King_Golo's VirtualTourist Home Page

Neulich ging die Sonne im Westen auf und weil das nicht sein kann glaubten wir es nicht (Leonie Achtnich)

Well, hello!

Good idea to visit this site - it may serve as the starting point to my travels, my life and me.

Me, that's Golo. I am a 28 year old fellow from Kassel, Germany, but for more than 7 years residing in Chemnitz. This town is the place where I studied (Intercultural Communication, English and German as a foreign language at Chemnitz University of Technology) and where I now work. Although I'm finished with studying, I won't leave university so soon as I now work there as a teacher of German as a foreign language. Hopefully this makes me earn enough money to travel the world again! But spare time will be scarce: There are seminars to be taught, students to be counseled, international co-operation (SOCRATES program) to be organized and thousands of other things to be done. Moreover, it is likely that I'll start doing my Ph.D., so this means more work and less travel time!

Speaking of travelling: This is one of my favourite hobbies. I love getting to know other parts of the world, the more different from Germany the better. So far, my travels have taken me to quite a lot of places (see list below). I was lucky to have had the chance to work in Hanoi, Vietnam, for six months. Another six months of my life were spent in Tartu, Estonia, where I studied for one semester in 2003 and worked for six weeks in 2006.

In my opinion, every country is worth visiting. There's beauty everywhere, you just have to look for it. Even if parts of a country appear to be ugly at first sight, I'm able to discover beautiful things... There may be a beautiful doorknob on a run-down building, a bunch of flowers growing between the remains of a factory area or the smile of some children living in the Gaza Strip.

One of the most vivid scenes of this kind in my memory is from Narva, Estonia: Standing in front of the old, run-down town hall building which is surrounded by numerous incredibly ugly Soviet blocks, I suddenly heard someone playing a sad melody on the piano - a surreal, but wonderful scene!

You have to look out for the small stuff, and not only for the easy-to-see things!

As you may have noticed, this page is a constant construction site. My photos change regularly, and so do some other contents. Therefore, you ought to check my pages once in a while and admire the new contents... ;-)

I'm back from Canada and New York City! Spent a great month over there and took 1595 pictures... Some of them are soon to be found on these pages. Make sure to come back to check them out!

New pages:

Pilsen Art Nouveau houses

Cycling to Rochsburg

Drebach Crocus Meadows

Oulu

Liverpool

New York City

Winter pics from my parents' garden

Lilienstein travelogue - one of the most beautiful places in Germany!

Canada! (a more detailed list of the places I went to is found there)

Don't forget to visit the famous Fridge Society, the coolest subgroup on VT (now featuring its 13th member)!

Planned trips:

* Bad Kreuznach in summer 2008 (visiting my brother, pending)
* Vietnam in fall 2008 (holiday, pending)

My TOP-5-PAGES are

Fredericton, Prince Edward Island, Battambang, Tartu, Kassel, Vang Vieng, Esslingen,
Plzen, Nida

Feel free to ask me anything about Kassel, Chemnitz, Hanoi or Tartu. And if you're in Chemnitz or around, tell me! I'd be glad to show you my town - provided work doesn't keep me busy all day.

There are quite some countries I've been to, but I haven't got enough yet! According to this website, there are 198 countries in the world - so it'll take me a lot of time to go to every single one! The world may be far too big to see everything in just one lifetime, but I will try anyway...

Here's where I've been (in alphabetical order):

Austria
Cambodia
Canada
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Great Britain
Greece
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Laos
Latvia
Lithuania
Monaco
the Netherlands
Palestine
the USA
Vietnam

In addition to this, I've driven through or stopped in:

Belgium
Iceland
Liechtenstein
Poland
Switzerland
Thailand

I've also illegally passed the border to Kaliningrad on the Curonian Spit, but only walked on for some meters...

I like re-visiting the countries I already know, so that you can actually add all the above-mentioned countries to the list of my prospective travels below!

Is there a number one favourite of mine?
No, but there are several wonderful places. I am usually very fond of pure and wild nature, such as Donegal's rough landscapes in Ireland, the Judaean desert in Israel, the Laotian mountains overgrown with jungle, the rugged coastlines of Nova Scotia in Canada, the tranquility of Estonia's largest island Saaremaa or the serenity found in the vast Finnish forests. On the other hand, I love the hustle and bustle of big cities, such as never-sleeping London, the millions of motorcycles in Hanoi, getting lost amidst the skyscrapers of New York City or the international flair of San Francisco or Berlin.
And sometimes, I'm happy at home, sitting on my favourite bench in the Habichtswald forest near my hometown Kassel listening to the wind in the trees, or biking the hills around the town I live in, Chemnitz, preferably in autumn when nature presents herself in all beauty.

Here's where I MUST go to, as soon as possible (in alphabetical order):

Alaska
Argentina (especially Patagonia)
Australia & Tasmania
Bhutan
Bolivia
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
the Caribbean (especially Cuba, Jamaica and those smaller islands that are not yet spoilt by mass tourism)
Chile
China
Eastern Europe (most parts)
Ecuador
Fiji or any other South Seas paradise
Greenland
Iceland (only saw it from the plane)
India
Indonesia
Japan
Kenya
Korea
Kyrgyzstan (after recently seeing a great documentary about the country)
Madagascar
the Maldives and/or the Seychelles
the Middle East
Mongolia
Myanmar
Namibia
Nepal
New Zealand
Norway
Peru
the Philippines
the Pyrenees
Romania
the Sahara
Siberia (especially Kamchatka and Lake Baikal)
South Africa
parts of Spain
Sweden
Tanzania
Thailand
Tristan da Cunha
Turkey
the USA
Uzbekistan and the Silk Road
Venezuela (Angel Falls)

and the rest of the world! ;)
If your country is worth visiting and not on this list, convince me why I should come by... (hint: I'm easily convinced by good photographs!)

The most important thing to take on a trip is my camera... Without it, I'm nothing! I'm by no means a pro, but -oh!- how I'd love to be one! I consider photography to be the most interesting kind of art. Keep away from me with all those sculptures or paintings - I prefer the real image given by photos. If you're interested to see some of my "better" pictures, check out my fotocommunity pages

1. I hate beer.
2. I love gummi bears.
3. I hate touching wet doorknobs.
4. I love photography and prefer it to any other kind of art.
5. My first photograph showed half of my mom and grandma and a lot of fir trees. (Actually, this might not be true: When browsing through some old albums, I found several pics that were tagged "Golo's first photograph"!)
6. From time to time grey hair appears at my temples.
7. As a child, I used to collect stamps, cigarette packs, crown caps, quartets, and Walt Disney comics.
8. I've got a passion for passion fruit juice.
9. I've smoked my first cigarette with 25 in Vietnam - and it didn't feel good (but since then, I've sometimes accepted a smoke and always wondered how people can get addicted to THAT!)
10. Panda bears are my favourite animals.

11. Sometimes, I'm a misanthrope.
12. There's nothing better than the sea.
13. Consequently, my favourite birds are seagulls.
14. I enjoy really big anonymous cities.
15. I hate going by train. German trains are always late. Don't believe the Deutsche Bahn if they try to convince you that they are actually on time while you have just missed your connection and are stuck in Kleinkleckersdorf for the next 5 hours!
16. I couldn't live without music.
17. I've actually managed to start writing my first book! (and will postpone it due to writing my Ph.D. thesis (which, btw, has been postponed due to a lot of work))
18. My favourite colour is blue. (Green is alright, too.)
19. The three things I'd take to a desert island are: my laptop (I hope that there's highspeed internet on that island?!), a bartender who's able to mix my favourite cocktails 24-7, enough sunscreen.
20. Sunday is the most boring day of the week.

21. I love the smell of freshly cut wood.
22. I could walk barefoot all day. (I really should!)
23. I love sand, especially beneath my bare feet.
24. The glass is half-empty, not half-full.
25. I'm fond of creative writing but I often lack interesting ideas what to write about.
26. Violence is hardly ever an option.
27. I hate dogs. They stink, bite and bark.
28. I enjoy cooking (and experimenting with new recipes!) with my girlfriend.
29. Tea is better than coffee.
30. I like to discuss.

31. I am fascinated by the theory that a chain of six people can reach every person in the world (and would love to prove it with myself in the beginning and a person I have yet to choose in the end).
32. I love sunsets.
33. I'm dreaming of having a summer cottage on Saaremaa, Estonia.
34. My dreams at night are probably the weirdest mankind has seen.
35. I'm interested in everything that is connected with language. (see travelogue below)
36. To travel alone is better than to travel in groups.
37. I usually regret wrong decisions for a long time.
38. I love reading and writing (and I hate spelling mistakes!).
39. I'm good in remembering telephone numbers and birthdays.
40. I'm bad in remembering names.

41. I'd love to speak more languages - especially Estonian and Finnish, Dutch, Icelandic, Vietnamese, Swedish, Turkish, Chinese and what have you...
42. Sometimes, I just need fast food.
43. I'm 1,78m and weigh 63kg.
44. The first concert I went to was "Die fantastischen 4" back in 1993.
45. I never carry an umbrella - after all, it's only water!
46. I'd love to go hot-air ballooning over Kilimanjaro sometime.
47. Autumn is the best season.
48. I hate fat-reduced products because they don't have any taste anymore.
49. I used to write as a freelancer for the newspaper of my hometown.
50. I love windy days.

51. I’d like to go hang gliding some day.
52. It’s 82 steps from the ground floor to my apartment.
53. My first CD was “Wind of change” by The Scorpions.
54. My favourite movies are “The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain”, “Blues Brothers”, “The Big Lebowski” and “Pappa ante portas”
55. I hardly ever get up later than 9am.
56. I’m not night owlish at all. In fact, I usually go to sleep at around 10pm.
57. I still like to catch snowflakes with my mouth.
58. Boxing and Curling are the most boring sports imaginable.
59. I sometimes wonder whether I’m the only intelligent person in the world.
60. I’m slowly but surely getting addicted to several aspects of Web 2.0. (mainly VT, of course!)

61. I still enjoy the computer games of my youth. Guybrush Threepwood is my hero!
62. German bread is the best of the world and I could never live without it.
63. German sausage is the best of the world and I could never live without it.
64. I love the spooky atmosphere of run-down buildings such as abandoned factories.
65. Despite having seen dozens of shooting stars, all but one of my wishes didn't come true.
66. I’m good at Biathlon. Watching it, that is!
67. I don’t eat fish. But as a child, I didn’t even eat tomatoes and cucumbers and neither rice. So I guess I’ve become riskier, haven’t I?
68. I’d love to have a nice suntan, but I only get sunburned.
69. Living without TV wouldn’t be too much of a problem for me as long as there is Internet.
70. I used to learn playing the flute and the piano when I was a child - but I forgot everything.

71. I’ve got too many instant messengers on my computer (ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!, Skype).
72. My whole family is smaller than me.
73. I’m not religious.
74. I’ve got three foliage plants in my office and five at home. Despite watering them regularly, they usually die pretty soon when left in my responsibility.
75. The hottest food I’ve ever eaten was a beef dish in Phonsavan, Laos.
76. I read nearly all books by Astrid Lindgren and Enid Blyton.
77. My first name always causes confusion (interestingly in basically every language I’ve had contact with).
78. I’m quite sarcastic.
79. My lucky number used to be 27. It turned out to be right!
80. I like to end sentences with…

81. I can sleep better at daytime than during the night.
82. I only sat on a horse once at the age of 9, but as it almost unhorsed me it’s likely to have been the last time.
83. The westernmost point I’ve been was San Francisco, USA. The easternmost point I’ve been was Mui Ne, Vietnam. The southernmost point I’ve been was Can Tho, Vietnam. The northernmost point I’ve been was Oulu, Finland.
84. I don’t understand vegetarians – they’re missing soooo much!
85. As a "Zivi" (=conscientious objector) I worked with elderly people for nearly a year.
86. My favourite cocktail is Malibu Brazil.
87. White wine is better than red wine.
88. I like to play board games but do it far too seldom.
89. My first trip took me to Denmark at the age of 1 ½.
90. Famous people I met personally: Hans Eichel (Germany’s ex finance minister), Hans Meiser (German talk show host), Monika Griefahn (Lower Saxony's former environment minister) and two of The Kooks (alternative rock band).

91. The first movie I saw at the cinema was "The Jungle Book" at the age of 6 or so. I definitely felt very adult!
92. The last movie I saw at the cinema was "The Darjeeling Limited".
93. I enjoy watching sumo on TV and will certainly visit a basho if I ever make it to Japan.
94. I’ve never owned a car but have driven more than 20 different ones.
95. I enjoy observing people when sitting in a street café or so.
96. I’ve been to 14 capitals and have driven through another one.
97. My ancestors are from the Baltics (Latvia to be specific; Riga / Kuldiga to be even more specific).
98. I could read at the age of 5.
99. As a child, the first thing I usually did when coming home from a holiday was running around our house once.
100. I like lists of all kinds of things :-)

Let's take a trip back to the 80s! Remember how it was back then? Just close your eyes...

Everything was bigger, far bigger than it is now...
My brother and me lived squeezed into a 12sqm room and it didn't even feel small. Our garden was a paradise of trees to climb, bushes to hide in, lawns to run on, fruits to pick and eat and all those treasures that you forget after childhood...

I went to school 1km away from home, which meant walking past several gardens with angry barking dogs, passing the playground where I once was stuck in a bitter snow fight as the only neutral person, and of course entering the "Grüne Bude" for some sweets after school... The owner was the grumpiest old man to be found in Kassel!

The summers seemed endless, days and days of sunshine and heat, of leisure time in the garden or the local swimming pool, of eating dinner alone in the hut my dad had built - we felt so grown-up! In autumn, we used to collect chestnuts to build chestnut animals, in winter snowmen grew everywhere in our garden, in spring the lawns were covered over and over with forget-me-not...

On holidays, we were constantly on the lookout for good playing sites. Churches, museums and nearly everything else that was on our parents' agenda was such a bore! Instead, a little brook meant hours of diversion building dams or tearing them down, flooding the lawn or the path nearby... There were highways and low ways next to the actual path that were sooo much cooler to walk on... Sticks and stones were carried along for kilometres only to be forgotten at the next cafe we stopped in... And although hiking was the most horrible thing parents could go for during holidays, every hike provided hundreds of things to discover for us...

Music was only good if you could sing along - which usually meant terribly wrong lyrics and invented words! Cool bands were either German because you then understood the lyrics, or everything that was played on the radio... Admit it, even you've been listening to Modern Talking!
There were no such things as Internet or mobile phones or MP3s or cable TV... actually, watching TV was limited to one hour per day and it felt incredibly unfair! But advertisements were so interesting that we knew them by heart (and still do now!)...

Every afternoon, we met to play hide-and-seek, to build yet another dam in Geilebach brook or a secret hut in the bushes, to chase the younger children and to be chased by the older ones. When it was raining, we played games inside or simply invented new ones... or we just stood next to the window pressing our noses against the glass and counted those daring enough to pass by in the storm.

People weren't judged by what clothes they wore or what kind of mobile phone they owned... The only thing that mattered was that the clothes lasted longer than the first game played in them! (And maybe whose clothes were the most colourful ones...) It was serious business who your "real" best friend was, and who was only second rank. But friends were friends, and you saw them at least once a week. And any argument, bitter as they sometimes were, was forgotten sooner or later... just forgotten!

Everything new and unknown was either scary or exciting... the dark gloomy room with the central heating in our cellar never lost its scariness, but thoughtlessly skating down a hill where you couldn't see the junction you had to cross at its end was great!

Remember all those plans we had? "When I'm old, I'll become a construction worker..." Later, scrap metal trader and inventor, bus driver, and famous superstar were high on my list! Of course we knew whom we would marry when we'd be old, and what our children would be like...

Now, open your eyes again, return to the present and keep that dreamy smile on a little more if you know what I'm talking about...

Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we'd choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way. (Mary Hopkins)

Ah, there's so much more I could tell you. However, I should stop here and invite you to take a look at my travel pages. They will be updated as soon as something new happens (i.e. if I'm actually travelling) and I hope you'll find them interesting and helpful. If so, please send a comment and rate them!
Have fun, take care, and happy travels!

"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world." (Oscar Wilde)

PS: You might already be addicted to VT - here's how you can find out! Or here!

PPS: Just for the record - I've met the following VTers in person: Jefie, AgentJX, Tartu2005, Vita500, White_Lemur, Radasonea, Ovlarrec, as well as Mr. Tartu2005 whose nickname I've forgotten. :)