Before I’m diving into the Oahu part of our trip, the first picture here is that one photo I took on Maui. Oahu was our last destination on our 3.5-months-trip (not counting a 20-something-hour layover in LA). After having been to quite a number of beaches within the last few days on the Big Island, we didn’t need much beach time on Oahu. Instead, we did the short hike/walk up to the Diamond Head crater, where I took the same photo I’d taken two years ago. We ate a lot of delicious things (poké!) and (re)discovered some great coffee spots in Honolulu and enjoyed being in a big city again after a few weeks without one. And we rented a […]

We flew from San Francisco to Maui after a week. We weren’t able to rent a car because my license had been stolen along with my daypack in Mexico. This, along with the not-so-great public transport on the island and the location of the exorbitantly overpriced apartment we rented, led to us not seeing a whole lot of Maui at all. We went to the beach once or twice and spent what felt like most of our time Skype-calling several car rental and car sharing companies and getting frustrated because we couldn’t really go anywhere. At least, the weather wasn’t great either so we didn’t miss that much. I took one single photo on Maui, which is why I’m skipping […]

It was my first time in San Francisco, second time for Seraina – she’d once visited the city with her uncle when she was a child. The city was everything I expected and more. Buildings and streets were beautiful, it was rainy and rather cool at first (though we got quite some sun a few days later). We ate like kings and queens for a full week, coffee was top-notch, people looked very normal. Our Airbnb was a cozy room in huge, old, beautiful apartment heavy with Asian antiques.

Leaving Colombia after a month, we flew from Bogotá to Cancún. We stayed in the city only long enough to go on an Isla Mujeres day trip, then moved on to spend the next two weeks eating our way through Quintana Roo and the Yucatán Peninsula. En route, we got to relax on some beautiful beaches, went diving and snorkelling with eagle rays and turtles and, of course, visited the famous ruins of Chichén Itzá and Ek’ Balam. It was a really wonderful time, even though my daypack was stolen after the first week in Playa del Carmen – a place we initially wanted to avoid.

I post photos of Bern every 6-12 months, so I’m now adding the months the photos were taken in to the title of the posts. Very important information, right? Anyways, these 27 photos are from the second half of 2017 and most of them were taken either at (my former) home – a great, large duplex apartment that I shared with friends for a little more than four years – or on the route Seraina and I often chose when going for a walk through the city.

I think it was in summer 2016 that Coffee Circle were looking for people to write coffee-themed guides of the cities they lived in (or they visited). Though it took me months to begin working on mine about the city of Bern, I finally finished it last fall – and a few months later, it was published on their website. I’m quite content with most of the photos and happy to share my favorite places to have coffee in my hometown.

I was planning on posting 2017’s best of or flashback post earlier than last year’s. Instead, I’m posting it much later, how about that! 2017 seemed like the fastest year in my life. It was the first full year of full-time self-employment for me and my office was still my bedroom in a shared apartment. It definitely won’t be next year, though. There were many highlights, many new plans made, lots of wonderful places visited, delicious food tasted, and great things experienced.

As announced about a month ago, here’s the second part of my Traveling Light pictures. I was delighted when I got more scans back from the lab and was remind once again of this inspiring event and of the great people I met there. Once again, though, I wish I had taken more photos. Almost two months have passed since the film photography gathering in Torroella de Montgrí. The inspiration and motivation to take action and change a lot of things was huge at first – and although it has faded a little bit, it’s still here.

We were going to hike and spend time in the Alps much more this summer, but somehow, time passed by way too fast. So this was our last trip of the summer to the mountains and it wasn’t even much of a hike either. And though it was very crowded – lots of Chinese tourists – and despite the overcast weather it was nice and the views were beautiful. Also, the closer we got to the lake in the last picture, the less crowded it got.

It took me some time to post this but it’s much better to look at those photos from this past summer in the Swiss Alps now that it’s cold out. Oeschinensee is a mountain lake with a wonderful blue color in a region that offers many hiking routes, from an hour short to a few days long. We chose a rather short one for a day-trip we had long been waiting for. It took us a few hours to walk from the cable car station to the lake, halfway around, and back. The views were gorgeous.