German Section

About Me

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta (1304 – 1368)

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  Hello and welcome to my blog! //   German version below

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 Hey guys – thanks for coming by! I am Chris from Germany and made it to over 100 countries so far, trying to share as many stories as I can on this website. Since I was traveling full time for 3 years, I did not have time to write massive trip reports as I used to and cut long videos. Instead, I started to do shorter reports marked RTW and also about 1 minute long Live video updates, throwing in the occasional Weekly Picture whenever I find time for some editing! Eventually, I am trying to catch up with all my trips in a chronological orders, so now I am actually writing about stuff from 2011! Sorry for all the confusion and I still hope you can soak in some travel inspirations here and would always appreciate a nice comment. If you like to know more about me, just scroll down to the end of the page here and make your way up again! All the best, Chris
Hallo und danke fürs vorbeischauen! Ich bin Chris aus Deutschland, habe es mittlerweile in über 100 Länder geschafft und versuche dabei, so viele Berichte wie möglich hier auf der Seite zu veröffentlichen. Da ich über 3 Jahre Vollzeit unterwegs war, hatte ich leider keine Zeit mehr für meine ausführlichen Reiseberichte und Videos. Stattdessen habe ich dann mit kürzeren RTW Berichten und ca. 1 Minuten langen Live video updates angefangen. Ab und zu veröffentliche ich dann noch ein neues Weekly Picture sobald ich etwas Zeit zum bearbeiten finde. Letztendlich möchte ich die Hauptartikel alle in einer chronologischen Reihenfolge haben und daher schreibe ich aktuell auch noch von Berichten aus 2011! Es tut mir schrecklich leid, dass es dadurch hier etwas hin und her geht was die Zeit angeht. Hoffentlich könnt ihr euch aber dennoch die ein oder andere Reise Inspiration einholen und wenn ihr noch mehr über mich wissen wollt, dann scrollt einfach mal ganz nach unten hier auf dieser Seite. Liebe Grüße, Chris

 

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5th Update – June 2022: A new life in Montenegro

I was actually planning to be traveling again at this time, but my plans in life changed in a complete different direction. I always knew that I would like to buy a piece of land somewhere to open a small business and after traveling through Montenegro in October 2021, I totally fell in love with a property and decided to buy it. Located in the Bar area of Montenegro, the property is very special in many ways. Not only does it feature a nearly 300 year old stone ruin from the Ottoman empire and allows you to experience history in real life, but it also is blessed with the most amazing views on the mountains and Adriatic sea, which is only 2km away. I will now work on opening a live music bar in there in October 2022, followed by a Coworking space and lodging options in wooden cabins in May 2023. If you are interested in following the process, check out the website www.montenegrotower.com for all the details! Perhaps you will even come by for a drink some day in this beautiful and totally underrated country.

Cheers,
Chris

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4th Update – December 2017: The unplanned end

So now I am writing this final update just a year after the last one and my trip has actually ended. While I had plans to travel through Africa until June 2018, I decided to stay home and look for a new job after the death of my father. Sometimes life will put you in it’s own path and now I am happy to spend time with my mother and enjoy the cold air during the German winter.

Thanks to all the material that I have gathered up in the last years, I will be able to keep this site running for years and years to come, eventually I will run out of Instagram and YouTube Live videos, but at least I can use those channels to actually provide real time material for my next trip to the 101th country, whenever it may be…

Warm Regards,
Chris

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3rd Update – December 2016: End in sight?!

It is December 27, 2016, and I have just come home to celebrate Christmas with my family back in Germany after touring through the world for 2 years now. I made a lot of great experiences and am grateful for all of them and just a few weeks ago, I even learned to sail in a trip covering the Caribbean islands from Grenada to Saint Martin! Next year, I will explore South East Asia and finally make it to Australia and New Zealand, two of my top destinations since I started traveling. It should take me about 10 months for those, leaving me with a few extra months until I will return back to Europe and probably settle down in London again for Easter 2018. As much as I love traveling, I also miss a normal life as well and think it will be way due time to hit the working life, have some close people around me and finally be able to play the guitar and go climbing on a regular basis again!

So for now, I hope you will check out my soon-to-be-really-live Instagram pictures and Live video reports 🙂 I finally bought a new Dell Latitude E7470 Notebook as well and am working hard to catch up with all of my material and should be live on January 25th, arriving in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur!

Best Regards,
Chris

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2nd Update – October 2014: Time for another update for this section!

I have finally started my big Around-the-World trip for the next three years, hopefully covering all continents. I made the decision in December 2013 and used my blog to document my preparation prior to the trip. In September 2014, I sold my guitars and left London. After a few weeks in Germany, I am now updating this section from Canada and am on my way to Central America with brand new Camera equipment: The new Sony A6000 mirrorless camera and 18-105mm lens SELP18105G.

You might have noticed that I am updating my blog on a regular basis and I am hoping to keep this up. I also still want to write bigger trip reports, but those might take a bit to be completed. Actually, I have so much material piled up on my hard drive to keep me busy for the next 20-30 years 🙂

I also came up with this little clip about my youth after my dad just digitized all of his old material! Maybe some might find it interesting, haha.

Best Regards,
Chris

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Update – December 2013: My blog is over two years old now and it’s time for an update!

Probably the biggest change in my life within that time was the move over to London on July 16th, 2012 – right in time for the Olympic games! Still working for ADTECH, I was recently promoted to the “Solutions Consultant” role in October 2013 and could not have a better time here right now. I made some great friends, picked up a new hobby and it will be very hard for me to leave again in order to Travel around the World for two years starting next October…

My former Sony Alpha A35 is now replaced by a Sony Alpha A57 and a Sony SAL-16105 lens. I also bought a new guitar from my favorite brand just one week ago: a Taylor 410ce! It just sounds amazing and was a real bargain too. Online poker is something I had to lay down because of a lack of time; instead I am going indoor Climbing and Bouldering about 3-4 times a week now, which turned into a real passion as well. Currently i can boulder V3-V4s but am constantly improving.

I am also still traveling a lot of course. For instance, I just came back from a two months trip in South America and am so excited about my upcoming World tour including places like Mongolia and Antarctica, making it hard to focus on the trips to Iceland and Greenland prio to those. Once I start the journey, I will also have more time for my blog and keep you updated with live reports. The nine months until then will be used to improve the site, maybe learn some more Spanish and obviously plan my mammoth project.

Best Regards,
Chris

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I’m Chris, born on June 2nd in 1984 and currently working as an “International Client Service Manager” in the online marketing business for ADTECH in Dreieich. I live in a nice part of Frankfurt as of September 2008 and enjoy my life in this great city. The majority of my time is used to meet up with friends and to fulfill my hobbies. I grew up in a rather small town called Fulda and I would describe myself as an open, funny and dedicated young man who likes to organize events, always has a nice tidy room and sometimes presents an attention deficit – next to sporadically emerging moody phases. (My mom always tells me that I’m good at being a bad listener)

I only had one big hobby in my youth – eSport. Playing the computer game “WarCraft 3” with my nickname Tak3r for the organization mTw proved to be a rather prosperous income and a great way to enjoy journeys to distant destinations, including China, South-Korea or the USA in order to play tournaments. Speaking to fellow gamers all over the planet on a daily basis helped me to improve my English skills and triggered my desire to travel the world. However, every phase comes to an end; I slowly moved away from the eSport scene after I started my vocational training as an qualified IT specialist in 2005 – briefly being active as an Team leader and project leader for a StarCraft2 Website afterwards.

Nowadays, I concentrate on new hobbies, such as Photography which I picked up late in 2011 by buying a Sony Alpha A35. I also started to play Online Poker again in the same year (No-Limit Texas Hold’em). My consumption of US TV Shows was reduced drastically due to a lack of time and I only follow a few shows now after my favorite LOST got cancelled.

Sport also became very important for me. I try to run (12-20km) and do exercises on my punching bag on a regular basis. I also play squash or other sports from time to time. Currently, I’m thinking about starting Table Tennis again which I played in my youth because I realized that practicing MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) does not go well with my job 😉 Talking about MMA, it is my greatest passion when it comes down to sports and I follow it regularly, visiting some live events from time to time as well.

During the last year I developed a strong passion for music and I started to play on a western guitar on November 11th in 2010, buying a FENDER CD-60 CE BK. Since then, I use every free minute to play at my home or outside in a park or at the main shore, basically only learning from YouTube videos. Exactly one year later, I was approached in the park and asked if I would like to play on a wedding, which turned out to be my first event. Shortly after, I also played in a small band with two work colleagues on our Christmas Party in 2011. I can’t live without music anymore and mostly listen to Rock. Splitting my range up into harder music such as Hardcore, Metalcore & Emocore and softer music like Alternative-, Indie- und Acoustic Rock offers me a nice balance of both styles. My absolute favorite artist is Dustin Kensrue and his band Thrice. Nothing can top Parkway Drive in the hardcore/metalcore genre.

Coming to my last big hobby, I finally come to the reason why I created this blog in the first place: Traveling. I love to travel in order to explore new countries & cultures, meet new people and make friends all over the world. It is very important to me to make a raw experience during my journeys and that’s the reason I will never see the inside of a hotel again. I prefer to use Couchsurfing for city trips and my tent for hiking trips,getting a stronger bond to mother nature. I joined Couchsurfing in September 2009 and while being a little bit suspicious in the first place, I now gathered a lot of experience and I can say that it is the greatest idea to come out of the web as of now. You get to know so many different and interesting people and they help you to make the best out of your time in their city by showing you around and getting you to places which you would never see otherwise. It is also a cheap way to travel as you only show a sign of appreciation to your host and the rest is free of charge. I started to do trekking trips with my tent in the summer of 2010 and since my gear is nearly complete now, I’ll have planned plenty of outdoor trips – hopefully also outside Europe soon, in regions such as Oceania or Patagonia.

I guess this is enough to give you a brief overview about myself and I hope to pass onto you some Ideas and Inspirations for your own travel plans, giving this blog an additional purpose next of being my personal trip archive 🙂

Best Regards
Chris

Date: December 2011

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Hallo und herzlich willkommen auf meinem Blog!

Ich heiße Chris, bin am 02.Juni 1984 geboren und momentan als “International Client Service Manager” in der Online Marketing Branche bei ADTECH in Dreieich tätig. Ich wohne seit September 2008 im schönen Frankfurter Nordend und genieße mein Leben in dieser tollen Stadt. Hier treffe ich mich mit meinen Freunden und gehe meinen Hobbys nach, welche sich leider nicht mehr alle in meiner Freizeit unterbringen lassen können. Aufgewachsen bin ich in der Nähe von Fulda und ich würde mich selbst als offenen, lustigen und engagierten jungen Mann bezeichnen, der gerne Events organisiert, immer ein aufgeräumtes Zimmer hat und neben sporadisch auftretenden launischen Phasen manchmal einen Mangel an Aufmerksamkeit an den Tag legt. (O-Ton meiner Mutter: “Schlecht zuhören kannst du gut.”)

In meiner Jugend gab es eigentlich nur ein großes Hobby, den eSport. Unter dem Nicknamen Tak3r habe ich professionell das Computerspiel “WarCraft 3” im Clan mTw gespielt und konnte neben netten Preisgeldern auch in den Genuß einiger Auslandsreisen in Europa aber auch z.B. nach China, Südkorea oder Amerika kommen. Ferner festigte der tägliche intensive Kontakt mit Menschen aus aller Welt schon früh meiner Englischkenntnisse und womöglich ist dadurch auch meine große Reiselust entstanden. Nachdem ich im Jahre 2005 meine Ausbildung zum Fachinformatiker begonnen habe und folglich nicht mehr so viel Zeit wie nötig zum Spielen aufbringen konnte, habe ich mich dann in einem schleichenden Prozess zuerst vom aktiven Spielen und dann nach späteren Ausflügen ins Management als Teamleiter und Projektleiter einer StarCraft 2 Homepage mittlerweile komplett vom eSport abgewandt.

Zu meinen weiteren Hobbys gehören seit September 2011 nun auch die Fotografie mit dem Kauf meiner neuen Sony Alpha A35 und nach einer 3 jährigen Pause habe ich nun auch wieder mit dem Online Poker begonnen (No-Limit Texas Hold’em). Mein Konsum von US Serien hat sich wegen Zeitmangels erheblich gesenkt und ich schaue mittlerweile nur noch sehr wenige, nachdem sich meine Lieblingsserie Lost vor ein paar Jahren verabschiedet hat.

Auf sportlicher Ebene gehe ich regelmäßig joggen und trainiere zu Hause am Boxsack, ebenso gehe ich auch gern mal squashen und überlege gerade wieder mit Tischtennis anzufangen. Ich bin ein großer MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) Fan und auch wenn ich das Muay Thai Training Aufgrund der Inkompatibilität mit meinem Job nicht weitermachen konnte, verfolge ich immer noch sehr aktiv die Szene und freue mich auf Events in der Nähe. Ferner spiele ich seit dem 11.November 2010 in jeder freien Minute zu Hause oder an der frischen Luft mit meiner Western Gitarre (FENDER CD-60 CE BK) und bringe mir im Selbststudium Songs bei. Genau ein Jahr später hatte ich am 11.11.2011 meinen ersten Solo Auftritt auf einer Hochzeit und kurz später den ersten in einer Band mit 2 Arbeitskollegen auf unserer Weihnachtsfeier. Das ganze hat mir sehr viel Spaß gemacht und ich plane in Zukunft noch mehr Zeit in die Musik zu stecken und auch den ein oder anderen Song zu covern. Generell kann ich ohne Musik nicht leben, ich bin abhängig davon und höre eigentlich nur Rock – genauer teilt sich mein Spektrum auf der einen Seite mit eher härteren Musikrichtungen wie Hardcore, Metalcore & Emocore und auf der anderen Seite mit ruhigeren Sachen aus den Bereichen Alternative-, Indie- und Akustik Rock auf. Mein absoluter Favorit ist Dustin Kensrue und dessen Band Thrice und bei der härteren Musik geht nichts über Parkway Drive.

Mit meinem letzten großen Hobby komme ich schließlich auf den Grund für die Erstellung diesen Blogs zurück: das Reisen. Ich reise unglaublich gern, um neue Länder, Menschen und Kulturen kennenzulernen. Dabei ist es mir wichtig, das jeweilige Land und dessen Bewohner kennenzulernen und nicht nur eine Hotelanlage mit deren Touristen. Aus diesem Grunde bestehen meine Reisen eigentlich nur aus Couchsurfing oder Zelttrips. Seit September 2009 bin ich bei Couchsurfing angemeldet und auch ich war anfangs etwas skeptisch dem ganzen Konzept gegenüber – jedoch kann ich mit vollster Überzeugung nach meinen bisherigen Erfahrungen sagen, dass Couchsurfing einer der besten Ideen im Netz ist. Man lernt so viele interessante Menschen und deren Heimat kennen und kann die vorhandene Zeit durch z.B. Stadt-Führungen durch die Gastgeber perfekt zu Nutze machen – abgesehen davon kostet der ganze Spaß nichts bis auf eine kleine Aufmerksamkeit gegenüber seiner Gastgeber – einfach ein geniales System, welches bisher noch optimal funktioniert! Seit Sommer 2010 bin auch dem Wandern bzw. neudeutsch Trekking verfallen und besitze eine kompette Ausrüstung für Touren im freien – ein super Kontrastprogramm zu den Städte Trips über Couchsurfing. Bisher war ich so leider nur in Europa unterwegs, ich freue mich schon sehr auf Trips in weiter entfernten Gegenden wie Ozeanien oder Patagonien.

Damit solltet ihr einen kleinen Einblick zu meiner Person bekommen haben und nun hoffe ich, dass ihr ein paar Ideen und Anregungen für eigene Urlaubspläne hier finden werdet und das ganze neben einem kleinen persönlichen Urlaubsarchiv für mich auch noch einen weiteren Sinn hat. 🙂

Liebe Grüße
Chris

Stand: Dezember 2011
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Well, know you know all about me! Time to check out my Travel Reports, Videos and Photographs! 😉
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