehr auch in Deutschland einkehren sollte) und Kirchen.
Hier eine Sehenswürdigkeit:




Es handelt sich hier um das Wahrzeichen Évoras, ein Diana Tempel aus der Römerzeit, gut erhalten. Ich glaube die Römer hatten hier ein ruhiges Leben, irgendwie ist es hier ziemlich Évora...



Aber dazwischen immer diese Farbenfrohheit, Orangen Ende November? angemalte Fensterrahmen und ja hier gibt es sogar Siesta, unvorstellbar lebt man doch am Rush of Life mitten in der lärmenden Hauptstadt Portugals.

Und man kommt nicht umher beim Vergleiche ziehen, ist man doch so bezaubert von der Ruhe einer Stadt, das Wort Wonne passt. Das Nachtleben beschränkt sich hier auf die "Kif Bar", was ist das Bairro Alto??

Und dann ganz in der Nähe des Marktplatzes das erschreckenste, eine Kirche komplett gebaut aus Knochen, ja, man verwendete ca. 5000 Menschen um die "Capela dos Ossos"...ein ungutes, mulmiges Gefühl hatte ich in dieser kleinen Kirche, irgendwie erschreckend,...

Aber: Évora ist mir irgendwie ans Herz gewachsen; klar es ist einfach Évora, jedoch eine tolle Abwechslung zum Lärm der Millionen. Danach ging es für uns weiter zum portugiesischen Stonehedge, doch das nächstes Mal.

Watch my Flickr for more pictures