Hey Dudes

Long time no blog! Reason: nothing special happened. I started company and was working a lot the last months in 2009.

But! On the 29th of Dec 2009 Oliver, Martin and me started our trip to south america. Lets see what happened in those 4 weeks.

New Years Eve in Rio de Janeiro

On the 30th of December we arrived after about 16 hours of travelling in Rio de Janeiro. Of Course without luggage - as expected with passing paris ;-). We booked a quite nice hotel in the city district Copacabana. Unfortunately it was raining the first days but we didn’t give a shit about this. You’ll like it as well if you compare 35 degrees and 30 degree sprinkling water to damn cold -5 degrees back home in austria.

On 31st Dec. it stopped raining in the afternoon and we really enjoyed the New Years Party at Copacabana Beach. The whole beach was full of white dressed people. To be more accurately - About 2 million people celebrated with about 10 Cruise Ships in front of the beach the switch to 2010. Three really big ships were bombing the heaven about 40 minutes without any second of break with the most amazing firework i’ve ever seen.

Next day - i think it was the worst hangover in this 4 weeks - we went by taxi to Corcovado to see the most famous sight of Rio - The JESUS Monument! On of my big Todos in my Life was to stand in front of this Dude.

The Trip - A 12 days trip through brazil, argentina and uruguay

To see a bit more of south america we booked a trip called Southern Highlights with GAP Adventures. It startet in Rio with a Meet Up of 15 People. 5 Ossis 4 americans 2 from england and Ana our tour leader from columbia.

First Stop of the trip was Nightlife of Rio. We went to the most famous nightlife spot in Rio (Lapa) and we recognized already that a local tour leader is the best solution to get the best pieces of everything. We didn’t know at about this spot in Rio. Of Course we have been really lazy with research before ;-). Lots of Caipirinhas and dancing the first night and getting together with our tripmates.

The Backside of the coin of Rio is the criminality. First i have to say that most of the rumors which we were hearing back in europe about the criminality wasn’t really true. If you don’t walk arround with big Dick cameras, Rolex Armclocks or showing your money around you can be save. But there are also districts, like lapa, where you should go back to your hotel by taxi! We took a taxi just for 2 blocks and i think it was the right decision. It’s very dangerous in some parts of Rio. And what you should avoid for sure are the favelas.

A pirate village in the south of Rio

Paraty was our next destination. We left Rio by bus and took a road through the countryside. about 5 hours we drove through jungles (we would call it wood ;-)) until we arrived in this really nice small village called Paraty. The streets between the small houses were washed out from the rain the days before and it was even hard to walk. We checked in in a really nice Pousada with an amazing pool in the middle. Pousadas are the most common accomodations in brazil. I really didn’t expect such a nice place with this trip. After an exhausting first day we calmed down in the evening at the pool and enjoyed the silence. Next day we did a boat trip around Paraty. Passing tons of small middle and large islands and amazing hidden beaches, junmping from the boat in light green clear water was this one of the days i enjoyed most. I think Oliver and me saw a view possible bobo-islands ( insider ;-)).

Back home in the pousada ana organized a nice brazilian barbequeue at a house of a friend of her. His familiy are already living, i cant remember exactly, but i think it was around 120 years, in this nice house. We got a REAL brazilian barbequeue dinner with lot of delicous meat, sidedishes and vegetables - just tasty.

Iguassu Falls - An Upcoming Worldwonder?

Next Day in the early grey morning we went by bus to Sao Paulo to catch our flight to Iguassu. The Iguassu falls are located in the three border region of brazil argentina and parguay, they are 3 times bigger (in width) than the niagara falls, and they are on the list for the upcoming 7 new worldwonders (vote!). Anyway, for this was the biggest mass of water i’ve ever seen at one single spot. I can not describe it - if you ever go to south america, i know its big, but don’t miss that - incredible! We saw the argentian and brazilian side - both are really cool but on the argentian side we also made a jungle trip, short hikes and a really wet boat trip. The boat was directly under one of the waterfalls so we felt the mighty power of the water on our necks ;-).

Europe in South America !

As written in most of the travel guides - Buenos Aires is the France (or Switzerland, or italy, or … of South America). We heard a lot of different meanings about how Buenos Aires and its inhabitants behave and look like. And its true! Walking around in Buenos Aires is like walking through Madrid and after the next turn you are feeling like beeing in Paris - in an architectual point of view. The people look like real europeans (thin, white skin and arogant looking ;-P). One thing which differs from europe is the price. Its damn cheap -> everything! Shopping, designer clothes, Having dinner or even drinking cocktails is a pleasure for the purse. First night in Buenos “FUCKIN” Aires we had an all you can eat Steak Dinner at restaurant. For 62 Pesos, which is around 11 Dollars or 8 Euros, i had the best steaks i ever ate! Side dishes, 1 bottle of wine for everyone!! and Dessert, everything included. Also for those who don’t know Tango was born in La Boca, a District of Buenos Aires. I just say two words about Tango: DAMN BORING!. You really like or NOT.

Anyway in BA the 9-Day trip with our tripmates was over :-(. But against our travel plan we stayed with Ana - remember our tour leader - for 2 more days in Buenos Aires. We had a really nice Business Hotel in the middle of the Business District in BA with living room and big sleeping room which we extended for one night.

Ferry to Colonia del Sacramento

Well! after a pretty hot club night (no aircon in clubs !!!), we took the ferry from BA to Colonia del Sacramento (Uruguay). Our plan was going to Montevideo but Ana as local really didn’t recommend that. She said lets go to Colonia i promise its much better! And it was true. A nice small town at the Rio del a Plata. We enjoyed our last day together and had a really nice dinner at Lighthouse Restaurant in front of the sunset. Just see the pictures…

Meet the guys

Next day was farewell day and as expected a though day with travelling. So after a sad goodbye session with Ana we took busses, taxis and three flights to beat 3200km up to the north of brazil to Cumbuco (Fortaleza). It took us around 20 hours in total to get finally to our pousada in Cumbuco where we planned to meet Thomas (Winki) and Manschi (Manschi) and had a stay of 12 days to finish up our southamerican holidays.

Close to the Equator Cumbuco was a pretty small Surfers Paradise with lot of wind and sanddunes. It was a bit dirty but actually we didn’t give a shit about that. The aim of going there was 12 days surfing and relaxing. Our Pousada was a really nice place provided by Manni, a german outgoing and Kiting Pro ;-). He made his own bread which we really enjoyed in the mornings at breakfast. Manschi and Tom have already been there for around two weeks and they already knew where to go (it wasn’t that big so no big deal for them to behave like a local :-P). After 4 Days Martin left back home to austria.

A Crocodile and the Sunset

Means something like Jeri coa coara - A small village 5 hours to the north. We rented a car (or something like that) and made a roadtrip to this village hided in the back of sanddunes. We had to pick a local guy to drive our car through this labyrinth of sand. No streets just small paths in the sand was they way we needed to drive to get there. In Jeri there was a big dune called the dune of the sun where all people climb up to see the sunset. We took some beers and did the same and we stayed until the sun went down totally and stars came up perfectly bright. After a nice evening with dinner directly on the beach we organized a dude called ‘erwine’. He had a buggy and he brought us to the backcountry. Tons of sand, a lot of lagoons between the sanddunes and cool narrow paths filled our day. Back from the trip erwine drove us out of this sandy world back to the road. Ok sort of a road but to drive with pumped up tubes. One really annoying thing in brazil are the roads. Every 50 meters and sometimes not announced, speed stoppers (small hills on the road to lower down the cars) appeared. If you pass them with a speed of 50 km/h you will totally break the car, especially the vehicle we rented. But fortunatly we just broke one wheel. After lots of driving around and beeing lost we arrived back in the Pousada in the middle of the night - wasted!

After 4 more days in Cumbuco Oliver and me took a 24 hours journey back to vienna - of course in shorts ;-). Back home in vienna we had 45 degrees less and were back to the daly grind.

In total this was the most amazing trip i ever made. We saw a lot of amazing spots, met a lot of friendly, cool and nice people and took 12 flights in 1 month :-P. Eating cheap and not expected delicious meals, especially fish and steaks and drinking really good wines was also a big experience. Thank you martin and oliver joining me at this trip. Big Hug to Ana for joining us - looking forward seeing you in austria. And thanks to all the guys and surf nerds in Cumbuco. We gonna meet again!

Photos

All pictures will follow on flickr http://flickr.com/grobald/sets.

If you are connected to me via facebook the best pics are already uploaded:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=186636&id=548877268

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=186646&id=548877268

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpVAHnFL5l8

Hey folks!

Long time since my last blog entry. To be honest,  i decided to just write blog entries from now if something really special happened or when i am abroad somewhere in this world.

SO - the current reason for a blog entry is qando, the new public transportation app for Vienna and and its surrounding regions. qando was one of the main parts of my recently finished thesis and i am really proud of what happened in the last days!

qando was after 2 days on the first place in the austrian appstore’s 25 - top free.

In the last months i was working for Fluidtime Data Services GmbH in Vienna. They supported me with my thesis an gave me the chance to develop an iPhone application based on a powerfull webservice they have produced. I can not go more in detail because its sort of an industrial secret, nda and stuff like that - you guys know what i mean ;-). But it was definitly an application which totally fits to the aim of my thesis.

What is qando?

You can calculate a certain route from one address or special bus-, tram- or metro-station within vienna or the “VOR” region (VOR is the public transportation organisation of the eastern part of austria) to another place. As result you can see a calculated route which shows you exactly where and when you have to switch lines, busses, trains, metros and even nightbuses or if you have to call a taxi. A Realtime Feature shows you the remaining minutes you have to wait for a certain vehicle within vienna. For example: If its raining you can wait inside your flat until the realtime feature tells you that the next bus is coming in 3 minutes then dress up, put on you dirty shoes and catch the bus ;-). You can store all those selected routes and realtime queries under your personal favourites. Even more features are available! But now enough - my english is too bad to go more in detail. Get more (german) details under www.qando.at.

qando is not just availble  for the iPhone! You can use it on every common phone which supports java, on blackberries and even on windows mobile phones (it looks actually not like a Windows 98 application ;-)) - just download it under www.qando.at or from your mobile phone from m.qando.at

Over christmas i went home to austria for 2 weeks to celebrate christmas with my family and new years eve with my friends. I really enjoyed it instead of being punched together in crowded bars in amsterdam like last year.

This weekend my sister dani and her flatmate florence visited me here in amsterdam. On friday i picked up my sister at the trainstation an brang her to our official, postponed Nulaz christmas party at michiels (one of my bosses) place. There was lots of dutch, french and swiss cheese, spanish tortillia, chiniese shushi, austrian kaiserschmarrn and much more international stuff to beat.

Next day, btw it was i think the coldest day since i am here in amsterdam, my sister and me tried to do some sightseeing. After 2 hours we gave up because it was definitly to cold. So we drank a view beers and waited for flo, my sisters flatmate from switzerland. After picking her up and some italian dinner we went to some bars to get some fun. The annoying thing in amsterdam is that if there is no official party in one of the big clubs, everthing is closed after 4 am. We found a small bar just around the corner at rembrandtplein which was actually a black gay bar :-O and ended up there.

Next day we finally did some sightseeing and at the evening we had some special dutch dinner with stamped potato and meatballs - heavy stuff!! Even on this sunday evening we managed to go out up to 4 o’clock in the morning - crazy swiss people! Of course i missed to come to work at a proper time the next day :-P.

Anyway it was a very nice weekend and i am looking forward to the next weekend.

Last weekend i visited my father in frankfurt germany. I took the ICE highspeedtrain which is quite expensive if you ask at the trainstation in amsterdam. They recomended me a ticket for 168 euros :-O. Which was definetly too expensive. So i asked a german guy on the boat and e voila’. I got a special german trainticket via bahn.de for 120 euros.

The combination of old buildings and new skyscrappers in frankfurt looks really amazing. Also the christmas market in frankurt is indeed to recommend. See some pictures:

I just added a short rollover of our awesome scandinavian trip to youtube. Check it out: