I don’t know about you, but whenever I travel to a place I’ve never seen before, I do quite a bit of research. Months before the actual trip, I start gathering info about the location I’m about to visit.

So it’s fair to say that I had a pretty good idea about what Cappadocia had to offer in terms of landscape and scenery. Still, there’s no website, no flickr set or YouTube clip that can prepare you for what you’re about to experience once you cross that last hill and descend into Goreme.

When we were about 20Km away from the destination, we decided to ditch the GPS (the directions were wrong anyway) and take the easiest road (even if maybe a bit longer), through Nevsehir. Once there, we finally saw the first road sign pointing to Goreme. Before then Uchisar.

Not only that, but we could also see the subtle change in landscape. More of the famous rock formations started showing up as we got closer to our destination. It was like nature left a large scale bread crumb trail for us to follow.

As we were approaching Goreme, it became more and more difficult for me to focus on the road, as my eyes were constantly drawn to the amazing scenery. It all seemed so familiar, yet so new and exciting. Right before reaching Goreme, the rock citadel of Uchisar (highest town in Cappadocia and visible from miles away) unfolded before our eyes. The view (as you can see from the photo below) is spectacular!

We finally reached the Goreme town center, which is an interesting combination of traditional restaurants, cafes, shops, travel offices and vehicle rental places (car, ATV, bike, etc.). We kept going and eventually found Taskonak, our “cave house” style hotel.

We were pretty beat after the 8h drive from Istanbul, so we took a shower, had some dinner on the terrace of Kelebek Hotel (they run Taskonak as well) and enjoyed the beautiful view, then went straight to bed. I could feel this was going to be a great vacation!

I know I said I would write a few posts about our vacation in the Dominican Republic, but that will have to wait. I promise I will backtrack to January 2009 as soon as I get the chance, and tell you all about it.

I’m writing these lines from a place that’s so amazing, it would be a shame not to write about it on location, while the info is fresh in my mind. WiFi is available, so in the next two or three days expect some posts from Goreme, Turkey.

We decided that for this year’s summer vacation we would try something different than what we did in previous years (sun, beach, etc.). So two days ago we packed our bags, fueled the car and started our journey to Cappadocia (or Kapadokya), an out of this world place in the heart of Turkey.

We left Bucharest on June 6, at 6 AM and drove through Bulgaria and all the way to Istanbul. The GPS got us into trouble a few times in Bulgaria and a few times in Turkey, but with the help of a map and by keeping our eyes peeled for any useful road signs, we eventually found our way to Goreme.

There’s almost 1500Km from Bucharest to Goreme, so we decided to stop just outside Istanbul, at a place called Merin Hotel and get some rest, before doing the second part of the trip. We’ll do the same when we go back, but we’ll stay for 3 nights at Olimpiyat Hotel (great central location) and see as much as we can of Istanbul.

We already went on a tour today (really cool, I’ll tell you all about it in a future post) and there’s another tour we booked for the day after tomorrow, but what I’m really, really looking for is the hot air balloon ride I’ll be taking tomorrow!

I took lots of cool pictures and posted a few of them on flickr (more to come). I also shot some HD clips with my new Kodak Zi6 and I’ll try to do a nice compilation when I get back home. Catch you later!

I’m taking a short break from the usual travel stories to write about a more techy / geeky subject: HD pocket camcorders. But I won’t be drifting away too far from the main topic of this blog, because I’ll try to provide you with some ideas and tips for buying the best HD pocket camcorder for shooting travel videos.

I don’t own an HD camera yet, but I’m in the process of buying one, so this post should give you some options and help you decide, in case you’re looking for a lightweight, good video quality camera, like I was. My decision is made!

Look, mom, HD videos! Can I have that?

That’s right! I’m acting like a big baby right now. And the baby wants a new toy! I’ve seen what other people can do with video and now I want to give it a try! I only joined the DSLR bandwagon a few months ago (so I still have a lot to learn in that department), but I want an HD pocket camcorder as well. I guess you just can’t have too many gadgets, when it comes to great memories, right? Plus I’ll have the chance to call myself a “video blogger”.

The best HD camcorder for travel videos?

When it comes to HD digital cameras, there are plenty of choices for a wide range of budgets. Still, I think there are only a handful of cameras that meet the criteria of a true freelance traveler. Here’s my criteria:

Affordable

If I had $900 to spend on a video camera, I would probably go for the Canon HV20 without even blinking, then go shoot some Spielberg like videos. But since I’d rather spend that money on something else (like a plane ticket, accommodation, etc.), I was looking at something below $200 (actually in the range of $100 - $150). This narrows things down dramatically.

Quality

I know some people think “affordable” and “quality” can’t belong in the same sentence, but this is not always the case, especially when it comes to photo and video equipment. Producers try to lower their prices and increase quality each year, in an effort to reach more people. And when it comes to HD pocket camcorders, the battle is on!

Lightweight

When you’re already packing a Nikon D40, 2 lenses, filters and a few other accessories, the last thing you need is a heavy HD camera with its own wires, batteries, etc. On the other hand, a small HD camcorder that you can fit into your pocket sounds much better. I’m not yet sure whether the whole “DSLR + HD pocket camcorder + actually seeing something from the trip” will work, but we’ll see.

The little candidates

Like I said, there’s not much to review yet, so I won’t go into too many details. I will however post a representative video (btw: Vimeo is the place you’d want to look for awesome HD video examples) for each of the HD pocket camcorders that I took into consideration. Here goes:

1. Flip UltraHD - $199

I didn’t find any artistic videos for the Flip UltraHD, but I did find this one of “Gaelyn and John Getting Flipped” (funny!):

As you can see, you get HD video quality and great sound for only $200. You can read a simple review and check a few photos from Jason Hawkins, a guy who knows his stuff when it comes to video and photography.

I personally found the Flip a bit too pricey for what I had in mind. And there were a few other more technical shortcomings I read about.

2. Creative Labs Vado - $194

I found some great, artistic videos from Oscar Villareal. One you can see below, the other can be seen here.

I have to say, after watching Oscar’s videos and reading a few other reviews, the Vado was definitely a worthy candidate. Let’s face it: a camera that allows you to create such a dramatic moment and also turn a simple car wash into a “thought provoking” moment is definitely worth a shot! And it performs pretty well when it comes to recording quick motion.

3. Kodak Zi6 - $129

But in the end, I made a choice that was based more on emotion, rather than judgment. And that emotion was generated by the video below. I can already see myself wondering in SE Asia and live blogging about it. In video mode, of course!

“Wake up, you’re day dreaming again!” (that’s my lovely wife Raluca talking).

I won’t deny it, price was an important factor (although $70 is not a big deal), but what I loved most was the fact that I found a camera that can record beautiful foliage and the great outdoors just as well as it can record macro or the busy city life. I got the feeling that you can just put together some shots, throw in a few well chosen effects and you can create a fairy tale like memory in minutes.

Conclusions

I’ve chosen the Kodak Zi6! None of these cameras is yet available in Romania, but I’ll see if I can get a hold of a Zi6 before my next trip (and what a trip that is), which is next month.

I’m not being naive here! Of course all these videos are so great because of the great composition, the well chosen soundtrack and effects and most of all because they were created by really talented people. But I like to keep my options open. I like to have the right tools. Who knows, maybe I’m a talented guy myself! And if I’m not, I’ll do what I always do, whether it’s web design, blogging, photography or life in general: be patient, be passionate and in the end… results will show.

Sorry for the abundance of links in this post, but I really felt these videos should not be missed by anyone looking to buy an HD pocket camcorder.

Liked this post? There’s more!

See you in my next posts! I’ll try to wrap up the series about my trip to London and the Dominican Republic, because I’ll have a lot to write about. My next trips: Cappadocia, via Istanbul in June and Milan in August. So this would be a great moment to receive my RSS feed and make sure you’re not missing anything.

Since our London sightseeing tour ended pretty quickly and it was also quite cold outside, we decided to walk along Constitution Hill, saw the Wellington Arch, then went to visit one of London’s famous stores: Harrods. Along with Macy’s New York, Harrods is one of the largest department stores in the world. Still, I think size is not the most impressive thing about Harrods.

Harrods is definitely worth a visit!

If you are visiting Harrods for the first time (like we were), you’ll most likely be blown away by the way the store is organized and the variety of things being sold. After all, their motto is “All Things for All People, Everywhere”. And boy, are they making good on that promise!

Harrods is more of a tourist attraction than an actual store and there are many reasons for visiting: it’s a picturesque place, the building’s architecture alone is really impressive and you’ll end up buying something for sure (maybe something tasty, like I did).

Falling in love with the Food Hall

To be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of shopping. My approach to shopping was always “find it, like it, try it, buy it”. So I wasn’t too impressed by the departments dedicated to perfumes or clothes (not even Raluca was, and this means something).

On the other hand, being kind of a foodie, I really liked the Food Hall (do visit this link, the pictures speak for themselves). I could probably spend hours in that room. It was way more crowded when we visited the place (it was just 1 week after New Year’s Eve), so taking pictures would have been an adventure.

LATER EDIT: I just stumbled across some photos I’ve taken with Raluca’s compact camera. Pretty low quality, but I resized them and managed to create something:

Oxford Street by night

We ended the day by walking along Oxford Street, the place to be if you’re into some serious shopping. Clothes, souvenirs, electronics, jewelry… you name it, Oxford Street’s got it! Here’s a fun little website that I found, where you can see all the shopping streets of London and their stores: Street Sensation.

Raluca was looking for some shirts and stuff for the trip, I was looking for a wireless remote for my Nikon D40. While I got back to the hotel empty handed (managed to buy one back in Bucharest though), she bough a one or two things for herself and for the the folks at home. I din’t mind though, as what I really wanted to do was to try out my tripod and new camera.

Next we went to Piccadilly Circus (the Statue of Anteros was being renovated at the time) and then straight to the hotel, because we were exhausted and the next day we had a long flight ahead of us. Our first flight across the Atlantic! The flight didn’t scare me too much, what scared me a bit was that huge luggage we had to carry around until the check in.

Oh, about that tripod…

During that day, I had to carry the tripod the whole time. While at Harrods, I was even stopped at the entrance and asked to try and keep it down low, which I did. Paying for a $500 bottle of perfume that got knocked down was the last thing I wanted to do!

Word of advice: if you’re going sightseeing or shopping, ditch the tripod! If you really want to take cool night photos, either buy one of those lightweight tripods (the Gorillapod SLR Zoom is on my shopping list) that you can easly carry around or just forget about the other activities and focus only on the photo shoot.

It’s been quite some time since I wrote my last article. I’ll resume where I left off and tell you a bit about our second day in London, just before flying to the Dominican Republic.

We had done our homework before leaving Bucharest and had everything planned for Day 2, but since it’s not easy to stick to a plan when you’re visiting a city for the first time, we had to improvise. But in the end we were happy with how things turned out.

London attractions - quick tour

Remember it was January, so even though there was no snow, it was pretty chilly outside. It didn’t mind the cold wetaher too much, but I was pretty bummed by the foggy sky (you actually couldn’t see any sky), as I was hoping to test my new tripod.

St Paul’s Cathedral

Our first stop was St Paul’s Cathedral. Initially, we were thinking that buying a London Pass would be a good idea, but we realized that the cold weather would probably prevent us from wondering around too much. And since it was pretty late already, we decided to visit St Paul’s and Tower Bridge and then try to see most of the free London attractions.

Tower of London

For our next stop, we took the subway to Monument station. There was a pretty long queue at the Tower of London, so we decided not to stick around, as we had little time ahead of us. We stopped for a quick coffee break somewhere along the River Thames and I even took a few (pretty lousy) pictures of Tower Bridge.

Along the short path that leads to Tower Bridge we saw Traitors Gate, through which prisoners awaiting execution would enter the Tower, after being brought in by barge along the Thames. I didn’t know that, but Raluca did, baing a big fan of The Tudors. So TV shows can be both entertaining and educational, see?

Tower Bridge

We took the Tower Bridge tour and got the chance to learn a bit about its history and see some of the inner workings of one of London’s most known attractions. The two Walkways offer a great view of London. There are info displays along the way (I highly encourage you to check them all out) and if you are lucky enough to take the tour on a nice sunny day, you can open a small window (where those steps are) and take some great photos.

Fun fact: just found out you can now follow the Tower Bridge’s schedule on Twitter. How cool is that?

Buckingham Palace

After a quick lunch at wagamama near Tower of London (both Raluca and myself love Asian cuisine), we took the subway all the way to the other side of London, hoping to catch the guard change at Buckingham Palace. But unfortunately there wasn’t any activity. Maybe because of the cold weather or maybe we missed the exact time, don’t know. So you can understand why Raluca looks pretty sad in this picture.

Conclusions

We got the chance to see a few attractions and wonder around the streets for a while, so it’s fair to say we really enjoyed our second day in London. Here are some things that come to mind:

• you don’t get used to the whole “driving on the left” thing after only 2 days, but remember to “Look Right”
• we have to stop taking these quick trips in January (last year we were in Vienna), or at least go back when it’s warmer
• no matter how much you plan, you’ll always have to compromise if you’re in London for only a few days
• just like in other European capital we visited, the subway is the quickest way to travel if you’re in a hurry

I’ll be back with the second part of this article, where I’ll tell you about Harrods, Oxford Street by night and a bit about shopping in London. Raluca will probably share some input, as this is her field, not mine.

What do you do while in London, when the weather’s not what you expected (hey, the forecast said sunny day!) and the temperature doesn’t exactly invite you to a walk in Hyde Park? Well, you have a couple of choices:

1. Go back to your hotel room and play cards
2. Hit the nearest pub and get wasted
3. Visit some of London’s indoor attractions
4. Hope the Queen will invite you to a hot cup of tea

While my sister-in-law kept asking us about the tea thing (she and my wife had this joke), we eventually decided to go on a quick tour of some of London’s museums. So went to The Science Museum and The Natural History Museum.

The Science Museum was ok, but I think we were a bit too old for the kind of exhibits the museum has to offer. If you have kids younger than 15, the museum will definitely be a really fun place to be. They will enjoy it and you might do too. We were really hoping to catch a movie at the IMAX, but we missed it by a whisker. Oh well, maybe next time.

Next stop was The Natural History Museum. The museum has a lot of interesting exhibits, but I was mostly impressed by the building’s architecture. I didn’t have the tripod with me, but I was able to snap a few pictures of the main hall, in low light conditions.

In the museum’s courtyard there was an ice sculpting contest (London’s first as the caption says), so we grabbed some fish and chips and watched the artists at work. It was pretty cold outside, so after that we jumped on the tube and headed back to hotel. We were hoping to see much more of London on Day 2 of our trip.

Last week my wife and I got back from what I can only describe as my best vacation so far: two weeks in the Dominican Republic. Although I was really hoping to be able to “baptize” this blog with a live blogging series and although I had wireless access at the hotel, I just couldn’t resist those great waves and sunny beaches. I couldn’t spend more than 10 min in front of another WordPress admin. But I saved all the ideas and great memories and I will tell you all about it in my next couple of posts.

Oddly enough, booking a trip to the Dominican Republic through a local agency turned out to be more expensive than booking through an agency based in Munich, Madrid or London. That’s why we chose the last option and booked our trip through Thomson, then arranged our flights so that we could spend a couple of days in London as well.

We flew from Bucharest to London (our first time there), landed at Heathrow airport then took the famous London underground to our hotel, Days Hotel Shoreditch. Wheather wasn’t so good, foggy and cold (but hey, that’s London, right?), our bags were pretty heavy (we had to pack for cold and warm weather), so we were pretty beat once we managed to find the hotel’s location (wasn’t as close to the subway station as we thought).

Still… that didn’t stop us from getting right back on our feet and going on a first tour of the city. After all, we meticulously printed a travel plan back in Bucharest and we were going to stick to it, no matter what! Or at least that’s what we thought. But I’ll tell you more about it in a future post.

So after setting up my food and recipes blog, it’s time to launch my travel blog. Now all I have to do is start writing. I have set aside some great reviews and information about the trips I’ve taken over the last 2 or 3 years, and I will also try to do some live blogging (maybe even some video) from my future trips.

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Bye for now!