Splette's Travel Blog
  • A surfer at sunset at Tamarindo beach, Costa Rica
  • A street in the colonial town of Granada, Nicaragua, photographed from a church tower.
  • Waterfall at sunset in Costa Rica
  • Who's this lady? Saw her in New York...
  • On the way to the top of volcano Barva you pass by some 'magic forest'
  • The San Francisco skyline (easily recognizable by the Transamerica Pyramid on the left)
  • Panama City - I love the grungy look of the city
  • Caribbean beach at a peaceful summer night, captured by long exposure.
  • The active volcán Arenal is close to La Fortuna and too dangerous to climb
  • Sleeping yellow eyelash viper in the wild. Small but deadly.
  • Me on volcán Santiaguito
  • Chicago (aka Gotham City)
  • One of the iconic yellow New York City cabs
  • Chrysler Building, New York
  • Times Square, New York
  • The White House
  • Towards the light
  • Nuclear Reactor at the Oak Ridge National Lab
  • Featured Content

  • February14th

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    New York, New York

    New York Skyline with Empire State Building

    Skyline with Empire State Building

    I have arrived in New York, and I am quite amazed. I do love metropolises and especially this one. It’s a great place to get lost and just walk around. Everywhere there is something to discover. Manhattan is full of landmarks and places that you know from movies and TV. Now that I have seen them with my own eyes, I can confirm they really exist. The food is good and diverse. The people are all a little more ‘hip’ then in other places. I don’t feel out of place here. Actually I feel I am in the right place. So, I just decided to stay another week or more…

  • February11th

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    Philadelphia

    There were 20 people in front of the queue but it was worth the wait. Tasty!

    Philly cheesesteak

    Today I reached Philadelphia. Just got here 3 hours ago but the first impression is very good. I am staying at a hostel downtown. Somehow I find $35 to share a room with 15 other guys a little steep. But I had no choice as all my (20+) attempts to Couchsurf in the U.S. have failed so far. To be fair, I should mention that indeed I was offered one couch in Washington DC. But this guy said in his email that we would share the room and that he sleeps naked. Errr… I decided to turn down his generous offer…
    It’s time crash couches of friends I am visiting (Evelyn & Stephan: I am on my way) or move on to Central and South America for my wallet to recover.
    By the way, I am stupid. Part of my 1 year mission here is to make some contact with other science illustrators. I recently came across the website of someone who is freelancing in this area just like me. This was the reason I decided to stop by Philadelphia. Today I tried to remember the website of that guy, went through my list of bookmarks one by one but guess what: I can’t find it! I have no idea what his name was or website was called and a google search didn’t help. Oh well, my life is as chaotic as ever…

  • February10th

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    Washington DC

    Yes, it's impressive

    The White House

    It’s 7 am and I wake up in a different world. The bus is arriving at the National Mall in DC, an impressive view. We stop at a traffic light right in front of the United States Institute of Peace (surrounded by a tall fence). I wonder if the institute is part of the Department of Defense. I get off at the bus stop and start walking. It’s cold but nothing like the apokalyptic snowstorm the news made me to expect.

    I spent much time here, especially in Starbucks

    Chinatown

    The nice thing about DC is there is a Starbucks on every block. This one is only a few blocks away from the White House. People on the next table discuss international affairs. Yep, I am not in Knoxville, Tennessee any more. I get a hot chocolate, go online and start looking for a place to sleep tonight…

    My lovely hostel in Washington DC

    My hostel

    No luck with the couchsurfing but I find a centrally-located hostel, a bit expensive though. It turned out to be a great place. Very friendly, clean, safe. Some of the usual weird/crazy guests (I wonder if I will turn into one of those after a year of traveling). My stay in DC turns out to be quite different than expected. I am very busy with scistyle work (two deadlines on the same weekend), my private projects, keeping up with writing emails and organizing things. Eventually, I spent most of the time with my laptop at Starbucks in Chinatown and get to see only a few museums in DC, all of which I love. The National Mall is truly impressive! DC is extremely different from Knoxville, TN (are you surprised? I am not…) … not just bigger. Interestingly I found DC to be very calm taking into account that it’s the capital of the U.S. I expected it to be a lot more busy.

    Hirshhorn Museum for contemporary art. One of my favorites.

    Hirshhorn Museum

    A short side note for my WeightWatchers® friends. Since I got to DC I am on a radical diet. Need to get rid of all that extra baggage that accumulated due to Paul’s cooking, Christmas and the Knoxville burger-stuffing-spree. But no, I won’t start blogging weekly updates on how many pounds I lost…

  • February10th

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    The Pentagon

    The only photo I managed to take. They are so paranoid. *sigh*

    Metro stop: Pentagon

    The Pentagon is the worst tourist attraction ever! Seriously. My Japanese friend Daisuke with whom I shared the dorm in the hostel was very keen on seeing the Pentagon. So was I. Thus, after visiting the Capitol and The White House we took the metro to the Pentagon. We didn’t quite know what to expect and stumbled out of the metro with our cameras (his small, mine not so small). But there was nothing really, except lots of fences, the facade of a building (could this be the Pentagon?) and a bus station right ahead. We had a look at the bus station but all the buses seemed to go to other parts of the city. Then we discovered a sign “authorized tourist groups” at the entrance to some security checkpoint building. I didn’t feel very authorized in that moment.

    Daisuke in front of the Supreme Court

    Daisuke at Supreme Court

    Unlike Daisuke. And just as he was about to enter the gate a policeman materialized behind us. We hadn’t seen anyone approaching us. It was like is was beamed there in an instant – right out of a movie! Wearing sunglasses, leaning on a pole and arms folded he asked in an authoritarian voice “What are you doing?”. After a few questions about where we are from and what we are doing here, we got to hear that this was the Pentagon and we were not allowed to take any pictures here. And of course we could not enter. Visitors need to register months in advance. We were allowed to visit the Pentagon Memorial though which was erected outside to remember the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack here. So, we decided to check that out. But that wasn’t worth the visit either. It is a sad little park-like thing outside the Pentagon parking lot in the middle of nowhere.
    So, whatever you decide to see in Washington DC, skip the Pentagon. You are not missing anything…

  • February4th

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    The journey begins … (again)

    This isn’t the first time I write something like ‘the trip finally starts’. First I left Heidelberg for good, then I said farewell to my parents and friends in my hometown and then to my close friends in Berlin. But crossing the Atlantic and visiting Knoxville somehow did not bring the feeling of excitement you’d expect when going on a one-year backpacking tour. Knoxville feels so incredibly familiar, staying the last four weeks at Loukas’ place, visiting the Oak Ridge National Lab and by chance running into people I know at Starbucks, Borders or Market Square almost daily. It feels like I have been living here for years. But after a few days delay due to my package from Germany that I already believed to be lost, I finally said goodbye to Knoxville and friends and the real backpacking begins.
    It’s 1 am now and I am sitting in a bus to Washington DC. For the first time during the journey I feel real excitement. Amazing how a 9 hour bus ride through the night can make you feel so excited, free and happy. But for now it’s time to catch some sleep…

  • February1st

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    Lost and found and moving on…

    Parked orderly in the parking lot of Loukas' charming apartment complex

    My rental car: Toyota Matrix. And it is red!

    Knoxville, Tennessee is the first stop of my journey. Here, I was visiting the Oak Ridge National Lab once more and met friends that I had made during my previous 5 visits of the most exciting city in East Tennessee. Big thanks to the Greeks (Loukas, Panos, Maria and Zoe the cockatiel) for hosting me. Sleeping on some blankets on the floor was an excellent practice to acclimatize for the upcoming backpacking. But after spending four weeks here in Knoxville it is time to move on. Last week my access to the lab expired and I had to return my rental car without which you are pretty much stuck in a city like Knoxville. This may have been the last time I had the luxury of a rental car. Saturday was my official farewell (more about that in another post) but it seems I am unable to leave.

    Driving on I40 towards the Oak Ridge National Lab. I'm easily recognizable by the purple SONAR wristband...

    Driving the Matrix to the lab

    I had bought one of those amazingly cheap $1.50 tickets with Megabus to go to Washington DC and was getting ready to leave tomorrow morning. But it seems I will stay at least another day. Ever since I got here, I was waiting for a parcel my dad sent here January 5. It contains some things I was too lazy to carry in my backpack (mostly books). It hasn’t arrived in four weeks and I kept losing hope that it ever will. But just tonight we saw a message from the apartment complex office that a package has arrived. The office opens only after my bus leaves early in the morning, so I decided to miss the bus tomorrow and buy a new ticket for the day after, hoping the parcel that arrived is actually mine. Another good reason to wait another day is that I have still not found a place to sleep in Washington DC on couchsurfing.com.

  • January18th

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    Thirty Two

    Birthday party: My professor corrects my poorly written publication revisions

    My professor and me at my birthday party – working

    This week one day I suddenly happened to feel old(er). For some reason I get this feeling once every year in January. This is already the second birthday I celebrate in Knoxville, Tennessee. It’s a bit sad that most of my friends are living in other parts of this world. However, I am happy to have gotten so much mail form all of you. It’s a nice feeling to not be forgotten although I am not around anymore 🙂
    The party was rather small, my PhD advisor Jeremy and me went over some corrections (how exciting) of the revisions of my recent publication, everyone brought beer and wine but nobody drank any since they all came by car (I did though, ha) and then there was poor Xiaohu with his usual paranoiac anxiety attacks. Pavan generously contributed entertaining stories and Loukas and me prepared some not-too-bad Chili con Carne that was worth at least half a Michelin star. I have no idea how I am supposed to finish all the leftover beer during the next 10 days that I will be in Knoxville…

  • January14th

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    Vaccination marathon

    Vaccination List

    Hmm, that’s going to be a lot of shots…

    Vaccination time, yeah!
    As the perfectly-organized German backpacker that I am it will come to you as no surprise that in preperation to this trip I went to the Institute of Tropical Medicine of the university to get my vaccinations sorted out. Vaccinations are great. They are like a firmware upgrade. Splette V1.04 to Splette V1.06!
    When I went to the tropical medicine institute I was hoping for vaccinations of some really exotic diseases such as dracunculiasis (creepy, he?). But the most exotic one I got was just yellow fever. And then there was rabies (in case I get bitten by that Anaconda during a stroll in the Amazon rain forrest…).

    One of my vaccination shots. I was such a brave boy...

    Me getting a couple of shots

    However, I shockingly realized than many of my regular vaccinations had expired over the years. I was especially concerned about Tetanus and Hepatitis B. But also Diphtheria, typhoid fever and polio had expired. Eventually I ended up getting some eight shots or so in three sessions. I feel all upgraded now…

    Vaccination Record

    All done

  • January7th

    1 Comment

    Things I will might miss about Germany

    Away from Germany for only two days and already missing it? Err… no, thankfully not. I never experienced homesickness (in fact I rarely ever get sick in general) and usually I’m way too excited when traveling to miss things from home. But over the months there may come a time where I will miss certain things. Probably something silly like Nutella… Oh, and I can already hear certain friends telling me “So, Germany isn’t so bad after all, is it?” Oh well, here is my list of things I think I may be missing at some point:


    Yummy: German potato salad

    Hmm, German Potato Salad

    • #1 My own bed
    • #2 A hot shower (meaning really hot)
    • #3 My privacy
    • #4 German bread
    • #5 My desktop computer with 22″ screen

    No, German potato salad didn’t make it onto the list.

    Let’s see how I will feel about this in a few months…

    Update: Not surprisingly, the potato salad was rather awful….

  • January6th

    1 Comment

    Goodbye Germany, Hello World

    Abmeldung

    Checkout from Germany

    Today is special. I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. Right now, I’m on flight Delta 79 from Berlin to New York. My sixth time in the US but this time is different. I am not on vacation. I’m leaving Germany for good. For about 10 years now I’ve wanted to move abroad. Now, that I finished my PhD I am finally free to do whatever I want. I canceled my contracts, moved out of my apartment in Heidelberg, stored my things somewhere, said Goodbye to friends and family and now I’m on my way to do that pan-american backpacking tour I’ve been dreaming of for a couple of years. (In fact, I created this website already 1.5 years ago.) The first few weeks of this trip I will spend in Knoxville, Tennessee where I am again visiting the Oak Ridge National Lab. During my last stays there, I made quite a few friends. Therefore, Knoxville feels a bit like a second home to me, although ‘parallel universe’ may be a better desciption as Tennessee is not from this world… (If you’ve ever spent some time there you know what I am talking about.) After that, I’ll be backpacking to Canada first and then Central and South America. As of now, I have not made any detailed plans about when I’ll be in which country and for how long. No pre-booking, no constraints, just a rough idea about which countries I want to see. Currently, the plan is to travel for about a year before settling down somewhere but that too may change…

    So, join me on my journey. I’m hoping for adventures, amazing places to see, new things to learn, and much more and I’ll be blogging throughout the trip to keep u up to date.

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