How to Travel

From the chapter: How to Travel:

    …Travelling is a kind of sport: testing your skills, capabilities, body condition and courage; competing with yourself and with other travellers. Similar to other sports, it has different forms and disciplines. Swimmers compete in different track lenghts and styles, boxers in different weight categories, climbers are divided into alpinists, free climbers and extreme climbers.

    Likewise, travellers could be divided as regards the number of travellers, the amount of money to be spent, and the means of transport. I myself have tried most of travelling styles and it would be hard for me to choose my favourite one. As well as there are different feelings about each of these travel disciplines, there are also various advantages and disadvantages of a particular style. Let's take a look at each:

BY YOURSELF OR NOT

    Who to go on the road with? Am I able at all to go on my own? Won't that be dangerous? Wouldn't I be lonely and bored? Will I survive on my own and, if I do, what will I benefit from it?

There is no generally valid answer to these questions. The answer depends on your needs and wishes. Certainly, there is always a chance of trying both and than decide… 

Turist Vs. Backpacker

A turist is a person, picked up at the airport by a special bus, which will take him directly to the doors of a uniformed hotel, where he will spend the next seven days on the beach. He will spend the first day lying on an air mattress on the beach, watching shapely girls and imagining all he could do with them if he were 20 years younger. He will spend the remaining six days lying in the hotel room recovering from the terrible sunburn and watching well-shaped girls at night in the bar, discussing with his friends all he could do with them if his nagging wife was not around.

    A turist is a person who is taken from one turist sight to another following a boring turist guide with a flag in his hand telling the same joke in seven different languages. Wearing strapy pants, a jamaican shirt, a shieldhat and sandals, he is taking photos of the same things as everybody else with his snapshot camera, and wonders what country they are in. Since it's Friday, they must probably be somewhere in Spain…

to be continued  
text & photo: Janin Klemenčič

Backpackers’ Handbook

Read some paragraphs from my traveller's advice collection which will be, if all goes well, published some day in English as well. Write some remarks and comments and send them to me!

1.    From the Introduction:

    …In general, the word "traveller" denotes every travelling person, or at least a person travelling out of genuine pleasure, with a wish for exploring. More specifically, the real traveller is one who travels either alone, with a partner, or in an unorganized group. Such a person wants to travel as far as possible, spending as little as possible. That means that he will hitchhike, travel with a bike, a motorcycle or a van. He will sleep in a sleeping bag under the sky, in a vehicle, or in the cheapest hotel; he will get around by lowest-class train or bus and carry all his posessions around in a backpack.

Orthodox backpackers strictly distinct themselves from turists.

to be continued

text & photo: Janin Klemenčič

Eremitaž, Petrograd

 

 

Hermitage, Saint Petersburg 

Foto: Janin

Scandinavia 20 Rosenborg Castle

   In the afternoon it began to rain lightly. We stopped for a beer and a rest, and then continued through the King’s Gardens to the Rosenborg Castle. This was built in the early 1600s, and so it is much newer than the castles we saw in Norway and Sweden, which were started around 1100 or so. It used to be a residence, but now is just a repository for royal heirlooms. It was impressive, though, with different rooms decorated in various styles—Renaissance, Empire, rococo, etc. Most all had paintings on the ceilings as well as the walls, and period furniture, too. Some contained objects from the period of a specific king.
By the time we left Rosenberg, we were tired, and it was raining somewhat harder. Fortunately, a Hop-On, Hop-Off bus was approaching the pickup point at the same time we were. On these buses we were given a set of earbuds to plug in and we could select the language we wanted and hear a recorded message about the area we were driving through or past. Not very personal but we could hear it and understand it.
(to be continued)

Scandinavia 19 Changing of the guard

At noon we witnessed the changing of the guard, a process which takes quite a while. Sometimes it wasn’t possible for us to tell if anything was happening. The formal guards wear the big black hats and look a lot like Buckingham Palace guards. There were one or two outside each of the 4 palace buildings, but a much larger contingent (about 40) were involved in the guard changing.
 There seems to be a lot of construction in Copenhagen involved with improving/expanding the metro. Near the Amalienborg Palaces is a construction fence around the side of the nearby church. Perhaps it has been adopted by an art school?
There were a series of foam panels covering the fence with a depiction of a colonnade or aqueduct with pictures in each of the arches. All were in a classical style, but some had modern anachronisms, such as the flying saucer in this idyllic scene. Another had a harbor scene with sailing ships and a helicopter and submarine added.
(to be continued)

Scandinavia 18 Danish royal family

 There seem to be some interesting museums to visit, and Tivoli Gardens is practically next door. Lots of bikes on the streets, including many with a compartment on the front for children, packages, etc. Bike lanes on almost all streets, and I have to remember to stay on the sidewalks and not in the bike lanes. The bike lanes tend to be asphalt, and the sidewalks are often cobblestones, and we are VERY tired of walking on cobblestones.
There are enough bikes in Copenhagen that bike congestion and tie-ups seem more common than automobile tie-ups.

 Today we took a Hop-On, Hop-Off bus to Amalienborg Palace. Actually, it is a complex of 4 palaces in a diamond shape. One is occupied by the queen when she is in town, one by the Crown Prince, one is for guests, and the 4th is part museum and part a residence for another member of the royal family.
   The museum was interesting. Many of the rooms are as they were when a particular person occupied them. Mostly very cluttered with art, photos, etc. The Danish royal family seem to be related to all the other royal families of Europe. And I think most of the kings have been named either Frederick or Christian. Nowadays the monarch (currently a queen) does not get involved in politics. It is mostly a ceremonial position, and the royal family also tries to be accessible to the people. There is evidently a debate among the Danes about the cost/sense of maintaining a monarchy, but that seemed to be an internal
Danish debate not to be discussed with outsiders — particularly not in the royal residences.
(to be continued)