2011: Year in Pictures

Year in Pictures

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• anjci
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• Year in Pictures

2011 is soon coming to an end. Without exaggeration, it has been the most active travel year in the life of anjči yet. From Vietnam to Brazil, from Syria to Canada, from Svalbard to Faroe Islands, from Macedonia to Oman – it’s been one exciting roller-coaster ride; one incredible year.

It has of course not all been about travel. I will always remember 2011 as the year of my first ever promotion at work; the year Getty Images noticed some of my humble Flickr photos; the year this blog got its more or less regular audience. Not even to mention the year in which I saw more of you, my much missed friends, than ever before in a single year – even if this meant travelling a little more than usual.

Ahead of my 2011 newsletter (coming out later this week), I hope you will enjoy this quick photographic journey through my travel highlights of 2011.

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1 January: I welcome 2011 on an old school Vietnamese train, squeezed into a top berth in a compartment carrying about twice its envisaged passenger capacity. The first day of 2011 doesn’t feel particularly festive at all – Vietnam celebrates its New Year in February, as dictated by the Lunar calendar (Hoi An, Vietnam)

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6 January: The last stop of my Vietnamese adventure, Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) overwhelms me with insane traffic, communist memorabilia and the hugely contrasting Western influence (Saigon, Vietnam)

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6 February: A long-term dream of mine is fulfilled as I catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights in Arctic Norway. Rather conveniently, the Saami celebrate their national day with some reindeer races in town that same weekend (Tromsø, Norway)

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19 March: Beating all my travel records, I fly to Rio de Janeiro for a long weekend to celebrate Fernanda and Federico’s wedding. The occasion is a huge success, and I even squeeze in a favela visit and a quick tour of Rio’s iconic sights (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

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9 April: Venice proves to be a perfect city to get lost in. I spend two days roaming its narrow streets on a mission to avoid the crowds – only really succeeding before 7am (Venice, Italy)

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22 April: Disregarding everyone’s words of warning, I fly to Syria to find the country steadily progressing towards a revolution. While the Western news reports make the visit somewhat nerve-wrecking, I am infinitely grateful to make it to Syria before the political situation makes it a non-tourist destination (Damascus / Aleppo / Deir ez-Zor, Syria)

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29 April: Finally succumbing to my friends’ concerns, I exit Syria for the arguably safer Lebanon. Perhaps it is because I expect so much from Beirut that the built-up, traffic overridden city actually disappoints (Beirut, Lebanon)

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7 May: On my third visit to Istanbul, I discover how little the city has changed in one year. Same fishermen are still fetching their daily catch from same bridges, and same tourists are still invading in great numbers – only to be further outnumbered by the locals (Istanbul, Turkey)

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21 May: In a rather quirky pursuit, I use up my air miles to fly to Kiev for a weekend and head straight to the Chernobyl disaster site – where time seems to have stood still ever since 1986 (Chernobyl, Ukraine)

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26 May: After years of planning, I finally make it to the eerily remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard (78 degrees North). At the risk of having me freeze to death, my luggage follows a day later (Longyearbyen, Svalbard)

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3 June: Luggage drama continues as I lose my possessions for the third time in 10 days en-route Macedonia’s celebrated city of Ohrid. A spontaneous friendship is made at the airport where a local family practically adopts me. Oh, and the bag is delivered the next day (Ohrid, Macedonia)

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18 June: My fate is reversed as torrential rain spares some clear skies in Stockholm. I capture my dream shot in the Gröna Lund tivoli – which later goes on to score a front image on my employer’s Christmas card (Stockholm, Sweden)

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2 July: The highlight trip of the year unfolds as I reach the Norwegian Lofoten islands. Five days of brilliant blue skies, ceaseless midnight sun, breath-taking natural beauty – all that way into the Arctic Circle, too – are still proving difficult to forget (Lofoten, Norway)

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10 July: The northernmost tip of Europe turns out to be a fake. Why hasn’t anyone told me Nordkapp is located on an island and therefore cannot actually hold the title? I still love the views, though (Nordkapp, Norway)

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29 July: Everything around seems to have molded together into a swaying mass of singing folk. It is my second visit to the Faroe Islands, and I have timed it with the archipelago’s national festival, the Ólavsøka. More splendid windswept views await, too (Faroe Islands)

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27 August: At Rainer and Heidrun’s wedding in Frankfurt, I am once again reminded that finding the right person may take a long time – but is well worth waiting for. Spending two days with my wonderful Frankfurt friends makes me wonder why it has taken me so long to return (Frankfurt, Germany)

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3 September: My tolerance to heights is put to test atop Preikestolen – Norway’s most famous free standing rock. Some people are nonchalant enough to attempt balancing off the edge at the height of over 600 meters. I do no better than crawling over on my stomach (Preikestolen, Norway)

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8 September: Back in Istanbul on my arguably coolest business trip of the year, I admire the city’s eclectic skyline from the hotel room. Life has never seemed better! (Istanbul, Turkey)

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2 October: The discovery of the northern hemisphere brings me to Western Canada. The Rocky Mountains take my breath away, and seeing the long-missed friends in Vancouver is certainly worth every mile flown (British Columbia / Alberta, Canada)

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15 October: It is my first visit to Oslo since the 22 July attacks. On an unusually warm autumn day, the sun shines over the city that will never be the same again (Oslo, Norway)

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11 November: Poppies flood the green lawns around Scott Monument in Edinburgh. The nation remembers (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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16 November: As the year-end rush at work simply gets too much, I leave it all behind for the mysterious charm of Oman. An overnight flight later, I am transferred to a culture so wonderfully new that five days seem like to last a month (Muscat / Nizwa / Sur, Oman)

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10 December: Have I really seen much of London this year? As the year draws to a close, I get up early to photograph the sun rising over the Thames. The view from Tower Bridge accompanies me on the way to work every morning, but I never really find time to stop (London, England)

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25 December: My last stop of the year is in Rajasthan, one of India’s most fascinating regions. The locals’ love for the camera never fails to amaze me; needless to say that I am never heard complaining (Rajasthan, India)

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Thanks for scrolling through. Stay tuned for the 2011 Newsletter!

And Happy New Year to you all!

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