Berlin, a city which is getting nicer with each visit. This city trip was my Christmas gift from Len. She bought me a flight ticket, booked me a bed in the nice Michelberger Hotel and also wanted to accompany me for that weekend.

First thing we did was to arrange ourselves some bikes. After that we went straight into Kreuzberg to explore the Oranienstrasse and Hamburgerstrasse area. Great contemporary concept shops like Voo and lots of spots to hang out and enjoy a drink or two. That evening we just had to stop by Das Hotel, a bar you would like to have in your home town. Yet, things aren’t alike in your home town. People might not be as friendly, creative and accessible like those in Berlin. We completely are in love with Berlin.

Last but certainly not least on our menu. A mini trekking in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine in Chile.

To get there we had a 6 hour bus trip starting from El Calafate to get to this amazing piece of nature.  Torres del Paine is a national park encompassing mountains, a glacier, a lake, and river-rich areas in southern Chilean Patagonia.

We were quite lucky to even get to Torres del Paine. The place suffered from a devastating fire a couple weeks prior to our visit. Affecting most of the areas around Lake Pehoé and the western areas around Lake Sarmiento. Cordillera del Paine, the park’s centerpiece which features the famous W trekking circuit wasn’t affected.  

Patagonia, Argentina. I have been wanting to go here for a very long time so this was an exciting trip. We managed to get our hands on a couple tickets to fly 4.000 km. from Buenos Aires to El Calafate with a short stop in Neuquén. Make sure you got the right window seat because this flight offers some fascination views from above, overlooking gorgeous Patagonia.

We arrived in El Calafate, an isolated village all set up for tourism. It’s a perfect hub for planning day trips to various places. We were going there for 2 things. The spectacular Perito Moreno glacier and the Torres del Paine natural park in Chile.

Uruguay! What started as a horror story ended with a happy end. Uruguay is known for it’s relaxed people. Things are a bit more slow paced in a good way. People seem to enkoy life just a bit more. Sounds like our spot.

We flew from Salta to Punta del Este in Uruguay with Buenos Aires as connection hub. When we arrived in Uruguay we wanted to avoid the St. Tropez like Punta del Este after seeing five plastic faces within one minute after arrival.

So we took our chances and got a taxi to a bus terminal 30 km. from the airport. Lucky for us there was a bus going Punta del Diablo. The bad part, we should be arriving there at 01.30 AM.

I’m redeeming my Christmas present this weekend in Berlin at the Michelberger Hotel. This equals a lovely weekend of relaxing and enjoying in Berlin with the misses

Will do: go in work hibernate mode, have my eyes open, stroll endlessly through Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain, Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg. Suck in the Berlin vibe and at least try to maintain it for over a week, ease  my head and have my Leica ready for whenever there’s action.

See you in a bit.

After some wine tasting in Mendoza we got on another charter bus and set course for Salta. It took us 20 hours to get from Mendoza to Salta, 20 hours folks!

We sure weren’t quite prepared for such long distances but the bus companies in Argentina are quite comfortable. The Andesmar company was our best experience with lunch, dinner, entertainment and even a game of bingo on board. A long but pretty funny trip. A bit weird was the extreme violent movie they played during daytime with a bunch of kids in front of the screens.

We arrived in Mendoza after a 14 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires Retiro bus station. Mendoza is a place to do some wine tasting and go into the mountains for some serious mountaineering. For us, just the wine tasting was on the menu.

Mendoza is located near the Andes area pretty far inland so it was no surprise it was hot. Just the kind you’d expect from a desert town. Walking from our Bed and Breakfast to the city center made us realize it wasn’t quite the thing we were expecting for which made us decide to leave one day earlier than the three we were planning to stay but not till we’ve experienced some of those world famous grapes of this region.

We were lucky to bump into all these people celebrating New Years Eve at this awesome block party in Palermo, Buenos Aires.

I was also lucky to produce some nice photos with my analog Leica camera with just 400 ISO in it. I shot these wide open at f2 with my Leica Summicron 50mm lens. The videos were shot with my iPhone4, enjoy.

Buenos Aires, what can I say? It was our starting point for the 3 week trip through Argentina and also the place where we kicked off the year 2012. And man, Buenos Aires is an amazing city! I’ll try to describe our experience in this gorgeous place.

We booked a couple nights at bed & breakfast Palermo Living in Palermo Hollywood. A lovely spot with a very nice crew. From the moment we walked we experienced the cosiness of the Buenos Aires Palermo area. It is packed with lovely spots such as Oui Oui and Magendie to lunch and it has some very nice boutiques. People there seemed very tranquil and easy going. It was love at first sight.

Wow, last weekend I got back from a 3-week holiday traveling through Argentina. And man what fun it was. Buenos Aires, Salta, Glacier spotting in Patagonia, Punta del Diablo in Uruguay, and Torres del Paine in Chile. Lots of places were visited, lots of analog photos were taken. I will develop and try to scan some rolls of film over the weekend.

Expect a couple Argentina related posts with hopefully some nice photos in the coming weeks. Further more? I received a very nice gift from Hard Graft and received some other nice stuff in the mail which will be featured on Cloud Cuckoo.

Oh and I think it’s about time to put some more Tumblr Photo Bliss posts online. It’s all coming.

Finally, the tickets are booked! We are preparing a 3 week trip to Argentina starting on the 30th of December.

I’m so looking forward to celebrate new years eve in Buenos Aires. Go all the way down to Tierra del Fuego, encounter one of worlds most fascinating piece of nature, the Perito Moreno glacier. Head for Mendoza and Cordoba and visit all the other fascinating places Argentina has to offer.

Other great things I can’t wait for is the Argentine people and the amazing steaks. I think we are going to have a blast! Any tips or knowledge of hidden gems throughout Argentina? Please tell me your best kept secrets. They’ll be absolutely safe with me.

The second roll of the roadtrip got back from the lab. It was my first experience with color positive film.

I got myself a Velvia 100 film after seeing the stunning results and after reading some detailed reviews (like the one at KenRockwell) about the film. The high saturation appealed to me so I decided to give it a try.

I’m not quite sure what happened here but not all shots are that highly saturized at all. I think I might have overexposed them a bit. However, some turned out pretty awesome. You really should check out the first one in a higher resolution version, amazing!

Almost all photos were taken in San Sebastián in Spain. Enjoy!

I went on a 1 week camper roadtrip with 3 friends a couple weeks ago. It was a blast! Driving +4.000 km in a really shitty camper, fridge stuffed with warm beer, walking through village centres, eating local dishes, stopping over at some classic packed camping sites… golden.

Our main destination was the Monegros Desert Festival, which was unlike! I brought my Leica M3 with me to shoot some of the roadtrip. Here are the first results. Others will follow soon.

These photos were taken with a Leica M3, 50mm Summicron and Fuji NeoPan 1600 film. The film is causing the somwhat heavy grain on the photos. Hope you like them.

Seeing this clip called ‘Move’ reminds me how much fun it is to travel, walk and see different parts of the world. It also reminds me that it’s about GD time to go on a new journey myself.

Move was made by 3 guys (Rick Mereki, Tim White and Andrew Lees) in just 44 days visiting 11 countries. That sounds like a lot of rushing to me. This really makes me want to book a ticket for our next trip to Argentina, today!

See Move in the full post. A very well executed project.

I’m packed and ready to hit the road. Three friends and I are setting course for the sun and go all the way down in our rented camper through Belgium and France towards Fraga, Spain to attend the Monegros Desert festival. We’ll hunt down some sweet French coastal spots along the way to catch some sun and some summer breeze.

Having time off means a time out from blogging but I’m sure I’ll have some nice stories to tell and some sweet photos to show when I’m back. I’m bringing my Leica M3 and a lot of film with me.

Enjoy yourself in the meantime with my Tumblr, definitely worth a daily visit. See you soon!