User:(WT-en) SaschaT

Hello everybody
Just a few words about myself. I was born in 1973 in the small town of Eisenberg, Thuringia and did not have many opportunities to travel then, as destinations were restricted to the former GDR and Eastern Europe. Surprisingly it took me a while to catch up on it after we were gifted with "freedom" in 1989. Here is my location/destination/travel profile



Destinations
One of my favorite travel destinations is Lebanon. An absolutely amazing country with beautiful landscapes, great people and nice food. I spent one of my best holidays here on New Years Eve 2004 and kept returning. I just can't believe that Hezbollah dragged the Lebanese people to the edge of a new war for nothing!

Another place I like is London. I like the British way of life and I travel to London at least twice a year. Places I've been to and did not enjoy very much include New York and Atlanta. I would love to go to Japan again. I lived there for a couple of months, did a bit of travelling, but still have the feeling that I missed so much there. If it only wouldn't be that far away!

Even further away is the top entry of my wish list: Australia. I definitely will go there, but not before I have saved enough money and/or air miles to fly business class – I can't be bothered squeezing into an economy seat for almost 20 hours! And, finally, I want to see Oman. The country seems to be a bit hyped in Middle Eastern travel, but what I have heard about it has made me curious. And Lebanon seems to be out of my reach for a longer time now. ..

Internet and writing history
I'm new to Wikivoyage, but I have a long history of writing for internet pages, having started off as one of the first users on the German Ciao.com in 1999. I left the site around 2004 when seemingly more dull "reviews" of frozen pizzas and dishwashing detergents where flooding in. My interest also waned when I noticed that payments to users were dropping whilst the company profits were rising. Having always been interested in traveling, I wrote a couple of travel related reviews and was happy when, at around the same time that I lost interest in ciao, trivago emerged. Now I'm using my travel know-how to contribute to their growing community. Apart from that I share my local experiences on qype.com, a community targeting German internet users.

When travelling, I love to...

 * ...get in touch with local people
 * ...gather new food experiences (like grilled insects, raw sea cucumber or tabouleh)
 * ...sit on the beach and watch the waves rolling for hours
 * ...see exotic animals and plants (especially old trees)
 * ...party until dawn and further