If I have learned one thing with all my travels it would probably be how important it is to get local friends in the country where you are staying. Not because of the social factor, but to really understand a place you need to understand the people, and to see how they are living their every day lives. This means, if they go to the church, do sports, have hobbies, go partying and so on, go with them, participate and be open minded. This is the only way to learn about the real culture and way of living in a region, and is also why I recently noticed I have lost all interest in travel guides or programs. These guides and TV programs are almost always made by foreigners with very short experience of the region, and who probably themselves read in guides what they should visit, see or do when arriving before creating their own guide. At the same time they are the result of only one opinion, and that is also why it is not only important to spend time with local people, but to meet a lot of them and with different local cultures and viewpoints of life.
Posts Tagged ‘new friends’
The Importance of Getting to Know Local People
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011Comparison of Berlin areas
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011After living in Berlin for 1+ month I had to move to another apartment when the owner was coming back to the room I rented. Even though I really liked living in that apartment, not only because of the people living there but also because of the location, this gives me an interesting opportunity to compare how it is to live in two different areas of Berlin.
The first area I was living in, Friedrichshain, is the main clubbing area of Berlin and where a lot of tourists end up at least for the night when partying. Here you find famous night clubs like Berghain, Suicide Circus, RAW and so on… There is not one single night in the week where the Warschauer straße is not full of people, mostly foreigners, all the way to late morning. Here you find a lot of Asian restaurants, mainly Indian and Thai, together with the usual kebab places that is one of Berlin’s trademarks. There is not so much shops in the area, mostly second hand clothes, which makes it less crowded during the day times. At the same time it’s very near to tourist monuments like the Berlin Wall or the Oberbaumbrücke.
Yesterday I moved to Neukölln, which is the up-and-coming area of Berlin. This area has during the last five years become more and more attractive, and at the same time more expensive, to live in. Here you can find a lot of restaurants, bars and cafés combined with a huge Turkish area. Neukölln is more “ruff” then Friedrichshain and at the same time more social, probably mainly because of the mixed southern nationalities living here. As soon as our moving truck arrived to the street, a gang of people came to help us carry our things up to the 4th floor, and some even came back the second day to continue to help us.
So why do I need a moving truck to move, when everything I own is in my backpack? Actually, at the same time it was time for me to change apartment a German couple I met in Dahab about 4 months ago told me I could stay at their new place where they are currently moving into. So here I am, helping them to move & fix their apartment in Berlin and at the same time I get the opportunity to live together with good friends I thought I would not see again for a long time.
Peace out
Camping in Ras Muhammad
Thursday, June 30th, 2011Sometimes things just come to you when you wish for them. One recent example is that I really wanted to visit Ras Muhammad one more time before leaving Egypt in about a week from now. What happened to me was, one morning a girl I met the day before called me and asked me to join her and her free diver friends to camp one night at the Ras Muhammad. They were leaving town within 15 minutes so it was a quick decision followed by rush packing. Just a moment later we were leaving Dahab in a rented car full of free diving and scuba diving equipment, heading out for Ras Muhammad.
The group was very mixed, with 8 people from Russia, Brazil, Argentina, France and me from Sweden. We also had a big dog with us (“Hurry”) who was currently traveling the world, on his way to Bali. Dogs (and camping) are not allowed in Ras Muhammad, but we managed to talk the guards to let us pass with him.
When we arrived everybody went into the water directly, followed by a Argentinian barbecue and some vodka. The weather was warm and there were no problem sleeping under the stars, except for some biting flies and mosquito which i still have 50+ dots from.
The next day we went up early and went free diving in Shark Reef. Everybody were excited for what we would see, and like the day before we again find a shark (or he found us). This time, the about 1½ meter shark swim up to one of us to check him out. Also, we found a lot of turtles and other beautiful animals during the 2½ hour swimming in strong current.
After Shark Reef, we went back to the first reef to do some combined free- and scuba diving and then head back home to Dahab.
Note: If you are trying this for yourself, have long sleeves and a sleeping bag with you. Be very careful with the current, and don’t get into the water if you are not familiar with how it is moving at that specific reef. Drink a lot of water and stay in the shade, as one of us got dehydrated and had to go to the hospital.
