Nice composition in Morges
May 3, 2023
Tulip Festival in Morges
Apr 10, 2023

A couple of days ago, as I was strolling near the lake, my eyes caught this intesting sight. The scenery, which featured the lake and the mountains in the backdrop, with the bright yellow tullips on the stage. I couldn't help but think that it would make an nice composition for a photo, such as the one I attempted above
Alps mountains in the background at the EPFL
Mar 13, 2023

One of the advantages of the EPFL campus is its location relatively close to lake Leman. Sometimes the landscapes that can be seen in the background are really spectacular and this was indeed hat happened last week: I was on the esplanade walking towards the library when I noticed in the background this composition that I thought definitely deserved a photo and a post about it.
Serene sunrise in the town of Morges
Feb 26, 2023

Right place at the right time in Morges
Dec 30, 2022

Amazing Bernese Alps in the Background
Sep 19, 2022

Heatwave in Europe
Jul 19, 2022

These days I had the opportunity to visit the city of Cubelles, a catalan tourist town near Barcelona. I was very lucky to find an apartment very close to the beach and I have spent almost every day enjoying the sea, constantly refreshing myself.
But every time I watch the news I realize that I was lucky to spend my days there during the heat wave that is hitting Europe. There are roaring fires in many places in southern Europe, and on the other hand places where the summer is not particularly strong like the UK are experiencing record temperatures.
No comments. The Climate Change problem is already here :/
Back in Berlin
Jun 1, 2022

A few days ago I had the opportunity to visit Berlin again and I spent some very pleasant days in the company of my dear friend C. In those days I remembered why the German capital is one of my favorite cities in Europe, and although I am satisfied with my life at the moment, I will always miss that very interesting place!
One of the things I was always curious about before leaving Berlin was what had happenned with the famous Humboldt Forum. I remember the first time I visited that space in 2015: At that time it was atemporary construction, created by the Humboldt foundation, that served as an exhibition space and viewing platform for the Berlin Palace - Humboldt Forum reconstruction project.
Well 7 years later, this project is finished and the palace is back to his former glory (at least the exterior facade) and it has some interesting expositions inside. Above you can find a picture on how it looks like nowadays. bis (hoffentlich) bald, Berlin
Ukrainian flag in the Basler Rathaus
Feb 25, 2022

Beautiful sunset in Ouchy
Feb 8, 2022

Sometimes you are lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to capture an interesting photo. This is what happened last weekend in Ouchy, Lausanne: We were relaxing by the fountain in the main square and as the sun was setting, illuminating the bridge and the water, people were passing by, including this cyclist who was captured in the image.
Markplatz last weekend
Feb 1, 2022

Last weekend when I was walking home after getting a PCR test (which is part of the routine in this pandemic era), I passed by markplatz where I have walked thousands of times, but from the angle where I was, looking at the clear sky, with the Rathaus in the background, I said to myself: wow it really looks beautiful!
Happy New Year
Jan 1, 2022

On this first day of 2022 I had the opportunity to enjoy this beautiful sunset on the shore of Lake Geneva, with the church of Morges in the background. I felt at that moment that in spite of the difficult beginning of 2022, I have hope that everything will be better and that it will be a great year!
2021 Year Review
Dec 29, 2021
In a couple of days the year 2021 will be over. It seems incredible to me how fast the time passed and how the seasons and months went by so fast that this period is indeed going to end. The covid-19 pandemic continues to present serious problems, particularly with the new Omicron variant, and perhaps that is one of the reasons why this year and last year have passed so quickly: It has been a tug-of-war of hope and despair associated with the desire we all have for this pandemic to end once and for all!
Anyway, since I don't update this blog much lately, I wanted to take this time to write a longer post and remember what are the events that marked this year through a few illustrations. In my opinion these events were the most important of this year:
James Webb Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) developed by NASA with contributions from the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) was launched on the 25th of December. This telescope will support a broad array of research across the fields of astronomy and cosmology.
Facebook Files

Beginning in September 2021, The Wall Street Journal published "The Facebook Files: A Wall Street Journal Investigation", a series of news reports "based on a review of internal Facebook documents, including research reports, online employee discussions and drafts of presentations to senior management." A couple of weeks later the face of this whistleblower materialized in Frances Haugen, a courageous former product manager for the Civic Integrity team, which was in chage to curb misinformation and other threats to election security
It's not news that Social Media has been used for years to spread misinformation. But having an "insider" to document and record the action (or inaction) coming from the senior management of the social giant, was quite a moment.
Tokyo Summer Olympics

A year later than budgeted and with a lot of restrictions associated with it, but finally the summer olympic games took place in tokyo this year. A number of athletes discussed the importance of participating in the games, but also they expressed their frustration for the lack of spectators and the confinement, not able to enjoyone of the most interesting cities in the world!
COVID-19 vaccine rollout

In January started the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, naimly in the industrialized countries, leaving the poorest nations behind). But then the scarcity of this valueable resource became clear, having many nations compiting for the same vaccines.
There was a lot of criticism in particular about the EU, since he pace of the roll-out was quite slow at the start.
Insurrection at the US Capitol

I remember I was working at home in January when those images of people attacking the US congress appeared in my news feeds, so I switched to a live a streamming to check what was going on.
My first thought was "there can't be a coup d'etat in the USA!" ... but they weren't that far off, from everything that has been discovered so far. Democracy can be quite fragile.
PS: All the source pictures used on the illustrations come from wikimedia commons.
4 years ago in New Zealand
Mar 19, 2019
4 years ago today I was in my a career break travelling in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. This was one of the last countries that visited during my itinerary and I'm completely fell in love. It's in my opinion one of the most beautiful spots in the planet. Additionally, all the people I met over there, were really nice.
It's sad that the country suffered a terror attack last friday, targeting its muslim immigrant community. Fortunately the perpetrator was arrested and the kiwis are doing everything possible to get the punish he deserves without providing any platform to further advance his deregend views.
Update: On the 21st of March the New Zealand goverment announced a ban on the military style semi-automatics and assault rifles. Well done!
Unexpected nice snail
Sep 16, 2017
Today I was coming back from a quick bike sprint to the store to leave some PET bottles and buy a couple of things. When I was about to enter the key to open the garage door, I obseverved this nice nail moving slowly around the edge. Its shell was beautiful so I thought it was worth it to get the phone and shot a picture,
Perfect sky shadow on a plane
Aug 14, 2017
Yesterday before I boarded the plane, I noticed the sky was just beautiful with an amazing summer sunset. I started to climb the stairs and just before I entered the aircraft I was able to snap this quick shot throught a narrow gap in the door. Sometimes the light, time, station and weather is perfect for a picture like this.
London
Mar 23, 2017
Yesterday when I was working, I recieved a news notification related to a London Attack, where five people were killed and many other were injured after an attacker drove a car along a pavement near to the Parliament. I always enjoyed visiting London and Westmister near to the Thames river is beautiful. As I say when it happened in Berlin: I will keep visiting this amazing city and no terrorist is going to change that.
Basel Fasnacht 2017 Lanterns
Mar 8, 2017
One of the most interesting parts of the Basel Fasnacht is the big latterns that participate on the parade on Monday morning. On tuesday they were exposed in Munsterplatz and this year there were a lot political motives related to politics and the far right trends. One of the most descriptive ones was this one.
2016 Sunset
Dec 31, 2016
Finally 2016 is ending. As John Oliver mentioned in the last episode of his last week tonight show, 2016 has been a pretty shitty year. There were so many musical and movie legends passing away (David Bowie, Alan RIckman, Prince, Gene Wilder, Leonard Cohen, Carrie FIsher, Debbie Reynolds and George Michael) and Europe experienced terror in many cities including Nice, Istanbul, Brussels and Berlin.
On the other hand the populists and far right anti-immigrant movements gained a lot of traction in Europe and America. The popular vote brought many unexpected outcomes including the Brexit victory despite the Scottish and Northern Irish opposition, the Colombian plebiscite rejection to the peace agreement reached in Cuba and finally the astonishing Trump victory on the electoral college, even though he lost the popular vote by almost 3 million ballots.
The only silver lining of this year was the historic Paris Agreement on climate change. Let's hope this doesn't change in 2017 (cough trump), since that will make it a horrible year as well.
Synagogue in Basel
Dec 8, 2016
This morning I was talking to my father in law and he mentioned he wanted to check out the Synagogue in Basel. I had no idea there was such a building in the city, but I checked online and discovered there is a neo-Byzantine domed structure indeed, originally constructed in 1868 and enlarged in 1892. Above there is a picture of this Synagogue.
Berlin Festival of Lights
Oct 18, 2016
Last weekend a colleague of my girlfriend was in town and I was happy to walk with her around the city. During the evening I remembered it was the last day of the Berlin Festival of Lights. During this event the main landmarks of the city are used as canvas for very interesting light displays. Some of the most beautiful ones were at the Humboldt university where I shot the pictures above.
A week in Tenerife
Sep 25, 2016
I didn't update this blog in the last week because we went with my GF to Tenerife and I decided to leave this computer back home to unplug for a while. We had a really amazing time in the biggest canary Island: The weather was warm but not scorching hot, the landscapes are really nice and quite different across the island, the seafood was so fresh and delicious and finally the people were extremely friendly. It was just great.
So of the highlights of the trip were (besides the stunning Teide you see in the picture above):
1- The nice town of La Otorava:
2- The picturesque town of San Andres where we stayed, and the nearby "Playa de las Teresitas":
3- Walking around in Santa Cruz:
4- The old town of Garachico and its natural rock swimming pools:
Only lighthouse in Bavaria
Sep 16, 2016
A couple of days ago we visited Lindau, a major town and an island on the eastern side of Lake Constance. We stayed at a hotel in the Island that's connected with the mainland by a road-traffic bridge. The current harbour of this island was built in 1856 and the iconic Lion sculpture and lighthouse mark the entrance of this port. An interesting fact is that this lighthouse is the only one in Bavaria!
Ludwig and his Neuschwanstein Castle
Sep 14, 2016
Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria and I learned about the interesting history behind this castle. The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria, as a refuge from his constitutional monarchy duties, in order to revive his romantic dreams of the medieval king figures. The guide described how the king was deemed insane, he was arrested and died mysteriously. We were discussing yesterday with my GF that insane or not but he brought good fortunes to this region of Germany for sure!.
Undusting the breaksian blog
Sep 4, 2016
My old LAMP hosting is about to expire and I’m using that account only to host a travel blog of my career break two years ago called breaksian. This weekend I migrated the contents to a node platform and I took the opportunity to review and publish a post about a week I spend in Ko Lanta, Thailand. Quite an special place.
Amazing iceland
Aug 30, 2016
In the last days I had the fortune to visit Iceland for the first time and I loved the country. The people are very friendly and the landscapes are just stunning. The capital Reykjavik has also very cool atmosphere and it can quite picturesque as you can observe in the picture above taken at the lake Tjörnin with the city hall in the background at the left corner.
Also look at the Geyser blowing off steam every couple of minutes.
And finally the Þingvellir National Park has some beautiful landscapes.
Conrad Schumann Statue
Aug 20, 2016
If you have never seen a picture with a soldier like the one in the statue above then you don't know who is the soldier depicted in this piece, then you don't know who is Comrad Schumann. This soldier from the East is one of the first and most famous defectors to West Germany when the border was being built and it was just a line of barbed wire. This is statue is located in a building near Bernauer Straße
Reconciliation Sculpture
Aug 10, 2016
I have walked by the Chapel of Reconciliation in Bernauer St. many times, but yesterday I noticed for the first time the sculpture you see above. It's called Reconciliation and it was created originally by Josefina de Vasconcellos, an english artist of Brazilian ancestry and placed at the University of Bradford. According to wikipedia there are copies of this original work in the ruins of the Coventry Cathedral, the Hiroshima Peace Park and this one here in the Berlin Wall Memorial.
Film Festival in Locarno
Aug 2, 2016
Last weekend we did a long weekend trip with my girlfriend to the Ticino region of Switzerland, staying in Locarno. I wasn't aware but the Locarno Film Festival was starting this week and part of this event was a preview showing of a movie on Sunday night open to the public.
The organizers decided to honor Bud Spencer, one of the classic italian actors from the 70's in the action-comedy genre who passed away earlier this year. They featured <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Call_Me_Trinity", one of the best examples of the "Spaguetti Westerns" target="_blank">Lo chiamavano Trinità. I really enjoyed this movie!. It brought really nice memories since the movies featuring the duo Bud Spencer / Terence Hill were one of my grandpa's favorites.
Nice picture in the Lustgarten
Jul 26, 2016
I have been living in Berlin for more than a year now and last weekend on a sleepless night I setup the site pics.inberl.in to check the different pictures I have been taking in the city. When I was browsing through my collection I found this cool photo I took in my first weeks in Berlin at the Lustgarten. I'm proud of the composition.
Istanbul
Jun 29, 2016

I was reading on the news that at least 36 people were killed in suicide attack at Istanbul airport. It's pretty sad that this amazing city has been hit by different terrorist attacks this year: the March suicide bombing in Beyoğlu district, the January bombing in the Sultanahmet district and now this attack at the airport. I had the chance to visit the city in 2013 and I loved it.
Visiting the hanseatic city of Stralsund
May 5, 2016

The Hanseatic League was a confederation setup by different merchant guilds and the market towns where they operated with the purpose of mutual defense and commercial trading. Between 1400–1800 it dominated the trade in the northern coasts of Europe. The German city of Stralsund was one of the most import cities from this confederation.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the city where I took this picture.
A Year Ago I Finished My Career Break
Mar 31, 2016
I was thinking today that one year ago I was flying back to Europe after finishing my 6 months career break travelling in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
I tried to document this experience on the road in: Breaksian.com. I was checking today some the interesting experiences I described there and I found these posts:
Visiting the Angkor Temple Complex by bike
Making new friends in the Jeju Island of Korea by playing the Piano:
Cruising the Halong Bay in a 1906 replica boat
Travelling from Bangkok to Penang in an overnight train:
Experiencing the Portuguese flavor in the Chinese Macau
enjoying the amazing Autumn Colors in Nara
Biking in the isolated Island of Zamami, off of the coast of Okinawa.
Or visiting Taiwan, and understanding the politicial and historical issue regarding China
I was such an amazing experience that I would definitively recommend it to anyone!
Soap Bubble In Prague
Feb 27, 2016

This weekend I wanted to do a smal city break and I realised visiting Prague by train was relatively easy (it's only 4.5h by a direct train). I went there, met and chatted with a Czech friend and spend the rest of my visit walking around and taking pictures. One the most interesting ones I was able to get contains a street performer making huge soap bubbles. Here the colorful bubble make a nice contrast with the people staring and walking around.
Empty O connell Street
Feb 25, 2016
Last week I provided at work a couple of my pictures for the article The Lowdown on Living and Working in Ireland . One of the pictures I selected was one of my favorite ones. A completely empy O'Connell street in a Monday morning:
I love this picture not only for the beatiful colors in the sky and the nice contrast they do with the shadows of some of the Dublin landmarks (The General Post Office and the Spire), but also because of the strange feeling of seeing one of the busiest spots in Dublin completely empty.