My places: should you be there, then do it...
Green Island. Simply cool. (August/1996)
2. Ride a bicycle over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on a foggy day: just do it ! (April/1998)
3. Visit Bourbon Street in New Orleans. If you can, spend a night in Dauphine Orleans Hotel. Jakub was there. (August/1999)
4. Have a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon with your dinner in one of the harbour restaurants in Colonia San Jordi on Mallorca (Spain) and then have a walk on on the beach there: your soul (and your companion !) will be grateful to you !
5. Sit down on a sunny day on the beach in Białogóra (near Gdańsk, Poland) with your favorite book: pure joy ! (July/2000)
6. Mauritius: write a book, marry someone, drink champagne to your breakfast, forget the world outside. (November/2000)
7. Ski like God in Ischgl. This is a ski paradise on Austrian/Swiss border. Snow is like cocaine. And it is easy to get addicted. I did. (April/2001)
8. Spend a day on the road: The Great Ocen Road. Rent a car or take a day bus trip to south-west of Melbourne, Australia and n-joy the Pacific coast. You will never forget it. (July/2001)
9. Climb with the tramway to The Peak in Hong Kong. See the amazing skyline of the city and stay long enough to experience the skyline of Hong Kong by night.The best view is from the Marché restaurant (while drinking wine !) in the Peak Tower. (July/2001)
10. Get the blues or loose you "hard day" blues at Blue Chicago where the classic Chicago blues is really at home. You might have your best night while in Chicago. I did !!! (28-8-2001)
11. Spend some time in "Pod Jaszczurami" club in Cracow, Poland. Only in Cracow you'll find such places, "the intelectual mood", the history, and the tree leaves that you want to take home with you. (27-10-2001)
12. Visit Vilnius, Lithuania. One of the most impressing Old Towns ever seen by me. And women... Simply beautiful.
(5-5-2002)
13. Listen to the music in Vienna, Austria. Wherever. You don't have to go to the famous Wiener Staatsoper. It seems that even the street musicians
in Vienna are all geniuses. Expect listening to Mozart everywhere. Even in the McDonalds. (8-6-2002)
14. Cruise on a "love boat" alike ship (plushy!) from Fort Launderdale, Florida to Bahamas. Paradise beaches down there. Really. The natives claim to make the best braids in you hair. (10-07-2002)
15. Drive from Miami along all the Keys across 48 bridges (over the ocean) to Key West, Florida unless you cannot any further (be warned: further is Cuba, 90 miles away from Key West). Snorkel in the lagoon around Key Largo and vist Hemingway Home, at 907 Whithead Street. (12-07-2002)
16. Take off to Tenerife, the most beautiful island within Canary archipelago. There is much more than beaches and pools at the hotels. Drive up to see El Teide (vulcanic mountain, the highest in Spain, over 3700 m). Have a glass o wine at harbour of Puerto de la Cruz. (1-08-2003)
17. There is only one place on the planet where Edith Piaf meets Sarah Bernhardt and Chopin meets (Jim) Morrison while Proust and Balzac are very close to Apollinaire and Oscar Wilde. Amazing place in Paris, Le Père Lachaise, the most historic cemetery in the world. Culture never dies. (2-11-2003)
18. Never changing islamic religion driven tradition right beside high-tech-freaks, designer high heels and burqas, Rolls-Royce and falcon hunting. 360 days of sun per year, white sand (almost empty!) beaches at luxurious hotels hidden in the palm gardens growing up in the middle of a desert. 40 degrees Celsius outside already in Spring. You will find all these in United Arab Emirates. Take part (a must!) in a desert safari and buy in Dubai :-) your next Rolex or Louis Vouitton bag (for half a regular price!). (1-05-2004)
19. Visit Lisbon first (reserve at least two days and two nights). Then rent a car and drive down along the Atlantic coast (the "must" stop is a place called Vila Nova de Milafonte) to the beaches (the most beautiful in Europe!) on Algarve in Portugal. (28-07-2004)
20. Visit Zagreb in Croatia (I did it together with my daughters). Get impressed by the city itself, meet the people, n-joy the the "Polish like", slavic hospitality. (12-11-2004)
21. Experience New York City during the pre-Christmas rush season. Meet New Yorkers (after 9/11 the T-shirts claim "I love New York even more") at the Rockefeller Center X-mas tree (01-12-2004)
22. Explore Barcelona, Spain, taking away from the crowdy (day and night) La Rambla and walking along Barri Gótic streets. (11-12-2004)
23. Save your money and go down to the "forgotten paradise". Even the sky over Seychelles, (pol. Seszele) is bluer than everywhere else. There are 115 islands belonging to this archipelago. Only one and only for one week is not enough. On Seychelles the church clocks beat twice: once sharp on time, second time, two minutes later, for the daydreamers. For me unforgettable time... [ see my diashow ] (08-04-2005)
24. Cruise... From Venice to Venice. In between: Kefalonia(GR)-Pireus/Athene(GR)-Crete(GR)-Bari(IT). On AIDA (www.aida.de) decadent "boat". Lovely time with my daughters... [ see the AIDA diashow ] (08-08-2005)
25. Take a break from your world and fly to Kenya where everything what you had left home will look quite different. There is no better time for black Africa during (or just after) white Christmas... [ see my Kenya diashow ] (31-12-2005)
26. Fly to Crete in Greece. Stay at your hotel pool as little as you can. Exlore the island in all directions (do not even think about missing a drive to Gramvoussa beach!). See Elafonisi, Paleochora and obviously Knossos. Eating on Crete is much more than only a food.. (12-07-2006)
27. Visit Madrid first (reserve a day for the Prado Museum!). Then rent
a car and drive south down accross Spain (via Córdoba and Seville) to Cadiz on the mediterranen coast. Relax for at least a week in one of the ALDIANA Clubs down there (www.aldiana.de). Ride a horse on a beach. My daughters did. And I was close to them. (10-08-2006)
28. Break away to the sunny side of life on Maldives. Leave the crowd, fly to Malé and then take an air taxi to the smallest island you can find. Like Komandoo for example. Pure nature, house reef full of colorful creatures just in front of your bungalow. Going back home will be a tough decision... (08-01-2007)
29. Fly to Cyprus and get hot (very hot this year: up to 45 degrees Celsius). You do not have to check the weather forecast: is is always sunny. Rent a car and drive (left-hand side traffic) from Larnaca on the east coast to Paphos on the west. You will meet the ancient history at every stop you make. Even on the beaches. Beautiful little island where vacations never stop... (28-06-2007)
30. Leave your country, enter Russia and change your mind. You definitely will. I did. Versace shops close to Lenin's tomb in Moscow. Bleeding capitalism all around. More Porsches in St. Petersburg than in Berlin. Bookstores in best locations in St. Petersburg's Nevsky Prospekt. And Ermitage which you will never forget. As well as the beauty of Russian women... (8-09-2007)
31. Take off to Jamaica and simply taste this unique Caribic island. Not only their famous rum, but also everything around you. Be a "Rasta" for a few days. I was... (12-01-2008)
32. Experience Dublin in Ireland. And n-joy the sunny side of life (even though it is windy and rains very often there). Do not limit your visit to the famous Templeton Bar street. If for some good reasons you got caught there for longer (it happens) then go to Dublin again... (24-05-2008)
33. Visit Sofia in Bulgaria. Get impressed by the city itself, meet the people and experience the ancient slavic hospitality. (07-03-2009)
34. I really wanted to visit Bikini atoll, but they (Marshal Islands authorities) closed the island this year. So I have decided to stay in the region (Pacific area, French Polynesia, south of Hawaii). Forget Maldives, forget Mauritius, and forget Seychelles as well. I have forgotten after this Tahiti - Bora Bora - Maupiti - Hawaii journey. Very far away, very expensive and worth of every single cent. Have a look at my [ Pacific diashow ] (21-04-2009)
35. Should you have time and money for the flight then visit Vietnam (I was on my way to Sydney, Australia). Far away, this is true, but worth of the journey. Never sleeping Ho-Chi-Minh City (Saigon), then Hanoi with its communist architecture touch, and finally Ha Long Bay with its unforgettable islands. (22-11-2009)
36. Visit or re-visit Russia and change your mind again. I have re-visited, skipping Moscow (bleeding capitalism) and only stopping in St. Petersburg (bleeding capitalism + culture). Real Russian souls are elsewhere. In the very far east Khabarovsk or in the middle of Siberia, in Novosibirsk. (16-12-2009)
37. Take off to Madagascar and experience the nature at its best. Do not let the travel agency tease you with the beaches of Nosy Be or surrounding islands (Tsarabanjina is the real pearl!). Get inside Madagascar. This is the place where Madagascar excites most of all. Start in Antananarivo and travel south to the east or to the west visiting the national parks (lemurs, chameleons, exotic birds, giant ants, etc.). This country is poor in terms od standards, but rich in terms of people you will meet. After the trip take a rest and get sun on Tsarabanjina. Volcano erruption on Island has stopped me on Madagascar. I was waiting for my return flight via Paris to Frankfurt on Nosy Be island. Frankly speaking I am grateful to this volacano.
My Madagascar diashow comes here soon... (18-04-2010)
38. Visit Kiev in Ukraine. The history of neighbouring Russia has started just there. Enjoy the beauty of the city. Admire the breathtaking architecture of the churches, taste the Ukrainian cuisine. Talk to people and learn how was it there during the Orange Revolution and how little of its spirit is left behind... (26-06-2010)