Martin's travel diary

2007-09-20T05:50:00.001-07:00

Some pics from windsurfing in Prasonisi, Rhodes (Greece)

2007-06-02T02:12:00.001-07:00

Lago di Garda - Bike camp

4 days of biking with Bernie, with four awesome tours, offering various single trails. Now our trailer, the so-called "Puscherl" is inaugurated and ready for more trips! Check out the pictures either below or at flickr

2007-05-03T02:31:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from the Mallorca bike trip

2007-05-03T01:00:00.000-07:00

Mallorca Bike Trip with Daniel

On April 11th, Daniel and I headed towards Palma de Mallorca. We were about to spend a week in the northern part of the island. Unfortunately, Mallorca has a dodgy reputation, but it is one of the greatest places for riding a bike I have ever been to. See some more pictures. Long flat roads, rolling hills, mountainous roads, it has just everything a cyclist wants. Our hotel was amazing (Club Pollentia), good location and a huge buffet. I swear, no chance to avoid gaining weight, even though we did many bike rides. Especially the deserts...mhhhmm, we could never resist, it was just too good.
Thursday and Friday we made some shorter trips (50-70km to Cap Formentor and the Monastery Lluc up in the mountains). On Saturday it was raining so heavily, we did not even leave the room for very long. However, we anyways needed a regeneration day. On Monday we went for a flat stage, down do Petra which seems to be a riders meeting point - cyclists everywhere.

Tuesday we went for the long trip to Sa Calobra and met Richi along the way (check out his story of this stage :-). Daniel did not promise too much, it is indeed an astonishing ride down to Sa Calobra.
The weather was wonderful and at the end of the day we were pretty hungry - no wonder, 115km and 2000m of altitude. Every good things come to an end...so the last day we had again great weather and went for a tour through the rolling hills.

I always felt that my legs were tired, so I was physically ready for going home, not mentally. One thing is for sure, I will come back next year.

2007-04-24T13:17:00.000-07:00

Bösenstein, 2476m

Last Sunday Johannes and I decided to take our snowboard equipment and climb one of the highest mountains in our region. We still found plenty of snow, had a wonderful day and great run with the snowbard down the mountain. Look at some more pics...

Another Day of Powder

2007-04-05T00:57:00.001-07:00

Some weeks ago we got really a lot of snow (about 1m). This made me grab again my snowboard and put my bicycle aside. My brothe Reini, a friend Hannes and myself went up to the mountain to enjoy the powder. It was awesome!! Nearly no other folks, just us boarding down the slopes. Have fun watching the video

Grand Canyon

2007-03-06T01:20:00.001-08:00

DSC00100
Originally uploaded by martinom.

Finally I finished sorting and selecting the best pictures from my sojourn in California. One weekend we flew to Las Vegas and from there made 2 day trip to the Grand Canyon. First I was not really sure if it was worth the effort of 6 hours one way travel. All those thoughts were diminished once I grasped the first view of the canyon...see yourself

My favorite commercial

2007-02-24T06:59:00.001-08:00

Was recently on TV, and I just love it. The soundtrack is really cool, is a song named "New Days" by Asher Lane. Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzYpuaQXWWI

2007-02-11T13:34:00.000-08:00

After a long break - Skiing week in St.Christoph/Arlberg

I did not blog for a pretty long time, but I had some good reasons. But now I am back with some amazing pictures from a wonderful week in one of the greatest skiing resorts in Austria. It was organized by the university sports club and it was one week of powder, mogul piste and very interesting ski routes. Go and see some pictures

2006-11-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

Yahoo Headquarters Tour

If you ever wondered how the campus of this search company looks like, now there is a pretty nice video available. They give you a really good tour through the HQ in Sunnyvale

Another one, really funny one, was made by Beck when they had a gig during the hackday. It is really worth being watched. Enjoy!! Go and check this out, it´s really cool

2006-10-16T22:06:00.000-07:00

Julius and Ester coming to visit

My brother Julius and his wife Ester came to visit me here in the Bay Area. We had a great time eating out and enjoying San Francisco. We also went down along the coastal Highway Nr.1 to enjoy great views of Big Sur. Look at some pictures from the long weekend

2006-10-02T21:09:00.000-07:00

Hackday and Beck?

This weekend was spectacular. Yahoo! hosted a public hackday, which means anyone from outside Yahoo can come to the campus and develop a piece of Software over night...in 24 hours. The best results in each category (messenger, flickr, etc.) were awarded a price.
But the best thing is yet to come - Friday evening we had a live concert of BECK at the campus, besides good music the show they had was great. Furthermore there was free pizza and beer, that´s a nice way to start the weekend.

2006-09-27T23:37:00.000-07:00

0-100 in about 4sec. A new generation electric car

Today we had a very interesting presentation at our office. Representatives of Tesla Motors came to talk about their prototype of an electric sports car. It is an amazing car, having an acceleration better than most sports cars, but a consumption of only 2 litres/100 km (if you translate the cost of the used energy into fuel costs). It is fully electrical, so you charge it overnight or at any energy outlet, and you can cruise for about 400km. After the talk we went downstairs to get a real look at the car, and it was even better than expected. I am convinced that this is the future...

2006-09-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

Activities besides working

Playing fuzzball is the favourite way to take breaks and get our heads free. We recently participated in a Yahoo fuzzball tournament, but we lost in the first round...guess we need some more practice.

In the afternoon Nick (another intern) and I are usually hitting the volleyball court on the campus. During the summer I met a lot of nice people there and we had some good games of vball.

2006-09-10T21:50:00.000-07:00

Brazilian Party in San Francisco

Last night of Markus in the Bay Area before he returns to Austria. We went to this nice location, called SupperClub in Downtown San Francisco. Was really good music (there was also a live brazilian percussion band) and a nice venue

2006-09-01T08:01:00.000-07:00

Windsurfing at Coyote Point

Around 30 min north of Sunnyvale is a great spot for Windsurf. Unfortunately I dont have time to go there very often, but the few times I went I had a great time. The wind is very constant, only the choppy water gives me hard time, but I am learning and getting better.
Right behind you can see the skyline of San Francisco. The airport is also just around the corner, so in the beginning it scares you a little bit, when every other minute those big planes approach the runway only a few hundred metres above you.

2006-08-27T23:06:00.000-07:00

My first fourteener- Mt. Sill, we beat you!

Together with 4 friends we started last Friday after work for another adventure. The goal was to hike up a fourteener - my first attempt to hike up a mountain which is higher than 4000 metres. The first night we spent at Tuolomne Meadows, already at 3000 metres to get acclimatized. The next day we drove to Bishop and hiked up to the base camp, which was at a height of approx. 3500 metres. This was very strenuous, but the trail and views were rewarding. We camped up there, had some good food and the next day, after a slightly cold night, we started our climb. We were crossing two snowfields (we had crampons and ice axes) and needed to climb a little bit, and I could tell that the air is getting thin in this altitude. But all effort was forgotten, when we reached the top and were really impressed by the views we got offered from the top. We spent another night at the base camp, hiked back out and drove back to Sunnyvale the next day. See more pics

2006-08-22T00:44:00.000-07:00

Hiking Mission Peak in Fremont

It takes around one hour to get up to the Mission Peak. It is located 30 min south of Sunnyvale and a nice hike after a day of work. The view is wonderful, one can overlook the Silicon Valley and the South Bay area.

2006-08-16T23:38:00.000-07:00

Skydiving

2006-08-13T11:57:00.000-07:00

Skydiving , or jumping out of a plane at 14,000 feet

Yes, I did it!! Usually you might say it is a once in a lifetime experience to jump out of a plane. That's what I thought when I did it last year. But as you can see, I was wrong. The second time it is even more fun, because you are less afraid and have more time to enjoy the free fall.
We were 7 people in total, Amit (a co-worker) is getting a certified Skydiver and he did it on his own. Mustafa, Vinayak (2 co-workers), Mari (a friend) and myself did tandem jumps. I am so glad that I got a video and pictures this time. You can find more pics here

2006-08-06T23:03:00.000-07:00

"The City" is amazing...

I spent yesterday and today in San Francisco, around here everybody only refers to it as the city. In the afternoon I took advantage of the great shops as GAP and got some nice clothes. Afterwards we went to Twin Peaks, from where you have got an awesome view of the whole city. The dinner of choice was Sushi and then we got a drink in Marina/Union, which was the first time I have been there. And it is great, so much going on, lots of nice restaurants and bars. Enjoy the pictures...

2006-08-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

Getting a driver license

My austrian driver license is valid in the US, but it makes life so much easier if you have a californian license. You don't have to argue everytime when you want to go a bar and the bouncer does not accept your foreign ID, because it could be a faked one. Another reason is car insurance - you get a much better rate having a license from here.
Anyways, so I decided to take this test and was amazed, how easy it is to get a license. Back home in Austria, where I got my first license, I was studying a 500 page book for 3 weeks, had 20 mandatory driving lessons and paid around $1500. Questions were really tricky, unlike here. I had this 50 pages to study, whereas most of it was common sense and so I did not spend much time studying, maybe 2 days. Take a sample test and see how you score. Being prepared, I went to the DMV (Deparment of Motor Vehicles) and paid 26 dollars. For the eyesight exam I stood behind the counter and was asked to read to lines from a whiteboard which was hanging somewhere in the room, was kind of cool.

Then the actual test - 36 questions, unlimited time...After an hour I walked out with my temporary driver license. Now I have to take the "behind the wheel" test in two weeks. I am really curious how this is gonna be.

Starting my blog...

2006-08-04T08:37:00.000-07:00

Considering the fact that I am not spending much time in my home country I decided to start writing a small travel diary. I will keep updates of my stints and journeys abroad and will regularly post some pictures.
The next entries are soon to come, I am already since 4 weeks in the Golden State of California and there is lots to tell. So please come back and find interesting and funny stories about my internship in Silicon Valley.