Photography, Travel, and Freedom

Jet-lagged (for once) in Sydney…

So, day two and a half in Sydney. I feel like absolute shit. I stayed up the past two nights to watch the matches. Very disappointed in Team USA. They better get themselves together to bring the pain in 2014. One day we’ll be able to hang with seventh world banana republics like Ghana. Until then…

Tada!

You’ve seen it a trillion times, and now here is 1,000,000,000,001.

I hired a car for the morning and took my own little tour of Sydney with a great driver named Vladimir from Belgrade. He took me to all the local points of interest and stuff off the normal routes. I don’t like exploring cities – they’re all the same. Especially Western cities. Sydney is a mix of SF, LA, and Brooklyn rolled into one. It’s a cute city – probably great to raise a family here except for the dreadful taxes.

Ugh, I feel like utter crap – I don’t know if it is from not sleeping for two days (probably) or jet lag (less probable, but equally likely – make sense?). I’m drinking water like its my job with no relief. I’m going to bed – later…

David :: Jun.27.2010 :: Photography, holiday, journal entry :: No Comments »

View from above…

David :: Jun.25.2010 :: Uncategorized :: No Comments »

Mauritius – busted ankle and all

I’ll make some posts soon about my time in Madagascar and the fragile political climate there, to put it mildly.

However, I wanted to get a note up about Mauritius, since it will be my only one. Read on for a very funny/tragic story…

David :: Jun.20.2010 :: holiday, journal entry, recklessness, travel :: No Comments »

North Korea thoughts

A weird thing happened last night. I found myself rooting on North Korea…err, Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea. It’s a very similar feeling that I had when I visited the country. I find it quite difficult to separate the people from the government, especially when the star player of DPRK is really South Korean, born, bred, lives/works in Japan but plays for DPRK because his mother ‘feels’ like a North Korean. What that means, who knows. It’s a very odd thing for me, to be honest. It’s a bias, yes. But I know I’m not the only one.

David :: Jun.18.2010 :: World Cup, journal entry, liberty :: No Comments »

Day 2 – Something something something

People have been concerned with South Africa playing host to the biggest sporting event in the world. For years the knocks have come loud and hard. The criticism is not baseless. Security, of course, has been the big worry, and in the days leading up to the opener, those fears were not put to rest. A Chinese camera crew was ambushed on a road by brigands and a Portuguese photographer was held up in his hotel room outside of Joburg by armed gunman. What has changed is that within the week, not only were the Portuguese cameras, badges, etc recovered, the criminals were captured, tried, convicted, and sentenced! Within a week! I’m actually a little surprised that they weren’t taken out back and executed by now, but there can only be so much progress. One day when these backwater nobodies are more civilized and progressive, that process will stretch out for a few years.

David :: Jun.18.2010 :: World Cup, journal entry, liberty, travel :: No Comments »

Day 1: Joburg – WC Opener included!

After four flights from New York, Frankfurt, Dubai and Nairobi I arrived FINALLY in Joburg. Not the longest (time wise) trip I’ve done in one burst (that still belongs to Goa to New York at 73 hours on the move). It actually wasn’t that bad and I only “missed” one flight. I quote ‘missed’ because the lazy Kenyans at the airport didn’t want to hustle their asses to get my bags from one flight to the next in 65 minutes, which is five minutes more than is required for international connecting flights. Only a 90 minute delay, so no big deal (see? I’m loosening up – it worked in my favor, anyway). I met the Fonz in the Continental lounge in Newark.

David :: Jun.17.2010 :: journal entry, travel :: No Comments »

And we’re back…

Sitting in the airport in Dubai, fresh off a flight from Frankfurt, waiting for my Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi. I’m halfway to Jo’burg. I’ll be arriving right in time for the kick-off to the World Cup. I hear that there’s going to be a big surprise during the opening ceremonies around the 7 minute mark. That should be interesting. Sorry for loose formatting – quick post from my iPad.

Stay tuned for blog posts and photos from the games in South Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Dubai, Germany, etc. This is a looooong trip so hopefully I’ll have some cool stuff to share (I’ve been practicing time lapse photography!).

Later

David :: Jun.10.2010 :: Uncategorized :: No Comments »