I'm back in my remote nation of Brazil after two months in that Asian peninsula known as Europe:

Amsterdam-Berlin-Krakow-Zakopane-Warsaw-Vilnius-S.Petersburg-Moscow-Riga-Stockholm-Gdansk-Warsaw-Dresden-Hamburg-Amsterdam

Backpacking, staying in hostels... I must have spent some 4 thou US$ - well, that's what I like to tell myself...the actual figure is another story, besides since I study some of the languages of the countries visited, I bought a lot of DVDs and books... a LOT!

I've been totally away from the board during my trip and have a lot of catching up to do! Stuff happened - Brazil launched its first rocket into space (though suborbital) and the X-Prize was won... I read that on the net when I was in Zakopane, great day! Did you see that SpaceShipOne was chosen by Time magazine as invention of the year? Well, it's actually the invention of the century but the media is only waking up now.

When in Moscow I visited the Museum of Cosmonautics, got a lot of pics, I'd love to share them.

If anyone wants any travel tips, please contact me!

Great trip, welcome back.

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By asking questions we sometimes get the wrong answers, from wrong answers we learn to ask the right questions.

Quitter! Going back just when the weather turns interesting for someone from Brazil!

I hope you had an enjoyable stay. Any pros and cons lists?

Harald

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

Oh, talk about the weather! I drizzled almost 24 hours a day in most cities I visited! The worst thing in my trip!

I had to leave by november 23 because that was my window of freedom, but I did catch a lot of interesting weather conditions like a lot of snow in the Estonian countryside (on the way to S.Petersburg, that was October 11) and hail in Amsterdam (roughly November 20), though I had seen hail here in Santos and São Paulo too. And there was some icy snow on the Tatra mountains (Kasprowy Wierch) near Zakopane, south Poland, which I climbed by cable car.

Not to mention the very weird feeling that it's always 5pm in northern Europe during dalight this time of year, because the sun never really goes high in the sky, and sets by 4:30. In Saint Petersburg and Stockholm its amazing!

One of the best surprises was the city of Vilnius - absolutely amazing. The worst thing was the expensive bureaucracy to get the Russian visa, some US$100 and you have to get invitations from hotels.... and then register it once you arrive in every city - even Russian citizens have to register their papers if they move to another city!

Next year I wanna go back to work in Europe as a journalist (which is my degree) or maybe to study.

Cool 8)

I'm going to Prague myself on the 12th, assuming I get my passport troubles sorted out. Red tape is a pain

Remote! I wouldn´t say that, from my point of vantage(*). 8)

I remember you said you´d be going to Siberia. Change in plans?

(*) Don´t feed the geographically challenged who insist on putting us at the margin

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

Welcome back!
I saw this last night, but I was at work. I wanted to use a cool smilie.

Its good to be remote! I like remoteness. We should rejoice our remoteness!

Yes, I wanted to go to Siberia and maybe China but the bureaucracy to get the Russian visa (you have to pay accomodation in advance for every night) made me shorten my stay in that country, besides, I had to do Northern Europe thoroughly, and that took time and money - if I did the Transsiberian I would have to sacrifice much of Europe.

Welcome back. Good to hear that you enjoyed the trip, eventhough the weather wasn't co-operating. That corner of the world is beautiful . Yup, Estonia got an early snowfall this year, but the land itself is beautiful. I spent one month in Estonia and Sweden back in the summer of 1990. If one travels to that region in summer (yeah it costs more) instead of it seeming like dusk, the sun barely sets. :wink: It gets dark for about an hour/hour and a half at around 2 am. Some pics from my travels can be found here. There are 3 pages of various pics (I should dig out some more of those pics one day).

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" The universe is running away
I heard it on the news just the other day
There's this new stuff called dark energy
We can't measure and we can't see..." - from Jimmy Buffett's What if the hokey pokey is all it really is about?

Welcome back! :-D So you have some picutres we can see? What was yuor favorite places? Anything interesting happen?