DonJuandeMarc's VirtualTourist Home Page

...Marc! I am originally from Germany, born in Leipzig, Saxony. I just moved to San Antonio, TX from Pensacola, FL a few weeks ago. I am here in the United States for the German Navy. The German Navy also caused my obsession of traveling, taking me to very far-away places and giving me interessting experiences. I found this page and made the account, because I like the idea to share travel experiences with other people from all over the world. In fact I am really obsessed with traveling and use every freetime and most of my money to see new countries. A very important part of my traveling is also to meet new people and dive into daily life in different places. Because that is what traveling makes to interesting. I also love learn and speak new languages. Besides my native language German, I also speak English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. So everybody can feel free to Email me in those languages. In the following I want to give a small overview about my life and the development of my travel obsession. Have fun while reading and discovering my pages!

Besides some vacacion I traveled with my parents mostly to family clubs and some school travels to Paris, London and Budapest I had not really much travel experience when I joined the Navy in 2001. But during the last 6 years this point changed totally. During my training it was a essentiell part to join seagoing units and travel. My first deployment was on the German tallship "Gorch Fock". My cruise started from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain and led me via Praia, Cape Verde and Funchal, Madeira back to Germany. I spend around two months on the ship and enjoyed my first travel without my parents. Although we visited mainly European influenced countries, it gave me a first taste of discovering other cultures! The second deployment was around a half year later on the German frigate "Rheinland-Pfalz" and led me to Southeast Asia. I boarded the ship in Incheon, Korea and we made our way through the different seas via Tokyo, Japan; Singapore and Cochi, India. Besides the fact that the soccer world cup was taking place at this time, it was the first real travel to total different cultures. I see this deployment as the initial reason for my obsession traveling around the world. The next and until now last deployment, but also the most exciting one was in 2003 when I made an exchange with the Mexican Navy and boarded their tallship "Cuauhtemoc" in the port of Delfzjil, Netherlands. Although the trip wasn't that exciting (it was basicly just around the Baltic Sea heading south to Tenerife) it was one of the most important experiences in my life. I learned Spanish on board, met a lot of friends I still have contact to and I learned a lot about the Mexican culture and their way of life!

My most exciting and experience building travel took place in 2005. I ordered a round-the-world ticket with the OneWorld Alliance (British Arways, Qantas and LAN Chile). I started from Berlin and my first destination was Rio de Janeiro, my dream city. And this city is also in reality a dream city. Although I had a little bit bad luck with the weather it was a great time there. My luck was that I met some people there very quick and they showed me Rio from a different point of view than that of a tourist. I enjoyed this time and it was really bad that I had to leave soon. I had bought a bus ticket from Rio de Janeiro to Santiago de Chile. The trip lasted three days and we got a delay caused by closed passes in the Andes. In Chile I met a friend I have from my "Cuauhtemoc" deployment. He was also in that exchange. He organized everything for me and showed me a lot of things in the vicinity of Valparaiso. After Chile I flew to Auckland followed by Sydney. Both cities were very European, but still interesting. Especially Sydney was very impressive. The biggest adventure during this trip was my stay in South Africa. I arrived in Jo'burg and travelled directly by train to Cape Town. I travelled in a compartment with three natives. We talked a lot about everything and they gave me a pretty good overview over the African life and their thoughts and it was also helpful to reverse stereotypes. The bottom line of this trip was, that I traveled around the world in a very short time by using planes, buses and trains. I got a very great impression on different cultures and countries and additional I made new friends in countries far away from home and I am still keeping contact with them!

To make a training in the United States brings chances in two different ways. First it is nice to live one year in a foreign country and experience all the different stuff related to it. And it is nice as well to be on the other site of the Atlantic Ocean close to different possible destinations reachable in a short travel time. My first station was in Pensacola and although the airport is just a regional one we used it quite a few time to travel to other locations. Of course I had some possible destinations in mind when I came here. And after six month I can say, that I visited them all and even more. First we made a Thanksgiving trip to Nassau, Bahamas. The problem was, that we were travelling as a group of Germans and the majority voted to stay in a beach resort, just the kind of vacation I dont like too much. So of course it was nice there, but Nassau is more a tourist town influenced by the big cruise ships in the habour. My next travel was alone again and I traveled by car to Miami in Southflorida. I stayed there over christmas and dived into the Cuban life in Little Havana. I met some Cubans there and they gave me a deep look in Cuban Culture in that amazing city. For New Year I flew to San Juan in Puerto Rico, which was also very interesting, but very similar to Nassau very touristic! The same is true for a February travel to Montego Bay, Jamaica. Very touristic and even though full of tourist traps. Two nice travels I made were to San Francisco and Montreal, Canada. Two amazing cities with totally different backgrounds but full of life and culture. Now I am living in San Antonio, Texas, close to Mexico and my plans for the time I will be here are of course including Mexico to visit my friends over there as well as travelling to two of the major cities in the US, Chicago and New York!

In this paragraph I will briefly draw my travelplans for the future. A quick look on my travel map tells that Asia is not that well covered as the Americas or Europe. For this reason I plan a new round-the-world trip. And as my first one was concentrated on South America my second one will be concentrated on Asia. My plans include Malaysia, Thailand, China, the Philippines and maybe parts of Indochina. Due to the fact that I am here in the United States I think this trip will take place more likely in 2008 or 2009. But I really want to make this, because I am really interested in the Asian cultures as well as in Asian cuisine! So if anybody wants to give me tips according this region, feel free to offer, i would appreciate it!