Behind Around the World in 80 Clicks
Hello! I would like to introduce myself. I am maintainer, developer, writer, photographer for traveladventures.org. On this page I would like to tell you a little bit more about the background of this site. After years of travelling, I have decided to make use of the Internet technology to make a lot of pictures and stories about some of my travels available for a world wide audience. Travelling is my passion and large part of my life. Making this site available to all of you, I feel that I can give something back from all the input I get on my travels.
Some of you might wonder how it is possible that someone travels so extensively. Well, I have always felt that travelling has somehow been fed into me since I started drinking milk as a baby. When I was only 5 months old, my parents decided to take me to Greece, which took some 50 hours by train. In Greece, instead of spending holidays on the beach, they decided to wander around the island of Crete with me. Apart from a lot of local curiosity, this also prepared me for a restless life of travelling. Indeed, when spending more than a few hours at a beach, I am bored and wish to move on....
Anyway, when I grew up I kept my travelmindedness. My father's work in an international institute implied that our house was often filled with exotic people from around the world, but mainly so-called developing countries.
Whenever I saw a plane, train or boat, I was excited. When I reached adulthood, I went on an Interrail tour of Europe 9 times. After ending my office life as a computer programmer, I went to Africa and Spain where I worked as a computer consultant and student of Spanish, respectively. Both events further increased my restlessness and yearning to explore the unknown, and when I started studying International Relations at the University of Amsterdam, I felt almost dead: I felt a strong need to explore more of the world, no matter how interesting my university. So, I applied for a job as flight attendant for a major European airline. And that's where I still am, for over 18 years now. Currently, I am working as a senior purser on intercontinental flights, so I will continue to add pictures from all over the world.
After most flights, where others sometimes tend to sleep and rest at the swimming pool, I take a small bag, my camera and hit the road to explore a country, even if it is the 20th time I am there. Each and every holiday I leave Europe to explore new countries, or better explore countries where I have been before. This has allowed me to build a huge collection of pictures from over 110 countries now. You can see a selection of those pictures on this site.
Hardware:
Pictures taken before June 1993 were taken with a Minox camera; for those taken between June 1993 and August 2000 I used a Pentax Espio115; those taken between September 2000 and October 2004 are taken with a Sony DSC-F505V digital camera. Pictures taken since November 2004 are taken with my new photography companion, the Canon EOS 20D, while those taken since November 2007 are taken with a Canon EOS 40D. I currently use a Canon 17-40mm 4L USM, a 24-105mm 4L IS USM, a 70-300mm 4.5-5.6 IS USM, and a 10-22mm 3,5-4,5 EF-S USM lens. At the same time, I remain a convinced light traveller, although I recognize the needs of a good lens for great pictures: a dilemma!
Keep coming back to this site, as it will continuously expand. My travelling will only stop when some higher force so decides.
And, please send me your comments. If you find errors, misspellings, false information, missing pictures.... this site is human work! Let me know!
Boris Kester
