How I like too remember the summer. Not that it was warm, I could go outside wearing just a shirt and now a warm coat is mandatory. Especially in summer I took a break. After successfully achieving my Master's degree I booked a couple of flights and flew across the Atlantic. There were the typical touristy things on the itinerary, like watching water falling down Niagara Falls, standing next to the Statue of Liberty and drinking a coffee in the first Starbucks in Seattle. Also non-touristy things were on my schedule, because I wanted to visit friends I made at the Rubicon Contest in 2009.

The advantage of having friends in a far distant city is that you will see the city differently and experience it more intense. Vancouver offers a lot and if you are around with locals they can tell you were to go – and you can even tell them were to go later on, as everywhere locals often leave out the common tourist attractions. For some places it is the case that you will even visit them. As an example Rochester, in the state of New York, is famous for Kodak but not for its tourist attractions. Without Rubicon I would have most likely missed the strange looking but mouth watering “Garbage Plate” in Rochester or realized that they have nice places to go out at night – Without Rubicon this city would have remained as a name on the button of my camera and a white spot on the map.

The adventures of my Rubicon-Trip gave me a lot of new impressions. Those are empowering me seeing all the tasks and work ahead to organize the next Rubicon Contest in March 2010. And the weather outside really does not bother – I have a good heating inside and probably there are new destinations to check out next summer. What about visiting friends from Rubicon in... Sorry, let me get a map first.